Count to 10,000!

Skype has text communication. Skype allows to quickly and easily form group chats with little to no limitations (Drag and drop people from a contact list basically).

Voice/video group chat on top of it is just a bonus. My Metro 2033 admin group on skype has been going on for four years now. And unlike other rather obscure messengers like QIP or Jabber that I've been using since the 90s a fuckton of people use Skype.

 

3942

On a side note, anyone here interested in the Syrian conflict? Want me to post news about it?

 

Yeah, I've been quite interested in the developments there, especially regarding Russian involvement - half the people I know seem to be horribly misinformed about the situation and do nothing but regurgitate the "propaganda" we are subjected to, same as they did with the Ukrainian situation tbh

 

3944

Well, there are a few reasons why the Federation decided to involve itself in the conflict. The chief of which in my opinion are:

1. Protect it's borders: ISIS territory is closer to Russia than Saint Petersburg is to Moscow. ISIS has openly threatened to wage holy war in Russia and kill Russian people. It's better to burn this scum in the Middle East rather than fight a war on home soil.
2. Protect allies: Namely Iran and Syria. Russia has had a sea port and airports in Syria since the 70s. It would be a shame to lose that. In addition without support from Russia, Syria would have been overrun by now.
3. Project influence: By protecting it's allies the Federation shows that it can be a reliable ally itself.
4. Step in where the Western Coalition has slacked off: Doing the same thing faster, better and cheaper. At least so far.
5. Distract the world from Ukraine: Since the operation in Syria began not only the western media pretty much shut up about Ukrainian conflict, but the DPR and LPR cities were practically not bombed at all.
6. Showcase weapons without threatening anyone relevant directly: Launching missiles from the Caspian sea to hit targets a thousand miles away? Using fancy electronic warfare toys to jam drones, ships and planes? That made several generals in Europe get a few more gray hairs. And got the federation several very lucrative military contracts.
7. Test said weapons on acceptable targets: Self explanatory. Plus it's a live exersize.

 

Basically. I have an old chat group with friends still around from back in 2008 or so. The calls are just added on top of the instant messaging system. It's not the most resource efficient program, but it's pretty convenient, and most people I know have a profile. I always have it open on the side; it's really the most reliable way to reach me after my cell phone. You can set titles and pictures for groups, set who can join, all of that basic stuff, and as an IM it's generally pretty functional.

 

I see. Well, I don't know if I'd check Skype often, but there's no harm in trying something like that and if it gives members another place to talk then all the better.

 

3947

My Skype profile is komodo_nameless, add me when you have the time and I'll set the group chat up. Don't forget to tell me you are from the forums if you are using a different name on Skype.

 

3948

Not really sure if this is relevant enough to get it's own thread:

Today a Russian plane with 200+ tourists (Of which, at the time of this post, 3 were identified as Ukrainians, one was Belorussian and the rest were Russians) crashed in Sinai, Egypt half an hour after take off. There are no survivors.

A Egyptian branch of ISIS claims responsibility, but judging by the flight data available so far it was either a human or mechanical error (The most reasonable version is that the plane was raising too steeply and stalled, which caused the crash). ISIS in Sinai doesn't have missiles capable of hitting planes at that height.

A lot of the comments are naturally cancer.

 

3949

Yes, I heard about this too. It's tragic.

 

My sympathy goes to all the families involved
And honestly, it angers me terribly to see how insensitive some people can be about these incidents

 

3951

This isn't reasonable at all: Even if an airliner suffered some technical issue in the autopilot or a hydraulic failure which, for whatever reason, caused the aircraft to pitch beyond critical alpha and enter a stall, the thing would still be spiraling down 30 angels until it hit the dirt. They're saying it 'disappeared from radar,' but radar tracks altitude as well, and the narrative thus far explicitly states "was flying at 31,000 feet when it disappeared."

Modern pulse-doppler radars are more than capable of tracking an aircraft in a flat spin, let alone a non-flat but otherwise unrecoverable spin. The idea that the radar would not have coverage due to ground clutter makes no sense until you get down to around 10,000 feet, and even then, 30 minutes from the takeoff roll is not all that far from the departure point, which likely is or is within the control radius of a major international airport, all of which have significant radar coverage by necessity.

The only way for it to "disappear" is to be violently exploded into enough small pieces that civil radar systems no longer read them as tracks. Even without transponders, radars still pick up aircraft-sized objects in their assigned airspace.

One alternative is that the transponder was shut off, and that the local controllers didn't keep track of actual tracks but only transponder responses. This makes very little sense in of itself (unless Egypt really is that much of a hell hole), but would permit the aircraft to drop tens of thousands of feet without being noticed.

There's some mention that it started to "drop rapidly" right before disappearing, but that could mean anything, including detonation. Think about it: it gets hit, starts falling, and then comes apart.

 

3952
This... or it had a cloaking device! :sad:
But from the pictures, it does look like it's been ravaged pretty good.

 

3953

The ISIS needs to be purged from the Earth ASAP. I was happy when I heared that Russia started to kick their asrses badly.

I would like to show you the Metro 2035 Hungarian cover. I like it, but one thing bothers me story wise.

Spoiler

So, text on the back mentiones Homer from 2034. I kinda don't know when the 2034 happend. I would say that after the events of Last Light because of Miller sitting in a wheelchair. As far as I know, Miller do not loose his leg in the books, so it has to be after the events of LL. Then again, how the hell can Homer with Artyom then?

Anyway, I searched for the Official Metro forums, but I would guess that this pages the only one which is close to such a thing.It is a real shame.

 

Games and books are different continuities. Treat them both like separate timelines.

We are the official forums. THQ and later Deep Silver gave us the blessing.

 

Woo!officialness!
But on a side note, does anyone know the British release date?

 

3956

No earlier than 2016, but probably even later (look at the comments here).

 

3957

@Komodo Saurian
I know, it was a bit hasty post to be honest.

Today finally arrived the short story anthology, The Last Refuge. You can guess which short story I read first. Dmitry Glukhovsky's short story was pretty short and it was the last in the book. It titles as "Artyom's gospel". It is all about Artyom's thoughts about what happend in the end of 2033 and some of other things. Some of the parts in the Last Light intro, some of it's part one of the trailers. As I mentioned it is not long, but I have to admit this is a perfect lineup to the 2035, I can't wait to read that.

 

3958

Interesting... in Poland they released Glukhovsky's epilogue to 2033 much earlier, with one of the first few Universe novels that were translated, but to date we have not gotten the entirety of that short story collection. The Polish publisher seems to favour novels from the series instead (Piter, Dyakov's trilogy, Roots of Heaven, etc.).

 

3959

The latest news on the plane crash say that it broke up during flight and scattered over 20 square kilometers, US claims that ISIS could not have done it and the Kolavia claims it was due to an outside force, although their claim is questionable.

 

3960

There is a comic version of that if I remember correctly.

Spoiler

I don't remember that this contains that part when Artyom finds the little Dark One though.