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.
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Overview
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Weapon: Rapture MAC-107
Price: $1250L
Prim Count: 34 Per Gun
The Rapture MAC-107
–Manual Credits–
N/A
Inspection Credits
Build: Niiya Narayan
Scripts: Niiya Narayan
Animations: Niiya Narayan
Textures: Niiya Narayan
Sounds: Niiya Narayan
Rapture MAC-107
Rapture MAC-107 with attached sound suppressor. Almost the entire weapon is sculpted.
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Flags
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This is what a perfect 5 Flags looks like [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~]
Performance: [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] (5.0)
Build: [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JW (4.5)
Texture: [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JW (4.5)
Animations: [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JW (3.5)
Sounds: [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JW (4.5)
Ease of Use: [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JW (3.5)
Value: [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] [~JWJ~] (4.0)
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First Impressions
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The futuristic crate you rez before you hints as much as it can to the contents inside. Clean. Simple. Detailed. Elegant.
The 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.
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Aesthetics
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I had seen Rapture weapons in the field before, so I was expecting to see a set of full custom sculpts with textures and well placed 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.
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Performance
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Directly out of the box, one gun or two, the Rapture MAC-107’s are great performers. Heavy lag and low time 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.
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Overall
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The Rapture MAC-107’s are truly a piece of work. Full custom everything and full of a fair amount of options, as well as excellent performance. Performance is superb, with its script time for two guns lower than some single assault rifles. Beyond script time, all other aspects of the gun work flawlessly together to earn this pair a 5 flag rating. Build and textures complement each other perfectly. All the smooth sides of the build have equally smooth textures to fit the weapon. There are a few odd spots here and there, but otherwise both are great and each warrant a near perfect 4.5 flags. Animations are basic and simple, but fit the gun well and earn 3.5 flags. The only odd animation is the reload, which looks odd when done with the duals. Sounds are clear crisp and sharp as they should be. It sounds a bit too quiet for a .45ACP weapon and there is no silencer on/off sound, but the quality of the others make up for it to keep its 4.5 flags well deserved. Ease of use is still above average with 3.5 flags, but suffers slightly by the nearly exclusive use of touch menu’s and high channel listeners. However, the redeeming optional combo keys and included gestures make things a bit easier.
Value is a really tough decision on this weapon set. At $1250L the MAC-107’s are the second most expensive weapons I have reviewed to date, but are exceptional performers with various options. As I am reviewing from the New Jessie standpoint however, I have to mark it a tad lower on value simply because of price. But even so, $1250L for such exceptional performers with the options they have warrants a 4 flags.
In the end, if modern style weapons don’t do it for you and you want something original, or if you just want some high performance weapons with a fair amount of options, assuming you have the Lindens to spend, you will get your money’s worth, and you will not be disappointed by the Rapture MAC-107’s.
Weapons can be found in the Rapture wing of Fairlight.
