Bubbawheat

This may sound silly, but I just realized that how the secret message is implemented could affect people's voting. I think I may cut off the contest portion by Friday or extend the voting a couple more days - if no one guesses all of the messages before then. And you may change your votes after the answers have been revealed, just edit your original post.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to add one more extra mini-prize. I will be handing out three prizes of 1 million inf each to the most creative guesses, so if you can't figure it out the right way, feel free to guess your own way.

Nice stuff, you should come around here more often. I'll submit my Burnt Matchstick Tanker, the sole looker out of the matchbook. Here's pics/art and backstory.

And it turns out that I just had something come up today so I won't be able to make it tomorrow. But I will be on this Saturday night at 8pm or so to team.

We missed a couple people due to real-life butting in, but hopefully Techbot and Lousy Day will have time to submit something between now and June when eliminations start. Next month's theme is "Off Duty".


The Voting

Anyone can vote.
Everyone must vote for a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice.
1st choice will count as 3 votes, 2nd choice will count as 2 votes, and 3rd choice will count as 1 vote.
Voting will be open until Sunday night April 3rd at midnight Eastern time.

The secret messages are posted below all of the entries, you may change your votes at any time before the voting deadline, just edit your original post.

The Points

Everyone gets 10 points for entering.
After the voting is completed, the entrant who got the most votes will get 10 additional points plus 2 bonus points for winning the month, Second place will get 9 points, Third will get 8 points, etc.
Darth Delicious and Henri get 2 bonus points for their "Early Bird" entries.
These points will come into play starting in June.
The winner of this month will also get 10 million inf sent to them in-game through Gleemail.

Secret Message Contest

This is a secondary contest/game open to all. Each entry this month has a secret message inside it. Some are easy, some are more difficult. All of them are different from each other and the only clues are within the piece itself. Titles are listed above each piece where applicable. You can take a guess at as many of the secret messages as you wish.

The secret message contest is closed, answers at the bottom of this post

The winner of this contest is the one who correctly guesses the most entries. If more than one person correctly guesses the same number of entries, the tie will be broken by the earlier PM. If a guess is not exact, it will be determined by myself and/or the artist if the guess is "close enough". Artists may enter, but they don't get credit for guessing their own secret message. The winner of this contest will recieve 10 million inf sent to them through Gleemail. There will also be a consolation prize to the three most creative (yet wrong) guesses of 1 million inf each. The deadline for the secret message contest will be Friday April 1st by midnight. Then the answers will be revealed.

The Entries

"Rikti - Secret Message"

(animated GIF - if you can't see it correctly, the message reads: Incoming Message / Operation S K I R T / Qsfqbsf cpnc ... / xf buubdl Hbmbyz Djuz)
by Darth Delicious

"Who?"

by Henri

"Golden Bubba Wheatie"

by Tartyrsause


by Frozen Death / Battlewraith

"Xllusya needs your help!"

by Christopher Robin

"Two's Company. What's This?"

by Airhead


by Defiance Jones

And finally, not part of the FArt competition for voting purposes, but it is part of the secret message contest.

"Through the Looking Portal"

by Bubbawheat

The Answers

The funny thing is, I also have a level 50 MA/SR, my first character and 2nd 50 here on Pinnacle. But nowadays I'm so used to using MA solely to refer to AE.

With the number of entrants gone down to 7, I'd offer two possible suggestions: extend open entries through April and May, which might allow one or two people to return, and a small chance of someone new taking a shot. Or, start eliminations a month early, in May.

Either way, voting (and guessing) thread will be up tomorrow afternoon. Thanks to all who participated this month, sorry to those who couldn't make it.

And a quick reminder to Airhead and Defiance Jones (close enough to the deadline) to PM me the details of the secret messages today or tomorrow.

Dr. Aeon would be the person to PM. He has responded to me in the past to PMs, but there is a lot of subjects that he cannot answer due to marketing stuff, etc.

And as promised, this week's arc is:

Arc #271637 -
Welcome to M.A.G.I. -
An alternative first story arc for magic origin heroes. At Hero Registration you heard the jokes about Azuria always losing things. When she loses the entire M.A.G.I. vault, you must find out how and why.

Thanks CR, I was posting early before I went to work off the top of my head. I think that just means that Defiance Jones needs to post more often. Which by the way, so does Lousy Day.

Oh, and Airhead, I think massive server failure counts as extenuating circumstances, as well as giving prior notice. So posting it a little late is ok.

Nice one, and a day early to boot. Deadline is midnight tonight! There's still time Airhead, Lousy Day, Techbot and Defiance Jones! And it's still open to anyone else that wants to throw a quick piece together.

I've been having the same problem since I started trying the Demo Launchers - which was before the new launcher. That's been the main reason why I haven't used Demo Editing practically at all.

Ok, I think I'm gonna shoot for this Wed at 8pm Eastern. Post if you think you can make it. As an alternate night if Wed doesn't work, then this Sat at 8pm Eastern.

#CoHMA Playing Turg Fiction: Ghost in the Machine part 1 #1013 by @turgenev from my MA Arc club mission "play a dev choice arc"
#CoHMA Contact is a Refurbished Arachnos Console, published before contact bios, so no bio.
#CoHMA M1: Console is an old Arachnos training program. In it I'm supposed to destroy the Midnighters. Also, funny comment from Positron.
#CoHMA M1: Odd complaint, I don't like the fact that it's called "Part the First"
#CoHMA M1: Sendoff text is either parody of old computer loading messages, or a hint that something has gone wrong.
#CoHMA Continuing Turg Fiction: Ghost in the Machine part 1 #1013 by @turgenev
#CoHMA M1: Found a list of names of higher ups in the Midnight Squad, and am heading to defeat Dirigins Gin'zago
#CoHMA M1: During the fight with Gin'zago, his text was interrupted by a message from Dani Mizel claiming he was trapped in the sim.

#CoHMA M2: It's a defeat all mission with more Midnighters. There's also a secret message in the sendoff text saying "Can you read this".
#CoHMA M2: Map is the Katie tree, popup warns of redcaps. Second oddity complaint - have to find 3 books called in objective list "libraria"
#CoHMA M2: First hostage was taken over by Dani again, told me to look for bones. Found the bones and they had her ID - "Sunglare"
#CoHMA M2: She was also posted on the destroyed side of the Faultline dam.

#CoHMA M3: I typed in the mission ID I was told about in the previous mission and I get text from Dani. She's trapped, and we'll meet up.
#CoHMA M3: This is one of the first AE arcs, and it's already complaining about bad missions someone cooked up?
#CoHMA M3: Saved a couple fragments of her personality, and erased some memory blocks that were trapping the rest of her... I think.

#CoHMA M4: Sounds like the computer is trying to overwrite the rest of Dani's memory and has locked her out. Time to destroy more memory.
#CoHMA M4: Rescued Dani's superego, will see what happens with her next. Doubt it's all over yet.

#CoHMA M5: We're going back into simulation space to take out the control center within the simulation. I have a feeling Dani has no body...
...to come back to though. #CoHMA
#CoHMA M5: I'm in yet another burning map - also used the Arachnos burning map - both of which I used in my Matchstick Women arc. (3369)
#CoHMA M5: Apparently, my character has been made into a lesbian, as the arc tells me she thinks Sunglare is "hawt".
#CoHMA M5: Wait, this is a defeat all? Why is this a defeat all again?
#CoHMA M5: Ok, defeat all on this map wasn't too bad. Seemed awfully empty, but this was before [empty] was an option...
#CoHMA M5: I wonder if @turgenev was able to do some edits. Anyway, defeated the EB at the end with the help of Dani.

Overall, I thought this was a pretty well-written arc that holds up pretty well considering. I can totally believe this was one of the best arcs during i14 beta. My only complaint right now is that it says it's designed for heroes level 50, but the level range on the first two max out at level 33 (due to use of the Midnighters group and redcaps), and the level ranges on the rest are 1-54, which weren't adjustable previously.

Remember, only a couple days left! And the theme doesn't have to be about secret messages, it just has to have one in it somewhere. It can be as simple as having a morse code border, or anything at all really.

Carnies: Come one come all! Take a chance, it's only your soul!

Trailer #4 is done! Only two more Player's Choice winners to go, then maybe I should make some for my own arcs. Huh, there's an idea

Against the Wickerwork Khan #346904 by @Clave Dark 5

Since I announced the next month's theme earlier than this for the previous two months, I will continue that tradition.

April's theme is: Off Duty.

BTW, don't forget to PM the the solution BW.

Well, think of it this way - this week's mission has brought a lot more attention than any of the regular weeks, which could mean more plays than if I had posted your arc before doing this week's theme. But still, sorry about that, I should have double checked the most recent posts.

Yeah, I know the perfect spot - instead of the shot of YinYin cowering after the shot of the Khan, I'll put in battle footage of Wickerwork. I should have that uploaded later tonight. Glad you like it!

And another trailer, hope you like it. Can still make changes based on feedback. I think it turned out pretty well, if a bit slow. But slow's not always bad.

Against the Wickerwork Khan #346904 by @Clave Dark 5 trailer is live!

Looking at Pinnacle's thread, there's only been two arcs posted within the past year and a half. Depending on how many people from Triumph show up here, we could use some beer themed arcs for the drunk server. (or re-use as I think we've done that theme before, not sure if I was there that week though)

A short update for my blaster page to put some reference pics in there, and as I haven't shared it here yet, a great piece I got from Cami for posting references first in her thread. Of my controller on Guardian.

A nice piece done by Cami for being the first to post after a request for references. (click for dA page)

Nice pic, any chance for a roll call to put names to those nice looking characters?