Empty, empty UNATCO - TTLG Forums

Eberon on 22/5/2001 at 02:52

I thought that UNATCO was rather barren ANY time you visited. Not only were there a total of three agents in the entire "agency", but there weren't even regular guards! There was the guy at his damned desk when you came in, the guy at the retinal scanner, and that was about it! For such a high security place, you'd think that there would be guards at every passage :( That sort of disappointed me. UNATCO seemed more like a small department store rather than a goverment operation. The base was just so damned small! :( Anyone else feel this way?

wsthune on 22/5/2001 at 03:09

Apparently all the money Walton Simons funnelled into UNATCO went to uniforms and assault rifles.

All joking aside, I agree it did seem extremely small.

Bogeyman on 22/5/2001 at 11:56

Yeah, and how come JC has an office and Paul apparently has to work standing up in a corridor somewhere? No wonder he left. :D

T0rp0r on 22/5/2001 at 23:13

well, we could assume that this is just a "paperwork" headquarters... ovbiously there must be more to UNATCO since there is an academy, etc. And, perhaps since Paul was commanding so many of the missions, he was heading up the actual Ops HQ, which is located elsewhere....

And how can you call the agency empty when it clearly has such a plethora of cleaner bots? :)

TechImmortal on 22/5/2001 at 23:25

Quote:

Originally posted by Bogeyman:
Yeah, and how come JC has an office and Paul apparently has to work standing up in a corridor somewhere? No wonder he left. :D

Yes, I see your big grin :D

First of all, I believe that the office upstairs (above JCs) is Paul's. That's why the Hong Kong datacube is in there. It's mostly barren because a) as mentioned above, Paul's in the field a lot, and b) Paul has his convenient secret work-at-home setup.

What confused me is that senior agents like Anna and Gunther had to share an office. Unless, of course they preferred this so they could entertain themselves killing prisoners down the hall.

Anyway, the story reason for the place being small and empty is that it is a front for the real organization - kind of like front companies for the CIA.

The technical reason would be framerate - lots of people crowding around would be death to the framerate. This is also the technical reason for many of the story elements - nighttime only (fewer people out), curfews (again, fewer people out), etc.

Dew-Drop on 23/5/2001 at 03:13

8000th POST!!!!!!

[ May 22, 2001: Message edited by: Dew-Drop ]

Eberon on 23/5/2001 at 03:15

Quote:

Originally posted by Dew-Drop:
80000th POST!!!!!!

Well, that's certainly appreciated. You bring very invigorating thoughts to the conversation. Thank you, Dew-Drop. *rolls his eyes*

Baron Bifford on 23/5/2001 at 22:55

It's just an HQ, not a barracks or troop camp. And besides, UNATCO agents are pretty expensive (didn't Simons say JC cost fifty billion dollars to make?), so they would only have a few of them.

Eberon on 23/5/2001 at 22:59

Quote:

Originally posted by Baron Bifford:
It's just an HQ, not a barracks or troop camp. And besides, UNATCO agents are pretty expensive (didn't Simons say JC cost fifty billion dollars to make?), so they would only have a few of them.

I suppose that is true. Still, I felt a bit strange when I walked into UNATCO HQ after the entire Island had been taken over by terrorists. You'd think that even under those conditions there would be more security at UNATCO than your standard wal-mart.

kostoffj on 23/5/2001 at 23:06

Given the paranoid world setting, I agree with you Eberon about the security. But don't always assume that military installations have adequate security. When I was in the (US) army in Germany I was amazed at how crappy our security was at even major installations. Gates - when guarded at all - were guarded by "guards" without weapons. If you were even halfway determined, you could get on post easily. And the only soldiers with easy access to weapons were the MPs; everyone else's weapons were locked up in the arms room and the ammunition stored in separate facilities, often not even on post, but on other installations. Ramstein air base was a bit better guarded, but even they only had one airman with a rifle and a concrete raisable barrier.

Contrasted to the Germans who had armed guards at every installation no matter how insignificant. So, it is at least plausible to me that the NSF could make a surprise move on the island and have limited success.