Let me make one clear statement, and I am rarely clear in these matters, and usually try to say it politely:
Even Steve from the british isles couldn't amass the amount of "bloody" you would have to patch onto the "idiots" to express just how idiotic and useless this whole situation is, especially since it has been prepared over long time apparently.
NAU may not know, ok, though that is still disaster, but more shameful even, my teammates didn't realize, even though we talked about exactly this possibility early in initial strategy discussions. (Drgong has forum access, so he could have known too)
The reason this is all ridiculous to painful tear niveau:
Mesons on planets do NOT protect from ICBM strikesSeriously, how could that have slipped you all? You can set your PDC to either final defensive, or area defense. Final defense would work against direct attack, but why should the opponent chose military installations as targets, when he can just obliterate population or ground forces who cannot be protected?
For area defense however there is an interval needed to cause detection, and I explained basically first day in the Russia thread for us that this is not going to work out.(btw., I had never had to test this in practise to know..)
The thing goes like this:
5-second intervall
Missiles started at end of turn
5-second intervall
Missiles would get detected and shot now, but ohh nose, point-blanck range, oh the hazards of cold war and forcibly shared neighborhood -- they already hit. Lights out.
I mean, huh? Every mid-range missile combat should teach you this!
The missiles are always one interval out in flight when you see them! Am I the only one here who plays this game?
Also, Russian comrades: You should have known, because I told you so, and you agreed!
(I will link you the corresponding thread later, but this was in our very first briefing too, when we were still chatting on Discord..)
So since I have never actually had opportunity to see this in action (even though the mechanics are clear), I set up a game and mirrored our situation somewhat, so you get some proof.
Designs:
Setup:
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Firing turn:
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Obviously NAU still hasn't detected the missile strike, but SM window logs it, and Russia can see.
Strike Turn:
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NAU had no chance to detect, because missiles move before everything. Strike and kill because population was targeted. Disaster ensures. Hundreds of millions dead in the long run. Just like coming Trump America if scientific ignorance in leadership keeps staying a voting advantage.
Proof of operation fitness:
Just to show that there hasn't been anything wrong with any design or setting here, I also shot a second salvo towards a waypoint, so the beam-PDC would could take its ample detection time.
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The mesons only have 15k range, so they couldn't fire after the missiles flew one turn out (because, again, they move first), but you can see they detect them on second turn and try to fire, so the setup is fine.
Result:
Other things:
- Vasious mentioned that we also decided Meson would be against game spirit, but not for their missile interception quality, which we had collectively known at that point to be nil. The game spirit thing came from a comment of AL that let me do a test game. He figured that though mesons cannot be used from orbit to ground, maybe they still work ground to ground.... . Well, they do, which means ofc: Forget spaceships and missiles, because a shared start game is decided by who first has a meson firing capacity large enough to alphastrike all enemy icbm bases away in 5-seconds.
There is no detection delay and targeting, just fire and win. This was outrageous, and we decided against of course.
...Just so you know we could have sacked you through superior knowledge if we wanted for, what, the third time now??
- Where is the rest of the forum? Other people can read here too! Am I really the only one?
(I don't even play all that often)
I mean, I understand not knowing all the details, because I learn new things frequently here from discussions as well, but really no one else with this?
Again too, because we have some other things in Russia discussed that also nobody seems to know of. Or before, PDC hangars seemed to get ignored, and nobody knew they would repair and maintain for free. Or how to set up carriers seemed to be a mystery to most. Also how to keep Aurora running smoothly on longer games, or what the game variable limits are.
..Maybe I should found a school, I could get rich! But you all
failed, see you all next year in 2102.^^
So, that is enough shaming for today.
NAU and RUS will get a free 1,000 point research tech. Just let me know in the orders which tech that costs no more then 1,000 points and it will be instant researched.
I can't speak for others, but I am against this. Gifts of this kinds are none if the other team gets it too (plus minus gift), and there is no reason to give it just to one. Also it feels like it weirdly breaks continuity.