The Journal is over. Long Live New Jessie.

Hey everyone,

The New Jessie War Journal has had a great run, but we are going to be ending it now.  Vegna Fouroux’s recent resignation kinda leaves this old Journal in my lap, and since I can’t contribute the time to run it anymore.

E-reporting was my way of raising the money and building up the prestige to make New Jessie possible in the first place.  These days though New Jessie is mostly able to take care of that by itself thanks to our work in making that sim a fun place to fight, shop, and hang out.

In the meantime, the Journal has become a time consuming project to operate well, and since I can’t contribute the time to do it right, I think it’s best to just close up shop on a good note.

The site will remain here with all articles archived.  Weapons reviews will remain posted – our reviewer may even post some new ones – but past those, and past perhaps the occasional community notice worth a comments page, this site is effectively at an end.

I was thinking anyway that combat may be better without such an all-encompassing news source surrounding it.  I never really realized the way in which certain people made certain decisions based on what would or would not show up in the Journal.  That just strikes me as kind of lame.  Wars should be fought for goals other than impressing some guy who runs a combat tabloid to boost traffic and funding for his sim anyway.

And so until someone else starts a new combat publication of some kind should that day come, tonight marks the end of reporting on Linden Lab damage combat on the grid in general as far as I know.  I could be wrong of course, but since the Journal started, its competitors have ended and the Second Life Herald quit reporting on combat.

Should any promising replacements get started, I’ll send notices for them over “Republic of New Jessie – Friends” to keep you in the loop.

From now on though, aside from the occasional future weapons review and Web-worthy New Jessie related posting, this publication is over.  Any future articles will be few and far between and will be referenced in-world through a group notice in “Republic of New Jessie – Friends.”

In the meantime, let’s remember the good times – the 500 comment long flame wars, the 10 page articles about trumped-up e-drama, the point-to-point comprehensive weapons reviews, the breathtaking photography (and always colorful wordplay) used in military propaganda, and of course, those anonymous, nameless commenters who have so often revealed so many interesting tidbits about the players on the combat scene.

What, you say there are no good times?  Well hey, then this article must have at least made your day then, huh?

In short – the New Jessie War Journal is over.  Long live New Jessie.  See you on the battlefield!

-Caine Constantine

News from the Editor

I’ve tried to live as drama-free a Second Life as possible (maybe I have failed!) so if I’m entitled to some theatrics I figure now may be the time.

I have left Second Life and will not be returning. I have made sure my alternates (Xyekips Trafalgar, Xi Teardrop and Hamlet Danitz [whom I did a very bad altcraft attempt on]), my main account, My computer, its MAC address and my IP address are banned to prevent any temptation to return. I return The New Jessie War Journal to the already overburdened hands of Mr. Caine Constantine and for this I apologise.

I wish all militaries, leaders and soldiers; those of the Iron Symphony, those who wish to take it apart and those who are committed to combat fair and unfair the best of luck in their endeavours, I always sat on the fence and took no objective views on that matter because I really didn’t want to take sides. Doubtless someone will disagree with this.

I wish to thank all the readers of this journal and of my pieces on other Second Life-oriented websites for their time, you have had to suffer much tiresome and long-winded prose from myself these last 2 years and for that I apologise, all the same I had a lot of fun being an SL-Journalist. I also dearly thank anyone who over the last few years took the time to talk to me for an interview etc.. (especially those whom I never got to publish and for that I apologise deeply). But all the same it has been fun being an SL-journalist.

I wish to thank Mr. Constantine, for being the voice of reason often in Second Life and it is a testament but a shame to the man’s honesty that these days if anyone attaches his name to their cause it becomes infallible. He’s also a great guy.

All the militaries I have served under, particularly the Alliance Navy (who are moving to a New Grid where I may join them), The Merczateers Tactical Forces and the Spartan’s of Second Life for providing truly wonderful combat for me in a military enviroment.

I had planned to do a number of history articles but unfortunately that won’t be the case, if anyone would like to take up that cause they are welcome to do so and should IM Caine Constantine for the arrangements.

I realise that many of you readers probably are indifferent one way or another towards my withdrawal from Second Life but if you have ever been tempted to leave you would understand that writing this is important for closure (especially for something I’ve been doing regularly for two years).

So to the friends and personalities of this little sub section of Second Life, I bid you adieu and I wish you a peaceful remainder of the holidays.

- Vegna Fouroux (J.C.L)

PS; Frumentarii still out their, Light Ops not gone, Exonar knows all, beware the tin hats of March.

Weapons Review – Mistral Munitions HK416 *UPDATED*

The Jessie War Journal
Weapons Review Department

————————————————————————————————

EDITOR’S NOTE: This review has been reposted from the old blog to serve as a part of a buyer’s guide. It has also been updated to reflect the latest version of this weapon.

The updates follow this note, and after that section comes the original post, which has been modified as little as possible.

Grammar and photos have been changed.

————————————————————————————————

===========
Overview
===========
Weapon: Mistral Munitions HK416
Price: $400L
Prim Count: 116/147

Mistral Munitions HK416

Mistral Munitions HK416

=======================================

UPDATES

=======================================

It is good to know my reviews can inspire changes and updates in products, as the new Version HK416 from Mistral Munitions did change the model based on my critique of the read drum sight. The new update however seems to have been a bit hastily put together to compete with other companies in the price range, and unfortunately, seems to have created more errors than it fixed.

===========
Changes
===========

-Script changes (Not sure if it is anything beyond error correction and new feature addition)

-Change in effects (Muzzle smoke texture changed)

-Optional M203

Ok. I like seeing script improvements and tweaks, but I am not sure what exactly was done fron the version change. Unlike other manuals I have read, the Mistral manuals don’t list anything about changes. I have come to the realization that this is because there seems to be only one manual (which explains why they aren’t named as the gun, and why they say “if equipped on your weapon). It’s not frustrating from a user stand point, but the more technical among us would like to know what makes this version better than the others.

The new muzzle smoke texture is not as good as the old one. Its edges are hard and it doesn’t seem natural.

The M203 grenade launcher is now included with the HK416. What I noticed right away is how it was packaged: one gun/sling set without the M203, one gun/sling set with the M203. The only other company I have seen do this is Ironsight Armaments, who have been doing so since their M203 equipped rifles came out several months ago. This leads me to believe that Mistral is feeling pressue in its market, not only from Ironjsight Armaments (which seems to me to be their biggest completion), but also from Titan Industries, who recently entered the price range with their older/less featured (but by no means lower quality) weapons. Now, this isn’t the first time I noticed Mistral seeming to follow behind Ironsight Armaments and copy their styles, and I normally don’t care (unless the copying of styles is done in an illegal fashion), but what makes the M203 on the Mistral stick out to me is that it seems to have been a hastily done upgrade. Upgrades with new features are great (and will help sales as any business person can tell you) but if it’s not done right, it’s not worth it.

The grenade launcher lacks performance and range, is unpolished, and is buggy. My first test was distance, which was perhaps the biggest disappointment. The purpose of a grenade launcher such as the M203 is to extend your range for grenades (and possible replace a grenade HUD all together), but the M203 on this gun can barely cross a New Jessie city street, and has a hell of a time going upwards. It also fires with the “C” or “PageDown” button, which is bad news for people who use many of the commercial grenade HUDS’s.  Animations for the reload also do not exist. After firing the M203, you precede to play the basic AR-15 style reload animation (Which I have found in some Mistral non-Stoner type rifles and SMG as well). This is a bit of a disappointment, but not a major issue, as the Mistral weapons aren’t the best for looking that spectacular anyways. Sounds again drove me crazy with the “I know I have heard that before but not where”. Then another combatant heard and pointed out where they were from: Call of Duty. I promptly logged off SL and started up COD4 and put on my headphones. I went around firing several AR’s and SMG and the M203 in the game. Just for extra reference, I grabbed the sounds with a Audacity to play back later. Back in SL I played the sound over and over, and sure enough with my Grado 80i’s I could hear all the quirks. I even fired the rifle, and found the same thing. Call of Duty Report sounds. This really makes me uneasy, as not only do I find the sounds to be wimpy, but it makes me wonder about effort put into some of the Mistral weapons. Bug wise, there are some of the usual errors found in the general gun, but namely it is very easy to kill yourself with the M203, as the combination of “c” and “PageDown” firing, plus the fact that it is able to fire out of mouselook, will have you killing you and your team at least a few times.

Further things I noticed while seeing what may have been changed in the new scripts were a variety of input and feature malfunctions. The input is extremely unforgiving, as it is both case sensitive, requires colons in specific places, and in the case of velocity, will accept negative commands. Negetive bullet velocity sends bullets flying back at your face, and while trying to recreate “The Matrix” with your own rifle is fun, you will get screwed over if you mis-type in battle or forget to change it. It also seems that the reset command does not fully reset all parts of the rifle. The animation disabling option also seems to forget to actually stop the animations, just prevents future ones from playing, which leaves you to run around stuck in a pose. Bullets also seem to be visibly smaller, but are still the same large alpha tube/cylinder with a small visible hole for texturing. Unfortunately, it may be because of this they seemed to phys-lock a bit more than the past version.

===========
Unchanged
===========

Build

Aside from the changes to the read sight, I did not notice any changes to the model. My small nit-picks are still there, as texturing and detail still need improvement, and the sculpted rails still like to flicker in and out. However, as I stated before, Mistral Munitions weapons are more for function over form. They are simple and work, but are far from the best looking weapons (though far from the worst as well).

Animations

No changes found.

Sounds/Effects

I found out where they are from and a new sound has been added for the M203. Otherwise, no changes. Muzzle smoke has been changed to a less appealing texture.

==

Overall, a few new features that are nice and work well, but not flawlessly and the “big” new features are buggy. This seems a bit rushed, and I almost prefer the performance of the old version better. It still remains a solid weapon.

==

===========
New Flag Rating
===========
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~]  (3.0)

Texture:[~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JWJ (2.5)

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

Sounds:[~JWJ~]  [~JWJ~]  [~JW (2.5)

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

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

=======================================

ORIGINAL POST

=======================================

–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~]  [~JW (2.5)

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 moderate-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.

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

The Mistral Munitions HK416 may be lacking in aesthetics, but it more than makes up for it with performance.
The weapons earns 4.0 flags for its above average performance. Build is average at 3 flags, and is solid prim work, though it won’t win any beauty pageants. Textures are there, but rather generic and earn a flag rating of 2.5. Animations and sounds rank at 3 and 2.5 flags respectively. 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 decent  performing rifle for such a modest price

The MM HK416 is a solid companion on the battlefield, but if you are looking for something to stun on lookers and perform beyond your expectations, you may want to look elsewhere.

And as Caine would like me to remind you, if you’re interested in the Mistral Munitions HK416 Assault Rifle, it is available in the New Jessie Armory.

By The Dominus of the Chaos Decretum, To whom it may Concern

Greetings, military community of Second Life.

I am, as some of you may already know, Dark Svenska, Dominus War Host of The Chaos Decretum. Some of you may praise me, worship me. Some of you may hate me, wish ill will upon me. But right now I wish to cast such petty things aside and get down to the point of this message, this announcement to all those who need to hear it. For the lies and deceit, and the rumors of our undoing comes to a stop right now.

Some of you have heard about how, ‘Chaos is dead’ or we just flat out disbanded or lost our SIM and what not. Well, of course you would think that considering how we were recently betrayed, it is common intelligence to listen and believe what a crowd of people spew out of their throats until eventually someone tells you of the truth, hm?

In short, I am here today to shed some light on the existence of Chaos. And I can safely assure you, my dear audience, that we are still very much alive and kicking. So let me take you on this little voyage through the maddening halls of the warp and let me give you what you have been wondering so far. Take note, this article is not to defame or troll anyone, amazing eh?

Meliae:
||||||||||||||||||||||||

Some of you may have been hearing these rumors that Meliae is not online, or that I have lost the SIM and what not. Well lets shed some light on that on our first stop here.

Meliae is still up and running, on access currently since we are going off radar for a while to re-cooperate which so far has gone rather well. I still help pay off the SIM, along with the help of the rest of the group the best that we can.

The story about the whole money situation that Blood Fist and others continue to brag about is rather false and misleading, allow me to elaborate. When the betrayal happened my SIM was returned (Obviously) and we went on a purge of all traitors in the SIM before banning them. Next thin you know it, Special Fugazi and others tried to steal the SIM away from us by trying to work it out of our hands with some convo’s including our SIM owner. So, we told him the real story and how we were betrayed and left for dead basically, how they returned my content (Being the SIM build) and all that good stuff. He apologized for the trouble, erased Special and others from the SIM estate list, refunded Special, and gave us three extra days of rent free of charge. Nice guy, eh?

As for the whole ‘Dark never paid for his SIM’ ‘Dark begs for money’ all that nonsense, well I can tell you right now I did all that I could to help in the payment of rent, I threw in what I could afford to avoid the dangers of RL things being shut off. You know how it is.
Begging for money from New Jessie? Well, that’s not true. I would not even attempt to do that, it’s just idiotic.. All of our SIM payments were made from the generous donations and my own input of the cash from our grateful members, for a group needs people like that to thrive, because they are the ones you trust and the ones who truly respect you.

Members:
||||||||||||||||||||

All right, second stop on our trip. Membership was cut in half when the betrayal happened, and I can admit it did hit us hard. But we regained our composure when veterans and ex members of all kinds from the past came back to pledge their support to myself and the remaining loyal bunch. We have recruited more and more over the weeks, raising our numbers and soon we will be getting even more. Activity and active members have also been a steady increase, we are taking things slow.

New command has been chosen, new officers and we will soon be revising our training and recruitment. Hell we even have a new sculpted uniform, dieing? I think not.

Regret and Hatred:
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Lets take this moment on our third stop, to press a bit deeper into what is going on. It is true, I admit I made my mistakes as a leader and it cost me, but is this ALL my fault? Lets say 30% to be the least..

Blood Fist was formed due to the planning and support of 2142, Vox Aeron, and the members in Chaos. Leia Mercy, leader of VA was once as you know the leader of UU before it merged with Vanguard. Chaos came to the UU SIM and defiled it for Leia’s cowardly ways and poor leadership to merge with VG, dieing military or not. (No offense to VG). My best guess is, people wanted revenge on me after the aftermath of the situation when we beat them down in our own SIM and laughed at them when they rezzed banners in our HUB. Alls good in fun and war.

But lets get serious for a moment, for I do chare my regrets. Regrets that hurt to bear.
Some of these people within Chaos who betrayed me, were very good friends and to see them do such things, listen to people convict me and the group of such things is a very dark thing indeed. I do wish to make amends with these people, fix the broken trust and regain their friendship and fight by my side once more. Some of these members are people who never were in the military community that I brought in, took them as one of my own brothers and sisters. Notably, two people I wish I could regain their friendship and loyalty would be Keregan Vaher and Zephora. Yes, that’s right, I am apologizing. I am saying sorry to people for once, pretty confusing. But there are some people within Blood Fist that I will never wish to make amends toward. Some traitors deserve the hatred I have for them.

Some of you may not know, but before some BF person comes on comments and blabs it out (Which is most likely, no real offense.) I did have a very hurtful conversation with Clix Diesel, and I did twist and break the boys head with the comments I made. So I regret this? No. I had to do it, I had to make people like Clix and his friends to realize that to betray me and expect me to still consider you a friend, is flat out disgusting.

There is also the incident when a member of Chaos came to the BF SIM along with me, and supposedly ‘griefed’ them using a rocket launcher that fired a missile that used 4chan pictures and sounds as an explosive. Well more of a flashbang. I apologized shortly after, for it was a mere joke. But I guess I have a unique sense of humor.

Lets stray from this now, on our next stop.

Blood Fist, are they really that good?:
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Be forewarned, this is not an attack, more of a defense.

Blood Fist may be spouting how they wish to improve the community and all that jazz, but recently have been banned, laughed at, mocked, and already disragrded as a group. Lets take one such member of the group among many who share the same attitude, Carlla Magic.

Carlla Magic so far has been making the group look stupid, and they seem to not be doing a very good job of doing something about it to keep a person, like Carlla from ranting like a 12 year old. Below are some logs of conversations between military leaders and Carlla.

[2009/12/05 13:40]  You sense a disturbance in the force…  (Carlla Magic is typing)
[2009/12/05 13:42]  Arch Graves: Yes?
– Instant message logging enabled –

Carlla Magic: Your men looked like a bunch of star wars rejects .. youy calling us  “sloppy, and unprepaired.” You guys can’t even figure out that returning forces must get to their spawn area to set there HPs… insted your group or ordo rejects fire on us and don’t expect to get shot back?.. then they start HUB killing..LOL now you think your all that using emerald to see incomming IMs.. wow dude. So unprofessional, all my SL combat days [sic] I’ve never seen such unprofessionalisum, even Chaos is more uniform and organized

Carlla Magic: Yes?
Carlla Magic: What?
Carlla Magic: O?
Carlla Magic: Your still typing
Carlla Magic: I c
Carlla Magic: >.>
Carlla Magic: Well?

Arch Graves: You call us Ordo rejects, yet you would pull the name of Ordo Rejects, turned Chaos, turned Chaos Rejects. Instead of knowing how to TP your men to your base they climed up shooting my Men from the attacking spawn. This is so laughable.

Carlla Magic: <.<
Carlla Magic: Yor a what?
Carlla Magic: wat?
Carlla Magic: Im waiting to read something worth while
Carlla Magic: >.>

Arch Graves: Child.

Carlla Magic: Thats you
Carlla Magic: Runing an army of 15 year old childern
Carlla Magic:
Carlla Magic: sent by Aryte
Carlla Magic: xD
Carlla Magic: yeah
Carlla Magic: we know
Carlla Magic: You have a leak
Carlla Magic: xD
Carlla Magic: Dumb shit
Carlla Magic: We even knew you guys were comming to attack
Carlla Magic: :O
Carlla Magic: xD

Arch Graves: I see you are Uneducated, so I will ignore you.

Carlla Magic: k
Carlla Magic:
Carlla Magic: Bai now
Carlla Magic: ps
Carlla Magic: you loose
Carlla Magic: xD
Carlla Magic: Strains under the weight of your Ego.. “STOP PLEASE!! its crushing us!!”
Carlla Magic: D8>
Carlla Magic: So uncivilized
Carlla Magic: Are you serious you never set your HP in a spawn on somone elses sim?
Carlla Magic: XD
Carlla Magic: How long have you been in SL combat?
Carlla Magic: 1 week?
Carlla Magic: Your x ordo
Carlla Magic: Ohh hright
Carlla Magic: you guys dont raid sims
Carlla Magic: that would explain it

Arch Graves: Do you have a suger issue?

Carlla Magic: Yeah I’m all out.. gonna send some?
Carlla Magic: See you in our eyes
Carlla Magic: are a big joke
Carlla Magic: lol

Arch Graves: I would explain to you the idea of getting TPed by other members into your base, but I fear the concept might be to complicated. :/

Carlla Magic: we got pictures of your band of fools
Carlla Magic: you with your GLOW axe
Carlla Magic: hahahahahaha
Carlla Magic: We are poking fun at you all in our base
Carlla Magic: BIG fun
Carlla Magic: ^^
Carlla Magic: Your a noob

Arch Graves: Are you sure you are just still upset about getting rejected from IS so fast? :/

Carlla Magic: you ant figure out that raids in other sims do happen and its common curtasy to set your HP in their spawn point while there
Carlla Magic: that
Carlla Magic: makes
Carlla Magic: you
Carlla Magic: a
Carlla Magic: NOOB

Arch Graves: Oh good lord.

Carlla Magic: Listen your the expert on IS?
Carlla Magic: Its doomed
Carlla Magic: xD

Arch Graves: I don’t even know what to tell you at this point, you are so void of any true logic it’s almost amusing.

Carlla Magic: Your a joke to all of us
Carlla Magic: and always will be
Carlla Magic: So unprofessional
Carlla Magic: dude
Carlla Magic: Your not even Darks level of epic
Carlla Magic: Your Miles below him
Carlla Magic: So unprofessional.. in SL COMBAT
Carlla Magic: ITS A FUCKING GAME
Carlla Magic: unprofessional
Carlla Magic: hahahahahha
Carlla Magic: 15 year old kids running around in combat

Arch Graves: Wow, just… Wow.

Carlla Magic: were would you find profession in that
Carlla Magic: Come on
Carlla Magic: you want to fight
Carlla Magic: fight with me
Carlla Magic: you got nothing so far

Arch Graves: I am honestly amused, seriously.

Carlla Magic: COOL!
Carlla Magic: so whats up?.. you got no respose to.. “were would you find profession in SL combat?”

Arch Graves: Honestly anything I say to you is just going to come back as jibberish.

Carlla Magic: Actually its your bullshit
Carlla Magic: I’m shoveling it back into your face
Carlla Magic: Like I said
Carlla Magic: your a joke to everyone here
Carlla Magic: lol
Carlla Magic: bai now

Arch Graves: Goodbye Carlla, I expect to hear many more intresting storys about one so…. Intresting as yourself.

Carlla Magic: k Shhh

Arch Graves: I honestly could not think up a word to discribe you.

Carlla Magic: Like wise for the likes of you
Carlla Magic:
Carlla Magic: Stop IMing Clix asshole
Carlla Magic: lol
Carlla Magic: Your fail

Go ahead and count how many IM posts Carl made, more than I do it to be honest.

Carlla Magic: Hows this

Carlla Magic: I ORDER YOU TO USE COMMON SENSE

Carlla Magic: clear enough?

Eagator Ivory Brain Broke….

Carlla Magic: What?.. your not right in the head?
Carlla Magic takes your gun away
Carlla Magic: you wear saying?

Eagator Ivory Headbutts

Carlla Magic: Head butting an officer?
Carlla Magic: Strike one mate

Eagator Ivory: Dude… chill…

Carlla Magic: This is a military army you will respect officers and their orders
Carlla Magic: are we clear?

Eagator Ivory: Fine… even thought that’s not this military…

Carlla Magic: Excuse me?

Eagator Ivory: Fighting noob, in a minute…

Carlla Magic: a Noob eh?

Carlla Magic: LULZ

Eagator Ivory: We don’t need anymore on the line…

Carlla Magic: We are going to have a little chat
Carlla Magic: you and me

Eagator Ivory: Frack Carlla… a single line has no backup in case it’s taken out…

Carlla Magic: An officer TPs you.. you take it
Carlla Magic: you got a problem with that?

Eagator Ivory: Yes actually….

Carlla Magic: Orly?

Eagator Ivory: You don’t know how to fight with an army…

Carlla Magic: I dont eh?

Eagator Ivory: Yes, your in a gods damned cluster fuck right now…
Eagator Ivory: One nade and you’d all be making your way back to the line…

Carlla Magic: Your going to be made an Example
Carlla Magic: Ive hed enough of you
Carlla Magic: You are formally demoted to E1

Eagator Ivory: Going to need the texture… and I’ll send this to Dark.

Carlla Magic: Thats fine
Carlla Magic: You will get the texture and Dark will get a copy of this too

I never demoted Eagator. Just FYI (The man had more sense than Carlla.)

Carlla Magic: enough
Carlla Magic: get out
Carlla Magic: for real
Carlla Magic: take a copy of our rules
Carlla Magic: and read them

Ruin Nefarious: You know what, Carlla.

Carlla Magic: leave now

Ruin Nefarious: I have a suggestion for you.

Carlla Magic: Ill count to 3
Carlla Magic: 3

Ruin Nefarious: Fuck off, that’s my suggestion. Your group is worse than Chaos.

Carlla Magic: Incredabilty unbecoming of an officer

Ruin Nefarious: You can’t even spell incredibly.Carlla Magic: I don’tCarlla Magic: lol

Ruin Nefarious: You’re not an officer. You’re a joke.

Ruin Nefarious: A joke.

Carlla Magic: Dun spell dart good
Ruin Nefarious: A worthless, wannabe.

Carlla Magic: yeah I wanna be what?
Ruin Nefarious: And with your attitude, that’s all you’ll ever be.

It even goes as far as a conversation between me and Jim Herbst concerning Blood Fist’s attempt at joining Iron Symphony, when they confused Lurdans ‘Opposing Forces’ invite with a chance at being in IS.. I quote Jim saying. ‘I don’t know but they just made themselves look like idiots.’ ‘The fun begins’ The logs are not with me, but I know someone will post em’ in comments maybe. This was all after I asked Jim about it, Jim asked Lurdan, Lurdan responded.

And even more, sadly though I cannot post them due to permission from the people talking.

Welp, you heard it..

So lets put it all together, what did Chaos lose exactly? That’s what you should be asking yourself by now, right? Lets just say Blood Fist is not as wonderful as you may make it out to be, To be honest after seeing this we can all ask ourselves how long will Bf last on morale, petty insults, ego penis and what not.. Meh.

How it all turns out:
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Well there you have it everyone, I may be a troll and all that but I never made this article to process hate or anything, I just made it to simply put out the truth. I did things I am sorry for, and I did things that may make me a bad person.

But right now, I told my remaining soldiers and new ones, I have changed myself around in being a leader and told them I would help with their aid in making Chaos better.

So all I can really say at the end of his message, is short and simple.

We are The Chaos Decretum legion of Chaos undivided, and group dedicated to war, combat, and fun. With no political drama, or drama itself.

And we are still among you.

- Dark Svenska, Dominus of the Chaos Decretum

Weapons Review – Rapture MAC-107

The Jessie War Journal
Weapons Review Department

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This review has been reposted from the old blog to serve as a part of a buyer’s guide. No changes have since been made to this weapon since its original posting. Only the technical portions of this article (spelling, grammar, ect) have been altered. The content remains the same, although better images have been included.

————————————————————————————————

===========
Overview
===========
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

Rapture MAC-107

Rapture MAC-107 with attached sound suppressor. Almost the entire weapon is sculpted.

===========
Flags
===========
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)

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

I know it’s 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.

===========
Aesthetics
===========
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 aesthetic 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. It’s 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 fairly 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 futuristic 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 usage. 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 doesn’t 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 efficient 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 a lot at the effects end is the smoke that leaves the gun upon reload. It’s interesting, something I don’t see very often, and fitting to the gun.

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

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

Directly out of the box, one gun or two, the Rapture MAC-107’s are great performers. Heavy lag and low time dilation couldn’t 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 armed myself. I frankly didn’t 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 entirely 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 florescent, 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 think it is 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 don’t 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 slightly higher idle, but I was dumbfounded by the full auto readings. Two, high rate of fire SMG’s firing fully automatic… and averaging below the median of weapons tested by the Weapons Review Department. Once again I found myself taking extra readings and having other people checking my math, but the numbers crunched correctly. The script time for full auto fire is only higher than two other guns tested prior, both assault rifles with lower rates of fire.

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

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.

Weapons can be found in the Rapture wing of Fairlight.

Weapons Review – Nortec Labs NAR74 “Vindicator”

The New Jessie War Journal
Weapons Review Department

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This review has been reposted from the old blog to serve as a part of a buyer’s guide. No changes have since been made to this weapon since its original posting. Only the technical portions of this article (spelling, grammar, ect) have been altered. The content remains the same, although better images have been included.

————————————————————————————————

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

Nortec NAR-74 "Vindicator"

Nortec NAR-74 "Vindicator"

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

===========
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)

===========
First Impressions
===========
The box is an opens weapon crate when it rezzes in front 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.

===========
Aesthetics
===========
Rezzing the Vindicator brings back a few images of the Aeko Labs BTRL-Z9. It’s 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. It’s 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 actually 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.

The script time for the Vindicator  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 everything 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 – AMBO Science Incorporated Type 05 .45 SMG

The Jessie War Journal
Weapons Review Department

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This review has been reposted from the old blog to serve as a part of a buyer’s guide. No changes have since been made to this weapon since its original posting. Only the technical portions of this article (spelling, grammar, ect) have been altered. The content remains the same, although better images have been included.

Also, please note that for the context of all reviews I look at manuals and commands from a basic perspective. I focus on using the commands and setting while in combat. When in sims such as metered RP zones, where you have time to stop and cycle through tough menu’s, the ASI Type 05 .45 SMG’s menus are simple to use. Menus in combat are not.

————————————————————————————————

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

Inspection Credits
All Dingo Nikolaidis.

ASI Type 05 .45 SMG with no attachments

ASI Type 05 .45 SMG with optional reflex sight and sound suppressor.

===========
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, I’m 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 it’s 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 can’t believe I’m firing a .45ACP round when all I hear is a tiny little pop. Even a 9×19 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 it’s 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 its 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 adjustable 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 during full auto firing on the default full auto speed is about average for the weapons reviewed by the Weapons Review Department. When you crank the rate of fire up though, you get large spikes, though with the speed the magazine is used up, it’s 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, it’s 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, it’s 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.

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

Weapons Review – AekoLabs BRTL-Z9 Assault Rifle

The Jessie War Journal
Weapons Review Department

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This review has been reposted from the old blog to serve as a part of a buyer’s guide. No changes have since been made to this weapon since its original posting. Only the technical portions of this article (spelling, grammar, ect) have been altered. The content remains the same, although better images have been included.

————————————————————————————————

===========
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.

AekoLabs BRTL-Z9 Assault Rifle

AekoLabs BRTL-Z9 Assault Rifle

===========
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 load-out, 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 lists 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 such 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 definitely 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 hiding any others.

Textures are also basic and almost bland. It seems a single metal gradient texture was used throughout and varied in darkness to show off the prim details. I can’t 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 frills, 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 efficiently 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 similar, 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 hindrance, 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 receiving end. However, the 60-round magazine was not gone as fast as I expected, but it was still quickly 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 formidable suppressive 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, being the lowest of any tested gun during full auto fire at the default settings. The five slave version set to its maximum 2000rpm fire rate generates slightly above-average script time, 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.

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.

Weapons Review – Titan Industries AK5

The Jessie War Journal
Weapons Review Department

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This review has been reposted from the old blog to serve as a part of a buyer’s guide.

Since the original review one thing has changed about the Titan Industries AK5. Price.

The price of the rifle has dropped from $1200L to its current price of $250L.  To reflect these changes, the flag rating for Value has been altered. This rifle is still the same great looking weapon as it was at the original time of reviewing and the scripts have not changed.

The new flag rating is as follows

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~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] (5)

One would normally ever think that a good looking rifle could be bought for this price, let alone a good looking rifle with a respectable scripting job and adjustable features.

The original review follows below. Only the technical portions of this article (spelling, grammar, ect) have been altered. The content remains the same, although better images have been included.

————————————————————————————————

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

Titan Industries AK5, a unique, Swedish assault rifle scripted with many adjustable features and options

Titan Industries AK5 with attached optics and sound suppressor

===========
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 due 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 skeletonized 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 unsilenced 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 didn’t 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 than 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 default 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. It’s 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.

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.

Weapons Review – ENIC Type-08M

The Jessie War Journal
Weapons Review Department

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This review has been reposted from the old blog to serve as a part of a buyer’s guide. No changes have since been made to this weapon since its original posting. Only the technical portions of this article (spelling, grammar, ect) have been altered. The content remains the same, although better images have been included.

————————————————————————————————

===========
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

ENIC 08M sporting the classic Kalashnikov look with wood furniture and a metal magazine

ENIC 08M with more modern looking synthetic furniture, BakeLite magazine, and sound suppressor

===========
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~] [~J  (3)

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. It’s 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.

===========
Aesthetics
===========
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 alike. 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 receiver 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 it’s 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 animation is good, and I am not smashing a rifle into my face.  The downs to the animations are the way they 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 supersonic 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
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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.

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Overall
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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 three and a half  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.