Off-Topic Thread vol. 2

Oh stop. If that’s your metric, then you might as well declare that all capsuleers everywhere are cowards–including yourself. Because even among those of us who view our Empyrean lives as sequential rather than continuous, death is cheap and most of our iterations are disposable.

But that theory is stupidly reductive and you know it. You know damn well there are more forms of bravery than just risking physical life. Anything that has recognized value can be risked; and the higher the risk, the more courage is required to take it. You know this damn well, too: your reputation, your social ties and social standing, your membership in your tribe–these are all things quite divorced from the health and integrity of your physical body; and in no small number of instances, rational human beings have elected to end their own lives permanently after risking, and losing, each of those inimitable, intangible things.

Quit your ■■■■■■■■. You’re approaching Vilyian levels of b.s. yourself. Here, let me help you out: the better response you should have given goes like this: “Okay Sahara, you might have a point about the coward thing. But I still have issues with . . . [etc.].”

Speaking of cowardice: hasn’t anyone ever explained to you that admission of error is NOT a sign of weakness, but in fact the opposite? You should try it sometime, instead of digging yourself deeper and deeper into increasingly nonsensical arguments trying to prove yourself right all of the time.

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Is it? It doesn’t feel cheap to me.

You’re the one who cited his activities on the battlefield, not me.

Yup. Which says nothing about Mikal, as he hasn’t. In fact, that exact thing: reputation, social standing… that’s where he’s fled from challenge. Backed his arse down real quick when Sarum turned up, didn’t he? And when he can’t win the point quickly, he flees the discussions while making all sorts of excuses. So no, I don’t think that example supports your cause, at all.

Except that I don’t think you do. I think you’re wrong.

I admit I’m wrong all the time… when I think I am. And people from all four of the empires have seen me do it, including your pal Alterari. But I’m not wrong this time.

Well there’s that old phrase: “Death is cheap, but T2 ammunition is expensive”

Maybe, but at least they won’t go out taking orders from Pitts.

Over the years, a bunch of people whose names i don’t remember have told me that PIE is about to fade away and become irrelevant.

And yet PIE is still here, and they are not.

Funny, eh ?

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I assure you, sir, that my vocal chords and lungs, like the rest of my anatomy, are as natural as God saw fit to grant me.

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I wonder if he should take his own advice…

Says the one who takes orders from DBRB.

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Are you sure they’re not actually “requests” from DBRB? According to some, this is apparently super nuanced.

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Boat’s in TK Corp? News to me.

And even before I left GSF, Vlad, no, I did not take orders from DBRB. Rank, privileges, the fact that he hasn’t been a Director since the Fountain war of YC 115 or so…

Really, you gotta keep up on current events if you want a decent burn here, man.

Come now, Gaven. You’ve known Aldrith for years. He’s not a man who holds grudges.

So I post in every thread, you’ll stop completely? Hmmmm. :thinking:

While I appreciate the ironic humor you’re going for there, I’m gonna be my normal pedantic self:

A fortification can be any degree of fortification. A simple earthwerks trench is a fortification. ‘Bastion’ is quite definitely the stronger defensive descriptor.

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And amusingly enough, a citadel is a considerably higher class of fortification than a bastion.

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But is a keep truly stronger than a fort?

Depends on the fort, really, that covers a wide range. And the era of weaponry. True Keeps haven’t been all that effective since the early Udorian wars, though they can still make lovely ornamental disguises for actual fortifications with bunker entrances and the like.

Well, yes. A ‘fort’ (rather than ‘fortress’) in common parlance tends to be a fairly low-grade emplacement, a kind of FOB really, while a ‘keep’ generally denotes the final, central defensive redoubt within a larger defensive complex. Classically, a siege would need to proceed through…

image

Sadly, that lovely central tower makes an excellent target for even ancient artillery.

As for the Bastions, those aren’t even labeled on your diagram there, though I think I see at least two.

It does, but it’s also a perfect point for a central shielding system to cover the entire emplacement.

The history of warfare, after all, is one of see-sawing advantage to attacker or defender.

Edit: also, Utari, in case it’s not clear, that inner/outer curtain wall arrangement would probably continue all the way around if that weren’t built into the side of a mountain. Taking that on foot means fighting uphill the entire way, which is its own sort of fortification. Fatigue can be a powerful ally (or foe) as PAPI once again learned all too well this past summer.

(Honestly, after this long, how does anyone not understand that Goonswarm’s modus operandi in warfare is all about being willing to suffer through more of the tedious fedo feces that is full-scale capsuleer warfare for longer than anyone else in theatre will? If you’re not prepared to keep on fighting until everyone you know has long-since died of old age, don’t start a war against Goons.)

I assure you I’m educated enough to know curtain walls would typically encircle the central keep if it’s not connected to one or more of them, or other geographical features being incorporated, even with my educational background having been astrogeology and not military history.

I am glad you’ve played to form and made a lot of hay from my admittedly terrible joke. It brought a much needed chuckle.