Silver Hawk – A New Army, a Familiar Name

There is a new name in the SL Military game.  A new name, but an old group.  When Bicket Burt’s older Soviet-themed group DTK vanished from the picture, a proposition was made.  Ex-DTK General Corwin Lockjaw asked the founder of DTK to create a new group with him, and this group is today known as Silver Hawk. They are a small group of 38 members not including the officers and recruits, Dayna Laville told me. The group is located snugly in a void sim called Silverside.

The Silver Hawk stronghold in Silverside.

When I entered the sim everyone seemed nice and greeted me openly, seemingly excited to have some new visitors to talk about their group to.

The back story of why Silver Hawk was formed is a little-known one, and Bicket explained the history involved to me.

Phillip Hultcrantz: I’m not too familiar with your groups history, but I do know that Silver Hawk spawned from DTK, yes?

Bicket Burt: Yes, I am the founder of DTK, my ex-DTK general Corwin Lockjaw wanted to start another army with me, so after he got a base all set up, I helped him out and now we’re both leading an army.

Bicket Burt, Marshal and leader of the Silver Hawk military.

Phillip Hultcrantz: What prompted the change of theme and name? Did you just want a fresh start?

Bicket Burt: Yes, it was going to be a pirate theme which I didn’t know of, but after we got the armor and guns, the base theme changed to what it now is like.

They seem to have decided a pirate theme was a bit too much for an SL military, their final theme seems to suit them much better.

What I found curious is that they also share a name with the weapons company of a Merczateer, Ayatora Slade. After some questions I found that they use the name “Silver Hawk” to help promote Ayatoras weapons, but it was stated that he has nothing to do with the group other than letting them use his weapons for free.

Part of Ayatora Slade's Silver Hawk arsenal. The Silver Hawk military provides publicity to the weapons brand in exchange for free use of its armaments.

I did, however, ask Mr. Slade if he had future plans to join the group to which he denied this. This makes sense, as he is in a nice comfortable position in the Merczateers as an officer after all.

Bicket had plenty to say about Silver Hawk ( the military – a weapons review, on the other hand will be pending :P) when what was expecting of the group was brought up.

Phillip Hultcrantz: Ah I see. So what should the rest of the combat community be expecting from Silver Hawk?  Do you plan on having large combat operations or are you just going to sit tight for a while?

Bicket Burt: We do have assaults with 12 guys, and we have raids every day, so other armies could expect us at their base any time ;)

Phillip Hultcrantz: I take it you’ve done well on each raid?

Bicket Burt: So far we’ve done some very well with raids, yes.

Though I have only heard of only 2 raids by Silver Hawk, both being against the Forefront Union, all of the people in Silverside seemed stoked about their combat actions, which was reinforced by their attentiveness when people teleported into the hub. Certainly something that you don’t see in newer groups who tend to ignore what’s going on outside of their social cluster.

Silver Hawk also has another perk going for them, as they are a member of SL’s largest military alliance, the Iron Symphony. This came as a matter of conveniance as stated by Bicket himself.

Bicket Burt: Ayatora Slade asked me if I wanted to be neutral with Iron Symphony, but that didn’t work out too well since we were still being attacked by the Militant Collective just because they didn’t know about us being neutral. Also we kept being shot by IS members at other neutral armies like Alliance Navy.  So we thought it would be better to be part of IS.

In the long run this should help keep them going, and being a member of the IS should get their name out to people looking for a fight.

But all’s not well on all fronts. Some members of the groups involved have said that the Echelon Union has not been happy with Silver Hawk and is wanting to see them gone from the Iron Symphony. Sadly we cannot say much more on this, because Roo Tenk, the leader of Echelon and the one to talk to on the subject took nearly 4 minutes to then merely decline to comment on Silver Hawk.  This situation may still be developing and we will keep you posted on how it’s resolved if there are any changes in the status quo.

In any case Silver Hawk seems primed for combat and ready to get into the thick of it with the best of them!  Expect to see them raiding your bases soon, and be prepared to fight hard.

-Phillip Hultcrantz

Weapons Review – AekoLabs BRTL-Z9 Assault Rifle

The Jessie War Journal
Weapons Review Department

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Overview
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Weapon: Aeko Labs  BTRL-Z9
Price: 600L
Prim Count: 96

The AekoLabs BTRL-Z9 Assault Rifle

–Manual Credits–
Special thanks to:
Rickard Roentgen – For his very very nice reload animation.
Garma Denja – For the very good model.
Creators of Misc Sounds – These sounds come from generic sound libraries all over and from unknown ‘lost’ sources in Second Life. Thank you for not suing all of us!
Me – Aeron Kohime – For the other animations, tracking down all the sounds, and burning my life away making a highly optimized and hand tuned script.

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Flags
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This is what a perfect 5 Flags looks like [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]   [~JWJ~]

Performance: [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]   [~J (4.5)

Build:[~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~](3)

Texture:[~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  (2)

Animations:[~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~] (3)

Sounds:[~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~] (3)

Ease of Use:[ ~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]   [~J (4.5)

Value:[~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JW (3.5)

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First Impressions
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Opening the box gets you a folder with the sales image, a nice simple notecard, and curiously enough, three guns. Now two gun objects is not uncommon, you have the drawn and slung version right? Well, not in this case. You have two drawn versions, one with four rez slaves and one with five rez slaves, and a sling. Because I plan to review the most typical loadout, and out of curiosity, I IM'ed the creator to ask how they differ.

Aeron Kohime:
"The Main difference is ther maximum Rate of Fire... the 5 slave it can probably do about 2400, but I limited it to around 2000, and          the 4 can probably safely do around 1300, but its top is 1500."

With this knowledge, I plan to focus combat portions of the review on the four slave variant, as I will be using the default fire rate. However, I will test both versions out of combat to see just how fast I can burn through my ammo.

The manual is short, simple, and to the point. It list a brief relation of the BTLR-79 to the AEK-919, but then concentrates solely on commands and command description. While I do like descriptions, this is clearly a no frills gun, so I was not expecting them here. Most interesting in the manual is the warning about the rate of fire. The manual warns users of sustained high ROF fire as it may cause grey goo and sound errors, the latter of shich could be prevented by a llLoopSound, but with the adjustable rate of fire, that probably wasn't a plausible option (as the sounds would be out of sync at many fire rates). It strongly suggests short bursts, which is how you would fire an assault rifle in real life anyways (and in SL if you like not having to reload constantly).

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Asthetics
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Rezzing the model revels a very interesting shape. Its futuristic and relatively sleek, and defninately original.

The model fairly low prim and the only details are a few rivets and ridges. Its a very basics, and almost uninteresting due to its lack of details and textures. However, it is very well put together, with only one small seam able to be found by my eye, although the textures may assist in in hiding any others.

Textures are also basic and almost bland. It seems a single metal gradient texture was used through out and varied in darkness to show off the prim details. I cant say I'm fond of the texture job, and even for a no frills weapon, it could be a bit better looking.

Surprisingly for a no frils, the BTLR does have a muzzle flash.  Its basic in its own right, as it animates a textures that spins to give a flashing effect. Very simple, very basic, very effeciently done.

Animations are basic, and fit the gun well. The hold is a bit odd with the rear hand as the index finger makes it hard to position the gun so it looks right. Aim is from the hip, and has a similiar, though much less apparent, issue with the rear hand. Reload is the freebie Rickard Roentgen reload found in the infamous G36, although this is not the first commercial application I have seen it used in, as a few Operations guns use it as well. However, the original creator is cited in the manual as a credit, so Aeko Labs is clearly not trying to hide it.

Sounds are also cited as not being custom originals, however they fit the gun well. The fire sound shares the same jumpy issues that the Titan AK5 has, and is common among guns that use llTriggerSound.

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Performance
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Overall the BTLR-79 performed very well. There were a few quirks but  nothing major.

The BTLR would have times where it would slow down with lag, and then belch out its bullets. However, in comparison to other weapons, these were much less frequent with the BTLR, and lasted for much briefer time periods when they did happen. Bullets locked up maybe once or twice, by which I mean  one or two instances, and maybe five total bullets. Very reliable and will get your bullets down range.

I did however have what appeared to be hit detection issues with the bullets, though this may have been client side. However, this was solved by lowering the velocity from its default 200m/s to 175m/s. Otherwise, no problems here.

Spread doesn't change with fire mode, almost making the semi fire setting useless unless you change the spread manually. This isn't too much of a hinderance, but it makes those quick shifts to semi for that one shot before that guy in that window sees me impossible, as the one key quickness is lost.

I also felt that a bit of adjusting was needed to get the BTLR to the comfortable use area. Again, these are personal preferences, but the default spread of two degrees seemed more suited to a light machine gun than a assault rifle. While this can be easily changed, I think that it may hinder people who expect out of the box performance of an assault rifle. I felt much more comfortable with the rifle after changing the spread to one degree.

Rate of fire adjustment does exactly what it says and the difference is VERY noticeable. I set the four-slave version to 1350rpm and it spewed out bullets with a near buzz. I think that the magazine would have been gone sooner than it was, but I'm not complaining.
The five slave variant when set to its highest ROF setting is plain scary. The bullets rez at a blistering speed that makes me feel sorry for anyone on the recieving end. However, the 60-round magazine was not gone as fast as I expected, but it was still quicly devoured. The usefulness of the high rate of fire may seem limited,  but expanding the spread and  raising the magazine size turns the BTLR into a formidible surpressive fire weapon, although the gun seems to lag a bit more in spikes during this high rate of fire.

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Overall
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The Aeko Labs BTLR-79 may not be the prettiest gun your money can buy, but it packs many of the features that weapons twice its price and more tote as key features. Beyond the standard adjustable velocity and magazine size, you get adjustable rate of fire and adjustable conical spread. The BTLR gets almost full marks for performance with 4.5 flags. Only its slight ups and downs during lag cause the drop in rating, although its script time definitely deserves recognition as it is a quite remarkable 0.105ms at the default settings, and peaked at 0.332ms during full auto fire. The five slave version set to its maximum 2000rpm fire rate generates 0.332 on average, which, for its speed, is still fairly good. Build fits well together and is an original design, but is otherwise fairly bland and gets 3 flags. The textures, or texture, are too simple and undetailed, and appears to be just one texture repeated and shaded, but it is applied as well as it can be, which earns it the 2 flags.  Animations are built for the gun and fit, but are nothing overly exciting, and have a few errors that surround the reload, which explains the 3 flag rating. Sounds fare the same as animations. They fit the gun, but don't really seem like they would "wow" anyone. Ease of use is high. While I'm not fond of Chat/Channel 0 listens, there is no doubt for a beginner they are easier to use. commands are simple and straight forward, and even the "advanced" commands are clear cut, which is where the 4.5 flags come in. Value is brought down to the 3.5 flags by the aesthetics, but price for the features you get is hard to beat.

Caine uses his AekoLabs BTLR-79 Assault Rifle to jack some wings from friend Phillip Hultcrantz.

The Aeko Labs BTLR-79 boils down to function over form. If you want a highly adjustable rifle with some seriously high performance, and you don’t really put much emphasis on looks or realistic models, you get a lot for the $L600 it takes to get the BTLR-79.  You can find the whole selection of Aeko Labs weaponry at their vendor in New Jessie, in the Eastern New Jessie sim with the main armory.

-JessieWarJournal Frequency

Is Caine Constantine out to get you?

One of the things I don’t like about being in charge of the New Jessie War Journal is that I feel like sometimes, people aren’t up-front with me because they think I’ll write a story about it.  It can make it hard to talk to people, because they assume that I’m going to write a story about anything they say – especially if it’s bad.  Unfortunately, what I’m about to post probably won’t help my case, but it’s worth a chuckle.

Apparently I’m not one to be trusted – and neither is the Journal.  In a recent conversation with Verissimo Seetan, leader of VALOR, he informed a large group of people that the New Jessie War Journal is a source of misinformation and that I’m out to destroy Second Life’s military community.  Check it out.

Verissimo Seetan: In the sl military world. Check things out for your self. going by what all these tards say about me. its just funny. that you belive all that.   but for those that know me well.. I am not what you have come to know.
Verissimo Seetan: The biggest thing in SL is people rage when they die and do dumb shit…. I can keep going for hours and not care if I die.

Aubry Xue: I thought the NJ war journal recently had an article praising your new base design.  Yet you just called the war journal a misinformant.  The first person in a while to praise you for doing something positive publicly and your comment seems entirely ungrateful.

Verissimo Seetan: he cut out alot of stuff

Caine Constantine: Wow
Caine Constantine: We’re misinformation?

Verissimo Seetan: ALOT of stuff
Verissimo Seetan: Never posted
Verissimo Seetan: that made me mad

Caine Constantine: Verissimo, I highlighted ALL of the good stuff you guys do – the ONLY part I cut out was how you got yourself banned at other sims!

Verissimo Seetan: he could of put a link elese where

Caine Constantine: Unique sim design, homepoints, low lag, creative build, strong alliance, good training.

Verissimo Seetan: I want the truth no mater how bad it may seem

Caine Constantine: The only part I cut out was how you got banned at other sims for breaking their rules, and thats because it was 3000 words of the same story at different places.

Zamos Xaris: :O Oh gawsh, Caine’s raging.

Caine Constantine: If that means we misinformed, because I don’t think the story of how you got banned at 39th, Mercz and 2142 is 3000 words people want to read.

Zamos Xaris: Don’t forget Silver Hawk O.O

Verissimo Seetan: na you went and wote some unfair ull shit a little clip that you never even said to me
Verissimo Seetan: you just added it in after words

Caine Constantine: Like what?

Verissimo Seetan: it should of been raw and uncut

Caine Constantine: A giant chatlog that nobody would read.
Caine Constantine: The only problem with the VALOR story was that you immediately began to use the comments page to talk badly about other people.
Caine Constantine: And then they did the same thing.
Caine Constantine: So instead of going
Caine Constantine: “Wow, Verissimo has some cool ideas, let’s consider adopting them!”
Caine Constantine: People just ignored the story and began to flame on the comments page.

Verissimo Seetan: Caine most people will agree you are a Monopoly. Like all monoply’s you will come crashing down hard one day.

Caine Constantine, file photo.

Verissimo Seetan: Part of the reason of why SL combat sucks on the rid Is because of Newjessie

Second Life combat, file photo.

Verissimo Seetan: instead of people looking for fights they simply go to new jessie
Verissimo Seetan: you know dam well what your doing cane your not retarted

Verissimo Seetan: peace

Caine Constantine: You got me.

Verissimo brings up some good questions.  Are the New Jessie combat sim and the New Jessie War Journal both terrible monopolies that are destroying combat on the grid?  What do you think of New Jessie and the Journal?  Are they good additions to combat or are they draining it, or is it somewhere in between?

Though I believe we are a positive influence on the combat community, we are always working on ways of improving ourselves and I’d like to know if we’re genuinely creating any problems.  Verissimo may have his shortcomings but is not the first person to say such things.

Please share your thoughts on this subject, so we can work on improving both New Jessie and the Journal.  Or, I guess if we’re destroying combat on the grid, please tell us if and how we’re doing that also.  Or that is, rather how I am doing it, since “most people will agree you are [I am] a Monopoly”

-Caine Constantine

“Guide To The Typical Noob Military”

We all know typical noobs. We know noob military groups. These are the groups that emerge twice every four months, and die again within thirty days. This is an in-depth analysis of these groups. I hope to write more additional pieces if you all like this one. It will contain even more components of noobish military groups.

1). First of all, every noob military starts with the same thing, a semi-idiotic leader. This “leader” will not have any skill, in combat, building, scripting, or anything for that matter. They just have an idea. The idea that they can make a difference in the Combat Community. What a joke, right? This leader must have a terrible past, filled with justified bans, griefing, and of course – they must be in denial of this all. Ask me if I care. Wait, no! I’ll tell you… I don’t care! This leader will attempt to begin an alliance, this will fail as well. We’ll get to that another time. Anyways, this leader won’t be aware that there is a period, shift, or comma key in existance anywhere on their keyboard. They also will not have knowledge of when it is the proper situation to use there, their, they’re, your or you’re. Chances are, they will have a name that does not mean anything, yet this name will reflect absolutely everything about them. It will reflect their stupidity.

The epic question - plane versus submarine, who wins?

2). Secondly, this military will start with a small plot of land. If they are serious, they may start with a void sim. They will lose the void sim within two weeks, because their friend who was paying for it, ran out of money and is now living on the street in real life. Unfortunate? Oh well, we can all just blame the tight economy. Possibly blame Bush, Obama, or even Gordon Brown if you feel the need. However, their base will be entirely constructed by a builder no one has ever heard of. It will be made of freebie combat props, likely made by James Benedek. Their terraforming will be linden default. It will likely be based off of a good ol’ snow sim. You know, the one everyone loves so very, very much? Sadly, it won’t compare to anything worth while. It will look like a 1850’s, winter version of Sweden. Nobody wants that.

"Look ma, no hands!"

3). Third, all of their soldiers will not have a standard uniform. This is where a slight variation comes into play. They can either use modded, copybotted versions of armor that was formerly owned by a real military, or they can purchase D1 & MTG vests. Many Spanish, and Brazilian military groups use this method.

4). Fourth. They will attempt to compose a new group name. This name will contain the word “Alpha”, “Super”, “Marine”, “Force”, “Task”, or maybe even “Killers.” These adjectives can be mixed anyway you want. For example: “Alpha Task Force Marine Super Killers.” Sounds catchy, right? Don’t take that name, it’s copyrighted! No, not really.

5). Fifth. They will all shoot through walls, regardless of rank. They will all use Fairlight weapons, because they cannot put together the brain-power to create a script set, or proper weapons models. Nothing comes between a noob and their Fairlights.

Cat tank - coming to cough up a hairball on your town soon.

This has been the first five necessary basics of a typical noob military. Please join us again, and feel free to leave comments or whatever it is you guys do.

-Roo Tenk

Avil Creeggan’s Grand Theory of Second Life Combat

Avil’s Grand Theory of Second Life Combat: (DRAFT v.4)
ATTN: Lurdan Huszar, Anthony Lehane, Poon Voom
CC: Poon Voom, EvoxAlien Dix
===============================

STATUS QUO:
M = This is a man. An infantryman, to be specific. He shoots at other men, and aircraft, and fleetships. The infantrymen shoots at anything. But he walks.
The infantryman also can blow things up. He has grenades. He has rocket launchers. He uses these against infantry and aircraft and fleetships.
His skills include: Using show-look-at and camera zoom and having twitchy skills.

V = This is a vehicle. He really doesn’t exist much now, but is very likely to exist in the near future. He does vague and not-defined things right now.
His skills include: Being the surprise!

A = This is an aircraft. He shoots at other aircraft, as well as fleetships, and is occasionally allowed to shoot at infantrymen – typically when they are shooting at him.
He goes really fast and shoots giant walls of killy things and can also blow things up, because he is cool. His bombs are large – typically up to 32m, depending.
His skills include:  Having a computer that can handle his constantly changing view direction and location.

F = This is a fleetship. He shoots at other fleetships and other men and other aircrafts, but he is generally ineffective because no one bothers to get fleetships or make viable ones.
This is because the Alliance Navy has the only remotely meaningful fleet now, and that’s basically a joke.
His skills include: Knowing how to type a series of three digit numbers over and over again.

To summarize:
Type –through skillz attacks type
M  –skillz–> MAF
V —> ?
A   –leet computerz–> MAF
F    –111,111,111–> MAF

INSTEAD:
M = This is a man. An infantryman, to be specific. He shoots at other men and vehicles. He likes to be killed by vehicles and fleetships.
His skill is precision – to know where the enemy is and to engage him despite unpredictable movement and concealed firing positions.
The infantryman has grenades and the occasional rocket launcher. He walks. He’s a pretty cool guy.

V = This is a vehicle. He shoots at other vehicles and fleetships and sometimes infantrymen.  He likes to be killed by vehicles and fleetships.
His skill is perception – to be able to coordinate his efforts effectively across the entire battlespace.
The vehicle has chainguns and specialized weaponry. He remains close to ground/sea level – the horizon line. He’s a pretty cool guy.

A = This is an aircraft. He shoots at vehicles and fleetships and other aircraft. He likes to be killed by other aircraft.
His skill is agility – to be able to outperform other aircraft and deny any effectiveness to enemy assets which may not conform to our tiered system of combat.
He has chainguns.  He is typically a fast physical craft. He’s a pretty cool guy.

F = This is a fleetship. He shoots at vehicles and infantry. He likes to be killed by aircraft and the occasional vehicle.
His skill is prediction – because of the slow nature of his craft and its weaponry, he must be able to predict enemy traffic patterns and match his targets to them.
He has guided weaponry and an assortment of support functions. He is typically a slow non-physical craft. He’s a pretty cool guy.

To summarize:
Killed by —> Class —> Kills
MVF  —> M  —> MV
MVAF   —> V  —> MVF
A       —> A  —> VFA
VA     —> F  —> MV

The problem is that we are currently in an environment where the community isn’t apt to enjoy our suggestions for combat improvement and that, prior to this moment, all approaches to combat reform have taken an idealistic and utopian approach which makes success an increasingly remote possibility. The question is how to implement such a system in the most pragmatic fashion, a path where external community involvement isn’t required.  The answer is that we, as the Merczateers, can implement that system unilaterally with strong incentives for community adoption.

Two means of encouraging community adoption:
1. Discussions with the Iron Symphony and other such combat groups.
2. Implementation of gear in such a fashion that the most effective option to counter that gear conforms to the system.
The first should be obvious. The second is more complicated.

You see, we have a tremendous asset available to us to help control the flow of combat through such a system, although the use of that asset will be quite controversial. It’s the armor system. Using it, we can effectively implement this typing system and encourage compliance – consciously or otherwise.

—

First, a review of the initial balance of this system, as unapparent as it may be:

Aircraft: At the point where there role is solely to engage other armored assets (everything except infantrymen), they no longer need to have damage rounds by default. Quite to the contrary, we can outfit them with rounds optimized to engage armored targets, similar to the RPG rockets or the thermite grenades, although obviously not built for their duration. And to prevent infantry from engaging them, we can do what would otherwise be unthinkable given current trends – allow for rampant levels of maneuverability and speed, although perhaps not with some of the excesses of previous flight regimes (decoupled cameras, backwards flight, strict strafing, et et). We’ve already seen progress towards this ideal within the Merczateers with the development of the new camera-coupled perpetual-forward-thrust Agni flight core, which has thus far received admirable feedback in light of its current position within the development cycle.

Fleetships: We can provide them with slow ordinance inappropriate for dealing with air-to-air combat but which would effectively dominate both vehicle and infantry targets. They can be made particularly slow or downward facing to allow for engagement by vehicles without issue, and can have high levels of armor, down-facing defenses, or other supplementary methods to discourage interference by infantrymen firing into the sky. Additionally, we could aim to discourage fleet to fleet engagements or to force them into, effectively, infantry engagements; at the point where we’re making extensive use of the armor system (and adaptations for turrets?), the remaining vehicle is physical and… dare I say it… boardable?

Vehicles could have a fairly robust speed, in excess of fleetships but in contrast to aircraft, which would allow them some maneuverability to escape enemy infantry and ground effect munitions without having the ability to dominate the battlespace – but to engage across the full spectrum of combat. They could have traditional damage munitions for infantry targets and a specific weapon for engaging fleet targets and other vehicles – but it wouldn’t be a weapon that would have the needed speed to combat aircraft.

—-

Note that all of these would come with a complimentary unilateral reduction in explosive radii across the board as well as a total ban (either within the group’s technological design or, perhaps, across all Iron Symphony simulators) on coordinate fire munitions. Additionally, while this system may present opportunities for those proponents of guided munitions, the best maintenance of combat balance through this system requires their complete exclusion. Also, for clarification – an aircraft and a fleetship, while typically considered physical and nonphysical (respectively), need not be so – as long as they keep to the profile. That is – fleetships being substantally slower, better armored, and lacking air-to-air capability; and aircraft being substantially faster, less armored, and lacking an anti-infantry capability.

At the point where we are effectively implementing this system, abuse of it becomes increasingly obvious. The use of the armor system severely impairs the ability that was once available to unfairly tamper with vehicular platforms that were designed with longevity in mind, because munitions which can deal with armored targets and munitions that can deal with ground targets follow seperate and generally incompatible design theories. Damage munitions emphasize efficiency of killprims using sensors with quick prim removal, and armor munitions emphasize multiple collisions to maximize armor loss. Abusers would need to create anti-armor munitions with a damage capability – which is both inefficient and COULD be banned using social methods such as house rules and treatises as well as technical methods – additionally, because the armor system is not absolute, filters can be made to ignore specific munitions which are determined to be detrimental.

There is also a myriad of subtle but distinct circumstances which would discourage most forms of abuse short of the kind suited to Vanguard – the relative speeds of each class tend to be “enforced” by “realistic” limitations (NOT social limitations like house rules, but design considerations) as well as platform limitations such as the speed of ground vehicles as compared to freeflying aircraft; there are also social considerations that work towards this system, such as the community backlash currently occurring against freeform aircraft design; etc, etc. It’s a long list that I’d be glad to explain and defend at length at a different time – for the purposes of brevity, I’ll let the list stand there for now.

There are two real problems with this concept, and they are thus:
1. Social acceptance of the armor system is constrained
2. Regulatory interference (LL destroying VolDet’s current functionality to the combat community.)

However, the first problem is rapidly diminishing and the second is, in my opinion, an acceptable risk in light of the length of time that VolumeDetect has remained in its current state and the lack of impetus for LL to alter its functionality.

Feel free to share your thoughts.
—Avil Creeggan.

Advertise with the New Jessie War Journal today!

I want to thank you all for reading what we believe is the premier news source in all combat on the grid – the New Jessie War Journal.  It’s a lot of fun putting together what has become a sort of community forum, where people can share their thoughts and where we can get word out about the individuals, the places, the groups – the stories – that make up our wonderful community.

The New Jessie War Journal garners hundreds and even thousands of hits a day.  Especially when big stories hit, we’ve got a strong readership ready to check out the Journal for what’s new in combat on the grid.

For this reason we’d like to share our traffic with you in exchange for your help in keeping New Jessie alive and kicking.  Are you looking to advertise your combat group, military force or new high-performance combat product or weapon to what is the best targeted market for doing so in Second Life?  You can’t do better than the New Jessie War Journal – we can deliver your message to a targeted audience that wants to know more about your services, your groups, and the products you make.

So if you’re looking to reach the people who are looking to hear from you, let us make the connection.  All the while, help make it possible to keep the Journal and our work in attempting to foster quality combat journalism and weapons reviewing alive, while also supporting the most popular free, public combat region on the grid – New Jessie itself.

Advertise with the New Jessie War Journal today, at simple monthly rates of 1000L per month, for visual and textual ads to be placed in this left column for a monthly period.  For the average of 20,000 hits a month the Journal receives, every single Linden means 20 people see your message.  For any information about doing so, contact Caine Constantine in-world, or by e-mail at caineconstantine@gmail.com.

Thank you, and we hope to hear from you and get your message out soon!

Weapons Review – the Titan Industries AK5

The Jessie War Journal
Weapons Review Department

===========
Overview
===========
Weapon: Titan Industries AK5
Price: $1200L
Prim Count: 193
Credits:
Model:Keystone Gray
Scripting:Ethan Schuman

The Titan Industries AK5

===========
Flags
===========

This is what a perfect 5 Flags looks like [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~]

Performance: [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] (3)

Build:[~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JW (4.5)

Texture:[~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JW (4.5)

Animations: [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JW (4.5)

Sounds:[~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JW (3.5)

Ease of Use:[~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] (4)

Value:[~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] (3)

===========
Aesthetics
===========

Pulling the rifle out of the box gets you a very nice piece of primwork. Textures fit together and the few seams or prim changes you can see can only be seen at an extreme zoom. Even then, I was only able to notice any on the edges of the hand guards.

Even the small details on the model are primmed where appropriate (Fire selector, receiver extrusions, rails, scope details) and very few details I like to see primed were left textured, namely the vents in the fore grip.

The main thing that puzzled me with the model was which version of the AK5 it was. The original AK5 didn’t have a rail system or scope, the AK5B had its ironsights removed and scope added, the AK5C had a different rail system, and a very different foregrip, and the AK5D is much shorter (as it is the carbine version of the AK5C). However, being based on the FNC, the AK5 should surely be modified with FNC parts, so that’s no big deal. I’d call it a modified original, as if the optic and rail were removed, it would be the first AK5.

Attaching the gun places it nearly perfectly on my average height avatar. The animations, which inspection reveals are made by Tenaki Kupferberg, fit well and move together quite seamlessly from one to another (though that is also do to the animation scripts). Melee animation looks great, though the front hand slips off the rifle, though I am left wondering if, in real life, a skeletenized stock would hurt enough…not going to argue though.

The AK5’s one purely aesthetic feature is the Optic, which can be removed and attached at will, through the menu or verbal commands. One thing I did notice with the scope however, is that the sound, and presumably function, triggers regardless of scope state. If the scope is on, and I insert the command to put the scope on, it will still make the sound as if I am putting it on. Not a major issue in itself, but something I would have expected to have been covered in such an upper market rifle from such a renowned company.

The silencer is more than aesthetic on the Titan AK5. Unlike many silencers in SL, which simple change the sound and turn off the muzzle flash, the AK5’s silencer, when equipped, causes the rifle to fire alpha’ed bullets. While this is a very and unique feature, I am curious how effective it would be on the battlefield, as in SL, tracer rounds are almost always required as you cant use the optics or sights on the gun. What pleases me most, is that they mention that the alpha’ed rounds may not be allowed in all sims in the manual. While I could be reading too far into this, but it shows that the manual writer (Anlysia Gregoire by notecard creator) shows some concern for sims like New Jessie, where people would get in trouble for using the alpha’ed bullets. The silencer suffers from the same issue with sounds that the optic does. I also ran across another odd bug, as once when I drew the rifle the silencer was suddenly on, and not just in visuals, but all the sounds and bullets too. I detached the gun and reattached it, and the silencer had detached itself.

The muzzle flash of the AK5 is another interesting piece. It’s a one prim sculpt with a spiral twist to it, and has a very nice texture. the one thing I noticed with it however, is that it tries to pulse with every shot, and often falls out of since with the firing sound. While not a huge issue, having a muzzle flash that animates a texture, or simply stays on while firing full auto, could make it look a bit better. While I prefer no muzzle flash as they are not realistic, it is worth mentioning, that I only turned “Show Avatar In Mouselook” on to view the muzzle flash, and do not normally see it while fighting.

Sounds vary. The unslilenced fire sound is good, though I think it would sound better if it didn’t use the LLTriggerSound system it sounds like it uses. The silenced sound sounds familiar, and I think it has been used before in some projects.

===========
Performance
===========

All Combat Testing was done on Default Settings

The performance of the AK5 didnt quite match up to its good looks. While far from poor, the AK5’s performance could stand some improvement. During combat at New Jessie, the AK5’s performance was influenced more-so by lag than other weapons I have used, though this is, again, not bad. When spikes would occur, the AK5’s rate of fire would seem to slow drastically, and bullets did not see to rez. Sometimes during the spikes, the fire sound would sound like it was going on a roller coaster of speed, and then all of a sudden the gun would blech out all the bullets it sounded like it was firing. Reload time was also affected by lag, and it seemed that the gun would struggle to regain controls to fire ( I am assuming from the Stop hand I got while clicking during reload that the gun releases controls during its reload cycle) Script time testing was also a bit lower than my expectations, as it registered an average of almost double of the ENIC 08M I tested a few days prior during full auto fire (AK5 averaged 0.431ms. Type 08M averaged 0.236ms). ** As a note, I retested the Type 08M after Testing the AK5, and it is also worth noting that I have no scripted objects on aside from the gun.

However, to say the AK5 is without its positive sides would not only be unfair, but would make me a damn liar.

The AK5, when not under the load of lag, always shot clean and the spread feature preformed wonderfully, and gave a sense of realism fixed rez slaves and random offsets can only dream about! It gives spraying for covering fire a whole new meaning, and actually ads feasibility to ranged fire, as the bullets spread out as they go, rather then when they rez. Excellent for anyone who looks for realism.

I also never had the bullets lock up when the rezzed. Granted, where other bullets may have locked up, the AK5’s didn’t seem to rez at all, but it prevented me from surely killing myself.

Perhaps my favorite combat experience with the AK5 was when someone was driving a jeep around the roads. I ran up to it as they were trying to turn into me, hit the melee combo keys, killed the driver…and hijacked the jeep. At first I didn’t think the gun would work after the jeep taking controls, but I was quite wrong. I killed myself because of the rez distance, but increased that with a few quick keystrokes and managed to pull off a few drive-bys in my newly “acquired” spoils of war. Unfortunately…street-cred in a old Willy’s style Jeep while doing drive-by’s with a Swedish assault rifle isn’t very good, but you will certainly show all the gangsta’s with their 9×19’s what a bullet truly is. And don’t worry.. the will know because the AK5’s bullet has the caliber in its name, which I greatly enjoy seeing over just “damage” or “bullet damage” ect.

The adjustable parts of the weapon all work as advertised and work well, I changed them up to test them, but during combat I kept it to the defaults, and aside from my jeep escapade, never felt the need to change them. The adjustable rate of fire seems like an odd thing to included, as the cyclic rate of the AK5 is between 650 and 700 rounds per minute, but I know that features can often make the sale. However, the realism of the spread at the default rate of fire could make the sale in and of itself.

===========
Other
===========

Other features of the AK5 are clever and unique, specifically the “paintball” bullet type. Unlike a normal training bullet, the paintball bullet rezzes a splatter effect approximately where they hit, so while you can do target practice with any bullet, the paintball bullet will provide a bit more feedback, and therefore, a bit more usefulness.

The adjustable mag size, unlike much older titan weapons and other weapons with user input based magazine size, has a hard upper limit of 100 rounds. The reload time also increases with bullet count, so

The adjustable spread, while it has a hard limit at 10m of spread at 100M of distance, is only useful up to a certain range. At a spread setting of 10, I could barely hit the armory wall from the other end. I’d say anything over 3m of spread is nearly useless, and that the deafult 2 is probably the best.

The menu, which can be turned off if you don’t like touch menus, does add a nice touch, but I do use verbal commands before them, though I use the melee and the reload combos more than anything. Perhaps my favorite area of the menu is the Defaults menu, where with the click of a button you can reset any of the adjustable options to its default value. Only thing about the menu I don’t understand, is why all caps?

===========
Overall
===========

The Titan AK5 is a solid gun, though not without its flaws. Its a very good looker, getting near top marks in build and texture areas for its balance of prim vs texture detail and its realistic textures that contribute to its overall build quality. Animations are top notch, and only a few minor hitches prevent a 5 flag rating. Sounds are good, but the glitches and overly familiar silenced fire take away from it. The gun is a bit daunting to use at first, as the manual is massive and some commands are strange. But combined with the menu, the weapon is quite easy to use and gets a 4 flag rating.. You don’t even need to read the manual if you don’t care about the adjustments, as all the traditional commands (“auto”, “semi”, “damage” “draw”,”reload” ect) are present. Value for the combat minded is a bit lower than average at three flags, but the wonderful spread, as well as the good looks and solid build, help keep the value average even with the price tag.

All in all, a great looking gun with features as unique as the Bofors AK5 is to Second Life which is brought down mainly by its average performance and rough handling in lag.

Caine uses the AK5 to politely ask some children to stop playing in his yard.

The weapon can be purchased at any Titan Industries vendor, including the vendor at the New Jessie combat sim. So if you’re interested, check out the vendor in New Jessie to get a closer look at the weapon today.

-JessieWarJournal Frequency

“Let the ground burn into ash everywhere we march!” – The Chaos Decretum

If there was ever a group people loved to hate, it could be the Chaos Decretum, self-described as the last evil-based group on the grid.  He relishes in it, and the theme of the group is based on this idea of evil.  As a result, the Chaos sim in Meliae is shaping up to be as dark in appearance are as the aspirations of the group now operating from it.  Though sim sim is currently closed to outsiders, Chaos Dominus Dark Svenska let me check it out and take some snapshots of a place that, when it opens, is sure to be under constant attack and counter-attack.

The pictures taken for this piece are all taken in the optimized settings that Chaos says are best for viewing the sim in.  So, to get that really-evil feel as best as possible, here they are.  Keep in mind of course, that an endless droning sound permeates the entire sim, reminiscent of little else but somehow instinctively reeking of death.

The first thing you'll see at Meliae are tormented red skies, murky and poisonous water, and an endless array of jagged rocks looking ready to impale attackers.

These burning red eyes actually follow you as you move. They are probably the creepiest thing I've ever seen in a combat sim, though my visits to a place known as "The Yiff Factory" stop me from calling them the creepiest thing I've ever seen on the grid.

If only they'd call him.

The view into the heart of Meliae is lit by a blazing sun that obscures the view of most everything but the main walls of the Chaos stronghold, and of course the peaks that line the first redoubt.

Bright green sludge oozes from a waste line. The message is clear - not only does Dark Svenska plan to destroy you. He also hates the envionment.

The only thing more terrifying to view than the surface of Meliae is the angry sky above it, with fiery stones moving slowly about the sky suspended in position beneath the warp storm above.

A bit of irony - interestingly enough, evil's home in combat on the grid is located between two paradise-themed sims named Heaven Breeze and Kuwait Love.

Small bunkers dot the sim in various locations, blending into the volcanic rock and ash they're built on.

The smoldering husk of what appears to be a small town lies in ruins within the bowels of Meliae.

"Will made flesh" - this battle standard representing Chaos, one of many visible in Meliae, is joined together by the rotted remnants of a human corpse.

Deep behind all of the ghastly sights and sounds lies the main compound of the Chaos forces.

Chaos claims that this titanic warp gate has a purpose, but so far nobody is saying what that may be.

"A machine possessed by the gods of disease - THE PLAGUE TANK - in other words, the Morbus." - Dark Svenska on the coming armored beast of the Chaos Decretum. Picture taken in New Jessie.

Chaos is not saying much at the moment, instead focusing on building its strength until it opens later in the year.

Caine Constantine: Any word on when the base will be open?
Dark Svenska: Well we need to get all of our gear scripted, so sometime around summer break.
Caine Constantine: Sounds good
Dark Svenska: Its a long wait i know, but hey look how long Ordo had to set up their shit?

"More blood for the blood god!" - reconciliation and friendly engagement are...doubtful, to say the least.

Interestingly enough, probably one of the biggest rumors in the combat community – the idea that Vanguard is going to return to the grid soon – was referenced perhaps randomly by Dark during our conversation.  In explaining his justification for Chaos and its role in the combat community, he also reveals perhaps not on purpose the fact that if Vanguard does return, the biggest losers in this situation will be the smaller groups full of ex-Vanguard members.  Dark also explains what is essentially his purpose for Chaos – to buck the modern move toward a friendly combat community and move back into the recent past of the 2006 – 2007 era.  Though the terminology he uses leaves much to be desired, there is an interesting point here as well.  Can you have good without evil?  Or is good and evil a bit much to really seriously consider since this is a computer game?

Dark Svenska: So yeah, Chaos is still coming.
Dark Svenska: Let’s face it we balance the community in the good vs. evil thing.
Dark Svenska: Even if VG comes back up we still need to be around. Without an actual evil based group you get moralfags.. No one likes moralfags.
Caine Constantine: This is an interesting point.
Caine Constantine: Isn’t Vanguard the traditionally “evil” group?
Dark Svenska: Christoph is evil.
Dark Svenska: Thats pretty much it.
Caine Constantine: Haha, I see
Dark Svenska: Which is why I like Chris! He always finds a way to brighten up my day when it comes to tormenting others.
Dark Svenska: Though the snowmew thing disgusted me and possibly scarred me for life.
Caine Constantine: Any last words on the base?
Dark Svenska: Yes. This base does have effective cover for the opposing force. But the fact that we seem to have more cover?… Well I never said I ‘wanted’ people inside my base now did I?
Dark Svenska: Matter of fact I think that’s the whole point of ‘base defense’.
Dark Svenska: So.. Take that Disney bitches!
Dark Svenska: I SHALL RULE YOU ALL!
Dark Svenska: ….
Dark Svenska: I’m done.

The war of words heated up on the page of the Chaos Decretum on Second Life Wikia, which I initially checked and found the phrase “Let the ground burn into ash everywhere we march!”  Going back to double check it, however, I found that an anti-Chaos author had changed the group’s wikia entry in a less than friendly way.

“”FOR THE IMPERATOR, THE BEING KNOWN AS UMBRA DECLARES WAR ON THE FILTH OF THE CHAOS DECRETUM SCUM.”

Chaos is nothing but a trolling group set up by Dark Svenska to patrol and De-Recurit Ordo Members as they Teleport into the Sim New Jessie. Dark’s combat skills are as weak as his mind. As a plus He may have been a Merczateer Light Ops. member he has nothing to prove on the battlefield. IS forces crippled his force by ejecting most of Chaos members. Also the group known as Solution_Root has taken root in Chaos to drive out all of its members into the group called Umbra which the leader remains nameless and faceless as he is behinde the the project at this time.”

Dark Svenska then edited his page again, opting instead of reverting it to its original form to write a response to what had been posted on the wikia entry of the Chaos Decretum.

“Is this the part where i am scared?… You are dreadfully wrong and pathetic as the rest of you little spy groups. For one all of your comments are a sad attempt at trolling me, since when did we care about recruiting Ordo? And combat skill? That’s actually the funny part because i can slaughter 88% of the members of Ordo in 5 man squads by myself. Yes, I was light ops and everyone still loves me.

You are nothing but filth yet to be eradicated and converted to the influence of the dark gods.

Oh and the stunt Aryte pulled?.. He invaded a land group that was not being used. He could only get enlisted rank in the main group as well sooo.. Way2Fail.

Stop your hiding and face us without your cloak and dagger tactics. We only see you as pathetic cowards and like everyone else you fear us so much you have to hide yourself instead of meeting us in battle! Until then you will never impress me.

Ordo knows very well that everything must be kept on the battlefield and not in sabotage. We want to fight!

Come out of your holes, and fight us.

Or we will hunt you down and force you to weaklings.

In b4 srs bzness.”

Dark Svenska: Consider it my personal message to any group that uses cloak and dagger tactics over combat on the field.
Dark Svenska: Chaos considers all spy groups to be cowards and they fear the greater powers. If you want to prove something fight us face to face.

The symbol of the Chaos Decretum hovers over a battlefield embodied by the concepts of the group based in it.

In visiting Meliae, a few things are evident.  Firstly, regardless of your thoughts on the group, Chaos is putting together a pretty cool place for combat.  Secondly, Chaos is seeking to become a group that is representative of the opposite of what groups like the Iron Symphony want.  Whereas they advocate essentially making combat an experience in amicably and fairly fighting one another, in the same way you might play a game without cheating, play until you win or lose, and then say “Good game” regardless, Chaos is “old-school” as their leader puts it.  There’s no love lost for other groups, minimal advantages for attackers, and a rhetoric built on baiting people to come and try to take Chaos on regardless.

And so having said my piece, what do you think?  Please share your thoughts on the group and its sim, as well as its ideology, in our comments section, as it definitely raises a lot of questions about the nature of armed combat in Second Life.

-Caine Constantine

Weapons Review – the ENIC Type-08M

The Jessie War Journal
Weapons Review Department

===========
Overview
===========
Weapon: ENIC Type-08M
Price: 500L
Prim Count: 123

–Manual Credits–
<ENIC> – 2008/2009
Design: Mikhail Kalashnikov; IZHMASH
Model: Grey Nolder/Scarlet Flaks
Scripts: Tsume Xiao
Sounds: Tsume Xiao
Effects: Tsume Xiao/Grey Nolder

===========
Flags
===========
This is what a perfect 5 Flags looks like [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]   [~JWJ~]

Performance: [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]   [~J (4.5)

Build:[~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~] (4)

Texture:[~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~] (3)

Animations:[~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~] (3)

Sounds:[~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~] (4)

Ease of Use:[~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JW (3.5)

Value:[~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ] (4)

===========
First Impressions
===========

Upon rezzing the simple, cardboard box and copying the contents, I immediately noticed a level of detail in the manual that opened before me. The notecard is more than a manual, and shows that real thought was put into it. There is a back story written up for the weapon about its “service” history in Erusea, how it relates the the Kalashnikov it is based upon, an in-depth notecard on the 5.45×39mm round, and even how it would differentiate internally from a Kalashnikov. Its nice to see such thought and detail put into just the manual.

After the introduction, the  key commands are integrated into sentences describing their function, with proper examples of how one would look. Well written, although I think listing the commands upfront may be helpful to the customers who actually read the manuals. Reading the ENIC manual is highly recommended as its not only enjoyable, but ENIC weapons function on Channel 9 and have some varying commands.

===========
Asthetics
===========
Attaching the model puts a dark, powerful looking weapon in your hands. Sculpts abound, being used in places such as the foregrip, stock, grip, trigger guard/trigger/mag release, fire selector, main receiver, suppressor, magazine, and even screws.  Details are quite good, with handmade textures that flow smoothly over the curves of the sculpts and non sculpts a like. On one side of the receiver, the textures shows a stamping that reads the company name, caliber, date, and country name. A few seams can be seen when one zooms in on the part above the trigger, but it is only visible at very high zoom and does not detract from the overall fit and finish of the model. Of all the sculpts, the stock, upper part of the foregrip, and gas system stand out the most in visual prowess and detail, although the fact that you can look in under the reciever cover and see the separate bolt is nice.

Outside of the sculpts however, the model is detailed although the textures seem to be fairly plain and unexciting.

Speaking on textures, one of the features on the Type 08M is the ability to change the color of the furniture (grip, stock, foregrip) and change the magazine material. For furniture there is a very nice wood grain, or a smooth synthetic, both of which fit the sculpts and gun design well. Magazine choices are either the traditional stamped metal or BakeLite. The Bakelite texture is the odd ball, as it doesn’t look as nice as the others. I personally prefer the monochrome synthetic with metal mag, but on the plus side, it also goes the best with my suit.

Animations are well thought out and fit the weapon, though execution doesn’t always work well. The stand animation is not the usual SL assault rifle hold(right hand on the trigger foregrip rezzing in the left, held at stomach height). Instead,  the gun is held, muzzle downward, in an angled position, hand safely off the trigger, but it looks like its easy to slide then hands and have the hostile in your sights. Aim is fairly traditional, but works well. Reload seems to fit the tactical reload, but the full reload uses the same animation and then just sits there during the bolt pull.  The prone animations is good, and I am not smashing a rifle into my face.  The downs to the animations are the way the tend to snap, and that the size may not fit larger or smaller avatars. Otherwise, it they are quite nice.

Effects are minimal, just a simple muzzle smoke and light particle muzzle flash. They look good and function well, and can be turned off with a simple command. Muzzle flash turns off with the suppressor, but the smoke stays, as it should. Granted, the silencer’s sculpted, custom textured looks see to clash with the matte metal barrel.

The gun report is nice, sharp and crisp, with that trademark Kalashnikov crack-”bap” sound you really only know how to describe when you hear it. Suppressed sounds are not Hollywood-style “kink klink klink” but rather a slight crack and a hiss, which is true to life, as super sonic ammunitions cannot be fully silenced because it still breaks the sound barrier. Reloads sound good, as with the suppressor attach/detach. The only sounds that can be as enjoyable as the un-suppressed fire is the melee. A nice swing with a satisfying crunch on impact.

===========
Performance
===========

The ENIC Type 08M may not have dozens of fancy features and effects, but it makes an excellent battlefield companion. During several hours of fighting, I never worried about hit registration with these bullets, was always able to greet people within rez ranges will a rifle butt to the face, and take long range shots when needed. There are some quirks to the 08M, such as the spread on fully automatic. It seems small for a Kalashnikov, which takes away from its role as a suppression weapon. However, this is closer to the AK74 than the AK47, so it should have some decent accuracy. Fire on semi auto is dead center, and is good for long ranges, though with such a tight, predictable auto spread, I wonder if switching to semi is worth the key strokes.

The Type 08M is a excellent performer. It doesn’t generate high resource usage or lag even under heavy fire, nor does it suffer from sim lag. My movement will be like sludging through molasses, but the gun will fire like a well oiled machine. Bullets also keep flying when others around them are phys-locked,though they do not utilize any impulse maneuvers, but rather just seem to not lock up as easily as other bullets, and the brief time they did lock, they seemed to be released first.

This is the kind of reliability you want in your weapon.

===========
Overall
===========

The ENIC Type 08M is a solid weapon choice for those looking for a combat centered weapon and don’t mind sacrificing some show for some great go. Performance gets a four-and-a-half flags because of a few minor issues that were had during the combat, but none that are anything beyond nuisances. The build is a solid four flags, with good prim detail and nice sculpts make this a great AK-style build for the Kalashnikov fan. Textures get three flags, as once you look away from the good sculpt textures, it’s just a basic matte generic metal. Animations also get a three, as they look good alone, but don’t mesh well, and some of them don’t match the weapon’s actions.  Sounds come in at four flags and are great, clear and crisp. Why a suppressor is included is beyond me as that report is a true delight to hear. Reload seems a bit odd at the end, almost rushed, and the suppressed sounds, while nice, don’t seem to be up to the same quality as the un-suppressed fire sound. Ease of use is a respectable three and a half flags, with that odd listener channel, a few long commands, and odd semi auto spread that takes a bit of a learning curve. Lastly, value is a nice solid four flags. 500L for a sculpted AK variant with this performance and thought behind it is a winner for all the Kalashnikov fans who aren’t influenced by the name of the prims being “Type 08M”, and want a stellar performing gun with great reliability.

If you need a good piece of Soviet engineering at a good price, grab yourself an ENIC Type 08, a good all around gun whose only flaws are minor points in aesthetics, which are overshadowed by high performance.

Visit the North end of the New Jessie armory to find the Type 08 at the ENIC vendor in New Jessie.

-JessieWarJournal Frequency

Militant Collective – Pioneers of Realistic Combat

The Militant Collective, a group based in Nerva and headed by C-3 Raideur Ng has stepped up its progress in developing future systems for the improvement of SL combat. Along with the Merczateers and other groups, they have begun to engineer what many hope will be a solution for the continued issue with current Second Life combat aircraft.

The Collective’s attempts to lead the way in realism began with their first aircraft, the Sparrow Intercepter. This small and nimble aircraft quickly became known for lethality and speed. However, the Collective was one of the first militaries to arm their main aircraft with only air to air weaponry, in effect developing a pure intercepter. This was combined with a thrust system that did not allow it to hover, nor move in reverse. It also restricted its strafing and boost movement, in effect creating a craft that moved like an actual aircraft.

The Collective has also begun development on a Health Counter system for use on all vehicles. This concept, with the cooperation of other Second Life military groups, will allow for a realistic use of vehicles. The Sparrow and other Collective craft will soon be able to take multiple hits and simulate battle damage.

This concept is also being applied to fleetships. Giving fleetships the ability to survive against minor ground fire and light strafing simulates armor and allows dedicated heavy vessels to react to threats much like other games. Such a system, coupled with the decrease in speeds of aircraft and fleetships, will allow infantry to once against protect themselves from low flying aircraft, simulate extended dogfights between fighters and bombers, and allow ships to finally pummel each other with countless weapon batteries.

The entire Militant Collective is extremely excited about the abilities such a change could make on the overall feel of combat in Second Life and encourages all military groups who read this to research and consider the broad amount of realism and sheer amusement this will bring. They also hope that groups can agree on a few simple rules governing such a Health Meter system so creativity is not squashed in the name of “winning at all costs”.

The Militant Collective Air Corp, Space Corp, Marine Corp, and Infantry Corp are constantly looking for able personnel to command the best equipment available and fill both combat and leadership roles. Entry forms are available in the Nerva telehub or by IM’ing one of our Reservist Trainers. As always, play fair, try hard, enjoy yourselves, everyone.

-Raideur Ng

VALOR – A New Kind of Combat

I went to the Krazykat region today to check out the growing and enigmatic VALOR military group. Here, those who might expect to find another small military would be wrong – instead, what they find is a unique form of combat on the grid entirely.

The battlefield at Krazykat, with its terrain ridges, lava pools, and basis for both defenders and attackers, stands calm for the moment.

It is a concept in which the goals are to create equal conditions for both attackers and defenders, while simultaneously minimizing lag and creating a clear and reasonable objective for capture that leads to fast-paced but fair fighting.

The long, lonely road - one of the routes into the VALOR base.

There are several key factors that the group’s leader, General Verissimo Seetan, employs to make this possible.  One thing he talked about is the equal balance employed in the sim.

Caine Constantine: So you redesigned the base for visitors?
Verissimo Seetan: Yea for a Real Army vs Army.  Both sides have a base and homepoint.

Verissimo Seetan: I am just so sick of other sims, with no home point and so 1 sided.
Caine Constantine: I know what you mean.
Verissimo Seetan: Not only are you attacking, but your dealing with rezzing, and tons of lag because of it
Caine Constantine: It can kill you.
Verissimo Seetan: It does.

Visitors to the VALOR base get a homepoint in the hub from which to fight.

I have personally often recommended homepoints for attackers in all combat sims, but usually the recommendation is shot down for, among other reasons, a belief that malicious types will exploit the homepoint.

Caine Constantine: But to play devil’s advocate, how do you defend against people exploiting the homepoint here?
Verissimo Seetan: Example?

Caine Constantine: Well for example I give out homepoints to anyone too in New Jessie, and it can be hard to ban someone with a homepoint in our sim.
Verissimo Seetan: well in the home point
Verissimo Seetan: no rezz
Verissimo Seetan: no scripts
Verissimo Seetan: nothing
Verissimo Seetan: not even for group members

Caine Constantine: Ah, so it’s a seperate parcel, and by keeping them out of the other parcels, the worst they can do is stand around and shout basically.
Verissimo Seetan: Yea, let me show you.
Verissimo Seetan: Its group only access, and its covered, other parts of it, above and below.

Caine Constantine: So does this cut down lag noticeably here?
Verissimo Seetan: HUGE

In fact, General Seetan told me essentially that its his belief that combat need not lag at all – contrary to the popular belief that where there is combat, there is lag. He said that he stringently checks scripts in his sim to make sure that this is the case, while also building low prim.

Verissimo Seetan: [We have] near no lag.
Verissimo Seetan: And the vendors, I made sure they are low lag.
Verissimo Seetan: I removed a lot. They stress the sim.
Verissimo Seetan: I make sure nothing here is over a .5 here in script time.

Caine Constantine: That’s good.
Verissimo Seetan: Even you and me, so right now I am totaling 100 scripts, and a 3.0ms [total script time].
Verissimo Seetan: Extremely low

Caine Constantine: Yeah
Verissimo Seetan: So when I feel lag, I check the scripts.
Verissimo Seetan: and if i have 2 of the same scripts running on my sim, I recompile it in to mono, so it all runs as 1 script, saving even more sim time.

Verissimo Seetan: And I made very minimal use of prims and textures here.
Caine Constantine: Only about 1250?
Verissimo Seetan: Yeah
Verissimo Seetan: So for a homestead I got the fastest one.

Caine Constantine: It seems like it, very smooth.
Verissimo Seetan: We had the Silver Army attack us
Verissimo Seetan: No lag, until one of them died or teleported back.
Verissimo Seetan: That is what causes the sim to choke.

We then went to look at the rest of the region.  One of the interesting things about the sim is that it features a closed sandbox for VALOR members to use for testing and building things.

VALOR's closed and covered sandbox structure.

Used for the testing of weapons built by VALOR, which builds its own armaments, as well as used for testing bought weapons, the sandbox has script testing devices that also help to keep weapons efficient and low-lag.

Another thing General Seetan has tried to do with the design of the sim is to make it harder for people to cheat – both attackers and his own soldiers.  One consistent problem with fairness in combat on the grid is illegitimate homepoints.  Especially late at night when people are feeling too lazy to defend properly, homepoints are sometimes set on defensive walls in the middle of the sim, far away from their legal homepoint areas.  This can cause havoc when attackers try to pass by, as they’re forced to either spawncamp – often against sim rules – or left to be shot in the back as they move toward an enemy base.

At VALOR though, the majority of the battlefield, outside of the sandbox and the small square parcels used for homepoints for both attackers and defenders, belongs to a land group in which only high-ranking members of VALOR, who administer bans and deal with other land issues, are part of.

Caine Constantine: So this is interesting, this land is set to groups which make it so that your own people cannot cheat in terms of homepoints even if they want to?
Verissimo Seetan: yea
Verissimo Seetan: the main parcel
Verissimo Seetan: not even my guys can cheat.

Only two people, Verissimo and one of his close officers, are members of the land group.  In other words, unless they themselves are doing it, illegal homepoints aren’t really possible for the most part at the VALOR sim.  This solves the illegal homepoint problem often afflicts even the most disciplined military groups.

A view of VALOR's sim, Krazykat, from one of their base's defensive towers.

I was then invited to check out VALOR’s own base, in the far corner of the sim opposite the attacker base and spawn.

These teleports allow VALOR's soldiers out of their base through an otherwise completely sealed off basement.

VALOR’s “barracks,” if a barracks is where people spawn from in combat on the grid, as well as their offices, are located in a totally sealed off part of the sim.  There are no connections to the surface, and the area is underground.  With the objective flag for the base above this, VALOR’s sim designs eliminates the need to go for the spawns and makes it impossible to breach into the area and take pictures of oneself sitting in the chief’s chair – breaches are disallowed, and ususally end in death due to breachproof walls reinforced with special killprims.

VALOR has three spawns - one for recruits, one for soldiers, and one for members of the Firestorm Alliance, their alliance group.

It’s a setup again based on some unique concepts – namely that spawnkilling should be impossible, and that victory should be tied to a simple and widespread objective.

Verissimo Seetan: this is inside our base
Verissimo Seetan: we have teleports
Verissimo Seetan: only way out
Verissimo Seetan: no way in
Verissimo Seetan: if you look
Verissimo Seetan: the floor above us
Verissimo Seetan: is all kill prim

Caine Constantine: To stop breaching?
Verissimo Seetan: yea
Verissimo Seetan: not allowed here
Verissimo Seetan: nor needed to win

Caine Constantine: It’s banned, and also stopped by lethal force in terms of damage prims here?
Verissimo Seetan: just look carefully
Verissimo Seetan: its all thought out
Verissimo Seetan: your goal here is to get all 3 flags

VALOR's first flag, near the main hub.

VALOR's second flag - in the center of the sim, surrounded by glowing lava and catwalks requiring some fancy footwork from attackers and defenders.

VALOR's third flag, located right below the courtyard of the base and a short walk from the surface.

Caine Constantine: So then victory happens when you take all three flags, or do you need to hold them?
Verissimo Seetan: You take all three and hold them for at least 5 minutes.

We then went and visited his office, where General Seetan told me about how he also creates objectives and missions for his own soldiers to embark on.

Verissimo Seetan: I send my guys out recon mission
Verissimo Seetan: or battles
Verissimo Seetan: they can complete it when ever they want

Caine Constantine: What do recon missions consist of?
Verissimo Seetan: thats classifed
Verissimo Seetan: :D

The General's office, where he stores notecard files on every single offensive and defensive that VALOR is involved with.

Caine Constantine: The mission reports, I believe you said that you write them up or your soldiers write them up anytime there is an attack or a defense?
Verissimo Seetan: solo / duo / attack
Verissimo Seetan: I send my guys on solo missions
Verissimo Seetan: if its only like 2 or 3 defenders
Verissimo Seetan: or just plain noobs
Verissimo Seetan: I push my guys very very hard

Caine Constantine: So you’re really going for an elite force.
Verissimo Seetan: we battle all the time here.

General Seetan then told me about some of his group’s recent offensive operations.  His brash attitude, which he eagerly admits to, came out here pretty quickly.

Verissimo Seetan: We beat Sparta in 10 min, blew up the core in no time.
Verissimo Seetan: 2142 proved weak.  We were banned, so we got on alts :D.
Verissimo Seetan: We beat CS in 15 min last night.  First run we got inside, they could not get us out.  But typically they will not say they lost, when we were inside for like 20 minutes.

Caine Constantine: How long do your attacks mostly last?
Verissimo Seetan: Depends.  Like for example, we attacked MBC last night, and 3 of us got banned for medicing.
Verissimo Seetan: They said we were sim teleporting

Verissimo Seetan: [We] tried to explain, but the tards did not understand English, so I told them to go fuck themselves.
Caine Constantine: I think they’re primarily Italians.

He then explained that the Firestorm Alliance is an alliance made out of VALOR and the 10th Mountain Division, of the sim Baie Lazare.  I asked him how they are as allies.

Verissimo Seetan: All we have is 10th atm, I don’t want to ally with commie type militaries.
Caine Constantine: How is 10th as an ally?
Verissimo Seetan: Easy, I help them, we ally and we help them.
Verissimo Seetan: I scripted weapons for them for free and helped them with the base cause the first base sucked.
Verissimo Seetan: So I told a good friend of mine a pro builder to build it how I said and he did it in an hour for free.

I visited 10th and asked some of them how they think of VALOR as an ally.

Stardaizer Yuitza, Pandoraearth Mathilde, Blackjack Kowalski and N3KO Burner at 10th Mountain's home, Baie Lazare.

N3KO Burner: Hey Caine… whats this about you taking a picture?
Caine Constantine: Just taking a picture here to put in my article about VALOR.  How are they as allies?
N3KO Burner: I like ‘em alot
Blackjack Kowalski: at least they come to help when they are available.
N3KO Burner: They are fantastic.
N3KO Burner: They don’t ignore you.
N3KO Burner: I think that they are a great army led by an even better person.

Blackjack Kowalski: I think other armies disses Verissimo Seeta, leader of VALOR without good reason.

Outside of the 10th Mountain Division though, the rest of combat is, to VALOR, target practice.

Caine Constantine: So aside from your ally 10th, is everyone else fair game?
Verissimo Seetan: yea I don’t care who.

Caine Constantine: None of that neutrality business or anything?
Verissimo Seetan: They don’t need to seek permission to attack
Verissimo Seetan: nope
Verissimo Seetan: why?
Verissimo Seetan: we play for the fun of it
Verissimo Seetan: most of us are old school fps gammers
Verissimo Seetan: from the quake doom days

Caine Constantine: So you don’t really do the diplomatic side of combat
Verissimo Seetan: naw
Verissimo Seetan: most of it is bull shit anyway
Verissimo Seetan: I just tell them to fuck off
Verissimo Seetan: or come battle it out
Verissimo Seetan: here we settle things with bullets
Verissimo Seetan: if you don’t agree
Verissimo Seetan: we will settle it that way
Verissimo Seetan: and I clear my ban list every week.

General Seetan did leave one exception to this policy though, for the Special Combat Services or SCS, led by Stephen Holder out of Nirvana Isle.  He basically explained his policy of ratcheting up his forces when he feels he’s being cheated against.

Verissimo Seetan: But for those SCS members
Verissimo Seetan: that went bad on their word
Verissimo Seetan: I will keep them banned
Caine Constantine: What happened there?
Verissimo Seetan: look
Verissimo Seetan: the last time we attacked them
Verissimo Seetan: we made sure Leos Merryman was not on
Verissimo Seetan: and won easly
Verissimo Seetan: so
Verissimo Seetan: this time we attacked them with Leos
Verissimo Seetan: and he just accuses everyone of cheating
Verissimo Seetan: because of his lack of skill
Verissimo Seetan: Caine you saw the sim
Verissimo Seetan: 2 doors in a wacked hill
Verissimo Seetan: so 1 sided
Verissimo Seetan: they just wireframe
Verissimo Seetan: and spam at the doors

Caine Constantine: Yeah it’s a huge cliff.
Caine Constantine: It’s hard making progress because there’s only two ways in.
Verissimo Seetan: look it may look pretty and pleasing to the eyes

Caine Constantine: Easily blocked too.
Verissimo Seetan: but
Verissimo Seetan: for fun factor
Verissimo Seetan: is really fail
Verissimo Seetan: I built a bridge
Verissimo Seetan: over the wall

Caine Constantine: Ahh, and that didn’t sit well.
Verissimo Seetan: they were going to ban me for that
Verissimo Seetan: then
Verissimo Seetan: they pull out 2 tanks

Verissimo Seetan: spammed away at the walls
Verissimo Seetan: so
Verissimo Seetan: then i pulled out a plane
Verissimo Seetan: to take out the tanks
Verissimo Seetan: I swear to god. no joke
Verissimo Seetan: i was shoothing them tanks for 5 min

Caine Constantine: They used 2 tanks?
Caine Constantine: Wow
Verissimo Seetan: and i was like thats bull shit
Verissimo Seetan: so i gave the ok for mechs
Verissimo Seetan: then we got carpet banned

Caine Constantine: Arms race heats up
Verissimo Seetan: we have no tanks
Verissimo Seetan: even if we did
Verissimo Seetan: armored combat is going to be the end of sl combat
Verissimo Seetan: not even a rail gun did anything
Verissimo Seetan: we’re working on an atom plasma full auto shot gun

Caine Constantine: Exclusively for tanks?
Verissimo Seetan: 200 rounds a shot
Verissimo Seetan: yea
Verissimo Seetan: the sim spikes everytime you fire

Caine Constantine: One hit and they’re down
Verissimo Seetan: yep
Verissimo Seetan: and we have a sticky bomb thats being worked on
Verissimo Seetan: ones it hits the tank
Verissimo Seetan: it stays stuck
Verissimo Seetan: rezzing daming balls from top of it hitting it
Verissimo Seetan: damage
Verissimo Seetan: and it will say for 1 min
Verissimo Seetan: appreaing its on fire
Verissimo Seetan: 10 hits a second
Verissimo Seetan: for a min
Verissimo Seetan: just 1 on a tank
Verissimo Seetan: and its gone

Caine Constantine: So you’re trying to smother tanks in their cradle.
Verissimo Seetan: if people want to play dirty
Verissimo Seetan: I will turn up the heat

Caine Constantine: Sounds like you don’t need any
Verissimo Seetan: thats what i am known and hated for
Verissimo Seetan: we don’t need tanks
Verissimo Seetan: if you grief me
Verissimo Seetan: I will beat you at your own game.

He then explained his basic philosophy on why people cheat at combat on the grid.

Verissimo Seetan: Caine the sad truth is
Verissimo Seetan: most people that play SL combat
Verissimo Seetan: are not good at FPS games
Verissimo Seetan: and most use advanced options

2142, 39th and the Merczateers are all banned from VALOR because, in part, all of them have banned Verissimo from their sims.  As a result, he is a firm believer in counter-bans.  And his explanation for why he is banned from these sims is fairly extensive but usually runs something like this – everyone was playing fair, until someone on the opposing side decided to turn up the heat.  Shooting through walls, bigger explosions, bigger armor, using aircraft to hit the ground, so on and so forth.  But they all end the same – when VALOR feels its enemies are cheating, General Seetan pulls out big guns to match.  As a result, he gets banned unjustly in his opinion, and so bans them in response.

Caine Constantine: Do you ever think theres something wrong about stooping to their level?
Verissimo Seetan: killing us in spwn
Verissimo Seetan: nope
Verissimo Seetan: look
Verissimo Seetan: i send them ims
Verissimo Seetan: as warning to the leaders

Caine Constantine: Not judging, just playing devils advocate.
Verissimo Seetan: they say they are doing nothing wrong
Verissimo Seetan: i am like dood they are shooting us though the ground with them
Verissimo Seetan: on top of shooting us with planes
Verissimo Seetan: so
Verissimo Seetan: i say fuck it

Caine Constantine: I see
Verissimo Seetan: and do it
Verissimo Seetan: why battle somone
Verissimo Seetan: when they don’t want to play fair
Verissimo Seetan: I rather get there blood boiling
Verissimo Seetan: and have them poping zits the next moring

Caine Constantine: So then doing stuff like that
Caine Constantine: is more like acknowledging that you cant fight there anymore at that point
Caine Constantine: and just having some lolz
Verissimo Seetan: yea why not?

The last thing we talked about was the Fairplay treaty that he writes and updates regularly, which stands as the rules in his sim. I asked him what makes it stand apart from other combat treaties on the grid.

Caine Constantine: I wanted to ask, what do you feel are its biggest advantages over its “competitors,” like NCR and STABLE in terms of treaties?
Verissimo Seetan: specs
Verissimo Seetan: and highly detailed
Verissimo Seetan: no bull shit talk
Verissimo Seetan: but
Verissimo Seetan: if the person reading it is tard he will not understand
Verissimo Seetan: its writen to help you
Verissimo Seetan: with your sim
Verissimo Seetan: for very low lag and fair combat

Verissimo Seetan takes no prisoners when it comes to getting his points across.

So in the end, VALOR is a very interesting group with a unique sim and setup. Verissimo Seetan is a leader with a lot of fresh ideas in many respects when it comes to things like homepoints, lag and cheatproofing his sim – but on the other hand, he’s also got a lot of old school methods of dealing with hostilities toward groups he feels are wronging VALOR. In any event though, the group is growing – with 20 members, growing income and a secure sim at Krazykat, all as of today – and it appears to have a bright future.

What do you think? If you’ve fought VALOR or talked with their membership or their leader, drop a comment by on our article and tell us what your thoughts on this new group, its ideas, its members, and its practices today. And as ever, thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts with the Journal community.

-Caine Constantine

The Urramaich Union: Valor and Honor!

Our leader, Mazzy Fastback, and her Second, Dralkanen Hextall, have saw fit to make our selves known: To introduce the Urramaich Union. We are a new army, you will soon see our black and bronze on the battlefield. We have formed within a desert region, our fortress is a monolith upon the crags, and a bastian in the storms. Urramaich Union: Valor and Honor!

We Plan to be a Fair and upstanding Military, just like any of the Other Giants out there; With a firm standing on Fair weaponry, Good tactics, and above all, The Fun that can be had with all those in the community. Our group hopes to renew the combat community and bring new life into it through innovative design and new group dynamics. We have the men, the builders, the scripters and the will to last. Our spirit is strong and very ready for anything that can be thrown at us.

If you would like an application or have questions about our new group please IM Xegras Xue for an application.

“We are a purely unified army based on a council and high council here everyone’s voice is heard so things may be dealt with quickly and in an honorable manner. We pride ourselves on valor and honor it is our name after all Uraamaich a Gaelic word with great meaning. We will be open in a few weeks time but till then all are welcome to poke around and visit us and we are taking applications please contact our head of recruitment Xegras Xue. Thank you.”

-Mazzy Bandia of the Urramaich Union

The Ummamaich Union is available to visit at the sim Aussie dAlliez.  Check it out today, as they go from a new group to becoming another member of Second Life’s growing military community.  And please share your thoughts about the group here in our comments section too.

-Caine Constantine

My Patience Is Now at an End.

And now before us stands the last problem that must be solved and will be solved. It is the last major claim which I have to make in Second Life, but it is the claim from which I will not recede and which, Phillip willing, I will make good.

The history of the problem is as follows: in 2008 under the watchword ‘The right for all to fight’ The Military Community was torn in pieces and was newly formed by certain crazy so-called ’statesman”; Caine Constantine. Without regard for the origin of the peoples, without regard for either their wish as nations or for economic necessities The Military Community at that time was broken up into atoms and new so-called States were arbitrarily formed. To this procedure New Jessie owes its existence. This N.J state began with a single lie and the father of this lie was named Caine Constantine. This Mr Constantine at that time appeared in Jessie and he first of all gave the assurance that there was a N. Jessie nation. To expand on this lie he founded with another, the Jessie Journal. It was resisted by many brave men.

So in the end through Mr .Constantine this J.Journal annexed SLH reporters. Since this state did not seem fitted to live, out of hand three and a half million readers were taken in violation of their right to self-determination and their wish for self-determination. Since even that did not suffice, over a million illiterate noobs had to be added, then some trolls, and at last several hundred thousand buckets of spam.

That is this state which then later proceeded to call itself The Jessie Journal—in violation of the right of the peoples to self-determination, in violation of the clear wish and will of the nations to which this violence had been done.

Now the shameless part of this story begins. This state whose government is in the hands of a minority compels the other nationalities to cooperate in a policy which will oblige them one of these days to shoot at their own brothers. Mr Constantine demands of the Reporter: ‘I am going to merge this paper with another, The S.L military forum, agree and you won’t be shot.’ And he makes the same demand of his “citizens” and “Friends of New Jessie”. Can there be anything more shameless than to compel folk of another people, in certain circumstances, to fire on their own fellow-countrymen only because a ruinous, evil, and criminal government so demands it? I can here assert: when we had occupied New Jessie, my first order was: no citizen needs to serve, rather he must not serve, in our force. I have not driven him to a conflict with his conscience.

Mr Constantine now places his hopes on the world! And he and his diplomats make no secret of the fact. They state: it is our hope that Marshal Lehane will be overthrown, that Imperator Vesperia will be removed, that on every hand revolutions are on the way. They place their hope on Chaos Decretium. He still thinks then that he will be able to evade the fulfillment of his obligations.

And then I can say only one thing: now two men stand arrayed one against the other: there is Mr Constantine and here stand I. We are two men of a different make-up. In the great struggle of the peoples while Mr Constantine was sneaking about through the world, I as a decent reporter did my duty. And now today I stand over against this man as the Writer of my people!

I have only a few statements still to make: I am grateful to Mr Stephen Holder for all his efforts. I have assured him that the Jessie Journal readers desires nothing else than peace, but I have also told him that I cannot go back behind the limits set to our patience. I have further assured him, and I repeat it here, that when this problem is solved there is for New Jessie no further territorial problem in Second Life. And I have further assured him that at the moment when New Jessie solves her problems, that means when the Sl military forums have come to terms with their other minorities, and that peaceably and not through oppression, then I have no further interest in the SL military forum state. And that is guaranteed to him! We want no SL military forums!

But in the same way I desire to state before the New Jessie people that with regard to the problem of the Second Life Herald my patience is now at an end! I have made their editor Ms. Pixeleen an offer which is nothing but the carrying into effect of what she herself has promised. The decision now lies in her hands: Peace or War! She will either accept this offer and now at last give to New Jessie their freedom or we will go and fetch this freedom for ourselves. The world must take note that in four and a half years of war and through the long years of my Journalistic life there is one thing which no one could ever cast in my teeth: I have never been a coward!

Now I go before my people as its first Reporter and behind me—that the world should know—there marches a people and a different people from that of 2008!

If at that time a wandering scholar was able to inject into our people the poison of democratic catchwords—the people of today is no longer the people that it was then. Such catchwords are for us like wasp-stings: they cannot hurt us: we are now immune.

In this hour the whole The Jessie Journal readers will unite with me! It will feel my will to be its will. Just as in my eyes it is its future and its fate which give me the commission for my action.

And we wish now to make our will as strong as it was in the time of our fight, the time when I, as a simple unknown Reporter, went forth to write and never doubted of success and final victory.

Then there gathered close about me a band of brave men and brave women, and they went with me. And so I ask you my people to take your stand behind me, man by man, and woman by woman.

In this hour we all wish to form a common will and that will must be stronger than every hardship and every danger.

And if this will is stronger than hardship and danger then one day it will break down hardship and danger.

We are determined!

Now let Mr Constantine make his choice!

P.S this is not a parody and should be taken VERY seriously, lol.

Reporter Vegna Fouroux

In Defense of Major Militaries

The level of unfounded hatred toward the major groups, Ordo Imperialis and the Merczateers, in combat on the grid is really quite sad.  For example, let’s focus on the Merczateers for a bit.  Here’s a burning noob in Merczateers armor overlooking Thorium, home base of the Chthonic Syndicate.

The same thing is visible in Second Chance, the home region of Sparta.  This Merczateer has a spear through his heart instead.

After seeing this, someone made an interesting point.  Could you imagine how absolutely outrageous people would be if say, greeting visitors at Salamis, were burning Chthonic Syndicate soldiers or Spartans impaled through the heart?  They’d immediately complain about how terrible it is that the Merczateers were going against the Iron Symphony doctrine by doing such a thing.  And for that matter, does it say anything about the Merczateers that they don’t have anything similar to burning enemy soldiers?

Of course, it’s a game and it’s just e-puffery, right?  Nothing behind it other than playful combat roleplay.  Or is it?

For example, the maker of the burning Merczateer in Thorium, is the same person who was caught sithacking into Badnarik during the recent assault by CS, 2142 and Sparta on the Merczateers.  Sour grapes for being caught?  Or indicative of a bigger chip on one’s shoulder?  Sounds like some people are out for more than just roleplay.

The hypocrisy of it all extends further.  Recently, during the 2142/CS/Spartan assault on the Merczateers, they had roughly 40 soldiers fighting less than half their number of Merczateers.  They swarmed – I used the S word! – swarmed the Merczateers.  And there’s nothing wrong with that!  Winning a fight is about bringing more to the table, whether it be in terms of tech, skill, or manpower, after all.  I love fighting swarms.  One time Ordo came to New Jessie as a group of 20 people or so, and basically me and two others were the only ones fighting them.  And we all had a great time!

The only problem with the swarming of the Merczateers is that the same people who swarmed them routinely claim that they themselves are, yes, swarmed, usually by evil Merczateers.  In fact, CS and Sparta have full sims – and yet they impose an avatar cap of 20 on their regions, making it quite literally impossible to swarm them to any real degree, unless these groups have virtually nobody on base at the time.

To be fair, CS does offer a way around the limit:

Christopher Compton: The limit is set to twenty.
Christopher Compton: If you need more, fill out a request.
Takkun Gray: How do I fill out a request?

(Takkun was denied this request.)

But regardless, does it really seem fair to make swarming impossible for others to do, only to then do it to someone else?  And if you, as I, think that it doesn’t matter how many numbers someone wants to put on a battlefield – doesn’t it still seem wrong to complain about it if you yourself do it?

Another common complaint is the use of various tactics of the Merczateers – most namely, their use of armored combat.  To be sure, this is definitely something that they’ve got a lead over everyone else on for the moment and they’ve not been shy of deploying the stuff.  But what about other groups?

Groups like 39th for example pioneered fast, flying and heavily armed mechs.  They had them and nobody else did, at least at first.  Did they offer to help others develop the technology, or develop a doctrine for its restrained use?  They probably didn’t.  Should they have been expected to?

No, probably not.  It’s a combat community, and sharing tech and helping others can conversely mean putting yourself less further ahead.  But then again, when your adversaries do the same thing as you in creating something new, and then go one further in actually trying to help others create similar units and then one more further in writing up a doctrine on how to restrain the use of said units, can you really complain when they’re doing nothing more than a kinder, gentler version of what you yourself did?  You really can’t.

I’ve often heard about the nature of the setup of Salamis and Badnarik and how it’s impregnable.  It’s pretty tough to crack.  But what about other sims?  How hard is it to crack a place like Thorium or Second Chance – both of which feature teleporters for defenders in the sim to use to navigate around it?  How fair is that?  It seems leagues less fair than to have a pretty vulnerable wall about 10M high that the Merczateers are likely to be caught chatting on rather than dug into, as they do in Badnarik.

But hey – everyone has their own sims, and everyone has their own rules, and that’s part of the enjoyable thing about combat on the grid is that everywhere is unique.   But the problem lies in the hateful hypocrisy – the fact that people will accuse the large groups of doing and saying so much that is supposedly bad, while partaking in it themselves, and sometimes doing worse – like sithacking into someone’s sim to try and win a battle against a force that is already vastly outnumbered anyway.

All I’m saying is, make sure your own house is in order before attacking someone else’s.

So why burn effegies and post spiteful comments about the Merczateers?  There are dozens of Merczateer spin-off groups out there to boot.  For example, one member of 39th is in charge of a group called Merch-Uh-Tears, whose charter reads:

“Merch-Uh-Tears”

Our job: To lag you back to the stone-age.

We’ll take over your sim in a matter of seconds (the equivalent of about 7hours due to the lag) so don’t mess with us! Or we’ll cheat and whine and spawn camp you till the bitter end!!!1!!!SHIFT11!!!1!!!!11

The 39th member also shares another rank due to the group, that of Mercshiteer Marshal.  Again, what motivates someone to do something like that?

The point I am trying to make is therefore that criticism is fine, but unfounded hate and needless insults, as well as hypocritical condemnations of things done by those who levy the same criticisms, is wrong to do.  You can’t hate being swarming, think it’s wrong, and then go swarm people.  You can’t decry the use of new technology on you when you’ve used it on others.  You can’t complain about an impenetrable base when your base itself is built to be much the same way.

And so therefore, I say that it’s really time to move off the Merczateers as a common punching bag of complaints, because it’s essentially true that while they are far from perfect as all us mortal beings are, they at least aspire to get out of the common muck that is the endless drama and burning effegies and hate groups that make up a lot of combat today.

I am quite certain of course that I myself will not be a target for writing such a piece.  After all, they must have paid me to write it.  Rest assured that if I could get people to pay me to write nice stories about them, I’d…well…write a lot more of them, because I like money.  Kidding aside, such charges are ridiculous. I write about things as I see them.  A couple months ago I wrote a column in defense of smaller militaries, and I was praised as having looked at a side of things not often looked at.  I am confident that all of those who are fair of mind will understand that I am doing the same thing here in looking at the side of the group that usually has the mud slinged at it and is not slinging much in return.  And though I have focused on the Merczateers because I hear about them more in terms of my sources of information in combat, the same usually applies to Ordo as well in terms of what I’ve said.

Nevertheless, I am eager to know what you think.  Am I wrong in my observations, or are these fair points?  Please share your thoughts in our comments section.

-Caine Constantine

This Week’s Community Update

1. In a twist of things, the Merczateers were attacked and invaded, and by many accounts beaten, by an assault comprised of forces from Sparta, 2142 and the Chthonic Syndicate.  In an attack dubbed Operation MMC (Make Mercz Cry) 2.0, they reached the admin tower and a couple defending Merczateers had to go through their own hub to hit back at them.  Various Merczateers on the other hand report sithacking and bailing from aircraft as having almost assuredly happened as well.  The invading forces prepared a video to commemorate their assault on YouTube, viewable from this link.

Operation MMC V2.0

2.This story is a bit more than a week old, but I wasn’t able to post anything about it yet due to being unable to log into SL.  39th is out of Ziost and the Legion of Artemis, led by ex-39th command DaveyDarkStrider Oh, now controls that sim.  39th has moved to a homestead sim called New Scottish Highlands.  Both groups should be opening soon. But there is some seriously bad blood between them already due to the nature of the sim transition.  DaveyDarkStrider picked up Ziost after he and the sim owner essentially agreed that 39th had to leave.  Since that point, 39th has banned all Artemis forces, while Artemis is still allowing 39th to visit their base.  The war of words has been escalating since then.  Both groups should be open and ready for war by the end of May.

Definitely more to come on this story soon, folks.

3. Word on the street is that Vanguard is coming back, and that it could be soon.  With Christoph Naumova’s war chest of Valycion weapons sales at over L$2,000,000 so far, he’s got ample reserves of cash to do so, and is already having new items made for the group – though he claims many are simply personal items for himself.  Rumors of new Vanguard groups being formed and even new members appointed to an as-of-yet-allegedly-nonexistent high command are also out there.  If he does indeed start it up, it could be an overnight superpower, possibly drawing the majority of ex-Vanguard now scattered across the grid in smaller groups back into the fold – but will it be choked off immediately by instant bans from Iron Symphony groups and others whom were never too endeared to the Vorhut Fuhrer’s reich or to Vanguard Valycion Vanguard (again?) weapons?

4. Top brass at the Militant Collective and the Merczateers met recently to discuss their mutual ally – the Ordo Imperialis.  MC leadership and the group at large has been miffed of late at the Ordo for alleged problems involving siphoning membership and being outright disrespectful with regard to the rules, practices and aspirations of the Collective.   In response, MC broke off all relations with Ordo and restricted the group from Nerva, it’s home sim.  During the meeting, both sides agreed that Ordo has had its problems in the past, but while the Merczateers again argued that the group is certainly an improving group on solid footing, the MC stood its ground on the position that Ordo is indeed a member of the Iron Symphony that needs to change.  The MC has nevertheless chosen to restrict Ordo members from entering Nerva until further notice, but the group’s leadership insists that the situation is being resolved.  Ordo, for its part, wholly disagrees with the idea of disrespect and of it having ever recruited MC members, believes the restriction is an unfair ban, and claims that the situation has come about due to poor communication on the part of the Collective and says that the situation lies in the Collective’s hands at this point.

Expect an in-depth follow up on this one too.

5. The Special Combat Services, or SCS, has banned Valor from its sim, Nirvana Isle, for alleged “grieving.”

6. Oh, and, it’s the New Jessie War Journal from now on.

-Caine Constantine

Sparta Redesigns Second Chance

Having just finished their latest rebuild, the Spartans threw open their sim, Second Chance, to welcome combat from across the grid yesterday.  They were soon obliged with attacks from many groups, with the largest and most persistent being a raid from the Merczateers that spanned a few hours late into the evening.  And so in something new to the Journal, I’m going to put together a photo essay that covers both the new Spartan base and the heated combat that went down in it last night.

The large Spartan base essentially covers the back third of the sim.  With bright red lights in the traditional Spartan theme, as well as multiple flags and Greek motifs, it was an impressive sight for the invading Merczateers.

The new base has a functioning spaceport that acts automatically, with a ship that lands and departs at various timed intervals to give the base a more lively feel.  Also visible in this shot is the sim’s village as well as the fact that there is a strong amount of cover for attacking forces.

Merczateers tried at first to scale the walls of the new Spartan base but eventually opted for a different strategy in the wake of attempts to take the high ground.

Some of the base’s decor was somewhat unfriendly to the invading Merczateers.  At least if you consider a spear through the heart to be unfriendly.

An armored Legion tank piloted by Kastrenzo Benelli led the way into the Spartan base straight up the middle.  After looking at this picture, I felt as though I had seen it somewhere else though.

I am not making comparisons of either side to fascists or commies, I just thought the resemblance was quite uncanny.

The Spartan hovertank was initially under heavy fire and unable to return shots against the Legion tank assaulting it.

Soon enough though, the Spartan hovertank had the Legion held back behind a smokescreen and a field of green fire and neon colored explosions.

Tank duel over the central pit of the Spartan battlefield.  Shortly after the epic fight, the two sides agreed that the armor was creating excessive lag for the sim and agreed to cease using it for the long, remaining duration of the battle.

In the meantime, the armored fight allowed the Merczateers to begin to infiltrate the Spartan base.  Here an infantry squad secures one of the new base’s elevators.

The infantry squad runs past the finely made reactor accents that dot the various parts of the Spartan base.  The detail of these is one of the nicest features of the new build.

Spartan soldier Moonlight Ninetails stood in the new Spartan Officers’ Lounge waiting for the Merczateer squad to drive deeper into the base.

A Spartan and a Merczateer prepare to face off.

The two lunge forward and prepare to face one another, but the Spartan fires off a single shot just soon enough to kill the Merczateer.

Down the hall one of the Spartan rooms was completely ablaze, with torched banners and thick smoke bellowing upward.

At this point in the battle, forces from the Chthonic Syndicate joined in the fight, backing up the Spartans against the Merczateer assault which had, by now, begun to break into the lower levels of the base.  But as the leader of CS, Mayra Roffo explained to me after the fight, initially there was confusion on all sides about the CS.

As CS forces tried to link up with their Spartan comrades-in-arms-of-the-moment, some Spartans confused them for Merczateers, and gunned them down.

Nevertheless, a squad of CS soldiers, led in by leonidas72 Umarov and his giant chaingun, soon got into the battle and everyone resumed shooting at their proper enemies.

Spartan King Bruno Ziskey defends the core and lays down a line of red gunfire to welcome the Merczateers who planned to blow up the sim’s objective target.

The Merczateers soon laid siege to the ultimate objective of the Spartan base – the reactor core.

Mayra Roffo and Mikael Khalamov helped me get to a Spartan elevator so I could get down to where most of the combat action was by now taking place – the deep core of the Spartan base.

A joint contingent of Spartans and CS clear the Merczateers from the core area.  An Ordo attack on Thorium meant that the CS soon had to leave the battlefield though.  You can also see the really cool effects that surround the Spartan base core in the lower levels of their base here.

The Merczateers soon returned however, and dropped in on two sides, surrounding and killing the opposing forced defending the core.

One of Sparta’s defenders was a dog.  What chance does a dog have in combat though?  Can’t even hold a rifle, right?

Well, a dog with a suit of armor and a jetpack might stand a better chance indeed.

Meanwhile, the Merczateers continued to blast away at the Spartan core.  They used training bullets so as to be able to damage the core, but not one another in the massive rain of fire that went off around them.

You know the old saying.  When a man shoots a dog, that is not news…

…but when a dog shoots a man, that is news.  Well, that’s not quite the saying, but it fits.  Would this save the Spartan core?

Merczateers kept the elevators from being able to bring soldiers down to defend the core.  Spartans had a hard time getting down to fight back.

A Spartan stand over the elevator shaft leading down to the base’s core, taking shots at any Merczateers he can see through it.  Unfortunately though, the fact that there were only two ways in, and both quite easily defended, kept the Spartans from getting back into their core.

The end result of the holding of these chokepoints was that the Spartan core finally began to melt down.

The core sparks, then lights up, and finally detonates in a bright blue flourish of electrical sparks followed by a general explosion that destroys the core.

The fight was a good one in that everyone involved enjoyed it and also because according to all those who I spoke with about the fight on all sides, it was also fought fairly and with minimal problems.  Since the Spartan base is still new, it’s likely going to see some changes as a result of lessons learned from these attacks, but it’s clear that the base so far looks great, and represents a strong attention to detail and increased consideration of both defenders and attackers.  Visit Second Chance to see the new Spartan base for yourself, and please share your thoughts on their new base here through our comments page.

-Caine Constantine

Cry Havoc! Black Dawn and Community Renewal

These past few months we’ve been subjected to a lot of speeches, talks and yes articles on a certain subject. This topic has spread even to the hallowed Journal – it has corrupted the mindset of many soldiers in this so-called “community.” What is it? Well in short:

“WAH THE COMMUNITY IS DYING…NO ONE WANTS TO FIGHT ANYMORE…SOB…NOT GOING TO HELP THOUGH…I JUST WANNA GIVE MY TWO CENTS…CRY.”

Whether it’s grunts in their barracks giving out, high minded NCOs who fancy themselves tacticians complaining about today versus the supposed golden age of 2006-2007, or various military figures writing manifestos and creeds on whats “wrong” with this community. This attitude stops now. There is no need for it – get up, attach that gun and go shoot something. Put these notecards down and start shooting.

Except me, I get to keep my notecard, I’m a journalist.

Recently the Merczateers appeared to be moving in this direction, and they had themselves a small campaign called the “War Path.” They attacked pretty much every combat sim known, including keeping up an 18 hour assault on the Chthonic Syndicate. Everyone seems to have had a lot of fun.

However it has come to the attention of the Journal, via a notecard passed on to us, that some Merczateers may be employing unfavourable methods in order to change the combat community into the “correct” shape.

The notecard:

Proteus Hand: Mister Parx.
Proteus Hand: would you mind following me around the perimeter here?
Proteus Hand: and letting me know if I enter a rez parcel?
Proteus Hand: so far, no build, right?

[19:26] Cannot enter parcel, you are not on the access list.

Proteus Hand: no entry
Proteus Hand: peculiar

Samsy Parx: oh yeah

Proteus Hand: Now, I haven’t even entered the sim to the south
Proteus Hand: but I’m being accused of firing from safeland.

Samsy Parx: owner has put sell passes flag on

Proteus Hand: Do you believe that I fired a bullet from here?

Samsy Parx: i was inside the building when the firing happened
Samsy Parx: where did u fire upon us?

Proteus Hand: I actually rezzed my helicopter somewhere on your base and flew it straight up

Samsy Parx: Bexy who is accusing you about it sorting this out as we speak….
Samsy Parx: You’re ex TGC member? Your name looks familiar.

Proteus Hand: No, I’ve been a member of the Merczateers for three years

Samsy Parx: Ok, my mistake then.

Proteus Hand: HM.

Samsy Parx: Yeah we got attacked yesterday while we were sleeping by your group.

Proteus Hand: yeah, I lead that.
Proteus Hand: didn’t know you were sleeping, but something blew us all up, so we left.

Samsy Parx: Ah I see

Proteus Hand: the idea behind it was conquest.
Proteus Hand: our frontiersmen happened on this base a while back, and it got added to the database
Proteus Hand: I’m leading a movement called “Black Dawn”
Proteus Hand: where, basically, the Merczateers are spreading their influence across the grid, and into places we haven’t been before, forcefully.
Proteus Hand: Not going to lie, the intent was to force your group into submission, and then present you with the doctrine of the Iron Symphony, in hopes that you would either become Merczateers, or become like them.
Proteus Hand: this is the doctrine.
Proteus Hand: it is everything we attempt to live by.

Samsy Parx: Now that our name is in you database. What does it mean in future?
Samsy Parx accepted your inventory offer.

Proteus Hand: based on the very rude conversation that Bexy presented me with, most likely brought on by frustration from the raid, I’d probably say eventual fleet bombardment, or combat isolation.

Samsy Parx: hmm

Proteus Hand: either that, or we’ll ignore you altogether and consider you a lost cause.

Samsy Parx: anyway we can solve this without any further war actions?

Proteus Hand: it really depends on whatever is keeping our interest at the time.
Proteus Hand: Probably.
Proteus Hand: I’d really like the object that kills people that teleport onto the parcel within five seconds by rezzing an explosive on them to be taken away.

Samsy Parx: hmm

Proteus Hand: in fact, adhering to the Iron Symphony doctrine is the best way possible to raise a successful and respected military.
Proteus Hand: there are plenty of other militaries out there who set rules up on their base so that only they can win, like 39^th
Proteus Hand: who build a giant castle around a reactor core that you have to blow up, but there’s no real way to get to it, and all their men shoot through walls.

Samsy Parx: problem is that we are not military factions. merely builders. i guess we have no choice but set our land to safe mode

Proteus Hand: If you’re really a roleplay, which is what I’ve been hearing, and not so much an actual military that participates in the community, that’s probably the best course of action.
Proteus Hand: that way, you can still *fight* but it’s on your terms, and the people that show up to kill you don’t do it at 3 AM with a spaceship hovering 1km in the air.
Proteus Hand: firing ion cannons at you.

Samsy Parx: thats true, reason for setting land to unsafe mode is because some of the scripts like weapons require damage for testing

Proteus Hand: ah, I see.

Samsy Parx: but thats no problem

The gist of the thing essentially is that the Merczateers are forcing groups to adhere to their own Iron Symphony Doctrine. With this in mind, I spoke with Merczateers Marshal Anthony Lehane.

Vegna Fouroux: Hey can I talk to you for a second?

Anthony Lehane: Sure man, what’s up?

Vegna Fouroux: Well I heard, that you guys have been pretty much on a warpath  this past week, attacking militaries left right and centre. Has anything prompted this?

Anthony Lehane: Uh, no particular reason, no. Sometimes we just go on attacking sprees over the weekend.

Vegna Fouroux: Well the journal recently received a notecard. I won’t go into detail of it here but basically it involves your officer, Proteus Hand trying to coerce a group into following the I.S Doctrine.

Anthony Lehane:[after seeing the notecard] That was from a while ago, I told Proteus to stop doing that. Proteus tends to step over the boundaries – he has a very nationalist attitude, it’s been with him since Crucifix.
Anthony Lehane: This “War Path” wasn’t related to Proteus’ black dawn stuff.

Personally, I’m inclined to believe Marshal Lehane version of events. However since he does admit that Proteus oversteps the boundaries, whose to say it isn’t continuing without his knowledge?

Now the notecard mentions Frontiersmen; A scouting group of the Merczateers that promotes their group and draws in potential recruits all over the grid in unknown territories. Since the group is mostly Senior Enlisted Mercz Personnel, I decided to question some of them on their knowledge of this “Black Dawn” operation. Apologies here for lots of chatlogs, submitting them simply to show that I did ask a fair few S-enlisted both frontiersmen and regulars about the initiative.

Williamca Zenovka: Black dawn?
Williamca Zenovka: What is that?

Vegna Fouroux: oh something I heard somewhere to do with the Mercz

Williamca Zenovka: Never heard of it.

Vegna Fouroux: okay thanks.

Williamca Zenovka: Ask proteus.

Vegna Fouroux: who told you to say that?

Williamca Zenovka: >:C

gaffar Belar: Black Dawn?

gaffar Belar: Never heard about that.

Vegna Fouroux: Ever?

gaffar Belar: really I’ve never heard that name.

gaffar Belar: Where did you hear that “Black Dawn” thing?

Vegna Fouroux: oh I heard it was some Frontiersmen thing

gaffar Belar: Dunno.

Vegna Fouroux: Hey Ayatora have you heard anything about “Black Dawn”? It’s some Merczateer’s Movement?

Ayatora Slade: not that I’m aware of

Vegna Fouroux: So there wasn’t a forum post about it?

Vegna Fouroux: Hey Debi you haven’t heard of anything called Black Dawn have you?

Debi Dastardly: No I haven’t is it a game?

Vegna Fouroux: no some movement within the Merczaters apparently

Debi Dastardly: Might that be the name they have given to the raid on CS?

Vegna Fouroux: No it’s not that

Debi Dastardly: No I don’t know of anything like that but I can try to find out if you like

Vegna Fouroux: that would be helpful thanks

Debi Dastardly: Ok I will

Debi Dastardly: you write for Caine Constatine right?

Vegna Fouroux: yeah

Vegna Fouroux: Hey are you with Black Dawn?

Radek Kawanishi: No

Radek Kawanishi: WTF is that

Vegna Fouroux: oh just something I heard

Radek Kawanishi: Tell me I want to know.

Vegna Fouroux: oh some parody group thing

Radek Kawanishi: lol

Vegna Fouroux: Yo you’re with Black Dawn right?

Ranga Surtees: What’s Black Dawn?

Ranga Surtees: Err

As you can see, I was getting a lot of “Never heard of it?” followed by a suspicious “Where did you hear about it?” I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to get anywhere until:

Vegna Fouroux: Hows Black Dawn going?

Delila Shippe: I have no idea

Delila Shippe: Or did you mean war path? =]

Vegna Fouroux: No, Black Dawn

Delila Shippe: I thought Proteus got shot down on Black Dawn

Delila Shippe: IDK DAMNIT I’M A NOBODY HERE

Vegna Fouroux: wait wait…who told you Proteus did get shot down?

Vegna Fouroux: would other Senior Enlisted know about that?

Delila Shippe: We’re still debating it on the forums and I haven’t heard of anyone going on with any of it for over a week.

Vegna Fouroux: mmhmm but its pretty much a known thing to most Mercz?

Delila Shippe: Maybe to the senior enlisted and active enlisted who’ve been around awhile

Delila Shippe: War Path is amazing

Finally, I got talking to Proteus Hand himself over this matter.

Proteus Hand: dude
Proteus Hand: I’ll tell you about black dawn
Proteus Hand: it’s no big deal.

Vegna Fouroux: Sounds like a pretty big deal to me, not exactly I.S doctrine friendly either

Proteus Hand: Not quite.
Proteus Hand: misconstrued.
Proteus Hand: Black Dawn, is just a movement to renew the fun
Proteus Hand: attack everything that isn’t allied/neutral to us .Outreach to the community. We’ve got grunts showing up in places where military doesn’t even exist. We’re almost done with our fleet. We’re helping smaller militaries grow and come to life and when Vanguard comes back to life, we’re going to start playing Red Alert 3 Soviet Music, and fire up the old cantankerous war machines.

Vegna Fouroux: well that sounds dandy BUT
Vegna Fouroux: Well the journal  recently received a notecard and basically it doesn’t look too good for Black Dawn.

Proteus Hand: Over the forum, I let everyone know, that Black Dawn wasn’t some piece of paper, that you’d file everything under.
Proteus Hand: It’s just something that’s going to happen.
Proteus Hand: They can claim that the war path had nothing to do with Black Dawn, but the point is, it’s not some holocaust that I’m at the head of, it’s just the backlash of grunts being bored for too long – so they start breaking things – other people’s things.

Vegna Fouroux: okay well that’s fair enough, but the whole “force groups into submission” thing to be like Merczateers…doesn’t sound too good

Proteus Hand: The original mindset – and plan for future “epic” attacks was, yeah, to force groups that really challenge the Iron Symphony, and spit on the military community, to change. The proposition indeed was… yeah, pretty contrary to our ethos, and it got slapped down by Lurdan and Anthony.
Proteus Hand: None of that has really been put into practice, because it’s sort of foolhardy to think that we can twist a digital arm, and someone would feel pain.
Proteus Hand: However, the rest is simple political prophecy. Grunts IM me every day, bored to tears, wanting to have fun. When I can’t do it, Takkun and Sukasa are almost overeager to lead, and every fortnight we’ve usually got something new to play with as well. It keeps things really exciting.
Proteus Hand: They can call it the “War Path” or “The period where Mercz stopped taking their Ritalin,” or whatever they like, but the term “Black Dawn” was coined MONTHS ago, and everything I predicted is coming true.

So in response to our original question, I propose an alternative; Black Dawn is not some sort of Iron Symphony Conspiracy, but rather a stimulus to break the combat recession. What do you think? Please share your thoughts on our comments section.

-Vegna Fouroux

P.S: Apologies about not writing for so long to my fans (all two of you!)

The Forefront Nationalist Union – An Ideologically Based Military

Notes of the Forefront National Union

History of the Union- The Forefront National Union was founded in its first incarnation on January 24, 2007. Since then, it has seen its fair share of both defeats and victories, and has successfully brought the end of several militaries. These include, but are not limited to, FEAR, Mercenary Forces, High Tech Forfce, UK Snipers, 101st Mountain Division, and Elite Armed Forces. The Forefront National Union has also won battles against militaries like TCG, Sparta, the Republic of Germany, SLSN, and the Alpha Marines.

Structure and Ideology- The Forefront National Union describes its self as  Falangist. It borrows heavily from the ideology of Francisco Franco, believing in a heavily organized and conservative state. Forefront is headed by an Emir, who is generally tasked with serving the role of a statesman, organizing the ranks, and preparing strategy. The Prime Minister serves close to the Emir, serving as his chief advisor. The Prime Minister often is the one that issues the orders, while the Emir writes them up. The Prime Minister is generally tasked with leading attacks, although the Emir can do this. The Prime Minister can be appointed and dismissed by the Emir. No attacks on foreign powers can be conducted without the explicit permission of the Emir. Below the head of state and his chief advisor are the Generals and Admirals. They typically tactically command their respective divisions in combat. Below them are officers and noncommissioned officers, and finally enlisted men.

Divisions- The Forefront National Union has four official divisions, Ground Force, Airforce, Sea Force,  and Unconventional Warfare. The Ground Force is divided into infantry, artillery, and armored divisions. The Air Force is divided into fighter, bomber, and fleet divisions. The Sea Force is divided into Naval and Naval infantry divisions. The Unconventional Warfare department has no subdivisions, and primarily serves as a division for demoralization of enemy armies, news releases, and can lead recruiting campaigns. The Unconventional Warfare department can be sent as a spearhead attack during invasions.

Culture- The Forefront National Union undeniably reflects the culture of the Southern United States. Although it is predominately Anglo-Celtic, the Forefront National Union expresses many Islamic ideals and makes a point of observing Islamic war law.

Enemies- The Forefront National Union is generally peaceful with those she does not call “Classic Enemies”. These are not limited to Sparta, TCG, and the Ascendant Initiative.

Land- The Forefront National union rents 1/4 of a homestead sim in Sands Cove. This will not the the only land of the Forefront National Union for long, as she plans to rent several sims in the near future, while retaining the 1/4 sim as an outpost.

Recruitment- The Forefront National Union generally recruits most applicants, but often cuts them out during training. All failed recruits are encouraged to try to join again.

Pay Grade- The Forefront National Union will begin to pay all of her members sometime within the next few months, depending on growth. Rates will depend upon a person’s rank, or total engineering projects he or she completes.

Personal Housing- The possibility of giving free housing to Forefront officers has been discussed, and it will be a reality in the near future.

Current Prime Minister and Emir-

Harlequin Amoufhaz- Emir of the Forefront National Union

Griffith Benelli- Prime Minister of the Forefront National Union
Thank you for reading,

Harlequin Amoufhaz- Emir of the Forefront National Union

Editors Note: Check out the Forefront base in Sands Cove, and tell us what you think of the concept of a politically motivated armed force in Second Life, as well as the idea of paying salaries to soldiers and what this might lead to in terms of changing the combat status-quo – Caine.

New New Rome

New Rome, the once largest active military force on the Teen Grid, moved to the main grid two weeks or so ago, following the birthday of Kharne Spyker, the New Rome leader.

Originally founded by Darckk Trilam in April of 2006, New Rome has undergone threat after threat, including the ban of their original founder, and constant rebuild, so far as research would suggest. Notably, According the the Second Life Wikia, following a mass invite to the owner role of their group, and land abandoning, Kharne Spyker (now on the Main Grid) proceeded to rebuild the group. Much like any other major force on the Main Grid today, New Rome started on a sandbox, and recruited as any starting force must.  With constant warfare thereafter on the Teen Grid, mostly siding with the ‘Furry Plateau‘ and their allies against the ‘Black Talon‘, New Rome regained their respect in the combat community on the Teen Grid. The rest of New Rome’s history can be sourced from the Second Life Wikia page.

Alas, now Kharne has been transferred to the Main Grid, he must rebuild New Rome yet again, (technically forming New New New Rome, one would presume), with the harder task of pleasing the adult combat community in Second Life. I spoke with Kharne a week back, and he told me he plans to go straight to a sim when finances permit; coming from his new business he is starting, in the already competitive weaponry market and military goods market. His new business, ‘Khaos’, bears no resemblance or link to ‘Chaos’ let’s not forgot. Sheesh, the Mercs, the Mercz, and now Khaos and Chaos? This could get confusing.

Selling weaponry, of which I was given a Springfield Rifle to test, Kharne hopes to fund his military like Ordo, he tells me – “Ordo is supporting Titan with their gun sales. I plan to do the same, but with more stuff than just gun sales.”

“]

The M1903A Springfield Rifle I demoed from [Khaos

I am assuming the animations shall be replaced with custom ones, and if so, this should be a nice addition to the gun market.

I hope to speak with Kharne again, to discuss some more information, like just how many residents on the Main Grid, are already involved with Kharne’s efforts. Meanwhile, please do enjoy a good discussion in the comments of this article. Thank you.

Metallicoe Keng

zrazor guide to make your own really cool army

i hate those mercz guys they kickede me out for shoting that lurdan guy ON FREAKING ACCIDENT >:C so i decided i am gonna make my own army

then i remember i dont have any L so i decided not to

so instead im gonna teach u how to start ur own army so follow my heloful giude and it will make you assuccesful as that guy who runs ordo (HE IS VERY EVIL)

1. pick name
this is the most important part cuz it lets ppl know what ur about. it is also the hardest part so i have done the work for just take 2 or 3 of these key words and combine them to make ur name

tactical
task force
elite
marines
armed forces
batallion
alpha
republic
army

for example tactical marines batallion (TMB) this will let ppl know how much u own

2. guns and stuff
this is even harder than the name cuz it costs L to get some one to make ur shit and u hav too pay them alot becuz ur givin it out for free. the easy way to do this is to just learn to build and then make stuff urself cuz that way u dont have to pay no one and if u dont know how to script its okay cuz this sirlor guy made som e scripts a long time ago and there free they suck and are mad hella lag but what can u do u dont have any money rite?

also dont bother w/ armor u dont need it it doesnt do anything just get some freebie camo textures and make a shirt and pants walla u have a uniform give it to ur men and tell them to were it w/ pride

3. men
this is definatly the hardest part of make an army cuz u have to make ppl want to join ur group the best way 2 do it is stand in the hub in the sim new jessie and just invite ppl thta walk in. make ur friends join. make ur mom join. o wait she cant cuzi made ur mom join my dick in her butt ROFL

seriosly tho u hav to get men in ur army or its not an army its just u

4. land for ur base
this is the most important part because where will ur base go if u dont have land????????? buy a sim from a guy and build ur base on it if u cant aford a sim just buy a parcel somewhere

how detaled do i have to get w/ this? ITS NOT HARD PPL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5. divisions
this is where shit gets REAL hard cuz u have to have to figure out what ur ppl do so u should make like land air and fleet which means u cant just have guns u need planes and u should probably just build ur own and put scripts from that free uriel u get in diffrent places also feet ships are real hard cuz their HUGE and lag like fuck nvm dont even bother with that shit

6, joke divisions
make a division in ur group about food or gardens or something silly i guess itll be funny and show other armys how much fun u have

7. how to deal w/ drama
drama will happen sometimes what u do is just tell evryone to shut the fucking shit up and eject them from the groups and ban them from the sim and u will never see them again maybe they will go join those mercz fuckers also dont let furrys into ur army there weird and make drama all the time and will yiff on ur stuff or w/e

8. how to deal w/ other armys
ur gona start out small so the 1st thing u shoud do is try to find some alies maybe ally w/ those mercz cuz theres a lot of them and they can watch ur back also if some other army leader guy is all up in ur grill u can just slap him cuz ur ownage as fuck and he is a nub

9. get some vets 2 help u
randomly im ppl who are important in other armys and ask them to join ur army and tell them how pro itis if they dont join scream and yell at them til they do. pound them with ur FISTS OF FURY

10. invite a bunch of ppl over for a dance party

even if noboddy comes u still had fun

that is how u start an army follow my steps and u wil be huge

this article (C) Zrazor Rozenbush, pimp dawg LLC

Disclaimer: This article is satirical in nature, does not in any way reflect the opinions of the author, and should be taken with a grain of salt. Readers with ANY kind of grammatical sensibilities should have shielded their eyes.

Valycion Enterprises – Weapons Review

First off, I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Mathieu Oller. I’ve been involved in the military scene for quite a while now, specifically since October 18, 2007. I approached Mr. Caine Constantine because I wanted to make a difference in the Combat Community of Second Life. My idea was to display weapons and armor using not only photos, but with both fact and opinion. Enough about me and on with what you came here to read!

Valycion Type 05 SMG

This work of art, known as the Valycion Type 05 SMG, shows us how time and effort can be applied to create a quality weapon. Not only is it Valycion’s first fully functional SMG, but it is low-lag and effective to the fullest (2 of my favorite features)! This is one of the few guns in Second Life that can function perfectly at a velocity level of 255.

I love the list of features on this beauty! Will multiple firing modes, you will surely get the job done! Aside from other guns I’ve gotten a hold of, this bad boy comes standard with an optional Silencer, Velocity Control, Sling Commands, Particle Control, Fire-Mode Control, Magazine Toggle, Safe-Mode Toggle, and Reset!

The Valycion Type 05 Sub-Machine Gun is equipped with one of the best SMG scripts I’ve used in my military career. After using this once on the opposition, they’ll have to regroup or try a different strategy or you will demolish them every time!

Mathieu with the Valycion Type 05 locked and loaded.

One of the major differences with this gun is the cone effect when shooting. I found that when I fired the gun standing completely still aiming directly at the target, the bullets did not always hit the target. Many combatants like and dislike this feature on any gun for different reasons.

Overall, this gun is perfect for the person who enjoys a powerful weapon for standard military combat.

Caine brandishes a pipe, a scowl, and an MP44.

Valycion Maschinenpistole 44

Created after the real life version used in World War II by Germany, the Valycion MP44 (Maschinenpistole 44) is one of the best versions of the MP44 available in Second Life. Many people that were formerly in Vanguard Armed Forces know that this gun has a reputation for being one of the best assault rifles in Second Life.

Unlike the Valycion Type 05 SMG, the list of features for the MP44 is small. Very well scripted, you will find these commands in the Valycion MP44: Silencer Toggle, Sling Commands, Fire-Mode Control, Safe-Mode Control, and Reset. Some commands such as reloading, drawing/slinging, and resetting can be used in chat. Since this gun is entirely click menu driven, all commands can be easily accessed through a user-friendly menu.

There is no need to aim anywhere but the target with this gun! When I fired the gun in mouselook, I saw the bullets come from 3 directions – upper-left, upper-right, and bottom – and generally hit the target I aimed at. Be cautious though because, occasionally, the bullets will miss the target ever so slightly. This just goes to show how natural the Valycion MP44 really is!

Everything on this assault rifle is good to go. You will not be dissatisfied when you discover the quality of this gun. I knew from the first time I attached it that the Valycion MP44 would be my first choice in assault rifles for a long time. Hopefully it will be your preference too!

To purchase the Valycion Type 05 SMG, Valycion MP44, and all other weapons by Valycion, be sure to check out their vendors at New Jessie, located at http://slurl.com/secondlife/New%20Jessie/240/240/303/ .

The Valycion Enterprises Mainstore is located at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Center%20of%20Gravity/76/123/35/ .

Best Regards,
Mathieu Oller