Long War is ridiculous because of “chain panic”. Off the bat, yes, the game is about killing aliens in an invasion of the earth. Not a very likely scenario in reality so a level of suspension of belief is already involved. For me “chain panic” is the most ridiculous part of the mod as it is contrary to everything I know about proper military training, senior NCO's, special forces and how a professional soldiers flight/fight response is completely rewired via all their training. I have PTSD, literally “shell shock” and have been seeing psychologist for 20 years and probably will be for the rest of my life. Wont talk about my own experiences but I'll use history, both family and military, to show why “chain panic”, even in a fictional top notch international special forces unit is … pretty ridiculous. During the First Battle of Bull Run an incident occurred that changed military training for ever. A Confederate regiment charged a Union position. The Union regiment opposite fired a volley. Neither unit had been in combat before. The Confederate regiment stopped dead in it's advance from the noise and smoke. The smoke cleared. Not one of them had been shot. It's not that easy for a normal human being to kill another for the first time. Since then proper military training has been solely designed to make this possibility psychologically easier. Today this is achieved by repetition in order to rewire a soldiers fight/flight response well before they even enter combat. Ever wonder why all recruits still do bayonet charges though you can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times one has actually happened since elements of the 101st Airborne shorty after D-Day. It's part of the rewiring. A normal fight/flight response has three outcomes. Run away, charge, or a moment of panic standing there like a stunned mullet before deciding to actually charge or run away. Proper training rewires the brain to give one and only one of these responses. Charge. The various ways in which this charge occurs is down to further training, equipment and situation. This is the how and why the early 3D shooting trainers, of which I was lucky enough to be one of the first users in Australia, evolved eventually leading to modern FPS games. How good is this rewiring? My grandfather was in the 2/17th. On their way to North Africa to join the 8th Army the boat stopped off in what was then known as Bombay. Some Aussies got into an argument with a local vendor and one of them hit the bloke. The locals understandably got upset, and quickly formed a vengeful mob. My grandfather and several of his mates, unaware of this situation walked into one of these mobs who walked to wards them yelling obvious abuse. No weapons, not even a pocket knife they still did what they were trained to do. They charged. (“B Company Second Seventeenth Infantry.” by Sgt. H. D. Wells.) Some months later the men of that same platoon of infantry stopped the German Panzas outside of Tobruk the first day of the siege with rifles, grenades, a couple of Bren guns and sand shoes. My father passed SAS training at seventeen. He had to to pass this course in order to qualify for Det 131 for his eventual deployment to Sth Vietnam in 1966 with the 1ATF. Most of that course, to this day, is about weeding out the mentally and physically unfit to find those few super humans who are level headed under extreme stress. People that fall to pieces don't pass. Amongst other duties Det.131 conducted three man patrols, with out a radio, and under strict orders not to use firearms in order to place microphones along VC trails without being noticed. A few months in to my Dads tour The Battle of Long Tan occurred. My fathers younger brother was in the platoon of 6RAR that got hit. 6 dead, 20 wounded. The platoon that covered their initial retreat, 3 dead several wounded. (http://www.6rarassociation.com/battlelongtan.htm) No-one whinged. No one screamed for their mother. No one screamed to get them out of here. Though every man s*** themselves, being properly trained, their training took over and none of them panicked. Not even when their lieutenant was killed. The men who died, died facing the enemy, fingers on triggers still pointing their weapons at the enemy positions. On trooper, affectionately known as “Custard”, was left behind wounded presumed dead over night. Relief patrols after the engagement heard nothing but silence. All Custard said when found the next morning was, “You blokes took your f****** time didn't yous!” Right. History lesson done. Got no problem with the game concept of psionically “induced panic” … I'm already accepting n alien invasion of earth for Pete's sake. Got no problems with a unit being hit and momentarily panicking and hunkering down, quite natural and understandable. Got heaps of problems with units panicking just because the unit next to them gets hit. As my dad told me about this happening to him in Vietnam after I asked him about war when I was six, “You don't have time to think. Your training takes over.” Got heaps of problems with this leading to a sole destroying chain reaction that cripples your squad elite soldiers and gets them all killed as this is exactly the diametrically opposite goal of all that bloody basic, advanced and special forces training and discipline in the first place. I've been using the No Chain Panic mod but it still isn't quite right. The way “chain panic” works in Long War is how civilians with guns shoved in their hands just before a battle reacts to s**** hitting the fan. It's how poorly trained militias react. It's basically how s*** soldiers, in s*** armies who don't properly train their men and use them only as cannon fodder, react. It is not how members of an international elite special forces unit should react under extreme pressure... even if everything has gone pear shaped. They're generally in a special forces unit exactly because they have already demonstrated they don't act like that under pressure. This is why I believe the “chain panic” and trooper panic mechanisms in Long War to be ridiculous.
