M is for Myg

Welcome to the M is for Myg/Wrath Paine vs. Second Life weapons test, a new joint-feature of both blogs. (Here’s the permalink to Wrath’s review.) Whether you’re itching for the perfect roleplay Glock, the finest in damage capable katana, or something really nasty to kick griefer ass, we hope to give the discerning avatar the benefit of a little research before setting off to purchase that new gun, blade, or HUD.

For each test, one blog will take the offensive perspective, the other the defensive. This week, Wrath lost the vicious rock, paper, scissors match (can we get that for SL? Please, some savvy scripter…) and had to play catcher. Actually, he lost because he volunteered me for Vint’s mantourage without asking. Not that I’m actually complaining, mind you.

Here we are at the bonfire party in Wrath’s backyard. This pic is taken just after the completion of the weapons test (note shirtless triumphant male behavior) and just before we had wild two-on-one sex with an extremely hawt elf who couldn’t keep her clothes on. Good thing she was there to cover any homoeroticism. Read on for the actual useful information about one of the ultimate orbit weapons, The Fixer. Sorry folks, no more sex in this post, just violence.

This week we focus on The Fixer, an evil little tool from Armory Overstock (Shepherd, 102, 19, 107), carriers of one of Second Life’s widest selections of scripted weapons. The Fixer is a simple and effective orbiter. We were drawn to it because Jacqueline from Armory Overstock said that its attacks will not register on the push/bumps log of the target avatar.

It’s advertised as a “push buster” so of course we tested it on push-restricted land. According to the notecard, it doesn’t work as well on push-enabled land. Go figure. The Fixer is a specific tool for specific jobs.

First off, this is exceedingly simple to use. You just wear it and then say “orbit {avatar name}” and bye bye target. Wrath was pushed more than two billion meters straight up and had to relog to get out of the orbit bubble. You read that right: two billion meters. You can even abbreviate the av’s first name and it will work–just make sure there aren’t two avs with similar names or it may backfire, i.e. “orbit Wra” when you’re standing near Wrath and Wraith.

That’s Wrath (above), moments before flying billions of meters into space without protective gear.

Pros: The simplicity and the fact that pushes/bumps aren’t registered, and the fact that it works on push-restricted land. I’m not advocating anything against the TOS, but I do love a good hack. It does not show on your avatar (except as a mouth attachment when view invisible is enabled), so you can wear it in polite company. There are also, thankfully, no noticeable lag or movement problems. The orbit bubble will stay with a seated av until the av stands, whereupon the orbiting commences. Note gray orbit bubble below:

Cons: Despite the fact that pushes and bumps don’t register, it’s not a discreet weapon. A gray orbit bubble rezzes around the target. Furthermore, it doesn’t work on a silent channel. You have to be within chat range to use and the target av will see/hear the orbit command.

Compare this to the orbiter on the Omicron weapons system, which does not show an orbit bubble and is completely HUD controlled–no chat command–but which does show up on the pushes/bumps list and you have a perfect six-of-one, half-a-dozen-of-the-other situation. Pricewise, The Fixer is $975, exactly half of the cost of the Omicron. While the Omicron handles a plethora of security needs, The Fixer only does one thing. I’d say this orbiter cuts a bit deep into the wallet. But if it had a channel command line and an invisible bubble, I’d say it was a total steal.

In terms of bugs, it has neither the lag and reset trouble I’ve found with the Omicron, nor the cage-before-orbit necessity of Yorick’s Multifool. It did miss once, rezzing an orbit bubble around empty space and leaving me vulnerable to Wrath’s counterattack, and it pushed me every time I used it–about ten meters–visible to Wrath and Sable (who was along to provide third-person perspective).

Verdict: A somewhat expensive but effective and powerful orbiter, with some stealth capability in the hands of a savvy user.

The Fixer – push-restriction busting no push/bump registering orbiter
Price: L$975
Armory Overstock
Disclosures: Seen in world: Yes | Review copy: No | Friends List: No

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 17th, 2007 at 7:00 am and is filed under Burgess, Second Life, Weapons.