============ The Ogre Digest, Mar 07 (Last: Mar 02) ============= ===== Ogre: first game played in Malta? From: Stephan Beal ===== Mark II secondaries From: Sethkimmel@aol.com ===== Torpedos at GEVs From: "Blount, Stephen" ===== Nukes Back In Style From: "William Spencer" ===== New GEV/Ogre scenario From: Sumnerd1234@cs.com ===== "OGRE Digest" From: Sumnerd1234@cs.com ===== OGRE computer games From: Michael Powers ------------------------------ From: Stephan Beal Subject: Ogre: first game played in Malta? I would like to tentatively claim the first Ogre game played in Malta,=20 on Feb 19, 2001. At least quite possibly the first one played with the=20 Ogre Battlefields supplement. http://stephan.rootonfire.org/malta/Ogre.malta.jpg (approx 50k) There's my big Norwegian buddy, Hakon, reading about the Maltese sites=20 we could run over with our Ogres. Note the nice Ogre t-shirt he's=20 wearing. The heavy Maltese coins were great for weighing down the=20 corners of the map. Okay, the picture doesn't _prove_ we were in Malta, but we were. If you=20 don't believe me, just ask me ;). Info on Malta: http://www.malta.co.uk ----- Stephan Beal ----- [Obviously, I can't let an independent island nation be represented as a corporation of a foreign empire, so here's the offical goverment site: http://www.magnet.mt/ Actually, the Maltese islands are just small enough to make a reasonable GEV map, so what if the Combine (with the British urging attacks to "reclaim her majesty's rightful possessions, er attack the soft underbelly of fortress Europe") launched a raid on Malta with a Dingus Mark-IV, backed by a dozen GEVs? -HJC] ------------------------------ From: Sethkimmel@aol.com Subject: Mark II secondaries << [In GURPS OGRE, the Mark II has exactly the same armor on all of its weapons as any other OGRE. Its main hull is no better armored than a Mark I and this is shown in The OGRE Book (2nd Ed) on page 101. -HJC] >> This is all well and good, but what defense value should I use for the beastie's secondaries when I play with Mark II's? For that matter, what would the armor equivalent's rule rate them as? ----- [O2K (Fifth edition OGRE/GEV combined set) lists the Mark II as having D2 secondaries, and gives a "trade" value of 5/8ths of a Mark III. In OGRE Minis, the Mark II has D3 secondaries and is valued at half of a Mark III. -HJC] ------------------------------ From: "Blount, Stephen" Subject: Torpedos at GEVs >>The Soviets developed a rocket powered torpedo that uses part of the exhaust gas to form a friction reducing bubble around the torpedo. Its projected top speed was under Mach 1. Only a wing in ground effect vehicle (another Soviet invention) could hope to out-run it. -- TAZ ----- >>[And the thing was so noisy that it couldn't track anything underwater and so you aim it where you think the target will be, which is useless against high agility hovercraft. -HJC] ...unless it's not an acoustic homing torpedo. Any number of technologies either exist or are in the works that could potentially guide a supercavitating torp. Plus, there's no need for a really energetic torpedo to stay submerged--effectively merging the missile and torpedo categories. The 300-knot torpedo seems a good deal more feasible than the blue-water marine battlesuit. --Stephen Blount keiyuri@aol.com sblount@intiso.com ----- [If the torps don't work underwater, how can they be used against other subs? I'll probably put some sort of missile weapons on the attack subs, but the advantage of torpedoes is that they are very difficult to shoot down because they stay underwater. -HJC] ------------------------------ From: "William Spencer" Subject: Nukes Back In Style Just spotted this in my dad's copy of "In These Times" (March 19, 2000) "Strategic Deception", Editorial by G. Pascal Zachary: "Doomsday scenarios are back. The most credible has Pakistan unleashing a pre-emptive strike against India. Or perhaps North Korea, a suspected nuclear power, attacks South Korea. Or maybe China hits Taiwan with a few nukes before a land invasion. After a decade of civil wars in Africa, the Balkans and Russia, as well as the spread of the AIDS pandemic, the world's most serious threats seem decidedly non-nuclear. Not so. 'Nuclear weapons have become usable again,' says Sergei Karaganov, chairman of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, a Moscow think tank that's close to the Russian government. Anxieties about nuclear weapons are rising, fed by the new Bush administration's avowed interest in building a missile 'shield.' Defense experts fear this could spawn a new arms race -- or worse, launch an actual nuclear attack." The article goes on about the missile defense debate - an important can of worms, but a bit off-topic for this list - but I figured that Sergei's little quote above just speaks to something in the Ogre mentality. Bumper sticker: "_My_ outfit never goes out of style." -- "...between the Yellow Pages and e-Bay, it's a wonder I have to leave the house!" - Sluggy Freelance (www.sluggy.com) William Spencer williamspencer@hotmail.com ------------------------------ From: Sumnerd1234@cs.com Subject: New GEV/Ogre scenario Here's a new GEV scenario I came up with after picking up a copy of Ogre Battlefields. I've been playing around with this one for about a week. Hopefully its balanced so no player has the advantage over the other. I'd like for everyone to look it over and try play testing it, and give me a little feed back to fine-tune it. ----- [Posted. -HJC] ------------------------------ From: Sumnerd1234@cs.com Subject: "OGRE Digest" Henry, It seems as though SJG has begun calling this the "OGRE Digest." Any chance of some of the better stuff being collected into a print form? ----- [I'm working on adding search to my section, for the moment try this: http://www.google.com/search?lr=&safe=off&q=+site:www.io.com+hcobb/gev+search -HJC] ------------------------------ From: Michael Powers Subject: OGRE computer games With the recent bounty of OGRE products, are we going to see a new computer-based OGRE game? I'd think that it wouldn't be too difficult to code up an applet that would let you play online, in fact. Heck, maybe this could be an SJG website feature...the freeware version lets you play the basic scenario as the defending player, while the regular version (available with a Pyramid subscription only) gives you more options, including multiplayer via PBEM, hotseat, or online play. Also, you could probably turn Battlezone II into an OGRE game without much work; that might be fun, too. Heck, I'm coming up with all kinds of ideas for that! Infantry would need some work to make them faster; maybe fooling around with the jetpack that's already there would help. The issue of AP guns could be dealt with by cranking up the armor on everything so that the existing 'machine gun' type weapons wouldn't be a serious threat except over long periods of time (infantry don't have any armor worth note in BZ2.) The engine already provides effects like spillover fire. All you'd need to do would be to figure out how to make the Ogre work, and you'd be all set. -- Michael Powers Graduate Student, GWU/JIAFS NASA Langley Research Center (757) 864 4457 -- m.t.powers@larc.nasa.gov ----- [Here's my weekly ad. SJGames is running an ogre scenario contest. Strange that they didn't submit it themselves. http://woundsunlimited.com/contests/ogre.html Now, if you'll excuse me, the Comedy Channel is showing Battlebots on trampolines, sponsored by those Army of Nuns commercials featuring Jamie Farr. -HJC ;-] Henry J. Cobb ogre@sjgames.com Archives at http://www.io.com/~hcobb All OGRE-related items Copyright (c) 2001, by Steve Jackson Games.