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[syvarris]

A regular bomb just creates a sharp, powerful pressure wave. A thermobaric bomb creates a smoother, but also powerful pressure wave - and since it actually uses up the air in the process, it then creates negative pressure, causing anything that survived the initial pressure wave to be immediately stressed in the other direction, causing severe ruptures.

Ah, okay, thanks.  I still have doubts about how effective it'll be against a creature that reshapes itself constantly, but I really don't know, and it doesn't seem like it's any less powerful in the incineration aspect than a normal bomb.  I guess it might be more damaging to our own structures though.

I've been messing around and I made a thing.
 
http://www.mediafire.com/download/fr87la5g4f1eybg/Pre-Jump+Panic.mp3

If people have any interest in more, I can make more.

That is certainly a thing.  Sounds decent, although it's too... slow?  One-dimensional?  I was expecting something more suited to the 'panic' in the title; The first twenty seconds sounds like it's really building to something, and then it's just underwhelming.

What'd you use to make it?

[piecewise]

A regular bomb just creates a sharp, powerful pressure wave. A thermobaric bomb creates a smoother, but also powerful pressure wave - and since it actually uses up the air in the process, it then creates negative pressure, causing anything that survived the initial pressure wave to be immediately stressed in the other direction, causing severe ruptures.

Ah, okay, thanks.  I still have doubts about how effective it'll be against a creature that reshapes itself constantly, but I really don't know, and it doesn't seem like it's any less powerful in the incineration aspect than a normal bomb.  I guess it might be more damaging to our own structures though.

I've been messing around and I made a thing.
 
http://www.mediafire.com/download/fr87la5g4f1eybg/Pre-Jump+Panic.mp3

If people have any interest in more, I can make more.

That is certainly a thing.  Sounds decent, although it's too... slow?  One-dimensional?  I was expecting something more suited to the 'panic' in the title; The first twenty seconds sounds like it's really building to something, and then it's just underwhelming.

What'd you use to make it?

Fract osc. I'm rather limited on what I can use, but being completely musically inept means thats probably a good thing. I'm working on others, learning how the program works and what sounds good, so hopefully others will sound better.

[Parisbre56]

I was searching around for Thermobaric Explosives and somehow ended up discovering there's a thing called Nano-thermite.

@piecewise: It's OK. Kinda reminds me of the menu music of those old NES games.

Now I feel the urge to make a retro flash game where you control a drop-pod as it descends.

[Tavik Toth]

I've been messing around and I made a thing.
 
http://www.mediafire.com/download/fr87la5g4f1eybg/Pre-Jump+Panic.mp3

If people have any interest in more, I can make more.

Reminds me of Old!Xcom's music.

[piecewise]

I was searching around for Thermobaric Explosives and somehow ended up discovering there's a thing called Nano-thermite.

@piecewise: It's OK. Kinda reminds me of the menu music of those old NES games.

Now I feel the urge to make a retro flash game where you control a drop-pod as it descends.

Semi-related second try.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x23d1dWwkPA

[Radio Controlled]

Drop pod goodness.

[Doomblade187]

I was searching around for Thermobaric Explosives and somehow ended up discovering there's a thing called Nano-thermite.

@piecewise: It's OK. Kinda reminds me of the menu music of those old NES games.

Now I feel the urge to make a retro flash game where you control a drop-pod as it descends.

Semi-related second try.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x23d1dWwkPA

I like it!

Is FractOsc an online thing, is it free, or both?

For context, I've toyed a bit with LMMS, but this sounds like it might have potential for fun doodling.

On that note, does anyone here know anything about music software?

[Parisbre56]

Someone that works with music told me he uses a program called Cubase once, but I've never used it so I can't really tell you much about it.

[piecewise]

I was searching around for Thermobaric Explosives and somehow ended up discovering there's a thing called Nano-thermite.

@piecewise: It's OK. Kinda reminds me of the menu music of those old NES games.

Now I feel the urge to make a retro flash game where you control a drop-pod as it descends.

Semi-related second try.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x23d1dWwkPA

I like it!

Is FractOsc an online thing, is it free, or both?

For context, I've toyed a bit with LMMS, but this sounds like it might have potential for fun doodling.

On that note, does anyone here know anything about music software?

It's a game with a synth system built in. It's free if you torrent it. I got it on like 80% off on a sale so it was like 2.75 for me.  The game itself is pretty neat, a puzzle game with a really great sense of scale and alien surroundings. The synth program is pretty limited, but it's simple and good for a naive dabbler like me.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Rarely, but they do exist. More then likely you'll see them with local governments, ones that aren't using rockets and hard suits and giant synthflesh things for almost everything.

Could you give an explanation as to why this is? Is it because threats that aren't dealt with through orbital bombardment are engaged at close range?

Also, what do you mean exactly with 'rockets' in this context? Guided missiles, stuff like LESHO?

I think it's because of the "established superiority" principle that drives also things like Battletech, Gundams, and the like.

A tank is an armored box. It has its strengths, but as a fighting unit it's inflexible and limited in its capacities. A gunship is flexible and powerful, but by necessity fragile. By comparison, a synthflesh body in a MkIII suit can fly, is agile and small enough to be a hard target, can tank serious damage if it is hit, and can use weapons powerful enough to tear tanks and gunships in two. A battlesuit can tank as much damage as a tank, and is almost as agile as a gunship, while wielding similarly destructive weaponry. That's before we take manipulators and amps into account - tanks can't avoid being hit by even a microwave amp because they're not agile, and gunships can't take much damage at all - plus a gravity or mass manipulator can effectively ground them permanently.

Pretty much, the UWM has access to things that are as powerful, but smaller and more flexible, than conventional vehicles. Tanks, aircraft and gunships are pretty much rendered obsolete nowadays, so the only places they are in use in are various technology-locked planets that the UWM controls.

[Radio Controlled]

Pretty much, the UWM has access to things that are as powerful, but smaller and more flexible, than conventional vehicles. Tanks, aircraft and gunships are pretty much rendered obsolete nowadays.

Except cost. Conventional vehicles are much cheaper to produce and maintain. When your dominance over your enemy is so total that you can afford to overspend/overdesign, then that's not a problem. But on a pure cost/efficiency basis, conventional vehicles/aircraft win out.

Secondly, stuff like gunships have a longer 'staying power' compared to stuff like a Mk III (e.g. How much fuel could a Mk.III really carry? Could you support a drawn out firefight with one?). But I think most 'real life' concerns like these are just handwaved too much to truly matter.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Pretty much, the UWM has access to things that are as powerful, but smaller and more flexible, than conventional vehicles. Tanks, aircraft and gunships are pretty much rendered obsolete nowadays.

Except cost. Conventional vehicles are much cheaper to produce and maintain. When your dominance over your enemy is so total that you can afford to overspend/overdesign, then that's not a problem. But on a pure cost/efficiency basis, conventional vehicles/aircraft win out.

Cost-efficiency maybe, but their survivability is terrible, especially in smaller engagements. One on one, a tank can be beaten by a Sod. Two Sods at most. Plus if you think navigating a corridor in a battlesuit is tough, an MBT is going to have even more trouble. Maybe if there was an all-out war, hundreds of tanks and aircraft against dozens of battlesuits and flying space wizards in an open field, the cost-efficiency could show, but they are plainly unsuited to the sort of tasks the more flexible units are required to perform. When a single guy with a cheap exoskeleton and a Gauss Cannon can cripple both a tank and a Battlesuit with a good hit, your best bet to dispatch him is probably not a lumbering tracked vehicle.

Considering that open-field (or even open-town) conflicts are mostly resolved via nuclear bombs and/or orbital bombardments anyway, the regular combat vehicles are rapidly losing their natural habitat.

[Radio Controlled]

Still exams, so no time to really type out arguments and support them with proof and examples. However, a few points:

-tanks can be much more armored than battlesuits while retaining mobility, because tracks take the load better. Proof: lift and carry something, then put that weight on a skateboard and push it. Which is easiest? If we use tanks, they should be able to tank (pun unintended) gauss cannon rounds with ease.

-I have always said that battlesuits are not the replacement for tanks. They are heavy infantry support weapons, designed to bridge the gap between infantry and armored vehicles. This is important, because yes, they might be better in small corridors and tight urban settings (just like regular infantry) but they rapidly lose out in other engagement types. Such as medium range, or open ground. And who says all our (as in, ARM as a whole) battles will be at close range?

-yes, the UWM doesn't really need tanks in it's current wars. Which is exactly what I said: they don't need them in the type of conflicts they have. But we, ARM, will be fighting a different kind of war, than the UWM has been fighting for a while now, so it could be that conventional armored vehicles find their use again. Why should we fight this war on their terms, or only use the kind of weapons they have?

-tanks are faster than battlesuits. Go fill a backpack with rocks and run with it, then do the same with your bike. And tanks divide their weight much better, so they can navigate soft terrain better. That's just physics again.

-you severely overestimate the ability to dodge a shot. Ask a friend to throw tennisballs at you, how good can you dodge that? And even if you use computers to circumvent slow brains, legs are still bad at quickly jumping about to dodge bullets (you need to bend the knee and push off before you even begin moving. The second wheels start turning though, they vehicle moves). Unless you just throw yourself to the ground, which might work.
And if you say 'they could dodge if at medium range or further' I must point out that tanks are better at medium range or higher, a least when using real-ish physics.

-why would the tanks be 'lumbering'? If ER tech is good enough to gave multi-ton legged vehicles with acceptable speed and agility, wouldn't conventional tech also increase to the point you have a speedy, agile tank?

-in real life, there are already armored vehicles designed to be used in urban settings. For example: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMPT

[smurfingtonthethird]

In the words of a small Mexican girl.

Honestly, why can't we have tanks and battle suits? Tank'sd be armored as hell in the ER universe, and they'd make badass ground support for big missions.

[Radio Controlled]

In the words of a small Mexican girl.

Honestly, why can't we have tanks and battle suits? Tank'sd be armored as hell in the ER universe, and they'd make badass ground support for big missions.

Of course we need both! As I said, they each fill a different niche on the battlefield. I'm just arguing that we shouldn't exclusively rely on biped armored exosuits for our tank needs, because tanks do certain things better than battlesuits in terms of (cost)efficiency (and vice versa, of course!). I'm just investigating how useful tanks could be in our future battles (so we can decide how many recourses to pour into it). 

I never said we should replace battlesuits with tanks, now did I?