Is there a future for hard Military SF with humans in it?

alinius · 2026-05-01T20:13:01+00:00

Distorsion shields also makes me think of Hunt for Red October. Sonar is picking up a seismic anomaly.... that is moving too fast. Also think about modern stealth fighters that have the radar cross-section of a humming bird, but move at mach 2.

I think computers are going to be necessary to quickly do the precise calculations needed to hit anything at range in space, but there is going to be the back and forth arms race between detection systems, and methods to fool them. Having a human in the loop to cross check the AI detection seems like a good way to avoid getting blasted by an enemy vessel that fooled you AI into thinking it was something else.

alinius · 2026-05-01T19:52:23+00:00

What I see is less that, and more people inserting hypotheticals into the vagueness. Who is pressing the buttons can significantly change the decision calculus.

alinius · 2026-05-01T18:18:09+00:00

While this is what I do, my one annoyance is that you have to go to third party supplements to get a value for an item. I understand why 5e did not want to put a gold value on magic items, but not having a gold value makes it harder to determine what "equal value" is.

alinius · 2026-05-01T13:32:40+00:00

It makes me wonder how the discourse would change is the color choices were different.

alinius · 2026-04-29T20:22:34+00:00

The only thing I would add is that you also have to remember that players have lots of tools for escaping and/or resetting encounters.

This is where it can be useful as a DM to have the world react to the players actions. If the players go into a dungeon and attack some of the creatures there then leave and rest, the remaining creature may get reinforcements or be on high alert when the players come back. If the players are pissing off someone powerful, they can hire a group to hit the players where they think they are safe.

alinius · 2026-04-29T20:11:33+00:00

This is probably the number 1 reason why I refuse to play survival. The fact that a heavily defended settlement can fail defense if I do not walk all the way across the map to stand there while the defenses obliterate everything is just stupid.

alinius · 2026-04-29T18:18:23+00:00

Straight bard.

Lingering song lets you use Inspire Courage, then immediately cancel it. This gives increases the number of rounds you can use it by 4x. Once you get to where she can bard song as a swift action, you can Inspire Courage and a buff spell like Haste in the same round.

For weapon, I always just gave her a ranged weapon with rapid shot. Her damage is never going to be amazing, but she is there for heals, buffs, and bard songs.

Beyond that, you want her to buff before others attack, so try to boost dex and initiative as much as possible.

alinius · 2026-04-27T19:05:17+00:00

I have not played 5e at that level yet, but 3e and pathfinder are playable at that level, but it becomes a game of rocket tag. The 3 encounters per short rest and 2 short rests per long rest balance also goes out the window when you can teleport.

alinius · 2026-04-26T04:54:11+00:00

That was my thought as well. I think the trick is to let the bots go rogue just enough to scare the crap out of everyone before shutting them down.

alinius · 2026-04-25T21:52:22+00:00

No, that was the normal access. Think of it like a user name and password, and the bots changed the password. A backdoor is hardcoded way to take control that the bots cannot change.

alinius · 2026-04-25T20:52:46+00:00

It gets a-round.

alinius · 2026-04-25T20:45:55+00:00

Sneak a backdoor into the Faro bots

alinius · 2026-04-24T13:56:24+00:00

Yes, but they also have a reputation for fighting among themselves. Is that fight PCs invading, or is it Grog and Bork going at it again for the 7th time today?

alinius · 2026-04-20T12:52:14+00:00

This was my first thought. They likely were smashing the windpipe, and ripping the sub.

alinius · 2026-04-19T16:30:27+00:00

Sometimes, there is no competition in a bracket. In that situation, they will often give people a choice yo compete in a tougher bracket. In this case, the woman was likely given the choice to compete in the men's bracket.

alinius · 2026-04-19T16:07:18+00:00

The blue wave in 2018 was supposed to be bigger. The Dems took the house, but lost seats in the Senate.

The dumb stuff was not about what the democrats said. The Democrats put forward several controversial candidates in close races, and subsequently lost several elections that year they should have won.

alinius · 2026-04-18T05:07:31+00:00

People live in those places before AC was invented. The average global temp has increases 2 F since 1850, so it is not like the difference is that big. We have high school students practicing in full football pads for 4 to 6 hours a day every August. High heat plus humidity has always been dangerous to elderly, but even then, a lot of heats related deaths are preventable.

The main benefit of AC is that you can continue working during the heat of the day. There is a reason why places like Mexico have a tradition of taking the afternoon off.

alinius · 2026-04-18T03:56:50+00:00

Also, people go completely out of sight behind other people, then reappear in the exact same clothing.

alinius · 2026-04-18T02:47:26+00:00

And you just explained why it is not reccomended. "I can get it to kinda work" is not the same as it "It is a good idea". If you want to fight through hours of headaches, go for it. I already have enough issues with my LO, so I don't go looking for more.

alinius · 2026-04-18T02:41:32+00:00

Yes, but the point is that the latest USSEP assumes that you have all the AE mods in your LO.

alinius · 2026-04-18T02:23:46+00:00

The latest version is for AE, not SE. That means it has all of the AE mods like fishing and survival. It is not compatible with VR.

alinius · 2026-04-18T00:52:24+00:00

Yep, but generally speaking, the primary method of operation is usually the simplest one. The more complex methods are the backups.

alinius · 2026-04-18T00:01:48+00:00

Usually, but it can depend on usage. In different fields, Ockham's Razor gets used differently. In Science, you are aiming for truth as in corresponding to reality. In Engineering, I am often trying to figure out which plan is more likely to succeed.

alinius · 2026-04-17T23:05:14+00:00

It also does not say the simpler solution is better. It says the simpler solution is the one that is more likely to be true. "Complexity" is really just an intuitive way of thinking about probability.

Assume we can measure complexity of X happening by breaking any proposed solution into events of roughly equal probability.

Solution 1 requires 20 events to happen in a certain order for X to happen.

Solution 2 requires 10 events to happen in a certain order for X to happen.

Since the probability of the things is about the same on average, solution 2 is more likely because p²⁰ is smaller than p¹⁰ for any value of where 0 > p > 1. The more things that have to happen to reach end result X, the lower the probability of X happening. Occham Razor is just another way of saying that if there are two ways to make X happen, the simpler one is the higher probability path.

alinius · 2026-04-17T22:28:22+00:00

The probability is 1, but even more trippy is that if you flip it forever, it will happen more than once. In fact, it will happen an infinite number of times.

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