Ascendant

It was a good run, made all the better because of you and so many others.

Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.

I'm in, too. Good luck everyone!

Overheard this morning at the coffee shop: "Hey, I think that guy over there is eavesdropping on our conversation!"

Thanks for all the kind words, folks! You'll never know how much they mean to me. I'd also like to extend a special thanks to The Cape radio who produced a radio promo of Ascendant's call to NC Soft so I could do it live as it played on The Cape. I screwed it up the first two times, but the third time was the charm. Keep an eye out; I plan on doing several repeat performances.

Like everyone else, the news that the game may (and notice that I said may) be shut down is heartbreaking, and the past week I've had a hard time bringing myself to the boards or even in the game because I have so many great memories from over the past eight years. But that's only doing myself a disservice.

I count myself lucky to have found this game, but that is dwarfed in comparison to the great fortune that comes with getting to play it with the rest of you. I've known since beta that the game cultivated a special sort of community-- optimists, storytellers, and energetic dreamers, but never was that truth more clearly enunciated than it was yesterday, when it was announced that not only were there an unprecedented 33 instances of Atlas Park on Virtue, but the server had over 300 more people in the queue and 8 Atlas Park instances on Freedom.

I suppose that in the coming weeks, I could just turn my back and just walk away, cold turkey. In a lot of ways, that might be easier. But if I did that, I'd be denying myself the opportunity to spend just that much longer with the most amazing and remarkable community I'm likely to encounter in my lifespan. Further, if I'm to hold to my theory that the goal in life is, or at least, should be, to have fun, and as long as there's still fun to be had in the game, I plan on enjoying it.

I hope you will all choose to join me.

With any luck, we'll put together an EPIC Task Force team on December 1st.

I heard he was working for Scale.

“We are now bringing live coverage of the superhero Ascendant's apparent cold blooded murder of Mayor Mainot-- as you can see, the rogue superhero has already leveled much of City Hall, and is now flying away after--” The reporter ducked as Ascendant let loose with another blaze of his laser vision. The camera shakily caught the beam slicing through a nearby building. The structure slid clumsily as the beam cut it in half, tumbling to the ground in a chaos of fire, smoke, and rubble.

Eric West gasped at the footage, as well as several of his fellow colleges at PCNN-- as the hub of the city's news, they received information about emergencies a few precious minutes before they trickled down into news segments or online commentaries. They were as up to date as the police were, and in some cases, more so.

The fact that Ascendant, a known hero and tireless advocate for justice, would murder the mayor, however, was incomprehensible to Eric and his co-workers.

In fact, it was especially incomprehensible to Eric, largely because he was Ascendant.

I was out of town, as I always seem to be during DXP... In retrospect, it would probably save me a lot of time and hassle if the Devs could just email me the DXP schedule ahead of time so I can make my travel plans in advance.

I'm still around! Cripes, how many times do I have to tell you guys? I'm going to be here until they turn out the lights.

I regret that I only had the good fortune to interact with your wife a few times, Thorgar, and I can't begin to imagine the depth of your loss. However, I honestly think that the true measure of a person's life cannot be counted in the quantity of years they've managed to accumulate, but in the quality of friends they've earned along the way. I also don't believe someone's passage is truly a tragedy so long as we were all more enriched by their presence in our lives than we are diminished by their absence from it.

And yes, your wife had all that. In spades. And then some.

Good luck, and Godspeed.

Does anyone have a link to someplace I can get a copy of David Nakayama's t-shirt, or is this one of those things I'm just going to have to go ahead and create on Cafe Press?

I'm assuming that the choice of Coyote over, say, a dire wolf or giant otter, is the Devs giving a nod to Kiyotee, a pretty active user during the CoH Beta who passed away shortly after launch.

I earnestly hope and pray for the day where we've resolved the rest of the world's problems to such an extent that the subject of sexuality in promotional comic book artwork for an MMORPG becomes an actual, viable topic worthy of this kind of attention.

Seriously, wake me up when we get there.

I got:

Ascendant
Captain Spectacular
Deathtrap
Descendant
Doctor Crom
Epicenter
Teen Spirit
Iteration
Obituary
Ramshackle
Redshift
Stygian
Touchdown
Wizkid

Overall, I'm pretty happy!

The only one I didn't get that I'm really irked about is Quiver, especially since the name check feature told me it was available and reserved. It wasn't until after I tried to get on the server that I was told someone else had taken it.

Silver Gale is right; don't engage them. However, if they engage you, the answer to all of these points is always the same: "Ok, I look forward to seeing you demonstrate your superiority/other powers/ability to do whatever. Let's just step into the Arena so you can show me. It's right over here. Won't take but a second."

This was practically made for Ascendant.

I didn't realize it until today, but Galaxy City is being scrapped for Issue 21 in favor of making it the new tutorial zone.

Keep in mind that I wholeheartedly support pretty much all of Issue 21, but if you're an old timer like me, losing Gemini Park, even for nostalgic value, is a pretty high price to pay.

Way, way back in the day(tm), Gemini Park was the De Facto meeting place for Virtue's heroes. We made friendships there, we forged alliances there, and, if you ask me, we played out some of the greatest moments ever to come out of this game there, regardless of what the Devs might add on in the future.

I was a fairly regular fixture there for years until, I admit, things pulled me away, but I always took comfort in the knowledge that Gemini Park was always there, and there would be a non-zero chance that someone I knew would be hanging out there just on a whim; even when I went there and there was nobody to talk to, I'd take a moment to clear it of -47 level Vazh because I felt I sorta owed it to the park.

When the game ended, or I was done with it, I had always thought I would log out there that last time.

And I get that Galaxy City probably doesn't warrant the support-- I understand that server resources could probably go towards something bigger and better. I don't begrudge the devs for closing what was, after all, a slightly less popular version of Atlas Park in favor of telling what looks to be a pretty awesome tutorial mission.

Likewise, I look forward to I21 for a number of reasons, and hope it opens up new avenues to the future of the game.



But, in my heart of hearts, I'm really going to miss Gemini Park.






//Also, it completely screws up my chance to get this ever made. Jerks.

Doctor Crom's UI:

Stolen directly from Doctor Crom's playbook:

Complicated plans are best assisted by many, many simple contingency plans.

Being one step ahead of the competition is NEVER enough. You need to be waving from the finish line before the starter's pistol sounds.

Hope builds fools. Conviction builds destinies.

If someone crosses you, retaliate with a vengeance that will be global in scope and Biblical in ferocity.

Don't be afraid of firing a warning shot. Through the skull. As a warning to the rest.

Saving individuals is a waste of your time. You should save be civilizations by bringing them under your rule.