Yesterday I 'updated' the driver for my graphics card (ATI Raedon Xpress 200M).  Now any time I try to do anything in-game it doesn't take long for either my screen to simply die or for me to get the blue screen of death and the computer restarts.

Any suggestions?

J-Kwik

The sun slowly set over the rooftops, giving way to a dark moonless sky leaving the streets of the Barrens illuminated by only the flickering, waning light of the struggling lamp posts. Soft drizzle hung in the air more than falling, whipped up by the ever present breeze that swept between the urban ruins. In the distance the growl and snarls of battling engines were harmonised with the high pitched screeches of rubber trying to cling to wet asphalt. The sounds of battle grew louder and they came to meet the welcoming cheers of an increasingly enthusiastic crowd.

In the centre of the road a busty, scantly clad young woman stood confidently before the oncoming stampede. In her hands she held a thin chequered flag, high above her head. As the first of the beasts stormed by her she thrust it down, waving it around her body in greeting as the pack past and screeched to a halt in the space vacated by the baying fans. The last car came to a stand still and one by one the now gently purring engines fell silent.

The fans swarmed the winning vehicle and its driver emerged, triumphant. A tall, dark, muscular young figure glad in a thick purple seaman jacket, dark jeans and gleaming white sneakers held its fists high and hollered along with the crowd as he slowly came down off his adrenaline rush. The crowd parted around him as he made to move out into what had become the base of the nights events.

"Who said they were gon' beat me!? Who!?" he called out to the other drivers. He laughed heartily as each in turn shied away from his gaze. "Yeah I thought so. Pay da man!" He smiled broadly displaying a full mouth of proud white teeth while he extended his hand. One by one his opponents or their chosen representatives stepped out to reluctantly place bundles of cash into the champions grasp. "Yeeeah, that's what I'm talkin' about!" he proclaimed once more before strutting confidently back to his car.

"Yo J!" a voice called out.

Jason Bain turned to face the familiar sound and spotted an old friend come into view. "Wussup Zeek?" he called back. The pair embraced briefly.

"That was the bomb man." Zeek announced.

Jason laughed, "Well they sure don't call me J-Kwik fo' nothing, ya hear me."

"Yeah, I hear dat bro. I still dunno how you do it though."

"Ah, ya know, the world just can't keep up with me. That's all there is."

"Oh fo sho."

In the distance the wailing of sirens began to slowly encroach, further drowning the exuberant crowd with every passing second.

"Cops!" someone called out. As one the crowd piled into gathered vehicles and sped away in every direction, leaving only the slowly dying embers of discarded cigarettes and the faint oder of petrol and burnt rubber as evidence they'd ever been there.

Asamodai sat in the Yakusai's mess hall.  He poked and prodded at a cold pan of runny gunk with a dented, beaten metal spoon.  Occasionally he'd scoop up a spoonful and choke it down.  The door opened with a pained creak, the space it once filled being taken by a tall, broad, familiar figure.  Bronco, the ships operator stepped inside and swept up another pan from the side.  Asa was happy to see him.  He still wasn't sure how his old friend had found him, he hadn't seen him in the best part of a year but he hadn't got to asking.  All he knew was he was glad he was there.  The big guy slid his pan across the table, sending a dull scraping noise echoing around the room and sat down, sweeping his long, greasy hair over his shoulder.

"What's up?" he asked.  Asa continued playing with his food, looking down at it unresponsively.  "...Asa?" he continued, lowering his head to try to make eye contact.  Asa shook suddenly, snapping back to reality and looking across at his friend.

"Oh, hey Bronco.  How's it going?"

"Fine.  I was just asking you.  You look preoccupied."

Asamodai waved his spoon dismissively before plunging it back into his food.  "Nah, it's nothing.  Don't worry."

"You think I'm gonna fall for that?"

Asa sighed, shaking his head a little and looking down into his food again.  "Do you ever feel like...I dunno, like you've been left behind?"

Bronco frowned slightly and motioned for Asa to continue.  The redpill looked back at him and the pair shared a short silence.  "Well, care to elaborate." The freeborn said.

Asa sat up, pushing his hands into the table and looked around the room at everything but the person opposite.  "It's like, there's this whole new generation of operatives and..." he finally turns his gaze back towards Bronco. "They're already running rings around me." His head drops again, "I just feel kinda, obsolete ya know?"

Bronco nods slowly, carefully taking in each word.  Gradually the nods changed to shakes, "No, no no no Asa.  You can't worry about some new hot shot.  They may be good but you've got experience and that's so much more."

Asa shrugged a little.  "Yeah, guess you're right.  Thanks."

"No problem." Bronco replied, smiling and lifting his pan to his mouth to slurp down the last of the slop.  He got up and made to walk away.  "You coming?"

"Yeah, in a minute."

"Ok, there's something came through I think you should see when you can."

Asa nodded.  "Ok, I'll be right there." 

Just thought I'd put that word in big so no-one thought I was selling a normal oracle cookie.

I won a stack of these yesterday and already had 4 so now I have 4 more that I'd rather not have taking up an inventory slot.

So, basically taking whatever the best offer I can get for any number of them is.

Ok so us at Pluribus Neo were going through this new data miner stuff and I found one of these.

The Experiance Code Amplifier is used to give you a 10% XP boost towards your next level.

However, they're non-tradeable.  Now, considering the NPC's we were killing to get to them were often level 50+ themselves, it's fair to assume 50s would be obtaining these items.  I'm sure I don't have to point out that an XP boost to a 50 is rather useless, yes?

Soooo, whoevers in charge of such things.  Can you make these items tradeable?

Well, technically this isn't entirely valid for about another 2 hours now but I'm bored so...

Happy Birthday Ettaric!

See you tomorrow.  

Ok so I had this little idea earlier so I thought I'd put it out there.

The idea is basically that you could create interactive emotes for interlock moves.  One person asks, the other accepts and it plays through the move and, yeah, thats basically it.

The basic idea being that it could be really helpful for taking screenshots, movie filming and RP situations.

So, wadaya think?

Hey all.  In celebration of my recent move to EPN I'd like to Comission a new sig if anyone wants to give it a bash.

There could be some monotary reward, I haven't decided.

I took a few screens too, it's up to you whether to use them or not.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a...amodai/zSU1.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a...amodai/zSU2.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a...amodai/zSU3.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a...amodai/zSU4.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a...amodai/zSU5.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a...amodai/zSU6.jpg

I have wandered this city for years and viewed it from many sides, through both ignorant and enlightened eyes.  Now once more my path has twisted in a manner Inot long ago I would have believed it never could and I find myself almost back where I started.

Let me explain.  Like so many, my first experiances of freedom came from Zion.  It was them who freed me, took me into their home, trained me and allowed me to fight in their name.  Fight I did, for over a year and I still bear the scars to prove it.  I followed my orders.  I stole what they told me to steal, I rescued who they told me to rescue and I killed who they told me to kill.  It seemed to go fine. They rewarded my obediance, money, power, the usual.  It felt like a purpose.  For the greatest time I was...happy.  My sister had been awakened shortly after me and together it felt like we were taking on the world, side by side. 

She's gone now.  Taken but the self-righteous blue tide that plagues this city.  I admit, I fell apart.  For months I was a wreck, I'll be ever thankful to those who pulled me though it.  Nehamiah, Gavrael, Kelder, Almore, Dawn, know that wherever you are now I owe you more than you could ever know.  A couple of acts of rebellion against  Zions leadership later and I'm on my own stolen ship with a few close allies, running from the same people I fought beside. 

I end up fighting for the Machines, seeing it as merely the lesser of two evils with nowhere else to go.

Again for some time I felt like I had a purpose again.  I was taken in with the same holier than thou, protector of the week and innocent ideal that it seems every human who serves them has.  It's crap though.  I was no kind of righteous guardian, I was a prison guard, nothing more, like all the rest.

They betrayed me.  Tried to take everything that I had left.  I'd lost my family, my friends everything, they'd either died or abandoned me at some point.  My humanity was all I had left and I was damned if I would let them take that from me too.  So I defeated them, well, not so much me, but friends.  New friends, those who would star in the latest chapter of this obscure story. Ettaric, RedBindi, Cinders, Vaucanson and the rest of you.  Thank you for everything.

I've left them now.  I know some things about the Machines that put a whole new light on this city, a whole new angle to look in from.  

I know I'll be scorned by many from all sides.  Another terrorist they'll say.  It's ok though.  Maybe one day they'll understand and if they don't....well...it means little to me.

So, now you have the basics of my past and the future awaits.  Here, a record of the 4th chapter in the life of Asamodai.  The Humble Crusader I call it. 

All thats left is to see how it goes.  Something tells me it'll be a good one. 

Ok so I just tried to log in and it said my character is already in use.

I had someone else look and I do indeed register as being online.

However, I am not.

I dunno if it's a bug or something more sinister but if you see Asamodai around can you let me know?

((Mindstorm: An ongoing RP event that will genuinly determine the future of the Red Pill Asamodai.  It'll be taking place in game and over the forums.  For it's duration I'll be IC nearly 100% of my in game time.  I hope plenty of you are inspired to participate.  Now here, an opening.  Enjoy.))

The Eshean Projects fell into place around a lone figure. Dressed in a short, closed black jacket and black trousers, off set by gleaming white sneakers. His long white hair was tied up behind his head while stray strands fell about his angular dark shades.

Captain Asamodai had already been briefed. This was a assassination mission, pure and simple. He had a lone primary target, likely to be accompanied by a pair of secondary targets. They were exiles, devious ones. Agent Johnson had informed him about their hiding method, they were posing as a blue-pill family. They'd even acquired illegal devices capable of masking their code signature with that of a human still inserted into the system. It didn't matter though, they'd been found and their time was all but over.

Asamodai got his bearings and headed off. He kept his head down as he drew a black cloth from his back pocket. He shouldered his way through a ground floor door and pulled the cloth over his face, tying it at the back of his head. He entered an awaiting elevator. 6th floor he'd said. An innocent ping heralded the assassin's arrival. He walked out into the putrid corridor, drawing a compact pistol from inside his jacket. He checked it, loaded it, cocked it and screwed a slender silencer to the barrel.

Third on the right, 157, this was the place.

Asa knocked. It felt odd, yet somehow, efficient.

A middle aged Caucasian man opened the door. A secondary target. He seemed harmless. It was irrelevant.

Asamodai kicked out. The edge of the door shattered and splintered as a foot forced it's way through. The man fell to the ground as he took the end of the blow. He was shocked, scared, like a cornered animal. Fear lifted him from the ground and launched him at this assailant. He was slow, unskilled...normal.

Asamodai stepped aside, turned and caught the man around the back of the neck, grasping his chin. A swift jerk of the arm, a loud crack. One target eliminated.

"Honey?"

A woman, similar age. The other secondary. Two shots. Quick, precise, silent, efficient.

She slumped. Secondary objectives complete.

The door hung open. There he was. The primary objective. The child. He didn't look more than seven. He didn't look like he could harm a fly. It was a trick. They told you that. He's dangerous. He's crying. Why? Irrelevant.

One shot. He fell. Primary Objective achieved. Withdrawing from mission area.

Asamodai left. He removed the bandana from his face. Replaced the pistol in it's holster. Re-entered the elevator. That innocent ping. Ground floor. He left the building. Walked down the street. The hardline. It rang. He lifted the receiver. He faded away.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Three Agents stood forming the corners of a perfect equilateral triangle upon a downtown rooftop.

Agent 1: The mission?

Agent 2: A success.

Agent 3: The targets?

A2: All eliminated. Including secondary.

A3: Good.

A1: The Assassin?

A2: Operating at predicted efficiency levels. The implants have taken the expected level of control.

A1: Excellent.

A3: What of the creator?

A1: It's function is complete. It shall be returned to the Source.

A3: Agreed.

A1: Maintain surveillance of the Human.

A2: Primary objective received.

A1: Disperse.

The trio of each leapt away in separate directions, leaving no sign they were ever there.

Hi, I'm looking for Outerwear, Shirt, Pants, Shades and Gloves preferably between level 45 - 50 with thrown accuracy or damage buffs.

Send me a tell in game - Asamodai.

((Some people might know I tend to write quite a bit of MxO related stuff but I don't usually post here.  Anyway, I liked this last one I did and it effects some character issues so I thought I might as well.  It's set (well I started writing it) a few months ago while Anome was still about so there's a couple of past references.  It's all finished now too but rather then give it all in one big blok I'll post it in appropriate chunks.  Hope you enjoy.))

The last few months had been good to Asamodai. Life amongst the Machines was not half as bad as people in Zion would have you believe. It was pretty much the same, you set down in a different place when you needed to recharge your ship or pick up supplies.

He'd been assigned to the Straylight shortly after him and AmatsuKaiser had met with Agent Pace. They'd taken in his freeborn operator's Gabe and Bronco too. AK had been moved on shortly after. He went with the Starylight's old Lieutenant Traxada when the Machines gave him his own ship. Asa missed having the guy around, he'd gotton used to having him around, generally just stood quietly around the ship. They had promoted Asamodai in Traxada's place though and AK had taken the same role on his new ship. Yes, things definatly seemed to be looking up.

It had been operatives from these and other allied Machine ships that had rescued him from Asalius too. They had slain his spiteful little brother too. He appreciated it of course, it would have been him or them, but if everything Asalius had told him while he had him imprisoned was true, it meant Asamodai had no family left at all, awake or in the system. It was strange, he had abandoned his parents and the rest of his family long ago, but somehow, knowing they were at least half alive within the simulation brought him some comfort. He had for some time felt entirely alone here. But now, he had his new family and all the baggage he'd been carrying with him from Zion had simply faded away.

It felt like just another day, Asamodai had just awoken and devoured a pan full of nutritionally enriched slop. Sure a lot of people complained about the food around here but you got used to it, and you couldn't deny the health benefits. He strode through the ship and climbed the ladder up to the cockpit. He found Lady3Jane strapped into the pilots seat on the right hand side. He took a seat at the navigator's post beside her and strapped himself in too.

"Morning" the Captain greeted him as he sat down.

"How can you tell?" Asa replied with a joking smirk.

"I dunno, force of habit I guess." LJ laughed a little and shrugged.

"So, what's the plan for today?" Asa asked.

"Not a lot really. I may send a team to run a few sweeps, keep Anome's goons in check until we can finish this whole thing."

"So, do we have time for a little detour?

"Depends what you had in mind." LJ said, looking curious.

"My old ship. We abandoned it when we came aboard. There's a few things that should still be there I was hoping to get a chance to pick up." Asa looked at the navigation readouts on the screen in front of him. "It's not too far from here." his finger hovered over the screen briefly before dropping on a point. "Right there. At least...it should be."

LJ leaned over to her left and looked at the monitor where Asamodai was pointing. She gave a quiet hum and nodded. "Yeah I think we can slip over there. You planning on being long?"

Asa shook his head "Nah, just in, grab a few things, out."

LJ nodded again. "Ok, get yourself ready we'll be there soon."

"Thanks, I owe ya one." Asa said, undoing his harness and climbing down back into the bowls of the ship.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Little under an hour passed before the internal comms flared with the sound of the Captains voice.

"We're here Lieutenant. I'm just setting her down."

"Great, I'll be on my way out." Asa picked up a bag and a thick jacket and headed towards the rear access hatch. He passed some of the other crew on the way out. Terracus, DoubbleSix and Lojix were carrying out a little routine maintenance on the power lines running up the ship.

"Hey." Asa called to them.

The three of them snapped to attention. "Lieutenant?" they asked in unison.

Asamodai sighed, "As you were. For God's sake stop doing that." The other crewmen sniggered, they knew that kind of formality made the First Mate uncomfortable.

"Ha de ha. Now, how'd you guys like to help me grab a few bits from my old ship?"

They looked amongst themselves and seemed to all shrug at each other indifferently. There were murmurs of affirmation from the trio who grabbed jackets of their own and followed Asamodai out.

The four of them walked out of the Straylight and into a small cavern, only slightly bigger then the ship itself.

"Wow, nice spot." Terracus mused.

"Mmhmm. You have no idea how hard it was for me and AK to fit this in here. Seems to have kept it safe though." Asa replied.

The four of them got down to the rear access hatch and Asamodai placed his palm on a scanner, moments later the ramp lowered and the group got on board.

"So what are we after?" Lojix asked.

"You guys may as well take whatever you can salvage from the medical bay, the kitchen and engineering. I have a few things I wanna grab out of my old quarters."

The men nodded and somehow seemed to all know where they were gonna go.

Asamodai wandered through the old dark halls. A few moments later the lights came on.

"I guess one of them reached engineering." he said with a shrug and kept going. It wasn't long before he was pushing open the heavy door to his old sleeping quarters. He laughed at the still unmade bed and the items of clothing still left under his chair. He picked them up and stuffed them into the bag he'd brought. Then he reached under the bed, pressing his head to the floor and reaching right to the back wall. He smiled as he found the small metal box he'd tucked away. He opened it up and rifled through the contents. Just a few little things, including a sketch of him and Asania his old friend Almore had drawn long ago. It brought back memories and for a few minutes he was lost in his happier past. He snapped out of it as he heard the others clanging around upstairs. He stuffed the box into his bag with the rest of his things and headed back upstairs.

He ran into Lojix carrying a crate full of medical supplies and DoubleSix with the emptied out contents of the ships food stores.

"We're just headed back." Lojix stated.

"Ok, where'd Terracus go?" Asa asked.

"He went down to the engine room like you suggested." 66 replied.

"Ok, I'll go grab him. I promised LJ we wouldn't be long. I'll see you back on the ship." Asa said and headed back down to the engine room as the other went back to the Straylight.

A couple of minutes later Asamodai found Terracus digging around picking out discarded tools and spare parts. His bag was heaving as the young man tried to lift it over his shoulder.

"Wow, I didn't realise I'd left this much." Asa mused.

Terracus got to his feet, just noticing that he had company. "Yeah just a bit. LJ will be happy with it. We won't need to restock back at the outpost for a while."

"Well, you take that lot up. I'll grab a few last bits and be up in a minute."

"Ok, see ya later." Terra said, hulked the bag over his shoulder and making his way out. Asamodai dropped his partially filled bag and started collecting a few more parts. He reached down and picked up an object in a black bag he didn't recognise.

"What the hell is this?" he asked himself as he slid it out of a bag. As soon as he touched it's surface a screen lit up with the number 1:00. "Huh?" the number turned to :59. "Oh *poop*!" he yelled, tossing it away and sprinting for the access ramp, jumping down ladders and dashing down corridors.

Feet from the access ramp it detonated. The explosion tearing through the ship, bringing the ship and the cavern in on itself.

I've noticed it seems that there are suits that come in some colours of which there aren't matching coloured slacks.  It seems rather odd to me why you'd do that in the first place but ok.  The main thing I'm referring to is a Deep Indigo/White Machello suit that I really like but can't find any matching trousers.  I'm pretty sure I have a couple of other suits that don't have matching trousers too.

Can't be too difficult to make a couple of clothing changes and add them to the vendors can it?

OOC:  Ok, I thought I'd make a brief note of this.  Asamodai, is a bit different to most Machinists in that he sympathises with some members of 'known terrorist' groups.  Most notably certain members of Opus Neo and a couple of Pluribus Neo.  Given the recent happenings of PET 1.1 Asamodai has been spurred into assisting said members.  Obviously though his Machinist bosses wouldn't think to highly of him doing so so he's been forced to work somewhat, undercover. 

So, when dressed like so:-

Please treat Asamodai as being disguised and largely unrecognisable, what with his hair and large areas of his face being obscured as well as very uncharacteristic clothing.

Thanks.

So I had a simple idea for some fun content.

I for one, really enjoyed running the various neighbourhood contact missions.  I liked the uniqueness of many of the missions, the fun situations you would get into and the basic interaction between certain contacts.  Unfortunatly though I've finished them all now.

What I was thinking though is that these missions of course don't contibute to organisational reputation.  So how about creating a group of similar mission contacts that do carry affiliation to certain organisations.  Imagne say that Agent Gray doesn't have anything too exciting for you to do at the time, but another Agent or High ranking security program or another Machinist Redpill in the area is having trouble with, for example and EPN leader.  Then said contact would have a bunch of unique missions to carry out for them.

The advantages I see to this being that it'll provide new missions for people to run, provide a new way of gaining organisational reputation and would be able to be used by players of all levels.  It could also mean that there could be missions where say Machinist's can come into conflict with Cypherites (something that doesn't happen in standard missions).  Also, there could be specific EPN and Cypherite contacts allowing players from these sub-orgs to actually carry out their own missions instead of just Zion and Machine ones.

I imagne there could be one for each organisation in each district, each with say 5 missions.

Some of these could even possibly take the form of now inactive LESIG members and could also later become LE characters in the same way that the current mission contacts sometimes do.

So, what do people think?

Hey, I'm wondering if anyone has a pair of deep indigo slacks or pinstripes.

No buffs necessary.

Hey,

Ok, here's the details, I'm a level 50 Machinist on recursion and am now level 18 here, looking for an RP based faction.

What have you guys got?

Ok, sometimes I don't want to be dressed in a sharp suit or some long closed trench.  I want someting more casual.

I also don't want to have to wear some gawdy hoodie or fatsuit to get a pair of jeans.

So basically wondering, how many people would support the addition on male jeans to MxO?

Also, maybe a little dev feedback.  How difficult would it be to detach the jeans designs from ROCAwear and add them as individual clothing items?

Ok, so I finally got round to making myself an alt over here.  I just finished the intro zion missions and I'm now looking for a Mero or maybe mach, (preferably Mero) faction to join.

I know it's a PvP server but a faction that doesn't mind a little RP from time to time would be great.

Also be good to have some people who play semi-normal GMT times so I don't get bored on my own.

Character name is Zerinmodai.

A black misene collarless panel trench to be exact, but that seemed like a lot to put in a title.

Buffs aren't important but the more the better.

Yeah, typically I found one on Syntax so I know they exist, I realy want one here though.  Havn't been able to find one anywhere though.

Buffs aren't important but the more the better.

Asamodai in-game if anyone finds or can make one.

Hey, I need a few people to help with something I have planned. 

You need to be have a free character slot and be willing to be a villian.

E-mail or send a tell to Asamodai ingame or post here if you're interested.

Half the world is sleeping, while half the world's awake.  Whoever it was who made the world has made a big mistake.

I don't know why but I remember that now.  Just the first part of some poem I knew as a kid has been cycling through my head for weeks.  I can't even remember the rest of it.

It's a funny ol' world, don'tya think.  One day life is just that, life.  The same comfortable repetition.  Waking up in the same bum apartment, going to the same sterile office.  Then, without anything changing, everythings different.  I don't know how to explain it.  Kinda like being drunk.  Just for a few moments it feels like I'm dreaming.  I'm sure it happens to everyone.  What scares me though is how I feel when it happens.  So full of anger, so full of hate. Then the world falls back into view and I'm fine again.

Well, I say fine.  That's not quite the word.  I had one of these moments while being harassed by one of those *CENSORED* 'Blackwoods' outside my place.  For once I stood up to them.  I hit him.  He flew 10 feet.  I think I was more scared of me then he was then. 

I still don't quite understand what's going on.  What's happening?  Is it just stress?  Am I tired?  I took a train down to Camon Heights yesterday.  It's a nice neighbourhood.  Usually a long walk through the park and a sit down clears my head.  As I came out of the station, the heavens opened.  I don't know what came over me but I stipped to the waist right there and then and just stood in the rain.  It was strange, how everything had felt so fake, yet the rain felt so real.  The impact of it off my skin.  The feel of it sliding down and off me.  The sound of the thunder in my ears, the lighting in my eyes.

Anyway, I should get back to work.  It's funny the things you do when you're bored here.  Like find the exact map co-ordinates of random places. Well my place and work. Apparantly my place is Mara X: 117 Y: 21 Z: 103 and work is Tabor Park X: 731 Y: 1 Z: 423. 

Dunno why I even felt the need to mention that, but hey.  I'm bored and crazy, what are you gonna do?