While hunting for a story, I decided to drop in on Elshout, home of the Alliance Navy where, behind the spray of beginner bullets, Officer Jim Herbst and Enlisted Jeremy Duport were developing a new tank for AN’s use. A new tank, with new technology to add to the fledgling armoured combat scene.
Shown above, the model for ANs new tank, the MBT, with new technology in it for the purpose of allowing more damage on certain areas of the tank. Jim explained the tanks hitpoints system to me.
In the picture above, the yellow area inflicts one point of damage when hit. With 60 hitpoints in total to destroy the whole tank, 60 bullets on that yellow area will finish the tank off. The red area, at the rear, inflicts 2 – 3 damage, as the engine is contained within that enclosure. Jim also told me that an engine fire is possible, which will do constant damage to the tank for a short period of time. The pink areas represent the maneuvering bowers of the tank, he says, and hitting these will directly affect the speed and maneuverability of the tank in a negative way. These will also depict how the tank was destroyed, and employ relevant effects. While still in the development stage, Jim and his associate scripter, Jeremy Duport, are working hard on the features; “idle bullet damage resulting in an idle wreck, while a big cloud of bullets will make it go kablooey.” The engine can also after burn if the tank is used for too long.
Kill Bill
After clearing up how the tank dies, Jim moved onto how it kills. “The MBT will be armed with a cannon, a 50 cal, and smoke launchers. The cannon will be equipped with at the bare minimum an HE shell and a SABOT shell. The HE will just be a plain old explosive. The sabot will do a good amount of damage to a target tank.” With some serious firepower, and some great ways to defeat it, it makes a nice combo.
Who’ll be the lucky drivers?
I asked Jim whether each division would get its own variant of the tank, as he explained there would be varieties, including a line armed with flamethrowers. Jim explained that they are all part of the AN Marine division. “There has been very little internal debate as to where tanks belong organizationally. Whether it will be part of the currently planned specializations or a specialization of its own remains to be seen.”
So this brings a new light to SL armoured combat. Potentially this could lead to the growth of more specialized tactics when destroying tanks, rather than the currently prevailing tactic of spamming them at any point on their armor with bullets. Either way though, one thing is clear – it’ll be fun seeing AN personnel sporting these new killing machines in the next week or two.
-Metallicoe Keng
I stand corrected. The concept of dynamic armor is not new, However, Mine works of changing damage taken based on mass and velocity of bullets being sorted through three mathimatical formula’s. The damage based on location is still not new, but it is new to the AN.
My apologies for misreading and misstating.
“Combat does NOT prove who is right…it proves who is left!”
It doesn’t prove anything in SL.
“Combat does NOT prove who is right…it proves who is left!”
TOO true.
“The Alliance Navy is not the only group producing armor. The Militant Collective is proud to mention we have a tank with entirely similar functions to this vehicle, in possibly a more impressive hull.”
<.< good for you…why is it that every one always moans it was a great article…the AN isnt going to die granted they have had a rough patch but thats over…with there new Admiral and great R&D Team they are getting over the rough patch getting up on there feet and saying "heh im in the AN…im proud and if you want a battle here we are come and have a go" stop moaning…its a bit of fun for every one…
Remember people…
Combat does NOT prove who is right…it proves who is left!
Thank you have a nice day ;)
Tanks in SL fail on all levels.
End of Post.
Technology?
I had made an experimental armoured vehicle with different damage parts backwards a year ago during ridge narik.
It is more of a ‘feature’ rather than deserving the big title ‘Technology’
Still, I applaud the new AN tank, pretty cool stuff, definitely some constructive progress, so it is all good.
Err. New scripting works better?
Stop calling it technology for fuck’s sake.
Tsume Xiao
Your tank does not work the same way. The dynamic damage system simply REDUCES the damage taken from smaller/slower projectiles. For this reason, your dynamic damage technology is disallowed in pretty much every combat sim, whereas AN’s technology is, and is probably encouraged.
From: A disappointed Ironsight MBT owner (still waiting for the promised update).
@ Tsume
There are no facts wrong, so your comment is invalid. I never said it’s the only one of it’s kind, I said it’s a new technology coming to AN.
Thank you.
I up for Tank exclusive fight, then bigger tanks with a million HP/ARMOR and dozens of weapons, pilot and controlled by 5-10 members. Titan Tank fight, starts to drool :I. Every military should have an armored TITAN unit.
Metal please check your facts.
The Ironsight Armament MBT-130z tank, released 3/21/2009, had dynamic armor (and still does). It is not new technology or a new idea.
However, that is not to say it is not a good idea. :3
Haha, Tsevorak, that’d be fun. Tank-exclusive fights. Not being sarcastic.
Nice :D
Do want sim specifically designed for armoured combat.
<3
Hey Caine, can you make a giant sky box thats a tank battlefield?
Boooo at the badnarik story being pulled! It lacked detail, so what, it was breaking news, that had to be expected. I’m sure a more in depth report would have followed.
Caine- don’t bow down to the complainers….they aren’t forced to read
[Note from Caine: I did not delete it, Metallicoe did. Not sure why, I thought it was fine. I imagine he wants to redo it. You know I don't bow to nobody, haha.]
I’m inspired by the hatred other militaries are showing the AN. War is a very, very good thing.
Now you’ll be able to support the casualties being shipped away when your group dies… I lol’d deep inside at the way this is being done.
“A story that is more important” – the concealment of your name, and the sheer stupidity behind your comment only goes to show quite how ignorant and mislead you are.
In short; you’re wrong. While Engineering are developing a new rocket Launching Device, both the scripts, model, textures and features are being created from scratch.
Go Figure.
The Alliance Navy is not the only group producing armor. The Militant Collective is proud to mention we have a tank with entirely similar functions to this vehicle, in possibly a more impressive hull.
In an Alliance Navy story that is more important then this one; they have remade the old MARS rocket, but with new textures and took out the “kills everyone sitting down” script. So, basically it is still the old MARS, just that now, it fires dumby rockets
Cohesiveness, not coherency. My bad. There are a few people out there who need to work on coherency, though. I may be one of them. XD
In the age of the void sim, I feel that heavy deployments are less necessary, and fighters should focus more on basic skill and coherency. I love glitzy toys with heavy firepower, but unfortunately, a lot of sims don’t like heavy vehicles and deployment isn’t very often in this case. Perhaps the situation is different with the AN, though. Good luck with your tank! I bet it’s fun! (:
Great to see this new technology becoming available to the Alliance Navy, big thanks to jim and jeremy for their efforts on this particular project.