keir451 wrote:Ok, first off, a 5 degree temprature drop isn't actually that major of a global effect. Furthermore, the effect wouldn't be permanent and would at the max last 5 years. Krakatoa, which is the closest catastrophic equivalent in volcanic form, did affect a temperature drop of a few degrees for about 3 years and was only major the year it erupted, which was the year that is now known as the year without a summer. That was in 1883 and I don't know of any major die offs of cities and the like from freezing. In fact, the Little Ice Age (16th-mid-19th century) had a larger average global temperature drop than resulted from Krakatoa or Pinatubo (1991) and it is fairly apparent that we all survived that without too much difficulty. If you really want to argue it, the average global temperature dropped 7 degrees CELCIUS during the last Ice Age. That is an even larger drop in Fahrenheit, but there isn't a really good way to say what it is because of the difference in the scales and unfortunately, all scientific work is done in Celcius or Kelvin, which are equivalent scales. Saying that people cannot adapt to this is simply wrong as serfs in the 16th century did, and are (apparently)smarter than the CS or NGR. Also consider the fact that America was being settled during the time of the Little Ice Age and we did survive.
Steeler49 has the right of it. Why would the CS care about the 'Burbs (they typically raze them every so often anyway) or the Kingdoms of their enemies? Again we already have genetically altered plants and animals (we've been breeding them for centuries, how else do we have dogs, cats, and the "Tea cup pig"-5 years to breed w/out genetic manipulation). Weather? Ever hear of the Farmer's Almanac? Radar weather reports are the common standard TODAY (and the CS definitely has radar) but they weren't in the past and many races on RE come from Palladium, they KNOW their weather the same way our ancestors did, they lived it and survived it, else you and I would not be here having this discussion.
As far as painting a target? They will probably pause and go "OMFG, who did that?" and If they tried attacking we repeat the process to their capitol cities, Splynn himself would not touch that w/ a 2 light year pole. Bad for bussiness and all that old chum.
1st. The 5 degree drop is a example of how a sudden drop in global temperature can affect the environment and plant life in a lot of ways. Remember that the majority of plant life forms on earth need specific ambient temperatures to live, grown and develop into full maturity for it actually be harvested. An actual nuclear winter would see drops way more lower than 5 degrees, more around 12+ degrees.
2nd. Your example of Krakatoa just exemplify what I am saying. Krakatoa was a island, not a subcontinent like the Mexican peninsula, and it affect the climate of the entire world for 3 years. Just scale this up for the size of Mexico and the impact you have implied and you will see the results.
3rd. Yes we survived from 16th to 19th century but that only happened thanks to the fact that the drop in temperature was not instantaneous. The drop in temperature occurred over a couple of years, like any normal climate event. Time is the essential detail, since given time all life forms can adapt to its environment. If the temperature world wide droped 7 degrees in a matter of weeks instead of years like it was during the 16th-19th centuries you can bet that the majority of plant and animal life on the world would not have survived and with then we humans too would not have survived.
4th. Radar weather are the standard today for local weather reports not global report. In fact the majority of the weather reports need data from satellites so that they can be accurate, otherwise we come back to the age, like a few years ago, were the weather man announces rain in three weeks and we get blazing sun instead. Even if radar weather detection is accurate (something i doub) it will only reflect a small region, or in this case the CS territory and nearby areas. It will be unable to detect major changes in weather in the world until it actually happens.
5th. The people that would attack you will first attack your means to use such destructive force. In this case they will search and destroy your beloved orbital gun and later they will come for you.
6th and final. I am not here to disrupt Rats thread. I have argued that what you did in your game would result in the dead of billions thanks for the change in environment caused by such event you staged, since food production would be severely disrupted world wide.
For me that discussion is over.