xawery

Gawddammit! My monitor decided it's time to give up the ghost (before you ask: no, I don't have ueberl33t blind-typing skills, I'm using the laptop ;p). I'm at a complete loss as to what may be the problem, especially since the monitor is perfectly capable of displaying the "no signal" message when I disconnect the video cable. Arf! So, unless I magically manage to solve this problem, I fear tonight's game will be devoid of my vocabulary and fairly mediocre skillz...

Well, bear in mind we had to ad-hoc a bit due to your incessant droppage The funny thing was, Ryan had been promoted to mission commander whilst away... I think that was the last time he will go AFK during the briefing, hehe... There was no plan, and that's a direct quote from Ryan. Noone knew the mission, there was no briefing and certainly no planning... We had no way of knowing what assets we had at our disposal until the game started. Despite all this, I really enjoyed this game. I really don't care about winning or losing, as long as the cooperation is good and the atmosphere tense. And boy, was it tense

Jesus Christ... See, that's the problem when there is no briefing. We knew there were mines and IED's somewhere because they showed up in the AI's action menu. However, when ordered to retrieve them, the AI went bananas and started running towards *your* positions... BAH!

Great game of Domensk lads! The experience is now really quite different. Still, I think East is rather underpowered when it comes to AT. When the Bradleys entered the town there was nothing we could do: no mines, no IED's, no AT... It would be nice if East had some way of replenishing its supplies. Furthermore, the lack of the briefing pad makes planning almost impossible. Squad composition and gear are unknown until the game starts, which is a shame. Other than that, great game! The mortars are a good addition. Skulking around in those forests was very tense indeed. The sound of armour approaching certainly got the juices running I have to say, A&D's are really the best game mode in OFP!

I think it is actually rather irrelevant how 'gamey' ArmA will be. If it will help attract new players (i.e. increase revenues), so much the better. As Berghoff mentioned, original OFP, and especially the earlier versions, was quite gamey and unrealistic. As long as BIS provides the community with equally good or even better mod tools as it did with OFP, all will be well and such gems like WGL will improve the gameplay. Think about it: noone is playing stock OFP anymore; it's the mods that keep the game alive. As to the age thing: it's true that on average older players are more mature (how surprising!. Still, that is no reason for BIS to focus on an older (and smaller) target audience. They need to make money on this game! Stock ArmA will be pretty unrealistic, just like OFP. The mods will change that, and automatically segregate the community. If you want a quick 'n dirty game, you'll play Hexenkessel 2.762 on a public server. If you want organised, realistic games, you'll join a clan and play something like WGL with a select group of people. We all seem to think that the current, hard-core OFP community is representative of the people who have been playing MP OFP in the past five years. This is simply not true. Joining a public server in those days meant playing with/against G36-totin', impatient rambo's. Remember Hexenkessel, Battlefields 1985 and all those other lame CTF's, C&H's and TDM's, which had absolutely nothing to do with realistic gameplay and/or cooperation? Those missions dominated the servers back then, and I think that the cycle will repeat itself with ArmA. It is BIS' responsibility to make a game which appeals to a large enough audience to generate significant revenues. It is the responsibility of serious gamers to organise themselves and mod away in order to create that realistic gameplay experience we all crave for

Mortars! That's good to hear. Will those be UA mortars or the WGL portable ones? The latter aren't used often enough, IMO. I love mortars, despite their chronic inaccuracy

AFAIK, the server has already been updated. Just check it via Ofpwatch.

The new in-game footage about anims is very nice, but I wonder what kind of grenades those soldiers are carrying... Mininukes? THat explosion was verrrry over the top

Perhaps it would be a good idea to add a time limit of sorts. A time limit never fails to add a sense of urgency to the mission, and it helps to alleviate any unwarranted cautiousness on the part of the West commander. Incidentally, I promise I'll try to remember next time that the motorised infantry actually has to get into the Bradleys before advancing...

Hehehe, that was Dethleffs. I died a few seconds before him. Bear in mind though that we slaughtered a 7 men squad on our lonesome! Domensk was created by Tipsi, IIRC.

Really? Wow, you're really much better inormed than I am then. I never realised Muslim fundamentalist were taking over a non-existing federation. Good show! Just in case you didn't get the sarcarsm... Ah what the hell, I'll let you figure this one on your own.

Very useful indeed, especially if you are new to the server. I believe we have Dethleffs to thank for introducing this handy tool to the Zeus community (or am I mistaken?).

If no calamity occurs, we'll be having a game tomorrow, at 20:00 GMT (21:00 CET). The actual games begin at 20:10. Make sure you have all the required addons (listed in the first post of this thread), because the server policy is pretty strict: if you don't have all the necessary addons at 20:10, we're not reassigning for you... Harsh, but Just! Also, getting on TS is really worth the effort. As Jinef (IIRC) said: "teamspeak is half the Zeus experience"... Very true. Trying to comprehend the inane ramblings of some participants is a game of it's own

It's a shame I never take screenshots of the action, because last saturday's games were a blast! I find it quite surprising how games which consist of marching for a good 50% can be so fun to play. The feeling you get when finally engaging the enemy is truly visceral. The urban action in the first coop was great. There we are, cowering behind a car while tracers zip overhead, and the squad leader says "Celery, run towards that building and approach them from behind". Though my instinctive reaction was "Fuck off and do it yourself!", I complied... Boy, was I glad that the AK has a full auto mode The second mission was an A&D by Mr. Cheese (IIRC)... No objectives, just kill the enemy. I believe this game was something of a beta test, as the mission was fairly new. The lack of specific objectives certainly broadened the scope of tactical approaches, but the lack of a time limit sadly ground the game to a halt. Nevertheless, it was great fun to call in arty and listen to the adjustements from the FO The last mission, War Pie, was great fun, despite the fact that it has been played to death... Despite the major cockup at the very beginning, we managed to reach Petrovice... Sadly, the famous Celery Charge proved to be less effective than I had anticipated. A PKM wasn't at all impressed by my courageous advance and cut me down. Still, it was great fun to hear Walker (who was advancing right behind me) recite that oh-so familiar mantra: "oh shit oh shit Oh Shit OH SHIT!" Heheheh... Yes... Good games allround chaps, and it was great to speak to Bonko again!

Well, I must say I'm looking forward to tomorrow's game... I hope we finally get to play that Domensk rematch against our Welshman

I can't seem to find it in any anglo-saxon papers, but my 'national' paper reports that Ahmadinejad wants to 'cleanse' Iranian universities of 'liberal professors'. I should add that the category 'liberal professors' includes academics studying the Western culture. How nice!

Technically, this should belong in the ME thread, but seeings as some countries consider Hezbollah a terrorist organisation, there is some justification for writing this here. I am certainly claiming that this did not happen the way the likes of IsraelInsider reported it. There are several reasons for this. First, look at the IsraelInsider article, specifically at the supposed interview with the Indian peacekeeper. Have you ever heard anyone express him/herself in this manner? The 'interview' reeks of a fabrication. To make things even more interesting, no other media outlet has published this interview. So Indian peacekeepers who illegally helped Hezbollah fighters, suddenly decided to share their story with a partisan Israeli media outlet? Of course... Incidentally (and conveniently), no sources were mentioned. Second, there is no reason why the Indian military would want to help Hezbollah. Though India contains the largest amount of Muslims in the world, the Islamists are systematically marginalised. The Indian forces contain only 2% Muslims. Third, the existence of the video tape was not known to the top UN brass. This lack of communication is indeed worthy of criticism. Incidentally, the video only shows UN troops surrendering confiscated vehicles to a superior Hezbollah force. The vehicles had been found a day before, some of them repainted as UN cars. All false UN markings and license plates had been removed (which has also been filmed), so the UN commander saw no need to risk his men's lives for a couple of cars. That's all. You can question his judgement, but in no way did the UN aid Hezbollah in kidnapping Israeli soldiers. Fourth, the fact that the UN initially refused to release the tape, and eventually released it with the faces of Hezbollah fighters blurred, is entirely in compliance with peacekeeping rules. How do you expect a UN peacekeeping force to remain neutral if it releases footage of one of the fighting parties to the other party? It is one of the basic rules of peacekeeping: do not release any information about any fighting party. The fact that they DID release the footage eventually only shows how influential the Israeli government is within the international community (backed by the US, of course). I really encourage you to read the official investigation into this occurance. Incidentally, I have some doubts about investigations performed by the organisation under investigation... However, the official investigation is much more plausible than all the wild theories circulating on right-wing blogs and 'media outlets'. I have one question for you Nemesis6: would you even be willing to read a report that contradicts your convictions with regard to this supposed incident? This is an honest question, no strings attached. I would like to add that I hadn't heard about this incident until you mentioned it. I wasn't inclined to exclude the possibility that it actually happened the way you describe it. After all, UN forces consist of humans, and humans are fallible. However, after doing the obligatory research, I came to the conclusion that the 'collaboration theory' was shaky at best, at least based upon the data I was able to find. I truly wonder whether you approach such subjects in the same manner. This is not a personal attack: I am genuinly curious. I should note that all the times you posted false information which happens to coincide with your views have influenced my expectations...

Ah, you must be referring to this unfounded story about Indian peacekeepers helping Hezbollah, as reported by the oh-so non-partisan and 'balanced' IsraelInsider.com. Naturally, one should believe the statements of a supposedly independent internet media outlet (affiliated with such non-partisan organisations as Israel21c and AIPAC), rather than the foundings of an independent, high-profile investigation by the UN. But then again, we all know by now that the UN are Hezbollah helpers, because some Jewish-American 'paper' published a photo of a UN flag, a Hezbollah flag, and a bit of fencing. It's reassuring to see that in these times of turmoil, journalistic values are still held in such high regard...

Isn't this ironic? You criticise SF Indymedia for using the ill-conceived term "zionazis". You are correct in doing so; the term is an argumentum ad populum and thus a logical fallacy. However, in your criticism you label SF Indymedia as "Nazimedia", which the exact same type of fallacy The next time someone asks me to explain the concept of irony, I'll use this as an example /edit: I did a search for 'zionazis' on Google News, and I only got one hit, which happened to be a column in the Washington Times. Still, a quick search on the SF Indymedia site produces numerous hits.

Domensk it is, coming thursday! Incidentally, I refuse to join the AT squads on East, as they are little more than suicide squads

Let's not exaggerate the influence of the Jewry on the Revolution, shall we? There is a reason why the article puts "Jewish Bolshevism" between quotation marks. First of all, the sources listed in the article are shaky at best ("Russian Jews of the greasiest type", vague references to obscure "tables", etc.). Second, though one cannot deny that prominent members of the party were Jewish (e.g. Trotsky) it is questionable whether these people were fulfilling some kind of transcendent "will of the Jewish people". I have to agree with Billybob Bernadotte - you indeed seem to be implying that the Jews have some kind of hive mind, if the simple fact that prominent communists were of Jewish descend means that the Jews had considerable influence on bolsheviks. I will just assume that this isn't your intention

Random sampling and testing of articles have shown wikipedia to be nearly as accurate as Encyclopedia Britannica, which is considered to be the most reliable encyclopedia in existence. [1] Thanks for pointing that out Denoir, it saves me the trouble of doing so. Many people blast Wikipedia as if it were the national past time. Personally, I am amazed to see that it has managed to reach such a high standard of accuracy (several serious errors notwithstanding, but no encyclopedia is free of those).

Don't forget the Dutch, who contributed the largest amount of volunteer SS (ca. 5000).

Xawery, very insulting that you're saving that one. Insulting coming from someone whose sole mission in life is to give AIDS back to the monkeys! Care to explain this sudden bout of moral indignation? Or is this one of your recurring features? I wouldn't want some misunderstanding spoiling our outstanding relationship Nemesis6, so I'll try to make a few things very clear... If anything, I was making fun of Espectro's indignation at you being his countryman. So relax... ...and I'll generously disregard your derogatory comments.

How so?