Mr. Snrub

LOL, it's unfortunately true - even if we stumble upon the right answer, being the fallible creatures we are we might never realise it. It's like history (even recent history) - we can make pretty good guesses based on all available evidence, but we can never be absolutely sure of anything. We might be missing a crucial piece of contradictory evidence when all the signs are pointing a certain way. I believe there are absolute truths (ie. how the universe started), but whether we have the ability to find out what they are is another matter...

I should probably have been a little more specific The nature of alien behaviour, as you say, isn't impossible to predict, as we could come up with thousands of possible scenarios, one of which would probably apply to the species of alien we eventually run into. But accurately predicting it (narrowing down those thousands of possibilities to even a handful) would be somewhat presumptuous. Although humans can claim to be somewhat "special" on Earth (given our level of potential and development compared to other, even comparable, species), the existence of an alien race with similar mental capabilties to us obviously negates that uniqueness. Since the chances of there being other life (intelligent or not) elsewhere in the universe are fairly good, the chances of us being unique are fairly small. What I'm getting at is this - evolution would undoutedly have occurred on other planets where life exists, either naturally or artificially. Furthermore (it may actually seem like I'm proving your point here ), to foster a successful civilisation, the alien species would have to be a social animal like humans. But the extent of social behaviour is the key. The aliens may be more group-oriented than humans (think biological communists), in which case emotions such as hate may not have been necessary. You may think that hate is a biologically necessary mental component of any species in order to deal with other, competing species. However, what if the other species had died off long ago, and the dominant race was left to evolve for another million years? After all, evolution on Earth has been taking place for approx. 3 billion years, and we can't assume that our timeline is anything like that of another planet. Evolution isn't a fixed procedure, in which a species identical to humans pops off after a couple of billion years, no matter which planet its happening on. Intelligent extraterrestrial life (if there is any - there still isn't any accurate measurement of probability, and may never be) may have branched off at any given point in time, subject to the conditions of the planet - conditions which may be nothing like those of Earth. Therefore, if the alien species' direct evolution (after becoming a species in its own right) has been going on for much longer than that of humans, there's no telling to what level of social behaviour they've evolved to. Like I said before, they could have evolved (with help from pressure within their own society perhaps) "out" of certain emotions, like hate/lust for power/greed etc. And like I said in a previous post, perhaps they would have artificially suppressed/removed certain emotions they have deemed dangerous or limiting potential. But that's by no means certain either, its just an example of why an alien species needn't think or behave in a similar fashion to humans. Until we meet an alien race, narrowing down thousands of different possibilities of alien behaviour to one or two is being rather presumptuous, given our incredibly limited knowledge of evolution.

I think you're missing the point somewhat ... science (and scientists) never actually claim to know everything, and this is especially true of a subject as complex as the origins of the universe. The simple fact is that nothing (except mathematic principles) can be proven wholly, so the next best thing is proving it beyond a reasonable doubt. That is where theories come in - scientists attempt to explain known facts and phenomena by formulating theories that best fit what we know. Theories are by no means set in stone, and if someone else comes up with a more convincing theory, others will lose favour within the scientific community. What you seem to want is quick, definite answers to incredibly complex questions. Science cannot provide this, nor does it claim to. The reality is that we will never for sure how the universe started, but we can have some pretty good guesses

That looks lagalicious! Is it perhaps possible to model new chunks of debris (long thin bits, hatches etc.) and either add to or replace the existing chunks of curved metal? A more random selection of debris strewn across the battlefield would look pretty good...

Just a bit of a side note... The Australian SASR soldier who died in Afghanistan was assisted by USAF PJs who jumped in after his Land Rover hit a land-mine. Couldn't save him unfortunately, but bloody heroes nonetheless. You'd hate to have some jurisdictional crap prevent you from helping guys dying in the field...

Looking really good guys! Those faces are fantastic - really freaky ... can't wait to see the animations as well OFP has the ability to be very scary, especially during the night, out in the woods somewhere ... all alone ... help ... Anyway, can't wait for the release

Where have I heard that before? LOL, probably not too far off But then again, pragmatism isn't necessarily benevolent in nature. Unless we are either a threat or a possible worthwhile ally, I don't think we'd be of anything more than of fleeting interest, if not completely ignored. If there's one other alien civilisation out there, there's more than likely millions of civilisations, many of which would be more advanced than us - we'd probably be on the more primitive end of the spectrum, given the age of the universe and all, and therefore of little concern...

I think emotions are the basis for survival, and don't ask me the details, but I think they will have the exact emotions as we do, at least the general ones. I can guarantee you pain, anger, jealousy, love, but not humor, perhaps because I have not thought about it. this can be deduced from evolution. Anyway, expect to look more less into a mirror, with odd features, but never the less human looking. That is unless genetic engineering somehow tranformed the race. And we see only their specialists. I like this space talk... gets the brain working. Emotions are the basis of human survival, as we are social animals who depend upon one another (through relationships, which leeds to breeding etc.) to further the species. It is conceivable however that an alien species may have developed a reproduction method (god knows what it could be - I don't really fancy theorizing about it ) that doesn't require the same level of emotional activity that occurs in humans. I agree that emotions/moods/behaviours are likely to be part of any developed alien psyche, but whether those emotions resemble those of humans is, at the moment, impossible to predict. So far, our knowledge of evolution is limited to one planet, and even then we don't know absolutely everything. Even the slightest difference in conditions (ie. atmospheric, environmental) between Earth and an alien world may have exaggerated the biological/mental differences between humans and the dominant alien species. Personally, I think it's feasible that an alien civilisation advanced enough to travel to Earth may have deemed any emotions they have as irrelevant, or even a hindrance to the logical furtherment of their race. In that situation, emotions may have been artificially suppressed, or even genetically altered/removed. Perhaps they realised that the very reason for emotions (procreation) was redundant, as they had developed more efficient methods of reproducing - cloning perhaps? Should we meet any advanced alien races, I wouldn't be suprised if they were guided by logic and pragmatism more than any emotions...

I've heard that the T-72's turret in the video was packed with explosives, so the explosion wasn't entirely the result of the Javelin ... who knows, it's a cool video regardless

Many people believe that if an alien civilisation has progressed far enough technologically to cross vast distances of space with relative ease (including the distance needed to reach Earth), then that technological development would be paralleled socially/morally. That is to say, as civilisations progress scientifically, they also become less belligerent - more enlightened. This seems to be the case with us humans - we're still killing each other en masse, but with less gusto and enthusiasm than in times past. Whether this holds true for alien species remains to be seen, although it would be unlikely to be an axiom. On the other hand, we'd have to assume that a technologically superior race is rather powerful in their own sector of the universe (weak races would probably be concerned with protecting their immediate interests, not with galavanting around the universe). Power tends to breed arrogance (at least among humans), and aliens visitng Earth may wish to exert their power over us. Who knows? It's tempting to assign human qualities (ie. arrogance, belligerence, morals) to all sentient life, but aliens may be goverened by emotions completely unlike those of humans, if they have emotions at all. Similar biology through a similar process of evolution need not imply similar mental processes... I'm more inclined to think that any alien race sufficiently advanced to visit the Earth, and using mental processes based on logic, wouldn't have more than a passing interest in us. We wouldn't be all that advanced relative to them, and therefore wouldn't pose much of a threat, at least not for a while yet. The resources unique to the Earth, and which we would conceivably fight them for (ie. those resources we would rather keep - fossil fuels, humans etc.) would probably be considered too primitive to be of any use, and humans may be deemed too unstable to interact meaningfully with.

Fantastic work goldmember! The 'boom' of the explosions are nice and scary - makes you really afraid for your life I would love to see this become part of the next update...

You're all assuming the aliens will be carbon-based life forms! In which case a Barrett/nuke/flamethrower might be useful ... but if they're all energy-based beings with no corporeal form, we're in a world of trouble. It's probably worth establishing the existence of aliens (intelligent ones, at least) before we worry about whether we're defenceless or not. Chances are that humans are by far the greatest threat to their own existence than anything else...

Hmm, the password is invalid... Edit: just tried it in IE and it's working Hehe, yeah took a bit of editing from a dodgy screen capture

I'd love to see a new Apache, in particular the Longbow, as quite frankly the BIS one isn't cutting the mustard any more A new model is a must, seeing as though the BIS one is uneditable, some new textures wouldn't go astray, nor would a comprehensive selection of weapon loadouts (16 x Hellfires, Stingers etc.). Other bells and whistles - countermeasures, animated doors, smoke when damaged, ejected shell casings, better sounds etc. I have a feeling that BAS had an Apache on their project list, but removed it (understandably) due to the vast amount of projects already underway, so does anybody else feel like having a crack at this? [There was a previous thread about new Apaches, but it was >6 months ago...]

Sounds unbelievable Suchey Cannot wait!

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before, or even if it's possible, but shell explosions (particularly artillery rounds) tend to throw up a whole lot of dirt when they hit. Larger rounds (say, 155mm) would obviously cause a greater displacement of dirt than smaller ones (81mm). At the moment, all that comes out of explosions that hit plain earth are a few rocks. Hopefully OFP2 will have a (even if limited) destroyable landscape. But until then, would it be possible to accurately simulate this in OFP? It'd make artillery barrages & mortar fire etc. all that more intimidating and impressive The current bullet impact (the variable-sized puff of dirt) is pretty much satisfactory, but could perhaps be improved...

LOL - good one! I've dreamt about OFP a couple of times ... but boring things, like running up a mountain ... I remember the viewdistance was really small for some reason ...

Exactly ... I am often discouraged from downloading an addon or mission if it requires me to download a host of other, seperate addons, even if the central addon is only 500kb... I would much rather your mod/addon pack be a single 10/20/50mb file and not a myriad of small addons I have to download from different places.

Ooh, definitely. Molotov cocktails are always a favourite, especially against those open-top trucks full of enemy troops

Lobbing a hand grenade from ground level into a tank would be virtually impossible. Especially if OFP2 retains the current method for throwing grenades. Its quite easy to judge approximately where the grenade will land, but I can imagine it would be extremely unlikely that you'd be able to plonk one through the hatch before the tank spots you...

Choice! (sorry ) Nice to see the Kiwis getting some representation in OFP... Is there any cooperation going on between the NZDF and ADF mods? There is a heap of interaction between the two in RL, and it would be good to see these two working together - maybe even in creating an East Timor campaign... I hope they get around to making some LAVs (could use ONS LAVs?) and M113s. The NZ SAS are also a must! Even though they aren't in service anymore, i'd also like to see some RNZAF A-4K Skyhawks (could get permission to retexture the Falklands 1982 Skyhawk)... The troops are looking good there - is that a new standing/aiming animation I spy with mine eyes? Do the Kiwis use British DPM, or is it their own variation on it?

Improved collision detection between units and buildings also needs to be implemented. At the moment, whenever a unit comes in contact with the inside of a building (except the floors), there's a lot of shaking/pushing going on (sorry, I'm not really up to speed with the technical details )

I see where you're coming from, there are a few people that seem a little too eager to replicate Rainbow 6-type gameplay. So long as it doesn't compromise the "OFP Experience"â„¢, I'd really like to see CQB improved in OFP2. About my signature, I can't remember exactly where I read it, but I'm pretty sure it was from a book on Gallipoli I read when I was in high-school ... I'll try and find a source for it, and hopefully a picture

Those BoH Apaches are looking nice ... looks like they've got Stingers as well! I didn't know the JSDF used Apaches - I thought they only used Cobras and Ninjas ... or is the mod a fictional one? Anyhoo, perhaps someone could get permission from the BoH blokes to do a bit of a retexture once it comes out...

I hate to perpetuate the OT discussion, but you might be talking about the guy (an escaped mental patient and former ADF armoured crewman) who stole an M113 in Perth (Western Australia) and went on a bit of a joyride, knocking down a bit of a local police station etc. There may have been a similar incident in Sydney, but this may have been the one you were thinking of... Anyway, like Ralph said, if things get out of hand with tanks (ie. you can't get near it) the only way to be sure is with a big, fat AT missile Edit: The M113 incident in Perth did happen at night as well...