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Friday Fun Thread for March 1, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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IMO, the best 'Starship Troopers' game is running around in the nuclear powered tank in Factorio and shooting off hundreds of mini-nukes or just pasting the bugs using the 70 odd tons and the energy shield.

(Yes you could load a hundred nukes into a big tank, even in the real world. )

Are you talking about the Spidertron?

Spidertron isn't squashing the bugs. It steps over them. You can drive over them with a tank, this is a valid way of dealing with most of enemies unless they're really thick on the ground / very late game.

I play with the Rampant AI and the associated 'arsenal' mod which adds some more flavors of weapons -mortars, miniguns, faster-firing rocket launchers, more ammo types and two more variants of tanks and cars - advanced and nuclear, which are bigger, heavier and have more slots / better weapons.

Well, if you're a fan of the book I can't argue that isn't a faithful representation, all the more if the tank has legs. The Mobile Infantry weren't grunts with assault rifle, they used nukes as primary weapons. And even fought super advanced alien midgets, assuming I'm not getting it muddled up with another mil SF novel.

Yeah, I meant the vibe of using sf or almost sf-weaponry -nuclear cannon shells or RPG warheads are essentially that even if they exist - to kill untold hordes of extremely dangerous alien bugs and still essentially not even winning because no matter how fast you kill them, there's always more.

Of course killing them personally in Factorio is not a winner's strategy, usually you just carpet bomb them with nukes and pave the wasteland over with defensive lines.

And even fought super advanced alien midgets

The opposite, they were tall lanky things called 'Skinnies.' They also jumped around with jump packs, powered armor and I think laser swords.

they were tall lanky things called 'Skinnies.'

Just to add context: these are the first enemies the protagonist is in combat against, but they switch sides and for most of the book the main conflict is the same as in the movie, humans-vs-bugs.

(for a loose definition of "the same"; e.g. in the book the humans are trying to capture a brain-bug so they can figure out how to communicate and negotiate peace rather than fight-to-the-genocide, whereas in the movie they want someone for Nazi Doogie Howser to torture)

[The Mobile Infantry] also jumped around with jump packs, powered armor and I think laser swords.

I was going to joke about you confusing Starship Troopers with Star Wars or Halo ... but I pulled down my copy to check, and what do you know, the protagonist cuts through a wall with "a knife beam at full power". I swear I just reread it a few years ago...