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Lycaon/James

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coltdorsey
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Lycaon/James

Post by coltdorsey »

A long time ago, some time around 1999 I think, I had been dropped off at my aunt's apartment to play with my cousins. Not long after I arrived, I noticed my cousin James was playing this game I had never seen before, on the computer. He had a blank sheet of printer paper in front of him and kept glancing up to the screen then back down, taking a large amount notes. I kept asking him questions about the game. He was explaining that his character (Shadowman) was with his friend Armageddon(possibly spelled different) in the game. They were among a large crowd of dreamers as some influential character was preparing to leave the game.

This was my first memory of Underlight, before I ever played. Underlight became a center piece later for James and I to interact through, which minimized the distance we had between us. As a newly entering the game, Shadowman(James) helped me grasp the concept of IC/OOC.. As an 11/12 year old, it was difficult for me to grasp initially. It got Thunderman in trouble with Purple Lace!

Later in years, Lyra had begun an OOC stress testing the game. It was at this point, James and I had the thought on how cool it would be to have a pet Horron in the game. During the stress testing, I ran a packet capturing program while stress testing which James used to create an Underlight server in visual basic/.net. This was the ground work for Shades of Truth, which came to be after Lyra stopped running Underlight.

James(Lycaon) spent several years coding and implementing new features for Underlight: Shades of Truth version. For each new feature he'd implement, he would bring in his character Aethimir to discover and introduce the new features. It wasn't easy for him, or any of us who worked with him, but he and the skill he had was truly remarkable. For those who never were able to "meet" James, he was assisting recently with resolving the Windows Compatibility issue.

This morning, James passed away. Although his health has been deteriorating for a number of years, his passing is still a shock to me.
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Re: Lycaon/James

Post by Wolfgar »

All I can say is that I am sorry for your loss. Expected or not it always seems to come as a shock when those we love are gone from us. My thoughts and condolences to you and your family...

I only "met" him a couple of times, but during the time he was working on SoT I contacted him about donating and even through the few emails passed back and forth his love for the game and for the concept was evident. Few people are blessed to do something they love and believe in as much as he appeared to believe in this community...I envied that at the time.

If ever there should be some form of permanent memorial in the city, I think it should be for him.

--Thomas aka Wolfgar
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Cherokee
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Re: Lycaon/James

Post by Cherokee »

I'm terribly sorry for your loss, Colt. :cry: I used to spend hours with James testing the mares and new features. He put a lot of his time and effort into Underlight, and I always felt bad he didn't play much of it to experience the fruits of his labor. He will be missed. I agree with Wolfgar on the memorial. There should be a room or something named after him.
23:48:24: Laviticas: (( I am going to ****ing say this now because I will not be back in the stupid game.)

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Re: Lycaon/James

Post by Tember »

This is such sad news to me, and I am so sorry for your loss Colt. he was a really nice guy with some awesome talent. He did amazing things in SOT.

Your family will be in my thoughts and prayers.
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Re: Lycaon/James

Post by Shae »

I'm at a loss. I don't even have the words in my mind to say what my heart is feeling.

I only knew James, obviously, from the game. He would play with Shae in game as a huge eye with a huge eye brow and raises the brow at Shae, causing her all kinds of grief. He told me he loved to torment Shae with that character. (Meanwhile, irl, I would be cracking up). James had an uncanny way of knowing this game, and how to manuver things to create buzzes. His coding efforts were superb, and his dedication to the game would (during SoT times) take him into all hours of the night, just so he could fix something that the players complained about, or make enhancements to the game that the players asked for. He wanted to create happiness and keep a strong foundation of players.

I had the opportunity to work with the team for a short period of time, and got to know James even more. I knew of his ailments. I knew many of his struggles. Even in the face of losing his foot, he was already making one-legged jokes, and kept an amazing outlook about his tribulations. I'm not sure I could have joked about something like that, if it were happening to me.

Just as mentioned in a previous post, James would pull "normal" players into the game to run numerous tests. I think in a way, he felt we were all part of "the team". He had good 'gaming sense' to me, and really put a ton of work into this game. I was very excited to see that he was working on the game, once again. I knew his heart would be happy, and I knew we would find a fix to that troublesome Win10 issue!

I can only hope that things happened quickly, and that he was not in much pain. I think our community is going to feel a loss without his talents. I already feel a loss within my heart. He'll be missed.
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Koi-Wish
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Re: Lycaon/James

Post by Koi-Wish »

All of James's family took a sudden and shocking loss today. I say family, and I say it not only to those who were related to James by blood, but the extended family he had in various gaming families, including MineCraft, UnderLight and beyond. I knew Shadowman IC thru WishBringer back in the 90's. I didnt not know James OOC thru any of Lyra's days. My first actual interactions came after Echoes of Chaos went down. In January of 2014, as part of my initial kickoff of Clash of Dreams, I reached out in all directions for help in bringing UnderLight back. James jumped on the bandwagon, but exclusively wanted to be responsible only for the technology backend part of things. At that time, we had to projects going at the same time. Bring back SoT UL and/or bring back Lyra UL. At the time my thoughts were the SoT players would play in their UL, Lyra players would come back into theirs, and we would then "Clash" them together in a new UnderLight build with half the houses SoT the other houses Lyra... and have everyone run amock trying to establish dominance. James, however, loved his Windows version of UL and had no desire to have any part of a Linux-based Lyra version of UL. I can't say I would blame him, after all the time he put into re-writing the code it was now his baby. Obviously SoT came up first, with James immediately flexing his version's muscles, and it of course worked in Windows 8. Then the Lyra team got the Lyra version up and running. The client of course, did not work in Windows 8. This was when I needed James, and the first time I really started to understand how he worked, his condition and limitations within. I paid some of his moving expenses, his internet bills and we sent him additional monies and items during this time to help him and also put him in a position to help us. I got to know him during this window of time- in the end he wasn't able to dedicate enough focus and energy to the Windows 10 project and it fell away. He still however, shared something I do, and we all do. A passion for UnderLight and this community. Back in March of this year, he reached out to me again, and said "I want to do something for UL. Come up with an NDA if you like or whatever, but I want to re-implement the directx code update thats lets you run on Windows 8/8.1/10 with no problems."

James was back in the thick of it. We got an NDA and got the ball rolling with him on the team. You will notice he never asked for a dime, he justed wanted to do this for UL. But I knew his condition, I knew his challenges and i knew he didnt get the extra things we all tend to take for granted. So I came up with the idea of paying him with the donation drive we ran for the month of April. This was not at his request, but at ours. We wanted to be able to thank him for volunteering by giving him money he could spend on nuggets and steak sandwiches that he thoroughly enjoyed but couldnt often afford - not everyone on the team knew that part. He came to me, he wanted to help the community be able to play UL into the future.

At the end of April, beginning of May - he finished and we were compiling and testing the new build. James had his first real opportunity to work along side our Dev team and you could almost see his eyes light up as the process began. He was happy to be on the Dev team, and wished he had a team similiar when he was working on SoT. He interacted and troubleshot and plugged away, and questions were thrown about and solved and riddles were confronted. He was in his element, happy and coding and working with Development of a game he was passionate about again. It was a cool experience to interact with him in this last week or so.

All the while he was going thru dialysis, still living his painful days. He turned around and broke his leg severely last week. He told me after the surgery he would rather have broken his leg again. His diabetes and the his broken leg trying to heal apparently got the best of him... his body unable to handle all the conditions at once seemed to have given out from under him. A man who laughed at dialysis, and still lived life as if his condition was a nuisance and not one of constant pain and suffering.

Thru all this pain and suffering he still managed to make time for us. Texting from the hospital things to try and edit within the code to remedy bugs. He even looked for a C++ compiler for Android and Git tool for working on this code while he was suffering in bed. Thru pain, his passion still taking a front seat to anguish.

Today his family and our family lost a hero.

I am honored to have known him, and feel privileged to have worked along side of him in our UnderLight adventures.
His last words to me were about the money we were giving him. About how he appreciated it more then I would know. I think I did know a little, which is why I started the campaign in the first place. Unfortunately he was never able to enjoy it, as part of the stipulation was we would give him the money upon us releasing a new Windows 10 ready client. (Its not ready yet, we still have some bugs we have to figure out)

With that being said, we plan to give the money to his mother to help in any final expenses she may have. And in addition, if you would like to add something more, please feel free, we will open the donations campaign up for an additional couple of weeks. Right now we have over $600's and growing, I am sure his mother/family will appreciate it.

Meanwhile, James, wherever you are. Thank you. Thank you for your passion and love for this game. Thank you for SoT, without it, we wouldnt be here. Thank you for showing me how a hero stands up in the face of constant pain. My sympathies to his immediate friends and family.

Thank you for being whom you were, you will be remembered and missed always.

Brian
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Re: Lycaon/James

Post by Braelynn »

I can't even begin to process this.

I worked with James a lot on the GM team in SOT. First as just a regular old GM, and then as MD. Sure, we butted heads, but for the most part we got along and he was always receptive and excited about new ideas. I maintain he is responsible for Ashton's love of pink and that will forever be in his memory (even if we don't have pink in this version.)

I knew that he had health issues.. we went through them with him when he injured his feet many years ago, when he lost his leg to amputation -- and I can safely say that through it all he maintained an amazing sense of humor. -- and while I don't know the circumstances surrounding his passing today I imagine he was just plain worn out. I'm still in a little bit of shock. I am no stranger to loss this year, and my heart goes out to his entire family and send them prayers for some comfort.
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Cianne
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Re: Lycaon/James

Post by Cianne »

Colt,

My condolences and prayers go out to you and your family in this difficult time.

Cristi
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Re: Lycaon/James

Post by Cronides »

Man, what a shock... my condolences to you and your family, Colt. It's good to read all the memories people had working with Lyc both in and out of the dream. He truly had such a passion for the game and coding.

In my years working both as MD and post-MD on the SOT project, I loved bouncing ideas off of him and drawing up spreadsheets (for which he, and everyone else for that matter, loved to tease me about) to visualize ideas. He'd come up with a concept and I'd set to creating algorithms and projecting effects on the game... then once we'd settle on something, he'd dig in to the code and poof cool new twists happened. So many countless hours we spent in the wee hours of the mornings discussing the ins and outs of the dream.

Tinkering with age old code is not without consequences and inevitably you break something for everything new and cool you add. I remember a time in SOT when the color palettes got incredibly whacked (probably while trying to add "pink") and the rest of us had to run around comparing walls to see which ones were screwed because he couldn't tell definitively with his vision. He made a color palette tool that extracted the information on the fly to allow us to be able to compare them quickly. His vision and other health issues always made it a struggle for him; but, he found ways around them and pushed on, delighted to have the opportunity to do what he loved.

He brought such awesome ideas to the SOT version both on the players side and the GM effects we could deliver to the players... even on the operational side, he delivered every type of tool I could come up with that made it easier for our team to track things from teacher output to playtime by focus. An in-game memorial room would be a cool tribute to a player and coder that gave so much to various incarnations of this project over the years (my vote would be the recreation of the Pendantical Laboratory, through which Aethimir often dabbled).

Beyond the game, he had such great wit, a festive observation of the stupid in the world, and incredible sense of humor, and as noted, even about his own ailments. He will be missed.
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Re: Lycaon/James

Post by Anyasha »

I am so sad to hear about this...I just happened to be looking at the forums to see how the game was going and read this. I am shocked.

I can still remember, years ago (8 years?), talking on a conference call with you and James about how we could make this game incredible, make a second generation Underlight.

The passion he had for this game, the untold numbers of hours - hours that were more taxing than any of us put in due to his health - and the work he did to keep this dream alive, will never be forgotten.

Whether you are aware or not, James is who kept the dream of UnderLight together. He recreated this wonky little game that we all love and poured endless hours into it. He wanted it to be a fun game for all of us who still clung to the decade old dream and tried, as much as he could, to make it a better game. He is a pillar within our community - if not THE pillar since the initial Lyra closing - and UL will not be the same without him.

I cannot begin to think of a way to commemorate him, to honor him, to thank him. He was a friend to me in some of my darkest times, he was an ally in some of my best. He was a fun-loving, imaginative, intelligent man who wanted to help others. When I had cancer, he (and this game) was a rock to me. I had no idea his health was in such dire straits and am so saddened by his loss. This game that we play, the successor to the original Lyra UL, is 100% his doing. It was his pride and joy. While I don't acitvely play anymore, I remember fondly the times in the world that he helped create and the times talking with him and others about how to make it even better.

James was the greatest contributor to this game, to this community...but most importantly, James was a truly good person, willing to give all he had. He will be missed.
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Re: Lycaon/James

Post by Koi-Drama »

We are sadden by the sudden loss of a member within our community. This morning, we received news of the passing of James Hite also known as GM Lycaon

On behalf of the Koi-Team, we wish to offer our sincerest condolences to James Hite, knowingly beloved as GM Lycaon to our little community of dreamers. James, without argument, was one of the biggest dreamers of all with an uncanny vision and steadfast determination. As one dream came to an end, James brought another dream to life for many of us. The path was not without literal blood, sweat, and tears, and there were many bumps on that road. Through it all, he remain a constant mainstay and spent many countless hours coding away into night and long after sunrise.

As one of the few Managing Directors that worked with James, I knew his heart was with the players. I often took for granted when James would call me in the middle of the night and say "hey, is it all right if I go in the game with Aethimir roleplay my latest code changes?" and I would say "It's 4AM, James. You can dreamstrike the whole game (jokingly) at this point." We got along sometimes and other times, we clashed heads but there was always that understanding between us that the game and our players came first.

As Wish said, James went through a world of agony but somehow always managed to deal it through his strange sense of humor and optimism. He often would relay to us stories about his visits to his dialysis and other medical reasons but it was never an attempt for us to feel pity for him, instead, a reason to share a laugh with him.

It has been an honor and distinct privilege to work with James over the years. It's hard to believe it's been nearly a decade. Most recently, until a few days ago, James still held that sense of humor and quirky wit of his despite all that he had been through and continued to face on a daily basis. His contributions to both the game and the community run far deeper than I could even begin to articulate with words.

The Koi-Team has already begun discussions on different ideas on how to show our respect and appreciation. As soon as we can gather the necessary information, we intend on granting the Win10 funds collected in April, in their totality, to his mother as a means to help with final expenses. In no way or shape, did James ever request any compensation for his recent efforts and contributions. Furthermore, our next patch will exclusively dedicated to James/Lycaon as the majority of it would not have been possible without his invaluable insight and collaboration.

Lastly, we intend on shifting a part of the City to memorialize him as a tribute because without him, Underlight may have been a whispered memory of the past. Thank you, James. Perhaps, we were too late to show our appreciation and gratitude but your legacy will not be forgotten.

You've given me the courage to deal with my own medical issues head on and despite whatever I personally go through on a daily basis, I can only hope to be as courageous as you were day in and day out. Again, thank you. Keep that portal spinning, Aethimir.
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Re: Lycaon/James

Post by Princess »

Wow,
I am at a loss for words, my sincerest condolences to your family, Colt.
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Re: Lycaon/James

Post by Princess »

my vote would be the recreation of the Pendantical Laboratory, through which Aethimir often dabbled
I second that motion.

I am still shocked, I remembered one night he had been up for days it seemed... he just wanted to fix a line of code that was a bane in his side. He said, "I wasted my birthday, I am almost there with this code, a pizza would give me the strength I need to tie this together".
I messaged him, and sent that pizza from Pizza hut.. a Supreme, that is all he wanted , he gave us so much. :(
You see a pressed seal of wax is etched displaying in the center an empty Sigil. The etching is shaped in the manner of a coat of arms. The top right sector, a teacup, the top left, a dolly.
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Re: Lycaon/James

Post by FrigginAwesome »

I can't seem to find words for this. I'm at a loss.


Lycaon... Thank you. Thank you for everything. You are missed. I hope wherever you are now, you're happy.
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Re: Lycaon/James

Post by Butterfly »

My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family Colt. I am so sorry to hear of your loss.
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Re: Lycaon/James

Post by SnowAngel »

Colt,
I am so very sorry to hear of your loss. I never had the opportunity to know him IC or OOC but he sounds like he was an amazing person and it seems we owe a great deal to him for everything he has done over the years for this game. I know we all thank you and your family for everything he did to help make this game what it is and better!

My deepest condolences to you and your family, the family he worked with, and the family he played with.

Hugs and prayers for all of you,
~Sarah~
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Re: Lycaon/James

Post by Toregord »

Wow I am shocked by the news, I've known James for a while now and I knew his condition. I never expected this to have happened so quickly.

Colt, My deepest Condolences


Koi-Wish, aka Brian.. Thank you for sending the donations to this mother.. That is what I was thinking when I heard the news before I saw you're post.
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Re: Lycaon/James

Post by Arnaya »

I'm so sorry to hear of Lycaon's passing, from what I'm reading here, he had a huge impact on the game and the people that knew him. Good decision to open the donation drive again Wishbringer, and it is so cool that your donating the money to his mother. My condolences on your loss Thunderman, all my best to you and your family.
The most important lesson I've learned over this past year, is not to let anyone make you cruel. No matter how badly you want to give the world a taste of it's own bitter medicine, it is never worth losing yourself.
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Re: Lycaon/James

Post by Butterfly »

http://wiki.underlight.com/Lycaon
I have already added some of the comments, I will continue to do so.
Please edit as you see fit.
Last edited by Butterfly on Fri May 13, 2016 3:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Lycaon/James

Post by Sidas »

I'm pretty sure Lycaon and I had more disagreements than agreements during my stints on the Dev and GM Teams for SoT. However, he managed to do what nobody else successfully did (other than the original team) and that was getting the POS software known as the UL server running in a stable way. Lycaon had a dedication to Underlight that was and will probably remain unmatched.

That dedication and zeal is something the world will miss.

I wish you and your family the best in the coming days.
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Re: Lycaon/James

Post by Lu Chaos »

Damn sad news... James was the only guy I had on my skype from UL and we became good friends even chatting from time to time on there talking about SoT things back then, and me just checking on his health overall.. Damn i'm gonna miss the guy he was always in a good mood to be goin through such hardships.. My condolences to his friends and family, he is now in a better place and he doesn't have to go through so much pain. I'm gonna miss em for sure.
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