Fresnal Melee, SAS style

It was the last round planned for most of us, and I got elected as Element Leader… so I called for something totally insane!

I ordered everyone to sling their weapons and skip the tac aids – none would be used. We then inserted into Fresnal station and made it half way through one of the largest maps before taking any causalities. Cara died by enemy shotgun shell, after weaving into my line-of-melee, then COT died by the same suspects 12g, when the guy fired while being beaten to death by two SWAT officers lol.

Walker and I then moved on and continued to clear the map…. the suspects never knew what hit them. I made it until being killed in a lag spike, sigh. In RvS at least when you lag out, you’re hard to kill, in SWAT you just become bullet-bait.

If it wasn’t for Walker firing one LTL Bean Bag round into a suspect about to flee the map, we would’ve completed the entire map with NO weapons or tactical aids what so ever. And if it wasn’t for extenuating sircumstances, no one on our team would have died most likely!

Perhaps we are crazy as lunes, or just enjoy a challenge. With no weapons, one has to move fast, and SWAT 4 doesn’t lend itself to unarmed combat as readily as real life does; slow punching but 2m distance is not a good trade off. The real key to it, is mastering the angles involved in the confortation—and beating the enemy senseless. It’s even possible to take 2-3 suspects at once given the right stuff. Until Cara stopped exploiting the angles, it was an interesting 5-vs-1 pistols to fists fight for a moment on the next map lol.

It’s been a long and tiresome day.

Played some Urban Terror to pass the time, hoping that SWAT 4 would pick up some steam. I found a funny server running a Simpsons inspired CTF map. After getting tired of the “LMG Battleship” approach of going for the flag, and timing between the waves; I took up a picket position with an eye on the enemies secondary advance-point to our flag. As such, I was the only mook using solid cover, but hey, I was head huntin’ them blues 😉

Swapped my Minimi and flak jacket for a helmet and a G36, tap-tap at the enemies centre mass and follow up until clipin’ their heads resulted in fatal damages. Whenever necessary, I’d just move around cover in order to fire at the enemies primary and thirdary avenues of advance; leaving my sector to the run & gunners on my own team, and an occasional smoke grenade hehe.

Once I closed the game, I noticed that Duke, COT, and Filter had finally gathered, so I made ready to join the fray. I find the wolf in an ant-hill a good way to let off steam, but it’s ever so more relaxing to have a decent game with friends, especially SAS style games!

Shortly after Duke called it a night, it was time for me to make a beeline to dinner, exercising plan A. I stuffed my face with my usual zeal—I’ve always been an expedient eater lol. The Undefeated was on tonight, which I enjoyed. It’s especially nice to see, after so many years of brother against brother, ex union and confederate troops can still get along (and brawl) like brothers! Something that sadly, was quite a bit rarer in the post war years :/. Then again, between the pissing contest, Sherman, and the carpetbaggers, who can blame people for not getting along?

I also got to enjoy a nice 10~15 minute nap, and all this time, my laptop has been compiling updates; practically since I got home lool.

What a day at crockery design, inc.

Nothing like a late night to remind you that you’re alone, nothing like waking up in the morning for work; to remind you that your more of an asset then a person in your families bottom line.

I managed to survive work without to much damage, even got to be out in the rain for a bit after getting home (which I relish). Most of the afternoon was spent, well honestly I don’t remember much of it.

I did however come up with a possible solution to a small “Problem” I have with getting cwRsync to obey. Basically, I can’t make the S.O.B. contact the server (vectra) from sal1600. The idea is, instead of running rsync on sal1600 (client) over SSH to vectra (server), to do the usual one-shot daemon over encryption trick. Instead, make a script that causes sal1600 to launch a one-shot rsync daemon, and then to “phone home” to the server and cause it to trigger the rsync from server to client. The logic of fixing things under windows, the client doesn’t work, so make the client a server that tells the server to use a client like it was a server… ok, that’s just fucked up. I think however, with a little trickery to make it work that way via SSH; it will probably solve the problem. With much less pain then doing some kind of diff and patch crazyiness in place of rsync.

GCHQ’s also decided to re-elevate the priority on my fixing the mighty page. The basic problem, I’m a WO1 assigned to the “Special Operations Wing”, which belongs between the Commissioned Officers and the Senior Non-Commissioned Officers groups. Instead, I (and now Timbo, since his becoming a fellow WO1) was displaying at the end of the page, under the Vets list. It’s been that way ever since I ‘repaired’ a majority banaided and brain damaged bit of code that is integral to things working smoothly. Since I consider such a matter of ‘personal vanity‘, I’ve never had a problem with it being broken. But I reckon, those on high are right, it doesn’t look good if a high rank is listed below the rankless, lol.

In studying what makes the whole thing tick, I’m not sure whether or not it is just a huge crock of shit or a clever attempt at trying to produce faster code. Either way, if I ever meet the original author, I’ll punch the fuckers lights out. Then I’ll give each of my fellow admins a chance ^_^. While the initial problem was painfully obvious, finding ‘why’ it happens was not quite so simple. When I found the next clue, I got curious and began to concentrate further until the light bulb turned on.

When the light bulb turned on, I decided either the original programmer must’ve tried to tune every ounce of speed out of the algorithm—working under the assumption that every instruction is equal to the sum of their quantity, rather then their cost times their quantity… or it was put together by some asshat who expected it to result in a “Write once, run always, read never” body of code with no concept of software engineering.

Either way, if I ever meet the person, they will loose teeth if we discuses software-stuff.

On the upside, out of all of todays stuff, I did finally get some SWAT action in… with all the work I’ve been doing lately, it was probably 3 days since I got a decent game. Or should we say, around 15GB of encrypted network traffic to shuffle to and frow, ain’t fast and don’t mix well with games.

Right now though, most everything is done; whew.

Ah it’s been a fairly full day! I was having some crazy dreams, including many forms of transport but it was the end that really got me lol. At one point, I dreamed that I was on a ship sailing into a fierce storm, and being reassured by a Gary Oldman like figure that in his ‘experience, the ship never goes down until after the storm’. Speaking of that, reminds me – I missed the Fifth Element the other night, a movie I’ve sooo wanted to see lately lol. But anyway, something happened in the dream, and I ended up catching a rope between my teeth and ripping it apart. The end result was loosing about 4 teeth in the process, and being my unnaturally-calm self when things hit the fan :/.

I was very happy to wake up and be able to feel my teeth were still attached! The way I dream, whatever happens: I can feel it… very, very real, as if it was actually happening. I’ve also lost several of my adult teeth to the “Folly of youth” so to speak, so I know all to well what it feels like. That being said, even when I do dream, even if it’s something I’ve never experienced, it usually feels the same as actually experiencing it does lol,

Todays work load wasn’t to bad, not as tiering as I anticipated. I aslo managed to spend some time with friends on the SWAT 4 server ;). On the down side, as lead admin on deck, I had to deal with the troublemakers a lot. Only my strict-demeanor I think, is what allowed most to survive without a ban! The one that came closet, was fortunate enough to shuffle off before I could ban his sorry ass; since we’ve kicked the idiot about 3 times in two days, he’s not going to get any further warning! But on the upside, once the troublemakers were dealt with I got to kick back and relax, or as I told one teammate: “now that I can stop being a puckered ass of an admin”. Once it the server was under control, I was loose and flying in good form >_>

Also, whatever path current business affairs take, I have an interesting idea that might be worth exploring in the near future.

More [SAS] Dept. of Agriculture

My work on the ‘[SAS] Dept. of Agriculture’ is nearly done, I have only 3 rooms left to do major work on, plus the “special” insertions hehe.

The goal is to be able to use the fire escapes outside the records room to gain entrance, replacing one of the spawn points. I may also modify the front-entrance spawn, so that the team spawns “outside” in a armoury room rather then the reception area. The building is supposed to be a mock-up for a hostage rescue after all, not purely a traditional map: so it wouldn’t be a big realism problem :-P.

Alcomplishing those aims appears to be easier then I expected. The real challenge at the moment, is I very much would like to erect breachable “Barricades”, that will have to be shoved out of the way. Getting that working so far has been of no real luck.

[SAS] Dept. of Agriculture, continues

I’ve been working on the map some more tonight and have made some decent progresses. The thing that annoys me the most is how many times the rat bastard of an Unreal Ed likes to crash! I have often cursed about hex editing programs into the Nth level of DooM—if the editor for Unreal Engine 3 games is as bad as all the Unreal 2 games I’ve used it with, I will start cursing about hex editing the editors development team into all levels of the DooM II megawad: Hell Revealed.

I don’t really wish to comment on the specific changes here, mostly because I want the map to be usable as a Live Operation during its unveiling :-D. Needless to say, it is still the same map but it will not be the same. As long as I can get the stuff rigged up for the fire escape spawn point, I think people will enjoy the map hehe.

Got what’s left of this toe in a scolding hot foot-bath with some Epsom salt; I think it is healed enough that I can eercise on it but I don’t think it has been healing properly… nothing I can do about that though. On the upside, hey at least I’ve still got the nail lol. I’ve never lost an entire toenail before but I know it takes a long time for them to grow back.

At the moment I am finishing watching Midnight Run, I love the part when the three schmucks are being chased by the mobsters helicopter—and Mardukas (Charles Grodin) is shouting, “You two are the dumbest bounty hunters I have ever seen! You couldn’t even deliver a bottle of milk!”, it just tickles my funny bone xD.

Spent most of the day playing SWAT 4 as seems to be the usual for right now. During the early phase I basically had to get a bunch of inexperienced people under control, but hey – I like orderly tactics. And when I am Element Leader, people get in line or they get taken offline ;). I organized them into a basic strike, secure, cover group. 1 and 2 man would be responsible for clearing the room, 3 and 4 man for securing contacts and weapons, while 5, 6, and when present 7 man stayed in the corridor to watch our backs. Very simple clearing techniques. I found it particularly well suited for dealing with a large amount of untrained people, while trying to avoid the usual massive conga-line-of-sloppiness and massive headless chicken problems of such a situation. People soon got the idea, and within a few maps I was able to transition to using RED / BLUE team call signs for the two groups; culminating in a simultaneous take down of 3 sectors at once by a 7-man assault force (of which I was basically the only seasoned idiot). Later on after our element had shrunk back to a more manageable size (4-5 instead of 6-7), I soon was able to take a break when [SAS]_Trp_COT showed up and started his EL practice for the day.

Yesterday was a reaal cork popper! I have seen and heard a lot of crap over the years but I have never been so disgusted and angry in my entire life (thus far). It just took the cake and a half man… new record levels. And I’ve even seen a door breached and ripped apart practically by hand lol. That being said, the incident yesterday did not involve my blood kin in any way.

Maybe it is as the numeral unno says, just a week where everyone gets under each others skin… all in all though I am glad that I can be utterly pissed the F’ off and still be able to think clearly. I really had to learn at an early age how to deal with intense anger, my family is *that good* at pushing peoples buttons, mine included lol. The closet door still bears holes and knuckle prints from my hot tempered youth. We’re a lot of hot headed, loud mouthed, stubborn mules: and whether genetically or environmentally, have even worse then both my parents in that regard (That’s like saying you’re descended from lava and hydrofluoric acid).

One of the things that separates me from my family and many other people on this earth, is I can control my temper before it gets the best of me.

I just tried fitting my knuckles into the dents in the closet door, and I am kind of proud how far I’ve come since then… both in stature and control. I don’t go nova, I’m not a violent person by nature: despite having developed a put two in the head and move on philosophy of logical problem solving lol. I am the single most rational person I know, and strongly value c;ear thinking over lashing out at others (but can’t say the same about the rest of my family).

Perhaps this is one time, that I should be thankful for my family…..

[SAS] Dept. of Agriculture map

Last night I started working on a customized version of the department of agriculture map (SWAT4: TSS). Basically I want to make some ‘interesting’ changes but still keep it recognizable as the same building. My biggest interest of course, is in rigging a spawn point from outside and trying to use the fire escape outside the records room as a possible point of entry 🙂

I will also likely adjust the enemy spawn points and things and roll down the number of suspects so it is harder to figure out where you will make enemy contacts – and make it more realistic. The big question of course, unveil it as a training map or should the first unveiling be a Live Operation? Hehehe. I guess we will just have to see how much reimaging I have time to do.

I’ve been working through SWAT 4 more lately then RvS, and when I am Element leader, more often setting the advanced plan of action — the [SAS] style plan of action.

My thoughts is to expose the younger members to more of these fluid, embedding, and flowing assault plans: and let them learn from it by sight and sound. I hope it will eventually trigger an evolution of their thinking, because my demostrations are in the direction they will be heading in a few months.

I rarely care for the “Immediate Action Plans” that some of my peers will occasionally employ; little more then a liquid element full of flashbangs with orders to neutralize everything that moves. It’s too simple and while it may reflect a common infantry problem of advancing into the unknown or opertional boondocks, however it does not reflect most of our SWAT 4 or Raven Shield environments significantly. 95% of the time we have intelligence enough to form a suitable Deliberate Action Plan and more then enough time to get it put together. Just assigning a liquid element IMHO is best done when any element formation (period) is unnecessary, or the effort of creating one far outweighs the value obtained from organization. Just doing it without the on the spot corrections or routine training sessions, is also not going to teach anyone how to better utilize their time in a liquid element. Most of the time I look at it as a stroke of laziness.

A fixed element has some advantages:

  1. It helps build that discipline you only seem to get with rigorous close order drills
  2. It is very simple, that’s why it is what Recruits are trained in
  3. That simplicity allows less experienced members to optimize their brains thinking around the static structure of the formation and how they will be able to perceive the environment around them

While a simple rigidness is its greatest asset—it can also become slow and unwieldy on tight contested grounds.

Having to drone on through overly verbose loadouts and duty assignments (usually >5min) are the finest sign of either of two things: the Element Leader is still in the learning stage or the plan is overly complicated. In my experience the former is understandable (Rct/Trp/LCpl are still mastering it) and the latter is doomed to failure (effective now is better then perfect later). Not the side effects of a fixed element, only the institutionalization of young minds around them. Fixed elements are very effective and require the least level of experience to employ them optimally; yet this still leaves much to be desired in many situations.

Liquid elements can be highly useful:

  1. It offloads most responsibility from leaders to subordinates
  2. It can quickly adapt to changes in the environment
  3. And it can be very smooth and effective when utilized by seasoned members who have trained long together

It is also like a tidal wave, liquid elements may crash down hard and obliterate all in its path—but it may just as easily wash away under its own weight.

Because it offloads so much down the chain of individual intelligence and experience, it creates a lot more mental over head for those who have yet to adjust fully to the ebb and flow of an element in a close quarters engagement. Everything that was static and rigidly unchanging is now dynamic and flexing every second of play; using it with newbies or the young in general, often results in watching newbies at work. I can only compare a liquid element formation to taking a section of fresh Privates and making them all commanders of Stoßtruppen units, then expecting success…. not gonna happen without the training and the experience. When the element members are up to the task it is highly effective but requires a driving will to keep the tidal wave always striking, and never fading in the wrong direction. To often I have seen liquid elements lead to “sloppy” actions, because of the inclusion of inexerpeicned members in the liquid formation or just a lack of directive!

An assault element must be both fixed in nature and free as a liquid—it must flow through the cracks like a fluid and overwhelm the enemy.

Fluid elements combine all of the mental-optimizational attributes of a fixed formations static nature, but frees operators minds to further-optimize their collective actions, much as they must do (or die) in a liquid element. Often times when working in a fixed formation, I’ve had those “Uh, this is so F’ing stupid, but I’ll do as the young one expects” moments that makes me cringe. It is generally the sign of one who is still learning being in the EL slot, one one whose brain was institutionalized at that level, and has failed to grow beyond it. Elements must have fluidity – that freedom to optimize things on the run that fixed elements drop on ELs alone, and lead to overly intricate plans (Yes, if you are reading this I and wondering if your included, I mean YOU). Professionals should have no need a rigidness or “liquid” way of doing things: instead a simply fluidness of action that comes with experience.

I find describing my point very difficult, beyond a simply exposing it to light through action. It keeps the circle jerking to a minimal.