Would you be more effective if you had virtual training or if you had actual hands on training in a combat training exercise, before your butt went to Donbas…?
I have never said you should send the operators to the front without training. I am saying that it is entirely possible to practice all of that, using the actual quadcopters and comms systems that you’re writing about.
In a training environment.
Away from the front lines.
Without putting quads or operators at risk.
Simulating combat using real equipment.
You know, like soldiers going into the woods to shoot blanks at their squadmates, or going to the shootingrange to practice their aim.
There simply is no need for a sim, when it is just as easy and safe, to get your practice in, using the real equipment…
While all of that would be nice and cool, I feel compelled to ask, are we still talking about a drone combat sim that would be produced by 1CGS, based on a leaked 3D model of a quadcopter and a grenade…?
Maybe not- but maybe someone also made 1 + 1 and thought that if you make a game out of that you get players to play it- and at least some of those would eventually consider doing it for real.
Don’t forget that the silly game America’s Army did work literally wonders as a recruitment tool.
Ok, that is indeed a much more plausible theory. But I feel it is moving the goalpost by a mile.
A game that will be fun to play for russian youngsters, sparking their interest to become a military drone operator, maybe. This is within the capabilities of 1CGS. But that’s something else entirely.
Read the reddit post. Something, something, making a drone sim that will teach russians to kill ukrainians…
True, but just to play devil’s advocate. How many actual drones can they afford to ‘smoosh’ training the bottom of the barrel ‘recruits’ that Russia is throwing into the meatgrinder?
Someone pointed out earlier that the drones are cheap, 100s of dollars compared to the thousands that the munition costs. But, they will have tens or hundreds of thousands of RGP warheads or grenades they can strap to a drone. The factory in China can only churn out so many. IMHO the number of drones they can get their hands on is the limiting factor in their effectiveness, so for me a sim makes sense.
Also, further limiting supply for Russia, if that particular model suddenly disappears completely from the global market then Ukraine (and their allies) would then know exactly what they need to target - supply chain and ECM/Other Countermeasures.
First of all, I doubt they use the cannon fodder as drone operators. Second, the drones are so easy to fly that I also doubt they would smash any significant number of them in training. You just have to let go of the controls or with some controllers, push a button, to recover. They are very stable. Should you happen to prang one, they are also relatively easy to fix.
But as I mentioned before, 10 minutes in a sim, of which there are plenty already, to learn the sticks, and then go out and fly one. These quadcopters are the curse of the RC flying hobby just because everybody and their aunt can fly one, and they do so everywhere. This has led to restrictions for all unmanned aircraft, including the RC planes.
A full blown tactical battleground drone simulator, that @smokinhole envisions, is a far cry from a 3D model of a quadcopter and a grenade, that somebody posted on reddit about.
The link to the post can be found above.
I just don’t connect the dots in the same order as that reddit poster does…
Is 1C making a FPV battlefield simulator for Russia? We have zero evidence of it. But something is up. Having the two models in a Korea sim is a Chekov’s pistol. It makes me uncomfortable with IL2 but really no more so than I have been since the initial invasion. The game is an attachment to a handful of friends. I want to drop it but I don’t feel I can without breaking important bonds.
That’s pretty much how I feel about it as well, though the group of acquaintances that were playing IL2 has largely fallen apart now we’re all busy with work and family again post-spicy-cough.
In any case, I’m not deleting software I paid for just because I now disagree with the company that sold it to me!
I’m in the same boat. Flying Circus, on my PC specs and G2, is probably the best VR game I have (let alone flightsim) and I am not going to delete/uninstall it because of the studio’s current stance.
But, by the same token, as much as I would like some of the DLC and a Korean War sim I can’t in good conscience give them any more money.
Hold on, Troll was being the Devil’s advocate. So if you’re both advocating for the Devil, the very manifestation of evil then… okay, that’s honestly a pretty average lawfirm.
Well, if you want to compete in FPV racing you must turn off most stabilization features and need a lot of practice to stay in top, but you can still use your quadcopter to accomplish this.
There can be several months between my FPV flights and I’ve never felt the need to use the DJI sim that lets me hook up my phone to my FPV goggles and controller, to be able to fly. I used it mostly as a novelty in the beginning, because it was fun. Instead I just fly with stabilization and auto recovery, and as I feel more comfortable, I turn these off.
That I can totally relate to and understand.
There’s no doubt in my mind where the devs allegiance lie in this regard and I get that spending money in russia is in effect helping them in the war against the Ukraine. I’d much rather help the Ukraine… So I do that.
However, it’s not black or white to me.
Here’s my view on the matter, if anyone is interested.
Are the employees of 1CGS evil people? Are russians in general evil…?
I don’t believe in that.
They live within the borders of a totalitarian regime and are fed daily propaganda.
And propaganda works…
Take a moment and consider what this would mean to you, if you traded places with them.
Are you immune to propaganda?
Propaganda can be using a 1500-2000 year old book, telling you that you are obligated to kill people reading another book that is more or less the same age.
It can mean that you believe that elections are fraudulent so you storm a federal legislative government building, trying to overturn the result.
Proper propaganda can make you fully believe that you live in a workers paradise and that the rest of the world must be avoided because they want to hurt you and take your paradise away from you.
Propaganda can be used to persuade people that your cause is just and let you invade other countries and go to war for all the wrong reasons and ulterior motives like simple greed.
Propaganda has been used to good effect throughout history, to control the hearts and minds of people.
Propaganda can look both outrageous and almost comical to others, but makes total sense to the people who live within the echo chamber where it is repeated.
Does this mean that the people who believe in propaganda are bad people? Not necessarily, is my opinion. In fact, most people are not bad or evil. They are simply human, and humans are suckers for propaganda and conspiracy theories. I I dare say that we’re all subjected to and persuaded by propaganda in one form or another.
And then there is the globalization of economies… We are all more or less dependent on eachother and we trade across borders all the time. Russia invaded the Ukraine, so we shut them out to punish them. Fine.
What do we do if China invades Taiwan?
What do we do if the US invades Greenland?
Yep. There has to be a point where citizens must apply what minuscule power they wield. If that means disengaging economically from a country that offends our morality, we should do so; or better yet, reach out to our political representatives and request that they take a bite with real teeth. I believe that my country will begin to undermine Ukraine in small ways that will make a Russian victory more likely while maximizing Russia’s gains. Meanwhile Russia drags shipping anchors across European power and communication cables while America threatens to take Greenland by force. I fully hope my European friends will stop rewarding us by touring our cities and buying our crap unless they really do think an American/Russian world order is a net positive.
The part that irritates me isn’t that they’ve been manipulated to feel one way or another, it’s when people actively SEEK to be manipulated.
They turn away from any evidence, no matter how solid, that challenges the view they’ve picked for themselves, and accept wholeheartedly, with nothing more than a “I’ve heard people saying”, any fragment of a rumor that reinforces it. Then, on top of that, they feel strongly enough to act on it beyond simple votes or reposting rumors online.
I sympathize with those living in North Korea or wherever who have no choice but to hear a single viewpoint their entire lives. They literally don’t know any different.
I have no patience for those living in Western democracies who proclaim without reservation that what they believe is 100% correct and to whom there is no worse insult than being told “you’re wrong.” The people who refused to believe COVID was real as they died of COVID hammered home how astoundingly stupid humans are.
