alanschu

Up to December 15th The Prince of Wales and Repulse engaged a surface task force off the coast of Khota Bharu, in northern Malaya. Both sides exchanged a fight, with the results shown below. Now while the Prince of Wales and Repulse were both hit by a large number of shells, in both cases what caused the majority of the damage was the hits from the 24" Long Lance torpedoes. As the British task force retired, Prince of Wales was disconnected from the task force, and while suffering from serious flooding, made way for Singapore at a maximum speed of 6 knots. Repulse was fortunately able to maintain 20+ knots, and was able to return to Singapore in a day and a half. While the Prince of Wales was limping home, she was attacked by Nell and Betty bombers, and another torpedo hit was scored on her. At this time the order to abandon ship was given, and the Prince of Wales was lost. Repulse only had minor flooding damage, so the hope was to repair that damage, and have her continue to make raids against the Japanese fleets in the area. Unfortunately, after two days in port at Singapore, she was attacked during a port raid, and was hit by a few bombs and another couple torpedoes. While she isn't likely to sink, it has significantly damaged her, greatly decreasing her top speed and extending the repair time considerably. On the plus side, intelligence intercepted reports of a Japanese destroyer sinking off the not too far from Saigon. The Repulse had scored a hit on one with her 15" shells (the Hagikaze), and we suspect that she is the one that is sunk. The bad news however is that Japan has made further landings and taken some of the coastal bases in Malaya. Khota Bharu is now under Japanese occupation, and Alor Star is being attacked from the North. Victory Point in the southern most part of Burma was just attacked as well. The Japanese have also made landings in western Borneo. Successful counter raids against ships landing troops and supplies in Malaya have also been conducted. These are restricted to night time attacks so that fleets can return to Singapore for protection. In the Philippines the Japanese have begun pushing Allied troops back to Clark Field and Manila. PT boats and destroyers out of Manila have been running regular patrols in the straits nearby. One flotilla of PT boats was able to intercept a small Japanese task force and inflict some serious damage: These attacks have been followed up with some raids from destroyers, and further hits have been recorded on this task force. In that picture you can see to the south Davao under attack. US Cruisers and destroyers in Balikpapan made way at full steam to intercept the landing force. Unfortunately they arrived too late to stop the invasion. However, with the USS Houston as flagship (Northampton class CA), she blockaded the port and prepared to bombard the port, with several ships inside of it. Anticipating this move, the merchant ships attempted to run the gauntlet and break through the blockade, resulting in a night time engagement. Only one shell from the enemy task force hit the Allied task force, causing no noticable damage. However several of the transport ships sustained numerous hits, and we believe two to be sunk. The damaged ships have retreated back to port, and the Allied surface fleet continues to blockade Davao. Due to ammunition shortages however, she has started to return to Balikpapan. To the east, Lexington was able to catch one straggling ship that was damaged by coastal guns at Wake Island, and hit her with two 22" torpedoes and a 1000 lb bomb. She was confirmed sunk shortly afterwards. With Lexington providing air support, and the landing ships forced to cutoff the landing prematurely, the invading Japanese force was starved into attrition and forced to disband. Wake Island in the meantime continues to be a US airbase. With this bright light in the central Pacific, CV Enterprise has diverted her course to assist Lexington in providing cover for Wake Island, as reinforcements from Hawaii are en route. Near Midway Island, 3 ASW task forces continue to pursue Japanese submarines, making numerous depth charge runs on a few contact reports. Munitions are running low however, and the three fleets will be forced to return to Pearl Harbor for rearming. From the mainland United States, reinforcements and resupply are en route to Pearl Harbor, as well as a resupply up to Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands. In recent news, Japanese troops have been spotted landing off Rabaul, near New Guinea. The Australian forces have moved troops from central Australia to prepare them for possible hostilities against Port Moresby.

Okay, starting things off again: Japan opened up with a series of attacks, landing troops in Malaya, Philippines, Guam, and Wake Island. The big attack of course, is Pearl Harbour, and the results of that attack can be seen in the picture below. In response to the landings in Malaya, the British sent BB Prince of Wales and BC Repulse to engage the landing forces up north. Unfortunately Prince of Wales was hit by a Torpedo from a "Betty" level bomber. Damage isn't serious however, but it will limit her effectiveness in combat. They TF was unable to engage ships in the area on the first day. Dutch Submarines in the area are also moving to cut off shipping lanes to impede further landings in Malaya. Numerous bombing runs from the Singapore region were taken the first two days, but none of them were met with any success. With some US light cruisers already in the Java region, CA Houston departed from Iliolo near the Philippines to rendezvous with them, to prevent being surrounded. All 32 submarines based in Manila have been charged with missions. The majority of them are patrolling the coast of Indochina, and off the coast of Taiwan, including the Luzon straits. Some submarines are also patrolling the east coasts of the Philippines. The Clark Field Airbase was decimated by airfield attacks, and has for the most part been inoperable the first two days. B-17 Flying Fortresses out of Davao have been trying to hit CVL Ryujo off the east coast of the Philippines, to limited success. Guam didn't last a day, but Wake Island did. As a result CV Lexington, not too far away, has sped to the region to provide air support and possibly interdict any ships in the region. The coastal guns at Wake Island scored several hits on cruisers and transport ships landing troops. Unfortunately the landing ships have departed, leaving no targets for Lexington to attack, but she will send one squadron of dive bombers to assist ground troops. Pearl Harbour ships are heavily damaged, and the Hawaiian Islands are surrounded by submarines. Every available ship with ASW capabilities has been put into task forces to engage the submarines. While most of the airforce is damaged, and the runway inoperable, the PBY Catalina flying boats are still able to take off, and have been roughly 50/50 split between naval searches and ASW missions. A mine laying task force consisting of several destroyer minelayers, as well as a genuine mine layer, have mined some of the waters off the Hawaiian islands in hopes of catching an unsuspecting submarine. This task force actually engaged a submarine the evening of December 8th. The next day, another submarine in the region was recorded as hit from a Catalina. Below are the Pearl Harbour ships: While no ships were sunk (permanently lost...I guess this isn't THAT surprising. I think only two of the ships were considered permanent losses in Pearl Harbour, even though several were sunk right in port. Most of them were later raised and still used in the war), several are heavily damaged and will be out of commission for a long time. All capital ships aside from the Oklahoma will eventually be returning to the West Coast for repairs. There are however several submarines operating out of Pearl Harbor. Most of them have been assigned duties off the coast of Japan. A few of the shorter range submarines will be patrolling near Truk, Saipan, and the Marshall Islands. The CV Enterprise is continuing her mission to deliver planes to Midway, and will then return to Hawaii to regroup. On the continental US front, troops and planes assigned to the Central Pacific have begun loading onto transports en route to Pearl Harbor. Included in these are 4 AA regiments to fortify against any future air attacks in the area. It is likely that some of these will be stationed at Midway Island eventually, and some of the troops are preparing to reinforce Wake Island as soon as possible. Significant reinforcements are expected in 35 days, with CV Yorktown, numerous escort ships, and a wealth of merchant ships becoming available to the Pacific Theater. Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians is beginning to build up defenses, in case the Japanese attempt to head north and threaten Alaska.

How about some actual frigging purpose for the thing, instead of pure filler? If you want good level design in a similar situation, look at Taris in KOTOR or Peragus in K2. You could make the same argument for any bonus areas. If you beeline through it and just deal with the Council, you're hardly there at all. The Citadel actually reminded me a lot of the Telos station (wasn't it even called the Citadel as well?), without the loading screens. I agree with Morgoth...more story related stuff would have been much better.

All games use copy and paste to some extent. While Halo was particularly guilty of that on some levels, it mixed things up enough so it was still entertaining. It also had some great levels, some open, some restricted, allowing both the player and the enemy multiple approaches. And the Citadel wasn't just clean, there was literally nothing there. Like I said, you'd have more fun walking through a mall. Halo's outdoor levels were phenomenal. Once things went inside (like the library), it was ****. If it wasn't for little arrows on the floor telling you which way to go, you'd get mired in the familiarity and actually gouge your eyes out, instead of just wanting to gouge your eyes out. And I guess "all games" use copy and paste to some extent if you include things like textures and whatnot. Or maybe that bookcase or something. As for structure of levels and the geometry that make them up, that's not true in the slightest. I can forgive houses and whatnot looking the same, or some of the buildings in Mass Effect since some stuff like that is standardized. But when things like mines and caves are exactly the same in every way...that is not cool (and boo Mass Effect for that too). The story related levels (including the Citadel) were fine though. Sure it would have been nice to have more things to interact with in the citadel, but that doesn't mean that there aren't things there. Seriously, what should be there? You want more random plants laying around? More idle chatter amongst the people (or perhaps more people wandering around)?

Halo was the forerunner to copy and paste level design. I enjoyed the levels in Mass Effect. I liked the super cleanliness of the Citadel because the Keepers kept it that way. The bad part of level design was the planet surfaces of sideplanets. Could have been much, much better in that regard.

Lol just preoccupied with FO3 at the moment.

Are people honestly surprised by the "bloat?" The fact that the commands for horses exist in the engine still has very little bearing on Fallout 3. And there's no point in giving someone time and money to remove stuff that isn't going to be used when you can have them working on other stuff. And if an end user tries using it in the console, well then they're stupid and get whatever random **** they deserve. Garbage in, garbage out. Until EA revamped their NBA Live code a few years ago, there was still legacy code for the Sega Genesis lying around. As an end user though, it doesn't really affect you. Some files might be larger on install or something like that, but it's not like you need to worry about any linking issues or compile time issues that would come with bloating the code. Huge chunks of that code isn't even referenced in games anymore. Quickbooks has millions of lines of code because of legacy stuff, because people don't like removing code "just in case." In a game though, I suspect much of the file size comes from resources and art assets and whatnot, rather than unnecessary functions in the executable.

A whole load of nothing. Played some NavyFIELD and Fallout 3 (so far).

Hey that's an Oilers prospect too! Go Eberle!

Fallout 3 is sucking up a lot of time!

Would you blame me!?!

Picked this up the other day and am having a blast. I am a bit disappointed that I seem to have to use the subways to navigated much of the urban areas, but it's been pretty minor. I really get the impression that I am exploring a desolate wasteland. I love looking into the horizon and seeing a vast landscape of blown out buildings. I'm only part way into the main plot (been to Washington Monument). Have helped out the people in Megaton and Big Town.

I have moved on to Fallout 3 now!

Haha, I have also played through it a second time... But I didn't get Fallout 3 for Christmas, so Steam is fired up and d/l right now. I have to beat it before school starts again on the 5th, right??

I'm not really tired to be honest....well, now that I'm not playing I am feeling myself starting to crash. I'll be gone shortly I think haha.

I got Mass Effect for Christmas on the PC. I installed it yesterday about 10 AM or so. I beat it around 1 PM today. 27 straight hours.... haha. Given I was up at 5 AM yesterday, at the time of this posting I've been up for about 36 hours haha. I guess this is a compliment to the game though. I loved the cinematic nature of the game.

Astutely put.

We'll not be constrained by his narrow definition of "CRPG." As for character creation...there's usually a lot of it, depending on which country you choose.

The tech teams were nice flavour I agree. Though I think they were a bit too rigid. I like the idea of being able to focus your technology in different ways if you want, which the tech teams didn't really allow. I think Johan said in one of the threads that this is not the case. However, I do know that in HOI2 air units prioritize areas that are currently in combat.

Due to some weirdness on my computer, my campaign has unfortunately kicked the bucket... I will be starting a new one though, which will work out better since I'll be able to give a more realtime recap of events rather than trying to remember things that I had done a few months earlier in the game time. I'll also do things differently, and try to not use foresight to my advantage such as stationing troops on Guadalcanal before the Japanese do, and recognizing that air power is devastating to unprotected fleets (meaning I'll try combat patrols with surface ships and whatnot). I'll be going more in depth as well, and will even consider [sound] tactical advice from the peanut gallery I am planning to give reports probably every couple weeks of the war. Sorry for the delays. School and whatnot caused a bit of a problem with the updates, but I'll restart and keep you guys posted. Since I won't be posting as much from memory, I'll be better able to give more detailed updates.

It was greed by Sundin. Just the same greed you and I have when we look for our jobs. I don't fault him for it.

I have been following this. Was giving you until the new year to start a post on it I am looking forward to improved naval battles. I know carriers are the keys to success in naval battles, but they were I win buttons with invincible CAG that was a poor abstraction. I like the increased level of detail for the divisions. I look forward to creating artillery regiments and whatnot, as well as army groups. I hope that the HQ system they have planned works out well. Having von Manstein directing the theater of operations in France, with Rommel as a subunit busting up a storm and running amok with his panzer division sounds like fun! I like the improvements to research and development, combined with the gearing bonus of production. Building lots of tanks improves your economy's ability to research and produce tank improvements. The general and specialized technologies (for aircraft) I like as well. It seemed a bit absurd in HOI2 that I could have the best interceptor planes in the world, but I'd still have to take years to make a quality air superiority fighter plane. I am curious how they will deal with allied research, or research in general. I'd kind of like the idea that as a particular tech gets researched, every country that researches it makes it a little easier for other countries to research it (kind of like what Civilization does), as research knowledge becomes more well known.

BWAHAHA I didn't expect this to happen hahaha. It was just a joke. (and taks was right btw, I did estimate it without a calculator, since 2^20 is roughly 1 million, since it's the definition of a megabyte, I can estimate that 2^18 is roughly 1,000,000/2^2 or 250k) Anyways, didn't realize it was such a sore spot haha

February and March The next couple of months were pretty quiet, relatively speaking. Though there were some good victories for the Allied forces. American troops are en route to Guadalcanal, and there is a reinforcement of Port Moresby. Both of these moves are in response to the loss of Rabaul towards the end of January. The Dutch East Indies campaign is going as expected...poorly. The southern tip of Borneo is now being assaulted, which has the fringe benefit of allowing my light cruisers and destroyers to make hit and run attacks on the landing ships. Several hits have been scored, and every transport sunk is one the Japanese can no longer use. Japanese forces have landed on Sumatra (Palembang) and Java Island (Batavia) and Dutch air and land forces are attempting to push them back. In the biggest victory of the region so far, when the Island of Bali was being assaulted and bombarded, Swordfish torpedo bombers from CV Illustrious, CV Indomitable, and CVL Hermes were able to score 4 torpedo hits on a Japanese BB. A sub operating off of Balikpapan reported seeing a BB capsize and sink several days later. Troops and supplies continue to be convoyed in to Australia, and India has fortified their border and building up significant LBA in the region. The Philippines continues to be under assault. The remaining ships in Manila have departed, scattering like sticks in the wind hoping to avoid Japanese air patrols. About 80% of the ships (mostly cargo ships) were successful in evacuating. B-17s continue to operate out of Manila, and continue to score hits on Japanese transports on almost a daily basis. Supplies are starting to run low both in Manila and Clark Field however. In the South/Central Pacific, CVTF continue to make rotating patrols near the Truk sea base. Some significant attacks on the port there saw several capital ship hits. Mostly CAs, but CV Junyo was in port at one point, and 8-10 bomb hits were reported on the vessel. She should be out of commission for quite some time. At the same time, a small Japanese CVTF approached the island, and both TF launched air attacks against each other. The Japanese attack with rebuffed, scoring no hits on CV Yorktown. On the other hand, Japanese CVL Shoho was hit by a few bombs, hurting her capabilities. CV Saratoga came in to relieve CV Yorktown, and saw another 15-20 bomb hits on CVL Shoho. Further patrols failed to detect her, and she is presumed to be sunk. In the meantime, additional hits on cruisers and CV Junyo at Truk commenced. Towards the end of the month, most ships returned to port. Allied High Command has plans to refit most of the American Navy, equipping their ships with improved AA capabilities, as well as Radar. So far the prognosis is pretty optimistic!

But will it let us estimate 2^18 without any calculators or anything?