Welcome

[Update] Sparta sim change, and AN leadership shift.

Due to issues with their non-profit status over at Second Chance, Sparta have now settled in the sim of Narnia, a homestead sim, that’ll no doubt be visited by many-a aslan and Mr Tumnus while Sparta are based there.

An in-depth story will follow, but this is merely an update to anybody wondering where they’ve gone.

In other news, Jason Backer has taken Admiral status in the Alliance Navy after his step down earlier this year. He plans to swing AN back around to it’s former glory. Again, we’ll investigate this further in an upcoming article.

Metallicoe Keng

Variable-Damage Armor – The Alliance Navy’s New Tank

While hunting for a story, I decided to drop in on Elshout, home of the Alliance Navy where, behind the spray of beginner bullets, Officer Jim Herbst and Enlisted Jeremy Duport were developing a new tank for AN’s use. A new tank, with new technology to add to the fledgling armoured combat scene.

Shown above, the model for ANs new tank, the MBT, with new technology in it for the purpose of allowing more damage on certain areas of the tank. Jim explained the tanks hitpoints system to me.

In the picture above, the yellow area inflicts one point of damage when hit. With 60 hitpoints in total to destroy the whole tank, 60 bullets on that yellow area will finish the tank off. The red area, at the rear, inflicts 2 – 3 damage, as the engine is contained within that enclosure. Jim also told me that an engine fire is possible, which will do constant damage to the tank for a short period of time. The pink areas represent the maneuvering bowers of the tank, he says, and hitting these will directly affect the speed and maneuverability of the tank in a negative way. These will also depict how the tank was destroyed, and employ relevant effects. While still in the development stage, Jim and his associate scripter, Jeremy Duport, are working hard on the features; “idle bullet damage resulting in an idle wreck, while a big cloud of bullets will make it go kablooey.” The engine can also after burn if the tank is used for too long.

Kill Bill

After clearing up how the tank dies, Jim moved onto how it kills. “The MBT will be armed with a cannon, a 50 cal, and smoke launchers. The cannon will be equipped with at the bare minimum an HE shell and a SABOT shell. The HE will just be a plain old explosive. The sabot will do a good amount of damage to a target tank.” With some serious firepower, and some great ways to defeat it, it makes a nice combo.

Who’ll be the lucky drivers?

I asked Jim whether each division would get its own variant of the tank, as he explained there would be varieties, including a line armed with flamethrowers. Jim explained that they are all part of the AN Marine division. “There has been very little internal debate as to where tanks belong organizationally. Whether it will be part of the currently planned specializations or a specialization of its own remains to be seen.”

So this brings a new light to SL armoured combat. Potentially this could lead to the growth of more specialized tactics when destroying tanks, rather than the currently prevailing tactic of spamming them at any point on their armor with bullets. Either way though, one thing is clear – it’ll be fun seeing AN personnel sporting these new killing machines in the next week or two.

-Metallicoe Keng