There’s been an awful lot of misinformation in combat system communities about aubreTEC products in general and about the VX-7 Scorpions specifically.  I thought I’d take a few moments to dispel a few simple myths about aubreTEC products in general and about how the VX-7 Scorpions work in combat systems.

Myth: All aubreTEC products are malicious in nature.
Truth:  This is patently untrue.  In fact, of the 80-something products we currently have on the market, only a handful of them have attacks of any kind, and of those, we have no attacks that circumvent the Second Life TOS.  The psiTEC and invinciBOT were designed for places like Rausch, where push and LLCS (normal damage) attacks are the norm.  We feature no spammers, no sound followers, nothing of that nature.

Myth: aubreTEC weapons are designed to help you cheat in roleplaying settings.
Truth: This simply isn’t the case.  Sensor-based aubreTEC weapons like psiTEC and the old Black Widows weren’t designed at all for roleplay, and in fact, don’t really help you in RP settings at all.  Most RP systems use collisions above a certain speed to detect bullet hits; while psiTEC and the BWs do have one-hit kills, none of them even work in RP. Our shield-through kill attacks use non-physical attacks which don’t even register hit points in DCS, CCS, etc. and are pretty well useless in RP.  Again, they weren’t designed for RP at all, unlike the new VX-7 Scorpions.

Myth: The VX-7 Scorpions use sensor-based attacks, which are illegal in RP.
Truth: The VX-7s have a CS mode, which removes all sensor-based attacks from the menu.  In truth, these sensor-based tracking rounds wouldn’t work in RP anyway, for the reasons listed above.  All of the VX-7’s CS-enabled rounds are completely dumbfire, and collide just like any other bullet.

Myth: The VX-7 Scorpions have unlimited ammo.
Truth: Again, we have the CS mode, which has enforced and configurable ammo limitations to fit your RP.  After your ammo runs out, you’re required to reload your weapon with a set waiting period, in keeping with RP rules.  While the maximum number of rounds per clip is 30, this number can be adjusted via the configuration notecard, so players can drop it down to 5, 10, 15 rounds per clip - whatever fits the rules of the RP community you frequent.

Myth: aubreTEC products have no respect for RP rules.
Truth: Actually, we have tremendous respect for RP rules, when players are using our weapons in an RP setting.  We recognize that it’s necessary for roleplay admins to enforce reasonable restrictions on weapons; otherwise, the whole point of RP combat goes out the window.  That’s why we put in specific measures in our VX-7s to help admins.  Any admin can click another player’s VX-7 pistol and instantly get information on that player’s settings for the guns, to ensure they’re in keeping with RP rules.  Additionally, we have servers in beta that force all CS-enabled aubreTEC weapons to conform to the sim’s rules.  Again, it’s important to understand that previous products were never designed for roleplay; while it’s reasonable that these weapons be restricted, any weapon we advertise as being compatible with RP rules is specifically designed to be used responsibly in RP settings.

Myth: aubreTEC weapons are summarily banned in all RP communities.
Truth: The fact of the matter is that any admin that summarily bans aubreTEC weapons is misled.  If you’re participating in an RP that bans any creator across the board, without any consideration for the not-so-subtle differences from one weapon to the next, you should probably find a new RP, one that encourages innovation rather than blindly restricting their content to a handful of creator friends.

We’re happy to chat with any concerned RP admin about our new line of CS-enabled products, to alleviate any fears about using them in RP settings, and if necessary to institute new features/restrictions to help any of our CS-enabled weapons conform to RP rules.  Any admin serious about providing a challenging and interesting RP community for their players should have no problem taking a few moments to send us an IM or email.