Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion

[Ironmonger]

From what I've heard and partly read, the marines are usually in the thick of it and their training is a bit more harsh. We have a healthy chance of getting stationed on a military base somewhere rather than active combat though it's always a risk. Biggest fear is snipers.

Ah, so you're hoping for an "exciting job", not an EXCITING job XD

I'm willing to serve my country never said anything about dying. :P Might go Tank Corps, I don't think the more poorly-equipped armies have something that can gut a Stryker or Abrams quickly.
So yeah I'd join the marines if I were up to it, shooting at other people is fun but the downside of being on the front lines, especially in something like the marines, is you have too much stuff shooting back AT you. Not fun.

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

.... umm navy would be from the nuclear program and marines fun,..

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

One thing we have going for us is that we aren't going in wanting to be "badass" or any infantile delusions some people have upon joining the military, we're ready to do our jobs and be a part of a team

Also, a lot of wartime psychological trauma is due to being forced to kill, and call me a sociopath but that doesn't bother me.

As for our duty stations, to be honest I'm rather hoping for an active station. I'd rather die young and fighting than spend my career on a base

well frost if you've done it, then I believe you.

Then again my uncle said the same thing, then he looked a man in they eyes as he killed him in iraq, it wasn't easy for him

[Caoimhe]

PTSD/shellshock aren't exactly things you can truly prepare yourself against.

[Ketchup]

AFAIK, the differences between Army and Marines are that the latter gets more and heavier training, are smaller, are amphibious, and has an air arm of its own.

@Iron, tanks:
Sure, insurgents don't have anything that can really destroy an Abrams, maybe a Stryker, but if you go against a modern army, as unlikely as that is, helicopters and other high-tech buggers would be your bane.

[Ketchup]

I'll just leave this here.

[Frost]

In all likelihood I'll just end up as standard Army infantry

[Ironmonger]

I don't keep up much with politics aside from the presidential debates, but it seems the only modern armies that we would likely face is China and they still use recycled stuff from the 80's, not to mention we have much more naval and air support than they do.

Also another difference between the Army and Marines is that the jarheads travel in 14-man groups as opposed to the 9-man fireteams of the Army. I'd love to call myself a Marine but I'm not cut out for it.

[Frost]

I have no interest in the "Warrior Ethos" thing the Marines have going on. All respect to them, but I'd rather just be a part of a team and just do my job.

[Ironmonger]

A lot of the stories I've heard more involved IEDs, actually.

Same. The terrorists/insurgents don't seem to play fair, but I really have no place saying something like that since I haven't studied the subject. We have vehicles now days that are extremely resistant to explosives like the MRAP and Marauder but the infantry are always at risk since, until we get power armor at least (there's talk of that), they will almost always be vulnerable to bombs.

[Ketchup]

the only modern armies that we would likely face is China and they still use recycled stuff from the 80's, not to mention we have much more naval and air support than they do.

The Abrams is from the 80s and is still considered one of the best tanks in the world. China has some top-notch gear and a much larger standing strength. Neither side could invade the other, as we've discussed in Adder's TS server, because the defender would always win. Don't underestimate them.

[Ironmonger]

The Abrams is from the 80s and is still considered one of the best tanks in the world. China has some top-notch gear and a much larger standing strength. Neither side could invade the other, as we've discussed in Adder's TS server, because the defender would always win. Don't underestimate them.

Abrams is from the 80's, yes, but we've been improving it constantly and we have the largest military expenditure of any country. China could pull a Stalin on us and use their numbers so you are right there. The Soviets had some relatively crappy (but reliable) technology and they were one of if not the most dangerous world power for a long time.

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

I don't really have anything useful to contribute other than Marine training is meant to keep you on the up and up for fast instantaneous responses to command, also they encourage feild leadership, You're a lance corporal and your sergeant is dead or you're out of range of command, you lead,

had one of our DIs recall when he used mast to get his platoon around a red zone that their platoon leader (a fresh faced college Lieutenant) wanted to go through... so knowing whose instructions to take, when to take them and such is important, but let common sense rule.

anyone remember when the soviets invaded finland and got their asses kicked?

I looked it up on something and it was a rather crushing defeat for russia, and pathetic since they sent a massive offensive force to take it too...

honestly china is the greatest threat we could face economically, militarily, and soemthing else, but they would have trouble keeping their military properly supplied, then again, america could inflict a million chinese casualties everyday for a five years and wouldn't do too much damage to the population.

[Ketchup]

Abrams is from the 80's, yes, but we've been improving it constantly and we have the largest military expenditure of any country. China could pull a Stalin on us and use their numbers so you are right there. The Soviets had some relatively crappy (but reliable) technology and they were one of if not the most dangerous world power for a long time.

Sometimes, simple is all you need. The US may have some of the most advanced stuff, but for the same cost you could have twice as many of what came before it.
Keep in mind, the gunner of an AA gun doesn't care about how much an F-22 costs. Also, the US has too little sealift capacity to invade China and vice-versa.
Fun-fact: Canada still uses the M72 LAW and it is just as effective against the Taliban than anything less than a SMAW rocket, while being much cheaper.

[OneMoreDaySK]

Iron, how in the hay are you sniping with a shotgun in my game? 23% chance to hit? You don't care! And poor Frost has now become target practice for the aliens. Dedicating medics to him to keep him alive.

Rum I have no idea what to make you. Maybe another assault.

[Ironmonger]

...It's like I've become the handsome hero in that game or something.

I have a few links on military statistics of USA ,Russia , and China as of 2011.

Glad we have a good topic going!

[O. Hinds]

So you think that they'd be better off putting in the extra production lines and metal supplies needed and just make two (four, if the normal/AP distinction is included) different designs of bullets?

Do they have access to plastic? You can make pure blast grenades out of several types of plastic or very thin metal which are great offensive grenades since they rely on the pure blast effect rather than shrapnel which means you can use them much closer to you than a standard fragmentation grenade. The lethality cone of a standard grenade is eight meters with the base plate lethal out to 15 meters but a pure blast grenade is lethal inside three meters only but is still effective (Loud bang, lots of dust) in an entire room in enclosed spaces. Putting aside plastics it's quite possible to cast pure blast grenades out of easy to make clay, in fact the first grenades were clay and you don't need to make it the burning fuse type seen in old Batman serials, you could rig any one of a number of traditional pull and throw types. The Japanese were pioneers in this during the lead up to the presumed invasion of Japan finding all sorts of interesting things to cast grenades into including old tin cans (Something you can already do in Fallout), wooden boxes and very nasty low yield bamboo bombs.

As Bullets don't need to be solid slug to save metal you can use a alternative less war useful material like again some kinds of plastic or good old lead, brass or several other types. Or just go hollowpoint in mass and reduce the amount of material per bullet by a good 40%.

Hm... They might be able to make plastic from plants and stuff harvested from the sea, though the high volumes of petroleum industry come later.

So do you think that plastic-shelled explosive bullets would be the best idea for standard issue, or would some other design, such as nonmetal-filled kinetic penetrators, be better?

Actually, now you've gotten me thinking: could the cartridges be made out of plastic as well?

[Ketchup]

I have a few links on military statistics of USA ,Russia , and China as of 2011.

Glad we have a good topic going!

Bottomline, it doesn't matter how many tanks and aircraft the US has over China, they couldn't bring or supply enough of them there. Neither side would win and the only wars that could be fought would be electronic or nuclear. Neither would end well.

[Ironmonger]

The cartridges could be made out of plastic as long as they don't explode from the combustion. The material doesn't matter as long as it works.

[tylertoon2]

Bah, can't think of how to make FO:E cast, so instead I'm going to add y'all to my XCOM team. Any classes, genders, and playstyles you want in particular? Also have no idea, but I've gotten a whole lot of female characters instead of guys. O.o

I'd like to be support if possible. Just stayin behind cover and helpin fools out. Or Sneaking around and flanking from behind.

[SilentCarto]

Playing XCOM:EU and wanting to name some characters after FO:E universe characters. Any suggestions for single name characters and possible nicknames? <br><br>Right now I have Blackjack 'Security' Starmaiden. Really bad at this naming thing. =.=

<br>Like Featherdust said, I gave them semi-reasonable human names and put their pony names in their nickname spot. I generally left the last name alone unless there was a reason to change it.<br><br>Lily "Pip" Piper (Sniper)<br>Velvet "Remedy" Monroe (Support)<br>Adam "Steel" Hoover (Heavy)<br>G.F. "Blackjack" Morgan (Assault)<br>Peter "21" Smith (Support)<br>Ruth "Rampage" Loste (Assault)<br><br>and so on. I also try to set their appearance, voice, and armor coloration to match their ponysona. i.e. Steel is in green armor with a helmet, Pip wears a bright blue uniform with yellow highlights, BJ has bright red hair, etc. I think it goes a long way toward making them look really interesting, as opposed to the samey appearances the RNG creates. (It runs on a subset of the available options, so you'll never get a newb with blue hair.)<br>And then my computer broke and it's still in the shop waiting for a new power jack. <img src="https://2img.net/u/2516/12/35/12/smiles/4206338362.png" smilieid="17" border="0"><br><br>

Sorry if I'm late with this, but IIRC, you've discussed pony guns earlier..maybe few pages earlier.<br>How do you like this concept?<br>

Spoiler:

<br>That's a really cool design! It needs a stud on the slide so the user can cock it with a hoof, and it still needs a rear sight of some kind because your jaw is mobile, but the overall structure looks good to me.<br><br>

Quick question: Does any FoE story, original or side-fic, make a mention of griffon power armor? I have a bit of an idea-ball rolling for my fic.

<br>Yup! Blackwing's bunch wore them, especially Butcher (the one carrying Little Gilda). They're not as protective as earth pony power armor, but provide more strength boosts than Enclave armor. <br><br>

Bah, can't think of how to make FO:E cast, so instead I'm going to add y'all to my XCOM team. Any classes, genders, and playstyles you want in particular? Also have no idea, but I've gotten a whole lot of female characters instead of guys. O.o

<br>I'm a sniper whore. <img src="https://2img.net/u/2516/12/35/12/smiles/761398768.png" smilieid="28" border="0">

[Frost]

Also, in Fallout and FoE, is there an in-universe reason that we don't see more of guns like the Sten or Blyskawica? People were making them in their tool sheds, it would be easy for a Wastelander with decent mechanical knowledge to make something as good or better

[Ketchup]

I think I just goofed up on trying to fix XCOM for XP. At least it didn't just not open and give no signs, it said "Unspecified Error". Really helpful. Now I need to install it again.
Edit: IT LIVES!

[Cptadder]

Hm... They might be able to make plastic from plants and stuff harvested from the sea, though the high volumes of petroleum industry come later.

So do you think that plastic-shelled explosive bullets would be the best idea for standard issue, or would some other design, such as nonmetal-filled kinetic penetrators, be better?

Actually, now you've gotten me thinking: could the cartridges be made out of plastic as well?

Funny enough I was just looking at early Plastics, Search Bakelite which is a early pre 1900 plastic which is used among other things to produce gun magazines, pistol and rifle grips but not bullets themselves to quote a UK learning website

The first truly synthetic plastic was invented by Leo Baekeland - a Belgium chemist living in New York. Baekeland was already very rich as he had invented the first commercially successful photographic paper and sold it to George Eastman in 1898 for $1 million. With such money, Baekeland could engage himself in whatever research he decided to do.

In 1905, he found that when he combined formaldehyde and phenol, he produced a material that bound all types of powders together. He called this material Bakelite - after himself - and it was the first thermosetting plastic in the world. This was a material that once it set hard would not soften under heat. It had so many uses and so many potential uses, that it was called "the material of a thousand uses".

Bakelite was water and solvent resistant; could be used as an electrical insulator; was rock hard but could be cut by a knife and was used in 78 rpm records and telephones.

New plastics were invented such as neoprene in 1932, polythene in 1933 and Perspex in 1934. One of the most famous wholly synthetic fibres was invented in 1938 at the cost of $10 million - nylon. In the first year of its creation, nylon went into toothbrush bristles and nylon stockings. 64 million pairs of stockings were made in 1938 alone. Nylon was also used by the military in World War Two for gearing wheels in vehicles and parachute cords.

Plastic as a whole was very important in World War Two. ‘Plane cockpits were made of Perspex, polythene was used in insulate radar and plastic was used to make synthetic rubber for tyres.

Phenol is a natural byproduct of some kinds of coal refinement and can be easily sifted from coal tar and formaldehyde can be harvested a few different ways the most common involves reacting methane so your talking about something they could easily produce with a coal field and natural gas spring nearby. And it lets you construct a good 50% of the gun out of plastics, everything from the grip and magazines to the trigger guards and outer housing fixture with only the bolt and barrel itself requiring metal.

[Ironmonger]

Stuff

[Frost]

Ah, yes. Those are the things that aren't metal or wood, right?

In all seriousness, only know about plastic in relation to polymers in firearms. Some of the old-timers in the shooting community don't like it, but anyone who knows what they're talking about knows that, for components like the receiver/frame andfurniture like the stock and handguard it's superior to metal or wood

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

Oh if you wanna make me something you can make me a sniper....

[Kattlarv]

@Iron: I may not be a chemist, but I can tell you that I am highly unstable :D

@Swicked: I made a bad Skyrim reference with that security thing :P

Also, NOW I finally managed to slap enough duct tape on the fic to call it the day xD
And now we play the waiting game for proofreading x3 Still gotta deal with finding ones for the random short one and the Xanthe+Stealth suit clop though hehe.

[Cptadder]

And now we play the waiting game for proofreading x3 Still gotta deal with finding ones for the random short one and the Xanthe+Stealth suit clop though hehe.

Who proof reads Kattlarv fics? How did that relationship come about? Was there bribery, subversion or simple blackmail?

Or did some brave soul volunteer?

Was it the same person who proof read Abdul Alhazred's first book?

[Valikdu]

Nothing happened for several hours. I'm bored.



Also, I'm almost at the end of the vanilla creatures list of DF. Now everything has tainted versions, like the aforementioned skinless giant kiwi.

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