Skye

It's not that your ideas are unwelcome. Indeed, I left this topic open for comments on purpose precisely because I wanted to encourage discussion on the items at hand. What I didn't expect is the focus on negativity or on the one specific part. I rather feel like my efforts were pretty much completely ignored and wasted in favor of one very specific item at the expense of all else. There was a great deal of content in that post that was pretty relevant. It is precisely that I do understand what appeal as a meta-narrative that the Mane RP has, the issue is that there are a massive number of different ways that people can explore that creatively with the use of their own imaginations. But much of what I have seen tends to focus on solely what has appeared in the show. I would like to see more people, for example, inventing appealing and compelling adversity in the spirit of conflict without delving too deep into the realm of Mary-Sue. Or pushing the rules we've tried to establish to keep things fair, and it's that part that worries me the most.

See, here's the thing, though. We're not pigeonholing characters into racial standards. What I'm talking about here, is people who are trying to find ways to render the racial standards irrelevant by making other species do what any of the other species do. There is absolutely nothing at all that says a Unicorn can't be a farmer, or an Earth Pony can't get into Cloudesdale to walk around (With the help of a unicorn of course). What I am saying here is that a character cannot and should not attempt to spend the significant amount of time being wasted trying to make an Earth Pony fly like a Pegasus, or a Pegasus cast spells like a unicorn. These racial archetypes are there for a -reason-, and if you want a character that can do such tasks, play that species. Characters should and can work around their limitations, but they should be doing it in such a way that it makes sense and falls within the limits of reasonability. I'd like to be a super hero, but that doesn't magically grant me the ability to fly. We can't even do that in OUR world without some extremely hefty technological capability and even then it's still dodgy at best. As for the last part, absolutely. Players are not their characters. Therefore, people also need to realize that the characters are not necessarily their players. Just because someone in the real world has lost a limb and therefore has to learn to negotiate the world without the use of that limb, does not mean that any character that they play also subsequently has to face the same limitations. This is supposed to be a fantasy, but even fantasies have rules that make sense. Somewhere along the line, individuals are going to find those boundaries and end up rubbing against them for one reason or another, but the solution is not to just simply expand the boundaries because otherwise, why bother having them in the first place? The answer is simple, if you find yourself up against a boundary, find a way to work with it, or try something else. Pushing against the boundary in hopes that you can make it budge or break is just silly, because we can't just do it for you, we have to do it for everyone and sooner or later, it comes down to the point of why bothering have rules at all. The key thing here is this: Mane RP has strict rules that are there for a reason. Some of them we're going to rework as soon as we get a chance to find and fix things that have been creeping or are unnecessary (This is a lot of work, believe me). If you don't like the rules, then try what you want to do in the Crossover or FFA areas. That's what they're there for. I find that a great deal of wasted resistance is caused because of some strange prejudice against using Crossover or FFA, and so they want to get their thoughts and ideas into Mane RP. Rather than fight on the Mane RP rules, you can have your cake and eat it too in Crossover. I personally would LOVE to see the Crossover and FFA areas get more action, because that's a great way to get new ideas. Mane RP has both its benefits and drawbacks, and part of why it's so difficult to keep Mane RP sane is because we don't have as much to work with from Hasbro as we'd like.

Well, Flutter Ponies were the only ones I remember with insect wings from G1, and the changelings weren't quite a perfect representation, if anything they would have been an adaptation. Unless someone can actually find the critter they're really based off of from mythology, and I haven't done any research recently on it.

Well, there's nothing wrong with that as long as it's done within reason and it doesn't give people an excuse to go on speciesism rampages, of course. And simple devices, like getting some fishing line out of cartoon space like Pinkie, or random hat pins out of Rarity's mane for no reason has never been a problem. That's the rub, really. You have to think about some of the complexities of things too, for example an autopilot is really nothing more than a stick-jamming device. Ancient pirates used to put a rope around the spoke of a wheel to keep the rudder in place when they weren't actually standing at it, nothing more. If you can think of a simple and convenient way to accomplish the task, for example 'I have just the thing,' said Dimples, as she pulled a hairnet out of her saddle bag. Crusty tried to peek in, curious to what else she seemed to carry in there. She'd somehow managed to bring out a compass, a set of keys, an apple corer, a pencil, several feet of rope, an 8x10 glossy of Princess Celestia, a tennis racket, and any number of objects that surely wouldn't have all fit in at once, could they? Because cartoon hammerspace can be a great and fun convenient plot device. And they're simple. There's always a simple solution to every problem, you don't always need a magic-powered levitation box, or an electric door corer, when a few feet of string and a good pair of hooves works just fine. If you're spending so much time trying to work said technology into a roleplay, you're focusing on the tech and not the roleplay, is what I'm saying. What you've tended to propose, is 'stuff for the sake of having stuff', at least that's been my general take in our discussions about it.

Initially Chrysalis's horn made me think that, but the rest of her kinda doesn't really follow the look. Matter of factly, it reminded me a lot of how insect armor is supposed to be all spikey and jagged edges, at least the way it tends to be done in that style of art for cartoons, which made it really hard to compare. Though my theory is that they're flutter pony reduxes.

Just as a note, to explain the 'hive' thing. I don't mean to say that Chrysalis's subjects have a hive mind and therefore no individuality whatsoever. The reason I mentioned hive is due to the many insect references that suggests they are more insectlike than ponylike, even if they have a general pony-like shape. For example: They come in a huge swarm and act together and are of a much greater strength in numbers but individually more easily overcome Swarming Behavior (Many individuals acting virtually identically in concert) Their wings are very insect-like, as is much of the generally 'chintinous' nature of their bodies. Their eyes are insect-like, instead of containing the general appearance of regular pony eyes When they fly, they tend to adopt the general animated 'bee' stance when hovering Constant buzzing like insects, moreso when they're in greater numbres Crawling down the columns in the Elements chamber like insects The word Chrysalis refers to the transforming caterpillar within its cocoon, another insect reference Celestia was imprisoned within a Cocoon, appearing much as a chrysalis These are the references for which I feel that 'hive' is more the correct term for Chrysalis and her subjects, but it does necessarily mean a 'hive mind' like bees or ants. Whether or not Chrysalis's subjects are enough of individuals remains to be seen, but based on what we've seen here it's not quite as likely to be a repeat occurrence. My main concern about their playability is the use of them to 'steal' other characters from other players which I know will cause an uproar on its own merit. I hope this clarifies the 'hive' thing better.

Well, think of it this way. Is what you're trying to do going to involve a unicorn one way or another? Is it something you're inventing that is supposed to bypass or otherwise cut out a functional member of society in order to enable its function? Is bringing it about something that is possible and within the character's present capabilities as it is? Keep in mind that Earth Ponies pick things up with their mouths, and so do Unicorns even though Unicorns can ALSO do things with Telekinesis, which effectively gives unicorns 'two hands' to an Earth Pony's one. But if in its fabrication, will require a unicorn anyway, you can generally assume it is something that a unicorn will either have a direct involvement in or will have invented themselves. There's no point in making an Earth Pony do it, because it's outside the scope of what an Earth Pony is. At that same token, an Earth Pony is, by nature, not going to have a hand in inventing any technology that's going to render themselves obsolete. That's just plainly against Earth Pony mentality. At that same token, the same goes for Pegasi. If you're keeping it simple, you're keeping it on track. Things that have to do with the air? Pegasi. Things to do with growing food and other 'earthy' efforts? Earth Ponies. Have to do with research and magic? Unicorns all the way. Those species possess unique traits and abilities that are geared specifical;y towards those aspects of civilization, which is why those characters always appear doing them in the show. That's why we keep coming back to the loop, because I get the impression that kinda gets ignored or missed and I have to reiterate it to reinforce the concept, that's all.

Because it would be something that the unicorns would most generally be the ones to invent it. Unicorns are generally the ones who focus more on the research and technology aspect of things. It's one of the things that they're better suited to and naturall]y would be expected to develop. HOWEVER, considering that it seems that either the mail is delivered in the old fashioned method because that's the way it's done, if not magically sent through dragons for more 'instant' communication, it is rather out of place and jumping the gun to assume that ponies would make or even need a telegraph and radio. It's just one of those technologies we have developed as a matter of course, but is something that ponies may not even need much less bother to develop. After all, why would a pony invent a fork if they don't actually have a need for utensils? Or, as a result, anything else that would be needed to develop that fork? You assume that the possibility of a technology in our world automatically means that it'd be something that ponies would have or even be attempting to bother researching, when this is where the problem actually is. Let me stress this in hopes it heads off any further confusion. Don't focus on the technology of the world. If a roleplay calls for the use or invention of a technology to be in place, try to find other methods currently presently used in the show to accomplish the task. If you're spending a lot of time trying to work said technology into the RP simply for the purposes of having it, you're overthinking it. Scale it back.

Mostly because we also do not want to cut unicorns out of the loop for one thing, but also that those who don't need to use them aren't generally going to either. As I said, it shouldn't be about the technology... it is rather an exception rather than the rule when a species steps a little outside their stereotypical 'role', but you can only be so flexible in that regard as we've discussed in other posts. But you have to keep in mind that in Equestria, each class of pony does have a rather broad but specific role that they play. As stated during the Heartswarming Eve episode, the Earth Ponies grow the food, the Pegasus ponies control the weather and the Unicorns bring up the Sun and Moon (And presumably other magic-related tasks that make life easier), and these roles are roles that they are all proud to fulfill. Unlike our species, where people tend to be generally disenfranchised pretty easily by their lots in life because of what they feel they deserve based on what everyone else has. But in Equestria, this concept does not exist. As such, each species is happy to be where they are, and that's by design because it's intended to teach people to be less materialistic and more satisfied with what they can do and to be good at what they can do, and to take pride in it. Unlike ponies, who have that bit of utopia because they naturally do not have to deal with many of the problems we as human beings have created for ourselves, there are still points we can learn from them and we do not need to project our problems on them for no other purpose but to cause strife. So much of what you seem to want seems more geared towards 'breaking down barriers' or addressing barriers that exist naturally. But I just want to mention that this is a conflict that does not actually exist in Equestria and shouldn't be introduced in the Roleplay because it's not something that the ponies would naturally be having to face, as it's a conflict that we as humans face, not the ponies.

Scotchie with the Non Sequitir.

She'll be playable in the same manner as other villains like Discord. We haven't worked out a system for how that will be done, but we will have an announcement and instructions when those characters become available for that specific purpose.