Joe

That my friend is a good question that's really a matter of taste and a few things like local carry law. For instance, I live in Idaho I can open carry any weapon I choose, I can conceal carry any weapon I choose and there's no silly rule about "printing" meaning if you see a bump or catch a glimpse of my handgun it's not illegal. As for taste, I always suggest more than 9mm, but for some that's what they can best handle and I'd rather you have a gun you feel comfortable with than no gun at all. Do you want a single stack 9mm so it's ultra small and comfortable? I'm a big guy at six foot five 290 lbs so I can carry a full size double stack .45 or 10mm and I'm not uncomfortable but it's not completely concealed in the summer months. In my private business and in my NG unit I do a lot of the firearms training and finding a handgun you like and will carry is harder than some people think. I always recommend the largest capacity, largest caliber you are comfortable with. The 10mm is amazing, the near size of a .45 round (180 to 220 grain bullet) but with a much higher velocity in the range of 1200 to almost 1500 FPS. The new Glocks with an RMR cut out on the slide are amazing, but so many good manufacturers are around now and offering 10mm that I'd suggest you research them. If your heart is set on 9mm I'd run the nastiest bullet you can find the Winchester PDX1 is a copy of their controversial Black Talon round which even at 9mm produces a lot of hydro shock. So I guess if I had to run a single stack 9mm it would be a new Glock with an RMR mounted for super fast target acquisition and Winchester PDX1's in the magazine. I spend 6 hours alone in one of my classes talking about bullet damage so this is a really abbreviated chat but I love helping people out who believe in going healed (carrying). I hope this helped you out, I'll chat firearms for hours.

Since I am basically retired (23 years U.S. Army 19 kilo) and now just do National guard duty I have lots of free time. Love my gaming (since my Commodore 64 and 1541 disk drive) but my mistress (my wife says another woman would be cheaper than the guns) is my shooting habits and firearms. I've got a bit of everything ranging from long range gear like an Accuracy International .338 Lapua, an M14 in DMR configuration to your standard "assault" and battle rifles like the FN Fal with an L2A2 scope, 3 AK74's (my fav is the Tula stamped 1986 Krinkov) 2 AKM's (one Russian and one Bulgarian) and SVD Dragunov (one of my favorite DMR's) 1 obligatory M16/AR15 which I dislike but have just in case I need to used "liberated" ammo off a government Brownshirt. A Gaggle of vintage sniper rifles M91/30 Mosin, Finnish M39 with original side mounted soviet captured scope, and a German K98 with high post scope. My shotguns include a Benelli M4, Mosberg 590 pump, and my favorite the magazine and drum fed Vepr 12. Handguns include an FNX .45 with an RMR and a Glock model 20 in 10mm (my daily concealed carry sidearm) with a model 40 on order. So I have lots of choices to take shooting but I'm involved in 3 gun competition and vintage sniper competitions. Lately I've been doing CQB kill house competitions too and really having fun. Long range stuff is one of my zen state art forms, the .338 is good about to about 2000 yards with 1837 yards my longest hit on a wild pig. Anyone else into serious shooting or working with guns in their careers? If anyone is in North Idaho maybe we could meetup and do some shooting on my private range. DEADTIME actual out.

Ended up going shooting all day today. Living in a sportsmans paradise I'm usually hunting, fishing or shooting but I gots ta have my ship game groove man! My buddies and I regularly stay prepared to invade and defeat Kommiefornia so we did a gear check today.

The potbs message board was a vile place. It was filled with some of the biggest D bags I've ever seen, it seriously rivaled chan4 in pure f*#k wittery and ugliness. I hope the NA board stays fairly civilized and doesn't have that message board combat silliness.

I just got witcher 3 for free when I bought a GTX980 I can download it now. Good idea

So I'm going to explode.....I cant freaking wait to play open world, I cant wait to buy every premium ship I can get my hands on not to mention flags and anything else they are hocking. I'm playing old games right now and I'm so boooooored! Wardunder....blahhhhh....world of jerks.....ghhhhhhhhh....I'm even dragging out TF2!....I was this close (picture my thumb and forefinger half an inch apart) to reinstalling World of Warcraft or some other mindless mmo....I almost stooped to playing mech warrior....I said almost. I bought ultimate general from game labs and finished it in 2 days....I'm out of choices here guys....beer and a SouthPark marathon, maybe the rifle range...yeah that will help, shooting clears the mind....send help soon! Yours truly, desperate in Idaho. Joe

I was going to go socket 2011 v3 but the DDR 4 ram was a sticking point. I'm waiting for the next socket to arrive and a new chip set and cpu before I drop 600 bucks on ram. The DDR3 I had from the i4770 rig works great at 1600 MHz with the new cpu and I just figured I'd wait for for the next gen socket and chipset. I spent about 1500 on this set up, I had a lot of parts from the last build. I'll be selling most of the old gear on ebay for money to spend on NA...premium ships baby! That and I have a bit of a Wardunder addiction. My son uses a dual 290x rig, not the 295 but the devil 13 video card with sandwiched 290x chips and 8 gigs of video ram. I just like the simpler single card but I'd consider the new 300 series AMD card when it arrives. I've always Been an AMD fan since the Thunderbird cpu was the first commercial CPU to hit 1 Ghz. My wife's gaming rig is a socket 2011 3930k set up, she runs a 290x AMD video card as well and her system is a screamer. I'm fairly agnostic with hardware I'll run who ever offers the most bang for the buck. I'm lucky that my military retirement and business offer me the time and money to afford games and gear like this. On another note I'm trying a razer keyboard with its own built in video screen, kinda cool to watch you tube or Hulu while playing a game. Just staying jazzed about NA....can't wait to play open world and get to know more of you better.

So I thought it was time for an upgrade so I did the newegg thing and this is what I ended up building as my new NA gaming system. 1. Went from a i4770 to a 4790k 2. MSI X79 GD65 MB to an EVGA x97 FTW MB 3. Sapphire 290X toxic to an EVGA GTX 980 FTW 4. Mushkin 128 GB SSD to a Samsung 850 EVO PRO 250 5. 32 gigs Ballistix ram...yea love the LEDs that show activity 6. Wrapped in a really cool Corsair Case that looks like a 40mm grenade launcher ammo can. I reasoned with my wife that I can spend another 3000 bucks on another firearm or spend less on some new gaming rig parts...I'll end up buy new firearms anyway as its part of my business but I'm such a hardware junky.... I'm happy to report no issues at all with the set up. Windows 7 pro runs great and my frame rates in most games are pretty damn outrageous. So Game Labs....lets get rolling on that open world!

Just checking in to see if any of my brothers are playing. Just drop a note and maybe we can get a group going. DEADTIME actual out.

Nice of you lads to forgive the wayward among us. I enjoy that the devs expect a more mature better acting customer than many other games.

WOWP was amazing in beta, then poof turned to crap almost over night and the toxic WOT players moved in. WOW will do the same thing, beta is great (for what it is) then they will release it, add a patch that changes everything and the WOT players will arrive...the uber leet haxors will rek you bro. I give it 2 months live before a post Mortem and time of death will be listed.

I was thinking oooohhh ahhhhhhh cooool...then I noticed that and I cocked my head sideways like a dog when it's trying figure out just what the hell it's looking at....

I suppose if my German crew and I lent a hand you might win a few battles.....just a thought.

Just reading about the negative effects the French Revolution had on its officer corp and that it was one reason they had a weak leadership chain on board ships. Many of the of the officers we royalty, related to royalty or just connected through friendship and this brought them into conflict with Jacobins who loved their guillotine. Entire fleets lost their officers only to have them replaced with unqualified sailors or even men who had no expierence at all on board a ship. I also found it interesting that the Gunners had what would losely be called a guild and this made them suspect as well and many of them lost lives or their position on board the ship. I'm doing more research on how this effected the ships crews but from what I'm reading many of the crews fought through a fear of being labeled traitors to the revolution rather than a love for their country. Mind you I'm not calling Frenchman cowards, far from it I'm just thinking out loud about how the revolution effected their navy.

The NA equivalent of a Rick roll.....

Have the game on my IPad and love it but I was thinking...wow this engine would be great for a napoleonic era version.

Noooooo such a bad idea. Imagine a soc/guild etc joins a match they see you there and your not one of them....if they are "meta-game" players they will vote to kick you because your going to effect their game and their score. I'd say hell no to a vote to kick option.

My guess is they will either let you choose from a set of flags so you can pick what you want or you will just have a set national flag. But that's just my guess.

Oh goodness....I'd tithe a bit to good works that help others, I have a weak spot for children so helping the sick and infirm children would be nice. I'd set aside 1 billion for my son, to be given to him when he reaches an age that's not insane. I'd share some with my employees as we are more of a brotherhood. But really I'm already doing well (praise the lord) so I'd just love helping people.

Great reply, well thought out. Have to agree on the German army of WWII we studied their efforts in detail while in ROTC. One of the many great attributes the German army had was that soldiers were taught to think for themselves and thus loss of an officer or non com didn't freeze the unit in place and create confusion and disorganization like it would in many other army's. I always found it fascinating that some army's soldiers were preferred to be ignorant as it made them more passive and less likely to think for themselves they would of course follow every order (especially if they were threatened with execution like in the Soviet army.)

The formulation of a professional tanker is probably different than a sailor or infantryman (whom we nicknamed crunchies) Some of the things I was taught and fostered in my crew and the crews of the 3 other tanks in my platoon are surely the same regardless of service or period. In no certain order but that of what springs to my mind.(And I've been hitting the hooch tonight so in the morning I'll edit this) 1. Fighting spirit, and determination, a wish to meet with and destroy ones enemy. 2. Sacrafice, a willingness to place personal needs beneath that of fellow soldiers. 3. Knowledge of equipment, a thorough understanding of how your equipment works, the ability to use it at an almost muscle memory level of effort and the ability to maintain it at peak efficiency. 4. Command discipline, following orders and staying within R.O.E (rules of engagement). 5. Unit leadership integrity, the ability of all soldiers or sailors to step up and lead regardless of rank and maintain unit integrity regardless of casualties. 6. Knowledge of the enemy, how does he fight, what are his motivations, what equipment will he use, what are his strengths and weaknesses. 7. Pride in and love of ones platoon/company/squadron/ship etc. I took great pride in being Cavalry, of wearing a Stetson with crossed Sabres and wearing my Spurs when in dress uniform. So a fighting man should cherish his unit or ships history and seek to add to but never shame it's good name or that of his fellow soldiers or sailors. 8. Meat eater, a certain willingness to and even hope for combat. A soldier or sailor who is in a combat unit or fighting ship and is a fobbit or a plant eater is of little use. Though on a large ship this might be possible based on the job performed and not be a hindrance or danger to his fellow sailors. 9. Strategic and tactical knowledge, how best to use what you have in a way that offers maximum kinetic effect on ones enemy. For instance the implementation of a basic L shaped ambush, when to use it and who to use it on. Strategic knowledge would be big picture stuff, but still good for even the lowest ranks to understand so they can step up and lead if casualties make it necessary and attain the goals aligned with the strategic outlook. In short a professional soldier, sailor, marine, airman would see his duty as a career not just a job. I've read that in the British navy when you signed up it was for life but I might be wrong. In the war of 1812 American sailors were on 2 year contracts, and as a whole, American sailors were treated better by their officers and had more rules protecting the average sailor from abuse. I'm sure some of this is universal to all branches of service and the era in which they operated but not sure how much of it applies to sailors. Im not sure How much of this an 18th or 19th century sailor would have or need considering some were pressed into service.

Thanks for the list, my knowledge of this period in terms of ships is very limited. Thanks for giving me a basic primer on classification.

Loved beta to early release, played it a few years. Hated that silly non consensual PVP, LOVED port battles. Had 3 accounts all had at least 1 character of level 50. The game died when the devs listened to a very vocal PVP minority and chased off the other players. The message board was almost as bad as chan 4 and lots of players treated others horribly. It was one of the most caustic boards I've ever seen.

The Admiral of the fleets "cabin boy" is a goat.

Well let's hope people choose to be adult and carry on a conversation. Let's act as if we are all in the same room sharing a beer and talking honestly and treating eachother with respect.