Force Majeure

Until the I get around to setting up an internet connection, I am held to using an internet cafe, so I cannot get onto Secondlife. I promise to get online sometime between now and May, which is when I suspect I am going to be further deployed. Can’t say where I am, where I am going, etc.

 

In the past two months life has been like going to a themepark on a tight schedule and going on all the rides, so I have been busily waiting. In the meantime, I have written out a collapsible organizational structure for a military group which I plan to head when I get back, as well as a partial GOPH (General Operating Procedure Handbook) for future use.  Chain of command will be a triple head, with a Full commadant, and two vice commadants. A full commandant will be the chief of force operations, the other two hold the positions of Chief of Enlisted Operations, and Chief of Officer Operations, respectively. Each VC would be assigned other duties, such as legal, training, R&D, etc, and would report the the Full Commandant only as needed. Under the Commandants would be a Director of Ground Operations(General), and a Director of Air Operations (Admiral), and a Director of Force Education and Training (Either Admiral, General, or other high officer). These heads would be the only static portions of the main chain of command. From there down, positions are collapsible.

I plan to also purchase a sim for FM once I advance the group that far. Until it breaks the initial research and development stages, I don’t believe I am going to be leaving the merczateers.

Because of abrasive and unduly offensive IMs from the Alliance Navy when I wished them well before I left, I see no reason to hold them, as a whole, in any positive regard. There are a few members who still hold my respect. You know who you are. For those who wished me a horrible life (to say the least for some…), I only wish I had seen this while I was in the Alliance Navy so I could have taken care of it myself.

I will be aligning the FM with the Iron Symphony side of the field because of above reasons. I don’t see a reason to abandon the mercz and declare neutrality, and I especially don’t wish to side with the AN. Perhaps Sparta will join my cause, perhaps not, it is up to their leader, Bruno Ziskey, to decide, if he/they are still around, seeing as I cannot find the sparta website anymore…

I will prolly follow this article up more in depth later.

 

Comment as you like, just keep it positive.

This might flip your couch.

Alright, folks. My computer problem is taking a little longer than I thought it would, mostly due to issues of this one beautiful woman stealing my money. That is all that needs to be said about my personal life.

In any case, FM on hold. However, that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been any work put into it on my part.

The GOPH has been finished but not typed out into notecard form, base designs, right on down to the street names and how many shower heads in the sim, have been finalized. Weapon designs have been drawn out, and a code for scripts has been rolled out. Last time I checked, I also have a scriptor on standby. Just need some people to help do graphics, and then we can have a badass logo to hold out on high. I have it drawn up, but I need it detailed. Same goes for the rough draft version of the standard infantry armor I have in my inventory. Anyone who knows me knows that I can’t texture for shit. …but I can if I really have to. Still sorting out options for the chain of command as well.

As for the promise for going “in depth” later, the FM is being designed to work as a decisive force on the battlefield, be it a single spatial legionaire or a squad of ROD troopers (cool names for each type of infantry, spatial legionaires being the heavy assault, an emphasis on detection tech, and Rapid Orbital Deployment(ROD) troopers being force recon, smaller profiles, optical countermeasures; it is all very scifi). Spatial legionaires would deploy sim-wide radar, which would replace the standard Trooper radars and allow for making hud waypoints, identify targets at range, and call for precision orbital strikes for those pesky hardened bunkers raining fire onto your position. Of course, to have an orbital strike, there has to be a suitable fleet vessel active in the area. But that is a whole other story; might hit it up further down the line. Anyway, let’s talk about the HUD radar. It is a new system with based on azimuth ranging, and would allow for detection and targeting of hostile troops faster than ever. This is not restricted to just infantry, either. Once a spatial legionaire deploys a surveillance module, all FM radars would go from active mode to passive, allowing each trooper to aquire and track all targets inside the sim with minimal lag. Wapoints could be entered by commanders while in passive mode, or each trooper could designate their own waypoints in active mode. I have been thinking alot about how to maximize troop effectiveness on the field, and am toying with several fragmentation grenade ideas, as well as dampening field ideas for reducing hostile fire inbound. Just like foam grenades, but more walk-through-able. Weapons are being designed to have minimal features, just the necessary velocity adjustments, round counter, and reload. Also working on a pseudo-random spread feature based on pre-vectored ammunition in a list. So, spread might be slightly predictable, but only after hundreds of rounds downrange. Also, Spatial Legionaires would have the option to recieve training in heavy weapons once they hit a certain rank, which means access to the FM’s antivehicular beam rifle. Which would play hell on hostile aircraft that could be possibly trying to negotiate the crowded spacings between buildings. Multiple Legionaires would certainly lock down the airspace if fire were concentrated correctly. This would also work against hostile ground forces, though the beam would be easily dodgeable by jump-friendly infantry.

Next topic is the division-specific armor styles and equipment.  The ground forces would have, once they hit NCO rank, a requirment to remain in the FM, two armor styles and therefore infantry jobs to choose from. Either A) Be a spatial Legionaire, or B) Be a ROD trooper. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Spatial legionaires would be geared toward heavy assault; they would be armed with either a beam rifle, HMG, or standard issue assault rifle, and be outfitted with an advanced radar suite, a restricted array of gadgets, and the heaviest armor on the field. ROD Troopers would essentially be a fleet marine, in the case that they would field much, much lighter armor, and handle more exotic weaponry, like the Man-Portable Ion Blaster(Essentially a shotgun with a limited explosive charge), or a drone deployment system(Drones would deploy in a straight path from the launcher until a target comes into range. Drone would engage until it is too severely damaged, out of ammo, or cannot locate a suitable target after a certain time limit), in addition to a heavier sidearm. ROD troopers would have advanced optical countermeasures, mines, and high-density plasmite grenades, which would deploy over time, unlike the Legionaire’s singularity grenades, which kill everything in range for 1 second, then be rendered inert. ROD troopers would be deployable via drop pods launched from either ground-based facilities or a suitable fleet craft. Fleet and Aerial forces would be outfited in advanced envirosuits, geared more toward comfort and vacuum survival than combat. Both Fleet and Aerial would have similar armor, with variations between the two basing mostly on role. Both would field an extendable pistol/SMG with a small clip, and a form of singularity grenade launcher, which would detonate the grenade on proximity to an enemy, making it less effective for CQB or high-lag environments. A variation the Fleet role would be the ROD-S Troopers, which would be scaled-down ROD troopers selected from experienced fleet members. They would be given a lighter version of the standard ROD trooper armor set, and would not be issued as much ground-based gear. Overall, there would be 3 master armor sets, and 2 variations of the ROD and Fleet/Aerial armors.

So far, this has made me very excited for completion of the FM armor and weapons.

The FM will go public once designs for the armor, weapons, scripts, and other crucial tech have been finalized and implemented, taking into account I have sufficient facilities to get online. If anyone wants to help me out, send an email to architect.jarrico@gmail.com. All contributions will be duly appreciated.

On a side note, I have rethought relations with other groups. I am going to keep the FM neutral as long as possible with all factions.

 

Thanks for caring.

-Architect “the toaster” Jarrico