when the diamonds fall, they burn like tears

[Broadcast] Lucki: WHAT IS IT ZOMBIE? WHAT ARE YOU ATTACKING?
[Broadcast] Lucki: ...TIMMY FELL INTO THE VOID AGAIN?
[Broadcast] Literal Lass: Come for the interdimensional dance party, stay for the damage!
[Broadcast] Literal Lass: All right, dance floor, I give, you have beaten me.
[NPC] War Witch: No comment.

(from the City of Heroes album; the deathing at the D.)

I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to adequately explain this. But about three weeks ago--you know, back when I had hope--some of the game developers behind City of Heroes had taken to hanging out in the D. Because they're mourning the loss of the game just as much as we are.

[Broadcast] Achaica: am I just not cool enough to see what's going on? :(
[Broadcast] Taren Knight: sometimes
[Broadcast] Dan the Dangerous: it really is the end of times, all rules have broken down
[Broadcast] Kana Illusory: this is lame
Light the Path has defeated Litany of SiIence
[Broadcast] Achaica: you mispronounced "awesome"
[Broadcast] Litany of SiIence: (( Might I be able to get a team so I don' die? ))

And me responding to another player asking a question (that I didn't save in chat):

[Broadcast] Literal Lass: (( Alexia: Noooo one knooooows. And seriously, that's true. Just mysterious spawning....things....that kill people. Which we can't see. Or defeat. Except occasionally through pets. Maybe. ))

(from the City of Heroes album; the deathing at the D.)

I didn't get a lot of good pictures to explain what was going on, but basically, one of the developers (Tunnel Rat, as it turned out) had dropped by, rezzed a bunch of things that could one-shot kill folks, turned on damage in the D, then left. It took people a bit to figure out what was going on. We had two things on our side:

• Pets could both see AND injure the random balls of energy;
• The hospital was just off the dance floor, so no one got booted from the zone if they got killed; and
• There's no XP loss in the D itself, because there's (supposedly) no deathing; the hospital's in zone because of holiday events. So, no matter how often we died, we didn't get XP debt.

At this point, folks were banding together, trying to find ways to kill things:

[Looking For Group] Celerin: All we have so far is 'Unaffected' though.
[Broadcast] Lucki: It's probably a bluff.
[Broadcast] Achaica: I'd call it "Lord British"
[Broadcast] Achaica: combat log says "poison gas"
[Broadcast] Achaica: it's apparently stronger than all of pocket d
[Broadcast] Lucki: Poison gas and soul burn is whats attacking our pets--but it doesnt say what our pets keep missing
[Broadcast] Literal Lass: I'm seeing Radiance Jump 2 and Light the Path defeating pets and people both
[Broadcast] Lucki: Whatever it is keeps moving around now and then like a person
[Broadcast] Lucki: MAYBE ITS A GHOST.
[Broadcast] Literal Lass: The D is HAUNTED!

(from the City of Heroes album; the deathing at the D.)

Some high-powered healers realized if they got on teams, they could just spam healing and keep people alive that way. It worked--after a fashion.

[Broadcast] Achaica: the DARKNESS
[Broadcast] Jessye Jaymes: Why did you use magic missile?

Ah, fellow geeks who speak my language. Always fun.

[Broadcast] Literal Lass: We're fighting the nothing. How existential.
[Broadcast] Lucki: Neverending stoooreeeee~
[Broadcast] Mind Spike.: Anyone know whats going on in here , i just logged on and pocket D is both on fire and damaging?))
[Broadcast] Literal Lass: One minute, I'm talking to War Witch, the next I'm on the dance floor getting hit by blue flame.

It got chaotic, I won't lie. We weren't exactly used to this.

(from the City of Heroes album; an angel statue in Founders' Falls.)

This is nothing to do with the deaths on the dance floor. This is a random image I'd planned to toss into a future entry. This will now exist as my brief comment on last week's Doctor Who (which is forward from this post, because I post-dated this post, so to be specific, it was "The Angels Take Manhattan").

Which I can't even discuss without major spoilers in ALL directions, but damn. Good, painful, intense, beautifully written, magnificently acted...but I did mention the painful, yeah? Yeah.

[Broadcast] Glacier Sagittarius: I have a feeling it's Dampening Field, the invisiable force that's normally in the corner by the red bar window.
[Broadcast] Glacier Sagittarius: Pets sometimes attacked it
[Broadcast] Achaica: pocket D is already drunk enough. you can tell because we're picking fights with nothing at all.
[Broadcast] Achaica: someone is enjoying omnipotence

(from the City of Heroes album; the unused design for upper-level Nemesis officer warhorse mounts. Steam-powered, of course.)

Another shot that has nothing to do with the deathing, but I have tons of these, and I'm going to toss up more--this was another dev in the D who came in, rezzed out these unused mount designs, and left after partying with us for a few hours. Essentially, these were planned from nearly the first, but, between one thing and another, never got implemented.

(from the City of Heroes album; the unused design for upper-level Nemesis officer warhorse mounts. Steam-powered, of course.)

As can be seen, you could sort of 'cheat' a sit on the back of the mounts by first flying up to about horse shoulder level, then choosing a sit-on-bench or sit-on-chair emote from the list. It mostly worked.

(from the City of Heroes album; another angle.)

The vents in the muzzle vented steam on occasion, and there was an ornate stovepipe 'tail' that spewed smoke, in addition to the flame-jet 'mouths' each warhorse had.

(from the City of Heroes album; another angle.)

And on occasion, people danced on them.

Also, after all that (and the chat captures anyone who's been reading along has already read through), I present to you why Champions Online remains, in my opinion, the lesser experience (on at least a social-game level):

vakarcs@tomika72: ddddddddddddddddddddddddd
the blaack panther@sharrief1: nice boob
the blaack panther@sharrief1: bbboobbas
the blaack panther@sharrief1: i love bboobs
Annika Ember@EmillyOrr: Ugh.
the blaack panther@sharrief1: i need a girlfriend
the blaack panther@sharrief1: i need a queen
Annika Ember@EmillyOrr: And you're looking for one in the Powerhouse??

To explain: the Powerhouse is in the main section of the city, and it's where people go to test out new powers, and see if they want to keep them if they've got choices between two. Mostly, though, it's a noob paradise, because most of the higher-ups just pick their poison and move on to other missions.

the blaack panther@sharrief1: big tiiiittes

Believe me, there was more, but I think those two short passages convince to illustrate the point. From quirky "Neverending Story" and D&D gaming references to..."i love bboobs". Yeah.