Last year Klatu of Urban Zombie gave us a runthrough of the weapons in B/W Weapons V5-series. You can see the videos for that here(p1), here(p2) and here(p3).
Since then, B/W Weapons have come out with their newest versions, giving you even more power than before. Something not many knows thou is that Urban Zombie is a central part of B/W Weapons, as is Minstrel Weapons… well, let’s just take the whole story!
When Klatu started Urban Zombie he was determined to find the ultimate zombie shooting experience, so he collected a list of ALL weapon stores in SL and the marketplace. He loaded his account with 100 000L$ (that’s roughly 500US$, or as we say here in Sweden: A lot of money) and went through the whole list, buying samples of weapons from each of the stores. None of them worked as he wanted them to. Either they weren’t powerful enough (this was most weapons), they weren’t handled realistically or they didn’t work at all. He contacted all of the weapon creators, asking if they could set him up with weapons that met his criterias, which was hard, since he’s a RL veteran and knows weapons in a way few people on this planet does, along with a life-long zombie enthusiast, making him an expert in zombie shooting realism.
On the bottom of the list was a little gunshop named Minstral Weapons, owned by Sera Ontoro. Klatu asked Sera if it was possible, and Sera just replied with “I’ll be back”. Flash forward a couple of hours, and Sera teleported in to Klatus little place where he had some zombies set up for testing. Seras hands were filled with weapons and he handed one of them to Klatu. Klatu shot ONE test round of the newly created special bullet script and he immediately knew this was the weapon smith for Urban Zombie.
With these new bullets, dubbed the UZ Bullets, Klatus vision finally came true. The right shot takes the zombie down in just one hit, not the magazine or two that all other weapons he had tested did. As a result, he removed the 15+ affiliate vendors he had on the sim and replaced them with Minstrel Weapons vendors filled with weapons carrying the UZ bullets and banned all weapons that can’t take down the zombies in an efficient manner, not because of monopoly, but because it doesn’t fit his vision. There are still weapons out there that can handle the zombies and brings realism to the table, and those are still allowed.
In 2012, Sera ran into C4th Clawtooth, another weapons builder from BlueWater Weapons (B/W Weapons) that made extremely detailed weapons, in fact the most detailed weapons in SL. It didn’t take long before C4th joined the duo, making the trifecta complete. With Klatus vision and RL experience with the technical aspect of weapons as guidelines, C4th would make the most detailed models seen in SL, with both static and moving parts and Sera scripts every weapon with a custom script, especially made for that weapon, to allow full customization of every movable, removable and replaceable part, as well as the firing scripts to make it as close to the real thing as possible in both performance and audio-visual experience.
In a sense, B/W Weapons is Mind (Sera), Body (C4th) and Soul (Klatu).
For legal reasons, they cannot use real names of weapons, neither the exact look of it, but they can get really close on the visuals. If you’re not familiar with the exact details and look really closely, you will not see the difference between the model and the weapon it is made after. They don’t want to step on any toes, and therefore they have decided to rename them. They handle just like the real deal, but have subtle changes here and there.
What really proves B/W Weapons (or Minstrel weapons for that matter) so versatile is that they come packed with 4 different bullet types, enabling you to use them in Urban Zombie (the UZ-specific bullet), Boom Town (the shooting range at UZ and any destructible, non-organic in UZ), in other shooting sims (the General Purpose bullet) and in Player versus Player combat (the Linden Damage bullet) wherever the Linden Damage is enabled. Not only that, every weapon comes with both the drawn model in your hands and a slung or holstered version, shown on your back or on your hips. The detail of the weapons are as good on the holstered as they are on the drawn models, making this the perfect accessory for any military RP, past (crossbows), present or future (yup, there’s futuristic weapons in the arsenal too).
The weapons evolve along with the sim, and the sim is everchanging. They are currently on weapons version 5, mesh with high details and many accessories, but neither the price nor the performance changes. You can still pick up a version 1 and kick as much ass as with a version 5.
All of this also comes with a kicker, the weapons are dirt cheap! The motto of B/W Weapons is “Highest quality for everyone” and that really shows on the price tag. The prices ranges from 400L$ to 800L$, that is cheaper than most other weapons out there, and for this you get the highest detail, the best and most realistic performance and the most realistic experience in SL.
Visit Urban Zombie to see the weapons in action or to buy one (or more) for yourself. The store is just outside the central “safe zone”.