Imperial Russia RP in Second Life

I recently heard about a region in Second Life made for a historical roleplay: The Romanov Imperial Court of Russia.

The RP takes place in 1776. Russia is ruled by Ekaterina II, better known as Catherine the Great, as well as the Russian nobility. In St. Petersburg, court intrigue abounds. In the southern part of the Empire, a rebellion is brewing. Between them and the capital, the army marches to meet them. And everywhere, the peasants somehow manage to eke out a living despite everything against them.

The RP covers 11 sims. SL Newspaper came in contact with one of the players, ThomasK Andel, whom told us that the group had over 200 members, of whom about a hundred were active participants in the roleplay. Players could take on multiple characters, the Thomas saying he himself played both a nobleman and one of the rebels. Court intrigue takes up much of the roleplaying, but there was plenty of action with the Empire having to deal with a rebellion, as well as people going about their lives. There were also a number of players playing the roles of doctors and their aides.

The region was described as having it’s own economy, with it’s own RP currency technically apart from the Linden, players able to buy period clothing and personal weapons at shops. But some effort (and presumably Lindens) are needed to maintain one’s rank in the RP.

One has to join the RP group to move onto the place freely. For those who don’t, there are red barriers around places, including around the main entrance, though some can be gotten around. Near a ship are a few free peasant outfits, one for men, two for women.

There is no official roleplaying going on for now. The region is still under construction. Some places are largely finished, others are still being worked on. Thomas explained among those working on the builds were Second Life residents living in Russian in real life. He went on to say there would be some activity soon.

The official entrance to the region is at the Peterhof sim at (167, 65, 28).

“God Save the Tsaritsa”

Bixyl Shuftan

moreless

The Naturo Combat System, Version 2

To those familiar with the Naturo roleplay area, there is a new combat system in development: the Naturo Combat System version 2, or NCS2.

“Our combat system is known as the NCS2, reason being the Naturo community started with the first NCS,” Bioblaze Payne, one of the design team, told me, “The creator was banned by Linden Labs, so he lost his HUD along with much more. We restarted the project, for NCS2, to be a revamp and revision of the first system. It looks nothing like the first system, in both look and internal design.”

“We have strictly followed the manga and Anime down to the T. We have designed our internal code just for that purpose. So as our Jutsus, items, and fan base grows, so does the HUD. We built in several modules ... to incorporate this way of thinking into the items, terminals, and other things we created for this combat system. As well as our way of building our sim. ... We have completely covered a good number of the clans and we plan to do so with every single one. We have taken baby steps in that reguard, the popular ones to the least, each having the same care and consideration, so not to allow anyone to be over-powered. First clans we plan to release, Uchiha, Hyuuga, Kaguya, and Senju, followed by three more every month until all the clans are fixed.”

“One of our major things is inter-sim missions ... where other sims can be sponsored by our combat system to hold additional missions and quests. For instance, you may get a quest from Hidden Sound to kill this person in Hidden Cloud. Everything is interlaced in that aspect.”

Bioblaze suggested begining fighters, “Practice on Taijutsu dummies and stay within training areas. People will always want to fight, but working on your character is the best way to go. Always remember to enhance your Taijutsu a little first. It’s going to do a lot of damage and not take a lot of Chakara. Then go for your first and secondary elements. If you’re worried about Genjutsu, stay within the limit, always add at least 1-2 points per level to it. It helps when someone hits you to break your Genjutsu. Not only that, it shortens the time that the Genjutsu will effect you.”

“New users should stay close to the mission areas. The PvP areas such as the Forest of Death, are rather big and people sit there looking for fights. If you want to stand a chance, focus on your main element, and hope they don’t have the same element as you. ... everyone of course levels their character in different manners. If you get someone with the same element as you, depending on his level or his element stat, he may have more of a resistance than you do. Where your normal attack would do 150 damage, with that person it may do 70, depending on how much of the same element you have.”

As one’s character gains experience, “Not only does your level increase, but you gain more stat points. The more stat points you get, the more you can up your character’s level and such. Not to mention you’ll gain more access to missions and specialized Jutsu. ... Focus on your way of fighting. No one’s way is the right way or the wrong way. It all depends on the character. Really, it does.” Bioblaze explained they made an effort to make the combat system easy to use.

The NCS2 comes with three attachments, which are simply worn, a pouch, a HUD, and a headband or armband, depending on what you choose when you first put them on and are asked which you prefer plus some other questions for your character in the RP. There are also a few combat gestures included (more given as you progress in the game). The main HUD shows how much health and Chakra you have (a previous version had two bars over your avatar for all to see). To see whom else has the NCS2, press the “check” button. Pressing the pouch on the HUD will open it, as well as triggering an animation to make the avatar appear to be reaching inside the pouch attachment he’s wearing. The pouch itself holds a variety of ninja weapons from smoke bombs to cover a retreat, to throwable knives, to paper-bombs, to caltrops to cover a retreat.

Activating and playing the NCS gestures will activate jutsus, which use up an amount of chakra, but will damage an opponent if you hit him/her. One can also do physical attacks, “Holding down your left mouse button gives you the ability to go into taijutsu mode. Using your arrow keys, you can perform a number of attacks. Pressing your back button with the mouse button still held down is your block feature. If you hold down your mouse button and then hold down shift hitting either the left or the right key, you do a special attack.”

Bioblaze is working with a team in developing the NCS2. Among them, Puppet Tatsu. Kegan Loon also worked with him, though concentrated on designing the sim their group is in: Kumogakure. The reason they chose that name was that it was the village described the least in the Naturo stories, so they felt they had more leeway and room in what they could do with their designs and builds there. They also started work on some “Official Training Grounds” in another sim (at the time of this article were mostly complete).

Kumogakure, the Hidden Cloud Villiage, is at the Kumogakure sim (129, 216, 148). One can click a box near the entrance to request a copy of the NCS2 from a staff member. There is also, a "Release Group" invitation box near the box to get the HUD, the release group has the most update information anywhere on SL about the combat system, from weapons to newest updates. As of the printing of this article, the next beta version should be available in a few days. Bioblaze says they will not be charging Lindens for the NCS's final version.

If you’re a Naturo fan, or a fan of manga in general or combat games, the NCS2 is definitely worth taking a look at.

Bixyl Shuftan

moreless