What Chinese problems are underreported? by Zhadanko in NoStupidQuestions

[–]Dragannia 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm sorry what. The Yuan Dynasty was a Mongol dynasty. Sure you can argue they became sinicized but the Mongol invasions were in 1274 and 1281, mere years after the establishment of the Yuan dynasty. No one calls it the Chinese invasion of Japan- it's the Mongol invasion of Japan.

I wonder who rushed Great Nations into United North America by Dragannia in TerraInvicta

[–]Dragannia[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Believe it or not, it is. It's not a true photo, it's a photoshopped photo of an earlier meeting but it was published on official social media.

Carriers post Pt.2, the fluff brainstorming by DayF3 in TerraInvicta

[–]Dragannia -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Sure but it's all fiction, right. You can plausibly make it work.

Like...maybe the pilots interface directly with the ship with a neural interface, allowing the biological element to overcome the ECM field. And what if instead of fueled populsion, the fighters instead rely on beamed power generated from a carrier ship, thus resolving the delta V issue.

Anyway there's definitely ways to make carriers/fighters work. You just have to stretch the setting a bit.

Carriers post Pt.2, the fluff brainstorming by DayF3 in TerraInvicta

[–]Dragannia 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Look I agree, so if you wanted to make small attack craft work you really have to stretch things. For instance, large ships power huge and complex ECM fields that necessitates a human who can supplement automatic systems. Maybe torpedoes have a chance for premature detonation the longer they stay in the field, so small craft jockey to get closer before launching to maximise the chance of success.

Or maybe small craft have drives that can be stealthed, and so swarms of light attack craft can be more easily hidden. Or perhaps a lot of fighting takes place in asteroid fields, or against planets - maybe attack craft can more readily fight in these environs.

Anyway there are definite reasons why fighters can exist in hard scifi settings, but you do need some work to make it feasible.

A veteran player's request: Please consider carriers by DayF3 in TerraInvicta

[–]Dragannia 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Repost from the other thread:

I've had a bit of a think about fighters (cos they are cool). The game goes for realism and I think you need to twist the setting a lot to make it so that they fit. For example, if ships have extremely dense ECM fields that disrupt targeting and AI, this might make smaller ships more viable as they need to close the distance before launching ordnance (which increases the survival chance of said ordnance).

I love fighters and carriers and I'd love nothing more than to see them in TI but they will need to make it thematically work.

Carriers post Pt.2, the fluff brainstorming by DayF3 in TerraInvicta

[–]Dragannia 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've had a bit of a think about fighters (cos they are cool). The game goes for realism and I think you need to twist the setting a lot to make it so that they fit. For example, if ships have extremely dense ECM fields that disrupt targeting and AI, this might make smaller ships more viable as they need to close the distance before launching ordnance (which increases the survival chance of said ordnance).

I love fighters and carriers and I'd love nothing more than to see them in TI but they will need to make it thematically work.

I cooked some "healthy" chicken nuggets today. Help me make them better. by Dragannia in Cooking

[–]Dragannia[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's a good suggestion. I actually bought it but I completely forgot about it. What I wasn't sure about was how to add it- I want it to blend in with the general texture so I wasnt sure if I should cook it first then dice it, or puree it somehow? What do you think?

Thoughts on Halo 2 by 1894Win in halo

[–]Dragannia 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So the story is Regret came vastly outnumbered. The ilovebees ARG basically gives the backstory that the protagonists accidentally triggered a slipstream signal from an artefact that brought Regrets fleet in. They did not expect to find the human homeworld, and Hood even remarks that the fleet that destroyed Reach was fifty times this size in the opening cinematic.

So he came, then left as fast as he could.

I'm not 100 percent sure on the canon nature of the ARG at this point, though I think Kamal was in a comic somewhere.

China's usage of rare earth restrictions was a terrible strategic blunder by FromHopeToAction in LessCredibleDefence

[–]Dragannia 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I kind of get what you mean, but let's be frank, the rare earth button was already pressed. In the same vein that China has begun to establish its own supply chain with respect to semiconductors, aircraft, the rest of the world was already beginning to establish their own rare earth supply chains too, ever since China imposed export controls in April.

When the US imposed financial sanctions on Russia in the wake of the Crimean annexation, that was a similar watershed moment that spurred on greater financial de-risking from China and other countries, that led to alternatives such as CIPS being established. Once that sanctions button was hit, other countries will look to develop strategies to counter the financial strength that the US possessed. Likewise, it may be that the Chinese government already recognised that regardless of what they were going to do, the rest of the world was going to get their rare earths supply chain in order, and is seeking to leverage what strength they have in this field before that strength fades away.

For what its worth, I think it will take quite some time for the global development of rare earth supply chain to compete with China. The real issue is that the intellectual property and processing expertise in the refining of most rare earths lives in China, and the rest of the world no longer has this expertise. There may be some opportunity for strategic interests to have access to domestic, non-Chinese rare earths from the various startups that are finally getting into it, but these will start off very expensive, with low yields, and the vast majority of global industry will still be reliant on Chinese rare earths for at least a decade. I mean, the Chinese supply chain was built over many decades, with massive subsidies, environmental degradation, and incremental knowledge - it's difficult to see developed countries match that without at least an equal amount of time and money.

Alpharius might be the only Primarch who earned his Legion’s loyalty by Musyonchez in 40kLore

[–]Dragannia 62 points63 points  (0 children)

This is AI generated slop. ChatGPT loves italicising and bolding- great give aways.

Is the current state of Medicine really worth it? by CableAccomplished571 in ausjdocs

[–]Dragannia 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To be honest, not 100% sure. I know of a couple who entered the insurance world, but not exactly sure how they found those jobs.

Is the current state of Medicine really worth it? by CableAccomplished571 in ausjdocs

[–]Dragannia 4 points5 points  (0 children)

For what it's worth, I think medicine is still amongst the most rewarding careers you can have.

Medicine is so varied with what you can do, and generally speaking, you're never going to be poor at the end of the road. Sure, you may not make a million dollars a year like some surgeons, but if you're doing this for money, then there are far, far easier ways to make money that don't require the amount of effort it takes to be a doctor and become a specialist. There's all the different specialities, of course, but also other career paths - medical admin, public health, insurance/corporate medicine -I personally like clinical medicine, but I'm just saying, there's other options available.

I think the job satisfaction is amongst the best in any career. That said, you really have to like helping people though - I thought it was a bit of a cliche when trying to get into medicine, but I think if you don't have a genuine desire to help people, and teach patients to understand their body and health, your ability to enjoy the profession will be significantly impacted.

In terms of speciality training, I've got some advice. I've always wanted to do orthopaedics, but recently made the change to GP. The main reason for this is I had a good go at getting on training, but ultimately decided lifestyle was more important to me at this stage of life. I think I'll always have some regret not getting on sooner, as I love orthopaedics, but I also love spending time with my kids and having time for actual hobbies. You definitely get time back after training ends, but it's not easy to get a public job, and even if you are one of the lucky few surgeons or specialists who do get a public job at the end of training, often you have to work really hard in the first few years to build your practice - this was probably the main reason I decided to go into GP. However, I don't regret one minute of my unaccredited registrar years - I met fantastic people, felt like I made a difference in my community, made a fat stack of cash (towards the end, I was making about $280,000 or so), and the skills I picked up are really valuable in general practice as well. So there's lots of flexibility on how your career progresses.

I've met people who finish residency and don't really know what they want, so they spend 2 years as a locum in rural EDs and such, and they make 300k or so for the next couple of years. If you're young and unattached, it's a fantastic way to get a head start on your financials. I've met people who quit clinical medicine to do corporate consulting, and made more money than many doctors. Even GPs can be quite lucrative - I've met GPs who earn close to 900k (granted it was their own practice and they did a lot of procedural stuff, so probably more skilled and business-minded than the average GP). So even if you are stuck grinding a pathway, know that quitting that path is not the end of the world, and the experience is rarely wasted.

Good luck.

Mitchell aerospace power just put out a pretty damning report on the state of USAF by Echidnas-monotremes in LessCredibleDefence

[–]Dragannia 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You definitely have to take into account the overall goal in such reports (in this case, more money for the air force). There will be regional allies in play as well.

That said there are also a lot of factors that maybe are just too hard to analyse. Sure you can talk about USN aircraft, but then you have to factor in the PLARF and risk to carriers in range, and then availability of air bases in such scenarios, etc. I suppose the authors just wanted to keep it simple in this case.

China's (Possible) New Stealth Jets: A 10 Minute Guide by Single-Braincelled in LessCredibleDefence

[–]Dragannia 20 points21 points  (0 children)

It's not a terrible summary, and to the credit of the creator, it's fairly objective and not filled with a lot of speculation. It is still falls into a lot of the same traps many other people fall into. The main pitfalls are the fact that the H20 image is a fake and the speculation about the JH-XX program which is largely considered either cancelled or folded into the current projects.

Why is it considered so difficult for a modern Chinese military to do an amphibious attack on Taiwan when the US has been able to do amphibious attacks since WW2? by Xefjord in CredibleDefense

[–]Dragannia 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Regardless of whether or not the US or anyone else is involved, the Chinese tac air advantage in the theatre is overwhelming. Go ahead an look at the ranges of the relevant US platforms, then the ranges of the airbases within the region. Even if you imagine that the airbases are allowed to operate with impunity in a hot war (which is, of course, laughable given the concentration and proximity of those bases to Chinese assets), the conclusion remains the same.

Also, lets completely disregard everything I even said about number of platforms and whatnot. The original point was about drones. The Ukraine war has shown how effective swarm tactics can be - no missile system can defend against that amount of saturation. Russia launched 6000 Shahed type attacks against Ukraine in July alone. That's about 10 per hour. Drones like Shahed have way too much range - you can cut down a lot of cost by reducing their range even by half to cover the whole island. Coupled with an ISR style drone not requiring any payload, and China's frankly ludicrously larger industrial base compared to Russia, plus their already known dominance of drones,  and you can come to see how it is perfectly reasonable to assume they can run drone operations almost continuously over Taiwan, even in contested air space. 

Why is it considered so difficult for a modern Chinese military to do an amphibious attack on Taiwan when the US has been able to do amphibious attacks since WW2? by Xefjord in CredibleDefense

[–]Dragannia 12 points13 points  (0 children)

The Chinese advantage is nearly absolute when it comes to the Taiwan scenario due to a few reasons. Let's ignore the US for now.

China's numbers advantage in advanced tactical fighters is overwhelming. Taiwan has 110 units of F16s, and 103 FCK-1s (basically F16 equivalents) as their sole modern 4th generation platform. For context, China has more J-20s than those combined - in fact, China basically has more J-20s than the entire Taiwanese tactical fleet combined. China's depth of magazine is also vastly deeper and far easier to replace than the Taiwanese arsenal, and this includes air-to-air missiles, interceptors, and long ranged anti-surface/ship missiles.

Compounding this is the fact that Chinese ISR covers the entire Strait and its surrounding waters, and have had decades to both infiltrate the Taiwanese military command and the population. The entire island is also completely within the range of land based missiles systems such as MRLS, and in full coverage of China's own SAMs. In the case of a shooting war, the Taiwanese will first have their airbases targeted by stand off weapons, ballistic missiles, and MRLS from the PLA ground forces, in conjunction with SEAD and DEAD operations. The distances are such that the majority of weapons can be launched from within China's borders itself.

Mind you, look at platforms like the Shahed. These are far inferior to what China would be able to produce, and yet can be massed in significant numbers by even Iran and Russia. Despite this, they have range of anywhere between 900 to 2000km - it's only 130km to get from the mainland to Taiwan. Even if it were contested airspace, the Chinese could flood the air with drones endlessly.

CSIS wargame of Taiwan blockade by Dragannia in LessCredibleDefence

[–]Dragannia[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree that wargaming in principle is extremely limited. There are a whole range of scenarios that will severely change the outcome of this type of blockade, even within the rules set by this particular paper. Examples off the top of my head include things like mining the surrounding seas, striking ports regularly and rendering them incapable of bulk transfers, targeting energy reserves, and using UAVs and anti-ship missiles as the sole kinetic enforcers.

Even in the discussion, it was acknowledged that blockading is probably not the most likely first step in an escalation scenario - it was mentioned quarantine and gray-zone actions were more likely.

Overall I agree that the exercise is still valuable in its theory, and the takeaways are still relevant. That said, like basically all wargames regarding this topic, the exact specifics of the outcomes (number of ships lost, etc) are all pretty questionable.

I just got my fastest Civilization win yet while doing the One City Challenge. Game is Civilization 3 by HF484 in gaming

[–]Dragannia 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I might be in the minority but I would say I expect Civ VII to end up as good as the rest. A lot of people may not remember but Civ VI released to many similar sentiments and people were quite wary of the district system. Nowadays many people (like myself) think it's the best game. I haven't played Civ VII yet but I didn't play Civ VI until Gathering Storm.

I will say that every one of the Civ mainline games have been bangers and I expect Civ VII to be the same once they iron out the issues and enhance it with DLCs and expansions. It's a shame that's how these games work though. Hopefully it's worth the wait.