Arms Race Continues – Alliance Navy Developing New Weapon Systems
by Alphaville Herald on 01/12/08 at 10:21 pm
Marine mech sub-division, railguns, fleet refit could lead to more immersive combat experience
by Metallicoe Dezno
The Alliance Navy mech being developed
I was contacted today by Alliance Navy officer luca Vasilopita, who asked if i would be interested in seeing and reporting on some new AN equipment. Of course, being a gadgets and technology fanatic, I couldn’t decline his offer.
I was teleported into the AN research and development area, which many called the Motor Pool. On first glance, I could see various builds surrounding me, each very interesting and highly detailed. Here is a snippet of my chat with Officer Vasilopita;
Dezno: So Officer Vasilopita, what has the AN got in store for their members?
Vasilopita: Right, well there’s quite a big forward surge recently in recruitment. For all of the problems in the world(s) (Digital and Real), we seem to be seeing a lot of advancements here in the Alliance Navy.
Dezno: Is that an AN mech?
Vasilopita: Yes, the re-designing of the Alliance Navy’s armored projects is one of the new ‘advancements’ we’re working on to bring the AN back up to scratch with the demand for high tech gash and fluff. Things that are already in service, such as the new fatigues are available for viewing all around us. The mech is still in the development stage, however there is a working model that the creation team are fiddling with animation wise.
Dezno: What will the features of the mech be, what firepower will it have?
Vasilopita: Mostly direct fire type things such as twin linked machineguns, grenade launchers, and the odd dumbfire rocket. We’re trying to keep the ‘smart’ capabilities to a minimum on this thing for the moment. Excuse the pun with it, but we don’t want to run before we can walk.
Dezno: Will this mech create a new mechanical division for AN? Or will it be issued to the existing heavy weapons team?
Vasilopita: As a testbed, we will be creating a sub-division within the Marines. If the Section is successful, then we could see a more populated ‘Division’ for things like mech’s in the future.
Dezno: What else have you been working on?
Vasilopita: Mr. McKinley here is currently wearing the new issue Air Division uniform, complete with high detail skin suit underneath.
The new AD armour for AN
Dezno: Oh right, that looks great! Are those weapons on the floor to be issued to all enlisted personnel?
Vasilopita: When they’re eventually rolled out, they will be for heavy weapons teams within Fleet Division and Marine Division. What you see is a ‘post modernised’ version of the Browning M2 machine gun, and a little something we call the R-22 Railgun, they’re designed to be used as stationary gun emplacements for defensive situations.
A modern Browning M2 machinegun, and the R-22 Railgun
Dezno: So that gun will be rezzed then take control from an avatar?
Vasilopita: It’ll be attachment based, but only able to fire when deployed, forcing the avatar to be stationary when it needs to be fired. It’s a simple way of employing arms limitations in a group, making the immersion of a combat experience all the deeper – that’s what we hope at least!
Dezno: Oh, that’s fair. Will there be any specifically new advancements in technologies included within any new equipment by the AN?
Vasilopita: At the technical level, we hope so. Scripts for things such as the new landspeeder you can see on the rampart in front of us will bring about a new way to have physical vehicles in SL without breaching too many combat ‘regulations’.
The AN physics-enabled craft being built
Dezno: And to close, are there any more projects in development, not shown here, for perhaps other divisions?
Vasilopita: Absolutely, a prime example that would be hard to show you is the full Fleet refit currently being put underway. The full intention is to both roll out NEW ships, and upgrade the existing ones with more advanced scripts and technologies. It’s one of those pipe dreams that’s finally coming to life. There’s always been a bit of a stagnation problem with the Alliance Navy and equipment projects. This seems to be changing now that a few people have proven all it takes is a bit of elbow grease to get a project totally finished.
Dezno: May i ask, how many developers do you have in AN currently developing equipment and/or technologies to the advantage of AN and its combatants?
Vasilopita: I could only hazard a guess, but the more serious developers would probably ring in at about a dozen or so.
Dezno: And taking recruitment surges into consideration, how strong is the AN now statistics-wise?
Vasilopita: We’re just starting to see the first graduates, but at the moment we’re looking at about 26 recruits, which is steadily increasing by about half a dozen a week. I can only hope that we can match the numbers of the other groups, but with the benefit of the AN’s intense training and flair for being a bit ‘jammy’ with combat.
So, it seems like AN have some pretty exciting and effective equipment coming to AN personnel. Before I left, I seized the opportunity to ask luca about the new flight debates arising (story coming soon).
Dezno: Will AN be adopting any Air Assault/Defense changes to the upcoming debates over realistic flight patterns in aircraft?
Vasilopita: As of yet, the discussions on it have been very short lived. Although the prospect is one that the group as a whole is interested in, it’d be much more appealing than the current mouse assisted flight system. We’ve seen the dark side of that system in the past with groups such as the Vanguard zipping about in very annoying lines. Damned effective, but not very fun to fend off. Hopefully more ‘realistic’ systems would mean that Air Divisions across groups could benefit when it comes to dogfighting and so on. One can only hope at this point, but I do expect a bit more from this renaissance period within the military groups and community on the subject of aircraft.
Dezno: Thank you very much Officer Vasilopita, for showing me the new developments coming to AN soon.
So, it seems like AN are preparing to respond to the recent debates about flight patters/control too, along with other major militaries. If you would like to use some of the equipment mentioned here, or see it in action, you should visit Elshout with a gun and feel the wrath of AN!
Waaagh!
Dec 1st, 2008
Da Orks culd slawter thems!
lol
Dec 2nd, 2008
GREAT JUST WHAT SL NEEDS!
More lag weapons for griefers filled with shoddy scripts that leak memory like a pasta strainer! HOORAH! where do we sign up to be among the biggest loosers in SL! Oh Wait Gor is not accepting new members
AN Hater (Maybe Mercz)
Dec 2nd, 2008
Lawl moar stupidity from the idiots at the AN. Nobody cares about them.
Mostly uninterested
Dec 2nd, 2008
@lol: Clubs are laggier than combat stuff.
@AN Hater: Stop swinging your cock around, you’re not impressing anyone.
Emperor Norton Hears a Who?
Dec 2nd, 2008
More scripts! More Prims! More Particles! More Textures! Nothing says fun like fighting in molasses. The sim lag going red must be the Liden’s fault.
mootykips
Dec 2nd, 2008
The AN are secretly under the command of the PN. It’s their legitimate wing, in which they crash the servers and get away with it because it was “unintentional”.
THE MOAR YOU KNOW
Mrs. Ophelia Bradley
Dec 2nd, 2008
LISTEN TO US!
WE HAVE RETURNED!
Check out our blog: tsobradleys.blogspot.com
lol
Dec 2nd, 2008
AN are all fags.
IntLibber Brautigan
Dec 2nd, 2008
Good to see the AN realizing that technological advancement is the way to go rather than trying to imprison everyone in treaties written by the AN to give the AN combat advantage.
Most of the recruits, however, are from the disbanded Vanguard (hmmm why no story about that? Maybe because its a fake disbandment?) Christoph told me last year that his plan for the AN was to infiltrate his own guys into the group and destroy it from within. Seems like thats now happening. Jim, suggest you be very careful about who you let in the group, I suspect once the stressed snow-kitty gets his christmas money from mummy and daddy and granny that VG will be back and all your recruits will turn on you.
I Know you
Dec 2nd, 2008
“Jim, suggest you be very careful about who you let in the group, I suspect once the stressed snow-kitty gets his christmas money from mummy and daddy and granny that VG will be back and all your recruits will turn on you.”
@Int: Careful boy, from what I hear, you’re in need of christmas money yourself, not able to pay for all the sims you own.
Salone Runo
Dec 2nd, 2008
Put your account names.
Don’t be so willing to insult people and be enough of a pussy to not put your SL names.
One thing about SL which I bet a good amount of people don’t like, People can hide behind their game names.
But when the people are to afraid to even do that? Well shit whats that saying about you?
Anonymous
Dec 3rd, 2008
You know what’s funny about all this weaponry?
It’s trivial to just make some weapons that will kill on sight, invisible followers, etc.
IntLibber Brautigan
Dec 3rd, 2008
Nah, as Evan Reuters can attest, the issue is all about LL’s absurd and positively Orwellian billing system and its many bugs and breaks.
What does it say about LL’s confidence in their own economy when you offer them 3 million L$ and they don’t want to be paid? They are desperate for USD and are shaking down all their big estate owners for real bucks. Poor Evan Reuters took a hit for 500 bucks (second year in a row) apparently cause LL thought they could.
Not a smart move, LL, to commit fraud against a major news syndicate…. geeze one more PR disaster after another for the lab.
As for me and Christoph, he once defrauded me of a couple hundred KL$. He paid for it with loss of the sim he rented. He still uses content stolen from the project I had him on (and a warning to the public about buying a used combat system from this person). Now he’s gotten karmic justice in the form of a popular youtube video…. as Uildiar fuels up his roflcopter…. focus on the lighter, buddy.
Metallicoe Dezno
Dec 3rd, 2008
What is this suppose to mean?
”
Put your account names.
Don’t be so willing to insult people and be enough of a pussy to not put your SL names.
One thing about SL which I bet a good amount of people don’t like, People can hide behind their game names.
But when the people are to afraid to even do that? Well shit whats that saying about you?
”
You really do not make any sense.
http://www.thejessiejournal.co.cc/ < All the latest military news!
Neo Citizen
Dec 3rd, 2008
That’s one for the books – IntLibber Brautigan complaining about somebody defrauding HIM.
Salone Runo
Dec 3rd, 2008
Don’t blame me for retardation if you can’t understand a few lines of text.
SqueezeOne Pow
Dec 3rd, 2008
That mech has a purdy mouth!
MachineCode
Dec 3rd, 2008
>>It’s trivial to just make some weapons that will kill on sight, invisible followers, etc.
Two words: Base ruiners