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Night The future of warfare in UC. from Jaburo Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Drift compatible
The future of warfare in UC.
#276: Sep 4th 2014 at 7:36:15 PM

Well, it depends on a few factors; for example, why the frigates assumed in the first place they would be able to challenge a vessel that likely outmasses all of them put together. Once they've been outmaneuvered, why didn't they immediately try to break out of the fight? Space combat is a vectors game, and if they're bad then you're just out of luck.

And there's a problem with your basic premise about how they're outmaneuvered. If they're equipped with spinal main weapons, then there is no loss of maneuverability by flying retrograde; they either have enough time between shots to reorient and burn then come back on target, or they do not and would never have had a maneuvering advantage in the first place because their noses are frozen on target to keep shooting.

Nous restons ici.
demarquis Who Am I? from Hell, USA Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: Buried in snow, waiting for spring
Who Am I?
#277: Sep 4th 2014 at 9:45:45 PM

An even better question than that is why they just sat there and let the cruiser take the initiative? Since there are more of them, they should have spread out a little and tried to take the cruiser from a variety of angles (that way it couldn't fire at all of them at the same time without re-orienting itself).

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."
amitakartok Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: Don't hug me; I'm scared
#278: Sep 5th 2014 at 3:23:18 AM

Well, it depends on a few factors; for example, why the frigates assumed in the first place they would be able to challenge a vessel that likely outmasses all of them put together.

They have numerical superiority.

Once they've been outmaneuvered, why didn't they immediately try to break out of the fight?

The cruiser is faster and can run them down.

If they're equipped with spinal main weapons, then there is no loss of maneuverability by flying retrograde; they either have enough time between shots to reorient and burn then come back on target, or they do not and would never have had a maneuvering advantage in the first place because their noses are frozen on target to keep shooting.

The frigates are primarily armed with anti-fighter and anti-missile flak turrets. That 90mm coilgun is the only weapon they have that even has a chance of hurting the cruiser.

An even better question than that is why they just sat there and let the cruiser take the initiative?

1. The cruiser has enough armor to shrug off coilgun fire from a fair distance. It's useless to fire from a thousand kilometers away if the shots are just going to bounce off; you're just wasting ammo.

2. They were acting as radar pickets for the railgun battery on the ground, kinda like an AWACS. The battery has the range to hit targets in low orbit but its own fire control system is designed to find targets via their reentry heat; with auxiliary fire control radar support, it can hit anything that comes above the horizon.

I realize that it's inefficient to post pickets in low orbit instead of geostationary; it's a noted flaw in the enemy's defensive doctrine and one that already bit them in the ass once when a ground installation a picket fleet was supposed to be defending got blitzkrieged into the ground between the picket's orbit taking them beneath the horizon and coming back around the planet, since the picket couldn't simply reverse their course.

That's what the cruiser above was designed for: long-duration missions behind enemy lines, raiding and sabotaging their rear and just generally being a goddamn pain in the ass. Especially since the enemy has no idea how the hell is it bypassing the Portal Network to suddenly appear anywere. Or rather, they know of one way but they also know for a fact that the cruiser is not using that one.

Since there are more of them, they should have spread out a little and tried to take the cruiser from a variety of angles (that way it couldn't fire at all of them at the same time without re-orienting itself).

Good idea but the cruiser has turreted main weapons and maneuvers almost as well as the frigates. Scattering to give everyone more room for evasive maneuvers is a good idea but you have to watch your orbital speed or you'll drift away. That is why battle in low orbit is a bitch.

edited 5th Sep '14 3:23:33 AM by amitakartok

Night The future of warfare in UC. from Jaburo Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Drift compatible
The future of warfare in UC.
#279: Sep 5th 2014 at 11:19:12 AM

They have numerical superiority.

Not even close to an adequate answer. They're badly outclassed in both armor and firepower from what you're saying, and there is no reason to believe that their numerical superiority actually counts for anything in this situation. Five chances of 1% is still not an acceptable chance for success. Even if you assume your numbers multiple your chances by two, that's still only a ten percent chance for success; still not acceptable.

The frigates are primarily armed with anti-fighter and anti-missile flak turrets. That 90mm coilgun is the only weapon they have that even has a chance of hurting the cruiser.

Also not an answer; they still aren't outmaneuvered so much as they are frozen on vector by the nature of their weapons. That they have other weapons isn't really a matter of interest because those weapons don't matter. If their only weapon capable of harming the cruiser is spinal than there's no reason to believe this engagement would have gone any differently had they been facing prograde; they can't really engage in any kind of evasive maneuever either way. (Prograde speeding up will raise their orbital height but it isn't exactly fulfilling the unpredictable requirement of an evasive maneuver.)

As an aside, the detection range for this ground-based battery is sort of ridiculous (you can detect reentry heat with a personal IR goggle system, a fixed installation has presumably better gear and the cruiser should be detectable with even a rudimentary IR telescope during the day; at night it would be more than large enough to detect with the naked eye) to spot , and so is the idea the frigates couldn't have escaped the moment they knew the fight had gone against them, since they actually escape at the end. (Though why entering the atmosphere counts as escape is another question on its own; if the cruiser has its own batteries similar to theirs they are still in reach for at least the first fifteen thousand feet of entry.)

Nous restons ici.
sabresedge Show an affirming flame from a defense-in-depth Since: Oct, 2010
Show an affirming flame
#280: Sep 5th 2014 at 11:29:06 AM

Remember, only the weapons that can harm the enemy matter. This is the reason battleship development followed the logical route of maximizing the number of main guns; secondaries are useful only in an auxiliary role, and useless against another battleship. For a similar reason tanks focused on maximizing the power of the main gun, instead of piling on smaller autocannons, with the exception of a few vehicles that were never designed to fight other tanks.

A similar logic seems to apply here: the only weapons the frigates have that are capable of harming their target are woefully inadequate compared to what the cruiser can bring against them. That tells me that they're not seeking a straightforward engagement.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.
demarquis Who Am I? from Hell, USA Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: Buried in snow, waiting for spring
Who Am I?
#281: Sep 5th 2014 at 2:55:41 PM

Given your description, then as soon as the enemy cruiser's course was known, the pickets should have run for it, since the ground-based batteries could take it from there.

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."
amitakartok Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: Don't hug me; I'm scared
#282: Sep 5th 2014 at 5:32:06 PM

Um... yeeeaaaah, looks like I haven't thought this through.

How about the mook vessels being destroyers (325 meters) instead? Those do stand a fair chance and would be more likely to stay and fight - especially since they have superior range and thus can draw first blood. Armament of one destroyer consists of one spinal 155mm coilgun, 4 gun turrets and 300 VLS tubes with cruise missiles - but these VLS tubes also present a secondary explosion hazard if the ship gets broadsided while the launchers' armored cover is retracted, hence why it turns to face its opponent.

And yes, I know the frigate design sucks; it's simply not designed to fight anything bigger than itself. What it was designed for is to act as an AA & CIWS platform as part of a carrier group and in that role, it performs pretty well. Even the destroyers' broadside vulnerability is mitigated by the fact that when part of a carrier group, they take cover behind the battlecruisers (968 meters, largest non-unique ship in the setting) and take potshots from there. Those were designed to be shot at and withstand punishment while physically shielding squishier ships; they're meat shields, NOT command and control flagships. That role is handled by the carrier (743 meters) chilling out in the center of the formation, between the destroyersnote .

Flanker66 Dreams of Revenge from 30,000 feet and climbing Since: Nov, 2009 Relationship Status: You can be my wingman any time
Dreams of Revenge
#283: Oct 4th 2014 at 1:59:44 PM

Apropos of the current topic, perhaps this link would be of use? However, it's important to note that it assumes a hard sci-fi setting, so if you're doing something on the softer end of the scale its utility may be limited.

Locking you up on radar since '09
demarquis Who Am I? from Hell, USA Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: Buried in snow, waiting for spring
Who Am I?
#284: Oct 5th 2014 at 12:44:16 PM

@Ami: That's fine, but it takes me back to my original post- your destroyers have more options than just sitting there waiting for the cruiser to jump them, and they ought to have taken advantage of some of them.

@Flanker: Although I'm a fan of Atomic Rockets in general, I dont really like that page. They spend half the text describing on-board command centers and dont get to actual space tactics and strategy until about 4/5's of the way through. We are in desperate need of a thorough discussion of space combat.

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."
KSPAM PARTY PARTY PARTY I WANNA HAVE A PARTY from PARTY ROCK Since: Oct, 2009 Relationship Status: Giving love a bad name
PARTY PARTY PARTY I WANNA HAVE A PARTY
#285: Oct 5th 2014 at 1:06:39 PM

Anyone wanna give me their opinion on one of the fight scenes from my webnovel (link in my sig)?

“Well? What are you waiting for, dipshits? A fucking flag? Kill their dumb asses!”

Mickey’s group was nothing to be underestimated. I’d been taking an inventory of each member since the beginning of the meeting. It was true what he’d said about the Broncos becoming an equal opportunity employer. I counted numerous demihuman species in their ranks. They had the usual mainstays like vamps and lycans, but I counted a few incubi too, and even a doppelgänger. That and at least a few of the humans in the crowd had to be either mages or mediums passing off as normies. It was a tough group.

But it wasn’t going to do them any good.

The following clash was too fast for my eyes to follow. A blur closed the gap between it and Nayeli before I’d even finished processing it had moved. A vamp no doubt, or a lycan maybe, head of the charge. Nayeli saw him coming, but she didn’t move, at least not that I saw. Instead, she just tapped her foot and a large chunk of topsoil and rock righted itself in response, changing the landscape and launching the vamp sky-high like a rock in a catapult, the momentum of his supersonic movement completely cancelled. He’d lost any ability to right himself or do anything besides fall straight to the ground, where Nayeli would be waiting for him.

Taking a stance just like the great Bambino, Nayeli gripped her axe and swung, catching the poor mook with the blunt of the chop-stick. Home run.

I winced as I watched the guy go flying through at least a few different brick walls on a window tour of downtown’s best apartment blocks and office buildings. Well, at least he’d have an interesting story to tell now that he could claim to be the world’s first human baseball. Can’t say you’ve met many people who know what that feels like, can you?

Mickey seemed equally impressed, but not discouraged. Quite the opposite, actually. He looked riveted, jumping up and down inside like a kid who couldn’t wait to open his present on Christmas morning.

“Oh-h-hh-hh-ho yeahhhh…” He jammed his hand into his pocket and came out with a rusty, taped-together switchblade. He licked it. “I am going to enjoy fucking you raw, sister.”

“Heh. Good luck with that…” I said under my breath. I couldn’t manage much more than that because at this point, I could barely breathe. Unbelievable. Marq didn’t just have a dragon and a vamp waiting in the wings. He’d recruited a fucking demigod into the family. Mickey Donahue was a fucking dead man.

It didn’t take long for things to devolve into a full-on brawl in a messy sea of faces devoid of distinctions like “Pescatorre” and “Bronco”. It was just carnage. Nayeli tore through anyone who dared try their luck again like the vamp did, either pounding them so hard they actually sunk into the damn ground (or whatever tree or rock was nearest to them) or just splitting them wide open with her axe. The latter was actually a merciful death. The former was not.

I even got to get a good look at what the big guy could do firsthand. Useful for next time, if we ever met again. I wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be, but he was using some kind of Eastern martial art, and absolutely manhandling anyone who got in his way. He managed to take down a lycan in a chokehold and snap its neck so hard its head fell clean off. Then he threw that at the next guy hard enough to make his internal organs decorate the tree behind him like streamers.

If there were any two people on this battlefield with any real presence, it was those two. Compared to the amount of broken and dead bodies they were leaving in their wake, everyone else’s little squabbles might as well have been so much window dressing for the main attraction. Mickey had brought more than enough tanks to the fight, but I wondered just how many of those guys were gonna regenerate from this.

I got snapped out of my role on the sidelines by an incubus bum-rushing me with a pigsticker. I twisted my body out of the way just in time for the knife to barely miss me, then I pulled out my own. The obsidian blade cut as clean as adamantine, slicing right through his steel kitchen knife. I momentarily considered disarming him further.

Nah, he’s gonna need that limb when he wakes up.

I twirled the knife around and jammed it deep into his abdomen below the lungs, pushing my fingers into the wound a bit. I was careful not to kill him or inflict any mortal injuries, but I exacerbated the damage just enough that he wouldn’t get up. I kicked him off the blade, and the black shiv slid right out with no resistance. I took a minute to admire Marq’s craftmanship. Maybe I should’ve taken a finger or two off his knife hand. The cut’d be clean enough they could stitch ‘em right back on at the hospital.

Unfortunately it looked like I’d have time to try that theory out. An orc, a human, and a cynocephaly were boxing me in.

I've got new mythological machinery, and very handsome supernatural scenery. Goodfae: a mafia web serial
dRoy Professional Writer & Amateur Scholar from Most likely from my study Since: May, 2010 Relationship Status: I'm just high on the world
Professional Writer & Amateur Scholar
#286: Oct 14th 2014 at 2:34:30 PM

Okay, so this is a hand-to-hand combat I just wrote. It was primarily going for The Bourne Series and Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes movies feel, and I would like to know how well I described it.

With that she went to the restroom, and just as the restroom's door closed, the stalkers walked right inside. Schiefer took a seat and took out two magazines he purchased earlier. Under the desk, he rolled them into a very tight roll and put it on his laps. He maintained the relaxed smile, which appeared more genuine than during the conversation with the lady, as he soon found himself surrounded by them.

"Why, good afternoon, gentleman. Would you care to join us for a nice cup of coffee?"

Schiefer then glanced at the stalkers, from the closest and furthest from him.

176 cm, knife inside his jacket, lefthanded. 185cm, a drunk, bloated liver, brass knuckles inside his pocket. 180cm, insomniac, weak knees, a gun inside his jacket. 174cm, drug addict, a knife in his left pocket. Estimated neutralization time: 30 seconds.

They all looked at him in a look that ranged from amused to contemptuous, and the stalker nearest to him reached and grabbed him by the collar with his left hand.

"I assume you are a tea person, then?"

The smile didn't leave his face, as his left hand twisted the stalker's wrist and yanked it violently. With his right hand, Schiefer grabbed the back of the stalker's head and slammed his face hard on the edge of the table.

Before the stalker could even pass out, Schiefer got up and pushed the body towards the stalker with a gun. Then stalker with brass knuckles throw a powerful punch at him. Schiefer dodged the punch with a side step and lunged at him, and threw all his momentum into a punch to the stalker's liver. The pain exploded throughout the stalker's body so fast that he couldn't even scream, and twitched as he collapsed on the floor.

The third stalker, now with the body of an unconscious stalker out of his sight, pulled out a gun. Schiefer kicked in his right knees and caused him to stumble. The operator picked up the roll of magazine and smacked the pistol away from him. Following up, he jabbed stalker with the tip of the magazine roll under his armpit, and caused the man to clutch under his shoulder in pain. This exposed his shoulder and neck, and Schiefer smacked the back of his neck with the magazine roll and knocked him out.

Now the last one, who just happened to be the drug addict that he ran into earlier. Unfortunately he already got out the knife, which was far more dangerous than gun in close quarter combat. Schiefer took a side stance, keeping his arms close to his body, his unarmed left hand positioned to guard his neck and face.

On one hand, if a combat is too descriptive it wouldn't have that quick and strong feeling. On the other hand, I want the reader to be able to picture the fighting, you know?

I have a feeling that I'm doing something wrong here, but I can't quite picture how.

Also, it would be nice if those of you who are well-versed in martial arts tell me if the moves I described in the passage makes sense. -yes Aprilla, I'm calling you nudge nudge-

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.
demarquis Who Am I? from Hell, USA Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: Buried in snow, waiting for spring
Who Am I?
#287: Oct 14th 2014 at 5:53:12 PM

He talks to himself too much. Just fight.

Stylistically, I tend not to like stories where the protagonist takes on half a dozen mooks and beats them without breaking a sweat. The reader wont engage with this scene on an emotional level unless Schiefer feels some level of fear and anxiety. The mooks should almost win, the protag saving himself by the barest margin. That's far more exciting to read than the standard "yet another curb stomp".

Also, a gun is by far more dangerous than a knife in essentially any situation. Knives are actually not that effective.

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."
Aprilla Since: Aug, 2010
#288: Oct 14th 2014 at 9:10:01 PM

Try to make this scene more organic and integrated. I'm not feeling the bones cracking, cries of agony, furniture and other objects being disturbed (like a ruffled carpet or the coffee table making a creaking sound when it gets shoved aside) and other features that really should immerse me in the action. It feels like you have a disjointed description of the action, somewhat literally. The way the impacts and techniques are described feel like a bunch of appendages being tossed about rather than a person defending himself against multiple assailants. Look around for some examples of fight scenes in successful novels and read them aloud. Act them out if you have to. Make it flow more like a frantic emergency with mortal danger rather than a casual sparring match. The scene has too much of a police report feel to it. Does that make sense?

Fighting techniques can be a bit difficult to write on paper. Describing a figure-four leg lock or a hook punch to the jaw sounds easy enough when you do it in real life, but when you try to write in a scene, it can end up sounding like surgery rather than a fight.

Look for adjectives, metaphors and pithy phrases that really punctuate the danger, hostility and the clashing of bones, connective tissues, muscle, metal, wood and how your characters react to it. You've done a lot of judo. You know what it's like to have someone on top of you. They knock the wind out of you like a cinder block was dropped on your chest. Your head feels like it's going to explode when the guy behind you has you in a rear naked choke hold or a lapel grab. You try to remain calm. You tuck your hand and your chin against the pit of your arm like you're diving into your mother's breasts, retreating from the adult, mortal fear of having your neck broken or having your brain starved of oxygen. A sudden rush of energy flows into your arm and your hips and you yank his thumb downward, prying his hand from your shoulder. It breaks like a toothpick and his might and determination turn ice cold, shrinking and dissipating. He jerks away as you roll back onto your feet thoughtlessly. You're still alive. And so is he. You're not done yet. Collect yourself. Check your stance. Get that gun on the floor before he does because he's not going to wait for you. It's only a few feet away but it feels like it's on the other side of the galaxy.

I'm just kind of rolling with that description above, and it needs to be abbreviated a lot more. You and I both know how to grapple. We know the psychology behind it. We know what it feels like because we've had training. But you've got to modulate and abbreviate that brutal sensation into a literary burst of energy that makes your reader reflexively rubs his neck and wiggle his thumb and other joints as he hurries to the next paragraph to see if the hero is going to be strangled to death or shot.

edited 14th Oct '14 9:45:39 PM by Aprilla

drunkscriblerian Street Writing Man from Castle Geekhaven Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: In season
Street Writing Man
#289: Oct 14th 2014 at 9:17:30 PM

[up]I have a recipe for writing scenes of violence. I have found it to be reliably effective at getting the attention of my audience.

  • 1: Start with equal parts Bloodshed, Brutality and Brevity.
  • 2: Toss ingredients into blender until frothy, remove any unnecessary soliloquies that float to the top.
  • 3: Season to taste with sprinkles of clumsy randomness.
  • 4: Serve at a high temperature next to an extra-large side order of unpleasant consequences.

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~
Aprilla Since: Aug, 2010
#290: Oct 14th 2014 at 9:25:21 PM

This is more of a personal favorite of mine rather than a hard and fast rule, but I'm a stickler for broken bones and injuries that need time to heal. Those injuries become all the more critical to the reader when he or she realizes that the hero's assailants aren't going to wait for those injuries to subside.

drunkscriblerian Street Writing Man from Castle Geekhaven Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: In season
Street Writing Man
#291: Oct 14th 2014 at 10:27:39 PM

@Aprilla: You would probably enjoy my novels then. My protagonist reliably ends up in the hospital/needing medical attention in general when violence comes her way. :D

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~
dRoy Professional Writer & Amateur Scholar from Most likely from my study Since: May, 2010 Relationship Status: I'm just high on the world
Professional Writer & Amateur Scholar
#292: Oct 15th 2014 at 1:38:48 PM

Thanks for the criticism, folks.

Hmm...darn, writing down a martial arts fight is...well, just about as hard as I expected. XP

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.
Aprilla Since: Aug, 2010
#293: Oct 15th 2014 at 2:25:16 PM

[up] Thanks for posting it. It helps to critique other people's work partly because you might catch yourself asking "wait, am I doing this as well?" I've really had to learn how to trim my fight scenes. Something that fights and sex have in common is that you have to trust your audience to picture what's going on, but don't be so clinical and rigid with the details. You don't want to be too flowery either.

[up][up] One of my favorite post-fight first aid scenes in a movie is when Anton Chigurh and Llewelyn Moss of No Country For Old Men have to treat their gunshot wounds. Moss in particular makes it a point to get out of the hospital as soon as possible. It's genuinely frightening and medically accurate.

edited 15th Oct '14 2:26:35 PM by Aprilla

Night The future of warfare in UC. from Jaburo Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Drift compatible
The future of warfare in UC.
#294: Oct 16th 2014 at 5:10:40 AM

[up][up]Okay, this is going to sound weird, but track down one of the old Buffy the Vampire Slayer novels. The short ones. They tend to do it well. Less is more. Particularly unless you're dealing with a main character you really don't have to describe results so much unless somebody goes down.

edited 16th Oct '14 5:14:39 AM by Night

Nous restons ici.
Aprilla Since: Aug, 2010
#295: Oct 16th 2014 at 10:03:38 AM

Also, avoid the "fighting in the dark void of nothingness" error. Indicate any environmental disturbances during the fight. Give your audience an idea of where the characters are when they fight.

dRoy Professional Writer & Amateur Scholar from Most likely from my study Since: May, 2010 Relationship Status: I'm just high on the world
Professional Writer & Amateur Scholar
#296: Oct 17th 2014 at 9:58:51 AM

At least with the scene I posted above, that wouldn't be a problem, because before that scene was two characters talking in (what I think is) fairly detailedly described cafe.

Yeah, I don't like that trope, so I would do my best to avoid it if I can help it. XD

Say, how would one translate this kind of fight scene into text?

edited 17th Oct '14 10:33:58 AM by dRoy

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.
demarquis Who Am I? from Hell, USA Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: Buried in snow, waiting for spring
Who Am I?
#297: Oct 17th 2014 at 11:29:31 AM

Were it me, I would make the woman the point of view character. I would describe the scene as a very confusing sequence of visual and auditory impressions. I would go for a rapid, almost staccato narrative style, to reflect the nature of the action. And throw in a claustrophobic sense of closeness.

"She heard the glass shatter before she saw the body come in through the window. He rolled out of sight, but she heard the silenced gun fire, once, twice, more times. She flattened herself by the plaster wall, peered fearfully around the corner. Two men, grappling in the far dark corner of the room.

It was Bourne.

Thuds of fists on flesh, grunts of pain. Both men jabbing for an opening, flailing to ward off blows. Suddenly Bourne was flung violently against the wall, shelves collapsing and objects falling to clatter on the floor around them. The other man's back was turned to her, and almost without thinking, she flung herself forward and jammed her finger in his mouth, yanking his head back. She saw the elbow just as it struck her face, suddenly she was on her back, staring blearily at the ceiling and the dueling men circled around each other and her..."

That sort of thing.

edited 17th Oct '14 11:30:17 AM by demarquis

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."
Flanker66 Dreams of Revenge from 30,000 feet and climbing Since: Nov, 2009 Relationship Status: You can be my wingman any time
Dreams of Revenge
#298: Nov 2nd 2014 at 2:19:59 PM

Actually, that makes me think - can someone offer me some good pointers for writing punchy, dynamic fight scenes (I'm thinking specifically firefights)? I think I'm okay with describing things in detail, but that sort of indulgence doesn't really work for fight scenes...

Locking you up on radar since '09
dRoy Professional Writer & Amateur Scholar from Most likely from my study Since: May, 2010 Relationship Status: I'm just high on the world
Professional Writer & Amateur Scholar
#299: Nov 2nd 2014 at 4:52:05 PM

[up][up] Hey, that could work.

[up] You know, I would like to know that myself.

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.
SabresEdge Show an affirming flame from a defense-in-depth Since: Oct, 2010
Show an affirming flame
#300: Nov 2nd 2014 at 5:41:21 PM

Hmm. That's a pretty tough topic. I'll see what I could put together over a period of time. The most general advice I can offer is "see how the professionals do it" and go from there.

(Proposed effortpost on combat motivation may be delayed nearly indefinitely.)

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

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