Agiel

Favourite one was the one in which it simply says "War" in the Balkans. Fifth one down was very promising... until it said "Belarus" where the Czech Republic was.

Please spare the Daughter of Chaos. In fact, head on back down into the Chasm of the Abyss and farm 80 humanity for the poor girl. Her story is just sooo tragic *sniff*.

A guy in the Canadian Army posted this on the Steel Beasts forum: (12) Step Program for the Military about to retire 1. Speech: -Time should never begin with a zero or end in a hundred, it is not 0530 or 1400; it is 5:30 in the morning (AKA zero-dark-thirty). -Words like deck, rack, and "PT" will get you weird looks; floor, bed, workout, get used to it. -"F***" cannot be used to replace whatever word you can't think of right now, try "um". -Grunting is not talking. -It's a phone, not a radio, conversations on a phone do not need an "over" or should end with a "out" -People will not know what you are talking about if you tell them you are coming from CTC Gagetown with the support weapons platoon or that you spent a deployment in theatre 2. Style: - Do not put creases in your jeans. -Do not put creases on the front of your dress shirts. -A horseshoe cut looks dumb, not motivating. -A high and tight looks really dumb as well. -So does a tapered, but not as bad. -A hat indoors does not make you a bad person, it makes you like the rest of the world. - You do not have to wear a belt ALL the time. -3. Women: -Air Force girls are easy, very easy, not all women are this easy and will probably punch you in the nuts if you treat them like Air Force girls. - Being divorced twice by the time you are 23 is not normal, neither are 6 month marriages, even if it is your first. - Marrying a girl so that you can move out of the barracks does not make "financial sense", it makes you a retard. 4. Personal Accomplishments: -In the real world, being able to do pushups will not make you good at your job. - Most people will be slightly disturbed by you if you tell them about people you have killed or seen die. -How much pain you can take is not a personal accomplishment. -The time you got really drunk and passed the sobriety test anyway is also not a personal accomplishment. 5. Drinking: - In the real world, being drunk before 5pm will get you an intervention, not a "good for you" -That time you drank a 26er of Jaegermeister and pissed in your closet is not a conversation starter. - That time you went to the combat medics course and practiced giving vodka iv's will also not be a good conversation starter...unless, of course, you are dating a medic or MO. Then it's called reminiscing. 6. Bodily Functions: - Farting on your co-workers and then giggling while you run away may be viewed as "unprofessional". -The size of the dump you took yesterday will not be funny no matter how big it was, how much it burned, or how much it smelled. - You can't make fun of someone for being sick, no matter how funny it is VD will also not be funny 7. The Human Body: - Most people will not want to hear about your balls. Odd as that may seem, it's true. 8. Spending Habits: -You will have to pay bills - Buying a $30,000 car on a $25,000 a year salary is a really bad idea. -Spending money on video games instead of on diapers makes you a fool. - You will need health insurance 9. Interacting with Civilians (AKA YOU): -Making fun of your neighbor to his face for being fat will not be normal. 10. Real Jobs: - They really can fire you. - On the flip side you really can quit. -Screaming at the people that work for you will not be normal, remember they really can quit too. -Taking naps at work will not be acceptable. - Remember 9-5 not 0630 to 1800 - so it is a good thing. 11.The Law: -Non-judicial punishment does not exist and will not save you from prison. -Your workplace, unlike your unit, can't save you and probably won't, in fact most likely you will be fired about 5 minutes after they find out you've been arrested -Even McDonalds does background checks, and "conviction" isn't going to help you get the job -Fighting is not a normal thing and will get you really arrested, not yelled at Monday morning before they ask you if you won. 12.General knowledge: -You can in fact really say what you think about the Prime Minister in public. -Pain is not weakness leaving the body, it's just pain. -They won't wear anything shiny that tells you they are more important than you are, be polite. - Read the contracts before you sign them, remember what happened the first time.

Congratz, Deraldin. I suppose next you're going to tell me you soloed Ornstein and Smough :D I suppose with my Lightning Bruiser/Glass Cannon mentality when I create my PCs in RPGs I've been of the belief that "If you're getting hit, you're doing something wrong." Ah, the tyranny of load limits which forces almost everyone I talk to about the game to use Havel's Ring. Great Hollow/Ash Lake? The place is a bit out of sight and out of mind, since there's not a whole lot of reasons to go too deep into that place if you're not using a Dragon wep as your primary arm. My character at the moment in Ciaran's get-up: Comes complete with jester-like boots. Currently trying to decide what kind of weapon I want to be Lightning infused. With an Ascended Pyromancy Flame as a stand-in for a fusion pistol in my off-hand a "Power Sword" in my right, and equipped with the Ninja-flip ring, this will probably be the closest I'll ever get to my dream of playing an Eldar Harlequin in a video game.

I've heard getting the tail is next to impossible without a summon given how quickly he reacquires you after every attack. That said in a strictly loot-oriented playthrough getting the tail is a success since the ring you get from beating him is actually purely detrimental.

A dinky Bamboo tablet I'm afraid. That said it serves me well enough for my purposes given that I come from a fine arts background (oil painting) rather than being a full-on digital painter.

Found this funny given how I have a similar situation at the back of my PC, of which as of right now USB ports have a mouse, keyboard, Wacom tablet, Logitech flight stick, TrackIR, Codemeter dongle, and Microsoft Xbox 360 controller receiver plugged in.

That guy definitely took some doing by my friend and I. Unfortunately my Pyromancies and Sorceries (my Faith was still sitting at 8, probably try and fix that in NG+) were a no sell, as was my Moonlight Greatsword. So I had to break out the Black Knight Halberd. On the plus side, I think he's definitely do-able even if you're not specced out for survivability, and most of my deaths were a result of my being an idiot rather than anything inherently difficult. The best piece of advice for that fight is get the Ninja-flip ring and Keep dodging left.

Ha! This is me, too. If I can't get *any* character names out of the dozen or so I have in a list, (literally, I keep them in a list, ), I just give up. "I can't believe 'EliteSniper' was already taken!" In all seriousness, yeah, was really surprised to discover that my usual MMO names that I normally have no problem getting were taken (Lamashtu, Lllitu, Laure, Laureline, Ledroit).

Neither do I with western military stuff (the worst thing to ever hamper the US military was Curtis LeMay's influence which caused the Air Force to focus on strategic bombing rather than tactical air power that was practical for conventional forces). I don't go looking for trouble armed with all my knowledge, but if oby comes here with info from one of those Slavic brotherhood websites and gives me a reason to cut him down for size... well... I can't help myself

For both scenarios technology wasn't the issue, it was human fallibility. Issues with the Soviet Ground Control Intercept had sent their aircraft on a wild goose chase, expending their fuel before they could visually identify the civilian airliner. Poor communication with air assets and GCI had also, as previously stated, allowed a West German student pilot to not only penetrate Soviet air space, but also land in Red Square a stone's throw away from Lenin's tomb. And you're putting words in my mouth if you're implying that I ever said something like an Abrams was indestructible even out of its element.

I liked the Black Knight Halberd/Naginata best. Before finally plunging into Dark Souls I scanned the wiki (yeah, maybe I am ruining the game for myself, but I'm having the most fun I've had in a while despite this) and took one look at that thing and said to myself: "Yeah, that's for me." Even though I made a primarily Int and Dex specced character, I put just enough Str into my char so that she could two-hand it (22). Even with the bare minimum strength, she dispatches just about all human-sized foes in a single R1 attack. It also doesn't hurt that the animations are cool as hell; I feel like my character is a Howling Banshee Exarch with an Executioner. I love it so much that I rotate between that and the Moonlight Greatsword and Lifehunt Scythe (complete with Black-Hemmed Set) which are more appropriate for my build.

Design requirements for fleet-defense missiles dating back to the 70s included the ability to intercept supersonic missiles at speeds ~Mach 3.5. In fact the F-14 and its AIM-54 Phoenix missile as well as the new AIM-120D AMRAAM were purpose-built for this role. What matters for these missiles aren't speed, but sensors and G-limits that allow them to make the corrections needed to intercept supersonic missiles. Believe it or not, missiles, provided they have a large enough radar cross section, are easier to intercept than an aircraft since they travel in a predictable course and present an uncomplicated interception solution. SM-3 has already been demonstrated to be able to hit a ballistic missile target, which is considerably more difficult to intercept than a sea-skimmer, and you need only ask the crews of the Yamato and the Bismarck how building even Battlecruiser-sized surface ships such as the Kirov as your primary seaborne AShW platform works out in the age of air power. Against a Russian SAG, a typical USN "Gorilla package" would consist of EA-18G Growler jammers, F/A-18 SEAD shooters with AGM-88 HARMs, and Hornets equipped with AGM-84D Harpoons. When the HARMs are in the air, the Russians have two options, both of them terrible: a.) Turn off their radars, at which point they are now completely vulnerable to the Harpoons which will send them to the briny deep. b.) Leave their radars on to try and intercept the Harpoons, then their radars get busted and the ships are vulnerable to follow-on strikes.

KAL Flight 007, just saying. As for the Kirov vs a single Ticonderoga class Guided Missile Cruiser, that's a mere 20 Shipwreck missiles against a Kitano Circus of 122 Standard Missiles. And that is if they manage to bypass at least twelve F/A-18E/F Superhornets armed with as many as twelve AIM-120B/C AMRAAMs, which outclasses any air-launched weapon in service with the RuAF.

The Phalanx is a completely autonomous CIWS that is generally turned off in proximity of friendly aircraft. Such an incident is no more embarrassing than a West German student pilot penetrating Soviet air space in a Cessna and landing in Red Square: http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/rust.html?c=y&page=1

Inspired by Giant Bomb's Vinny Caravella's attempt to finally beat Dark Souls, I have decided to soldier on with that game as well with the aide of my friend, DSCfix, and a Black Knight Halberd which is allows me to hit like a truck. I last left off just having just gotten to Anor Londo. We've made a lot of progress since then, having gotten the Lordvessel and defeated Seath the Scaleless, in the process getting the Moonlight Greatsword, and of course, me being a big From fan, I couldn't *not* use a sword called "Moonlight." My pyromancer/sorceress character, Laure de Marais. However with only 16 vitality at level 85, I can't take nearly as much as I can give.

The internet's efforts to get me to download her viruses has reached new heights, as while I attempt to download and install AVG Anti-virus, I'm confronted with this page. Behold them inundating me with "Download now" buttons:

As the resident military aviation dork, I happened across something rather interesting. A comic wherein various military aircraft are anthropomorphised into young ladies in high school called "Flight Highschool". It is a Korean "Manhwa," so no need reading it assbackwards right-to-left. For those who don't get the joke, the E-8 JSTARS is a battle-management aircraft with an incredibly powerful Synthetic Aperture Radar that does for ground targets what AWACS does for targets in the air (in other words, it's the plane that tells ground-attack aircraft: "Yo dawg, there's a Motor Rifle Division moving in from that direction, go bust 'em.") As for the GAU-8, see this:

Well movies are largely considered a legitimate art form, and they range from the Ingmar Bergman's Persona to the insanely dumb Transformers. Studying fine arts in my uni, one of my professors once told me: "Art is the world "fart" without the letter 'f'". By his definition, art is basically anything that comes out of you. Whether or not it's a "good" piece of art is a whole nother can of worms.

Oldie, but goodie.

Should be noted that the idea that the French aren't grateful for the US couldn't be further from the truth: Some French paratroopers put 101st and 82nd Airborne patches on their personal effects to pay homage to the units that were so critical to the liberation of France, as well as the paratrooper outfit they owe their lineage to.

Let us not forget the mechanised infantry concept embodied by the Panzergrenadiere that forever changed the face of modern ground warfare. I'd argue that the Germans didn't need more Tigers and Panthers, they needed more Hanomags so that their troops weren't stuck riding in horse-drawn carriages half the time.

Hopping back into Shogun 2, having not picked up Rome 2 due to lack of interest in that theater and time period as compared to the Sengoku Jidai and the Napoleonic Wars (though from what my friends have told me of Rome 2, Shogun 2 remains CA's high watermark by quite a margin). Playing with the Radious mod as the Uesugi, tear-assing around northern Honshu with my corps of Sohei and Warrior Nuns before lining up the pieces for unseating the Ashikaga Shogunate. That said, I do find the RNG of Shogun 2 to be quite infuriating at times, particularly in regards to retainers as I'm trying to kit-out Uesugi Kenshin with the ones that I feel befitting for the greatest Daimyo of Sengoku-era Japan.

I believe the developers have gone on record and said that from their research of colonial Boston, New York, and New Jersey, their renditions of those cities are 3 times bigger than they actually were in those times. Though if they had gone with a much more true-to-life design they would have been far less interesting places to traverse than Middle-age Jerusalem or Renaissance Venice.

Wrong. This isn't an action game, I can pause any time I want, therefore there is absolutely no drawback to the controllable camera. No one in their right mind who had the budget and time to make a game fully 3D would not do so. A forced isometric view with a forced camera angle only impairs what you can design and how you can display it on screen, designers in general don't like to have limitations on what they can design. What do they say about common sense at the Friendly Arm again? Oh that's right, they say most of the posters on this forum don't have any. The funny part being 'A well made and properly done 3D camera' has yet to be made... IN 15 YEARS. Play some games from the last decade please. Or are you insinuating the Witcher 2, Dark Souls, Dragon Age (especially the newest one), hell even X-Com from a couple years ago which all have rotatable cameras at the least didn't do it at least "well". Hell X-Com of those I just listed had the worst camera of the lot and it was the only one that forced isometric view on you. Go play a Drakensang game or something for christ sake. I would say Dark Souls and Demon's Souls' cameras had a nasty tendency to obstruct your view on the odd boss fight at the worst of times (coming from someone who really liked both games). Otherwise I completely agree with you, though I'd go a bit further to say that the lack of an "on the ground" camera would sometimes lead you to sending an operative to somewhere where they didn't quite have the LOS you wanted. When I first played Dragon Age: Origins, I originally thought that I would play it from the top-down perspective almost exclusively, which was an idea I discarded after an hour or so since it was actually easier to keep track of things as (to borrow American football terms) a Quarterback rather than a coach. Which is not to say I never used the top-down camera ever again; far from it, it's handy for plotting where you're going to plant your AOEs.