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3:01 AM
It’s paradoxical that when the weather gets a little cool, my office becomes too warm in the late afternoon. 80°F today!
 
Blame the magical thermostat and fancy air conditioning... Or the building itself.
 
 
1 hour later…
4:12 AM
@FerretCivilization It's the lack of air conditioning on the cooler day. The sun on the brick wall in the SW corner of the house heats it up. But the rest of the upstairs is just fine, so it never clicks on.
It used to be far worse, but I’ve made a lot of improvements.
 
Ha, so your house is just an oven in the evenings.
 
@FerretCivilization Just one room. That’s why it doesn’t get the AC on.
It’s 77°F at my desk right now. Window is open.
 
Ah. That one room is an oven.
 
Hmm, I just realized that Unicode block Supplemental Mathematical Operators (2A00–2AFF) can be used as notation for summarizing the plot line of erotica.
Seriously, just look at the code page. You’ll never see math the same way again.
 
Yeah I would rather math be like the one thing not ruined from pureness or rule 34 or something.
 
N-ary Union operator, square intersection operator, … so the outline can simply have a notation like: ⨀⨔⨊ to summarize the scene.
Zoom in on that middle glyph.
 
You are just way too into this.
 
And of course, ⩊⩕ is not the same as ⩖⩋,
@FerretCivilization Like they say on mythbusters, anything with doing is worth overdoing.
 
Terrible, just like that the purity of math is gone.
 
4:35 AM
Well, it's no different from programming in that regard.
 
Why not star that for the other denizens to find later.
 
Sure why not, get all dirty.
 
“How can you tell if a mathematician is talking dirty to you?” A: limits have been removed.
Of course, old math teachers never die. They just get reduced to lowest terms.
 
.... booo
 
4:46 AM
@JourneymanGeek Well, you do better.
 
Its clearly the lowest common denominator
 
I went ha, but here the cricket chirps were real.
 
 
4 hours later…
9:04 AM
Thanks for the edits @Secespitus. :)
 
@MichaelK No problem, nice answer
"sort of.... or maybe not.... but we do it anyway"
 
@Secespitus Hey, I love a good steak as much as the next guy but... damn... cows are "expensive" to produce. Did not want to preach too much though... so I changed "resources to waste" to "resources to use"... people take badly to people preaching at them that their lifestyle is not sustainable in the long run.
 
@MichaelK Yeah, they generally do, even if it's factually correct. Plants are far more efficient
 
@Secespitus ...and nuclear power is the safest and cleanest way to give us energy. But do not tell that to the ideological greens unless you want them hating you forever.
 
@MichaelK Humans are bad at calculating long-term risk/benefit and catastrophes weigh heavy on the consciousness
 
9:19 AM
@Secespitus Catastrophes that they can see, yes. That is the problem for nuclear: their catastrophes as so rare and so photogenic that they make for great drama in the news and infotainment industry (like Fox News... no kidding, they label themselves as such), and that gets people all riled up. In the mean time fossil fuels and air pollution kills enough people every day to make Chernobyl look like a minor inconvenience.
 
@MichaelK It's the same with flying per airplane. I cannot shake my fear of heights completely myself, although I know that driving a car to work every day is far more likely to kill me than the one time per year or so I am flying with a plane.
I mean, stuff like that is why insurances are able to make money. Risks that directly affect them are seen as far more likely than they really are. But other things that do not affect us directly are seen as negligible.
 
@Secespitus Just so, yes.
 
9:59 AM
Hey @Vylix. Seems your question about growing food in a volcano was shaken to life again today. :)
 
10:19 AM
@MichaelK yea, I wonder why. Did accepting an answer bump my question to active page?
 
@Vylix No, but editing the post of Will did ;)
 
@MichaelK and thanks for the excellent answer! I already decided to use some sort of cloud-plant for my tribe :D
@Secespitus oh I see
@MichaelK but your answer is very excellent. I'd really consider to use that
 
@Vylix Whenever you edit anything in a thread, except for comments, the thread will be bumped to the top of the active questions. That's an easy way to "revive" old questions. Just find some typos in any answer and fix them.
 
@Secespitus and commenting on the question?
 
@Vylix No, comments do not count as activity. Only editing and answering do. Comments are not worth as much as questions and answers. That's why they can be deleted at any point and for any reason or without any real reason at all. They won't bump the question.
Reopening and closing bumps the question, too.
Protecting bumps it again. Basically every action you see when you click on the revision history bumps the question and similar actions on any answer or new answers to that question.
2
 
10:31 AM
0
Q: How a parody of an out of universe movie question is world building?

ZaibisWhy does the Conjoined Alliance of Space Travellers keep producing red uniforms? How this is on-topic? I was going to flag it but hesitated, as I neither understand the insider jokes, nor I'm too used to worldbuilding rules. But on a break down that post looks to me like a parody on a topic thats...

 
@Vylix Oh, thank you. :)
 
11:00 AM
I am back.......
@FerretCivilization? About Earth possibly having their hands on advanced technology, that does not mean they can go from 3.8 billion dead humans to basically making XCOM in real life.
 
 
5 hours later…
4:29 PM
@dot_Sp0T It never fascinated me enough to start watching any of it, even though I am probably in the target audience :D
 
4:47 PM
Hunley...sank on August 29, 1863, during a test run, killing five members of her crew. She sank again on October 15, 1863, killing all eight of her second crew, including Horace Hunley himself...Both times Hunley was raised and returned to service. (wikipedia)
in its first attack, it sank a ship and killed five people, and then sank and killed all eight of its crew again.
(just thought I'd share, I thought it was a pretty stupid series of events)
 
5:30 PM
@Secespitus we need to continue this on the respective post, sorry. rules
 
 
1 hour later…
6:56 PM
0
A: Sandbox for Proposed Questions

VylixWhat can make a word become taboo in a tribe? In the same vein of Harry Potter's "you-know-who", "he-should-not-be-named", and such, sometimes certain words become taboo, even when in private conversation. In a tribe, what can make a word become taboo? I'm planning to have a tribe with many re...

 
7:19 PM
@Secespitus :D
 
@dot_Sp0T what your username actually means?
 
@dot_Sp0T? You think @FerretCivilization has a point about humanity post-GPI eventually being able to match the Visitors technologically by the time they return? Or do you think that humanity will still be in the process of recovery when the Visitors return?
Because for some reason, I feel that it is not going to be as easy as it seems, even with Visitor technology.
After all: one does not go from 48.72% of the world's population by 2020 being killed off to forming XCOM.
You still need to recover first......
@Bellerophon? Anyone?
 
7:38 PM
No idea what XCOM is.
 
XCOM is a fictional organisation charged with the task of defending Earth from extraterrestrial attacks which is short for "eXtraterrestrial COMbat unit" and are the protagonists of the XCOM video game franchise.
Both the original and the reboot franchises.
 
@FutureHistorian How long have they got?
 
Then again, in the reboot franchise, a similar situation happened as in this scenario, only that XCOM was able to delay the inevitable before the Council surrendered and 20 years later, they have to overthrow ADVENT (short for "ADministrative VENture Terra", though Firaxis never really gave it an official acronym) and their Elder masters before they finish the mysterious Avatar Project. So, there might be some inspiration for the Visitor series from this franchise (the reboot version).
Basically, in XCOM 2's lore, XCOM fought the Invasion of Earth from the 10th of February of 2015 (the near future at the time of XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Enemy Within's release) until May of 2015, when the Council back stabbed XCOM and XCOM HQ was destroyed, and the player is captured, while two of the main characters from the prior game survive, the Chief Scientist's fate is unknown. One of those characters has a daughter, and dies before the start of XCOM 2, while the other is still alive.
Oh and NOTE: This is a minor spoiler for XCOM 2's story and possibly part of XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Within to an extent.
 
@Vylix you mean dot_Sp0T? it's basically nesting or exponential stuff or whatever..... dot = some for of points. spot = another form of points. It originates from an email address that reads spotted.dot
which was also a nickname i used when fansubbing
@FutureHistorian didn't read ferrets stuff, sorry
 
@dot_Sp0T Now you want to switch again? :D
 
7:51 PM
@Secespitus everything is fair in love and war.
 
@dot_Sp0T So never having seen any episode of Star Trek means war for you?
 
NOTE: The prior game and its expansion do have an ending where you win, but canonically, Earth fell.
 
@Secespitus indeed. Such as between the Klingons and the Federation.
 
And @dot_Sp0T. You might want to scroll up, then.
 
@FutureHistorian I beg to differ. I've been working for classes until now. I'll be working another 30min, then I'll take train & bus home which is another 45-60min depending on the bus when I can work. Then I will watch an episode or two of 'The AO' on Netflix. Then I'll go to bed for another day of Uni tomorrow :)
 
7:54 PM
@dot_Sp0T I don't know how to interpret that sentence due to my lack of knowledge about the universe you are referencing:D
I take it they don't like each other?
 
Did anyone catch the giant robot duel live last night?
 
To summarise, the idea is that at some point 10 years after the Invasion, the Resistance becomes more of a threat to the GPI and the Visitors' grip on Earth, and at some point, civil unrest grows and as it does, the unrest grows into an armed revolt, though the Resistance by then has already begun to execute a plan to destroy the railgun on the Moon, and, if possible, destroy the Visitor spacecraft in Lunar orbit that could potentially begin orbital bombardment of Earth should they fail.
 
@Secespitus veS qej!
@AndyD273 I missed out on it, will probably watch it tomorrow during morning classes
 
Here's the youtube video
 
@dot_Sp0T Gesundheit
 
7:59 PM
I was out when it started, and they were mostly doing the breakdown by the time I was able to turn it on, so I figured I'd wait till it got uploaded to youtube too
 
The issue is, that in the event they succeed and the GPI is overthrown, could humanity recover by the time they return with a bigger invasion force or launch RKVs at Earth, and even reverse-engineered some of their technology? Or will we still be in the process of recovery by the time the Visitors come back?
 
@FutureHistorian Depends on the time gap. I mean if it is a million years anything could have happened, if it is one day I suspect humanity will gain little.
 
@Secespitus Du mich auch
 
8:25 PM
@dot_Sp0T I'll say that it was pretty fun to watch. I really hope that it becomes a thing.
 
8:36 PM
Well, the Visitor invasion force prior to being booted from the Solar System was able to send an emergency transmission requesting the use of RKVs on Earth. Though, they could have sent in reinforcements that have been sent decades prior to First Contact, but by the time they arrive, they may need to serve as a bigger invasion force.
Probably originating from one of the Visitor colonies.
Then again, I do need to determine which systems could be potentially colonised by the Visitors by the time Earth is liberated that could be able to afford sending reinforcements (now to serve as a bigger invasion force and with the objective of exterminating humanity this time), or RKVs, if the authorisation is given. So, any potential Visitor colonies near our Solar System that could be developed enough to send those reinforcements or launch RKVs by the time they receive the transmission?
Just as a reminder, their origin world is Kepler 452b.
Though at this point in time, the ones we encountered are probably a descendant of the original species, along with many of their colonies.
 
@FutureHistorian The reason I said they would have the technology is that you said the visitors got access to Human communications, which means it has to be compatible, and Humans can access Visitor technology in the same way.
 
Oh.
Still, @FerretCivilization, do you REALLY think humanity will be prepared by the time they return?
After all: one does not go from half of the species being exterminated during the Invasion to creating a real life equivalent of XCOM.
By the time the Visitors return, that is.
 
I do not even think the rebels would win in the first place if you were trying to be realistic.
 
True.
And chances that such a scenario could happen are.......slim.
But history is full of surprises.
Who knows?
 
Indeed, it is a story, "It's meant to be unrealistic."
 
8:41 PM
So, @FerretCivilization? Do you think that humanity has any hope of retaking Earth, even though the Visitors will probably exterminate humanity when they return and we will (obviously) lose? Or is their grip on Earth permanent the minute they conquer us?
Because I am trying to be realistic.
After all: I want this to be interesting, but also realistic.
So, does the Resistance retake Earth (only to turn on itself later) or is mankind doomed, either to being a part of another species' civilisation or extinction?
And I mean "extinction" in the sense that the Resistance fails, because humans will be extinct, even if the Resistance somehow won.
 
Well you have pretty much said that the military is wiped out. Resistance would be cut down in the same way at every advantage they get, unless you are pulling a Half-Life.
 
Well, correction: MOST of the military.
There are still remnants, but......they kind of......count as part of the Resistance, since the Resistanace is just a collective term used to refer to the various surviving remnants of national armies, guerrilla groups and local militias coordinating under the same banner.
Basically, the Resistance is a bunch of groups that are scattered across the globe working together to liberate Earth.
They have their rivalries and differences, but they have a common enemy: the Visitors and their GPI puppets.
 
I do not think you have told me where the Visitors and GPI focus on region wise. You have said they pretty much bomb every major city and most stuff used for air combat.
 
And in the scenario the Visitors are defeated (which like you said, is probably not the most realistic), that serves as a factor for them turning on themselves.
Oh. Right. The Visitors by 2030 are giving the GPI a larger role in fighting the Resistance, given that although they feel it is becoming a problem, they feel the GPI is powerful enough to keep it under control. And the GPI spans the whole planet, thought the Visitors after that initial bombardment manage to take a significant chunk of the globe by the next day.
That chunk being most of Europe, Africa, the Western coastline of North America, and the Korean Peninsula, Brazil's coastline and the southern tip of South America, most of China's coastal cities, all of Tibet, Southern Japan, most of the Northeastern coast of North America, parts of the American Gulf Coast, Australia's eastern coastline, and Northern New Zealand.
Other major cities that have yet to fall are still in an intense period of brutal and bitter fighting, not to mention the occasional kinetic strike at the tactical level.
And humanity has scored victories against the Visitors during the Invasion but most of them were relatively minor and those were short-lived. The only major victories humanity managed to score were the First Battle of Xi'an and the First Battle of Detroit. Unfortunately for humanity, these two cities fell to the Visitors anyway.
Usually, the next round of fighting, would result either in the defenders getting slaughtered completely, though inflicting heavy losses in the process or being forced to retreat, but not without trying to inflict as many losses as they can.
At this point, though, humanity's military forces were on a fighting retreat, desperately trying to hold their ground for as long as possible before attempting to retreat to another defensive position.
And this happened until the end of the Invasion, when the surviving military forces were forced to flee into the countryside and begin the process of fighting a long, brutal and costly guerrilla war across the globe, and these national armies (or what was left of them) were among the first to organise what would later become the Resistance.
So, @FerretCivilization? Does this all sound clear to you?
I wonder how effective this could be in the objective of delaying the fall of Earth in a realistic scenario.
And those two battles I mentioned were not the only major victories humanity has had overall, but they were the only individual battles where we had scored a major victory, albeit at a terrible cost to human life and short-lived ones at that.
 
9:08 PM
Reading that I am cheering for the Eleventh Air Force, and the 25th Infantry Division (US Alaska) along with the First Canadian Ranger Patrol Group. But yeah anyways with all that industrial might gone Human resistance is pretty much boned after a year.
 
9:19 PM
Overall campaigns throughout the Invasion included the Arctic Front, which was a costly victory for the Visitors, but a morale victory for humanity, and a similar principle applies to the Rocky Mountains Campaign, the Amazon Front, the Northern Europe campaign, and the 16th September Offensive. These campaigns, though not exactly human major victories in a conventional sense, they were able to boost morale given the heavy losses the Visitors had in trying to complete these campaigns.
Oh and I also forgot to mention the Levant, Persian and Arabian Campaigns, which also were morale victories for humanity, though again, the Visitors won militarily, albeit at great cost.
The Arctic Campaign refers to the overall theatre of war spanning the Arctic nations, and Northern Europe spans Scandinavia, so part of it should count as the Arctic Campaign, though the British Isles should also be taken into account.
 
Would they seriously go up there, they have cut off the supplies from the industrialized world, give it a year and most would be starved out or combat ineffective. The whole Middle East would be funny though, so many foreign powers are already operating there local freedom fighters or terrorists whatever you call them would probably not tell the difference.
 
As for the 16th September Offensive, which was taking place along Eastern North America (i.e., the American East Coast, Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and the Greak Lakes region), was basically a counteroffensive that the US, Canada, the remnants of the Mexican and Cuban military forces, what was left of the Royal Navy and what was left of the French Foreign Legion that was supposed to slow down the Visitor advance into North America.
And even though it was a morale victory for humanity.......guess how well that ended militarily speaking.
And NOTE: when that offensive started, the defensive line along the Rocky Mountains was already in the brink of collapsing, while the Visitors were preparing an offensive meant to deliver a final blow to the Americans and Canadians from the East Coast of North Amrrica. That offensive was delayed after the 16th September Offensive, but by then, the line along the Rocky Mountains was completely overwhelmed.
And NOTE: when that offensive started, the defensive line along the Rocky Mountains was already in the brink of collapsing, while the Visitors were preparing an offensive meant to deliver a final blow to the Americans and Canadians from the East Coast of North Amrrica. That offensive was delayed after the 16th September Offensive, but by then, the line along the Rocky Mountains was completely overwhelmed.
And the Invasion ended on the 8th of October of 2020.
Which began on the 18th of August of 2020.
 
The Danish navy got out of that fight, lucky Greenland, ha.
Though it already seems like you have that story all nice and wrapped up well then.
 
9:34 PM
Actually, most of Denmark fell on the first day.
And to be honest, Greenland is completely dead, along with Iceland.
No one has lived in either of these islands since the end of the Invasion.
They are completely empty of human life.
 
There is still a small Danish force meant to protect Greenlandic shores, as well as US military bases and unused and decommissioned missile bases from the Cold War days.
Though that would be unrealistic, if that is how you want to do it that is cool.
 
Actually, no.
I may want to change that.
@FerretCivilization? Any better ideas on what to do with Denmark and all those old military bases?
I did say I want to be realistic. I am trying my best to be.
Besides, those old military bases in Iceland may not have time to be properly reused or even reused at all, since Iceland has no military, so the chances are that Iceland may still be completely depopulated.
@FerretCivilization? How do you think a more realistic scenario would play out in Denmark, Iceland and Greenland?
 
Mainland Denmark would still be gone, the Danish navy would probably only have one ship along with their 10... Oh God what is their name, something Dog Sled patrol. And while their only city would be gone, I imagine the natives would be doing just fine with what they always have done.
And those old military bases could be a hope spot, since they are unused they probably would not be bombed like the ones in use. Or nothing could come of it, since reaching those places with planes or big ships would be near impossible.
 
Especially if the Visitors can shoot them down with drones or even bomb them from orbit once they are operational.
Hmmmmm. Wait a minute. What about Iceland?
Is it going to survive past the first day of the Invasion or is it empty of human life like I originally planned?
 
Indeed, that is why I use hope spot, though I doubt the Visitors would know it was operational until a missile was fired. Because I doubt anyone would say it over electronic communications.
And Iceland, they have a navy... That would be dead. There are wild regions of Iceland small groups could sustain themselves with. The outside world would probably call them all dead though.
 
9:48 PM
Exactly.
Perhaps by the time they find out people survived in Iceland, the outside world may be correct.
Hmmmmm. So, in a realistic scenario, there would be no Resistance to fight back against the GPI and their Visitor masters by 2030?
Or is that a possibility, albeit somewhat optimistic?
You know: the Resistance fighting against the Visitors 10 years after the Invasion?
 
They would not have a enough important resources to fight, like medicine, fuel, and guns with ammunition. Depending on the area food and water would be a problem.
 
Well, good point. But remember: the Resistance is not a single group.
It is a bunch of groups that are coordinated under the same banner and work together in order to retake Earth from the Visitors and overthrow the GPI.
 
Would not matter much, the industrialized world has been bombed in Hell and is now largely under control of enemy forces. So where would the resupply come from.
 
@FutureHistorian It is a possibility.
 
They conduct joint operations, when possible, provide each other with key intel, coordinate attacks, assassination attempts, ambushes, etc.
Explain, @Bellerophon.
Because @FerretCivilization thinks the Resistance would not last very long after the Invasion.
 
9:56 PM
@FutureHistorian It is really, really hard to beat a guerrilla force.
 
After all: he does make a good point about resupply.
 
With what, barely holding together M4's from 2018
 
@FerretCivilization If they have to. You use whatever weapons you can get. Besides, there will be someone willing to sell you weapons for enough money.
 
@Bellerophon makes a good point, though so does @FerretCivilization.
 
Or you nick the enemies ammo and supplies wherever you can.
Make weapons yourself.
 
9:58 PM
And there is the black market, and possibly you can modify existing weapons + steal GPI weapons for use in getting the parts needed to make your own versions of their weapons or even use their own weapons.
 
@Bellerophon That would be true when you are dealing with people, probably could compare it to the Middle East and how they get all their weapons. But that comes from a logistical beauty that we have today. Cut the Americas off from Eurasia, Africa off from the world, don't even go into the poor Pacific. Local resources go only so far.
 
Exactly.
And civilisation as we know it is.....,.gone come to think of it.
 
@FerretCivilization There will still be weapons around if they are fighting the GPI. They can take those. If someone is making weapons for the GPI then someone will be willing to sell a few of those weapons to slightly less legal buyers.
 
By the end of the Invasion, there is not one major city standing, and only a few may be rebuilt. Most major cities that were destroyed (aka: all of them) will probably be abandoned for LONG time.
 
Indeed, but how many people would that supply before it becomes noticeable. The rebellion would only get like 100 really well supplied people and that would be if they had what the supplier wanted.
 
10:03 PM
@FerretCivilization That's still weaponry. You only need a few people to have a guerrilla campaign. Also, there will be weapon smugglers in most weapon factories so local groups will probably all get different supplies.
 
Exactly.
Then again, it is a lot cheaper to make less efficient versions of our conventional weapons than to purchase the more advanced GPI weapons from some black market dealer.
Or is it the other way around?
I am just pointing out that it could be easier to make or modify an old AK-47 than it could be to buy a stolen GPI coilgun from some black market dealer.
 
Well they also need medicine and/or food with water depending on how serious the group was and if the people were known and wanted.
I mean, would the aliens really be that stupid to be like, okay let's start having this violent natives start making our weapons.
 
Or is the other way around? @Bellerophon and @FerretCivilization?
After all: which is a cheaper alternative: making an AK-47 or M4 by hand or buying a coilgun from some black market dealer?
 
@FerretCivilization Food you grow, water you get from streams.
 
Along with possibly the power source and coolant, if needed?
Or wells, rain and the like.
 
10:07 PM
Medicine you make what you can and do your best.
 
Probably be easier to get a still good AK-47. The aliens probably would not be making their weapons here.
More people, the more land. Water is good when you have a stream, Desert rebels would have to near impossible to operate then.
 
@Bellerophon? Which is cheaper: making an old AK-47 using only what you have available or buying a GPI coilgun from some black market dealer?
 
@FerretCivilization Sure, deserts would be a dumb place to be a rebel.
 
Well, even an old AK-47 could be a good weapon, given proper maintenance and modifications.
And repairs.
 
You want places that limit the use of advanced tech so forests and mountains. Maybe swamps.
 
10:09 PM
The problem is getting the replacement parts.
 
@FutureHistorian AK47 probably.
 
Well Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada for the US, non-Tropical Mexico. Forget most of Australia, that desert in China, and most of Africa.
 
Less likely to break.
@FerretCivilization That still leaves most of the world.
 
Then again, most major cities are still abandoned, so those places could be full of replacement parts and scrap for whatever weapons you can make or modify.
 
How much of that world would be open to operate in, as most of the rest of the world has been heavily built up. And in this scenario, bombed down.
 
10:12 PM
Anywhere people can currently live by farming the rebels could live. So most of Africa is doable with wells.
 
That is my point. It is easier to make or modify pre-Invasion era conventional weapons than to buy GPI coilguns from some black market dealer.
After all: an M4 may be more expensive than an AK-47, but still cheaper than a GPI coilgun.
 
Farming areas are great for living, then they need to import their weapons and non-organic supplies. Which takes fuel.
 
@FerretCivilization They don't need much room. It's not going to be a huge group, they're small local forces.
 
And fuel is scarce, hmmmm?
Then again, you still have other non-fossil fuel-related means of transportation.
@Bellerophon? That is most of the Resistance. The larger groups are the surviving national armies.
 
Small local forces would never have the problems yeah, but they would never win either, so it would just be a story of the forever hopeless war.
 
10:15 PM
@FerretCivilization Of course they won't win.
They just won't be wiped out.
At least, it will take decades to wipe them out.
 
And the longer they operate the more likely that they would be found and have even less numbers. Or their suppliers would be found.
 
@FerretCivilization Yes, most of the groups will be found and killed, particularly early on but there will still be resistance groups around.
 
After all: in the former US, there are still a few Army, Marine and National Guard units operating in the countryside as a guerrilla force, and Russia's military, along with China's PLA, Indonesia's TNI, the British Army, the French Foreign Legion, Brazil's IPA, some Mossad, CIA and MSS agents are still operating, though those last ones are meant to serve as infiltrators, meant to gather intelligence from inside the GPI.
 
Indeed, that would be the most realistic scenario if the Visitors were keeping Humans around.
 
The interesting part is that these few groups have seen action against the Visitors and are all veterans from the Invasion.
 
10:18 PM
@FutureHistorian RIP Aussie's SASR
 
Obviously.
MSS = Ministry of State Security, which in this case, refers to China's intelligence agency.
 
That would have been the one group I could see making use of the desert to their advantage.
Also the Canadians still have their big open North.
 
@FutureHistorian I doubt proper militaries will survive. At least, not in any recognisable form. Think more of terrorist type groups. No fixed infrastructure, no high tech stuff.
 
I know that.
These are just their remnants.
Still disorganised early on, but they can catch their breath for a while, but by 2030, these national armies are still around, but at this point, they kind of operate less like a conventional army and more like the rest of the Resistance groups.
 
Most groups of soldiers wouldn't be in contact with each other unless they are on a local level.
 
10:23 PM
After all: conventional fighting ended horribly for them, so it is time for Plan B.
True.
Still, what do you mean by "at the local level"?
As in: across a certain region, or just to within a few hundred km from each other?
 
Close enough that someone on horseback could deliver the Pony Express, ha.
 
As in: say......can the 1st Marine Division in Western North America contact other surviving units in the region or are they going to have to operate within a specific chunk of that region?
Well, what remains of it.
 
@FutureHistorian They would have to know of each others existence. I assume most electronic communication is gone so they are only going to be able to communicate within travelling distance. Possibly groups that have met up could communicate with radio but they would have to meet first.
 
Given that the Visitors already tapped all communications, they would have to learn to avoid the radio.
 
@FutureHistorian Depends, do they know the others are their and how close are the others?
 
10:28 PM
So, unless the Resistance can dupe the Visitors into thinking that Resistance transmissions are GPI transmissions, which I am not certain is even possible, then the Resistance will be unable to coordinate at a global level?
 
@FutureHistorian Even a national level is a stretch.
 
hey there @Bellerophon @FerretCivilization
 
Because by 2030, I was thinking that the Resistance could find a way to coordinate at the global level, though how effective that is will be up for debate.
 
Hi Shalvenay.
 
And how they are even able to do so is also up for debate.
 
10:29 PM
And remember, even if one group figures out how to use radio safely the information on how to use it would have to spread word of mouth.
 
how're things going?
 
They are going, you?
 
alright here
@FutureHistorian -- how do you propose that the Visitors be able to tap all communications BTW?
there are three problems I see with that assumption already
 
So if one bloke figures it out any resistance groups that are in his area will learn it from him and be able to communicate. Eventually the knowledge might spread between close together groups but not across oceans or impassable mountains.
 
@FutureHistorian Have the Transatlantic and TransPacific cables been cut or destroyed?
 
10:32 PM
first off -- how would they get past physical layer interception barriers (mostly in military applications, where Low Probability of Intercept spread spectrum techniques are in widespread use already)?
(there's also the issue of trying to tap highly directional links such as beamed microwave and free-space laser transmissions)
second -- crypto. grabbing a big bucket of encrypted bits is useless if you don't have a) the keys or b) the ability to crack the crypto -- how good are the Visitors at codebreaking?
and third -- human languages. do they have something akin to universal translators? how hard would it be to fool them by talking in a rare or revived (returned from extinction) language?
 
@Shalvenay How are resistance groups thousands of miles apart who likely don't know each others location going to set up directional communications and coded messages?
@FutureHistorian The only way you could do it is say there were some pre arranged communication plans that the visitors didn't know about.
 
@Bellerophon I'm trying to see where the limits of the Visitors' capabilities are set here -- the logistics are a separate issue
 
I would also have to kind of agree with Shalvenay here, since how would the Visitors be able to get into it in the first place to wipe out the military. Then after a while the logistics of rebels using it would come up. But I understand for the stories sake it makes the aliens the big hard to outwit bad. Also gives hope that Humans could do the same to the aliens.
 
Get into what?
 
Military communications before the invasion begins.
 
10:43 PM
Would the military communication networks survive?
 
@Bellerophon there'd be a lot of strategic/logistical networks that'd be out of service, but I suspect tactical radio comms would still be functional since those are designed to work in the absence of an established backhaul infrastructure
 
Depends on the form, and destroying it is not getting into it, which leaves a lot of secret bunkers and missile bases still operational just without communications.
Early days I could imagine old school Morse code being used too where the lines were still connected.
 
I thought the Visitors destroyed all the bases and bunkers? @FutureHistorian?
 
Yeah they did, which means they had access to their communications to locate them.
 
So military networks are risky for the resistance. Radio probably o.k.
But only helpful for groups that already know of one another.
Goodnight.
 
10:49 PM
Night, ha, gave a lot to think about.
 
11:21 PM
hey there @JourneymanGeek
 
how're things going?
 

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