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Agiel

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Posts posted by Agiel

    The Metal Thread

    in Way Off-Topic

    Posted · Edited by Agiel

    In solidarity with the metal siblinghood of Ukraine some gems from our Kvlt brothers and sisters there:

    This last one an incredible one-woman act who released an album last month:

     

    • Like 1

    What are you Playing Now? Who needs a life anyway?...

    in Computer and Console

    Posted

    On 4/11/2022 at 2:04 AM, sorophx said:

     


    someone here compared it to Conan Exiles, it actually feels very similar in terms of how the world is designed, although technically  ER is vastly superior. it also reminds me of Final Fantasy for some reason. I've been told by the people that own a Switch, that ER is basically a Zelda game, but I'll have to take their word for it.

    and just to clarify, the only two games from this company I played in the past were Bloodborne and Sekiro, and I hated both. Bloodborne due to terrible controls, Sekiro due to terrible vertical level design. Elden Ring on PC fixes most of these issues for me (although, the combat in Sekiro is superior in my opinion, would love to have that as an option in ER).

     

     

    On level design there is a catacomb dungeon under the capital a friend and I were crawling around in that does gaslight the player, as there is an identical corridor to one the player went through earlier with another flame-spewing trap at the end, and a room with a layout and textures identical to the boss rooms of other dungeons of the type is found in between those corridors but merely holds two normal enemies. Makes me shudder to think what a tabletop RPG campaign being DMed by Miyazaki for his friends must be like. 

    • Haha 3

    Ukraine Conflict - Es ist nichts schrecklicher als eine tätige Unwissenheit

    in Way Off-Topic

    Posted · Edited by Agiel

    A German pal sent this to me. A piece on the one General who has as much to do with the Ukrainian armed forces' success as Zelenskyy. Machine translation as follows, with emphases mine:

    Quote

    The Ukrainian army also owes its success to its commander-in-chief

    Valery Salushni has been leading the Ukrainian armed forces for only eight months. He represents an unequivocal departure from the military's Soviet legacy - contributing to Ukraine's defensive struggle, which has been successful so far.

    If the Russian army leadership thought it had an easy ride in Ukraine, it should have listened to the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces. They were ready to receive the enemy, Valery Saluzhni said a month ago: "Not with flowers, but with anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles." And if Russia does attack? "Welcome to hell," Saluzhni said tersely.

    Meanwhile, it turns out that Salushni was not exaggerating. The Russian advance is proceeding more slowly and with greater losses than many experts had assumed. The Russian superiority in the air as well as the numerical inferiority of the Ukrainian ground forces were considered good preconditions for a quick Russian victory.

    At 48, Saluzhni is relatively young for a commander-in-chief. President Volodimir Selensky appointed the father of two as Ukraine's top officer only last July. But Salushni's age is also his advantage: He is the first Ukrainian commander-in-chief who was no longer trained in the Soviet Union. He is emblematic of the sweeping reform of Ukraine's military since 2014.

    When Valery Salushni finished school in 1989 in the small town of Novohrad-Volinsky west of Kiev, Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union. During this time of upheaval, he followed in the footsteps of his father, who was also a member of the military. He attended the prestigious military academy in Odessa and graduated with honors from the ground forces officer training program in 1997.

    During Salushni's time at the military academy, the young Ukrainian army was still heavily Russian. Until 2014, many senior positions in the Ukrainian security apparatus were held by Russians who had spent their entire careers in the Soviet Union, says Hans Petter Midttun, who was the Norwegian military attaché in Kiev between 2014 and 2018. Their loyalty to Ukraine, as well as their willingness to change, was accordingly limited.

    When Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, the impact of the Soviet legacy on the fighting capacity of the Ukrainian army became apparent. The command structure was highly centralized along Soviet lines: With no orders coming from Kiev, Ukrainian ground forces surrendered without a fight, and others even defected to the Russians.

    From 2014, Salushni served almost without interruption in the embattled Donetsk region. When he was promoted to major general in 2017, he was in no hurry to be removed from the eastern Ukrainian front, Radio Free Europe reports. Saluzhni, he said, is someone who fights not only on paper but also in the field. A Ukrainian officer stated this to the radio station.

    Since the annexation of Crimea, the Ukrainian military has undergone major changes. The U.S. has spent over $3 billion on equipment and training for the armed forces. In addition, cooperation with NATO has intensified. In total, NATO officers trained 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers; the Soviet mindset became less important.

    Salushni was one of the main advocates of Ukraine joining NATO and contributed to the military's interoperability with NATO forces. As head of combat training, he pushed the use of Western weapons systems and frequently conducted joint exercises with British and American forces.

    Before the invasion, Ukraine had 170,000 servicemen and women and 100,000 reservists and veterans. As a result of the war in eastern Ukraine, many units are battle-hardened. The mentality of the troops has completely changed since 2014. These are the most important factors in the current success of Ukraine's defensive struggle, says former military attaché Midttun.

    However, for the renewal to reach the top of the army, it still needed Salushni's appointment. His predecessor, Ruslan Khomchak, had still been trained in the Soviet Union, and former Defense Minister Andri Taran was known for maintaining a Soviet-influenced style. Contrary to NATO requirements, Taran was not a civilian but a former lieutenant general, and he also tried to influence operational concerns of the military.

    The situation was aggravated by the fact that Khomchak and Taran quarreled publicly. President Selensky also installed a new defense minister in November, Olexi Resnikov, with whom Salushni worked well.

    The change was overdue, because the Russian troop buildup on the border had already begun. "Up until that point, Ukraine had a completely dysfunctional command structure," says Sarah Whitmore, a lecturer in political science at Oxford Brookes University in the United Kingdom.

    Ukrainian military reform began long before Salushni was appointed commander in chief last summer. But he is pushing the changes more vigorously than his predecessors. The general is also battle-hardened himself and understands the problems faced by officers and soldiers who have been at war for eight years.

    Operationally, Salushni is also hammering out his own stakes. One of his first acts in office was to grant officers in the field more autonomy so that a situation like the one in Crimea in 2014 would not be repeated. He ordered that soldiers on the front lines could return fire without consulting the top leadership.

    President Selensky is the de jure supreme commander, but has no prior military experience himself. In order to conduct the war, he depends on Salushni. In him, Selenski has made an excellent personnel decision, Whitmore says: "I don't want to imagine what the war would look like now if Ukraine still had last July's team at the top of the military."


     

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    Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous, Part 4

    in Computer and Console

    Posted

    On 3/22/2022 at 7:04 AM, majestic said:

    I guess there are a few things in this game I'm not really going to try out. Being terrible to Ember or Aru are the top entries I guess, but romancing the cat-girl spider thing is a serious top contender too. I read a reddit thread about this romance, and someone called it "extremely well written", and once again, I think it's time to let the world burn. That romance reads like it was written by E. L. James. Fifty Shades of Wenduag, and you're playing her Christian Grey.

    Including the creepy stalking. Not sure about the horse sized male organ, but the money aspect works out all right as well. 

    :no:

    On the other side I was thankfully forewarned to refuse a quest from Lann as a female character, as otherwise it was very easy to inadvertently stumble into his romance path.

    • Like 1

    Ukraine Conflict - Das Himmelfahrtskommando

    in Way Off-Topic

    Posted · Edited by Agiel

    On 3/29/2022 at 10:56 AM, pmp10 said:

    No country is that generous, not even to allies.
    Let alone a poor European backwater country that is distracting US from pivoting to Asia. 

    While I'm heartened beyond belief that Ukrainians have done sterling work in humbling a certain fascistic Patek Philippe wearer in the Kremlin and made all the pessimists and naysayers eat crow a thousand times over, these feelings have been overridden by plenty of other reasons to be downcast, chief of which is the fact that I'm hardly optimistic that the voting public of western democracies' enthusiasm for supplying the much needed arms and supplies to the Ukrainian defenders will carry over into the much harder and more expensive task of rebuilding the homes and livelihoods of Ukrainians once the shooting stops. I've held that as soon as he started asking for it that if Zelenskyy is even half as smart as he appears to be then he knows perfectly well that a NATO no-fly zone is a non-starter, but the implicit message of the ask is "Okay, so instead of that what else is the west going to help Ukraine out in terms of arms and material? And more importantly what kind of reconstruction aid and security guarantees can Ukraine look forward to once the war is over?" It's fantastic to read stories of Britons, Germans, Poles, Romanians, and even Moldovans going out of their way to help out Ukrainian refugees, but I dearly hope this generosity carries over into allowing Ukraine into the EU (I'm sure there will be loads of German, Dutch, and French farmers who won't appreciate a sudden flood of cheap agricultural goods in the common market), providing Marshall Plan-levels of financial aid, and rebuilding their economy to pre-war levels. I'd go further and say that to do less would be the greatest geopolitical betrayal this side of the Yalta agreement. 

    Ukraine isn't post-Soviet invasion Afghanistan by a long shot, nor do I think that Mr Hilter and his dicky old chums Heimlich Bimmler and Ron Ribbentrop will arise in Kyiv, but the character of the Russian Armed Forces' attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure is that of making sure that rebuilding the country will be as expensive and difficult as possible, perhaps beyond what the west will be willing to pony up for (reminder that the last American administration argued convincingly to voters that billions in foreign aid would be better spent domestically). And if resentment that their tax dollars are spent in Ukraine festers then the Kremlin might well use the opening to rebuild their foreign influence operations in the west.

    Ukraine Conflict - Das Himmelfahrtskommando

    in Way Off-Topic

    Posted · Edited by Agiel

    31 minutes ago, Gorth said:

     

    It really looks like Putin thinks like a KGB agent, not an army general. Except, his assumptions are so wrong, he would make a very poor KGB agent.

    "We only have to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down."

    Ukraine Conflict - Das Himmelfahrtskommando

    in Way Off-Topic

    Posted · Edited by Agiel

    I haven't responded to these topics at length for a couple of reasons, chief of which is that it's hard to write coherently when you're watching a human nightmare unfold in close to real time and it feels like you need a close to daily Johnny Walker nightcap to help sleep at night, as I have friends and acquaintances from Ukraine who have thankfully managed to flee to Poland or Moldova (for those interested, here's where I go for my doomscrolling).

    -To start I can't help but observe just how astoundingly prescient former Russian GenStab member Mikhail Khodarenok was at the beginning of February on outcome of the "Special Operation". Translation provided by the excellent <<Russian Defense Policy>> blog and excerpts provided for emphasis: 

    "To assert that no one in Ukraine will defend the regime signifies practically a complete lack of knowledge about the military-political situation and moods of the broad masses in the neighboring state. And the degree of hatred (which, as is well-known, is the most effective fuel for armed conflict) in the neighboring republic toward Moscow is plainly underestimated. No one in Ukraine will meet the Russian army with bread, salt and flowers.

    It seems events in south-east Ukraine in 2014 didn’t teach anyone anything. Then they also figured that the entire left-bank Ukraine in one fell swoop and ticked-off seconds would turn into Novorossiya. They already drew the maps, thought out the personnel contingent for the future city and regional administrations, worked out state flags.

    But even the Russian-speaking population of this part of Ukraine (including also cities like Kharkov, Zaporozhe, Dnepropetrovsk, Mariupol) didn’t support similar thoughts by a huge majority. The “Novorossiya” project somehow imperceptibly deflated and quietly died.

    In a word, a liberation crusade in 2022 in the form and likeness of 1939 won’t work in any way. In this instance the words of Soviet literature classic Arkadiy Gaydar are true as never before: “It’s obvious that now we won’t have an easy battle, but a hard campaign.”

    ...

    To this it’s certainly necessary to add that supplies of prospective and highly-accurate weapons in the VS RF don’t bear any kind of unlimited character. “Tsirkon” hypersonic missiles still aren’t in the armory. And the quantity of “Kalibrs” (sea-based cruise missiles), “Kinzhals,” Kh-101 (air-launched cruise missiles) and missiles for “Iskanders” in the very best case number in the hundreds (dozens in the case of “Kinzhals”). This arsenal is completely insufficient to wipe a state on the scale of France with a population of more than 40 million from the face of the earth. And Ukraine is characterized by exactly these parameters."

    -Ever since the lines seemingly ossified in at the end of 2014 I had deep suspicions that the Russian armed forces were going to have a substantially harder time moving beyond the Donbass due to the potential morale problems we are seeing now; the Russian armed forces would be invading a fellow Slavic country with a shared cultural and religious background and most Ukrainians are able to speak Russian, fluently in fact. In spite of a painful history between Ukraine and Russia a conflict was as unthinkable for most westerners as the state of Iowa invading Minnesota (I'm reminded of this poignant exchange between Simon Ostrovsky and Ukrainian Naval Infantry from back in 2014). What's more I had believed the addition of the FGM-148 Javelin to the Ukrainian arsenal (which in retrospect should have happened in the direct aftermath of the MH-17 shootdown, not in 2018 when Ukraine had long since ramped up production of domestic ATGMs, which made up for their lack of sophistication in comparison to the Javelin with sheer numbers) was going to be something that would give Russian armour pause due to how devious the thermal imaging mode of the CLU and its launch-and-leave features were going to be on top of the fact that current hard-kill APS measure cannot account for top attack projectiles.

    -The seemingly derelict Russian Air Force can in part be attributed to the fact that the Russian armed forces tend to treat air power more as "extended range artillery" which drops ordinance no more than 100-150km behind enemy lines, and not as a means of conducting deep battlefield  interdiction as western Allied air forces pioneered in Europe in 1943-1945 and the US codified into doctrine with AirLand Battle in the 1980s. For this the Russian Armed Forces would have left the task to breakthrough exploitation force (not happening now, for obvious reasons) or to their missile artillery and cruise missile bombers (both only effective against stationary targets). What has not helped is the severe lack of PGMs and advanced imaging infrared targeting pods in the Russian inventory (the most advanced targeting system in use is the Su-34's targeting system which only has an LLTV mode, which doesn't compare favourably to western IIR-capable offerings like Sniper XR or the ATFLIR) which has limited their ability to engage pop-up targets from a safe enough altitude (most Russian aircraft losses were from MANPADS, as they had to fly low in order to hit targets with any meaningful accuracy, which was fine in Syria, where the MANPADS inventory of rebels quickly dwindled to nothing).

    -All these factors lead to what is seemingly the only viable strategy left in the minds of the Kremlin, which is to follow the formula they used in Syria, which is to savage Eastern Ukraine and bomb all the civilian infrastructure that makes it possible for the remaining population to make the call that they're better off sitting tight. After all no population left = no partisans or potential troublemakers for the now evidently woefully-inadequate invasion force to deal with (some folks who like living inside their tanks insist that the Russians are making real progress in terms of territory, to which I say: "So, what? They haven't even gotten to what was supposed to be the actual _hard part_ yet, which is installing their Quisling and rebuilding a country while everyone is shooting at them). The message is this: "You want liberal democracy? A small/Mittelstand business climate that isn't (as) racked by corruption and cronyism? Go move to the EU for that, because here it's 'Putin or we burn the country.'"

    Will add more tomorrow night.

    • Like 3
    • Thanks 1

    The All Things Political Topic - Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities

    in Way Off-Topic

    Posted · Edited by Agiel

    @DarkpriestMaybe you want to ask Europeans or the Kenyans what they think:

    And last I checked freaking Bernie Sanders wasn't exactly Scoop Jackson-esque in his views on interventionism:

    FMOsGWJWYA0IfsD?format=jpg&name=large

    Slice of life story: In anticipation of the upcoming release of the Eldar codex I was on my daily sojourn onto Reddit to see the new rules leaks, and the last image on post alone got an upvote from me.

     

    • Like 2

    Total War: Warhammer

    in Computer and Console

    Posted · Edited by Agiel

    The Kislev one (specifically Katarin's) seems canonical as it is the most detailed and the implication is that TWW3...

     

    ...is a prequel to TWW1 and Ursun is presumably still around from Dmitriy Tsaryov's dialogue.

    One of the top threads on the Reddit is how to mod the race for the four souls. You would think that with the feedback on the DLCs the playerbase liked the most that CA learned that players _do not_ appreciate time pressures in their campaigns, but alas.

    Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous, Part 3

    in Computer and Console

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Gromnir said:
      Hide contents

    am weak enough to admit that if mephistopheles were the mother teresa o' golarion, working tireless to help the refugees o' mendev and caring personal for those most in need o' food, housing, medicine or offering the simple and gracious act o' sitting at the bedside o' those beyond hope, we would still try and find a way to kill him just to get his robes.

    is a crpg. sue us.

    HA! Good Fun!

    Could put up with a certain backer quest in the Kingmaker cRPG, because prior to hitting level 20 who willingly passes up a decent chunk of EXP?

    • Like 1

    Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous, Part 3

    in Computer and Console

    Posted · Edited by Agiel

    32 minutes ago, majestic said:

     

    *Boy am I looking forward to Ember getting Protective Luck and cackling it to an hour or two, that'll smooth out these ridiculous crit streaks.

    If you have Toybox installed under "Class Specific" in the Bag of Tricks tab you should see a checkbox for "Witch/Shaman: Cackling/Shanting Extends Hexes by 10 minutes (Out Of Combat)" which should save you a load of time.

    8ktrsPg.jpg

    • Like 1

    Total War: Warhammer

    in Computer and Console

    Posted

    The addition of Cathay with its <<Harmony>> mechanic brought my mind to this classic Warhammer Quest mini:

    sq9ozcfuvod81.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&a

    My new headcanon is that some Wood Elves visited Cathay shortly after the Sundering, met Celestial Dragon Monks, watched Weijin Opera, and even picked up some Drunken Style fighting and would become the first Wardancers. 

    • Haha 1

    The All Things Political Topic - Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities

    in Way Off-Topic

    Posted · Edited by Agiel

    On 2/12/2022 at 10:07 AM, Malcador said:

    Is it actually true though?

    http://www.hisutton.com/images/SM_recognition.jpg

    The very nature of how submarines operate means one could essentially make any claim about their presence. See Soviet and Russian navy claims about the K-129, K-219 (the skipper and XO of this boat actually went on record dispelling the theory of a collision with a US Navy submarine), and K-141. Couple that with the fact that we have declassified records of USS Parche regularly penetrating Soviet waters to conduct cable taps in the Barents bastion and its mission now taken over by the USS Jimmy Carter and boats like it that have been in service since the early 90s are said to have spent more time in the waters off Murmansk than some Russian ships based there begs the question why the Russian Navy have not boasted about detecting such submarines in a littoral environment before now, let alone in the open sea? Given that the Russian navy tends to be the one service that struggles the most for funding (particularly if it isn't directly connected to the nuclear deterrence mission) they certainly could use the propaganda coup since the end of the Cold War.

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