Military & Realism Information Section

[macguba]

Link to the locked thread?    And perhaps a couple of other relevant threads?   Always helpful to know the kind of thing you are talking about.

A new board always raises moderating issues.    I don't believe cost is a big deal.

[scooter24]

Hey Macguba!
Lol. Well if money ain't that big of a deal, get that board up brother ! Happy spending ;D!
Scooter24 :afro:

[dmakatra]

Here is the one that was locked:

http://www.ofpec.com/yabbse/index.php?board=22;action=display;threadid=21474

I was kind of "WTF?" because only a couple of weeks earlier I was allowed to ask stuff about Vietnam and the different units there. That thread can be found here:

http://www.ofpec.com/yabbse/index.php?board=22;action=display;threadid=20283

:beat: *Gets Shot* :beat:

[Grunt249]

So if the idea of starting a new forum section is out, what about finding a section to post a sticky topic where all current or prior soldiers can post their name, contact info, country and branch of service, and areas that they have knowledge in.

If you need to ask some info about, as an example, what are the differences between the different package colors of the US MRE's. You just look through the list and find a US soldier such as an Infantryman, or someone who would have most likely been in a field that required them to eat MRE's often enough.

Of course you can still post new topics in the mission idea section or what ever, but having a single topic with JUST contact info might provide a new method of searching for your needed information without opening a whole topic on that question. Would also save data space used by creating a new topic for each individual question.

Does that sound like a good idea to everyone, including the mods?

[greg147]

That would be good  ;D

EDIT:

Off topic, but I'd just like to say that this is the 150,000th post on this forum  ;D

[scooter24]

Hey!
You don't neccecerily need to have real life soldiers. There are plenty of civilians out there who know more than most soldiers like me about the army! Sorry if that kind of complicates things :-\!
Scooter24 :afro:

[greg147]

I don't think it really matters if the question is answered by a soldier/ex-soldier or not. So long as that person KNOWs that answer, and if argued with can prove it, then whats the problem?  

[scooter24]

Hey!
Thats not bad. A bit like writing an english essay. Using quotes (internet pages etc...) rather than just saying: "yeh dude da rusian conscript wud kill 250 bilion us, brit n french spezial forces!!! ow dum r u!!!" Then again if that was said, he might be right about France!
Scooter24 :afro:

[greg147]

Until something like this gets set up, if it gets set up that is, could someone start a topic on the 'addons discussion board', or would it just get lock instantly by a admin?  

[Grunt249]

At the moment, until the mods have had a chance to think about any options of opening a new area or just making a new sticky topic for people to post their contact info, I would just recommend using the current method. If you need help or advice on military information regarding an addon, post a link in the addon ideas section. If it's regarding a mission, post in the mission ideas section.

The problem I do see about continued use of those areas is that some questions might not involve a single mission or addon. Some questions might also be about existing addons, such as how to best use those units or what weapons and equipment best suit those units. But in those situations, I guess some might just stick it in the mission ideas area even though it's more of a question about how to use an addon in a mission.

This will be the final choice of the mods, but until they have made the call, I would not make any posts that could be locked later.

[General Barron]

I think this is a great idea. OFPEC is supposed to be dedicated to realism, yet there isn't really a place where you can specificially ask "what is realistic"? So as long as the board had strict rules (no discussion of politics; just discussion of military facts), then I think it would be great. Sure, it would be a little more of a hassle in terms of moderating, but I don't think that it would be used nearly as much as the other boards, so it shouldn't be as big of a deal. And I wouldn't want to see any rules about who can or can not post; it should be like any of the other forums--you say your opinion and try to back it up as much as possible. If someone doesn't know much about a specific military subject, that will show in their posts when someone who DOES know about it comes along.

If nothing else, then a sticky in on one of the existing boards would be nice, but I really think a new board would be better, since questions asked in a sticky are easily overlooked...

[dmakatra]

When are we going to get an official answer to this?

:beat: *Gets Shot* :beat:

[Wolfsbane]

*Ninjas his way in*

I'll give you my worthless opinion seeing as it's quiet right now.

I think it comes down to what OFPEC is about, and that's Editing.

T'internet is a big wide world full of information, paedophiles, perverts and donkey lovers, to enable us all to find out at the click of a button, what's realistic and what's not. Perhaps it's best kept that way, so that OFPEC can stay focused, even if it was only a Forum board or thread you were asking for.

What you could ask for, you could find probably quicker, by doing a quick Google on the matter.

It also means you'll get 100% (Usually) accurate information. Not dud information from some bum who pretends to be a super ninja warrior of doom, and is just using Google like we could ourselves.

[dmakatra]

Well, these information resources aren't allways that easy to find, or they won't give the information that you are looking for. Besides, giving out information on OFPEC can also give the advantage that users can give a OFP-editing perspective to the information. For example:

Hi, I'm basing my mission on operation blahblahblah during WW2, and in book blahblah, it says that two British companies rushed the blahblah front. This is what I'm trying to recreate. However, the book says nothing about how many men there were in a British company during WW2, and I'd love to know.

Hello there. Well, in the British X'th infantry division there was XX number of men in each company. However, that much units will cause lag. But I made a neat little script for these kinda missions that will simulate a full-scale operation even though it's just drop effects, thus causing less lag. Check it out here in the beta testing board: http://www.ofpec.com/yabbse/index.php?board=4;threadid=JustAnotherThread

:beat: *Gets Shot* :beat:

[ACF]

A thread of this nature was created (well, hijacked) over on the official forum - Realistic Mission Design.  

Off the top of my head there have been a fair few queries on OFPEC like 'what do I put in a briefing?' and a resource thread seems a far better home for that than lumping it in with 'how do I do an OFP briefing?'.  The biggest danger would probably be addon [realism] discussion spilling over into it.

So, the idea of having a means of requesting and sharing information resources is a good one but I would argue that it needs to be a full forum/board rather than a single thread where things are only going to get mixed up (I refer you again to the BIS forum thread).