You may have noticed the last couple of pics featuring Dev (over in Furball's gallery), have had a different colourscheme than the refsheet. It's not your imagination (or a mistake), my colours have been changed.

I will most likely redo the refsheet with the right colours soon. Until then, if you need them for some reason, the colours in proper can be seen in Fur's gallery.

As always, if you happen to want to draw Dev, or have Dev drawn, just ask (and contact Furball in cast of the latter).

Dev.

http://www.filefactory.com/file/d60761/

GTI Racing replay recorded as an AVI movie for your viewing pleasure.

GTI RACING / by Techland

-Foreword-
This game surprised me. I went into it expecting either an NFSU clone; or a Gran Turismo clone. I was pleasantly surprised to find a very original and refreshingly consistant game, that really gets back to the heart of racing games.

-Availability (cars)-
If you didn't pick it from the designation "GTI" in the title, GTI Racing's carlist is comprised entirely of Volkswagon vehicles. DONT be an idiot and think this means every car in it is a Beetle or a Golf; Volkswagon have produced a pretty wide range of vehicles in their time.
In fact, the beauty of GTI Racing is its carlist is only further enlarged by encompassing a wide array of VW vehicles from past to present, and even future in the form of VW concept cars, some quite exotic at that.

-Difficulty-
GTI Racing is genuinely challenging. Not difficult; not ridiculous; the opponents are fairly 'skilled' and perceptive, and the tracks are genuinely, technically demanding.

-Tracks-
GTI Racing features one of the most ingenious track systems I've come across in a racing game. Rather than going over the top (and far too ambitious) by creating a single, huge city, and deriving the tracks from that (NFSU2/Most Wanted), or creating a plethora of individual tracks in random locations (Gran Turismo, earlier Need For Speeds), GTI Racing's developers have produced LARGE, highly detailed and quite believable areas of specific states/provinces from countries around the world (Scility, Italy. Parts of the UK, Germany. Texas, USA), and the track layouts are divised -realistically- from those areas. This also presents much more realistic, and highly varied environments and track conditions, as a result.

-Performance-
GTI Racing uses a highly customized rig based on the Chrome engine. It is excellently generous in terms of quality versus performance.

-Visual-
But for those of us that do have the hardware to go nuts, it really delivers. This is one crisp, clean, attractive game. But the best part is it's not over-ambitious, it doesn't try TOO hard. While the reflections, environment effects, geometry and everything relating to the visuals, visual appeal, and aesthetics are of a high quality standard and very attractive and crisp, the game doesn't try to look "too real to be taken seriously" like the newer Need for Speed's Most Wanted and Carbon, for example.

-Audio-
Aesthetic and general sound effects, environment, vehicle sounds, and whatnot, are all fairly good. The soundtrack is quite limited, original, but limited. But then, GTI Racing doesn't -try- to be a game and a mix album at the same time, like NFSU/MW.
Honestly, it COULD do with some better driving music. But I highly doubt it would be very hard to add your own music, and the game performs so well you could just run winamp in the background, really.

-Faults-
The game is, stunningly, flawless. It appears to be the first game in a long time that has actually shipped free of any glitches that you can actually notice, if any at all.
One thing I DO criticize about this game, though, is the title screens going into the game. There are three or four developer title screens before the game, as with almost all games, but you can't MAKE them skip to the next at all, you have to sit for 15 seconds or so for each one. It gets pretty annoying. But that's about it.

-Final Word-
If you're a racing game fan, especially if you've been pining for something up to par with Gran Turismo, or even if you liked Gran Turismo but are looking for a game that doesn't go so insanely overboard with the detail and overly complex configurations, GTI Racing is right up your alley.
If you're a racing/driving game fan at all, I highly suggest you at least try the game. It WILL surprise you.


Total: 9.5/10, deducting that .5 solely for the annoying, if tiny issue with the title screens.

Devon.

What can I say. Recent events have weighed on me so heavily that my restraint has finally given out. Not with a growl, but a slump to the floor, I give up the solemn truth.

My emotions are tapped out, my mind is scattered, by body is a wreck from rarely eating and rarely sleeping. I have no motivation of any kind, whatever creative spark I had is greatly dimmed, if not gone.

Pride, self-respect, dignity, distant memories now. I'm empty, and worn, held together by my dedication to my two beloved spouses and nothing more.

I've been subjected to an endless barrage of preconception, misconception, lies, rumors, exaggerations, all propogated by individuals who lack the maturity to keep personal matters between them and myself, but feel the need to make it impossible for me to go anywhere without people there being pre-instructed that I'm someone to be treated poorly and to a sub-standard.

In the last couple of years alone I've lost two "best friends" sequentially, and god knows how many "close friends", the majority for which I am blamed from the outside by people who don't have the first clue what actually transpired between the people in question and myself.

And then there are those who are so petty and low that they misconstrew and misreport things between them and myself to my beloved spouses to try and cause shit between us, just to give themself some sick little satisfaction.

I'm not interested in anyone's pity, attention or support, I don't want sympathy, and I have no intention of discussing my feelings, the recent issues that have brought me down to this point, nor the situations fueling it.

I write this journal solely for the purpose of letting those who my condition may still concern the truth behind the gnarled mask, because I lack the ability to discuss my true feelings face to face.

THE DEFINITIVE EXPLANATION

My avatar's full name is; Devon Laweson, same as my own name in person.
My avatar's age is: (currently) 23, the same as my own age in person.

-THE ORIGINS-

First and foremost you should take note that Devon's fictual basing is in a world of my own imagination and no pre-existing fictional construct, in which furries were the natural evolution of animals thousands of years prior. Noting also that dragons, demons, angels, reapers, unicorns, gargoyles, minotaurs, and all that fun stuff are real in that world, if maybe much rarer than 'basic' animal-based furries.

Explained linearly but adequetly enough; My -older- fursona "Liliel Lathander", my spouse Furball's older fursona "Scarlett Jenkins" (later to be become Scarlett Lathander through marriage), and my spouse Furball's OTHER older fursona "Akuji Kusenagi", all met in the their college years. They spent a summer up in Canada in a log cabin out in the middle of nowhere and had threesomes on a frequent basis throught (joy!). By some sheer fluke of medical science, Liliel became pregnant to both Akuji (male), and Scarlett (ximale) simultaneously. This, obviously, resulted in the conception of a child with three parent chromosomes (ohnoes!). The child was carried and delivered healthily, born a Feline/Canine/Fox crossbreed.

HOWEVER. At this same time in that fictional world, Canada and Russia are in political conflict over Canada providing support to Germany, which was crippled in World War III (another 'that-world-specific' idea), in what is essentially a second cold-war. To ultimately scare Canada out of supporting Germany, Russia launches a tactical nuclear weapon which completely flattens the city of Vancouver, in which there is a hospital, in the nursery ward of which is baby Devon.

By some horrifically incalculable factor of odds, baby Dev survives the hospital being pulverized and the radiation bath thereafter. Moreover, all of the other babies in said ward, all of which are furries of various description, are liquified by the force of the blast, and form a very large pool of organic material in which baby Dev, cut up a bit by the glass of her shattered crib, lay, seeping into her open wounds. The radiation which, by some chance, doesn't kill her, acts as a chemical-x type deal, and baby Devon's body absords all of the genetic information from the massive collaborative baby soup, causing her own genetic information to extensively (if a little spontaneously), rewrite itself from near scratch using the combined genetic code of some 30-odd different species including her original 3, resulting in a completely new, unique creature.

Further on, baby Devon's blood, saliva (and certain other bodily fluids), is replaced by a thick, smooth, very slick, moderately transprent, mildly glowing, neutrally-radioactive goo, which seems to enable her the natural ability to generate radioactivity, both safe or toxic by will.

Due to her insanely complex genetic code, Devon is also capable of spontaneously mutating to change, add, or remove various traits, including species-specific capabilities, and physical attributes, but maintains a determined base physical appearance by nature (perhaps by choice).

At this point we stop using purely female pronouns because they have become incorrect.


(note: refer to http://www.furaffinity.net/view/96119/ for image referrence beyond this point)
-THE SPECIES-
A fictional character named "Dr Michelle Dais" comprehensively studies the medical aspects of Devon during its infancy and childhood. It is she who assigns the name "Kaisura" to Devon's unique species. The name "Kaisura" means nothing, really, nor is it based on anything. It just sounded half-decent, and it's better than listing its species as "unnamed", "unknown", or something equally lame. Duely note, while Devon's species is unique, the genetic code was fabricated by the collaborative sequences of some 30-odd natural species, thus Devon retains some attributes and capabilities of regular species, though generally expressed in a distinctly different manner.

-THE GENDER-
The fictional character "Dr Michelle Dais" also assigns Devon the unique gender designation of "Megrodite", 'meg' from Mega, 'rodite' from Hermaphrodite, Devon is essentially male, female, and other, all at the same time.

-THE ATTRIBUTES-
Devon's base attributes are; exceptional hearing including organic sonar capabilities; unique sigh method (its sight is based on blue infra-red, gamma-radiation, and magnetic field density, giving depth and definition in a single color pallette, while it is capable of seeing through most forms of matter to a certain effeciency, and is completely inaffected by excess, lack, or complete lack, of light), a unique skeletal structure (every bone in its body is made of -at least- two pieces, all connected with ball-joints and tendants and whatnot, making an essential "composite skeletal structure") this essentially means Devon is not limited to traditional ranges of motion, and is capable of exceptional (if not disturbing) acts of contortion freely with little to no effort, and last if not least, Devon is capable of adding, removing, and changing attributes up to and including physical components and appearences of itself at will.

-THE MATURE SIDE-
Devon is male, female, and other, all at the same time. It has breasts, a vagina, one -prehensile- penis set in a pouch one inch above the pussy, and another prehensile penis set in a pouch two inches down from the second anus of the tail, two anuses (one in the style of a dragon set in the tail/flank stem-meeting and one a bit further down more like a slit enclosed hole), and a configuration of tentacles (6 of a generic phalus style set in its lower torso which emerge through pockets in its lower back, and 4 which have a three-clawed fleshy grabber style head with a sucking capability which are set in the lower-torso primarily but emerge through pockets in the upper-back of its tail near the stem). Devon also has three tongues, two long, forked, snake-like ones, and a third canine-styled one between them (yet it can still speak - I don't pretend to figure how).

-OTHER THINGS-
Devon's eyes are unique, as you will notice. The blacked out socket effect was NOT copied from nor inspired by Renamon from Digimon fame, I just designed it that way.

Devon's final (current) incarnation bares a certain physical resemblance to ChimeraSynx's character "Raine Silves" specifically and SOLELY in the head and tail structure, for a good reason. I am a long-time admirer of Syn'x work and the Rain character, and found the structure of the head and tail just the distinct, non-generic concept I was looking for in Devon. You will note unlike Rain, Devon has horns, unique eyes, three tongues, and all kinds of parts through its tail that Rain doesn't.

Pronouns: he, his, he's. She, her, she's. IN-COR-RECT. I prefer "it" and "it's" for Devon, but some people seem to think this is somehow detrimental or derrogatory (it's my character, you'd think it'd be my choice). If you don't agree with "it" and "its", then hermaphrodite pronouns (shi, hir, hirs), are fine.

-IN CONCLUSION-
Anything not answered or addressed here is either;
A) None of your business
B) Not something I've bothered to think of
or
C) Forgotten in the process of writing this

You're welcome to ask questions if you have them but if the answer is covered in the preceeding I wont even bother to answer.


Author's note-
Anyone who thinks they can produce a quality rendition of Devon (obviously not including tentacles or mature parts) in 3D model form, especially in game-compatibility for Half Life 2, UT2k6, or SecondLife, is encouraged to contact me at devx[at]iinet.net.au as I would be willing to pay a considerable comission for such a thing to be produced.

My activity and/or presence from this date onward, until further notice, may become sporatic and brief.

This isn't a serious issue. Rather, I have decided to begin working on a singe-player modification for Half Life 2 which I'd been developing the concept for for a number of months now.

At this stage, the project is solo while I develop the map layouts and base configurations. But I will be seeking contributors at a later date.

As such, no offers of assistance/participation will be accepted at this time, but interest in participating/contributing is welcome for later consideration.

I will likely put up some WIP material such as screenshots and renders in time, however the bulk will be reserved for presentation on the project website when it is established later.

When I have more free time to sit and write it out, I'll put up a brief on the overall concept and features of the modification in a journal.

-DevX

Mapping.

No not documenting the geographical data of the real world. Mapping for games.

Only a handful of people would be aware that I even do it. Fact is I've been mapping since Carmack released the editor for Doom way back in the day.

I've mapped for everything from Doom and Duke Nukem 3D, to Heroes of Might and Magic and Starcraft, even mapped for games a lot of people don't even realize you CAN map for, like Ragnarok Online.

I've mapped for a fuckton of games, but only a handful of those have I ever been good with. It has a lot to do with the rythem of the editor software and freedom of the engine. Doom or Starcraft for example, very smooth rythem to the editors, decent amount of freedom for what you want to do (limited, obviously, but freedom and limitation are two different things).

Doom 3's editor is my current punisher. I've been working with this bitch since not long after Doom 3 actually came out. I'm still technically learning it; re-aquainting myself with it, more accurately, and christ if taking a long break from mapping in between helped any.

See between actual work shifts and other commitments, I'm actually trying to put together a nice, clean, original map for Doom 3 that lives up to my own tastes. And finding myself drowning in inspiration for it, but starving for enthusiasm to do it.

See I know how to do what I want to, for the most part. I know how good it will look/play when I do it. I know it's going to be impressive to the end-user if I release it. But at the end of the day, I know how much work it takes, and how much trouble I could have if the editor and/or engine doesn't want to cooperate with any given element one after another to get to that stage.

As if that wasn't enough, I'm lonely. And no I'm not asking no one to come keep me company, I'm lonely because the people I choose to spend my time with, normally, are pissing me the hell off lately. All of them. One way or another, they're all fucking pissing me off, and I'm half-tempted to decide it's deliberate.

I'm not going to sit around and name names or divulge details on anything. I'm just saying it as simply as I can, and to those people who know damn well how close they're /supposed/ to be to me, take note of this: you're all pissing me off, badly, and I'm damn close to telling you all to go hell.

You can only push me so far before I push you the fuck away.

Going back to work.

Medically cleared finally, returning to the workforce. Can't say too much about it for security reason, but I'm going back to my old on-site tech job at a local ISP. Thankfully it's all technical work, couldn't be arsed doing the software side anymore honestly.

Anyway. Pay's not great, hours are half-fucked, but I'll still be online around about as much due to the nature of the job.

So it's not like I'm suddenly not going to be around as much. More that I'll be popping in and out of activity frequently more than anything. Well, and I wont be able to just spontaneously hop on games or anything if asked.

That's about it.

This is gonna be a mess. I can't be arsed composing this into a neat thing. Too much crap on my mind.

So. I've been like, anti-social lately because I'm having medical problems. Long story short, when I'm actually concious, I'm either pissed, tired, depressed, all three at once, or too busy trying to spend time with my mates to give a fuck otherwise.

On the few sporadic occasions I've been social, I'd like to say thanks to my loved ones, not just Fur and Shim- Era, Mat, Bijoux, Hoshi (even though you dont come here), thanks guys. You've kept me in one piece when my loves aren't around, and that's not easy.

To the few artists around I've contacted about/discussed with the possibility of comissions; keep the info in your back pocket. I have to sort out some things before I go ahead with comissions. Prioritizing and all that.

If anyone's been considering doing a gift pic for me or something, or just generally drawing one of my characters- note me about it. I could use the cheering up, but I'm not begging.

I've been building my home on my land in SL. The building is finished- just sorting out the last of the furnishings. But I'm not about to tell you where it is, heh. I know some folks have been looking for me on there, so here's the deal; I'm not actually on /that/ much. Whenever I have nothing better do- or when I think of something to do. Still, if you're really determined to find me, it's not hard. For that matter, I put my SL name on my userpage.

I haven't been playing much Horizons at all.
I'm reconsidering trying out WoW again..dunno.
I found my UT2k4 dvd. But I'm yet to bother playing it.

That brings me to a random mini-rant. I checked it the other day, moved all my games into one core folder, and tallied it up. I have about 70GB worth of games on my system. I play maybe two of them with any frequency. Makes you wonder just how much crap you have on your computer that's only there because you /think/ you want it there, when in actuality there's absalutely no reason to it.

Oh. The Dev-based LGD "Devyl" is still going to be coming out...we got sidetracked. The referrence material is actually just about done, just a few bits left. Probably finish it up in the next few days.

I've cooked up three new characters in the last..two weeks-ish. Totally bizarre for me. One of them was a fad though. Arts of the other two might pop up now and then. One definetly - my skunk, Kaesey.

It sounds so emo, but I keep waking up..and my first thought is wondering why I bothered to wake up. 'course then I immediately think of Fur and Shim and that's that fixed.

Dunno what I'd do without my loves. Well..no, I do. It's just too dramarama to speak of.

All my love to my Fur and Shimmy.

Nervously you take one last quick-check over your shoulder around the street, self-concious someone's watching you, before you slip into the LGD store quickly.

You breathe a sigh and relax your muscles as the tinted glass gives you some sense of security, you roll your eyes and stretch your neck as if a weight had been lifted off, and soon enough your vision is wandering the interior, studying the store displays, the posters strewn all over the walls, product photos of the various models of Living Gasm Drive the store stocks.

You spend a while looking around, your mind racing with endless possibilities with any given model, and you soon realize how spoilt for choice you are with the rapidly growing range of models.

But you find yourself realizing with a half-crushing inner kick that you're confused now, with so many models available, any one of them promising to be immensely enjoyable and more than capable of delivering, you can't choose, it seems almost cruel that you should have to.

You notice a few posters grouped together of a model with no price, and quickly move to the counter where the scantily clad attendant greets you. You're crestfallen to discover the model is an exclusive and the posters are just for eyecandy, but this leaves you curious.

"Are there any models you just dont advertise?" you inquire hopefully, seeking something even better, if only slightly, to break the tie and make up your mind for you. You're crestfallen again to learn what is on show is what there is, but the clerk invites you to the open development labs downstairs to see the up and coming models if it helps.

You waste no time making your way down there, temporarily forgetting all about having to choose one for now and thinking only of what wonders are yet to come. You find display tubes containing the prototype. exhibition models of LGD's that are marked 'in development' and 'coming soon', you even recognize who the majority of them are based on.

As you make your way to the end of the exhibition corridor you find a door, not completely closed, marked 'staff only'. Your natural curiosity and the lack of supervision wins over your morals for the moment as you slip past the door and close it lightly behind you, then stop to look what you'd entered.

You see more advanced variations of tubes descending from the ceiling with incomplete and 'blank' looking models. You realize this must be where the actual development is done.

You hear a voice, an almost disgruntled one, and seek obscurity behind a nearby console as two individuals walk into the open area, their exchange mutual, choice remarks striking out in your mind,

"We'll have to keep it locked down"
"It's way too much for anyone to handle"

The individuals move on to another area soon enough, but you don't care anymore. Your mind is racing with curiosity and excitement, an LGD that /no one/ could handle? Is it dangerous? Is it just too energetic and entusiastic? You have to know why no one could handle it.

You quickly search the way the people had came from, and find another door. It isn't locked, so you pass through and follow the proceeding corridor to its length through another door, into a small, enclosed, darkened area.

You find a solitary devlepment tube here, but this one is different. A bit larger, and framed with extremely strong looking hydraulically locked bars and crossbeems. You know this is it, but you can't see what's inside without more light.

You search quickly, almost desperately now, anxious to sate your curiosity. You find a light control, or what you think is one, and thoughtlessly flick the switches on it.

You slowly step back from the console and wait a moment. No lights come on. Nothing seems to happen. You're confused; you're sure something should have happened atleast. You look over the console again and find a set of common-looking keys hanging from a lock in the console, the owner having carelessly left them in place.

You blink at the radiaction-symbol keychain, but shake your head and go the last step, grabbing and turning the key excitedly. And are made to recoil in shock as you hear a powerful hiss of hydraulic depressurization.

You stumble back and snap your attention to the tube, half excited, half scared, as the bars and crossbeams locking-down the tube slowly lift and open from it, and the tube itself parts in half, the upper lifting up and away, the lower back and down, leaving a silhouette in a standing pose, legs strait and crossed foot before foot, arms folded up across the chest, head lowered.

The head lifts, you're taken aback by the surprise of two pairs of eyes from the same head igniting in two different shades of soft blue, you hear a combination of canine rumble, vermin chitter, and unspecific murr mixed into a single unique sound, softly issuing from the figure as its gaze seems to angle right at you.

You fall back as a soft, snake-like hissing and slithering issues from it, as a collection of what you can only imagine are tentacles, equally silhoutted, emerge from places in the figure's back and hover around it at various angles and arcs.

You finally see the lightswitch - you're still mixed in terror and excitement, you feel like you weigh a ton, but you /have/ to see this thing properly, even if it's the last thing you might do.

You scamper to the console and slap your paw at the switch repeatedly, but you hear a surprised sound from the figure and snap your vision across as you hear a jingle, and find one of the people from earlier just in time to see them turn the key back to the locked position, and turn your attention to see the tube and cage re-lock-down around the figure, who you can only imagine goes dormant again.

You look back across only time to find a pair of paws grab your collar and pull you to your feet, and a very angry muzzle in your eyes. "What the hell were you doing!?" Furball yells at you, "didn't you read the damn sign!? You can't be down here! Do you have any idea what that could have done to you!?"

You're too scared at this point to answer, but it seems you don't need to as you find yourself pulled out of Furball's hold and pushed away, you steady on your feet and look quickly to find DevX and Nek0gami standing with her now.

"Idiot kid.." Furball mumbles. "They didn't know any better" DevX speaks, moving toward the tube to check it. "Think w'should punish 'em?" Neko inquires, looking over at you cynically, though with a certain playfullness. "Nah, just kick 'em out" Furball speaks, looking over at you next. "It's dormant again" DevX is heard to speak in the background, "that was pretty close though".

"What was that..?" you choke out nervously, backing toward the door already just in case. "That? That was none of your business" Furball snorts unamusedly, before huffing and moving to join DevX.

Neko moves over to you, going about closing the door on you, but speaking in the meantime, "just head back up to the store, we'll let this slide"
"What was that though?" you insist the question, you need to know, but Neko leaves you with no answer and closes the door...


LGD-666 Experimental Model "Devyl" - coming soon


The LGD / Living Gasm Drive concept was created by and copyright to Nek0gami, as is the character named. Furball is copyright herself, LGD-666 Experimental "Devyl" is copyright to me.

And yes, in case I was too cryptic (yeah..right), there's an LGD based on Dev about to come out of the works. be afraid. XD

People seem to keep asking me, "who would you like to draw you" or some variation thereof. Now I've never been a fan of this question because it promotes favouritism; which I don't like. But hell, you can only get asked a question so many times before the braincell that has "no" stamped on it bursts.

So here it is. The list of individuals who's style appeals to me so greatly I would like nothing more than to see them draw Dev someday is, as follows;

blade
ChimeraSynx
ColeSutra
Dark_Nurse
Emm
Gabe
Glenn
LittleBlueWolf
Moonstalker
Nek0gami
SurfingCharizard
Syrinoth
Winstar

Dont like, have an anurism if you're not on the list or something. If you're on my watchlist, I like your work. These are just the people who's personality and style appeal to me on a massive scale.

So there it is. Now stop askin' me.

Okay, first a bit of an apology for jumping around with this ref on myself so much. We've been working out the last few bugs in the coloring and whatever, but it's definetely finished now.

I'm taking down the "old" version and re-uploading a fresh, finished one, with some proper textual info in the description this time.

So, yeah.

Everyone else is doing it. Hell, my lovey even has now. So why not?

Ask me a question. Go for the gusto. Can't guarentee the answer will be logical/sane though.

-Foreword-
I went into this game expecting something, and got more than I expected for once. That said something in itself, to me. I'll say now that I'm not very far into the progression of things, but I have learned all of the core principles and mechanics of the game.

-What is it?-
Horizons is (yet another) MMO out there. It's not very new, nor is it revolutionary. But it is, original, and distinctifies itself through a number of qualities lacking in other games.

In no small way, one of the most distinct qualities of Horizons is the ability to play as a true Dragon race character, beginning as a hatchling, developing and growing into an adult, going through a rite of passage to get there. The mechanics of the Dragon race alone are very well thought out and produced.

Another exceptional quality to its credit is definetely the crafting system. This must have been the bulk of development on this game, in my opinion, for the sheer depth and detail of it. Not only that, but as engrossing and massive as it is (and perhaps a little complex at first), it does become a very smooth mechanics, and allows for a much greater freedom and creativity of production than other titles. One of my favourite aspects for sure is the detail in the system; you don't go scavanging materials to make things. You have to locate and acquire the scribes (designs) for anything you wish to make, then mine/gather the RAW materials, and process them into usable materials via an appropriate workstation, and finally produce the goal-item of the process on another appropriate workstation. The act of using these skills alone increases them, besides other things, and your level and experience in gathering, processing, and production has a real impact on the entire process.

-The Mechanics-
The interface is a little clumsy, in my opinion, but effective nonetheless. Atleast, it's nowhere near as confusing or simply stupid as some, and atleast a decent amount of thought seems to have gone into grouping tabs into the various boxes to eleminite the need for dozens upon dozens of them.

The game mechanics themselves aren't exceptionally polished, but still rather nice. One thing I do rather like about the system is it has a proper concept of range and reach, and after instructing your character to attack, you can adjust your position and move around, in and out of range, to juggle effectiveness between your own attacks and the enemy(ies).

The levelling system is rather well considered as well. Rather than a dozen plain generic stats, stats are subgrouped under a handful of major qualities, where each quality is responsible for various aspects of the character, and some relate and link insyncronously.
Basically, it's more of a "growth" system than a levelling system, and not linear either; the development of your class(es) and certain special conditions (such as the size of your horde as a dragon) have direct effects on bonuses as each level is reached; linear levelling still works, but those of us who like to put some real work into it are aptly repayed for the effort.

-Quality-
This is where it gets a little grey, unfortunately. The core rendering engine used for Horizons is a bit disappointing. Even in the higher detail settings at high resolutions, the graphics are still a bit rough and crude, even ugly in places. Though this is not entirely the fault of the renderer; some in-game materials, meshes and textures, are still of "placeholder" quality.
No doubt, the game will look better in time, but unfortunately, unless they change core rendering engines (which is very, very doubtful, in any case), it wont improve too much.
This is unfortunately only compounded by the fact the renderer demands more hardware performance for the high resolutions and quality-settings than the actual visual quality it's delivering. Don't go into this game expecting to play something that looks as good as Guildwars or RF Online, you'll be disappointed. But in its credit, if you have hardware than can handle the unbiased loads of the game to turn the quality settings right up and at high-end resolution, it looks better than WoW or XI (which doesn't say much, frankly, but improvement is improvement).

Sound I wont comment much on. The soundtrack isn't very appealing to me, honestly. But it's original nonetheless. Sound effects probably could do with some polishing, but they handle themself well.

-Compatibility-
I'm quite happy to say Horizons is quite 'cean', compared to some MMO's. It has its quirks and issues, like any game, but it handles itself very well in the compatibility department.

-Networking-
Okay, this I do have a bit of a beef with. The servers themselves are quite healthy, and the user loads (on ANY server), are very, very good (high enough to have plenty of people to talk to and play with, without loading down the server), BUT;
The game doesn't seem to perform as well on bandwidth as other MMO's. That's not to say it's a bandwidth hog, it just doesn't seem to handle itself very well. Almost as if it transfers slower than it needs to at any given time. This doesn't implicitly damage the gameplay or experience, but I can see how it COULD cause frustrations at a point, in certain situations.

-Overall-
Horizons is a very well thought out, quite original, very enjoyable MMO, which has definetely been geared for those who a) like a -real- challenge in their MMO, or b) are looking for something different. Or, frankly, c) anyone who wants to play as a dragon, and have it be very believable and enjoyable an experience, and not simply a gimmicky thing.
It looses points only in the mildly rough visuals, and network handling.

% o/o 100?
85% as a frank, honest figure;
95% on faith if they'll improve the visuals a bit.

Peace.

Hah.

Added additional information to the profile on my userpage including contact details. Go have a read if it interests you, my policies and such are there.

Peace.

Okay. Questions I keep getting asked. Questions I have been asked. Questions questions QUESTIONS.

Here are some answers. :3

I am - 23 years old, this is on my profile page even.

I am - Female, ohnoes.

I am - German, born in Northeim, lived in a few countries on my way to and currently reside in, Australia.

I smoke, but I'm trying to quit. Although some of my characters smoke and I like it that way.

I drink, and I'm trying to quit..again.

I do not hate everyone and everything. This is a misconception that seems to have been spread by select individuals who I did not, in any form, find tolerable, to their utter disbelief, apparently.

I am not unsocial, nor do I avoid socializing due to any conception of superiority over other people. I am simply a selectively talkative person. Period.

I don't comment a whole lot - GET OVER IT. It's not because I can't be bothered, and I do not fav things purely for a porn content (christ, a fair ratio of what I fav isnt even porn, for hell's sake). I SIMPLY DONT FEEL LIKE IT MOST OF THE TIME. If I FEEL like commenting, I will. Period.

This seems to come up one way or another all the time, so-

My favourite characters 'n stuff-

Dorumon & DoruGamon (Digimon)
Flamedramon (Digimon)
ExVeemon (Digimon)
Renamon (Digimon)
Gargoylemon (Digimon)
Guilmon (Digimon)
-
Charizard (Pokemon)
Ninetails (Pokemon)
Zangoose (Pokemon)
Nidoking (Pokemon)
Dragonair (Pokemon)
Dewgong (Pokemon)
Scyther (Pokemon)
Mew (Pokemon)
Mewtwo (Pokemon)
Quilava (Pokemon)
Typhlosion (Pokemon)
Houndoom (Pokemon)
Gardevoir (Pokemon)
Lairon (Pokemon)
-
Bahamut (FF8)
Freya (FF9)
Hellknights (Doom 3)
Aeris (VG Cats)
Xenomorphs (Aliens)
-
Moonlight (RO)
Isis (RO)
The Paper (RO)
Civil Servant (RO)
Baphomet (RO)

Yes - I have an appreciation for all them, and I find them all physically attractive, deal with it.

And, No - I will not list out the characters of individual/popular artists that I like in this manner. Deal with it.

-end.

"Patience and faith hold a relationship together. Loose one and the relationship will have problems; loose both and the relationship will fail."

"One can only hold something for another person for as long as one knows it should be held"

"Five minutes spent in love can forgive five years spent alone."

1. What Happened
People, and my art, were disappointing me, my life was going through a rough patch, amongst other things, none of which I'm going to go into. I made a judgement call- rather than going all emo and shit, I shut down for a while, cleared my head, whatever.

2. Am I coming back
Yes. I'm technically back now, but I'm still deciding my position at this time. I have no answer as to whether or not I will be returning to my digital works, however I am no longer going to be mapping or modding for games, I've given that up for good. As to more standard digital works and editing, and whatever, I don't know, we'll see.

3. What happened with the competition
It kind of went to hell, obviously. I'm sorry. I had every intention of following through with it as my word was given, but everything just went to hell on me. I really am sorry. And I want to say right now that I both greatly enjoyed, and appreciate every entry I recieved, and I encourage all those who entered to put up their entry and be proud of them. For record's sake, my spouse Fur and I chose two equal winners and a runnerup. The runnerup was Shakeidas (sorry if that's spelled wrong), man your entry was so original and distinct, I couldn't pass it by. We love it, and though I wont be using it officially, I want to express how much we liked it.

The joint winners were BijouxDeFoxxie and Cadaver, the former for her sheer dedication to getting an antry in despite the situation she was faced in, and making it impressive none the less, and the latter for creating the single most original colorscheme that's ever been put on Dev to date.

I will not be using either of these schemes either, in the end, but the props are majorly due, to all three of you.

Everyone else, please don't misunderstand, we both liked your entries and I personally approve of every one of them. I couldn't have chosen one to use if I had to, they were all more than good enough to me.

Lastly, I'd just like to express my appreciation to those who expressed any concern or curiosity over my temporary disappearence.

Where I go from here I am not entirely certain yet, but I'm back, for whatever it's worth.

-Dev