So things just got slower and slower to the point that 2007 only got two real updates? Well, I did actually do some minor updates back in June, but it seems I forgot to announce them. What I did back then was mostly backing up the site and fixing minor errors. Matt's pics took longer to download than expected. Turns out his filesizes were all nearly five times bigger than they needed to be. No wonder we were running out of space a while back! I went through and cropped, resized, and adjusted them to manageable sizes and even found one pic in the folder that wasn't posted yet. So his whole gallery got a significant update.

If you already read the first three finale parts, read them again before Part 4. You've probably forgotten them by now anyway, and a few small changes have been made to them since then. There were some things I was going to add from the start, but forgot about them until a reference in Part 4 reminded me. Yeah, not very professional, sorry. Heck, I'm just glad it's finally done!

In March of 2004, Rajal Tikana replaced Vidal as Darkman, and after the annoyance I experienced re-drawing the NG group pic and editing the Chronicles to make it look like Adrienne was there from the start, I decided that we would freeze the roster until the end of the season, a logical time for memberships to change within the story. At the time, I was sure we would finish the season by the end of the year. Well, before the year was through, Havoc, Rajal, and Novaman were all AWOL. The Chronicle schedule got its first huge delay when Cifnas was tagged to write the next one, but he kept coming back with ridiculous excuses as to why he couldn't post it yet. I kept giving him the benefit of the doubt, but eventually I had to give up on him and write it myself. I just wish I'd done that a few months sooner, maybe our momentum wouldn't have been so broken.

2005 was the year where things really started to fall apart. We hit our first big hiatus in July, which lasted until December. Bubble, Flame, Cifnas, Midoriman, and Gemini never really returned after the rest of us got back to work. Already by this point, the roster was reduced to less than half, which would seriously impact productivity for the next two years, but I was determined to keep that roster frozen. After all, we were so close to writing that finale!

It wasn't until late 2006 when the finale writing actually started, and multi-month hiatuses continued between every month-long surge of activity. Cyros became the last member to quit in July 2007, leaving the five that are here now. Part 4 started writing in November, and might have actually been completed before the end of the year, except my own writing talents were largely diverted to the Business of War event with the Mechanical Maniacs.

So the last hiatus ended a couple months ago. Even though I had four teammates willing to stick around, only one of them was currently up to the task of writing. Two people writing for a 14-member team. Fun.

Why didn't I call it quits two or three years ago? Well, I don't like to leave orphaned projects. Besides that, I just really loved the idea of the AXE Finale. I've had much of it planned out in my head ever since early 2005. A lot of the details have changed, but some things made it through almost exactly as I imagined them way back then. Even if things didn't turn out the best, I'm just glad I finally finished what I started.

So where does that leave us now? We have five members: Nijubu, Blackbelt, Koala, Beasty, and myself. A couple slots are being permanently retired: Serenade and Punk. We may bring Punk back later on, but Serenade is too special and powerful to be slumming it with the rest of these regular navis. So the characters we will be recruiting for are Flash, Dark, Flame, Metal, Yamato, Bowl, and Bubble.

There's no guarantee that we will admit anybody though. At this point I'm more inclined to convert the team to a more private project that the few remaining veterans and I will develop as we see fit. I know there are a couple of you out there eager to join, so I'm sorry if this crushes your hopes. I'll only keep AXE as a full, active team if we get a lot of good applicants to fill the void. If we only get a few people of passing interest, then there's no point. The same thing will happen all over again.

Regardless of this team's future, please read and enjoy the Finale. A lot of heart went into it.





Sunday, August 12th, 2007, Drillman

Any point in denying things are bad around here any more? Nah. Aside from the lack of activity from the remaining team members, I gotta say this "don't change rosters until the finale's over" plan has been a massive failure. Just think how much faster this finale could have been done if we actually replaced the dead weight immediately and got in some eager and active new members? By now interest has dwindled so much I'm not sure we're going to keep on going for a second season. It all depends on our ability to attract new blood.

That's not to say the season won't end as planned. Finale Parts 2 and 3 are both up for viewing. Part 2 was done a long time ago, but for some reason I kept putting off the update. One things for sure though, the next time we update (who knows when that'll be) Part 4 will be posted, and Season 1 will be complete. At that point we'll be recruiting and the future remains a mystery.

I would also have new Navi Icons and Navi Database stuff done by now if it weren't for the lack of EXE6 official art and concept art readily available to me. I might be able to order in an artbook in a month or two, but at this point I might as well wait and see if there's still a team by then.





Thursday, January 21st, 2007, Drillman

Looks like another year has gone by. Well, the long overdue season finale has finally started. It's a four-parter, and so far we have part one finished. Read it to finally see the introduction of the enigmatic Gamma.exe! More finale content including art of Gamma and the other finale characters is still coming.



Updates Archive
2003/2004
2005
2006