Furillen's Battle of Hoth

By Bixyl Shuftan

With the film "Rouge One" set to appear this month, there's been more of an interest in "Star Wars" lately. So it was no real surprise that I heard of a sim getting a makeover by it's owner to replicate the Battle of Hoth in "The Empire Strikes Back." The place is Furillen located at the Love of Life sim. Serene Footman, the owner, described what he did in the sim's blog.

The sim just had its biggest ever make-over for an event – over the weekend I started completely from scratch in order to replicate Hoth, the ice planet that features in one of the strongest movies of the entire franchise, The Empire Strikes Back. It’s Furillen’s way of celebrating this week’s release of Rogue One, which looks like being a classic.

For those of you not Familiar with "Star Wars," Hoth in the stories is a frigid ice planet, in which anyone outside shelter without protective clothing would quickly freeze to death. The two native life forms that could handle the intense cold were tauntans, which could be tamed and ridden around for transportation, and wampas, which were like abominable snowmen and the planet's apex predators. The movie never showed what the tauntans ate, though the wampas probably considered anything they could catch dinner. In "The Empire Strikes Back," Luke Skywalker and the Rebel Alliance have a base on the planet, which is discovered by an Imperial Task Force personally led by Darth vader. The Imperials send an attack force on the base consisting of five massive All-Terrain Armored Transports, or AT-ATs, sometimes called Imperial "walkers," which resembled huge beasts as they plodded across the landscape. The Rebels put up a heroic defense, taking out three of the five Imperial walkers. But the Imperial forces prove too strong, and the Rebels have to evacuate the base.

Dropping in on (http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Love%20of%20Life/109/105/23), I appeared in an icy cave. Fortunately there were no signs of wampas. But there was an automated message by Serene, "Welcome to Furillen. I hope you like this tribute to Star Wars - the Assault on Hoth! To enjoy the sim to the full, switch on your music, turn up draw distance as high as you can manage, and don't get crushed by an At-At!" The music wasn't from the movies, but it did help set the mood of the place. There were a couple signs pointing out what was ahead.

Stepping out, the rebel base wasn't far away. There was a line of defense consisting of laser turrets and smaller laser guns, with one of the turrets having been blasted open. Across the icy plain was the Imperial attack force, consisting of six imperial walkers and a few scoutwalkers or AT-STs (All-Terrain Scouting Transport), as well as a few speeder bikes. The walkers were well detailed, and built to scale. Standing next to them, they were just as big as in the films. High above the walkers were a couple TIE fighters.

Behind the rebel's guns was the rebel base, built into the side of the mountain. Rebels tending to be short on supplies, the base was a bit spartan with cold steel floors and pipes going around in a few places. There were a few stations with screens, possibly radar and communications, where one could sit at. In one corner were a few bunks one could rest at. Scattered around the base were Chewbacca, Princess Leia Organa, Han Solo (in a dramatic pose with his blaster drawn), the robots C3PO and R2D2. Luke Skywalker was nowhere to be found, possibly out in his snowspeeder fighting the AT-ATs. Curiously, Yoda was there in the display. Perhaps the Jedi Master was using his powers to somehow keep tabs on events.

But at least the Rebels weren't hungry. Near the image of Yoda was a pizza machine with the name "Pizza Butt." Perhaps given the reputation of Jabba the Hutt, anything named "Hut" around here would be avoided. There was also a coffee machine, but the parody of "Starbucks" was a name unmentionable in a family-friendly publication. In one corner there was what looked like a laptop computer with the screen on "Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy."

The display is not all that's going on. In the sim blog, Serene stated he was planning a "gathering of the geeks" for a "Furillen-Hoth Christmas party" on Sunday December 18, 1PM SL time, "Star Wars costume is essential, of course. But given that there are so many great mesh Star Wars avatars and costumes around on marketplace, and that they are so inexpensive, this is as easy as it gets. We’ll stream some party music – good bits from the movies, of course (who can resist Cantina?) – but with a bit of inventiveness we can add some space-themed music from more familiar Furillen names, like Bowie and Radiohead."

Normally Furillen looks like an abandoned industrial island off the coast of northeast Sweden. Serene didn't give a date yet when the place will go back to being a "remote, bleak and beautiful ... photographers haven." But no doubt Star Wars fans will keep on dropping by while it lasts.

Sources: Wookipedia, Furillen 

Bixyl Shuftan

The Yamato Memorial

By Grey Lupindo

     The Yamato was the lead battleship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.  Along with her sister ship, Musashi, they were the heaviest and most powerfully armed battleships ever built.  A replica of the famous battleship is being constructed at YAMATO Memorial (223, 56, 22). The note on the LM states that this is a realistic tribute site.  Along with the Yamato, there is the Akagi, a Japanese WWII era aircraft carrier, and an aircraft factory. 

 The Memorial is owned by the Yamato Factory, a private SL group.  Its founder, resident Kody730 Radek, has been in SL since 2007.   Another long-time resident, Kundali Jun, is also involved with the project as a builder and as owner of the aircraft shop.   

       The landmark places you across the road from the ship yard and in front of a visitor’s center.  Inside the center are photographs of the RL Yamato.  The SL replica is an amazing replica of the huge battleship, including its armament.   

       The Yamato is placed as it would have looked while being constructed at Kure Naval Arsenal in Hiroshima, Japan in the late 1930s and early 1940s.   In real-life, the dock had to be deepened and a huge crane installed. The gantry crane is in place at the SL site.  The scale of the SL site is huge, too.  I quickly tired of walking and began flying in order to see the Yamato and other ships and planes that are here.

     The point of having a massive warship is that it can be heavily armed.  The real-life Yamato had nine 18 inch 45 caliber naval guns, the largest ever used on a battleship.  There were also twelve 6 inch guns that were placed in sets of 3 in four turrets, as well as anti-aircraft and other guns.  Similar weapons are also on the SL Yamato.

      There are also replicas of many WWII era planes, some of which are for sale.  There is also a Macchi M33 on display, which is an Italian racing sea plane of that era.  Inside the aircraft factory are some uniforms for sale too, plus a freebie sailor's outfit.  

      On the second level of the Visitor’s Center is a garden area with tables and chairs, a juke box, and dance balls.  Interesting aircraft are on display here, too.

     The real-life Yamato was commissioned in 1941, shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.   Although it was present at some battles, it only engaged in battle one time during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in Oct 1944. In April 1945, The Yamato was sent to help defend Japanese forces on the island of Okinawa in Operation Ten-Go. American planes repeatedly bombed and torpedoed the ship, until it finally sank. After the battle, what was left of the Imperial Navy was unable to launch another major operation. "The word Yamato was often used as a poetic name for Japan. Thus, the end of (the) battleship Yamato could serve as a metaphor for the end of the Japanese empire."

The sim is part of a group of sims, some also having aircraft, ships, or both. South of the battleship is mostly empty land. So maybe there is more to come for the Yamato in Second Life.

     Note:  Information used in this article came from Wikipedia.

YAMATO Memorial (223, 56, 22)

Grey Lupindo