My Little Pony XXXV: The Thread Everypony Should Know

[Dexam]

While I'm not a super huge football fan, I would be interested in seeing human sports in equestria. How would ponies play football when they can't run and throw at the same time? How would basketball work on four legs? How well does soccer translate when a third of your team can fly? If a pegasus participates in an official footrace, are their wings harnessed? What about swimming? Does crew exist as a sport? Underwater basket weaving?

Football (Hoofball?) is easy enough (and I'm assuming you're referring to what I would call gridiron here) - they can carry and throw the ball using their mouths, or rear on hind legs and throw using fore legs.

Basketball is a bit more problematic, yet we know it exists because one of the pegasus ponies teasing Rainbow Dash in Sonic Rainboom has a three basketballs cutie mark. Pony's tails seem to be remarkably prehensile - maybe they dribble the ball using their tails, and kick/head/throw the ball through the hoop?

Soccer is easy - it just adds a third dimension to the game, with a lot more heading and kicking the ball skyward. It would be an awesome game to watch.

As for footraces, I would say that they would mostly operate on an honour system for pegasi, much as many other sports would rely on unicorns to gain an unfair advantage using their horns - unless the sport had specific rules for unicorn magic.

Swimming? No problems there - nopony is at a particular advantage or disadvantage, though earth ponies would presumably be better swimmers due to usually being stronger than pegasus or unicorn ponies.

Underwater basket weaving? Advantage "unicorn", I'm afraid.

[Pokonic]

Swimming? No problems there - nopony is at a particular advantage or disadvantage, though earth ponies would presumably be better swimmers due to usually being stronger than pegasus or unicorn ponies.

However, if we take Derpys cutie mark in face value, we could assume that pegusi can swim, at least. Wonder if they could use there wings like flippers or fins. After all, half of the stuff pegusi can do in clouds, like diving, are basicly water-based movements. Notably, clouds are basicly water vapor. Hence, my strained theory that pegusi can swim well.

[Eakin]

some not so easy
cricket
ladybug
hot pink flamingo
squirrel----i seem to remember a SquirrelBoy from somewhere but cant remember exactly where

Squirrel Girl is a reasonably well known Marvel character, who seems to be well known for defeating villains far more powerful than she is in fights. Using squirrel powers.

The others, well, there are a LOT of third rate comic book superheroes, I'm sure a cricket, ladybug, or flamingo themed hero has shown up at least once.

[Dexam]

hmmmm, so..an idea strikes from the shadows

A FMV to the Find a Pet song....with super heroes/villains in the pet spots
now, some would be easy
cute lil bunny = arthur from the tick
giant monarch butterfly = the Monarch from venture bros
falcon = the Falcon from marvel comics(i know he has been animated in various spots)
eagle = eagle pet of Harvey Birdman
dark and mysterious bat = i gotta be honest i am completely stumped..cant think of any dark mysterious bat type heroes


some not so easy
cricket
ladybug
hot pink flamingo
squirrel----i seem to remember a SquirrelBoy from somewhere but cant remember exactly where

anyone wanna contribute some ideas? animated ones would be better than stills

Well, he's kind of a superhero... Captain Flamingo.

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[Soras Teva Gee]

Squirrel Girl is a reasonably well known Marvel character, who seems to be well known for defeating villains far more powerful than she is in fights. Using squirrel powers.

The others, well, there are a LOT of third rate comic book superheroes, I'm sure a cricket, ladybug, or flamingo themed hero has shown up at least once.

Yes Squirrel Girl can beat anyone. Doctor Doom, Thanos, you name it she'll beat 'em. Nopony messes with Squirrel Girl.

Now for third rate go google Arm Fall Off Boy.

[Topaz]

While I'm not a super huge football fan, I would be interested in seeing human sports in equestria. How would ponies play football when they can't run and throw at the same time? How would basketball work on four legs? How well does soccer translate when a third of your team can fly? If a pegasus participates in an official footrace, are their wings harnessed? What about swimming? Does crew exist as a sport? Underwater basket weaving?

I expect that a lot of sporting competitions would be restricted by pony type ever overall or by role; football might use unicorn quarterbacks (like Rarity's dad!). I wonder if "no wings or horns" is known as the Discord rule?

Basketball is a bit more problematic, yet we know it exists because one of the pegasus ponies teasing Rainbow Dash in Sonic Rainboom has a three basketballs cutie mark. Pony's tails seem to be remarkably prehensile - maybe they dribble the ball using their tails, and kick/head/throw the ball through the hoop?

Or dribble with their heads and shoot with their forelegs.

Underwater basket weaving? Advantage "unicorn", I'm afraid.

♫ Shoo be doo, Shoop Shoop be doo ♫

[erikun]

I've heard a request for some Rarity art? While I'm not sure if these have been shown before, I'm sure I can supply a few.

Also, hello everyone. I'm still around.

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slightly large

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I'm not too sure if this last one is appropriate, all things considered, but I'm include it anyways for now.

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[otakuryoga]

♫ Shoo be doo, Shoop Shoop be doo ♫

DON'T

EVEN

TRY

IT!

[otakuryoga]

Squirrel Girl is a reasonably well known Marvel character, who seems to be well known for defeating villains far more powerful than she is in fights. Using squirrel powers.

The others, well, there are a LOT of third rate comic book superheroes, I'm sure a cricket, ladybug, or flamingo themed hero has shown up at least once.

forgot about her...but i dont think she has ever been in any of the animated shows...and i seem to think squirrel boy was from a cartoon

but she would work

i am actually thinking the seal and otter will be hardest

Now for third rate go google Arm Fall Off Boy.

wasnt he one of the super heroes from a Whose Line is it Anyway? sketch?


oops..meant to edit instead of double posting...oops

also...ROLL TIDE

[Soras Teva Gee]

wasnt he one of the super heroes from a Whose Line is it Anyway? sketch?

Nope. Created and published within a DC comic book.

I thought up a tagline for him once: Arm Fall Off Boy: He's Never Unarmed!

[Kyouhen]

Back from BroNYCon! Wooo! Was super awesome meeting SiuiS, Braz, T-Fox and the one or two other thread ponies who's names currently escape me! Time for a QUOTE WALL OF DOOOOOMMM!!! I'll wait until the end to put up anything about BroNYCon as I want to see if anypony else wrote anything about it first.

Besides, you know ME! What could be more awesome than that don't answer that Hopereaver if you want your inerds to stay inside!

...You still haven't reliched Hopereaver? Wouldn't she want her innards outside so she can be undead again?

Dear Bronies who are also Black Metal fans,

So, uh... I briefly mentioned once or twice that I was working on a Black Metal cover of the FiM opening theme. It's not quite done yet, but here's the instrumental version. Low-quality distant guitars as standard. Drowned out screaming and hollowing version coming soon.
Look, I even drew a pretty picture of Fluttershy for everyone.

Quoted for later listening.

Oh my stars I've done that! I rolled charisma like eight times and one of the dice kept coming up cocked, between six and four. Like five times. On the fifth roll I said "if it does it again, I'm keeping it."

I have a Gestalt Bard/Cleric of Lastai with a 21 starting charisma who's never seen actual play. Stupid mean DMs...

I once rolled a D6 and it stopped on one of it's corners. On a flat table. Without resting against anything. Many ponies lost their sanity that day.

Ditzy Doo ad the Blustery Day
Sweet Apple Capers

(Both short, but extremely funny, though you have to be something of a Winne the Pooh fan (and I mean the books, not the daft Disney adaption to make the most out of the aforementioned.)

HA! Sweet Apple Capers! I keep recommending that one to people, and did so a lot at BroNYCon, but I couldn't remember what it was called and that was driving me insane! Thank you good lich, now excuse me while I make a few Autohypnosis rolls in an attempt to remember that.

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And once I've had a spot I practice...

Bugger. When I saw you doing your little sketches I probably should have asked to see anything else you had done over the weekend!

-Character design stuff-

Just wanted to say reading over this stuff has been really interesting. Unfortunately I am physically incapable of explaining thought patterns and whatnot, so I won't be participating. Curse my inability to express thoughts!

Then again I'm pretty happy with the way my characters come together, and if the D&D campaigns I'm in are any indication I'm at least decent at making varied characters. And I've had times when I'll be halfway through character creation and need to start over because the character's evolved to the point where what I've done just doesn't suit them anymore. Hooray for an inability to tell my brain to stop focusing on something!

Edit: Full Episode initial thoughts

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Timber wolves actually made out of timber. I love the everfree forest.

Unsurprisingly, Granny Smith was awesome. Surprisingly, they actually gave Diamond Tiara some comeuppance and forced her to wear bunny ears at the end. Sadly, real life so rarely works that way, but it's nice to know that poetic justice is strong in Equestria.

I think the history lesson itself wrapped up pretty neatly. It gives a clear timeframe for the founding of Ponyville, although it's not super specific since we don't know the average lifespan of a pony.

One oddity is that the steam train apparently was around quite a long time ago. Perhaps the Appleloosans needed a pony-draw train because there wasn't access to a good source of fuel where they were or perhaps the pony drawn train still goes a bit faster when you really want speed?

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Yeah, I facepalm'd when they showed the timberwolves. Such a horrible pun. This show has the best original monsters.

More new episode

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Did anyone else laugh out loud at the world's greatest scrunchy face?

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Yes.10char Wait, this is a quote post. Why am I 10char'ing?

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Well, some ponys do not think that they have to tell there living god every time they learn something.

Notably, this was not so much a freindship lesson as a life lesson, if that eases your fears of going off-track.

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Also nopony told the CMC that they also had to write the friendship reports.

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Exactly. Didn't the Earth ponies set up a village in that area a thousand years before this back story?

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I don't think they ever actually said which village/city the earth ponies settled when they moved in. For all we know it could have been Manehattan.

I have to wait until 3pm eastern to see the episode.


Andrea Libman inspired me to finish both my RPG and Board game. And to return to pony thread. Because her speaking voice is SO CUTEAWESOME.

Agreed with the fury of a thousand Pinkieshy's!

Episode thoughts

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I thought it was a decent episode. Nothing too spectacular until Granny Smith's story, that really made the entire episode. Timberwolves are awesome, I may steal that for DnD game it's so awesome. The horrible pun would probably get me punched though.

And Diamond Tiara's Dad's name is Filthy Rich That's hilarious. The kids falling asleep during his presentation was great too, especially Sweetie Bell.

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Just to let you know, someone mentioned that there's a Wood Element Creature template in the Manual of the Planes. In case you're interested.

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This made me lol so hard.

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Kinda, yeah. I did think it was odd that she didn't check. Maybe it would have ruined the moment.

A rainbow apple cutie mark would be kinda cool though.

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It would also earn her the rage of a certain filly.

12:15 - maximum capacity confirmed: 650+ preregistered + 100 or so walk-ins for a ball room listed at 450 persons. Line hits a stand-still! The con is going to be cleared at 15:00, and the line will engage again at that point.

I'm not upset, and am actually convincing folks in the stairwell to calm down (we're here for each other, aye? Merch and VAs can wait, right?) but Jade has the room key, so I can't go get my sketchbooks. Sad face.

I'm really starting to wish I had grabbed your number sometime sooner in case we needed to get in touch. I could have thrown my pencils and notebook at you to keep you amused. Or just gone and chilled with you guys. Either way.

That's also pretty much the entirety of stuff that was worth play-by-play. There was an auction, Where bronies made me wonder on whether we are really cool or really stupid (seriously, this available for $5 outside, why is the bidding at $100+ ?), and now we're gonna listen to musics but no dance floor I'm afraid... There were also logistical issues, where they were expecting 250 like last year, instead of the 750 they booked or the 1,000 who pressed in. And the hotel is a piece of work that requires it's own thread to touch on. Like when part of the open hole in the ceiling dropped onto Soarin'. Or the rooms were improperly booked so we were short two beds. Or that when we finally got a room we couldn't open the bedroom door after closing it...

Don't forget the closet inside a closet!

And yeah, I'm just going to go with us being really cool. The only way I can justify to myself people paying as much as they did for some of those plushies at the auction is that they knew the money was all going to the next con. There were only a few things (ie Pinkie Cake) that I thought were really worth the money that people paid for them. (Well, maybe not worth the money, but I could at least understand why they would hit that high in an auction)

Man, you are impossible to find. I think I had been seeing you the while time and just didn't know you... I was afraid to just walk up to folks and ask if they were Orzel, until after the fact Kyouhen said that's what he did the first time...

Of course, your magic stealth powers kick in there, too. "Hy Kyouhen, what's Orzel look like?"
"Well, he's kind of tall, but not really, but he's not short. And hes like, I wouldn't say skinny, but he's not not skinny. And his hair is... Yeah."
"So we're not gonna find him are we?"
"no, no I don't think so."

In my defence I don't recall that conversation ever happening!
...Though if it did that's exactly how it would have gone... Did I mention I'm horrible at describing things? Because I am.

Though on the bright side I was able to identify Braz immediately upon seeing her, and I was also able to determine neither of the guys standing near her was you. No I don't know how it works, she just looked like I would expect Braz to look. And no, I can't tell you how I had expected her to look because I'm horrible at describing things. And no, that's not the first time I've managed to do this either.

I'm still ruminating on it. I decided I didn't like the little spikes after all (which is why I left it a bit, as I wasn't 100% sure when I did them.) I don't think I can reasonably get an aspect ratio narrow enough to be printable tomake them look good, so I'm going to abandon that idea. (They were intended to be sort of weapon emplacements, but I figured that if the race has advanced and compact weapons technology, most of the secondary weapon emplacements are probably not really visible (as they aren't on lot of starships, generally).

Gotta ask, do your players actually base any of their decisions on the models they see? If they saw a model with a bunch of visible guns on it would they start targeting those guns to disable them? Because if so having a bunch of relatively weak weapons that were visible would be a great way to get them to waste time and resources, only to have them find out that the real weapons systems aren't actually visible at all.

Lixie, Lixie, Lixie... when you're as old as I am, you'll realize that some puns just need to be made.

Oh Celestia you said her name three times. What have you done?

Blah. I am wiped. Emotionally exhausted, mentally fatigued, and generally sad I have to go home. Bronies on the east coast are warm enough to make up for the ridiculous temperatures! Which is good, because ridiculous temperatures are ridiculous.

Inorite? Seriously, I was walking around in a t-shirt in early January. What the hay New Yorkers?!

Going to Fillydelphia for a tournament that Rainbow Dash is in, sounds very pony, but boxing seems off to me. At least, boxing as it is as a human sport. It would need a less violent quadruped version of the sport to work, Ithink.

Hehehhee. I really like the idea of the Italian Stallion, Rocky, though. That's clever!

Not so sure boxing itself is off as we've seen Dash is willing to resort to fisticuffs (hoofticuffs?) if needed. I'm just not too sure how well ponies would be able to manage boxing. Might need to find a better way for them to beat on each other, maybe a head-butting competition?

Attention, ponythread artists.

Just thought you'd like to know.

Totally looking forward to this! I think I might challenge myself to do this entirely by modifying the art on some MTG cards. Could be interesting to see how many themes I can force to fit into those little frames and find cards that fit them.

Happy Monday ponythread! How is everyone today?

Tired. Forgot how exhausting long-distance cons can be. Slept just about the entire bus ride home, then slept for a good 4 or 5 hours after. Still quite tired. But as usual was totally worth it.

Hi, I'm from the Internet, and I'm here to help.

Hehehe, I love that part.

We're talking about a pegasi with major cutie mark talent in speed vs a pretty much workhorse with lifestyle favouring static strength, not running, and she tied. Although, argument can be made AJ cheated by giving RD extra uncomfortable weight to run with, it was still a close call between athlete and a farmer.

I'm going to stick Applejack as being more of an endurance athlete. Between the two Rainbow Dash is definitely faster, but how long can she maintain her speed? In a race as long as The Running of the Leaves Applejack probably has an edge because, though she isn't as fast as Dash is, she can probably maintain her higher speeds longer.

That and it's entirely possible Rainbow Dash never really bothers exercising her legs. She does seem to have a hard time keeping herself grounded.

hmmmm, so..an idea strikes from the shadows

A FMV to the Find a Pet song....with super heroes/villains in the pet spots
now, some would be easy
cute lil bunny = arthur from the tick
giant monarch butterfly = the Monarch from venture bros
falcon = the Falcon from marvel comics(i know he has been animated in various spots)
eagle = eagle pet of Harvey Birdman
dark and mysterious bat = i gotta be honest i am completely stumped..cant think of any dark mysterious bat type heroes


some not so easy
cricket
ladybug
hot pink flamingo
squirrel----i seem to remember a SquirrelBoy from somewhere but cant remember exactly where

anyone wanna contribute some ideas? animated ones would be better than stills

...You planning on animating that? Because that's a great idea.

Well, he's kind of a superhero... Captain Flamingo.

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Oh gods, that show.

Anyway, some stuff from BroNYCon. My phone was largely dead the entire time I was there (listening to music for the entire 11-12 hours it took me to get there, then found out I hadn't packed my charger after all, then found out the next day I actually had but didn't have time to charge it) so I couldn't get any pictures. But here's pictures of things I made on my way there. I had a really long bus ride, so I brought some stuff to work on to see if I could do anything good while on the bus. This is the result:

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Also SiuiS decided to test how difficult writing a friendship report with one's mouth really is.

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He had put down a little card on which he had sketched Starry Notions, so I decided to see how hard it would be to paint with your mouth.

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And finally a sketch of Pinkie Pie being adorable from Ego.

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Overall the con was great. Opened up by wandering off to McDonald's at like 3am with three people I didn't know. Then went back to the hotel room and got some sleep in a room with 5-6 people I didn't know. Then got in line to get a ticket and played some games with people I didn't know. (I keep a small stash of quick games with me at all times for fear of death by boredom) And that's largely how the con went for me. A lot of me chilling with total strangers who were all really cool (and seriously talented) people. (Really. I swear everyone I talked to had provided something to this community I was familiar with. One of them had made some of the sprites for Desktop Ponies (ie FillyDash), another did a bunch of TF2 stuff, I even spent a good amount of time Sunday chilling with the guy who made the colouring books (Garret). Turns out he's the one working on the Recobbled edition of The Thief and the Cobbler. ) I swear, I love this fandom. It was the friendliest con I've ever been to.

Oh, and also, this was in the auction.

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That's a solid sugar cake.

[Thanqol]

I'm back!

And now I've got 10 days worth of music and drawfriends to get caught up on @_@

TO WORK!

[Eakin]

♫ Shoo be doo, Shoop Shoop be doo ♫

Son of a pony... now it's stuck in my head.

WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT? Now you all get to share my pain

At least it inspired a pretty good Eurobrony track

[otakuryoga]

wow..cant believe no one called me on Arthur from The Tick NOT being a bunny........................

ponythread i am Disappoint

[Thanqol]

Finally caught up on all the pony.

That was a lot of pony.

Also, I got a late christmas gift!

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This is the coolest boombox ever.

i cant stop thinking of the shipping implications of RDxRDxFluttershy

[Aotrs Commander]

♫ Shoo be doo, Shoop Shoop be doo ♫

*skulldesk*

*skulldesk*

*skulldesk*

Damn you, childhood trauma!

DON'T

EVEN

TRY

IT!

What he said.

...You still haven't reliched Hopereaver? Wouldn't she want her innards outside so she can be undead again?

Nah, when we figured out thanks to Lixi's meddling, my magical girl form has all my Lich powers, plus a few, I decided I was cool with it. (One of the other draws is this form actually being kinda Undead sorta (it's complicated)... I've noticed more than one biological functions that I don't need to worry about much anymore - heck it took me a while to realise they were even missing, having been a Lich for a while...) It's nice to have hair again, for one. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, hair was a pretty minor sacrifice for Lichdom, but if I can have my cake and eat it too...

And I look so much cuter with hair!

Pffftahahahahaha!

Ah, me, that t'were a good one, Hopereaver...

*cries waterfall tears*

Gotta ask, do your players actually base any of their decisions on the models they see? If they saw a model with a bunch of visible guns on it would they start targeting those guns to disable them? Because if so having a bunch of relatively weak weapons that were visible would be a great way to get them to waste time and resources, only to have them find out that the real weapons systems aren't actually visible at all.

Nah, none of the rulesets are we use - which in this case would be Rolemaster for RPG and Accelerate & Attack - are especially designed for that sort of thing. It can happen occasionally in Rolemaster - in fact, there as a type of monster they could have aimed for a weak spot on last quest - but only when particularly specified (and probably with some prompting for me, as called shots are not generally a part of any of the rules we play.) And in RM, they are so horribly overpowered, and with a too-wide-gap between attack skill (which I'm currently working on closing) it's either not worth it or makes it too difficult.

In AccAtt, game scale - which is something in the region of about 10-20 bits (i.e. ships or fighter groups, basically "things you move") for an evening's game requires you be a bit abtract when dealing with that sort of thing. The way the damage system works is that every system (e.g. weapons, drives, crew) basically generates it's own hit point, and they all go on a damage track (where damage is marked off right-to-left). Shields basically create a pool extra hit points every round, and armour is also modelled as hit points (the different being the former two are considered to be on different layers, so having both is a good idea to prevent lucky shots (of which there is a 15% chance per D20) of punching through to the much much vulnerable hull, as some weapons do only one point to armour or shields, but D6 to the hull). You can choose to shoot specific hit slots, i.e. systems, but in order to do any damage, you still have to get through the shields and armour, so generally it's used for disabling vessels for capture, if you don't have special weapons.

That said, you sort of could do that, by slapping some weak minimum size weapons on the ship, and putting them after the armour on the track (indeed, you could argue that the Saiyvali's Class 1 Pulse weapons do exactly that, though the point of them being "weak" weapons is somewhat debatable). But generally, you don't want the enemy to be getting any hits past your shields and armour (you'd be better protected juts using the say same for more armour or shields, of bigger drives (which would give you a higher target number).

This is the result:

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That's either really cool or slightly creepy, and I'm not sure which...

Can't it be both?

I'm back!

You left?

[Thanqol]

You left?

I'm really bad at leaving

[Athaniar]

The sea ponies are taking over. Eexcellent.

[Thanqol]

I had a shot at colouring that Thistle pic like I said I would. Is this a colour scheme that works for you, SiuiS?

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[fizmat]

I had a shot at colouring that Thistle pic like I said I would. Is this a colour scheme that works for you, SiuiS?

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What does it mean if I just want to hug her and tell her everything is gonna be all right

Unrelatedly, I've decided I'm gonna participate in the the artist training grounds despite having no education and no plan to ever become a professional. I just want a big enough excuse to try drawing ponies again.

[littlekKID]

I had a shot at colouring that Thistle pic like I said I would. Is this a colour scheme that works for you, SiuiS?

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Is that... the daughter of Gilda and RD?

Well, I guess I can't really talk, seeing how I'm the person who created hypothetical daughters for all the mane cast.

and on the same subject, I'm thinking about renaming my AJ+RD (currently called Apple Stripes) "Zap Apple" after the last episode, but I'm not sure. It fits better with the apple family theme (and I really liked this episode) but I'm not quite sure it sounds right....
What do you think?

[Sean Mirrsen]

What does it mean if I just want to hug her and tell her everything is gonna be all right

Unrelatedly, I've decided I'm gonna participate in the the artist training grounds despite having no education and no plan to ever become a professional. I just want a big enough excuse to try drawing ponies again.

Why would you need an excuse to draw ponies?

[grimbold]

Going to Fillydelphia for a tournament that Rainbow Dash is in, sounds very pony, but boxing seems off to me. At least, boxing as it is as a human sport. It would need a less violent quadruped version of the sport to work, Ithink.

Hehehhee. I really like the idea of the Italian Stallion, Rocky, though. That's clever!

yeah
i;m trying to figure out how we could manage some sport for the italian stallion

[Bayonet Priest]

and on the same subject, I'm thinking about renaming my AJ+RD (currently called Apple Stripes) "Zap Apple" after the last episode, but I'm not sure. It fits better with the apple family theme (and I really liked this episode) but I'm not quite sure it sounds right....
What do you think?

I like it. It can be shortened to Zap which sounds like a good name for a colt. (although it might work for a filly too)

[Kyouhen]

wow..cant believe no one called me on Arthur from The Tick NOT being a bunny........................

ponythread i am Disappoint

Nonsense, of course he's a bunny! He's got those big ear things and everything! Not in the face NOT IN THE FACE!

Son of a pony... now it's stuck in my head.

WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT? Now you all get to share my pain

At least it inspired a pretty good Eurobrony track

You are a horrible person.

Nah, when we figured out thanks to Lixi's meddling, my magical girl form has all my Lich powers, plus a few, I decided I was cool with it. (One of the other draws is this form actually being kinda Undead sorta (it's complicated)... I've noticed more than one biological functions that I don't need to worry about much anymore - heck it took me a while to realise they were even missing, having been a Lich for a while...) It's nice to have hair again, for one. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, hair was a pretty minor sacrifice for Lichdom, but if I can have my cake and eat it too...

And I look so much cuter with hair!

Pffftahahahahaha!

Ah, me, that t'were a good one, Hopereaver...

*cries waterfall tears*

Well whatever works for you. Which suddenly raises a question. I'm pretty sure this has been covered before, but do liches feel pain? I think the answer last time was only really if rainbows are involved, but can't quite remember if there was anything else.
*Hides a notebook behind his back*

Nah, none of the rulesets are we use - which in this case would be Rolemaster for RPG and Accelerate & Attack - are especially designed for that sort of thing. It can happen occasionally in Rolemaster - in fact, there as a type of monster they could have aimed for a weak spot on last quest - but only when particularly specified (and probably with some prompting for me, as called shots are not generally a part of any of the rules we play.) And in RM, they are so horribly overpowered, and with a too-wide-gap between attack skill (which I'm currently working on closing) it's either not worth it or makes it too difficult.

In AccAtt, game scale - which is something in the region of about 10-20 bits (i.e. ships or fighter groups, basically "things you move") for an evening's game requires you be a bit abtract when dealing with that sort of thing. The way the damage system works is that every system (e.g. weapons, drives, crew) basically generates it's own hit point, and they all go on a damage track (where damage is marked off right-to-left). Shields basically create a pool extra hit points every round, and armour is also modelled as hit points (the different being the former two are considered to be on different layers, so having both is a good idea to prevent lucky shots (of which there is a 15% chance per D20) of punching through to the much much vulnerable hull, as some weapons do only one point to armour or shields, but D6 to the hull). You can choose to shoot specific hit slots, i.e. systems, but in order to do any damage, you still have to get through the shields and armour, so generally it's used for disabling vessels for capture, if you don't have special weapons.

That said, you sort of could do that, by slapping some weak minimum size weapons on the ship, and putting them after the armour on the track (indeed, you could argue that the Saiyvali's Class 1 Pulse weapons do exactly that, though the point of them being "weak" weapons is somewhat debatable). But generally, you don't want the enemy to be getting any hits past your shields and armour (you'd be better protected juts using the say same for more armour or shields, of bigger drives (which would give you a higher target number).

Nuts. Would have made a great little surprise if your players did it more often, though you're right that you don't normally want any hits at all. What if the visible weapons systems were actually devices that absorb energy weapons fire to help give the ship a power boost? Would still need to find a way to convince the enemy to shoot it, and it might help with the whole thing of the enemy having to punch through your shields first as you can use a chunk of the energy to boost the shields back up.

That's either really cool or slightly creepy, and I'm not sure which...

Can't it be both?

I vote for adorable.
*Huggles his ponygaunts*

[Orzel]

1) We HAVE to set up a way to meet at the con. You all know I was going to be there and not meeting each of you is a shame on my part.

2) Which of these do you think would be more appealing to MLP fans?

A standard board game
A card based board game like the OotS game
A standard card game like poker or Uno
A trading card game

I have all four designed but only have time develop one.

[Lix Lorn]

He tossed a mob of ponies off him matrix style.

Mac is the one.
He knows he's in a cartoon, he has the power to fight back.
...thing is, Equestria is way better than Earth, so he's decided that he's okay with it.

Oh Celestia you said her name three times. What have you done?

It's only a problem when there's a mirror.

Nah, when we figured out thanks to Lixi's meddling, my magical girl form has all my Lich powers, plus a few, I decided I was cool with it. (One of the other draws is this form actually being kinda Undead sorta (it's complicated)... I've noticed more than one biological functions that I don't need to worry about much anymore - heck it took me a while to realise they were even missing, having been a Lich for a while...) It's nice to have hair again, for one. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, hair was a pretty minor sacrifice for Lichdom, but if I can have my cake and eat it too...

And I look so much cuter with hair!

Pffftahahahahaha!

Ah, me, that t'were a good one, Hopereaver...

*cries waterfall tears*

*I* think you look cute...

[Draconi Redfir]

Spoiler

Show

My little Tyranid, My little Tyranid,
AhhAhhhAhhAhhh~
My little Tyranid!
I used to wonder what eating could be!
My little Tyranid!
Why dont you come an share the feasting with me?
Big Carnifexes
Tons of Gaunts!
We all play a part
In numbers Strong!
Tearing, Rending,
It's an easy feast!
And Rippers make it all complete!
Yeahh my little Tyranid,
You know you are my very first meeeeeaaal~


i have nothing else to contribute. My status as an actual brony and not just some guy who watches the show to be cool comes into question.

[Aotrs Commander]

Well whatever works for you. Which suddenly raises a question. I'm pretty sure this has been covered before, but do liches feel pain? I think the answer last time was only really if rainbows are involved, but can't quite remember if there was anything else.
*Hides a notebook behind his back*

I believe this has been observed on more than one occasion. Yes, Liches can feel pain, it fragging hurts! Shoot me with a bullet and it won't do much in the long run, but that doesn't mean it doesn't sting like the blazes...

Nuts. Would have made a great little surprise if your players did it more often, though you're right that you don't normally want any hits at all. What if the visible weapons systems were actually devices that absorb energy weapons fire to help give the ship a power boost? Would still need to find a way to convince the enemy to shoot it, and it might help with the whole thing of the enemy having to punch through your shields first as you can use a chunk of the energy to boost the shields back up.

Considering the variety of energy weapons in use¹ and that missiles, torpedoes and railguns of all stripes are used in starship combat, that would not really be practical to be able to absorb all the different energy types and delivery methods (and if you could, you'd use directly as part of your shields by that level of technology).

And you still don't want people to be shoot through your shields in the first place (as if what follows is a nice big salvo of anti-matter warheads, or Cybertank matter-flux torpedoes or something, the explosions won't stop with your weapons, they'll rip right through your hull, however you've connected it to your other systems.) As a matter of military principle, outside of TV-media base deus ex machina, you don't put a bit of your ship you want and enemy to shoot, you don't want him to shoot you at all, much less get through your defenses...

I vote for adorable.
*Huggles his ponygaunts*

Pot-ay-to, pot-ar-to...

*I* think you look cute...

I'm sure that a great comfort to her...



¹E.g. lasers, lazers, partical lasers, masers, partical beams, coldbeams, blasters, blaster beams, partical beams, particle accelerators, ion pulses, astrobursters, phasic lances, hyper-rays, ultrabeams, syvri, disrupters, trilvar, plazma-pulses, astro- and warp-accelerators, electroblasters, eraser beams, drain cannons, twin-stage spacial distortion beams, cohesion disrupters, electron dissipators, electron accelerators, charge packet guns, spacial splinter cannons, disintegrators, photon-pulsars...

[otakuryoga]

Spoiler

Show

My little Tyranid, My little Tyranid,
AhhAhhhAhhAhhh~
My little Tyranid!
I used to wonder what eating could be!
My little Tyranid!
Why dont you come an share the feasting with me?
Big Carnifexes
Tons of Gaunts!
We all play a part
In numbers Strong!
Tearing, Rending,
It's an easy feast!
And Rippers make it all complete!
Yeahh my little Tyranid,
You know you are my very first meeeeeaaal~


i have nothing else to contribute. My status as an actual brony and not just some guy who watches the show to be cool comes into question.

you should totally send those in to eqd for a ?custom pony compilation?
and include the song of course 8)