Electric-Knight

Wishing you as much success as possible, given the constraints and realities and all.

And I will be there!

Thank you for taking the initiative on this and doing this work to give us a fitting send off.

It's no leap to say that Arcanaville is a great representative of this community's character, passion and abilities.

Queen of Maths, Queen of our hearts.
*bows*

Noice!!
Love it!

When the EU servers were merged onto the NA server list, I thought maybe now is the time... I should post that thread and send out a call and see if anyone would be interested.

I created and saved a bunch of costumes for the A LOT OF GAUL ITF!!

We'd gather together on the forums, determine who would be who by each picking a costume of some fine (and completely non-I.P.-infringing, shhh) Gaulish Villager... drink some magic potion (No, not you, Obelisk)... and GO BEAT UP SOME ROMANS!










For those of you unfamiliar... too bad for you, but also partly... good, I was counting on the American unfamiliarity so that maybe I could get away with posting and doing the idea, haha. I was never one for copying characters or anything like that, but this idea just seemed like it could have been a fun, one-time thing.
Pick ATs and Powersets... match them up with the Gauls, use those costumes (most likely on existing characters... no need to rename or anything, just look like 'em) and have a brawling blast.

Ah well... another thing (among what must be thousands) that I never pulled the trigger on.
You're never too old to start... or, at least, to beat up some Romans.

I have not been able to get the Paragon market to load up at all this week.
I'd been meaning to pick up a few last things and was finally sitting down with enough time cleared up this week, but... no dice now?

I know people were having problems (and some attributed it to requiring internet explorer as default?)... just curious if the same thing is happening to others now?
I'll change up my settings and see...


EDIT: So, simply changing my Windows (XP) settings to enable Microsoft Internet Explorer (but still keeping Firefox as my default browser) worked to access the Paragon market and to successfully buy things.
A small victory!

Cheers to them!

Thanks!
Keep sharing, if ya got'em.

Haha, wow, that became a massive information-dump and a cathartic labor of love last night (took way longer than I planned).

Hopefully some of the good ones up there aren't passed up because that's just one post that I could see being a too long/didn't read even for myself, lol.

And apologies for the typos and lack of polish.

Hey, I once made a character that looked similar:




BP, you might want to check the huge post I just spilled out about some of the characters that never made it...

Whether it be due to time, due to preference, maybe never finding the right name, or never finishing their back-story... or maybe they just were never quite good enough or intriguing enough...
Here's to the characters that never quite made it into play:

In NO particular order (except for the final one)...

This was just a costume and look that I was very happy with. My Raccoon humanoid burglar turned hero(ish) that sadly never came to be (I thought Staff Melee might be his entrance... and then I figured he may be my gadgets guy, using as many temporary powers as I could make sense of):

He was a garbage-picking, resourceful rogue (by character, not by alignment).



Another costume that made me want to play it was this odd, metallic Crimson Imp that only very briefly crawled around Mercy Island... and never returned:




The corrupt lawyer that successfully defended a large corporation from being found guilty of the dumping of large amounts of toxic waste onto a Caribbean town, whose people hunted him down, captured him, placed a strange curse on him and threw him to into the toxic waters, where he was reborn as The Toxic Shark:

(His powers of hurling/shooting toxic waters were going to be from Rad/Rad Corrupter, but then I was waiting for Water Blast to be WB/Rad instead)



This wonderful never named Flower Guy... a Plant/Thorns Dominator I was hoping to one day play:


I just loved the look and always wanted to try out Plant Control. I thought this character might do the trick... Maybe I'll create him before the end this week.


Solar Mane:

I made this guy very early on, but never played him (and kept debating his powerset, before sort of choosing Claws/Fire)
The entity that called the stretches between the stars of the Leo constellation his home, before a beautiful woman flew by that he became infatuated with and followed all the way to planet Earth (the place that she cared about most), where he remained after she passed...
Solar Mane






Soul Warrior

Soul Warrior - One time, when I was going through an illness and seeking out different forms of treatment, I was having this body work thing done by some Cherokee lady... And we talked during it and she commented that I was a Soul Warrior (there was a whole long explanation, but the bottom line is that the title is compelling). This was a Native American hero that fell into death, but battled his way back with newly gained mastery of the spirit world (the wisps and ghost auras work well for him).





The foul Lady Viper that I thought could be fun to play: Conniving, malicious, poisonous... a fine female villain, I always thought... shame I never got her going...




Alpha Hunter - I made this guy in an old table top RPG group (back when I used to play the first Electric-Knight). He was an ex-policeman who joined a test program to use this new powersuit design. Unfortunately the powersuit had a contamination flaw and left him dying of cancer. He would live longer with the continued exposure from the suit and die more quickly without. Sadly, his family died of the secondhand exposure directly from him out of the suit.

I made him; parked him; never played him; deleted him; decided I should make him again and discovered that I'd lost the name.


The Awesome Opossum? Yeah... maybe not...








Some sort of strange mutant/alien/hybrid pit-fighter guy... I wanted to try and make a less-sleek looking character and go for something sort of juxtaposition and a bit ugly... compared to what I tend towards. A tech and beast mash-up, I suppose.




What might a Biker Super Hero look like (that is not the Ghost Rider)? Maybe like this. Honestly, I just liked the way the Justice Chest goes with the Skull emblem. Street Justice did make this guy a more viable candidate, but it never happened.



My dear friend loved my villain Malfaz so much that she created his Heroine nemesis... Then we came up with the idea of her playing a Villainess that might tangle with the Electric-Knight. She told me to design her and this is what I came up with: Chaines De Coeur

She uses magic (specializing in pain magic and charm/influencing spells) and these magical chains that she uses to swing around with and tie people up with (through which she shoots more shocking pain). Unfortunately, times changed and we were never able to get that going... I still plan to make some comics/demo movies with her and EK. While we can't play, perhaps I'll find the time to make that happen.



You can't have enough evil space cybernetic skull villains, so here's one for you:




Or, you know, how about another space cybernetic bad guy thing (I actually decided it was a red lizard-like alien inside the suit... you can see his tail sticking out the back and some sort of claw things around the waist).





Okay, I have another order for a cybernetic bad dude? It's yours? Okay,here you go... I didn't bother with a background or a concept... I only had enough money for the costume this time.


Here's a decidedly not cybernetic bad guy...
This was going to be the character that finally got me to actually play a Stalker! Ninja Blade (because that assassin attack is just awesome looking)...

Another displaced strangely somewhat undead WWI German fighter pilot gone mad. He initially did not have a mask and had a skull face with a fancy mustache and goatee... And was named the Skull Baron. I never really moved on from there and he never come to life for me... Still like the look and want to play him some day...



This neat Golden Cat samurai dude... I wondered if maybe he'd be another aspect of Solar Mane:



I always wanted to play as an Ent: Plant Control or Nature Affinity? How about never?





This rich man's powersuit, designed as a bald eagle - symbolic of America and of power, ferocity and grace:

Iron Eagle? Steel Eagle? Uhh... My creativity ebs and flows... Okay, it likes to eb around names.


Nicknamed "Chompy" (haha, you have to name these costume files, after all)...

He was of a race (from another galaxy, far far away... no, not that galaxy!) that the Zogg (Zox'Oculox's race) dominated, kept as slaves and used as the bulk of their soldiers. Large ferocious beasts that they may be, they actually had a naturally sweet demeanor... but are fitted with cybernetic controlling systems and pumped with toxic drugs that turn them into mindless warring machines. How this one guy ended up here, who knows... but he's not going to like Zox'Oculox if/when he ever sees him.



The Skull Mantle: The full Skull Monster and the vigilante The Skull Mantle - An ancient, evil cursed artifact exists in the form of a white cape with a fanged-skull clasp (white with red eyes). When this cape is put on, it takes over the wearer and transforms them into the wretched Skull Monster.

(I really wanted to try my hand at making a character that didn't have a head where all of our characters have heads... So, I tried to hide the real head and hoped that the giant skull face on the chest could act as the character's head instead)
When one experienced, yet very arrogant, arch mage discovered this magical cape within a hidden tomb, he made the mistake of succumbing to the cape's powers and clasped it around his neck. He immediately transformed into the monster... but, over a long struggle, he managed to subdue the evil beast within and tamed it to do his bidding as a hero... known as The Skull Mantle!

I actually did use this character in an AE adventure for my SG's magic subgroup (although, I planned to continue the story and eventually play the Skull Mantle as a character of my own).




The Dark August

The Dark August - This was the main villain of a plot I was intending to do after I'd finally wrap up another long plot (which, sadly, I failed to wrap up due to lack of time and such). He is a greater entity from another dimension. His history is somewhat tied into some other characters of mine and a friend's and their arrival in this dimension would be partly responsible in The Dark August and his minions descending upon our world as well.
His minions act like teeth and devour the very fabric of reality to give him power and sustenance.
His minions: dubbed Reality Biters:

I had a whole chain of events and AE missions that would lead to a twist ending, involving one of my main characters (*cough*Malfaz*cough*) and that would, some time later, result in a major power shift... albeit, the world would be saved from the dreaded reality devouring minions of The Dark August.
I always thought some players might use those events as ways to retcon and rewrite certain things, hopefully to make positive adjustments to characters that may have lost a little something... or just to have some rewriting reality fun (none of that was ever required, but I just always wondered, when I sprang these things on us, if anyone would go for anything like that... events wholly removed from reality).


iToon: A combination of advanced technology and the lunacy of the looney toons...

If he doesn't save the day... he'll, at least, drive evil crazy!


I found this image while poking around (I believe someone said that Golden Girl was "going ape" and I churned out a photoshop image and then this character) and I thought I'd include it here:

GG, I would have loved to have run a Team-Up some time.



The Grim Patriot: A bitter, rough, vigilante, unhappy with the way his country has become. He favors the underdogs and the downtrodden, but he has no time for those unwilling to do the work it takes to make things better again. (He was most likely going to be AR/Traps Corrupter, despite the Shield in the image).



The Masked Maroon: A whimsical masked man... The only thing I've got for you is the look and the fact that when I made him, I ran everywhere backwards (I usually made these characters on some alt server just to take them out for a spin at level 1, just as a reward after all the time in the costume creator). Anyway... controlling the character so that I always moved him backwards was... interesting. <.<








Mr. Popcorn was made as a goof (no kiddin'?) after a few friends were talking about silly powers and one said the power to create popcorn. I joined in and we turned it into a conversation about which powerset to use and could customization make it happen in-game... and voila... Energy Blaster in a special powersuit that heats up massive amounts of buttered popcorn and propels it at highspeed. Popopopopopop-POW!!







The Dolphin - A WWII American fighter pilot goes down in the Bermuda Triangle. Somehow, he returns, all these years later, with the ability to generate and control water... or something like that. A retro guy, out of his time, with super powers... Given powers by super dolphins?? Maybe, haha!





Solar Ace

Solar Ace - was me finally making an Energy/Energy Blaster that I'd stick with. I actually did make this character and played him to level 24 and intended to continue, but the end was announced and so I include him here... another casualty of an end far too early.
He was an actor of some renown (though, somewhat plagued by alcohol abuse and carelessness), a few decades ago. Recently, he was out on an archeological expedition (as a guest, studying for an upcoming role [a possible return to a bit of limited prominence in his older age]) when he happened upon a strange golden suit of armor. Without thinking, he put it on and it took him off in a burst of flight above the sky of the Earth and through outer space... Eventually he gained control and returned to Earth, stumbling into a plot of evil that he half-wittedly managed to thwart. He discovered that his old age was disappearing and he was looking and feeling younger than he could ever remember feeling (during his abusive and beleaguered days of his supposed prime). However, he soon learned that this feeling went away the longer he spent time out of the suit... Then, he finally realized that it was through using his suit for the fight of good upon Earth that would result in him being rejuvenated. Ignoring the responsibility that the suit's powers placed on him made him feel as though he was aging at an accelerated rate.
So, he now embarks to do good, live well and enjoy this new role that life has offered him - the dramatic and action-packed role of being a super-powered hero.







A robot that I never quite had a name for... He believes that he was a lifeless robot that somehow gained the soul and sentience of deceased human hero. He now struggles to understand the complexities of sentience and emotion. In truth, he's just a robot that believes a lie. Well... maybe.. that's always the fun bit...



A super-powered exo-suit with a mastodon design? Sure!



An ex-crusader... Eh, I just always wanted to play a character like Max Von Sydow's from The Seventh Seal.





The Illusionoid - Some times a picture is worth a thousand words, right?





Marrow Ripper

Nasty Spines/Regeneration Stalker that never stuck (pun not intended, but noticed and left as is):
Marrow Ripper

Electric-Knight/Malfaz mashup:

This is a (planned, as none of this ever actually happened... yet) monstrous abomination that came as a result of multi-dimensional and psychic shenanigans involving my main villain Malfaz and my main hero Electric-Knight. It was born as a combination of both Malfaz and Electric-Knight's minds... It developed its own mind and eventually learned to hate the both of them... after being brought to this Prime Dimension and being pushed and pulled around by Malfaz's will to use against E-K and others.



I always intended to make a Warshade... I had Dechs telling my I absolutely should... and one of my best friends made one and it became their favorite character... but... sadly... I never got around to it (yet)... but this was one design I came up with for a Warshade character.

And my wife had a character that came from another planet that did some sort of tomfoolery with psychics and the Warshade process (Bah, I've forgotten the details at this very moment... yes, I'm writing all of this on the fly... c'mon, you could totally tell). She was one of the psychics (I think they would do some sort of mind-meld thingy with a newly born Warshade), but her bonding had failed.
Anyway, we imagined that this may have been what the race that they used the Nictus Warshade bonding technique on may have looked like.




I'm including this one, because... well, I ran into her while looking through these pictures and she told me, very succinctly, that she would kill me if I didn't include her:





A humanoid dog with advanced and brutal technology... sure, I'll include it.






This one I thought I would get to one day: A womanizing playboy gets caught up in a scientific experiment... that results in him being transformed into a genderless lizard-thing with super reflexes and an advanced energy shield... I really wanted to examine this role and get into this character... but... hey, lack of time! I wanted to do it right, so it never happened.





Money: He follows the money trail... it always leads to the heart of the matter, for him anyway.
I wanted to see if I could approximate the dollar sign for a chest emblem.





The Great White Shock! What? Elec/Elec Brute... Okay, fine... Sorry!





The Grey Ace:
I was in a band a bunch of years ago that had a song (majority written by another member) that he titled Shades Of Grace... That we all ended up referring to as The Grey Ace... and which famously (not so famously) had me introduce it with, "And now... The terrible flight and wonderful plummet of the Grey Ace". Somehow, these years later, that turned into me conjuring up this WWI era fighter pilot, time-traveling alien adventurer/spy... And... I have to admit that I kinda like the way he looks.

Dual Pistols/Kinetics or Time Manipulation Corrupter



Agent Hero... another failed attempt to get me to play more female characters...




Professor Tinkin -

I eventually used this design and established the character to be part of Amazing Ape's origin story.
He was an inventor and explorer/adventurer for his long life... who happened to have a malfunctioning jetpack and crashed into the Uganda... Where the unknown Amazing Ape (a mutant mountain gorilla with amazing intelligence and some human-like mutations) nursed him back to health and helped him fix his broken equipment. Tinkin taught Djembe (Amazing Ape) the English language (which he picked up with surprising speed and skill. Unfortunately, after a surprise poaching attach destroyed Ape's family and left him extremely injured in the process, Tinkin crafted some cybernetic boots to assist the injured Ape and they both attacked the poachers' main complex... Sadly, Tinkin was killed during the fight. Amazing Ape left Africa and became a great student of sciences and philosophy and eventually an ambassador of all wildlife and the environment and he always keeps his friend, Professor Tinkin, in his mind and heart.




Familiar with the Dungeons & Dragons creature named the Alaghi? I once made a D&D character that was a very rare Alaghi Druid (they're unlike most of their kin and take up a life as a hermit in pursuit of peace and wisdom). I always like big giant scary things that are true sweethearts (that's not to suggest anything about my beautiful wife, by the way, haha). With Nature Affinity's arrival... I began looking for a proper character and this was one of them.







Another prospect for Nature Affinity was a Sasquatch... and, perhaps, a Sasquatch Shaman (I sometimes play around with this scenario where Sasquatch [fictionally] are these dimensional travelers [why they're never found... they hop out of this plane of existence] and maybe that'd work great with the spiritual/shamanistic aspect. Sure... big hairy ape dudes with shamanistic inter-dimensional cultures... that works for me, how 'bout you?






We all need those villains that aren't the coolest guy on the block... and that don't generally get very far... Well, this is one of mine and he may have been called Doctor Illuzo... But then again... that might be why I never bothered with him. A better name and some fun plots and he may have been a little bit Mysertio for my world.





I had been debating what Mastermind to make... How about a twisted priest that used robots and illusions to spread the good word?
Then Demons came out... How about those demons are robots? Sure, sounded great, but I never wanted to bother actually playing him.
The Last Confession:







The grand daddy of them all though... was the character that would let me play as most of these Heroes and more...
Acme Avatar - a single character (using MA/WP or MA/Regen Scrapper) that is a place holder avatar in Paragon City. The avatar swaps out for a real hero (from the Prime and alternate dimensions) to fight for good.
I just could never pick a single origin for all of this...
I had thought about having a ruling council that makes these avatars and sends them out and about where needed... Using volunteers or just zapping existing heroes back and forth to serve a bit of extra time through this avatar... or they just use that real hero while they sleep or something...
It could be Tech... it could be Magic...
Or it just may have been a mutant with this power to swap himself out with some other hero from another location.
The only things I knew for certain were that the hero taking place of the avatar was that hero in every way, mentally and powers-wise...
Whether or not the hero actually was there or if it was just a current-state copy/clone, I never decided on.

This was my big dream idea that would solve me having sooooo many character concepts and not enough character slots, time and willingness to have so many fight'em'up super hero types (I already had a few punchers and kickers).
With one character, using alternate animations and power customization and using multiple builds (and the occasional respec), I could represent a lot of different characters pretty well.
I just never pulled the trigger on it. Although I did make the character with that name and parked him/it on Virtue.
One of these days, I'd tell my self...
My problem was... I was playing this game like there would always be a tomorrow.



I do have a bunch more costumes, backstories, concepts and ideas that I may post another time...


We salute you... the characters that (mostly) never were.

That'll be happening too.
This is just a project that a few people put together and Titan (and many of us) are going to support and help the way that we can.

As I said upthread, best to cover as wide a spread as you can. You never know who you might contact/inspire in any of these attempts. None of the possibilities are safe enough to prevent anyone from exploring more possibilities.

Carry on.

Well, I don't agree with anything listed from this article, but I did very much enjoy having the two different tutorials for Paragon and the Rogue Isles.
Of course, those were for two different games, so...

Still, I liked the separate Praetorian tutorial for that realm as well.

I can't really argue against Arcanaville's use of "ridiculous", because I do like me some ridiculousness.

I think there is some merit to those very different starts... And I find the merit it brought to be a quality I enjoy.

All that being said... a "lesson" that no game should have a single tutorial is... the brand of "ridiculous" that I do not enjoy.

Hahaha, that is priceless!

And, again, there is some fantastic art in this thread (as usual)!

Oh, man, thank you very much for reaching out and asking me and for helping to spread my music around.
I truly appreciate that, Jayboh.

Also, I'm liking the energy and style you're putting into your videos. Your voice has a fun character to it and it sounds like you're getting more and more comfortable doing these.

If I ever get around to making this intro movie about E-K's background... I was thinking that your voice has that sort of character to it that'd be great for narrating the intro (sort of like a Stan Lee voice, but of your own).

Anyway, thanks!
I'll remember to say some of that in youtube later on too, hehe!

Yeah... yay.


I had already done the math and figured out that (if all the rewards continued normally for the 3 months of "sunset") I would reach Tier 9 during the final week.
The best part is how I've long been a costume creating fanatic (I have 2,362 saved costume files) and was rather vocal, over the years, about being against (extremely) gated costume options.
After all this time of being a good little patient guy... I never did get those costumes... thanks guys, hah.
Told ya I hated that stuff, Zwill.

Haha... Ah well.
I'm ready and willing to keep earning my way up the damn tree should someone be so willing as to take my damn money for it.

P.S. yay

Perhaps I could have said it better by simply stating that - based on the experiences of the past few years - Arcanaville could type my reply to this thread and I would read it and only be left capable of saying that she conveyed precisely what I was thinking, feeling and wished to express.

I've never encountered anyone that I could say that about, even for just a few rare circumstances or topics... Never mind someone that continuously and consistently did so over this entire period.

Instead of attempting to formulate a better response (why break habit now? Besides, perfectly-worded expressions are your territory), I just wanted to quickly chime in and somehow show my appreciation and enjoyment of who and what you've been to me (and us) for the years that I've been lucky enough to be here.

Your in-depth knowledge of game systems and the code was always impressive and lent a great deal of respect and appreciation for any tidbits you may offer...

However, your wit and, even more so, you're incredible ability to word and convey things (whether they happened to be complex analysis of maths, advanced systems or game mechanics or coding... or expressions of complicated human traits, philosophy, dissections of debates/discussions or a magnificent delivery of humor) left me with delight in being able to enjoy just these textual snippets of your sublime mind.

I honestly and truly hope that our paths cross again in the future. Of course, I hope, perhaps, I may offer you some form of return enjoyment (okay, please don't take that the wrong way!)... However, you are one of the very few cases where I'm just happy to have gotten what I have from a distance.

Beyond all of that... because, screw these half-goodbyes... I hope we both find ourselves on the shores of this wonderful game's return... even if not... It seems like we'll both be, at the very least, hovering around Titan and all that.

Also, thank you very much for your vague words about what you know regarding the closing.
I already had my suspicions and impressions from my own distant observations as well as from other people's accounts, but the first moment I saw you mention things such as you did in this thread... I didn't need any more confirmation.

I know you're not perfect (I'm pretty sure I caught a glimpse of you likely being somewhat wrong once or a few more times), but I do very much trust you and your word on such things. I always appreciated your willingness and ability to relay certain things without giving anything away, but just enough so that we might better feel our ways through the dark.

Blah, blah, blah... I hope some of my words added up to convey something of some sort of tiny significance and as sign of utter appreciation of your offerings and of you and that damn fantastic mind of yours.

Oh, I know... Here ya go...

Good job.


Also... I look forward to reading through and checking out this story and event of yours!

I have old notebooks, from when I was child, filled with ideas for video games that I wanted to see that very explicitly are mmorpgs (long before we had any such things).
I mean, I find it pretty simple to understand why.
I wanted to play make-believe in a vast and ongoing/unending video game world that had graphical representations of everything else and had computer programming to handle the artificial intelligence and interactions and such.

The whole "mmo" thing is really just the tip of the iceburg along those lines.
Unfortunately, no matter how many people want such things, it's the business structure of it all that determines whether or not such things will happen and/or sustain.