To the Ministry of Defence: Pre-Programmable Missiles

[Lionel Mandrake]

*tap, tap*

Hello? This thing on? Damn new-fangled fax machines...

Ah. Ahem. Found some change, don't worry...

Group Captain Lionel Mandrake here, assigned all the way over to America at Burpelson Air Force Base... bally distant place, what? And full of Yanks, too... and I must confess that I don't have much of a liking for the base commander, either. But I distinctly digress, chaps.

I've rather noticed something lately in my simulations of the global thermonuclear conflict that threatens to engulf us all, you see. Unlike our actual missiles, the nuclear warheads in my simulation seem to be organised in a bit of a silly way. Instead of simply having the flightpaths preprogrammed into their little telemetry computers before we even think of having a war, we all have to frantically start targeting our missiles once DEFCON 1 is declared. Which makes things jolly frantic, I'll give you. But it really doesn't seem like the efficient way to do things, to me.

What if our simulations encompassed the possibility of being able to target missiles before we actually fired them, perhaps before the actual shooting started? So that when the dreadfully nasty period of time when atomic bombs started flying around came, there'd be a big, red button to hit to start all the silos going at once. Of course, it wouldn't be terribly good for the survival rate on our nations, but it'd certainly put the wind up the enemy, eh?

I understand distinctly, sirs, that this would hardly be fair in normal simulation modes... but perhaps if an additional mode or an option in the panel to switch this functionality on or off was implemented, then our terrible nuclear wars might just have a little more of an element of tactical targeting and timing instead of the current rush to get everything into orbit and down again at once.

I do hope awfully that you get around to doing it, sirs. I am sure it would add an entire new dimension to our little make-believe that we're all going to die.

Your obedient servant,
Group Captain Lionel Mandrake
Royal Air Force exchange officer,
Burpelson Air Force Base,
United States of America.

[ShadowXOR]

Sounds like a good idea. They let you assign where you want your fleets to go before it hits the right Defcon level anyway. Personally I don't fire nukes as soon as Defcon 1 hits so this wouldn't really effect me, but a decent idea anyway.

[Foddmeister]

I really like your idea, Maybe it will make it into a game mode sometime. Maybe even have an auto nuke launch at defcon 1, As the missles are pre-programed, it would be like a sudden death game, With the winner losing the least .

[Lionel Mandrake]

I don't generally do so either, old bean, but it'd be jolly fun to have the option, what?

[skilletaudio]

I can see how the main point is supposed to be frantic gameplay once DEFCON 1 is reached, so we wouldnt just want 64 missiles pre-aimed, and just mash the LAUNCH button at DEFCON 1....

Middle-ground proposal between gameplay and reality: Perhaps each playe could store up to three "Targets" at a time. By this, I mean, while waiting out DEFCON 2, I could pick, say, Cairo, right click, "Set Target 1".

Then, come DEFCON 1, I could assign targets one-by-one, as it is now, or I could hot-select "Target 1, Target 2, Target 3".
Benefits: We get to streamline our attacks just a little bit better, without fully automating the entire war.

But, everyone has ideas and opinions. Thats just mine:P

[Lionel Mandrake]

I enjoy the frantic targeting as much as the next man, certainly, which is why I suggested that this should be an optional game-mode rather than an integral part of our lovely simulations of worldwide armageddon. It would just make a change to have a 'sudden death' game, as the gentleman above me pointed out.

[Michaeru]

To: Group Captain Mandrake, Burpelson Airforce Base
From: Gen. Mj. Lehmann, Ministry of Defense

I just wanted to say that I fully endorse this idea. Keep up the good work at Burpelson and be sure to always have an eye on Gen. Ripper. If he does anything strange like confiscating all private radios, report it to us immediately.

[ghengis]

I like this Idea!

Perhaps allow targetting at defcon 2 of Silos (all other nukes should be manual), and then give the option once defcon 1 is reached of launching all programmed nukes/this silo only/or manual launch(scrap preprogrammed targets). I know i prefer some of my launches to be decided after the initial panic when defcon 1 is reached and this would give me the option to do that.

Also agree that it should be a feature that can be enabled/disabled when setting up the game.

[Lionel Mandrake]

To: Group Captain Mandrake, Burpelson Airforce Base
From: Gen. Mj. Lehmann, Ministry of Defense

I just wanted to say that I fully endorse this idea. Keep up the good work at Burpelson and be sure to always have an eye on Gen. Ripper. If he does anything strange like confiscating all private radios, report it to us immediately.

Oh, I'll be sure to, sir. If I am able to, that is. I do have a great fear that if he did anything like that, he'd confisticate everything except the pay-phones, as well. And I have the most awful trouble finding the correct change, you know...

[Michaeru]

Oh, I'll be sure to, sir. If I am able to, that is. I do have a great fear that if he did anything like that, he'd confisticate everything except the pay-phones, as well. And I have the most awful trouble finding the correct change, you know...

You could either carry a bag of coins around with you or always have your gun ready to open a vending machine inside the base or to shoot Gen. Ripper if that seems appropiate. But as I would like to keep the chain of command intact, I will ask the Coca Cola company to install further machines.

[Lionel Mandrake]

You could either carry a bag of coins around with you or always have your gun ready to open a vending machine inside the base or to shoot Gen. Ripper if that seems appropiate. But as I would like to keep the chain of command intact, I will ask the Coca Cola company to install further machines.

I am sure that that would be wise, sir, but I'm afraid that I think guns are terribly nasty things. Got myself shot rather a lot in the last war, you see... bally Jerry while I was in my Spitfire. And General Ripper seems far more likely to be the unstable sort that would shoot himself, if I am completely honest with you... terribly worrying chap.

[Michaeru]

Got myself shot rather a lot in the last war, you see... bally Jerry while I was in my Spitfire.

There will be far more dangerous things in the sky, if another war should happen. Our bombers for example and I'd hate them being destroyed on the ground or bombing the Redcoats because of a psychotic General. Perhaps another round Human Reliability Tests is necessary.

[Lionel Mandrake]

Especially with that new classified set of orders... 'Wing Attack, Plan R', wasn't it? Of course, I can't give details, this may not be a secure communication avenue...

[palehorse864]

Brilliant idea Mandrake, I'm sure you'll go far.

I wouldn't worry about our chances though. Our bomber crews are the greatest in their field, especially this promising major by the name of Kong. Should we ever need him, I am sure he will prove to be a booming success!

[Majromax]

I like the idea, but I think it could be made even more general by integrating it with the time-on-target system.

At DEFCON 2 or higher (lower?), allow the player to pretarget nuclear launches from silos. (Perhaps subs too?). The player would be able to launch these nukes, all at once, via a singular LAUNCH button in the interface. Furthermore, whenever possible the game should arrange it so that nukes launched at the same target are timed on target, so that they all arrive at approximately the same time.

This would firstly give players something new to do at DEFCON 2, secondly fix time-on-target issues that players are having (since spending hours getting an intuition for travel times seems kind of unfun), and thirdly allow prettier organized mass-strikes. It would also reduce the "clickfest" nature of trying to overwhelm air defenses.