Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion

[O. Hinds]

@Icy Shake:
Thanks for the clarification.

[Icy Shake]

@Icy Shake:
Thanks for the clarification.

You're welcome. But I notice I never responded to this part:

Ooh, I bet if Chris ever does read this far, he won't like that. :D

?

Chris is this guy. I've been following him for years, and he may at some point get to doing PH as one of his 6-star reviews. (No promises, because it's a doorstopper he actually used as a joke when explaining the NHL playoffs last year; if he does, the most likely time would be August of next year, as that's when he's historically done very long stories.)
He has a pronounced fondness for Carrot Top, about whom he has a few stories, which has lately manifested itself in posting screencaps of her appearances in episodes the next blog after they go on air, or complaining about her not being in them. (All in good, semi- self-deprecating fun.) That bit might be one of the closest at-a-stretch-kinda-could-be connections to her in the story, and it's not complimentary.

TL;DR: Obscure and perhaps even obtuse fandom reference.

[O. Hinds]

@Icy Shake:
Oh, right, yeah; sorry for forgetting about that. Thanks for the explanation.

[Icy Shake]

Also re: ponyfic reviewers, Present Perfect now has a review of Volume One up.

[O. Hinds]

Hm, could be interesting; thanks.

[RoboRed]

New chapter of Homelands is up.

[Icy Shake]

Exciting! Glad I got it done tonight rather than putting it off, or I might have been distracted all week, and that's something I certainly didn't need.

HL2 Running thoughts:

HL2 Overall thoughts:

Thank you for the chapter. Pretty exciting from the action and drama sides, and it's been interesting to see bits of the tribes, spirits, and stars taking shape.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Let me just take a moment to state that there is an actual Zebra Deus Tank in Fallout 4:

[ screencap provided by Frost ]

Found northwest of Fort Hagen.

[SilentCarto]

Huh, interesting. Apparently these can be found in several locations around Fallout 4. Though of course that's way too small to actually be Deus...

[Harmony Ltd.]

Plus, they are more like Tank Destroyers, as they don't have real turrets.

Screencaps I took myself:
https://i.imgur.com/rfw5sju.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/HvoGcGp.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/7Uptoqd.jpg

[Harmony Ltd.]

Wait, I'll have to look back at it, but there may actually be a turret, if you look closely at the third picture.

[Frost]

Yeah, those are turrets. The protrusions out of the rear-end sides might interfere with it actually turning, but it's a turret

[SilentCarto]

I was thinking that myself. The turret would have limited mobility due to the device on the left rear corner, and the guns are huge for a vehicle of that size. It looks more like self-propelled artillery than a main battle tank to me. (For the record, the line between tank destroyers and self-propelled field guns gets rather blurry at times.)

I'm also not sure what those devices in front of the tracks are, but if they're supposed to be stabilizer legs missing their shoes, that would support the artillery theory. But they could also be an attachment for a bulldozer blade or something like that.

[Harmony Ltd.]

There's a vehicule like that a few hundred meters north of where this one is, half buried into a trench, with a note next to it referring to a «missing tank»; with it being implied quite strongly that the missing tank is the one you find next to the note.

So that would point to them being referred to as tanks at least.

[SilentCarto]

Well, that could be chalked up to ignorance -- most people would say, "It's got treads, it's got a gun, it's a tank, right?"

I was thinking about the twin guns. That's something of an oddity -- there's usually very little reason for a tank to carry two small guns vs. one bigger gun, since cannon power scales rapidly with diameter and modern fire-control means they rarely miss the first shot.
Unless...
Unless they're not firing conventional ammunition.
I'm just eyeballing it, but looking at the caliber of those guns, we may have just found out what mini-nukes were designed to be launched by.

[Frost]

You may have a point about the mini-nukes thing, but the note in question is written to and from military personnel. I know if I went into work and called anything but an Abrams a "tank", they'd punch me in the fucking face.

My original thought was that it's a dwarf tank designed for urban work (It's around National Guard areas and generally in-garrison rather than in-theater because its role was supplanted by Power Armor)

[CD]

You may have a point about the mini-nukes thing, but the note in question is written to and from military personnel. I know if I went into work and called anything but an Abrams a "tank", they'd punch me in the fucking face.

Since this is an alternate history, tank doctrine may have diverted since the cut-off point. I think that isn't before the actual invention of tank destroyers, but words are only what meaning we apply to them.

[SilentCarto]

You may have a point about the mini-nukes thing, but the note in question is written to and from military personnel. I know if I went into work and called anything but an Abrams a "tank", they'd punch me in the fucking face.

My original thought was that it's a dwarf tank designed for urban work (It's around National Guard areas and generally in-garrison rather than in-theater because its role was supplanted by Power Armor)

Oh, okay, I'd assumed the note was contemporary.

You may have a point about the dwarf tank idea, though one would expect such a vehicle to have excellent maneuverability for the turret. The odd out-of-line six-track design looks more like something designed for extremely rough or soft terrain to me (like, say... Alaska...) but you may be right about them being displaced to garrison duty following the deployment of power armor.

Since this is an alternate history, tank doctrine may have diverted since the cut-off point. I think that isn't before the actual invention of tank destroyers, but words are only what meaning we apply to them.

You could have a point, in that tank destroyers began with WW2, which is well before the divergence point (the transistor revolution of the mid-1950s), but were displaced in the '60s by wire-guided antitank missiles that could be mounted on any vehicle, which was probably enabled by transistor electronics. But there was certainly even then a difference between tanks, tank destroyers, armored troop transports (whatever you want to abbreviate it as), and self-propelled artillery.

[Frost]

Regarding the turret; either

A.) this is another "art major, not engineer" incident, like 3 featuring the Pip-boy controls on the wrong side of the device, or 

B.) the attachments in question are simply temporary; likely attached for utility--when we head out to training, we usually strap our rucks to the sides of the Brads and everything form spare oil/grease to large storage boxes on the top, but we sure as hell wouldn't go into combat like that. The set-up on the tank could be some sort of nonsense like that.

[WavemasterRyx]

Cross-posting.

Happy Hearth's Warming:

http://wavemasterryx.tumblr.com/post/135755730582

I'm so sorry. I'm not sorry.

[Icy Shake]

Cross-posting.

Happy Hearth's Warming:

http://wavemasterryx.tumblr.com/post/135755730582

I'm so sorry.  I'm not sorry.

So that's what they put in snow-globes.

[O. Hinds]

A rough transcript of my thought process:
"Hm? Well, it's a nice picture of a rocket-shaped snowglobe, but I'm not seeing what the... sorry... was about... Oh, right. That. :)"

[WavemasterRyx]

So that's what they put in snow-globes.

In stimpaks (healing potions) as well, according to one of my favorite Let's Players, heh.

A rough transcript of my thought process:
"Hm?  Well, it's a nice picture of a rocket-shaped snowglobe, but I'm not seeing what the... sorry... was about...  Oh, right.  That.  :)"

Heh, well thank you, sir, I'm glad it made you smile some. *nuzzles very lightly*

[Harmony Ltd.]

Texture suggestion to artists who may wonder how to represent star-metal:

(chunks of the Gibeon Meteorite, which can be bought of ebay)
https://i.imgur.com/rAL3x3D.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Zzyp3OE.jpg

[Frost]

I'm eager to see the stats on Starmetal weapons, then

[Somber]

So that's what they put in snow-globes.

In stimpaks (healing potions) as well, according to one of my favorite Let's Players, heh.

A rough transcript of my thought process:
"Hm?  Well, it's a nice picture of a rocket-shaped snowglobe, but I'm not seeing what the... sorry... was about...  Oh, right.  That.  :)"

Heh, well thank you, sir, I'm glad it made you smile some. *nuzzles very lightly*

I loved it.  thank you.  ::hugs and nuzzles the Ryx.::

[WavemasterRyx]

I loved it.  thank you.  ::hugs and nuzzles the Ryx.::

*hugs and nuzzles back gently* Thank you very much, sir, I'm glad you liked it.

[Valikdu]

Vectorbrony has drawn Glory's entire family.

Spoiler:

http://www.deviantart.com/art/Glory-s-family-581252189

Sky Striker brings nanomachines to mind, for some reason.

[O. Hinds]

Oh, nice; thanks for posting that.

[Icy Shake]

Unexpected news—via Present Perfect, the old EQD comments are back.

Unfortunately, it looks like they're not paged, so to see many you'd need to hit Load More Comments a ton of times.

Original story post
Comment thread #1
Comments thread #2 (only 1700 posts for some reason)
Sadly, it looks like there was no recovery of #3.

editing:

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