As a newb to SL, it took me a fair amount of time to learn about the various weapons and combat systems, what constituted griefing versus legitimate usage, where to go play without annoying others, etc. I find that I'm always explaining what I've learned to friends who suddenly find a need to deal with weapons. For example, I have friends who are club dancers, and all too often they need to respond to griefers who come along and try to shoot the place up. They ask me what they can do about it, and...
... I decided to try and create a "Weapon Training and Safety" course that could be periodically taught as an event for newbies or old-timers interested in how weapons work, how to use them responsibly, and how to avoid or deal with griefers.
I need your help with this. Namely, I'm sure I don't know about all the weird quirks in LSL that have been turned into weapons scripts, nor do I know the names of all the common weapons, especially the griefer ones. I'd like to summarize what I do know so far, and then have you comment on what I've written. Please correct me where needed and please add your own new information if it's missing from my summary. Thanks in advance for your help.
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What is a weapon?
Any object can be a weapon. It does not have to look like a weapon. It can be small and invisible, worn on your AV or placed somewhere in the environment. It's not the object itself that is the weapon, but rather the script(s) in the object. Many functions used in LSL that have legitimate nod-weapon uses can be adapted to become a weapon of one sort or another.
Bottom line is that any script that can be used to affect another AV in an annoying or damaging way, with or without their knowledge and permission. Sure, this is a loose definition, since you could call a poof ball a "weapon" by this definition, but lets face it, some folks are annoyed by overuse of poof balls or other overwhelming or obsuring visual effects. The key phrase here "annoying or damaging". Anything that annoys or damages another AV or their property is likely to get you neg-rated, abuse-reported, or banned from SL.
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Types of weapons
One object that looks like a weapon, such as a gun or rifle, might actually be capable of many different types of weapon effects. So we don't categorize weapons by what they look like, but instead by the type of effect they have. For example, a given "gun" in the game, such as the Seburo Compact Xploder or Hiro Pendragon's Colt .45, might act like several of the following weapons depending on the type of "ammunition" you load the gun with.
* Particle Effectors *
Often known as rubber bullets, flares, or harmless ammo, these are scripts that make particle effects appear, such as blood spattering on impact, frags flying from the point of impact, flames or icy breath or lightning nimbus, etc. These can be visually annoying but do not affect your avatar or your property in any other way. Some of these weapon types are billed as "non-griefing" weapons but some folks may not like you for spamming your visual space. Most people would *not* even think of calling a dragon's breath or a poof ball or a pretty tracer flare or a smoke grenade as a "weapon", but then again some might report you for harrassment if you're using these effects too often in somebody's space.
There's no practical defense against a particle effector, because it is purely visual.
* Projectile Throwers *
Often known as bullet ammo, these are scripts that rez an object and lob it in a certain direction (usually in a straight line or in a arc to simulate the effects of gravity on a projectile). Once rezzed and moving, it is nothing more than a "solid" object with a trajectory. If it actually hits an AV, it has the same effect as another AV bumping into you or you hitting the ground after a fall. That means that if you're in a damage-enabled sim or plot of land, your AV will take a certain amount of damage from the collision. If you're not in a damage-enabled area, nothing happens.
Depending on how the "bullet" is scripted, it might actually be several objects that hit you in rapid succession, which is what makes for the typical "high damage bullet" or "1-shot-kill" bullet.
There is only one practical defense against bullet ammo. If an object collides with your AV in a damage-enabled sim, you will take damage. It's that simple. If you're not in a damage-enabled sim, you will take no damage. So the defense is to rez some object between you and the "bullet", so that the bullet hits your sheild object instead of your AV. There are some so-called "shields" on the market that can rez a physical object "shield" like this, but they're not very practical for two reasons:
A - If the "shield" is attached to your avatar so that you can move and the shield moves with you, then hitting the shield = hitting your AV and you take damage.
B - If the shield is stationary, you're pinned down behind it.
C - If the shield surrounds you, you're trapped inside it.
So if you can find an object that quickly rezzes a large, unattached, semi-transparent body shield in front of your AV, that can be useful as a temporary shield in a firefight. Let's hope the designer codes the object in a way that derezzes the sheild when you move too far from it or else leftover shields will litter the landscape until some cleanup routine auto-returns them to their owners.
* AV Pushers *
Often known as push ammo or push script, these are scripts that don't lob an object at you, but instead just act directly on your AV to push you in a certain direction. Note that many types of bullet ammo are combined with some degree of push script to simulate knocking you back a small amount when you are hit by the bullet.
A push script usually knocks you back parallel to the plane of impact, or else launches you into the air perpendicular to the plane of impact. The push can be very slight, moving your AV only a meter or so, or it can be extremely strong, launching you across many sims or tossing you hundreds of meters in the air.
There is one and only one defense to a push script. These defenses are commonly known as "shields" or as "sit shields". The principle is that if you rez an object that is not enabled for physics and then you sit on it, you will be impervious to push effects for as long as you're sitting on the object. Most shields are implemented such that the object you sit on is invisible and you have some glowly particle effect around you to make it look like you are shielded, but all that's really happening is the script is rezzing an invisible object, making your AV sit on the object, and then playing pretty particle effects and animations.
In the absence of having such a handy shield device, however, you can rez a simple block, sit on it, and laugh as you fill out an abuse report on the griefer who is trying to push you. Of course, that assumes you have time to rez anything to sit on before the griefer hits you. It's a bit hard to do this manually when you're already flying through the air, although some smart shield designer can probably think of a way to have their shield device stop you in mid-trajectory, which can be especially useful if you get hit by the next type of weapon... the AV Disrupter.
* AV Disrupters *
This is a special variation on a push script. Instead of just tossing you back or up in the air along a single vector, a disrupter launches you on a rapidly changing set of vectors, which makes your AV bounce all over the place. As with push scripts, a disrupter can move your AV only a short distance, or it can launch you across many sims with each vector change.
All the other information about push scripts applies to AV Disrupters as well, including how to defend against it. One big difference, though, is that a simple push script "lets go of you" after it has finished launching you along its intended vector. After you are freed, you can move normally again.
A disrupter is much more malicious in that it never "lets go" of you. If you don't have some handy shield designed specifically to "sit you" in mid trajectory, you are seriously out of luck, and the only way to regain control of your AV is to try to teleport out of it or else relog.
IMO there's no good reason to ever use a disrupter on another AV, it's just pure griefing and should be abuse reported. The trick is figuring out who used it against you because most such weapons are coded to prevent you from seeing who used it on you.
* Cagers *
A cager is a script that rezzes an set of objects not owned by you completely around your AV, which effectively creates a cage that prevents you from moving. Often, the cager script will push your AV up a meter or so to give the script time to build the bottom of the cage underneath you.
There is no good way to defend against a cager since it doesn't act on your AV directly, but instead it builds objects around your AV. Fortunately, it is easy to escape from a stationary cage using one of the following methods:
A - right-click on an outside surface of the cage and choose "Sit". You'll instantly find yourself sitting on the outside of the cage, and can subsequently "Stand Up" and go about your business.
B- if the first trick doesn't work (because the cage object properties don't allow you to sit on it), then rez one of your own objects outside the cage where you can see it with your camera, and then sit on the object that you just rezzed. That trick will always work, but takes more time.
Note that a cager script can be combined with an AV disrupter script, which makes the cage itself bounce all around along random vectors. It's very difficult to "sit yourself" outside the cage in this situation, so again you might be stuck trying to TP out or needing to relog out.
Stationary cagers can be a fun "snare" tactic in combat, as long as they're designed in a way that lets you free yourself.
* Multi-effectors *
MOST weapons in the game are actually multi-effectors of some sort, which means the weapon combines two or more of the basic weapon types: particle, projectile, push, disrupter, and cager. For example, most "bullet" type ammo in the popular guns (Seburos, Colt 45s, Rail Guns, Socoms, etc.) employ particle, projectile, and push effects at the same time. So-called "standard" bullets might hit you with only one object and use a very small push or no push. So-called "high damage" or "one-shot-kill" bullets might hit you with multiple projectiles in rapid succession and a use a much harder push to simulate a massive hit that kills you dead instantly.
* Nukes *
Pure griefer weapons, a nuke is designed to do only one thing: crash a sim. This effectively causes every AV in the sim to either crash to desktop or at the very least make you teleport home. Usually everyone just crashes outright. Getting caught using one of these will get you permabanned, and rightfully so. If you see anything on SL Exchange that describes being able to "clear the entire sim" or somebody hands you an unknown weapon and tells you that it would be "fun to try over in Jesse or Rausch or the Welcome Area" just don't go there or you might regret it.
* Scanners *
A scanner can have any of the aforementioned weapon effects, but the delivery mechanism is different. Instead of pointing a scanner at someone and "shooting", scanner devices instead give you a text report or visual display of every AV within a certain range around you. (The upper limit of this range is technically a 96-meter radius, but certain tricks can extend that range by quite a bit.) Once you've seen the list, you can type a silent channel command (or click an object floating around your head or whatnot) and the scanner will reach out and trigger the weapon effect on that AV.
Scanners are typically very unsporting and really good only for griefing purposes. They're typically coded to prevent anyone from hearing or seeing your command to attack the target, and you can be far out of visual range on the other side of the sim.
IMO, a scanner should never be used offensively against a person, because that's just pure griefing. However, since there are very few recourses against a determined griefer who is stalking you, a scanner device can sometimes be useful to reach out and slap them upside the head. Still, remember that you are technically griefing someone else even when doing this and LL has a clearly stated "two wrongs don't make a right" policy. Your best bet is to use a scanner only to figure out who your unseen assailant is so that you can abuse report them.
** Sensor-based weapons **
The final category of weapon is a slight twist on the Particle Effector idea. No projectiles, no push scripts... nothing that can physcially harm you or any object. The weapon might display a visual "tracer" round that looks like a projectile, but it's not. These systems require two objects on each AV or vehicle: an emitter and a receptor. The emitter is what makes the "tracer" rounds fire, and the receptor senses when it has been hit by the vector of the "tracer" round. Its the same principle as laser tag.
Most of the popular vehicle combat systems use this technique (Jill Callahan's CCC system and Cubey Terra's TCC system). Abramelim Wolfe's Rail Gun and Destiny weapons use a similar system if you equip the weapons with "harmless" ammo. The Portal Wars weapons all use this type of system. Finally, Crystalshard Foo's "Frag Foo" system essentially converts projectile-based bullets to this type of system.
All of these sensor-based systems enable you to fight in any sim regardless of whether the land is damage-enabled. Most of these systems will not disrupt any nearby AVs, except of course for the noise and particle effects. (Although the Frag Foo is working with live projectile ammo so stray hits on other AVs might be disruptive depending on whether the bullets have a push component or not.)
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Okay that's the summary. Please poke holes, add tidbits and corrections, and offer up any other useful info I might not know about yet.