StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Woah, you've been busy, A-A. I'll start filling out some of those pages momentarily. I'm also going to use the Testing forum at Destructionator's site for mission development. It might be easier to preserve secrecy and all that.

Seriously, you guys, I'm out. Sorry about that, but I have neither the time nor the knowledge. Hope you guys have fun, though!

I just realized something. We dont have any CODs.

We may also have some seriously geriatric low-level ossifers if we keep with the current timeframe. Those of us who supposedly fought in WWIII are easily in our late 30s/early fourties. Isn't this kinda old for a commander? I know the gets busted-gets promoted-gets busted-gets promoted routine in well-beloved by war action fiction but seriously who would give someone like that a squadron command?
And who wants a 40+ year old fighter pilot, period?
I'm asking because I was about to start on my profile (honest, guv) and just noticed that discrepancy. I, too, wanted to be a WWIII pilot-I'm given squadron command so I better have some experience with the birds I'm commanding-but barring a dropout, some years of civilian live and a later rehire that makes no sense, and again, who hires fighter pilots that old?
Unless my understanding of a navy's age structure is off, in which case feel free to correct me. Or my understanding of the premise. How long did WWIII last?

You are completely correct Batman, and that was a concern for me when I was writing up my profile, too. I compensated with a combination of prodigy-level command skill and school advancement and the fact that 36 is actually rather young for a high-ranking fleet commander, and completely normal for a captian. You flyboys have no such luxury, however. The desk jockeys can be WWIII vets, but I am fairly sure the rest of the pilots will need to cut their teeth on the smaller wars resulting from the rampant terrorisim and break-away soviet states.

So if 36 is normal for a captain, what would be the average age for a commander?

Agent Fisher wrote:I just realized something. We dont have any CODs.

Until someone comes up with a better idea (or we find out CVN-21 has even more room than the Nimitzes) I tentatively submit shortening the 'Truder squadrons to 10 each and making up for that with 4 Greyhounds.

Pcm979 wrote:So if 36 is normal for a captain, what would be the average age for a commander?

Usually over 40. However, there is no set age requirement for promotion, so it's entirely possible to be promoted to a flag position earlier. Flag officers younger than that generally only come about in wartimes, though, due to the massive number of troops that are recruited and need commanders.

Phew, finally up to speed on the last week's worth of pages.

Just to be clear, there are no further plans to modify the Gnisnal with heli-launching capabilities, and, indeed, it was merely a possibility anyway. The "caterpillar" drive is still included, as well as the removed missile tubes and the conversion of those remaining to cruise missile launching capability.

Pcm979 wrote:So if 36 is normal for a captain, what would be the average age for a commander?

Are talking Marine Captains, or Naval Captains, cause Naval Captains are a step down from flag officers. I dont think anyone would normally be 36 and one step down from a flag.

Agent Fisher wrote:

Pcm979 wrote:So if 36 is normal for a captain, what would be the average age for a commander?

Are talking Marine Captains, or Naval Captains, cause Naval Captains are a step down from flag officers. I dont think anyone would normally be 36 and one step down from a flag.

Sure they would. 36 is a perfectly viable age for a Captain, though a lot of them would be in their 40s or thereabouts. Nobody said anything about being close to becoming a flag officer at 36, save for in our imaginary game here.

It's a long way from Captain to Rear Admiral.

Ar-Adunakhor wrote:

Agent Fisher wrote:

Pcm979 wrote:So if 36 is normal for a captain, what would be the average age for a commander?

Are talking Marine Captains, or Naval Captains, cause Naval Captains are a step down from flag officers. I dont think anyone would normally be 36 and one step down from a flag.

Sure they would. 36 is a perfectly viable age for a Captain, though a lot of them would be in their 40s or thereabouts. Nobody said anything about being close to becoming a flag officer at 36, save for in our imaginary game here.

It's a long way from Captain to Rear Admiral.

I think late fifties is adequete for a Marine brigadier general, though, no?

Yes, that's fine. You could even go early fifties with no problems, if you so desired.

If enough people are worried about everyone's character being too old, why not twiddle with the timeline? Either pushing the present back or moving the start of WWIII up, seeing as how there's 20 years from WWIII to present.

Seems fair to me... I mean, it's not like we have to follow Clancy's book to the letter, is it?

I'm not sure we can shorten those 20 years by much without losing plausibility. Europ and the USSR need time to lick their woulds, the GDI needs time to be formed, then there's the 'mothballing' period, the rise of terrorism, the decision process behind giving GDI some teeth, the rearmament process..
Unless we can shorten the timespan to 10-12 years or less (which I doubt, but I'm neither a writer nor all that hot in global politics) the problem remains.
Assuming it IS a problem. While WWIII is naturally the first one thinks of for a character background, there's no reason it HAS to be that. I'm perfectly fine with having won my spurs in some brush war or other, I just thought I'd bring the issue up.
@The story team: As for the aforementioned brush wars, will they get fleshed out in the backstory or do we get/have to make up our own?

Batman wrote:@The story team: As for the aforementioned brush wars, will they get fleshed out in the backstory or do we get/have to make up our own?

Well, I am already crafting a story with Georgia rebelling against the USSR and the USSR brutally crushing it to retain some of their empire. I plan to make several more as well, (perhaps Japan and Tawian somehow unite, and China goes to war with them and gets its ass kicked... hmmm...) but feel free to invent your own for now. Just keep them plausable and don't trample "established canon".

If you take a look at our current world map, there would be a lot of opportunities to get into heated battles in the Middle East. The GDI is holding Iraq and Afghanistan. So, yeah, you could probably find some "fun" there.

Don't get me wrong I'd prefer a ready-made brush war, I have about the creativity of a loaf a mouldy bread. I just want to make sure I'm not fucking up a brush war somebody's already working on. Chances are their story is tons better than mine will be.

Do you have a particular theatre in mind? I could work on it after the Georgian conflict.

I was thinking Congo for no reason I can actually remember but ME seems like a much better bet now that I think about it. On thinking it through a Congo scenario doesn't offer much reason for involing fighters leave alone Tomcats.

Don't worry about age too much, people. We're exempt from a lot of the standards imposed by our former masters. If I'm going to be revising the timeline, it will be to make it more plausible, not less. If you want to be younger and still be a seasoned vet, there are plenty of smaller wars for you to have fought in.

Sorry about being MIA the past few days, finals are coming up. I should be back in action in a week or two.

I've organized the Important Events page; you all can start filling in backstories now.

Umm....what's going on with this? There's been no activity for a week. Is there another thread or some other avenue of game development somewhere I'm missing?

Well, like I said, I have been covered up in finals and school stuff. The wiki is still seeing some development it looks like, but I really won't have the time until the end of this week.