Weapons Review – Protean A-Type-02 “Chimera”

The Jessie War Journal
Weapons Review Department

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Overview

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Weapon: Operations Protean A-Type-02 “Chimera”

Price: $899L

Prim Count: 71

Operations Protean A-Type-02 "Chimera"

–Manual Credits–

Build:                Uildiar Kuhn

Scripts:             Poon Voom

Animations:      Ayatora Slade

Concepts:         Anthony Lehane/Poon Voom

–Inspection Credits–

Animations: Uldiar Kuhn, Anthony Lehane, Mark Karlfeldt

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Flags

===========

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

Performance: [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JW (2.5)

Performance: [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWj~]  (3.0) ~Post Editors Correction. See Editor’s Note

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

Texture: [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~] (4.0)

Animations:  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]   [~JWJ~] (5.0)

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

Ease of Use:  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~] (3.0)

Value: [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~] (3.0)

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First Impressions

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The folder you receive in your inventory Is the basic three items: drawn weapon, slung weapon, and manual.

The manual here is actually the most interesting thing, as it describes three different weapon functions, something that perks my interest greatly, combo keys for mode switching and reloading, and a full AO. With options Like these, I was half tempted to skip the usual aesthetics portion and go directly to the battlefield, but alas, I have protocol to follow.

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Aesthetics

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I’m not new to Operations weapons, so I had a slight idea what to expect. The Chimera however, is nothing like anything I had seen before, let alone seen from Operations.

The Chimera is so distinct in its style I struggled to find words to describe it. Its looks like something from the future, but it’s not sleek and smooth. It looks like something sci-fi, but again a bit rough for anything but an alien race to use. It looks like it’s from a post apocalyptic era, but still more advanced. This is when it hit me… Cyberpunk. I think back to my days playing Dystopia (a third party game on the Source platform) and realized that this weapon would fit perfectly into the steam punk universe. Regardless of where it fits or how you describe it however, It looks good. The glowing swirling plasma core in the center draws the eye in and the tube heavy design leads from there to the front vents and to the barrel in a rough but flowing way. The model is balanced well between textures and prims, and prim work is handled well, with a handful of sculpted prims working out some of the piping. A few areas in front are a bit slab sided, but they drop down to other areas so its not as noticeable. Buttons and the moving portion of the front vent work well together, but there is one thing I noticed on the moving texture… a hint of flashing purple. The biggest single downside i see on this model is the far back end and grip area. The entire back end is incredibly blocky, and the grip looks like it was made out of Legos, squared off at the side with square finger rests… Ouch!

The Chimera’s textures are well done and very fitting. All pieces are textured well and the whole weapon looks a bit dark and foreboding.  This looks like a weapon that has seen its share of firefights and is awaiting more, tubes and piping scratches and dulling in places but still wanting more abuse. The plasma cylinder and its housing have some very nice details to them, covered with warnings, voltage capacities, and other hazard labels. Down on the front is a small production plate with the weapons full name and the Mercz/Operations logo, it too scratched and worn. The vents up front are done very well too. The only real area where the textures are just so-so is that back end again. With the exception of the cool data readout (which changes colors with modes) the back end and grip area just seems to be a flat color. The metal from the front of the gun doesn’t share its texture back here, and the only thing that has much detail is the trigger itself.

Animations! Animations! Animations! Boy are there a lot of them packed into this gun! Now some guns that boast animation overriders give you a walk, and run and maybe a jump. Not the Operations Chimera. They say animation override and they mean it. This gun’s AO is more complete than the one I wear when I am not in combat. Outside fo the standard gun AO animations, Operations loaded this weapon with all the little parts you see in commercial AO’s you buy from animation stores for more than the cost of this gun. All the little animations (pre-jump, hard landing, soft landing, jump, ect) are included along with many gun animations not seen in other guns, such as recoil, special prone reload, tactical reloads, crawl, and even an alternate stance. Now, I know it’s true that anybody with beginner SL knowledge can toss some animations into an AO scripted object and set it up to run, but that is NOT what you have here. I am very impressed at the quality of the animation and how precisely they fit the gun, especially the reload. As I am sure you have noticed through my reviews, I pay particular attention to sounds, and the reload animation ont his weapon matches the sound frame for frame, and it is placed perfectly on the gun. Excellent work!

The only real effects on the Chimera are the muzzle flash and the bullet glow. The muzzle flash istoggled by the effects command, and is just ok looking (it also changed colors when you change modes, but it looks a bit too opaque and blocked out). The bullet glow can only be turned off in the rapid-fire green mode by setting the weapon to its low lag bullet. Again, the bullet only effects green mode.

Sounds aren’t as consistent as I would like to see and could use some work. Fire sound for the green mode is ok, but too quiet to sound fitting for the menacing look of the gun. Blue mode’s fire sound is clear and sharp as it should be and with a good volume, and the charge up sound is right on the spot for volume and feel. Red mode follows suit with the sounds, sharp and crisp, thought he uncharged shot could be a bit louder. Reload sound is very fitting and as I said prior, matches the animation perfectly. However, there is one fairly sizeable problem I found with it. Like the fire sound for green mode that uses llTriggerSound to be heard for each shot (resulting in an inconsistent and choppy sounding firing) the reload sound uses llTrigger sound to play at the location you start your reload. If you are moving, your sound doesn’t keep playing at your location (as it would with llPlaySound) so you sound like you are passing someone who is reloading rather than reloading yourself.

I found a few errors in the manual that had me stumped and asking around for help. The velocity adjustment command is not listed in the manual, nor is the command for melee strikes. Velocity I discovered to be “vel.###” but I have yet to figure out the melee command. I was told that “a+d” is usually melee, but on the Chimera that is the mode change. I was then told, that it probably doesnt have one then, only to respond by pointing out that there is a kill prim named “riflebutt” in the object’s inventory. The manual is also confusing on the command listeners, with “uses channel 9005″ typed after every command but the mode changing commands. However, I noticed that, like on all Operations guns I have used during my time on the grid, it has a channel 0 listeners for all but one command. This is not listed or made clear, and I would suggest perhaps putting “All commands work on channel 0 and 9005″ to the top of the manual to avoid confusion.

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Performance

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Well, I have to admit I was disappointed.

I found numerous problems in each mode, and these were not small problems

Overall, the gun’s operation was heavily influenced by lag. Almost as though following a curve, performance degrades exponentially as lag increases. I have noticed this before in other guns, but it was never this pronounced. While the gun would never fully come to a stop, it would come very close in the extremely heavy lag situations.

The weapon also seems to reset on each attachment, meaning all settings you may have set, such as velocity and fire mode, are wiped.

Furthermore, the weapon will discharge after reloading if the mouse button is pressed while it is reloading.

–Green Mode/Rapid Fire–

Green Mode is a automatic SMG style weapon setup. There is no charge-up for any specials, just automatic fire. Each shot is one ammo unit. It’s simple, but probably the most useful weapon mode for general combat.

The fire rate is between a rifle and SMG, but the spread is fairly large, so if you want accuracy over distance you are going to have to change modes. The rate of fire is also extremely sensitive to lag. It is rare to see it at a constant rate in a full combat situation. The sound, based on a LLTriggerSound system is also inconsistent and jittery, although it only triggers when the bullet rezzes, so at least you know what your fire rate really is.

–Blue Mode/Plasma Blast–

First off, it’s worth noting that this mode isn’t legal in New Jessie the delay between the explosive rounds is too short.

The blue mode is accurate and semi auto with two charging modes. The uncharged shot is just a much larger than usual bullet. Its accuracy makes it useful as a replacement for the lack of semi-auto accuracy in green mode. This uses one ammo unit per shot.

The partial charge uses four ammo units per shot, and is simple an even larger bullet with a mushroom shaped head.

The full charge, taking up ten ammo units, fires a ball that generates a 3m explosive on impact. It is useful as a grenade launcher replacement.

Aside from the disturbingly massive bullets, Blue Mode was fairly bug free.

–Red Mode/Spread Shot–

The Spread Mode is basically a shotgun. Uncharged fires a four bullet shot cluster and consumes two units of ammo. A partial charge ups the cluster to six bullets, and ammo use to four units per discharge. A complete two second charge fires out a massive twelve bullet cluster, which uses six units of ammo.

Just like the Operations Striker-12 shotgun, the shotgun mode on the Chimera has a large bug.  The “spread”, a multiple, unlinked set of bullets, does not fire consistently. Facing East/West and it works fine, but the further you turn away from that axis the closer the bullets rez to each other, eventually forming a vertical line when the user if facing the North/South directions. This is not a hard problem to solve, and after this bug was in the previous gun, it is unnerving that no work has been done to fix what more inexpensive weapon companies do not have a problem with.

The script time numbers were also disappointing, especially for such a company that totes its efficiency.

Idle time with the gun is 0.159ms, which is quite high, higher than the Aeko Labs and Ironsight Armament guns reviewed earlier when they are firing full auto. Granted, the Chimera has a full AO built into it, and a very good one at that. Slung time however, even though the AO is turned off, is also higher than average at 0.089ms. Most other guns I have reviewed register between 0.015ms – 0.035ms when slung. The firing script time, which was recorded in Green’s full auto mode, was unnerving. The Chimera does not have an exceptionally high rate of fire, yet its script time is well above other weapons at 0.793ms. Switching to the “low lag” bullet and disabling effects lowers the full auto time to 0.734ms, an improvement, but still very high.

Speaking of the bullets, they were perhaps the biggest disappointment of the entire gun.

For starters, every bullet, except for the low lag bullet and the parts of the “spread” in Red Mode are two prims, and all parts of the bullets appear to be made from spheres. Beyond that, the bullets do not perform well. They bounce, they get “stuck” on collision, and they just sit there for a few moments before dying. 2 seconds to be precise. How do I know the exact time? I will explain.

I had heard rumors through the community that Mercz and Operations weapons use bullets with the old Sirlor Stonecutter bullet scripts. I thought this was laughable, as no company would touch those scripts with a 10m pole. At least that is what I thought… or hoped. After observing the poor performance of the bullets, I decided to rez one and look into the contents. I was surprised to see the bullet script was full perms, and even more surprised to see that it was, in fact an old Sirlor Stonecutter script modified internally. I opened it up and read through it to further inspect it, and confirmed what it was. This explains the poor bullet performance, as the bullets have to do so much in the script before llDie() is called, including an llSleep(2.0), llSetAlpha(0, ALL_SIDES), and llSetStatus(STATUS_PHYSICS, FALSE). All a bullet script needs in its collision event is llDie(); That will kill it before any bouncing can occur, and negates the need for the bullet to change its alpha. It will be dead before you would see it.

***EDITORS NOTE***

After the posting of this review I was contacted by Operations scripter Poon Voom regarding some misunderstandings about the bullets.

1) The scripts, while created by Sirlor Stonecutter, have been modified internally.

2) The reason for the llSetStatus(STATUS_PHYSICS, FALSE), llSetAlpha(0, ALL_SIDES) and llSleep(2.0) prior to the llDie() is because the shape of the bullets would otherwise bounce severly.

Poon Voom: We figured it’s worth the server reading two lines of code, stopping the bullet, and dieing a little bit later, than it bouncing all over the place, rushing to have it die…It might be the bullet shape, but…It [Just llDie()]  just didn’t work with out bullets.

In response to this, performance rating will but modified because a lower rating was caused on the reviewer’s part due to this misconception. This writer regrets the misunderstanding, and appreciates the courteous nature of Mr. Voom.

——-

Another issue that has also been around for a while in Operations products (since the SAA at least) and was not fixed in this “state of the art” weapon is a filter for velocity. You can set the velocity to a negative number, which will send the bullets backwards from the rez position, and into your face.

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Overall

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The Operations Protean A-Type-02 “Chimera” is a very unusual case. Performance is just 2.5 flags. This is a split rating, as the weapon does function fairly well in combat, but there are many errors that prevent it from being exceptional. For starters, the bullets and bullet scripts could be optimized in all but a few mere minutes, greatly increasing reliability. A good bullet script is not hard to make, so I am dumbfounded as to why a company with such a reputation uses a sloppy, inefficient freebie script from a few years back. The spread issue on the shotgun mode come from the “bullets” being one, unlinked object that is rezzed on firing. This should not be an issue with this upper class of a gun, especially since this is a know issue that has been around before (Operations Striker-12) and is something even the smaller weapon manufactures can figure out how to do. However, one cannot deny that the three separate operating modes are an interesting and useful concept.

The build quality is excellent and gets near top marks at 4.5 flags. Its clean build is interesting and of a rare style. Rare, but not unique, and not original. I would like to add to the credits the game Necron, which is where the design is from. The only other place I have seen these weapons is at Thorium, in the hands of Cthonic Sydicate, who use the plasma series of weapons from Necron for their Plasma Cannon. Texturing is very good as well, although it is to be expected of Operations. Everything flows well with the mood of the weapon, and is good and clear.

Plasma Weapons of Necron

From Top to Bottom: Operations Chimera, Cthonic Syndicate Plasma Rifle, Cthonic Syndicate Plasma Cannon

Animations are top notch, absolutely exceptional. A full 5 flags for these well done works. They are fantastic and fit the gun right down to the centimeter. Sounds are a bit hit or miss, but still get a solid 3.5 flags. The full auto sound is too quiet and a bit whimpy, but the charge up and firing for the charged sounds, and the shotgun sounds are loud and intimidating. Ease of use is split with a flag rating of 3.0, and in a sense of what is easy. The manual is misleading and omits things that it says it can do, or doesn’t tell you about things that are in the gun contents (Melee. There is a prim for it… but I have yet to figure out the command), or just plain doest tell you things (Velocity adjust… It’s there, but they don’t tell you that). Changing modes via A+D is brilliant and aids the functionality greatly. However, Green mode not having a semi auto is annoying at times. The W+S reload is a sigh of relief, and the channel 0 listen, although bad from a lag perspective, is easier for the inexperienced to use. Value is 3.0 flags.

The Operations Protean A-Type-02 “Chimera” is an exceptional build with phenomenal animations, however it lacks performance and is riddled with bugs and nuisances, and unfortunate scripting shortcuts that cost the gun combat functionality. If you are looking for an outstanding looking weapon, a multi-function weapon that is easy to operate, something fancy to put on your mantle or something rare and good looking to use in an RP sim, then the Chimera is just what you need. However, if heavy combat is your goal, then you may want to look elsewhere. The multi-functionality (Automatic, Grenade Launcher, Shotgun) can be achieved for the same price from other weapons (Assault rifle with a grenade launcher, and a shotgun) that will be more reliable.

—Credits Take 2—

–Manual Credits–

Build:                Uildiar Kuhn

Scripts:             Poon Voom

Animations:      Ayatora Slade

Concepts:         Anthony Lehane/Poon Voom

–Inspection Credits–

Animations: Uldiar Kuhn, Anthony Lehane, Mark Karlfeldt

Bullet Scripts: Sirlor Stonecutter See Editors Note

Design: Necron via 10TACLE STUDIOS

Operations Chimera Ad

~JessieWarJournal Frequency

The Operations Protean A-Type-02 “Chimera” is availible in the Operations vendor in the  New Jessie Armory.

Weapons Review – The Rapture MAC-107

The Jessie War Journal
Weapons Review Department

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Overview
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Weapon: Rapture MAC-107
Price: $1250L
Prim Count: 34 Per Gun

The Rapture MAC-107

–Manual Credits–
N/A

Inspection Credits
Build: Niiya Narayan
Scripts: Niiya Narayan
Animations: Niiya Narayan
Textures: Niiya Narayan
Sounds: Niiya Narayan

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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~]   [~JWJ~] (5.0)

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

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

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

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

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

Value: [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~] (4.0)

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First Impressions
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The futuristic crate you rez before you hints as much as it can to the contents inside. Clean. Simple. Detailed. Elegant.
The lable above a glassy looking panel reads
“To open: Place palm on glass panel.”
“WARNING: Unauthorized use will destroy contents!”

I know its not much, but it suggest that if Rapture puts such detail onto their box, imagine what the gun must have.
Though why not two panels for each hand/gun? Haha.

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Asthetics
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I had seen Rapture weapons in the field before, so I was expecting to see a set of full custom sculpts with textures and well placed asthetic touches. I was correct.

The build is a sleek futuristic, yet extremely compact SMG that is reminiscent of the Ingram Military Armament Corporation Model 11 (AKA, the MAC-11). The charge handle is on the top, the magazine goes through the grip, and the receiver is mostly a square box. But aside from the overall feel, this weapon is full custom. These sculpts are done though an external program (you can tell when you cam out, and by precision) and leave almost no details to be done by texture. Even the vent under the front hood structure has completely sculpted ridges. Its easier to pick out which prims are not sculpted than point out those that are. Of the only 34 prims that make up each gun, I can only spot 9 non-sculpts: the barrel, the projection of the sights, the LAM lens cover, fire selection marker, ejection port cover, shell emitter (its hidden behind the ejection port), and the two bolts that hold on the forward hood. Wow.

On the last sculpted gun I reviewed, most of the detail on the gun were done using textures and the sculpts were faily slab sided. I am pleased to say that this is not the case with this pair. However, the highly detailed sculpts are not left bare. They all sport textures clearly matched to their shape. Fades, shadows, lines, creases, ports. They are all there. The textures are clean and simple, with a few scuffs and scratches to keep things interesting. The only problem I could see was the trigger, which shared the same rubber looking material as the grip. That, and I cant read a damned thin on the fire selector! But the furtureistic symbols add to the futuristic feel, and I just hope I’m not alive when those get phased in as the alphabet.

Animations are very nice and offer options depending on useage. When using only the right handed weapon, you can choose between one or two handed aims, the latter changes your rez position to center. The idle holds can be toggled on/off to further decrease performance footprint, and the aim animations are basic but good. The reload looks a bit off, and doesnt sync up with the sounds as well as is could, but with dual wielded guns, this is slightly expected.

Effects on the MAC-107’s are a combination of prim and particles. The main core of the muzzle flash is a sculpted prim that appears to use an animating texture to flicker while firing (which is much more effecient than toggling an alpha for each shot, as it is only client side among other things). The particle shell eject has the .45ACP casings toppling out the side port. One thing I like alot at the effects end is the smoke that leaves the gun upon reload. Its interesting, something I dont see very often, and fitting to the gun.

Sounds are crisp clear and sharp. The only things really to point out is that there is no silencer on or off sound, and that the reload sound doesnt match the reload animation at times. Its also a bit hard to believe this is a .45ACP and not a 9×19, but it has the sharp crack it should, so thats what matters. Otherwise, everything fits the gun. Modern sounding with a hint of the future.

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Performance
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Directly out of the box, one gun or two, the Rapture MAC-107’s are great performers. Heavy lag and low time dialation couldnt stop these SMG’s from firing. Bullets flew regardless of the situation and hit detection was never a problem. This matched pair is one of the most reliable ways I’ve ever amred myself. I frankly didnt have a problem with this performing during my heavy combat, so despite my normal long windedness here. Its hard to go on and on when something just works entiriely as it should!

Although I fight with all defaults, as usual I toy around with the options to make sure they work and see to what extent they are useful. The optional combo keys (off by default) made reloading easier, thought he included gesture worked fine as well. Effects worked in the strenuous situations as well, though the particles stayed on in heavy lag once or twice (which is normal for particle systems).  Bullet color is fun to toy around with, as nothing says “OWNED” like killing someone with a floresent, hot pink bullet. The biggest performance changing option is Overclocked fire mode. It ups your rate of fire and decreases the time you have to enjoy each magazine, but when you are using one gun alone, I thinks its a worthwhile option to use.

One major thing I liked was the ability to use a single gun in a two handed aim. While this may just seem like an animation change, it changes the offset of the gun to the center (where you look like you are aiming) rather than the side as with the one handed aim. I used this for the second half of my testing, as I’m not one for dual wield guns (its quality of your shots and not quantity in my humble opinion) and had a hard time hitting things with the zero spread double offsets. This however, is personal preference.

My biggest gripe: spread. Where is it? I know this is a personal preference as well, but I dont think it is unreasonable to expect such high rate of fire SMG’s to have some spread to them instead of a laser beam precision, even if they are from the future.

The hard numbers had me checking my math again. The MAC-107’s are two guns functioning, which explained the idle time of 0.07ms  and slung time of 0.068ms, but I was dumbfounded by the full auto readings. Two, high rate of fire SMG’s firing fully automatic… and averaging just 0.189ms of script time. Once again I found myself taking extra readings and having other people checking my math, but the numbers crunched correctly. The number for full auto fire is only beaten two other guns tested prior, both assault rifles with lower rates of fire.

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Overall
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The Rapture MAC-107’s are truly a piece of work. Full custom everything and full of a fair amount of options, as well as excellent performance. Performance is superb, with its script time for two guns lower than some single assault rifles. Beyond script time, all other aspects of the gun work flawlessly together to earn this pair a 5 flag rating. Build and textures complement each other perfectly. All the smooth sides of the build have equally smooth textures to fit the weapon. There are a few odd spots here and there, but otherwise both are great and each warrant a near perfect 4.5 flags. Animations are basic and simple, but fit the gun well and earn 3.5 flags. The only odd animation is the reload, which looks odd when done with the duals. Sounds are clear crisp and sharp as they should be. It sounds a bit too quiet for a .45ACP weapon and there is no silencer on/off sound, but the quality of the others make up for it to keep its 4.5 flags well deserved. Ease of use is still above average with 3.5 flags, but suffers slightly by the nearly exclusive use of touch menu’s and high channel listeners. However, the redeeming optional combo keys and included gestures make things a bit easier.

Value is a really tough decision on this weapon set. At $1250L the MAC-107’s are the second most expensive weapons I have reviewed to date, but are exceptional performers with various options. As I am reviewing from the New Jessie standpoint however, I have to  mark it a tad lower on value simply because of price. But even so, $1250L for such exceptional performers with the options they have warrants a 4 flags.

In the end, if modern style weapons don’t do it for you and you want something original, or if you just want some high performance weapons with a fair amount of options, assuming you have the Lindens to spend, you will get your money’s worth, and you will not be disappointed by the Rapture MAC-107’s.

Staring down the barrel of the Rapture MAC-107.

Weapons can be found in the Rapture wing of Fairlight.

-JessieWarJournal Frequency

Weapons Review – the Nortec Labs NAR74 “Vindicator”

The New Jessie War Journal
Weapons Review Department

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Overview
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Weapon: Nortec Labs NAR74 “Vindicator”
Price: $500L
Prim Count: 158

The Nortec Labs NAR74 "Vindicator"

–Manual Credits–
Crafter: Wolvensokolov Setzerman
Textures, Animations, Scripts and Sounds: Matti Deigan

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

Performance: [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~] (4.0)

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

Texture: [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JW (2.5)

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

Sounds: [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~] (3)

Ease of Use: [ ~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  (4.0)

Value: [ ~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~](4.0)

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First Impressions
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The box is an opens weapon crate when it rezzes infront of you, showing a texture version of the gun. Included in the box is a  standard set of the active and slung weapon, manual, and a landmark.

The manual is a bit more fanciful than some others. It mentions the “designed” purpose, chassis ID, call sign, ect, and then goes on to invite people to IM Matti Deigan with critiques, complaints, comments, or suggestions. Then the features of the gun are listed, followed by commands, and then bug fixes/update log, and a list of received suggestions.

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Asthetics
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Rezzing the Vindicator brings back afew images of the Aeko Labs BTRL-Z9. Its an original gun with a very industrial look that uses more prims for details than it does textures.

The build is definitely unique, and as such I’m not quite sure how to describe it. There are certainly some parts I’d like to see tweaked a bit, but the build is very solid and fits together with no seams that I can see. The parts that could use some work mainly stand out because they look like extruding parts where you would expect to be vents cut out, screws that seem like they should be a bit more flush with the body of the rifle, and some joints that look like that could be smoothed out. Odd, interesting, and in need of a little bit of refinement.

Textures are simple and very metallic. They definitely seem to match the look of the gun, but they shine on some of them is out of place in some areas (like the flat part of the carry handle having the rounded shine). The other thing that looks a bit off is that the texture can get busy and almost distracting in some areas. Like the build, they fit well and look good, but need a bit of refinement here and there.

Animations are good looking and fit the gun extremely well. Hands are in the right place, not floating around, and the movement is smooth. The aim and hold are basic rifle style animations, but the most curious animation is the reload. Its a very interesting set of movements, and it syncs up to the sound well.

Effects are particle based and use an interesting method to vary their appearance. The muzzle flash particles are actualy located in three rotating prims in the barrel, which allows the particles to change their orientation. Muzzle smoke effects are not affected by this rotation. Clip drop is also included, and drops a detailed 6 prim magazine type object upon reload.

Sounds are clear and sound good, but the fire sound seems too subdued for a gun. It sounds very quiet and too smooth to be an weapon firing in your arms. The reload sound is unlike any I have ever heard, with an odd cranking at the end of the action, almost like the winding of the film advance on a 35mm film camera. Definitely interesting.

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

The Vindicator is good performer overall and functioned quite well with good reliability.

All through combat I rarely noticed any errors or hiccups.  However in heavy lag it would sometimes slow down and/or skip a beat or two. This includes bullets not rezzing, and sounds not playing or losing sync, but it would get back on track quite quickly. I had only one or two bullets lock up on me, but other than that, once they rezzed they didn’t stop until they hit something.

The built in animation over-ride worked flawlessly during my testing and was a welcome change to the Linden Duck Waddle I normally do when I test (I take off all other scripted attachments for testing). All animations triggered correctly, though I am still puzzled on what is going on during the reload with the cranking clicks, haha.

The only areas I had a problem with was accuracy. Even in the standard mode, the accuracy would deteriorate in a manner far more suited to an SMG than a rifle. The manual states that the longer you fire the wider the spread, which is excellent for realism, but I think this spread may be a bit much. Anything above very short bursts will have your accuracy going down the tubes, and I would personally like to see a tighter spread for a rifle.
The addition of “Suppressive Mode” reminded me of the Aeko LabsBTLR-79’s 5 slave variant, a real bullet hose. I tried this setting for a while, but the increased fire rate (and changed animation) aren’t worth the further decreased accuracy in my opinion.

Now for the hard numbers…

The Vindicator idles at 0.055ms of script time. When slung the number drops to 0.052ms. During full automatic fire in the normal mode and with all settings at the defaults, the Vindicator’s script time averages out to 0.288ms. This is about average from the tested guns by the Review Department of the New Jessie War Journal.

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

The Nortec Labs NAR74 “Vindicator” is a very unique looking and performing rifle.

Its performance in the field was good, even with its various effects on. Its reliable and has limited issues, earning it a 4 flag rating. For aesthetics, the build gets originality points for sure, but while its built well there are some very odd details that would look a lot nicer if done in some different ways, which gets it the 3.5 flag rating. Textures are very basic and do fit the gun’s mood well but only merit 2.5 flags because of oddities like the clashing in certain parts looks that makes it look very awkward, and the rounded sheen effect where there is nothing but flat surfaces.

Animations are excellent and fit the gun and its sounds nearly flawlessly. The built in AO is another great touch, and keeps every thing looking good while eliminating the need for extra HUD attachments. They definitely earn their 4.5 flags.

Sounds are interesting. The reload sound is very clear and clean, but the fire sounds are a bit muffled and not as sharp as I would expect a rifle to have. Overall the sounds merit a solid 3 flags. There are only a few things that really lowered the ease of use.  I thought the adjustable listener channel is a great idea, but the continuously varying spread has an very steep learning curve, and the gun automatically being slung and safe’d on every attachment got a bit annoying, and eliminates the quick attach-fight when I change guns in the field. Still, those two points aside, the weapon is simple to operate and gets  4 flags.

Lastly comes value. I was very unsure of how to do this for this gun, as the looks aren’t that impressive, and sounds were average. I was contemplating a 3.5 flag rating instead of a 4 flag rating, but it was the animations, AO and the just above average performance that makes me certain that, looks aside, this definitely more than an average value for $L500.

All in all, a fine weapon.

For a unique gun with interesting looks and features, the Nortec Labs NAR74 “Vindicator” delivers with good performance and a well animated AO for an affordable price. You can find the weapons at any of Nortec’s vendors, including the one in the New Jessie Armory at New Jessie.

-JessieWarJournal Frequency

Weapons Review – the Ironsight Armaments Colt M4A1

The Jessie War Journal
Weapons Review Department

===========
Overview
===========
Weapon: Ironsight Armaments Colt M4A1
Price: $500L
Prim Count: 168(Without M203)/188(With M203)

The Ironsight Armaments Colt M4A1

–Manual Credits–
Model – Daffee Vita
Scripting – Tsume Xiao
Sounds – Tsume Xiao
Primary Animations – Tenaki Kupferberg

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

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

Build: [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]   (4.0)

Texture: [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]   (4.0)

Animations:  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~] (3.0)

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

Ease of Use: [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]   (4.0)

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

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

Once the sculpts of the special briefcase/crate rez and I am able to unpack the box, I am a bit surprised to see an unorthodox method of structure. Instead of two weapons I recieved four, a manual, and a landmark to the main armory.  What stands out is how Ironsight chose to do the M203 grenade launcher. There are two seperate active/slung weapon sets: one with the M203, and one without. This means there probably wont be any alpha’ed prims for the grenade launcher, and less script, both of which are good things.

The manual is very upfront. Credits are listed at the top under a header, then the command list, and then a fun little section called notes, then release notes, and then contact information. The notes section has interesting facts about the IRL weapon, as well as gestures to help those unfamiliar with non-chat listeners (the Colt M4A1 listens only to channel 1).

===========
Asthetics
===========

I must admit I was impressed when I rezzed the rifle onto the ground to do my usual inspection. I was not expecting a weapon from this price range to have such a clean build and such nice textures. There seems to be a good balance between prim and texture details and an high overal attention to quality.

The build itself is very nice, with only one or two visible seams. Even some of the minute details, such as the spring on the forward sling attach point and “birdcage” flash suppressor are taken care of. Even the notches in the stock are primed out. My biggest issues with the build of this weapon are that there are a few things missing here and there on a IRL accuracy level, and that there are some places I would prefer to see prim rather than texture. The sides of the rifle lack some prim details for some of the pins on the lower receiver, and there are other details in that area that are texture rather than prim, but unless you get up the side of the weapon with your camera, you probably would not notice. The most noticeable part is that the ejection port cover is closed, which although it would remain closed during travel, the first shot would lock it into the down position. Still, it is not a big issue. One thing I like especially on this weapon, is that there are only two alpha prims: the muzzle effects prim at the end of the barrel, and an infinity sign on the magazine, that becomes visible when the weapon is set to unlimited ammunition.

Textures are nice and clean like I actually have a brand new rifle and are overall very pleasing to look at and well applied. There are a few odd points around some area’s, such as where the sculpted grip meets the lower, but otherwise it seems much attention was paid to lining everything up and fitting it to its prim. I would still like to see some of the small parts done in prim rahter than texture, but it still looks very nice.

The sounds on this rifle are outstanding. The report it s sharp clear crack followed bow a slight reverb and echo, and the reload sound is clear and precise, with each action able to be heard and recognized. Whats more is that the reload sequence is IRL accurate. No silly charge handle nonsense. The draw and sling sounds are clear, and the  melee sound is a deep swoosh with a satisfying crack on impact. I have never just sat around firing off randomly and trying to melee the walls as i have with this gun, this sounds are just excellent. The only sound I would change would be the fire mode selector, which sounds a tiny bit odd, but its nothing major.

Animations are clean and solid. They work well with the models with no errors or glitches and minimal adjustment. Hold and aim are simple, basic animations. The reload is sync’ed with the sound very well, and your avatar actually hist the side of the upper to release the bolt. You dont hit the forward assist however, but that is in part ot the inability to switch the holding hand.

There is only one effect included with the Colt M4A1, and that is a subtle muzzle smoke. The smoke looks good, and is easy to turn off if you dont want it.

===========
Performance
===========
With the same scripter behind this weapon as who did the ENIC Type 08M, I had high expectations for the Ironsight Colt M4A1. I was not dissapointed.

Like the 08M, the M4A1 was an excellent combat weapon. The gun never had issues firing in heavy lag, the bullets refused to be locked up except when the sim seemed about ready to crash (the most extreme cases, such as when time dialation at numbers lower than Walmart clearance prices), and hit detection was always good. I never had to question if that person should have died, because if the bullet hit, they went down.

I was pleased to see that the spread decreased when I tossed the gun to semi-auto fire. I was taking shots at people from atop the Hospital and Radio Tower with no problem, even when they were across the sim and at street level. On auto, the spread is balanced. Its enough to be believable without being some crazy bullet hose.

What really surpirsed me was then numbers for this gun. Script time for the ENIC 08M that the Ironsight scripter did was an average of  0.236ms when firing full auto, so I was expecting about the same. However, for the Ironsight M4A1 the average was just 0.116ms, even with a faster rate of fire. I was skeptical myself about this, but I had checked the script time over twice as many times as I normally do (25 instead of 10) and averaged out all the points (and had someone else check my math IRL) and it still came out to 0.116ms.  Idle time is also lower than other guns, averaging out at 0.017m/s.

Furthermore, as people seem convinced that I should be checking EPS (events per second) instead of Script Time, despite their heavy relation to eachother, the Colt M4A1’s EPS was lower as well.

Even furthermore, I did some reasearching and asked some scripters much better than myself and they did confirm that script time is the best way to check this sort of thing.

Its also worth noting the combo-keys, which made reloading (Forward + Back) and Melee’ing those who got too close for comfort (Left + Right) a real ease, especially when you reload like a paranoid mental institution in-mate.

The only problem I encountered was that the muzzle smoke would stay on a little too long in heavy lag, but so do most muzzle flashes and other effects. Other than that small problem, I really can’t find many major problems with this weapon’s performance, and it was certainly a reliable weapon when it came to defending my Jessie War Journal Tower.

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

This Colt M4A1  is a great all around package. Its performance is top-notch and gets a near-perfect 4.5 flags. The build is a very handsome model, however it is not without its flaws, and lack of some prim details bring it to a respectable 4 flags. Texturing is also quite good, though also has a few minor issues here and there and also gets 4 flags.
Animations are good and fit the gun well, but are a bit generic, with only the reload appearing to be built for the gun, and get 3 flags. The sounds are sensational and well deserving of the 4.5 flag rating. Ease of use is great, the key combos and included gestures helping our greatly. However, the channel 1 only listener will undoubtedly hinder those who are not used to it, which is why the weapon get 4 flags. Value is phenomenal, as the asking price for the rifle seems far lower than what would be expected of a weapon with this kind of looks and performance, and gets 4.5 flags.  To be honest, it couldn’t be of much better value unless you gave it away.

Caine enjoys pouncing on unsuspecting targets at the fine MBC with his Colt M4A1.

The Ironsight Armaments Colt M4A1 is an fine piece of combat equipment, combining good aesthetics and outstanding performance in one, modestly priced package. There is no fluff here, just a mean fighting machine and an excellent companion in the battlefield.  If you’re interested in the Ironsights weapon line, you can find them in vendors in combat hubs across the grid, including the New Jessie armory in Eastern New Jessie.

Weapons Review – the Mistral Munitions HK416 Assault Rifle

The Jessie War Journal
Weapons Review Department

===========
Overview
===========
Weapon: Mistral Munitions HK416
Price: $400L
Prim Count: 118

The Mistral Munitions HK416 Assault Rifle

–Manual Credits–
None

Inspection Credits
Build: Sera Otoro
Scripts: Sera Otoro
Animations: Sera Otoro (Aim/Hold), Tenaki Kupferberg(Reload), Timmahy Widget(Crouch)

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

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

Build:[~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  (3.0)

Texture:[~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ (2.5)

Animations:[~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~] (3.0)

Sounds:[~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~] (3.0)

Ease of Use:[~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]   (4.0)

Value:[~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]   (4.0)

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

Even before I unpack the weapon, I can infer from the vendor images and the box itself that this is going to be a basic, all business weapon made for combat. The manual that pops over my screen on unpack continues this, telling me little more than commands, what they are, and what they do.

Clean, simple, and to the point.

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

The HK416 is a weapon of modest appearances. It doesn’t scream for attention, it doesn’t grab the eye so much as suggest a look, and doesn’t ooze of photo-realistic textures or micro prim details.

The build fits together well. Prims fit with one another with only few seams. Prim details are well done, subtle, but noticeable. A few points of the rifle’s build look odd and out of place however.  The back sights have sides that are too thick, and the drum, typical of Heckler and Koch weapons, is not hollow. The ejection port’s cover flap is to long and to thin and looks fixed in place, rather than hinged so it could pop open with the first shot. The rails on the foregrip look far too rectangular, and don’t seem the right size. The charge handle seems oddly shaped, and halfway between a pull.

Textures are adequate, but a bit too plain and generic in my opinion. There is a base texture that seems to cover the entire gun, tinted differently to add depth in certain parts, and a texture for the barrel. What stands out the most though is the much higher detailed textures that are in odd spots around the gun. The front barrel guard has a higher detail texture for the holes, the left side of the receiver has a etched texture for the fire selector, and the  magazine has a its own texture. The magazine texture is also oriented wrong, as  it suggests I have tried to shove the magazine into the lower receiver upside down ( the black indent that is on the bottom of the this magazine is where it should hook onto the magazine catch inside the gun).

Sounds are average. Firing sounds are clear, but are quite quiet and the unsilenced sound could use more of a sharp bang at the beginning. The reload sound is very odd, as it is so quiet and full of what sounds like background noise (as though recorded from a game), I wonder if I am reloading or if there is a guy 15m behind me reloading.  There are no sounds for attaching or detaching the silencer.

Animations are basic and to the point. They fit the gun, though the aim isn’t at eye level, and work well together. The biggest issue is there is no walk for the crouch. I simply slide around on the ground in a crouched position. That’s going to wear out my shoes very quickly!

Effects included on this rifle are good in looks, but lacking a bit in execution. The both muzzle smoke and shell ejection dont seem to sync with the firing, and seem to start and stop randomly of their own accord.

===========
Performance
===========
I felt quite confident with this weapon in my hands. Bullets always rezzed, the gun never lost controls, and never faltered. Even in the most severe lag I encountered, the gun kept firing. However, the bullets did like to physlock in the heavy lag, but I was able to predict this, and know when to cease fire. The physlocking is not unique to this weapon however, and the bullets are very large.

A large plus to this gun, something I love seeing on SL weapons, is that spread decreases as you switch to burst and semi auto fire modes, meaning you get something in return for slowing down your fire rate.

The animation and effect toggles work as described, and the velocity adjustment comes in handy.
However, on default settings this rifle was more than capable of taking out targets at all ranges, including when I was calling for combatants in New Jessie, and two people ran up the stairs behind me. I was able to shoot them both without worying about velocity. One was quite close to me (within 10m), while his partner was in the doors about 23m away. I was able to fire a burst at the first target, round the corner while reloading and take out the other one.  I was quite pleased.

Number wise, the HK416 comes in at some very respectable numbers. While idle, it uses an average of 0.031ms of script time. During full auto fire, the gun sits in at 0.227ms average, which is just a tad below the ENIC Type 08M.

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

The Mistral Munitions HK416 may be lacking in asthetics, but it more than makes up for it with performance.
The weapons earns 4.5 flags for its exceptional performance. Build is average at 3 flags, and is solid prim work, though it wont win any beauty pageants. Textures are there, but rather generic and earn a flag rating of 2.5. Animations and sounds both rank at 3 flags. They are good and simple, though each has its own downsides (animations lack a crouch walk and the aim is a bit too low, sounds are quiet and not as violent/gun like). Ease of use is very good and scores four flags, though I just wish there were some key combos for things like reload and crouch. Value is above average if looks aren’t your number one concern, as you get such a hearty performing rifle for such a modest price

The MM HK416 does not dissapoint on the battlefield, but if you are looking for something to stun on lookers, you may want to look elsewhere. If you want to kill those looking at you, or running from you, then you are getting an exceptional weapon at a very frugal price. It all comes down to priorities.

And as Caine would like me to remind you, if you’re interested in the Mistral Munitions HK416 Assault Rifle, check it out at the Eastern New Jessie sim, in the New Jessie Armory, where you can also find the whole lineup of Mistral Munitions products.  With a wide selection you’re sure to find something that interests you.

-JessieWarJournal Frequency

Weapons Review – AMBO Science Incorporated Type 05 .45 SMG

The Jessie War Journal
Weapons Review Department

===========
Overview
===========
Weapon: AMBO Science Incorporated Type 05 .45 SMG
Price: $1650L
Prim Count: 51

AMBO Science Incorporated Type 05 .45 SMG

Inspection Credits
All Dingo Nikolaidis.

===========
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~]  (4.0)

Sounds:[~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~] (3)

Ease of Use:[ ~JWJ~]  [~JW (1.5)

Value:[~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ (2.75)

===========
First Impressions
===========
As soon as I unpack the Type 05, Im confronted with the gun (active and slung),  manual, a HUD, and four gestures...a lot more than I was expecting. So, I cracked open the manual and started reading.

Well...kind of reading. I've seen a lot of manuals but none like this. I've read it twice through and am still not exactly sure how half of this stuff works. Looks like it will come down attaching the weapon and pressing buttons, something I'm not fond of as I'm the type who wants to know the weapon inside and out before going out onto the battlefield.

===========
Asthetics
===========
The overall original design of the Type 05 is quite interesting, and more importantly, believable. I can look closely and see parts of the Micro Tavor, MP7, and the BR2 Prototype rifle in this design, but its not just a repackaged gun by any means. It works well, and fits together like a high quality puzzle. You can see where the parts fit together, but its not out there screaming in your face, nor is it missing that piece that you will never find again because it fell under your couch that one night you were working on the puzzle with your girlfriend in the dark while watching a movie and then some how your cat got to it and took it away to chew on and then cough up somewhere for you or the next occupants of the house to find while leaving you with a puzzle missing a central piece.

I have to admit, I am not sure how a gun can look this well put together and be only 51 prims. Sculpts are everywhere, and I mean everywhere. It seems everything from the main body right down to the sling attachment is sculpted, and it all looks nice. I was unable to find one seam or overlap of prims; this model seems solid as a rock. My only negatives against this model is that  with so few prims it seems a bit slab-sided. Screws are just flat textures instead of the one piece sculpts, the ejection port seems like it might not even be there, but is just a picture pasted on, and some of the edges around the stock area are too flat. Low prim is great, and definitely an admirable quality, but I feel that adding a few more prims would raise the detail to a level that would far offset the number of prims added.

Textures are another custom delight on the Type 05. Every part of the weapon is clean and detailed, and bares the ASI name and/or logo. I only see one oddity on these textures, and that's the countersunk screw hole between the chamber and the grip, which suddenly sheers off on its back end. The main down to the textures isn't with the textures at all, but rather with the attempt to use textures as a substitute for prim details such as some of the large screws and ejection port area.

At this point I'm going to grab the gun and try and figure out these appearance options, because I can see that there are builds for other scopes and flashlights and lasers.

After about 10 minutes of fiddling with the menus and commands I figured out most of them, and was able to attach and detach the extras and what not.

The silencer looks great, and absolutely fits the gun that its clearly custom designed for. The text on the side is an excellent touch.

All optic options are textured to match the weapon and fit the feel quite well. However, I think flip up ironsights should be added for when the optics are removed rather than a bare rail, and the scope looks a little out of place on an SMG, although an ACOG would fit the bill. However, realism isn't my job, its looks and practical or not, that scope does look good.

On the vein of looks over practicality, the LAM and taclight look great on the sides of the Type 05. As for their use, I find them  annoying methods of further revealing your position. The Light DOES provide illumination, and could be deemed useful in some circumstances. The LAM however, is all cosmetic, as it doesn't point where you aim, nor do the bullets hit where it points.

Animations are quite good, but a few of them could use some polishing in their execution. Reload fits the gun well, and the three different holds fit the style well, though are a bit difficult to fit to the avatar. The biggest oddity is the recoil animation, which will sometimes randomly twitch to the sides and flicker. Otherwise they are above average in quality.

Effects are good looking, but have some snags when it comes to execution. The muzzle flash is well done, but the shell eject tends to get stuck and pop out many more shells than what I actually fired.

The Muzzle flash can glitch sometimes, but nothing major. The shell eject does get on my nerves though when I look out the corner of my eye and see a stream of casings after firing s 3 round burst, or a stream that just doesn't stop.

Sounds are interesting, but seem a bit wimpy as a whole. I cant believe I'm firing a .45ACP round when all I hear is a tiny little pop. Even a 9x19 Luger Parabellum makes a louder noise than this. The unsilenced sound would be a believable silenced sound for sure, but it lacks the power that it should, which is a bit of a downer. The burst fire suffers the same wimpification and has trouble playing a lot of the time, and the auto just sounds like a crazy chihuahua sized buzzsaw... or a really angry industrial strength vibrator... I'm not sure which, but is more believable than the semi/burst sounds.

Now... to reset defaults and head to the battlefield!

Um.. Where is the reset command?

Tools->Reset Scripts In Selection

===========
Performance
===========
I charge into battle and am immediately confronted as a Russian troop crests the hill. I open fire, but seem to miss every shot... His bullets find their mark, and I see blood spray.. but I don't die. So my bullets aren't rezzing and his aren't doing jack. Thank God for melee, as I was able to beat him down with brute force. I think I may have screwed something up trying to reset it. Time to grab a new one out of the box!

Fresh gun in hand and bullets confirmed rezzing, I went out back into the fray. The bullets always came out, and I mean always, even in heavy lag. That brings another problem though, as the bullets really like to phys-lock, and the times I was fast enough to duck around them, they un-phys-locked.. and hit me in the back of the head. These bullets are so lame they are literally square... Cube bullets... that explains all the phys-locking. When the bullets do fly they do hit targets and always kill, though I was swearing it was taking multiple shots at times. I double checked the  damage setting to be 100, and kept going at it, though it still seemed to take more than one hit some times (Hit detection issues?). Unlike the other gun I tested with an adjustable rate of fire, the Type 05 always keeps its rate of fire to what you set it, even through lag, which is good. I was able to buzz my way  through hostiles and defend my land (the New Jessie War Journal Tower) as well as capture the surrounding areas. This gun, like the Titan AK5, has ts grievances with lag, but just a different set of them. Here, the rate of fire never falters and bullets always rez.. though that can bite you in the ass in the long run.

All the adjustables work, though I was content with the defaults. Granted, I don't know what the defaults are because they are not all listed (Default vel is 200m/s, sensor range is 15m, and alternate velocity is 50m/s). With the default rate of fire, I was finding light pulses of the trigger still having me reloading quite often. The combo key is your best friend.

By the numbers, the Type 05 is above average in the performance sector. Script time averages 0.033ms for idling, and 0.227ms while firing on the default full auto speed. When you crank the rate of fire up though, you get large spikes, though with the speed the magazine is used up, its not really worth it.

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

The AMBO Science Incorporated Type 05 is a great looker and a modest performer, but when combined with other aspects of the weapon, it might not be my first choice for what I charge into battle with. However, for the role-play scene, when  you want form over function, or if its just for that occasional fight, its a fine choice. This weapon is NOT for those who want something simple and  easy to operate!

The Type 05 earns 4.5 flags for its build and texture work, with only minor things bringing it down. Performance is good, though despite its numbers, its not as reliable as some other weapons, and gets a slightly above average 3 flags. Animations have their hitches but are of very good quality and get four flags. Sounds are of good quality, though wimpy and could be a bit more custom to the application. Ease of use is very low with 1.5 flags, and there is a very large learning curve. Manual, commands, and menus need some serious work.  Value is a hair above average with 2.75 flags. You get a good amount for your Linden, but a lot of that isn't combat feasible, so it loses some value.

The ASI Type 05 Seems to try and bridge the gap between the highly featured RP looks based guns and the real combat machines. It offers adjustability on combat pertinent settings, and several aesthetic changes, but It still seems a bit more weighted toward the RP clientele and could stand to be made a bit leaner and meaner for the heavy combat demands.

Caine's not picky - he uses his AMBO-type 05 .45 SMG to blow away a bus full of hippies. Don't those unwashed mouthbreathers know that all that weed funds terrorism?

You can find the AMBO Science Incorporated Type 05 .45 SMG at the AMBO vendor in the Eastern New Jessie sim, so if you are interested in checking out this weapon, visit the New Jessie Public Armory for a closer look.

-JessieWarJournal Frequency

Weapons Review – AekoLabs BRTL-Z9 Assault Rifle

The Jessie War Journal
Weapons Review Department

===========
Overview
===========
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.

===========
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~](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)

===========
First Impressions
===========
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).

===========
Asthetics
===========
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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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