The Unofficial Defcon FAQ

[Montyphy]

Unofficial FAQ
Modding
Defcon trivia


(Edited for more comprehensible reading; it's up to author what to do with those changes. -mod)

original text below:
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The Unofficial Defcon FAQ
(Broken link, last known version from the archive --bert)

Read. Learn. Enjoy

[shinygerbil]

KSTICKYTHX

[xander]

Unsticky Baelthazar's thread.
Sticky this one.

xander

[Taedal]

I have to agree with the above. This is clearly more comprehensive and useful to new users. Mods please sticky this instead for the good of the defcon community!

[shinygerbil]

If not, keep bumping.

[KingAl]

If not, keep bumping.

As you wish.

[NeoThermic]

Sticky! As requested!

NeoThermic

[Montyphy]

Yay!

[The Black Death]

okay

[ECOMCON]

excellent FAQ....

["KILLING KANE"]

Very good read... ZzzzZZZzz

[KingAl]

Indeed, because it's meant to be casual reading material as opposed to an FAQ.

[Eat_The_Path]

This FAQ is quite handy in a number of respects, but there are a few answers that are really just wrong, or don't make any sense. So here seems the best place to complain.

At this point you may be thinking that's a lot of data and that wouldn't it be a good idea to take snapshots of the game state every so often. Well, the answer is no because of the way the simulation runs, it has to know everything. Ever heard of the butterfly effect? The idea that a butterfly fluttering once can cause a typhoon somewhere in the world. Tiny events building to a big one. Well, a game of Defcon, when run in the simulation, is much like that, a fighter who, say, survives a 1 on 1 with a bomber, might go on to take out a sub who is about to launch nukes. And this is why it is so difficult to cheat in Defcon.

This really makes no sense at all. In the example given, a snapshot would preserve the fact that the fighter survived, and then stream events after that like normal. The butterfly effect is probably present in some degree in Defcon, but a snapshot could contain the intermediate effects of an event and continue on to the same end result, without needing to contain data about the original event. It seems to me that either this is wrong, or needs more expination

To quote NeoThermic on the matter, "They *are* correct for a spherical world projected on a flat surface. They are incorrect for the fact that launches over the poles isn't supported. Defcon uses Equirectangular projection. Ergo if you draw a line between two points, it'll be curved. Incidnelty, despite the fact that people flag this as incorrect often, it's one of the most correct things in Defcon!"

This is perfectly true... for a certain set of launch points and landing points. The fact of the matter is that how the trajectory curves would be different depending on where you are. If you were launching from one point on the equator to another, it'd be flat. South of the equator, the path would curve 'down'. The way Defcon handles it is great for USA vs USSR scenarios, like Wargames, but breaks down in Africa vs South America. So, not completely wrong, but not completely right either.

I'll stop nitpicking now.

[Montyphy]

Those answers were supplied by NeoThermic so I cant really comment on them but if you have any feedback or suggestions on the rest of it then feel free to make it known.

[Eat_The_Path]

Eveything else seems pretty damn solid, informative, and helpfull. Good work.