Six Years: A Look at the Past

[Tsume Xiao]

As of today, I have been with the Ordo in its forms for six years. Makes me feel proud to have withstood the test of time. It also makes me feel old and wanting to make a walker out of the old Schola M16's.

However, the most important thing I can do is to share some of what I have observed and learned over the past years, especially in this time of people my age retiring and some general unrest in the community. This isn't the first time people have claimed the sky is falling, and it won't be the last. Sit tight, shoot some bitches, have fun, and while you are at it grab a beer.

So what have I seen and learned through all this? Well let's start a list...

---Pre Ordo Era---

0. My original account name was "Squee Xiao". It lasted less than 15 minutes before I realized "Wow this is a pretty stupid name to have people call me on an MMO.". The name was from a forum name I used on the Red vs Blue forums. Karl brought me into Second Life after I became curious of where the pictures of his avatar (a white snow leopard on the edge of a hot tub) that were posted on his profile were from.

Squee is the name of a character in two of my favorite graphic novels written by Jhonen Vasquez.

1. The AN2. Read your handbook for more Information.

2. Carnage Island. Physics based combat HUD island. Think New Jessie, but with HUD's.

3. The MDF. Not particle board, but a rather useless and underhanded military. I was in that for less than 6 hours before Aryte "recruited" me.

4. Novus Ordo Imperialis. In case you can't tell by the name, this was the precursor to Ordo Imperialis. We spent our days ins a sim called Macaroth. It was the first imperial city and it was mostly the same for its entire existence, although it did change to the giant snow fortress towards the end. Training was three phases and done with rifles that were larger than you were. Aryte had an "office" on the top of the tallest tower, and by office, I mean a desk with a door. You could go around the door, sure, but you knocked anyways. Back then we had this strange system of "Legions" instead of divisions, and our ranks were worn as floating text because SL groups only had three titles. Names like Zeal Zenith, Redemption Islander, Leet Seattle, and Jeremy Duport were in the group. Our spawn was a small dock at the bottom of a ramp and we posted watches to notify the group if hostiles came in.

5. Luskwood made the best looking furry avatars. :v

6. Mainland sim military bases. Some of these were just "outposts" while others were half sim bases. They were laggy and not very efficient.

5. Prim armor and SL shine were the standards. We looked like walking trashcans and had one of the better sets. Our guns were covered with shiny.

6. Sirlor Stonecutter scripts were the cutting edge. Then Timmahy came along and whiped him from the group. Our weapons ranged from the blocky VAR (Vindicator Assault Rifle) and the elite KVR (Keno something Rifle) sniper rifle. We had a small pistol and eventually brought out the "big guns": the JAS-2 shotguns and the FA-6 which became the scourge of the SLMC at the time (often reffered to by the enemies as "Lag in a can"). Crazy high rate of fire for the time and it shat out prim casings all the while.

7. Operation Rosethorn. 10/07/2006

7. NOI closing for various reasons. During the time it was closed I joined a silly group called "Corsair" that was alternate history WW1/WW2 era themed. We mostly harassed Mercz for the short time it existed. After that, I joined AN for a month to do silly spy things. At the end, I organized several small militaries into a large raid. It was fun and somewhat lulzy.

The formation of TItan Industries. Leading the way in modernsolutions it all started with a not-at-all -correct MTAR promotional rifle, Sig 552, top of the line Beretta M92, And big blocky prim bolters.

---Ordo Era---

0. Black November. I was so Ffffing happy to be back in an Ordo uniform.

1. We started with a mostly completed sim and using a rescripted VAR for out standard issue rifle. Astra got an MP5K (that did initially have an aim assist feature. Whoops), and then Terra eventually got the totally over-powered M4A1 AXE-LM. The FA-6 was replaced with an overheat-based Minigun and our service pistol was a USP40. The USP and M4A1 shared an ammo counter HUD.

2. Every idiot trying to start a military and fight us. The Ordo rose to power and eventually rivaled the two longstanding "superpowers" of AN and Mercz.

3. Praeda. The top of plane technology for years.

4. More simbulds than you can shake a stick at. Good god we could not stick with one layout for very long. I can't even name all of them.

Port Malleus, Imperial City 1, "College Campus", Church Ruins, Snow Fortress, Volcano Trench Sim, Corner Fortress. Corner Fortress, Snow Edition, Attempted Niiya Future City, Keno Imperial City, Keno Imperial City Ruins, Niiya/Nikki Modern City... and now Disembodied City! As we moved on we kept builds longer and longer.

5. The days of Multi-sim combat . If you had two sims you were a badass. Who cares if transitions were laggy. It was so cool! OMG BEST THING EVER.

6. Fleet Ships! 7 node non-physical movement. The Eternity was a flying refrigerator with a shitload of weapons.

7. Emma "Nuke 'em All" Roy. Leet Seattle rides again.

8. Artemis sim defense satellite. See Above.

9. Home point setting groups revolutionized combat as the SLMC knew it. Lag dropped significantly because people weren't constantly entering.

10. New Jessie.

11. Tsume starts scripting.

12. The first set or Armor for the Ordo. It was a giant bread box that took three people to man and was jittery as Ffff. Good luck hitting anything as the gunner relied on the driver's rotation to steer.

13. The end of multi-sim combat. This shit is laggy and not worth the effort. :/

14. Mercury begins.

15. Sculpties come and REVOLUTIONIZE EVERYTHING OMG.

16. Tsume grows tired of this list format.

Anyways, I have seen militaries rise and fall, sims open and close, and powerhouses become laughing stocks. Mercz, AN, Vanguard, MDF, Kratus, 2142, 10th Mountain, Ascendant Initiative, Black Mamba, Blood Fist, Remnants of the Broken Cross, Chtonic Syndicate, Desert Storm Armada, Dog Soldiers, Dutch Marine Corps, Echelon Union, Guerilla Rebels, Imperial Japanese Army, IS Tigerclaw, Renagade, Silverhawks, SLAD, SPecial Forces, Sturm Korps, Tercio Madrid, Valor, Vanguard Vox Aeon, Some british Military I cant remember, 39th, Black Talon, Chaos, New Rome, Novus Millitia, Nythos, Synteka, Tetra Combine, Phoenix Embers, Regius Inquisition, Sparta, CSL, Militant Collective, Erebus, ASI, ISA, X-Corps, BSM, Remnant, CATI, CDF, the other big Brazilian military I can't remember but they had a flag at the top of a spire and it was stupid, Meggido, the 8 militaries Leia Mercy tried to run, and all the other more current groups I don't feel like mentioning.

I have seen the Praetorian guard change people and change modes of operation. I have seen guards disgrace themselves and others go down as some of the best damn things to happen to Ordo.

Warrant officer ranks. Navis. Navis being merged with Astra. Demo Armor, Niiya Armor, Disembodied Armor. The era of "LOL I R SPYING ON YOU", Frumentarri, The Vae Victus, Drop pods, Parachutes, Colonel Gunau "The Sodomizer" Sodwind, Cohorts, Cheeso "I Can Put A Nuke In That" Slad-however the Ffff you spelled his name, Self-replicating Keno prims.

Those we'd like to possibly forget: Vallen Murdock (keep him away from your horses), Dagger Exonar (Keep him away from, pretty much everything), Sera Otoro (keep him away from your everything, but especially your feet), Corsi Mousehold (Keep it away from everything, especially your everything). I could name a few more, but they weren't as bad.

Those we wish had never left: Xang Xiao, Tiridates, and the newer people of course.

Think Heather was scary? I have two words for you: Kitsy Bunnyhug. Don't let the last name fool you, she was scary.

Think Christoph was the original Snow Cat? Agares was even bigger and actually scary.

Think Ethan won't stop with bad jokes now? Between his laugh, Nanou Jokes, and shouting "BIG SNOWCAT TAIL" it was hard to get him to shut up sometimes.

We lost people to military deployments, to having kids, to losing power, to hurricanes, to "I'm tired of this game".

We started training, more training, even more training, and then trained some more. In that time our training rifle went from the VAR to and M16, to a Mac-10 to some other crazy shit, to the FW-900K Mk.1 to the FW-900K Mk.2. (Mk.2 is best pony).

Hell I even remember when I remembered where I was going with this post. Ffff.

In a nutshell.

Ordo is, always has been, and always will be, what YOU make of it. If you want something, work for it. If it doesn't exist, plan it and try to get it made. If you want to rank up, take your exams and be a prevalent face. Be proactive, be insightful, be productive. Ordo is not made up of its leader and a bunch of sheep who stand around to earn brownie points. If you think we are "doomed" then you should go to your local greenhouse and learn about plants. Our roots are deep; it is going to take more than a little storm to kill us off.

[Dascede]

Ohhh god Kitsy.. Heather is like cane-sugared honey compared to Kitsy.

I remember first coming to the Ordo when it was the volcano and church ruins, when the Vae Victus was overhead and on Sundays, we'd sometimes have parachuting events from it. Fermi Torok dragged me into the Ordo. Man, I was so scared. The group looked really serious and I thought I could never handle all the rules. I remember part of my Schola being taught by Diablos Korobase (another one of those folks we're glad to see gone forever). For the longest time, I had a terrible PC and couldn't fight hardly at all. I'm still a bit subpar when it comes to fighting, but everything renders like it should now and I am not blind.

I remember the first time I was around for a merit-worthy operation.. Stalwart. I had been dragged along against my will to a family get-together, and only got home in time to defend the base as part of it. I missed out on everything else, and I was pissed.

I really miss the mechs. I still have my Aggressor (Sera made), and i can rez it but I'm not authed to wear it because I went inactive and was removed from Antesignani at one point.

We really have come a long way.

Thanks for sharing the memories and advice!

[Krow Ames]

At some point in there, I fought a dragon.

[George Reisman]

Are you sure you included EVERYTHING, Tsume?

[Ron Bleac]

I am not sure why people call Kitsy scary.

[George Reisman]

I don't understand how people on the internet can be intimidated whatsoever by another person on the internet.

[Inoue Katsu]

Haha Kitsy isn't scary :P Just scary for those who broke the rules :-)

I got chased out of SWG by SOE with their 'NGE' and needed somewhere else to hang out :-) got shot by the AN 30 minutes after my first logging in to SL because I landed on their Tethys airfield with a friend, then another friend was like 'hey you should join this AN2 thing that I'm in' and I've been around since then.

I remember we bought our own guns before the VAR, you only got armor if you were in a certain group if I recall correctly..

Whats missing is Fega's mamba / raptor that dominated the sky and ground.

That used an e-mail server for authentication and that frustrated people so often I made a web based version, then at some point Steff (only old people know that name :P) was like 'it would be nice if we could see who was on sim' and then Mercury was born pretty much.

This was somewhere in 2007, exact date is unknown but I believe it was somewhere in the 2nd half.

It was after we moved from Venuma to Macaroth.

Being European I spent a lot of time guarding the sim on my own or with the occasional sleep deprived member against griefers and the occasional straggler, also finding Aryte and most of the officer staff scary..

Victory was achieved by keeping the other people out of your sim so spawn camping was a regular practice.

SLMC was pretty much a semi organized group of griefers back then when you think about it :-)

[Kristian]

SLMC was pretty much a semi organized group of griefers back then when you think about it :-)

Bullshit, fighting with goto:cams, infinite grenades, grapple hooks, a plane that used two flak cannons as main weapon and could turn invisible were all perfectly legit.

It's nice to see a summary of our history. I am sure everyone will make a different one and highlight different aspects of our history. It's simply not possible to include everything.

[Loki Cramer]

I went rogue at some point in there. I think it was late 2007

[Rei Kuhr]

Joseph Spearmann shouting from a Praeda. Not that we could see him with the glare from his bald head.

Emma Roy accidentally nuking Titan because Grey Nolder put an invisible particle emitter in a smoke stack for the smoke effect, thus causing the silo nuke to detonate about 12 inches from it's launcher.

Cheeso's MANY friendly fire "accidents".

Keno's flying doors.

Me and Tatha having a five hour long musket duel around Steff while she was building the Nex-class fleet ship while using nuclear missiles as cover.

All the times people hit F2 instead of F12. Especially during meetings.

Watching Sparta come to raid Titan when we had 3 people on sim at 2 in the morning. Watching our numbers go to 32 before they finished teleporting.

Hitting hostile militaries with enough people to fill their sim up to the point that their own members couldn't reinforce.

Agares as an E-2.

Loki Cramer as an O-2 (What is now O-4).

Gunau MotherFfffing Sodwind.

[Krow Ames]

You guys tell them about that dragon I fought.

[Tsume Xiao]

Are you sure you included EVERYTHING, Tsume?

No. I missed a lot of people and events. :(

[Krow Ames]

You guys tell them about that dragon I fought.

No. I missed a lot of people and events. :(

[George Reisman]

I'M SORRY, Krow. Maybe some other day.

[SalemAdams Wobbit]

You do realize that I may be interviewing you for a speech that I -will- now have to give for my Computer Ethics class (Trust me, it's more fun and psychologically deep than you think).

[Aryte]

In a nutshell.

Ordo is, always has been, and always will be, what YOU make of it. If you want something, work for it. If it doesn't exist, plan it and try to get it made. If you want to rank up, take your exams and be a prevalent face. Be proactive, be insightful, be productive. Ordo is not made up of its leader and a bunch of sheep who stand around to earn brownie points. If you think we are "doomed" then you should go to your local greenhouse and learn about plants. Our roots are deep; it is going to take more than a little storm to kill us off.

Also wtf. When did you fight a dragon?

[Inoue Katsu]

[George Reisman]

All it takes to uproot a tree with a large root system is a good rainfall that softens the earth, then a good gust of wind.

[Nightfall Foxclaw]

I got along well with kitsy. Still do. :)

[Krow Ames]

I fight dragons all the time lol

[Xoza]

I fight dragons all the time lol

==== ====

Arokh vs Krow

dun dun duuuuuun

[Nightfall Foxclaw]

Lol I remember a bridge that collapsed that lead to a tunnel that would give enemies a little hope and then fill up with lava. It was pretty win.

[Inoue Katsu]

I remember iron man showing up and running straight into there ..

I also remember Diablos insulting his commander on the whatever flavour treaty group we had back then .. I still wish I had a recording of our vent when that happened, it was brilliant... this 2 second silence when everyone was re-reading what he actually said and then the whole channel erupting.

Too many brilliant moments with Keno too, quite often Aryte would log in and there'd be this huge robot / structure sitting somewhere in the sim that he built while all the US people were sleeping.

Then there was Keno's dad .. :]

[Kristian]

This : http://alphavilleherald.com/2007/06/alliance-navy-b.html