U.S. Military invade The Forest island. (The Forest)

[Elheru Aran]

Apart from his apparently uncontrollable tendency to try and change the parameters after a few people point out how pants-on-head the OP is and how absurdly easily one side of the scenario would win... rinse and repeat a couple of times throughout the thread...

[Adam Reynolds]

One major problem with this idea is that the problem in the near future world isn't going to be lack of oil, it is the amount of pollution caused by it. We are almost certainly going to see environmental damage outpace our ability to cheaply adapt to it long before we actually run out of oil. Which is why there are pushes by those in environmental fields to increase the price of oil and other fossil fuels even further with a carbon tax of some sort that would allow for alternatives to be more competitive. The problem with alternative energy is that it cannot be found naturally.

Natural gas would be better overall, as there is less carbon per unit of energy. Finding a new deposit like this would also drop the price and allow oil companies to stop fracking, which would be nice. Despite the serious short term problems with fracking, it is leading to a reduction in CO2 in the US, as natural gas replaces coal. Unfortunately China and India are taking up the slack in that department, and as China's coal use has actually hit a peak, India is set to massively increase production and the corresponding consumption by the end of the decade, doubling output relative to 2015.

[Jub]

I honestly don't see how this is better than his other attempts at RARs. He cribbed his OP from a game, a pretty trash game from the sound of things, and then failed to anticipate the issues with his chosen scenario. When the issues were pointed out he back peddled and his additions were entirely nonsensical. If I didn't know that people could be this retarded I'd assume a RAR making chat bot was on the loose.

[Zixinus]

It is still awful but not the "city-sized pseudodinosour flesh monster teleports into NYC and the cops have to handle it by themselves" level of awful.

He should go into the nearby library and start reading non-fiction books about whatever interests him but we have been giving that sort of advice to him since the start.

[U.P. Cinnabar]

Hold on. You are saying that if a single cannibal light a tiny torch, then the entire oil field would explode and erupt in a volcanic-like eruption that would destroy the island pretty much.

No, I'm saying if a single cannibal lights a tiny torch, he will incinerate himself, and anyone in that particular cavern with him, and start a fire. The island would not explode. The real world also isn't Gilligan's Island, for fuck's sake.

Okay, since there couldn't possibly be much oil in a single wide crater, the oil pool would actually run underneath the surface, and tunnel away into the ground with various twists and turns that looped around the cannibal caves. The caves are also well-ventilated by the fact that there are numerous entrances on one side of the island in front of a major wind channel, and that the wind actually uses the caves as a channel to run through, and exits out through the other side of the caves, providing a good airflow.

And, now you're backwatering again.

Not that it really matters, because an oil pool is just that, a pool. It doesn't tunnel away into the ground with various twists and turns, because this a pool of oil.

Maybe this will help:



I realize this contains some big words, such as "a," "an," and "the," but do try and keep up with the vid, mmkay.

Now, since you now have the cannibal caves separate from the pool of oil, as they would be in the real world, those caves can be sealed off or taken out entirely with guided missiles and precision-guided munitions. Cannibal problem largely solved. Bullets will dispatch the rest.

Umm, well the reward for safely securing the oil is a much calmer and safer world, with far less potential for any catastrophic WWIII due to lack of resources, and generally a far more stable and peaceful world. The downsides for securing the oil in less aggressive ways is a mildly to moderately higher risk to your infantry, and that's it...?

Even that mildly to moderately higher risk to the boots on the deck is considered unacceptible when precision-guided muntions via air and naval strikes can considerably reduce that risk. The oil will be unharmed.

Moreover, since the island is very small, there is even a possibility that destroying the oil well would actually cause the oil to spill out into the ocean, and since this fictional oil well is actually larger than all of the world's oil supplies combined, then such a spill would cause quite a bit of environmental damage... (if the bombs accidentally hit a weak spot of the oil well)

Oh, for fuck's sake. That threat is neutralized by the fact that the oil deposit is all in one place, since this is the real world we're talking about here, and that precison-guided munitions and modern electronics, satellite and drone surveillance will significantly reduce the chance of hitting the oil by accident.

Also, aircraft have been 'naturally' destroyed in mid-air and have more or less dropped straight down. Not quite exactly straight down, but more or less.

That's right, little britches. Not exactly straight down. No "more or less" to it.

And, if by "destroyed in mid-air," you mean the aircraft disintegrated(like Columbia in 2003), then the debris wouldn't all fall straight down either, but be scattered over a wide area.

Well, the reward of acquiring the oil successfully could potentially save the world from a world-wide nuclear war

No, actually, successfully acquiring the oil would not prevent a nuclear war, it would probably touch one off, if the inevitable struggle for ownership over the oil deposit continues for long enough that those with thermonuclear arsenals are pushed into using them. Remember, the rest of the world is not going to be happy that the United States(or any other single entity)has exclusive control of more oil than anywhere else in the world, ever, and that includes private-sector interests and fringe, but well-capitalized, groups as well as other governments.

War would pretty much be inevitable.

while accidentally destroying the oil well could very well end up with half the world's oceans poisoned with oil.

With modern electronics, and precision-guided munitions, that risk is minimized enough those planning the operation will likely consider it inconsequential compared to sending in ground forces unprepared.

I am not so sure about that. The cannibals have already demonstrated superhuman capabilities (surviving point-blank sticks of exploding dynamite, being lit on fire multiple times, easily knocking over TREES with physical strength)

Where have they demonstrated this in-game?! Screenshots, or I call bullshit.

so I would not be surprised if they could survive in toxic environments.

Even if the above statement is true, this is a no-limits fallacy, asserted without evidence, therefore dismissed without same.

I mean, their INFANTS can easily KILL a grown man just by flinging themselves at him!

How can a fucking infant have the strength to fling itself at a speed guranteed to give them the kinetic energy and the momentum to kill a grown man?!

Yeah, definitely time to play the bullshit card.


Your other points have been adequately addressed by the other posters, so I won't rehash them here.

[U.P. Cinnabar]

It is still awful but not the "city-sized pseudodinosour flesh monster teleports into NYC and the cops have to handle it by themselves" level of awful.

He should go into the nearby library and start reading non-fiction books about whatever interests him but we have been giving that sort of advice to him since the start.

I have to concede he demonstrates some improvement here, but, with this one, it's a case of "one step forward, two steps back." E.g., the mobile fortress.

[Ziggy Stardust]

The cannibals have already demonstrated superhuman capabilities (surviving point-blank sticks of exploding dynamite, being lit on fire multiple times, easily knocking over TREES with physical strength)

Elephants can knock over trees with physical strength. This does not make them immune to bullets.

Also, if the cannibals are so unstoppable, how does the protagonist of the game survive? If the protagonist isn't instantly overwhelmed and killed by the cannibals, why would a trained and prepared group of soldiers be so much less effective?

Further, you conveniently forgot to mention the fact that the cannibals are AFRAID OF FIRE. They will avoid anyone with a fire. Ergo, they are incredibly easy to stop, because all you need are torches or campfires.

[U.P. Cinnabar]

Out of curiosity, what anime are you referring to?

If I had to hazard a guess, I would say he's talking about "magic-girl"-type anime.

[Simon_Jester]

This is less dumb than the fortress (in that the physical impossibilities are at least in large part things he didn't make up), and the fortress was less dumb than the giant floating not-a-dinosaur (which was just a pure surrealistic imbecilic acid trip).

Now the problem is that while Archinist's scenarios have gotten less stupid, he's still committing the same core mistake, which is that when people point out something wrong with his idea, he tries to slap a patch on the idea rather than actually fixing the underlying problems.

And his ignorance prevents him from knowing the difference between "fixing" a problem and actually solving it. So he does the equivalent of putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound- dreams up an excuse that sort of removes the issue temporarily, but doesn't really deal with the underlying concern. Because it just raises bigger questions like "why would people inexplicably be that stupid" or "that is not a good reason to do that thing" or "physics doesn't work that way."

[U.P. Cinnabar]

This is less dumb than the fortress (in that the physical impossibilities are at least in large part things he didn't make up), and the fortress was less dumb than the giant floating not-a-dinosaur (which was just a pure surrealistic imbecilic acid trip).

Now the problem is that while Archinist's scenarios have gotten less stupid, he's still committing the same core mistake, which is that when people point out something wrong with his idea, he tries to slap a patch on the idea rather than actually fixing the underlying problems.

And his ignorance prevents him from knowing the difference between "fixing" a problem and actually solving it. So he does the equivalent of putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound- dreams up an excuse that sort of removes the issue temporarily, but doesn't really deal with the underlying concern. Because it just raises bigger questions like "why would people inexplicably be that stupid" or "that is not a good reason to do that thing" or "physics doesn't work that way."

By "this one," I meant Archinist himself. Just when it appears we've gotten through, and he starts to make sense, he backtracks and commits the same core mistake, as you put it, when others point out the flaws in his current ideas.

[Batman]

Given that Earth currently burns somewhere upwards of 100,000 barrels of oil a day, for a multi-century supply this had better be a REALLY big pool.
A measly 200 years would require upwards of as cubic kilometre of oil (ALL oil, as in a cubic kilometre of nothing but oil, which happens in nature-the term 'never' comes to mind.)
As usual, somebody should check my math.

[U.P. Cinnabar]

Given that Earth currently burns somewhere upwards of 100,000 barrels of oil a day, for a multi-century supply this had better be a REALLY big pool.
A measly 200 years would require upwards of as cubic kilometre of oil (ALL oil, as in a cubic kilometre of nothing but oil, which happens in nature-the term 'never' comes to mind.)
As usual, somebody should check my math.

You're right, of course, such a massive deposit of oil's utterly implausible, but we were giving the boy the benefit of the doubt. Though I seriously doubt he benefitted.

[Sea Skimmer]

We consume ~100 million barrels a day which is 50 of biggest supertanker ever in size. Whatever, that can come out of a hole. Not sure how cannibals would matter into any of this though, run them over with all the fireproof bulldozers needed, if they are only as strong a bulldozers then humanity can build bigger bulldozer until victory is accomplished. The level of construction needed to physically remove all this oil would take decades to finish.

Pipelines are handy things but not viable if this island is out in the deep ocean.

[Simon_Jester]

To be fair, "huge oil deposit" is a good motive for conflict even if Archinist screwed up the details.

Given that Earth currently burns somewhere upwards of 100,000 barrels of oil a day, for a multi-century supply this had better be a REALLY big pool.
A measly 200 years would require upwards of as cubic kilometre of oil (ALL oil, as in a cubic kilometre of nothing but oil, which happens in nature-the term 'never' comes to mind.)
As usual, somebody should check my math.

I actually sat down and mathed that out. World oil consumption is something like thirty-five billion barrels a year, and a lake of it fit to supply ONE year would be a mile wide and a mile and a half deep. There's a reason we're running out of the stuff, despite it existing in massive underground reservoirs and layers and being pumped out of the ground by huge industrial machinery. And a reason why we ship the stuff around in insanely huge ships, several times larger than almost anything that ever sailed the oceans prior to the age of modern container shipping and oil shipping.

[Jub]

I actually sat down and mathed that out. World oil consumption is something like thirty-five billion barrels a year, and a lake of it fit to supply ONE year would be a mile wide and a mile and a half deep. There's a reason we're running out of the stuff, despite it existing in massive underground reservoirs and layers and being pumped out of the ground by huge industrial machinery. And a reason why we ship the stuff around in insanely huge ships, several times larger than almost anything that ever sailed the oceans prior to the age of modern container shipping and oil shipping.

For a 200 year supply, at current consumption, that's roughly 60,000 cubic miles of oil... At the smallest, that's a lake with a diameter of ~45 square miles. This small island suddenly isn't so small after all.

[Archinist]

The cannibals have already demonstrated superhuman capabilities (surviving point-blank sticks of exploding dynamite, being lit on fire multiple times, easily knocking over TREES with physical strength)

Elephants can knock over trees with physical strength. This does not make them immune to bullets.

Also, if the cannibals are so unstoppable, how does the protagonist of the game survive? If the protagonist isn't instantly overwhelmed and killed by the cannibals, why would a trained and prepared group of soldiers be so much less effective?

Further, you conveniently forgot to mention the fact that the cannibals are AFRAID OF FIRE. They will avoid anyone with a fire. Ergo, they are incredibly easy to stop, because all you need are torches or campfires.

The cannibals are not afraid of fire. Setting up the largest fire in the game, the bonfire, according to the wiki actually makes them immediately hostile towards the player and invites large groups of them to attack the player. Smaller fires do not scare them away, and they will happily raid bases with a large amount of fires around.

Some of the cannibals even use fires for torches and even molotov cocktails which they either made themselves or stole from the shipping containers and crashed airplane.

Elephants can actually absorb a large amount of bullets before being disabled, and these mutant cannibals can not just knock them down, but CLEAR THEM OUT, for example a mutant of a specific type can easily smash 2-3 trees down in just a few seconds of swinging it's arms around.

The protagonist is a player-controlled character, and is generally much stronger than your average civilian plane crash survivor. In-game, the cannibals are not too competent, and sometimes stand still when being attacked, run directly into fires, and even when their AI works perfectly, you can usually just side-step their attacks and whack them with an axe from behind. I would imagine they would be far more competent and skilled in real life.

No, I'm saying if a single cannibal lights a tiny torch, he will incinerate himself, and anyone in that particular cavern with him, and start a fire. The island would not explode. The real world also isn't Gilligan's Island, for fuck's sake.

I doubt natural oil is really all that volatile, or wouldn't it be incinerated just from natural fires and heat that might start in their caverns?

And, now you're backwatering again.

Not that it really matters, because an oil pool is just that, a pool. It doesn't tunnel away into the ground with various twists and turns, because this a pool of oil.

Maybe this will help:



I realize this contains some big words, such as "a," "an," and "the," but do try and keep up with the vid, mmkay.

Now, since you now have the cannibal caves separate from the pool of oil, as they would be in the real world, those caves can be sealed off or taken out entirely with guided missiles and precision-guided munitions. Cannibal problem largely solved. Bullets will dispatch the rest.

Okay, so just enlarge that image of the oil pool on the video by a reasonable amount of times, and put lots of tiny worm-like cave tentacles which stab through the oil pool multiple times over. Some of the tentacles might have a larger "hub" shape in them, where larger amounts of cannibals could live. These caves are also connected to the main entrances and exits, therefore creating a powerful wind channel to keep the air fresh and the explosions minimal.

Even that mildly to moderately higher risk to the boots on the deck is considered unacceptible when precision-guided muntions via air and naval strikes can considerably reduce that risk. The oil will be unharmed.

Not with how this cave is designed!

Oh, for fuck's sake. That threat is neutralized by the fact that the oil deposit is all in one place, since this is the real world we're talking about here, and that precison-guided munitions and modern electronics, satellite and drone surveillance will significantly reduce the chance of hitting the oil by accident.

Again, imagine a giant oil pool, filled to the brim with oil. Now imagine tiny tentacles emerge from the sides of the oil pool and stab directly through it, connecting the left and right sides of the pool. This is, of course, in 3D, so it would be more dynamic than simply "left to right". Now, imagine those tentacles are actually hollow tunnels and make a thoroughfare of cave tunnels from entrance to entrance, and there is a wind channel would also blows through the tunnels. That's how this cave is made up.

That's right, little britches. Not exactly straight down. No "more or less" to it.

And, if by "destroyed in mid-air," you mean the aircraft disintegrated(like Columbia in 2003), then the debris wouldn't all fall straight down either, but be scattered over a wide area.

There is still a small possibility of a hot bit of lead to go straight down and not properly cool off when it hits the oil. Also, what if the plane is flying towards the oil pool, and explodes before it reaches it? Or what if a plane is heading in a direction straight towards the oil pool, but loses all control and catches fire and slowly but surely loses altitude, on fire, on a course directly into the oil pool?

No, actually, successfully acquiring the oil would not prevent a nuclear war, it would probably touch one off, if the inevitable struggle for ownership over the oil deposit continues for long enough that those with thermonuclear arsenals are pushed into using them. Remember, the rest of the world is not going to be happy that the United States(or any other single entity)has exclusive control of more oil than anywhere else in the world, ever, and that includes private-sector interests and fringe, but well-capitalized, groups as well as other governments.

Since the oil could fuel earth for at least 200 years, that would mean that no country would actually need to 'own' it, they could just capture it and freely hand the oil over to anyone in unlimited quantities. Oil would become extremely cheap, and every country could just call upon the near-unlimited heap of oil over at the island whenever they wanted to. I mean, what's the good of having a pool of oil that could fuel the PLANET for 200 years, but only the U.S. are using it, and maybe handing it out in small but expensive packages to other countries?

The idea of this is that the entire planet would use it wastefully for 200 years, while still developing alternatives to the oil, and that by 100 years or so most of the planet would have magically developed another source, and yeah, something like that.

With modern electronics, and precision-guided munitions, that risk is minimized enough those planning the operation will likely consider it inconsequential compared to sending in ground forces unprepared.

Why would the ground forces sbe unprepared? Could they not just prepare their troops? I mean, they do have soldiers who are actually fighting.

Where have they demonstrated this in-game?! Screenshots, or I call bullshit.

I haven't played it for a while, but the wiki says that explosives will only 'stagger' the cowman mutant. The wiki also says that the octopus mutant can be killed by 4-6 molotov cocktails. That's at least being set on fire 3 times!

Even if the above statement is true, this is a no-limits fallacy, asserted without evidence, therefore dismissed without same.

Wind channel!

How can a fucking infant have the strength to fling itself at a speed guranteed to give them the kinetic energy and the momentum to kill a grown man?!

Yeah, definitely time to play the bullshit card.

I don't know, it's just part of the game. They actually deal a great amount of damage, but are quite weak and can be killed by one or two axe swings. They're also quite accurate, and can hit you from a impressive short range.

Your other points have been adequately addressed by the other posters, so I won't rehash them here.[/quote][/quote]

For a 200 year supply, at current consumption, that's roughly 60,000 cubic miles of oil... At the smallest, that's a lake with a diameter of ~45 square miles. This small island suddenly isn't so small after all.

Meh, the oil is all underground, most of it. There is simply a large surface crater on the surface.

[Rhadamantus]

Okay, so just enlarge that image of the oil pool on the video by a reasonable amount of times, and put lots of tiny worm-like cave tentacles which stab through the oil pool multiple times over. Some of the tentacles might have a larger "hub" shape in them, where larger amounts of cannibals could live. These caves are also connected to the main entrances and exits, therefore creating a powerful wind channel to keep the air fresh and the explosions minimal

1. Where does the wind come from?
2. If there are entrances, the Air force can bombard, and lock the cannibals in to starve to death.
3. How did this form?

[U.P. Cinnabar]

Okay, so just enlarge that image of the oil pool on the video by a reasonable amount of times, and put lots of tiny worm-like cave tentacles which stab through the oil pool multiple times over. Some of the tentacles might have a larger "hub" shape in them, where larger amounts of cannibals could live. These caves are also connected to the main entrances and exits, therefore creating a powerful wind channel to keep the air fresh and the explosions minimal.

The oil would be in a single pool, isolated completely from any system of caverns, so no, none of this shit happens. Not a bit of it.

Since the oil could fuel earth for at least 200 years, that would mean that no country would actually need to 'own' it, they could just capture it and freely hand the oil over to anyone in unlimited quantities.

Human greed and lust for power just doesn't work that way, little britches. And, those who have the power and ability to exploit this are not known for sharing.

Oil would become extremely cheap, and every country could just call upon the near-unlimited heap of oil over at the island whenever they wanted to. I mean, what's the good of having a pool of oil that could fuel the PLANET for 200 years, but only the U.S. are using it, and maybe handing it out in small but expensive packages to other countries?

You mistakenly assume the greater good is uppermost in the mind of the average politican or corporate executive. History tells a different story.

The idea of this is that the entire planet would use it wastefully for 200 years, while still developing alternatives to the oil, and that by 100 years or so most of the planet would have magically developed another source, and yeah, something like that.

That's the idea. The reality is that they continue their addiction to hydrocarbons for another 200 years(or more), and put the problem of seriously developing alternatives off for another 200 years.

I haven't played it for a while, but the wiki says that explosives will only 'stagger' the cowman mutant. The wiki also says that the octopus mutant can be killed by 4-6 molotov cocktails. That's at least being set on fire 3 times!

The unreliability of all wikis aside, a petroleum fire is not like a normal fire. It burns hotter, and longer, especially given petroleum's tendency to stick to what it's burning. Look up napalm, sometime.

Why would the ground forces sbe unprepared? Could they not just prepare their troops? I mean, they do have soldiers who are actually fighting.

That was an error on my part. I should've said "send in the ground forces even though the invasion site has been unprepared/not softened up from air strikes and naval gunfire."

Wind channel!

Except the wind won't reach that far into the caverns, and the air of these caves that supposedly wind through the oil pool will still be laden with toxic natural gas. Your cannibals die.

I don't know, it's just part of the game. They actually deal a great amount of damage, but are quite weak and can be killed by one or two axe swings. They're also quite accurate, and can hit you from a impressive short range.

That the goddamned stupidest thing I ever heard, since watching Trump's speech Friday.

There's no way in hell the physics could ever justify infants building up enough speed to have man-killing KE/momentum, at least not by any means I can think of, and that the cannibals might have on hand.

Even, if there was, that's irrelevant to the ability to withstand burning petroleum, toxic natural gas, or hot lead.

Meh, the oil is all underground, most of it. There is simply a large surface crater on the surface.

Utterly irrelevant. That oil pool(which is physically impossible anyway) has to be contained within rock, and volcanic islands are essentially the peaks of undersea mountains. For the amount of oil you claim exists, this cannot be a small island.

Nor can it be accessible through a crater on the surface, unless a meteor hit the cap rock with enough force to crack it open deeply enough to expose the oil, in which case, there would likely be no island left after said meteor hit it.

[Ziggy Stardust]

The cannibals are not afraid of fire. <snip>

Well, the wiki disagrees with you, so...

Elephants can actually absorb a large amount of bullets before being disabled,

Low caliber bullets, maybe. We've had guns that can take down elephants in one or two shots for almost 200 years. You seem to be assuming that any soldiers deployed will just be waving around little handguns, which is ludicrous. High caliber weapons will kill or maim elephants with trivial ease, why would the mutants be more durable?

and these mutant cannibals can not just knock them down, but CLEAR THEM OUT, for example a mutant of a specific type can easily smash 2-3 trees down in just a few seconds of swinging it's arms around.

What, precisely, is the difference between "knock them down", "clear them out" , and "smash [them] down", anyway? And why does it matter? Do you really think these mutants are more durable than, say, a tank, which the US military can destroy with trivial ease?

The protagonist is a player-controlled character, and is generally much stronger than your average civilian plane crash survivor.

Even if we take this at face value (which, well, we shouldn't, because it's incredibly dishonest to hand wave things by saying he's player-controlled), it's irrelevant. Even if he is stronger than an average civilian plane crash survivor, HE IS NOT STRONGER THAN THE ENTIRE US ARMY, which was the entire point!

In-game, the cannibals are not too competent, and sometimes stand still when being attacked, run directly into fires, and even when their AI works perfectly, you can usually just side-step their attacks and whack them with an axe from behind. I would imagine they would be far more competent and skilled in real life.

Um, why? The only possible way to do a versus debate is to take the qualities shown at face value. While there is some wiggle room using basic logic or physics, that isn't what you are doing. You are just magically claiming that these cannibals are going to act precisely nothing like the cannibals do in the original source material, and are far more powerful and competent because you say so. That's just being obtuse.

Since the oil could fuel earth for at least 200 years, that would mean that no country would actually need to 'own' it, they could just capture it and freely hand the oil over to anyone in unlimited quantities. Oil would become extremely cheap, and every country could just call upon the near-unlimited heap of oil over at the island whenever they wanted to. I mean, what's the good of having a pool of oil that could fuel the PLANET for 200 years, but only the U.S. are using it, and maybe handing it out in small but expensive packages to other countries?

Even you have to understand what a ridiculous statement this is. Here's a question: why do you have to pay for internet service?

[Jub]

The protagonist is a player-controlled character, and is generally much stronger than your average civilian plane crash survivor. In-game, the cannibals are not too competent, and sometimes stand still when being attacked, run directly into fires, and even when their AI works perfectly, you can usually just side-step their attacks and whack them with an axe from behind. I would imagine they would be far more competent and skilled in real life.

Why would they be? Do we see them acting more intelligently in cutscenes, or are you just frantically trying to find ways to even this out because you didn't think about this before hand?

I doubt natural oil is really all that volatile, or wouldn't it be incinerated just from natural fires and heat that might start in their caverns?

Most oil is underground in areas that don't have enough oxygen for fires to start. Above ground oil deposits are pretty damned volatile.

Okay, so just enlarge that image of the oil pool on the video by a reasonable amount of times, and put lots of tiny worm-like cave tentacles which stab through the oil pool multiple times over. Some of the tentacles might have a larger "hub" shape in them, where larger amounts of cannibals could live. These caves are also connected to the main entrances and exits, therefore creating a powerful wind channel to keep the air fresh and the explosions minimal.

That actually just adds more oxygen to the caves making explosions more likely. Of course without the wind they just fumigate themselves within their caves so their kind of fucked either way.

Not with how this cave is designed!

You actually have to show your work on these things. You can't just declare a thing to be true without being able to prove that it is so.

Again, imagine a giant oil pool, filled to the brim with oil. Now imagine tiny tentacles emerge from the sides of the oil pool and stab directly through it, connecting the left and right sides of the pool. This is, of course, in 3D, so it would be more dynamic than simply "left to right". Now, imagine those tentacles are actually hollow tunnels and make a thoroughfare of cave tunnels from entrance to entrance, and there is a wind channel would also blows through the tunnels. That's how this cave is made up.

If these tunnels pass through the oil the oil would, most likely, seep through them. Liquids tend to fill spaces and rock is actually pretty easy for stuff to pass through over long enough time frames. The sort of time frames that it takes to turn dead plants into oil.

Also, what if the plane is flying towards the oil pool, and explodes before it reaches it?

Why would cause this to happen exactly? The cannibals aren't going to be throwing things tens of thousands of feet into the air and the planes have no reason to fly within the range of a thrown rock. These primitive cannibals don't have modern weapons, so they can't ever cause a plane to crash.

You can also keep planes from crashing there by accident by carefully controlling where planes are allowed to fly.

Or what if a plane is heading in a direction straight towards the oil pool, but loses all control and catches fire and slowly but surely loses altitude, on fire, on a course directly into the oil pool?

Again, what causes this to happen?

Since the oil could fuel earth for at least 200 years, that would mean that no country would actually need to 'own' it, they could just capture it and freely hand the oil over to anyone in unlimited quantities. Oil would become extremely cheap, and every country could just call upon the near-unlimited heap of oil over at the island whenever they wanted to. I mean, what's the good of having a pool of oil that could fuel the PLANET for 200 years, but only the U.S. are using it, and maybe handing it out in small but expensive packages to other countries?

That's not how the world works. People tend to hoard things, most likely the US would do what they can to control this oil, to hide how much of it there is, and to sell it for as high a price as possible.

The idea of this is that the entire planet would use it wastefully for 200 years, while still developing alternatives to the oil, and that by 100 years or so most of the planet would have magically developed another source, and yeah, something like that.

You don't just get to invoke magic and handwaves. You have to actually show the work, use some historic trends, and extrapolate to figure out what would actually happen due to this sudden discovery of vast amounts of fuel, and potentially profit.

I haven't played it for a while, but the wiki says that explosives will only 'stagger' the cowman mutant. The wiki also says that the octopus mutant can be killed by 4-6 molotov cocktails. That's at least being set on fire 3 times!

A Molotov or a stick of dynamite =/= a hand grenade. Also, why does he need to be set on fire 3 times? What if, and this might blow your mind, one of the fires burns for longer than the few seconds fires last for in video games? What if he simply gets shot through the head, or the heart?

Wind channel!

Moron!

Meh, the oil is all underground, most of it. There is simply a large surface crater on the surface.

Physics and geometry don't work that way. To put it simply, this oil would form a sphere ~24.3 miles (39.1 km) in diameter, that's a fuckload of oil. Even if we assume that this island is located on the thickest part of the crust and the oil goes 70km straight down, you still need a pool with a 33.7km radius. The oil can't go deeper than 70km down because then you start to hit mantle. Did you not actually picture how much oil 200 years worth would be before writing this?

[Kingmaker]

The US military's greatest trouble in this scenario is likely to come from activists outraged over the US dispossessing a tribe of uncontacted natives in order to steal their oil.

[Zixinus]

Elephants can actually absorb a large amount of bullets before being disabled, and these mutant cannibals can not just knock them down, but CLEAR THEM OUT, for example a mutant of a specific type can easily smash 2-3 trees down in just a few seconds of swinging it's arms around.

The most common weapon today for killing elephant is the AK47 or the SKS in roughly the same calibre. Practically all branches have weapons in similar caliber and higher. Military weapons are designed for penetration, which means that they can go trough lots of flesh and reach important organs. The mutants on the island are mortal and, unlike zombies, this will kill them. The mutants are smaller than elephants if I gauged the screenshots correctly. Even the biggest mutants don't stand a chance.

[Bernkastel]

If I had to hazard a guess, I would say he's talking about "magic-girl"-type anime.

Possibly, though I don't know of many anime featuring both zombies and high school characters. It's almost certainly something that is silly to point to as a way of justifying the RAR scenario. But there are some possibilities that would lower my already low opinion of Archinist, though it would potentially also be kind of hilarious as well.

[Simon_Jester]

Elephants can actually absorb a large amount of bullets before being disabled...

This is because they're physically big. Bullets carve paths of destroyed tissue deep into anything made out of meat-like material. Because meat just isn't capable of stopping bullets easily. These 'cannibals' (I'm not clear on whether or not they look humanoid)... they aren't made out of rock or anything. Bullets will still inflict damage on their anatomy. Real living creatures do not have hit point bars. They do not "absorb" bullets, they take injuries. The injuries may or may not kill them, but they are still injured and less able to perform physically demanding activities.

Moreover, automatic rifles and machine guns can throw so many bullets in rapid suggestion that even a large, physically tough animal will be shredded and destroyed by the volume of fire. Plus, there are always heavy weapons like automatic grenade launchers, which can be used to defend a fixed location easily. This is one reason I advocate destroying the vegetation, then using emplaced heavy weapons to kill any of these monstrous alien mutants that show themselves.

The protagonist is a player-controlled character, and is generally much stronger than your average civilian plane crash survivor. In-game, the cannibals are not too competent, and sometimes stand still when being attacked, run directly into fires, and even when their AI works perfectly, you can usually just side-step their attacks and whack them with an axe from behind. I would imagine they would be far more competent and skilled in real life.

Why are you imagining that the cannibals are MORE competent in real life than in a game, while soldiers and government planners are LESS competent in real life?

Please, this is one of the biggest things stopping you from looking competent in these scenarios. You try to have it both ways. Everything that could make the 'opposition' stronger is just taken for granted and you assume it will work perfectly, while anything that DOESN'T act to make 'our guys' weaker and stupider gets ignored.

If a (tough) person who just happens to have survived a plane crash can dodge their melee attacks and hit them with an axe from behind to kill them, they're not bulletproof. If they're dumb and aggressive enough to charge into fires, then they'll be easy to trap. Be consistent. You can't give characters from a video game all the powers they possess in the game without giving them any of the limitations they possess in the game.

This isn't about trying to invent scenarios where "LOL SOLDIERS AND COPS LOSE." Or if it is, that's a creepy and stupid game to play, and you should find a new game to play.

I doubt natural oil is really all that volatile, or wouldn't it be incinerated just from natural fires and heat that might start in their caverns?

Fire requires the "fire triad:" fire, oxygen, and an ignition source. Oil deposits are not "natural caverns." They are layers of underground rock. The pressure of the rock above the oil deposit (layers of stone that are at least hundreds, usually thousands, of feet thick) mean that there are no hollow spaces or empty pockets down there. It's all full of oil, and the oil is under pressure, so that if any open space opens up, the oil will expand to fill that space.

So as a rule, there's no possibility of oil catching fire spontaneously, because there's no oxygen-carrying air down there. Plus there's generally nothing to ignite fires deep underground.

And yes, natural oil does produce hydrocarbon vapors. Not as fast as gasoline, but it does. There's a reason oil rigs and oil refineries have "no smoking" rules.

Okay, so just enlarge that image of the oil pool on the video by a reasonable amount of times, and put lots of tiny worm-like cave tentacles which stab through the oil pool multiple times over.

Natural caves do not form this way. They form through a layer of soft, porous rock, usually worn away by erosion. If the rock is soft and porous, oil will seep through it into the caves. Plus, random natural cave-ins and things will open up channels to the oil lake within the caves, and over time, oil will flood the caves.

There is no way to have natural caves inside an oil deposit, except for the 'natural caves' that are already full of oil.

The only way for this island to exist would be if someone with heavy civil engineering equipment deliberately built it this way. Which is not believable because there is no reason for it to be this way, except to create a stupid contrived scenario for bulletproof monsters to be unkillable with heavy weapons because lol oil.

Or, hell, you could just drop a few depth charges into the oil lakes. The shock waves will fracture the rock of the caves, and the monsters get killed by floods of oil. Problem solved. It's not like the oil can be 'pure' after lying around exposed to the surface for millenia, so getting some rocks and dead bodies in it isn't a problem.

Some of the tentacles might have a larger "hub" shape in them, where larger amounts of cannibals could live. These caves are also connected to the main entrances and exits, therefore creating a powerful wind channel to keep the air fresh and the explosions minimal.

The government will not know about this bizarre, unnatural set of caves that are underground. They will assume that the oil pool is physically separate from the caves, because they are not ignorant clueless clowns who are unaware of basic geology. Therefore, even if the caves are tangled up with the oil, they will act as if the caves are not tangled up with the oil.

Also, if the caves are twisty and have many turns, how are they also efficient channels for wind? What happens if the wind stops blowing for a day or two, as it sometimes does?

Even that mildly to moderately higher risk to the boots on the deck is considered unacceptible when precision-guided muntions via air and naval strikes can considerably reduce that risk. The oil will be unharmed.

Not with how this cave is designed!

WIth the way you designed the cave, the monsters in the caves all die, because they drown in oil or are poisoned by oil vapors.

With the way any natural set of caves would work, the monsters in the caves are safe, but the caves are physically separated from the oil and bombs can be dropped on them.

That's right, little britches. Not exactly straight down. No "more or less" to it.

And, if by "destroyed in mid-air," you mean the aircraft disintegrated(like Columbia in 2003), then the debris wouldn't all fall straight down either, but be scattered over a wide area.

There is still a small possibility of a hot bit of lead to go straight down and not properly cool off when it hits the oil. Also, what if the plane is flying towards the oil pool, and explodes before it reaches it? Or what if a plane is heading in a direction straight towards the oil pool, but loses all control and catches fire and slowly but surely loses altitude, on fire, on a course directly into the oil pool?

Real people to not obsessively masturbate over improbable things that "COULD HAPPEN RIGHT?" Things that have a one in a million chance of happening don't happen. Or they don't happen unless something is done over and over, tens or hundreds of thousands of times.

If your objection to a plan is that some one-in-a-million coincidence could cause it to go badly, then you do not have a valid objection to that plan.

One of the reasons you keep looking foolish is that you act as though one in a million chances are somehow normal routine events, things that everyone should plan for and expect.

No, actually, successfully acquiring the oil would not prevent a nuclear war, it would probably touch one off, if the inevitable struggle for ownership over the oil deposit continues for long enough that those with thermonuclear arsenals are pushed into using them. Remember, the rest of the world is not going to be happy that the United States(or any other single entity)has exclusive control of more oil than anywhere else in the world, ever, and that includes private-sector interests and fringe, but well-capitalized, groups as well as other governments.

Since the oil could fuel earth for at least 200 years, that would mean that no country would actually need to 'own' it, they could just capture it and freely hand the oil over to anyone in unlimited quantities. Oil would become extremely cheap, and every country could just call upon the near-unlimited heap of oil over at the island whenever they wanted to. I mean, what's the good of having a pool of oil that could fuel the PLANET for 200 years, but only the U.S. are using it, and maybe handing it out in small but expensive packages to other countries?

It would do the US a whole lot of good, wouldn't it?

Look at Saudi Arabia. They're sitting on enormous lakes of underground oil, and have been for a long time. Do they just give it out for free? No, they sell it at the highest prices they can convince people to pay, and become insanely rich. That is exactly how any real country would behave if it discovered a massive oil deposit somewhere they could get to it.

Here, the big issue is that the "oil island" must be totally unknown to the world or someone would already have claimed it and started using it for oil. So, what nations is it closest to? Those nations will claim it as territory, and their claim is likely to be respected. If the island is, say, near the coast of the US, the US is likely to get to keep that island. But if the island is, say, over near Madagascar or something... other countries will complain if the US tries to keep sole control of it. And it is possible that an international arrangement would be worked out to share the oil.

But this will be because people want to share profits from the oil, not just because they want to give it away for free.

For a 200 year supply, at current consumption, that's roughly 60,000 cubic miles of oil... At the smallest, that's a lake with a diameter of ~45 square miles. This small island suddenly isn't so small after all.

Meh, the oil is all underground, most of it. There is simply a large surface crater on the surface.[/quote]Then the oil deposit is so big that we build oil rigs offshore. Our straws reach across the room and drink their milkshake, as explained in the video I showed you earlier, Eli.

Although honestly, getting rid of the cannibals isn't that hard, so that would probably be done too.

[Archinist]

Okay, so let's just say that the caves are actually normal caves, separated from the oil pool. But a ROB also made the caves aerial-bombing proof, so that although it is possible to destroy them from the inside, dropping bombs or artillery on the caves will not work at all. The ROB also made sure the US military are aware of this fact.

So this would restrict the US to only sending in ground forces supported by light air forces and armoured forces. How well do they do now?