Re: Citizen Federation Version 2.0 available !
 

Three cheers for a shipset that has a different "leader" picture from the "population" picture!

Hip hip hooray!!!
Hip hip hooray!!!
Hip hip hooray!!!

The rest of it looks extremely nice and promising, as well!

PvK

Re: Citizen Federation Version 2.0 available !
 

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif
Is this irony ?

Re: Citizen Federation Version 2.0 available !
 

Trooper, did you read the book from which is - extremely distantly - inspired the movie?

I find the book far more interesting than the movie btw.

Re: Citizen Federation Version 2.0 available !
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hey! So have the KanesS. OK, they aren't ready for download yet, but...

Re: Citizen Federation Version 2.0 available !
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hey! So have the KanesS. OK, they aren't ready for download yet, but...</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Well....? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Re: Citizen Federation Version 2.0 available !
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Thanks, but that's nothing very hard to do... especially when you make a screen copy of the movie http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ...

Pocus : No, I've never read the related book. Is it a comic or a novel ?

[ May 12, 2003, 20:08: Message edited by: trooper ]

Re: Citizen Federation Version 2.0 available !
 

If I recall well your email is at free.fr, so I will asume that you are french (as me). The title in french is 'Etoile Garde à vous', and it was wrote by Robert Heinlein. In english the title is Starship trooper.

a french URL on Heinlein can be found at
http://rocbo.chez.tiscali.fr/Max/sf/heinlein.htm
for others english speaking persons, you can at least see the author picture on this URL.

The original book is very distant from the movie. I must say that I was rather deceived by the film. This is not to say that the film is bad, but rather really far from the book.

For example in the initial book, the troopers are elite soldiers which all rely on heavy enhanced robotic armor. They have jump pack, portable tactical missile launcher, and are stuffed with high tech gear. Loosing one trooper is a big loss. In the film, it is laughable. You see hords of soldiers, some armed with small fire arms.

If you look at the intent of Voerheven (sp?), you see an action movie. If you read Heinlein, and know a little bit about why he wrote the book, you understand that it try to depict how horrible is a war, any war. If I recall well the book was aimed partly against the vietnam war.

Well anyway you should read the book. The troopers against bugs encounters are really scary. You really see that even with this powerful and awesome gears, the soldiers are only poor little humans which are governed by primal feelings, like fear and self preservation.

Re: Citizen Federation Version 2.0 available !
 

Heinlein's book is considered a classic in the genre. I have not seen the movie, but everything I've heard is that it bears only a passing semblence to the book (the title and the bugs).

The book is mainly set in boot camp and in the classroom (truth!). There are only two extended combat sequences in the entire novel - the beginning and the end. It's mainly a political and sociological treatise. I don't agree with everything Heinlein wrote in it, but some of it is downright prescient (and scary). In the book, he predicted the rise of predatory urban street gangs in the USA (remember, the book was written in 1959!), and that the Third World War would be the Russians, English and Americans vs the Chinese. Definitely food for thought.... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif

Re: Citizen Federation Version 2.0 available !
 

Before somebody jump on me, I went to a big Heinlein fan site. Seems the book was written in 1958, so the war critics put into the work was aimed not against Vietnam (it would have been difficult!, but against war in general).

Also about the movie, here is a commentary from the fan site:
"Starship Troopers" (1997)
Filmed by Tri-Star Pictures with a budget said to be in the neighborhood of $90 million, and directed by Paul Verhoeven. It manages to faintly resemble the action elements of the novel while missing almost the entire point. What elements of the political and social issues make it into the film are so distorted (a clearly fascist government, Sergeant Zim as a sadistic bully) as to make fans of the novel cry in their popcorn. A wretched mess, best summarized as "Bughunt 90210."

the fan site I refer is
http://www.nitrosyncretic.com/rah/

Seems that Heinlein wrote a ton of scifi books which I didnt knew about. Enjoy!

Re: Citizen Federation Version 2.0 available !
 

Heinlein raises some controversial points in the book (democracy vs. meritocracy, jail vs. physical punishment) which bear thinking about. More so now than in 1958, in fact.

Labelling the book fascist and sadistic is the easy, closed-minded way out. This is apparently what the script writer for the movie chose to do.

So if you haven't read the book... do so. I can't recommend it highly enough. I might not agree with everything that's written there, but I do recommend the book.