Skye

Also, the goo that ponies kept getting stuck in, something that seems to me to be something very insectlike about it. Also, it is my theory that the Changelings were a sort of rehash of Flutter Ponies from G1. Just throwing that out there.

Well, the thing is that Chrysalis and her brood are insectlike in appearance. They have insect wings, their behavior is in swarms, they're more like insects than say, pegasi. They're just functionally different. It's not so much that they're a 'hive mind' so much that they exhibit hive-like behavior. They behave much in the manner of a swarm of bees, and I think part of the whole point was that they weren't -supposed- to have individuality. Even the reference of 'Queen' could be a similar reference to a 'Queen Bee'. There were just too many specific references that make it much easier to qualify them more as a hive than anything else. The Canterlot guards are known individuals, and they are known to speak, if not specficially to the known species, while the changelings were less distinguishable, although there were some with different kinds of armor. The problem with Changelings, is that they can be anyone, and it actually kind of presents the problem that it allows someone to create a character that can 'steal' a character from someone else simply by playing a changeling. I don't particularily think that's very cool to allow that loophole, so we'd rather not risk it.

*Important Edit by Manestream* I have not made any final decisions on the RP availability of The Changeling Queen, or changelings in general. These are working concepts, but do not consider these final decisions, as they are still works in progress until I have a chance to sit down with my RP experts to discuss what is possible, and how best to incorporate as much from the show as possible. *Manestream out* --------------------------------------------- Hi, folks! Wow, has it been two whole seasons already? And no signs of stopping that I can tell as of yet! I can't wait to see what season three has in store for us. But while we're waiting, I'd like to recap over some of the things that have been brought to our table here at Canterlot and hopefully address them in a fashion that folks will easily understand and will come to accept as a matter of course. There's a few topics I'll tackle each in turn. They'll be about new cast characters introduced into season two, along with new technologies and concepts, and new abilities. Each of these topics I'll try to go into detail and hopefully you can reference them specifically for clarification on those particular items. I'd like to consider this as going forward as well to help keep things fair and comfortable, as well as sensible going forward into season three and beyond as well as what we have seen in season two. And of course, I needn't mention that this will pertain most strongly to Mane Roleplay. New Cast Characters Firstly, New Cast Characters. We've seen plenty of new cast characters, and even some names for characters that we hadn't quite had before, like official names for Mr and Mrs Cake (Or at least, Mrs. Cake...she was specifically called 'Cup Cake' by her husband in Mmmystery on the Ponyville Express! Which means her husband is likely called Carrot Cake by canon as well if he hasn't been named so by Hasbro), Cadence and Shining Armor, Hayseed Turnip Truck, Fancy Pants, Fleetfoot, Fleur De Lis, Chrysalis, Flim and Flam, just to name a few. There's been such a rush on Cast Characters both old and new, that we've had a hard time keeping up! So here's how we're going to consider them from this point on, and in to the future. Generally 'normal' new cast characters, such as regular ponies will be considered pretty much fair game. Any new unicorns or pegasi, earth ponies, or even new critters like Zecora will be pretty much appable. Those with 'special needs' or unusual powers may have to be considered by staff beforehand, but those will be very obvious. There is a general level of 'powerful' we're trying to maintain in the Mane Roleplay in order to keep things sane and fair for everyone, not to mention fun and sensible. Good stories are told by characters themselves, not in how powerful they are. In two seasons (Or even in previous generations!) the vast majority of the story is told about the characters and how they interact, not necessarily what they can do. After all, we've seen even in the last episode of Season Two that even Princess Celestia can occasionally meet her match, and that's saying something. 'Special Needs' Characters, such as new villains and characters with extremely powerful abilities (Such as Starswirl the Bearded, who has been mentioned several times) will generally be considered unplayable with one caveat: If they are a 'hero' type character, such as Starswirl the Bearded, they may become playable at the staff's discretion if it is considered that their general storytelling can be controlled reasonably. Villains, however, are a different story. Unless they are a villain like Trixie who turns out to be pretty much mediocre in power or otherwise unremarkable in any other magical or powerful way, they won't be generally playable by the general public. There will be special events where they may become available for the purposes of those specific events, but for general roleplay please consider them 'off the list' even if we haven't yet specifically added them to the off limits list. I ask that players please consider some self-policing in this regard, and don't get overly excited about the possibility of their being appable. The answer is probably going to be no. If we take for example two villains at one end of the spectrum, Discord and Chrysalis are considered pretty powerful. Discord for his obvious reality-bending powers, and Chrysalis for her ability to steal other pony's powers and her hive followers. That's just way too much to put into sensible roleplay. However, if we take other villains, such as Gilda and Trixie, then we find ourselves at the end of the villain spectrum where really good stories can be told, and that's what we're looking for here. Try to find new and novel ways to bring these characters out, and others like them, in ways that can really get other characters involved in trying to defeat them if the story is going that route. After all, half the fun is finding out where a story can go, and you have the pleasure of not having to bicker about what you can and can't do with one another. Nobody likes a Powergamer, and Nobody likes the story hog. Discord and Chrysalis are considered at 'High Risk' for this sort of thing. It's also why monsters such as the Hydra aren't considered playable. Going forward in the future, it may be that we may encounter more alicorns, like Celestia, Luna and Cadence. Cadence's appearance certainly makes things a little more awkward as we had assumed that Celestia and Luna were the only Princesses there are, but Cadence's appearance (And, for that matter, Blueblood) proves that there may yet be other Princes and Princesses out there in Equestria we have not yet met. As such, unless they are a standard type pony (Such as the unicorn, Blueblood), any new alicorns will strictly be characters that appear in the show directly, unless the show gives us something about Alicorns that allows us to include them as an 'everyday' race. Thus far, they seem to be specifically related to Royalty and more to the point, seem to be at this point only Princesses. So unless we see a male Alicorn in the future, there aren't going to be any in the Mane Roleplay either. I'd like to draw you up a little graph that will likely help illustrate what we're looking for. At one end, we have Discord and Nightmare Moon, and at the other, we have Trixie and Gilda. In this graph is also Chrysalis, and I hope this is easy to understand. Serious Villain | (Discord-Nightmare Moon--Chrysalis----------Trixie--Gilda) | Antagonist As you can see, Nightmare Moon is just one pip below Discord, but that's only because while Nightmare Moon was technically Luna, and her powers were strong, she never got the chance to actually use them against the denizens of Ponyville, much less against Equestria. Discord, on the other hand, did get to use his powers and we were able to see what he was truly capable of, even if he focused them specifically on Ponyville for the time being. On the other end of the spectrum, we have Trixie and Gilda, and of course Gilda is two pips below Trixie because while Gilda isn't technically a 'Villain', she's still an antagonist, and Trixie had the luxury of actually being a unicorn with magic. But there's ten pips between Trixie and Chrysalis, while there's only two between Chrysalis and Nightmare Moon, with just one between Nightmare Moon and Discord. This means that the closer on the scale you get towards Discord, the more likely we are to say it won't be playable, but of course the closer you get towards the Gilda end of the scale, the more likely the character will be playable. But you are more than welcome to developing your own 'heroes' and 'villains', too! Don't limit yourself only to the cast that's shown up in the show...you can create your own villains with which to threaten the welfare of Equestria! I'd consider it a challenge to see if you can create a character that could even entice all six of the Elements of Harmony to join your roleplay to defeat your villain as part of a great story! But try to keep it worth playing and fun. New Technologies This post will likely be shorter than the last, for some really simple reasons. We've seen some new technologies crop up in Equestria as of Season Two, and we'd just like to remind people that roleplay in Equestria is not supposed to be about the technology, it's about the ponies. The technology that appears is generally only there to assist the story and add 'color', but it shouldn't be specifically about the technology itself. Take the Ponyville Express, for example. We saw the train crop up in Season One, but it was handled kind of awkwardly. SInce Season Two, it's taken on it's own 'character' in a way, and we see that it has real steam technology, and even is powered by coal. This makes a lot of possibilities about technology that can be used in the roleplay based on this simple exposition of 'how things work', but we remind folks that this is a more primitive world than ours, and everything should be based around those simpler ideas. Does this mean steam powered technology is main stream? Yes, in a way it does. But keep in mind that where it can be pony powered, it will likely be pony powered, since ponies tend to keep things simpler. They would much rather not put a pony out of a job with mechanization if they can help it, except for tasks that would be considered too dangerous or gruelling. Consider when Applejack was running the cherry sorting machine, for example, which could have been run by a waterfall instead, or a steam engine. It's simple, it keeps a pony employed, and for a pony who's joy is being fit and strong, Applejack or other characters of her type are perfect for that machine. Stuff like that is perfectly fine. However, it'd be nonsensical to have ponies running a generator 24/7 for electricity, so hydroelectric dams and such are more reasonable, and that's where the one outside of Ponyville comes in. Instead of inventing a machine that takes a job or task away from a pony that would otherwise be perfect for it, try to see about making a pony who's job it is to perform that task. Every pony needs a job, and it's much better to have a pony doing it than to hand it off to a machine. We have Flim and Flam to thank for that. Going forward, we will likely see other things, such as resurgence of AIrships, and such. Pinkie's Party cannon and her welcome wagon are great examples of a persistent 'technology' with a specific purpose that may come up in the future. We'd like to remind folks about what was just said above, and remember to make their stories about the ponies in them, not about how fantastic a machine can be invented for a singular purpose, except if the story is to be about overcoming that machine. Perhaps a pony invents a machine that can cut down trees faster than manual labor, but it turns out that by doing so it's threatening the wellbeing of the forest or otherwise goes out of control and results in ponies having to work together to stop it before disaster strikes. Just a few ideas, but at its heart, it should really be about the story. The same goes for other unusual concepts, like Minecarts, and cranes. New Abilities This one will be even simpler than the technology bit. We know that Celestia and Luna are supposed to be the two most powerful ponies in all of Equestria. But Cadence's appearance and Chrysalis's suggest that there are other ponies out there with varying levels of power and abilities that have yet been untapped. Nightmare Moon is a classic example of a villain that threatens the very existence of Equestria, and I'd be sure to say that Season Three will likely bring about another Crisis as part of the season just as the last two have. I look forward to it, as well! Let's address the two new characters we've been introduced at the end of season two. I'll start first with Cadence, and move on to Chrysalis. Cadence is, of course, an alicorn, and evidently another niece of Princess Celestia. This means that Princess Cadence is likely of the same strain of power, but the last episodes of Season Two have given us pretty much the extent of her power. She only seems to be able to influence the power of love between characters, and this is actually a little bit dangerous. Unlike Celestia, who's main role seems to be to come in and pretty much be the hard stop when things are getting out of hand (As infrequent as she's been seen to do it, passing it off to Twilight and her Friends), Cadence is of a much lower caliber of alicorn than her aunt. She's most likely not as physically strong (As seen with the minecart scene, but her previous appearances during her babysitting sequences suggest the same) as Celestia and Luna, and her magic isn't particularily mind-blowingly powerful. Only with Shining Armor was she able to bolster his magic to allow him to cast the single spell that he was best suited for, but on her own she's otherwise pretty weak. This is unusual in that it has somewhat broken the hard and fast rule that all alicorns are super powerful, but that's to be expected as she doesn't even have the same kind of 'niche' to fill as Celestia and Luna, and as such, her powers wouldn't really have as much the same place. However, this also means that Cadence -is- playable by the general public. But let's take Chrysalis as another example. She's also technically an alicorn, though by her very appearance, she's more like an insect than a regular alicorn. She's got a horn and wings, but she's the first appearance of a type of Flutter Pony we have seen as yet. She's like the Queen of a Bee Hive, and her 'subjects' are more akin to monsters than playable characters, and so we've decided that at this time they're not going to be appable. Chrysalis, like Cadence, doesn't seem to have much in the way of Celestia-caliber power, yet we've seen that one of her most significant strengths is the ability to feed off of love, and turn that into a powerful weapon she can use against Equestria's most powerful of ponies. Yet she was defeatable by that same power, when it was used appropriately, by Shining Armor and Cadence together. This is very similar to how the Elements of Harmony worked against Discord. This is why she's considered unplayable by the general public, but she -will- be allowable for special events, just as Discord and other powerful monsters will be. For my take on Chrysalis's subjects, see this post lower in this thread. --------------------------------- I hope this explanation helps folks understand where things are and where they're likely to go! If you have any questions, please by all means, feel free to post your comments and concerns!

Well, Again, that's why you were supposed to have and maintain your log page. That way you only have one link, one point of maintenance, and anyone can see it. It's simpler than trying to maintain a signature and trying to get everything arranged just right. Like I said earlier, it's like signing your name on a check. Just your signature please, in your signature.

\Yes, but what do you do when you have 40 characters? Or more? I don't think I know anyone that has that many yet, but may as well get the head start and do it properly with the log, as it should be done. That's how it's supposed to have been done from day 1, really. In my own case, I have an image that is actually too tall but has been grandfathered, so I'm going to have to shrink it so it fits in the sig box so I can fix the link, I just haven't gotten around to it yet, and I still have no internet at home yet.

Right, because then your signature becomes chock full of entirely too many links and you end up with a veritable buttload when it should only be a couple.

Whoops, I might have neglected to update that.</nothing> *Edit Also, I think I forgot to update my image size too, which I'll do when I get a chance.

This is how it's supposed to be done, and is the main purpose for the logs. You create a singular page with your characters with links to their profile and then list the RP's they are in beneath them. If you want a good example of how it's supposed to work, look at my own signature. You can click my image and get taken to my log, where you will see my characters and their roleplays in one centralized location. That's where they're supposed to go - Not in your signature! A signature is supposed to be a short representation of yourself in a quick and easy manner. Not a huge posting in and of itself. It's supposed to be only a short quote, or a link, or a singular image. Think a signature on a check. You don't write your signature, then all the names of your friends, and your home addresses, and your phone numbers and your bank account information in there... there are blocks specifically for those. You put your Signature in the Signature block and nothing else. The size is intended to keep people from writing huge post-length signatures in code. You should never have a single URL in your signature that will exceed the four line limit - that's where you'd use Minify or TinyURL or our own service. Keep your links simple and short. Images should not exceed the set size, either, because again, we don't want a bunch of signatures that exceed the posts they are attached to, but better that than the large lines of code that people keep sticking in their sigs. And I've had to edit a few because they were excessive. Again, use my own as an example. We really really encourage people to use their log pages to keep everything organized in there. That's what they're there for.