IceCold

Futility and Death Why do individuals risk their lives in war and what force can drive such a wedge into our humanity as to allow the incessant slaughter of others? The testimony of battlefield veterans does not reflect a political ideology but a felling of brotherhood among their fellow soldiers. Soldiers fight not for their country but for, “the men beside them,” and the opposition is viewed as alien. Psychoanalysis allows a view into the collective conscious of a group of soldiers. The mind has formed a community around the combatants and therefore invokes the self-protection instinct of the ID to protect the group. In a sense, the mind limits humanity to just the soldier as his comrades. This demotes the opposition to a sub-human state where the soldier can successfully engage and destroy them at close range, aka. Face to Face. One can fell the pain of another human as see the life drain out of him as he lies, bleeding, on the ground. This empathy has been suppressed by the soldiers in order for them to survive this ordeal with their sanity. This approach of psychological division is prevalent in militaries of developed (Western) countries who have been raised in life and educated in wisdom. The western culture has evolved to become able to restrain itself in the use of terrible weapons. Restraint in war is demonstrated and resistance to war is prevalent. The developing countries do not have the luxury of such an evolved culture. These primitive nations have been given too much destructive power too quickly for surplus Russian weapons are freely available in these areas. This culture is not ready for the influx for new technology and begins to fight amongst itself to prove their prowess with their new weapons. Such countries divide the world into “us” and “them” where the group is superior to all. When a hostile from this culture kills a western soldier he does not view him as human but as one of “them,” a member of an oppressive culture bent on the destruction of all others. I cannot cope with the though of an age of hatred befalling mankind. Cultures are pitted against each other in a mounting winner takes all conflict. The empathy I feel with the senseless death and murder is overpowering. If humanity continues on this evolutionary course part will advance to great things while the remainder will destroy itself thereby bringing blight upon the former. We are in a time of choice where all can choose between life and death, prosperity or pestilence; we must choose wisely.

How does one send out an SOS signal?

[Capitalism-Socialism part 2: centers of power and developing nations] In relation to the aforementioned topic involving the poor countries of the world. History has recorded a constant battle between two factions of the globe, the havs and the have-nots. The members of these factions have shifted drasticaly in the course of history for europe was an economic center in Roman times, a regressed land in the dark and middle ages, and has again become a economic center from the romance era to the post-modern era. Countries develop at different rates to different ends. The western economy and way of life is not the natural progression of the world as a whole for there are some nations whose culture values subsistance living as compared to development. The invastion of the western world into cultures of different social tracks is devastating for the culture of said country and promotes a feeling of inferiority among its members. The culture then begins to lash out at the force which caused a change in thier established way of life (Bin Laden). Over time the nation's culture will begin to accept the western culture and through cultural diffuion while at the same time the western culture is ammended by the same process. This process is known as globalism. Extremeist such as the aforementioned terrorist are swept away through public will through this process. The answer for the developing nations is time. The United States was once a backwards nation and required ~150 years to assert itself in the global community. One must rember that most of the developing nations are former colonies and have only had their independence for a maximum of 70 years. Ice cold

[capitalism-socialism part 1: introduction] Capitalism as a pure system would destroy the vast majority of the citizens underneath it. There would be a small quantity of extremely rich corprate managers and the rest would be dirt poor. There would be no benefits, no minimum wage, and inadequate services for the impoverished population. This situation is described very well in The Jungle which curtails the factory conditions and the life of an industrial worker in the late 19th century. Socialism cannot exist as a pure system because it is a utopian form of government (one where all people exist in harmony and prosperity). Humans will always seek to better themselves to a greater degree than their peers for domination of others appears to be a strong instinctual drive for humanity as a whole. A pure socialist system has never existed and will never exist for there will always be a person or group leading the nation and all citizens must be equal for such a system to exist. The form of Government adopted by western culture is a blend of the two extremes. There are examples of predominant socialism in countires such as France and Canada. Health care is offered free of charge and vacation time is extended however taxes are much higher and the quality of living decreases as a result. The system adopted by the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany uses ideals of socialism to temper the caustic capitalist system. This blend of Government allows for prosperity through commerce and the distribution of wealth through socialist programs. Ice Cold [ 06-12-2002, 00:28: Message edited by: IceCold ]

Besides, orbital bombardment is much easier than troop deployment so nuke them from space (then radiation could become a slight issue)

...and when that day comes there will be much rejoicing and mass destruction. Ice Cold

Go to "Mieade" and there you will find a jump point to "region 4". The rebellious asteroid is there. IceCold

Ahhhh... in the install directory, I understand now. Problem solved, Thanks SC! Ice Cold

A rendering issue with the 1.07 patch has perplexed me. Some star stations (type 1,2,3) are rendered incorrectly. The type two station has two wings instead of four for example and the second wing is parallel to the first. I have e-mailed a shot of a type 3 station (genesis) to the SC. I have tracked the problem down to the patch. I have un-installed and re-installed the game several times. Without the patch, the stations appear correctly, with the patch the distortions appear. I downloaded the patch twice from the 3D gamers mirror, no change. Has anyone had this problem? I am running 16 bit 800x600 with a voodoo 3 card (latest drivers, direct x 8.1, etc.). Ice cold

Has the issue with the perscan computer been addressed? Start a new career with a firestorm carrier, launch and look at the Perscan. The personnel do not all fit onto the screen, to say nothing about prisoners, intruders, or guests. (800x600) resolution if that makes a difference. Ice Cold

He,he, This is what we do when waiting for the drone to fill. Wait, it should be done... Ice Cold [ 11-27-2001: Message edited by: IceCold ]

Physics lesson F=ma does constitute that more force is required in order to give an object of large mass at the same acceleration of a small one. This is the key acceleration (m/s2) is not velocity (m/s) in space assuming ideal conditions, the BC would continue to gain speed until it became infinitely close to the speed of light. Therefore, using any spacecraft thruster, a force supplied over time (an impulse) would continue to increase the acceleration experienced as long as the engines continue to burn. When the engines cease firing, the craft will continue gaining velocity until anther force acts upon it (Newton's first law of motion). As for hyperspace... conventional Newtonian physics do not apply. The only limiting factor is that matter cannot achieve the speed of light but is possible to go above (in imaginary numbers ((-1)^(1/2) or i) and below provided instantaneous acceleration can be achieved to skip the speed of light because it is an asymptote. If the SC had modeled this in BCM when a craft enters hyperspace, the closer it got to the speed of light its matter would be affected by Einstein's special theories of relativity. One of the theories is for time experienced while in motion. The faster you go, you will experience time passing slower than someone at a lower velocity. The formula is: time experienced by you= time experienced by someone who is stationary/((1-(your velocity/the speed of light (3x10^8 m/s))^1/2) (units of speed and time must be the same) (if the speed of light is achieved the equation is divided by 0 (bad!!)) So if hyperspace brings your ship infinitely close to the speed of light, the transition would be almost instantaneous for you but the rest of the world would have experienced the time required for light to reach your start point to your end point. Time travel gentlemen . Any questions? Ice Cold Physics nut [ 11-27-2001: Message edited by: IceCold ]

"I have noticed something curious concerning drone recovery. I am on the bridge and whenever a shuttle recovers a drone (I have seen it happening with SC3, drone 3 but it might be any combination), an audio cue from a female officer informs me that she is leaving her station (or something similar), while the text display on the bridge says "SC3 has recovered drone 3" (and no officer leaves his/her station). It's not much of a problem, but someone might want to take a closer look at it." ~urza I have also noticed the problem while deploying drone 3. The research officer will say "Phased array IDO installed," complete with the text subtitles on the screen. A mild glitch. Ice Cold

The Perscan computer is limited to one page of information. This is a problem if the crew of a battlecruiser is too large to fit on it. For example, (800x600 resolution if that makes a difference) the Firestorm carrier's perscan computer will display information up to marine #36. No information can be gathered on the remaining marines, intruders, guests, or prisoners. A possible solution to this problem would be to add a 2nd page to the layout if one does not already exist. Ice Cold

Well, I decided to test the PTA system and I thought, "what better place to test it than on a terran/raider installation," I brought the BC down and let the PTA system have a whack at the ground targets. After a while I noticed all the destructive power of my turrets was being brought to bear on a DJP (Which should be indestructible) rather than the other more mortal targets such as SAMs. What do you think? By the way, which programs open the .TGA screen shots? Is there any way to change the shots to .bmp within the game? Ice cold

On the eve of his masterpeice leaving the nest, SC has hit 7,000 posts. That's determination. Ice Cold (Can't wait for the postman to stroll by with my copy!)

I sent it to his soap box e-mail. Ice Cold

For courtesy and common sense I removed it and e-mailed the specifics to SC. Ice Cold

Post removed, Bon chance mes amis. Ice Cold

The final game is not out yet. The ONLY person who has the knowledge to support or attack the review is SC himself. PC gamer's reviews historically have been very accurate and just reading the percentage and the brief overview is inconclusive. There is a reason that game reviews take up a page. Perhaps there are some incompatibility issues that will be identified within the review. If this is the case I have the utmost confidence that SC will make the appropriate changes along with the multiplayer patch. Furthermore, PC gamer and other reviewers may still have an aftertaste of the original BC3000ad release. Granted SC was shortchanged by take 2 but PC gamer has never officially reviewed BC3000ad 2.9 (excellent game). Much of a game's score is based on reputation, for example Independence War II. The original was a masterpiece and because of that the PC gamer reviewers probably looked at it in a different light. The review for IW 2 stated that it had a "Vertical Learning Curve" and the reviewers took this as a challenge to overcome. With a title such as BCM, which cannot claim immediate fame as the descendent of an instant legend, the learning curve is viewed as an obstacle and the reviewer does not wish to scale it. There have been many games which have received 70's and have been excellent games. BCM will have its time of fame but for now; wait until you have played the FINAL version of the game before you start making judgments. Icecold

"Ahhhhhhh....." the sound of learning, thanks! Ice Cold

In response to your question, Epsilon 5, I have not attempted to get the intro video to work. Since I installed the game, it has defaulted to a debug mode (learned from previous post). I may have to try and get it working now... Ice Cold

Ice cold seemed relevant because I am a 13 year veteran of the Alaskan wilderness. Anyway, I believe the Battlecruiser series is an excellent line of fine titles and promising projects that has a remarkably loyal fan base. You all have converted me, I pre-ordered in May and I am awaiting my sealed box with much anticipation. Thank you for your quick responses and suggestions. Ice Cold

Involving an animate ship (i.e. merchant with an artifact) how does one retrieve the cargo within that vessel without destroying it? The collect option for shuttles does not work, the error message states, "Target is not a cargo pod," regardless of how many personnel are onboard the shuttle. How do you retrieve cargo from intact vessels? Ice Cold

Thank you much. Ice Cold