My Little Pony LII: 525.600 Ponies!

[SiuiS]

Considering I don't think he had ovaries I think yours being twice as fertile might be an underestimation.

I'm just pointing out how whenever people are bragging at each other it's always likened to a penis contest. Why not just admit that it bragging? Why does it have to be tied to masculinity?

So I'm boycotting male organs. Unless he's very cute and/or I'm very drunk.

My definition of optimal does include the price tag. I guess the optimal house would be the cheapest house, in the best location, in the best condition possible.

Sub-optimal would mean that one of those factors is not being pushed to the limit. So either this isn't in the best location or best shape or as cheap as you could get it elsewhere.

That was my point. If you can get Better real estate for a reasonably similar sum, but choose your friend. The ratio is less perfect, but still workable.

Though neighborhood, friend proximity, and cost are all drastically incomparable variables.

Very probably, but given half a chance to overanalyze a one episode joke I will of course take it

respect. /)

[Maxtronaut]

You know what? F*ck it. I'm heading back to my universe where I shall continue to post from. This universe has WAY too many overpowered/extremely unrealistic machines of war that suddenly appear whenever I list my ship's capabilities.

*Teleports.*

Aaahh, it's good to be home.

[Forum Explorer]

You know what? F*ck it. I'm heading back to my universe where I shall continue to post from. This universe has WAY too many overpowered/extremely unrealistic machines of war that suddenly appear whenever I list my ship's capabilities.

*Teleports.*

Aaahh, it's good to be home.

because your machines of war are in no way overpowered or unrealistic /teasing

[Maxtronaut]

because your machines of war are in no way overpowered or unrealistic /teasing

I don't give a damn whether you're teasing or not. My ships are nothing compared to the unrealism of this dimension. I mean c'mon, let's do a little list here:

A self-proclaimed god that is somehow more pwerful in all ways than a 30 dreadnought.
A mad scientist who wields an entire fleet of orbital friendship cannons. Not to mention that said scientist also has a flame giddes as a wife.
An failed undead cult leader that transfers his soul from body to body in a pathetic effort to survive.
A ponythid, who is now, I might add.

Not to mention the millions of other things out of whack. I'm staying in my dimension from now on until either you guys need me to fix one of your problems, or I go to war against the thread. Whichever comes first.

[Balmas]

A self-proclaimed god that is somehow more powerful in all ways than a 30 dreadnought.
A mad scientist who wields an entire fleet of orbital friendship cannons. Not to mention that said scientist also has a flame goddess as a wife.
A failed undead cult leader that transfers his soul from body to body in a pathetic effort to survive.
A ponythid, who is now, I might add (possibly dead?).

I feel somewhat annoyed that I don't even merit an honorable mention on this list. Don't forget the lichie with the fleet of SPACE ships. (Much more high-tech than our own humble fleets, I'm sure.)

And, so that this post is somewhat related to ponies:

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Fluttercube! NOOOOOOOOOO!

[Anarion]

That gives me an idea!

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Dealing with idiotic people got you down?
Did someone miss something astoundingly obvious, again?
Did another person misunderstand that your source of magical power is not purely physical?
Do you deal with these problems by smashing your head into the nearest table-like surface?
Well, do I have the solution for you!
Hi, I'm Marble Top, Owner of [why can't I think of names...]. Table destruction is at an all time high because of head-related mishaps. Here at[why can't I think of names...] we sell high quality tables and desks to stem the carnage desktops have been taking.

So if your table or desk has too many imprints of your face on it, come on over to [why can't I think of names...]and upgrade today.

Picture of Marble Top (may be a tad screen-stretchy)

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... I put way too much work into that, but it was fun. He is going to make a mint off of ponythread!

I shall alert the local hospitals to expect a sudden influx of marble-related concussions.

Also, how about "Smashing Good Marble?" or, if we're sticking with the theme that every store in Ponyville sells two things, I suggest "Marble and fruit baskets." No, I don't know why fruit baskets, just run with it.

ok, given the large amounts of stuff I've been doing, i guess I can say already: I'm a brony..... a bit I think

Though I don't really feel like one, mostly cuz of the lots of stuff I dislike that the fandom seems to point as "basic things to like", but given that most of my actve RPs are in that setting and a lot other stuff others already pointed out (several which I don't see really as bronifing anyways XD) and 3 freaking weeks of sweet ponydreams with RD, then I think I'm somewhat one

So yeah, there goes youe "Element of Denial" thing

Already quoted, but I'd like to do my part in preserving this moment. Welcome to a little piece of reality. It's still insane ponysane, but you might enjoy it here.

That was my point. If you can get Better real estate for a reasonably similar sum, but choose your friend. The ratio is less perfect, but still workable.

Though neighborhood, friend proximity, and cost are all drastically incomparable variables.

They're totally comparable, they're just not obvious in most people's brains. It's one of those things where you have to kind of sit down and hone in on what things are worth. I bet if I offered you a million dollars (note: Anarion does not possess a million dollars) to live further from a friend, you'd take it and use the money to visit the friend more often, plan cool activities, or just be happy enjoying your life with the million bucks. Then you can sit down and think about it. Maybe you'd do it for way less, like only $100k, but you're pretty sure that $10k would be too little to convince you to move to a worse location.


And another X-com report
Alien base 2

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Dear Princess Celestia,

Hey, it's me Vinyl Scratch. Can you believe those suits up top decided I would make a good colonel? Pff, yeah right, like I want to do that kind of work. I've left Captain Colgate in charge of operational duties here, and I'm promoting you to captain to run East Asia. Hop to it princess, that's an order! I'm also putting the new North African base under your subcommand until they get a ranking officer transferred over. Not sure who to send yet, we're kinda out of captains. S'cool though, we still haven't taken a casualty, so I figure those rookies will keep their moral together on reputation alone.

Anyway, congrats on that hit on the alien base near Delhi, though I gotta admit, I'm a bit disappointed. I mean, yeah, it wasn't your fault that it was a Muton base and they don't have any commanders, but I was sorta hoping we could finally get that last bit of intel and see about pushing to Mars. Considering we've got one AVENGER up and running (and baby, those things are so sweet) and another done in 9 days, I figure we're almost ready to take this fight to the other side. Though figures, as soon as we get the kit to shoot them down, all those big ships turn tail and hide. I'm thinking maybe after the second AVENGER is done, we'll set up a radar station in South America, see if we can pick anything up.

Anyway, back to the base assault. So, I just watched the footage, and it is hilarious. I've got the video of that Muton firing the blaster launcher right into the wall in front of him and taking out himself and 3 buddies playing on a loop while I'm writing to you. It just never gets old.

By the way, princess, you've been looking mighty buff, but I bet I can still take you in a hoof wrestle. The stats guys are backing me up on this one. You may have 62 strength now, but I've got 64. See that, right there, is obviously why I made colonel.

Your faithful DJ,
Vinyl Scratch

[fizmat]

Yeah, the interdimensional bombardment one-upmanship is not really roleplay, is it? War history is better known through stories about generals, their personalities and tricks, and not army statistics and weapon comparisons, for a reason. It's remembered as stories and stories are about people after all. So you either attach faces to armies (generals), or tell a tale of a small group in a warzone setting (guerrilla heroes). Insert death of a million is a statistic quote here.

And seeing as forum RP has no gameplay mechanics, it's inevitably narrativistic rather than simulationist and needs to tell a good story. Otherwise all that's left is the visceral third-grader thrill of arguing who has cooler relatives. Not that there's something wrong with that, I can just continue skipping the epic action, but so much more can be done with it...

One way to make this more fun is to have your personality affect what you do. Refuse to attack someone for moral/selfish reasons. Choose a weaker weapon because of personal preference. Be surprised by your opponent because his way of thinking is so different to yours. Become enraged and make a mistake because of it or something.

When you do make something cool happen, work on the sell. See example, broken image links notwithstanding:

What?

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Elements of Harmony?
You mean...

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These ol' things?

Wasn't that cool how he annihila... no wait he eradica... wait he destro... nope. He just did what on epicness scale is equivalent to a coin-in-your-ear magic trick, but boy was the execution fun. As Rainbow Dash would say it, style, coolnes, awesomness and radicalness are not the same thing.

You don't even need to actually fight to RP a powerful being or leader of a huge force. See the CommanderXGoddess otp. Granted, they've had millenia to become this good at being nonchalantly powerful, but I bet they can give a few pointers. The threat is that much more credible because it's never enacted (and as a bonus consequence never anticlimactically countered by a stray godmodder) and the audience is free to imagine the horrible consequences.

[Strife Warzeal]

I shall alert the local hospitals to expect a sudden influx of marble-related concussions.

Also, how about "Smashing Good Marble?" or, if we're sticking with the theme that every store in Ponyville sells two things, I suggest "Marble and fruit baskets." No, I don't know why fruit baskets, just run with it.

And another X-com report
Alien base 2

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Dear Princess Celestia,

Hey, it's me Vinyl Scratch. Can you believe those suits up top decided I would make a good colonel? Pff, yeah right, like I want to do that kind of work. I've left Captain Colgate in charge of operational duties here, and I'm promoting you to captain to run East Asia. Hop to it princess, that's an order! I'm also putting the new North African base under your subcommand until they get a ranking officer transferred over. Not sure who to send yet, we're kinda out of captains. S'cool though, we still haven't taken a casualty, so I figure those rookies will keep their moral together on reputation alone.

Anyway, congrats on that hit on the alien base near Delhi, though I gotta admit, I'm a bit disappointed. I mean, yeah, it wasn't your fault that it was a Muton base and they don't have any commanders, but I was sorta hoping we could finally get that last bit of intel and see about pushing to Mars. Considering we've got one AVENGER up and running (and baby, those things are so sweet) and another done in 9 days, I figure we're almost ready to take this fight to the other side. Though figures, as soon as we get the kit to shoot them down, all those big ships turn tail and hide. I'm thinking maybe after the second AVENGER is done, we'll set up a radar station in South America, see if we can pick anything up.

Anyway, back to the base assault. So, I just watched the footage, and it is hilarious. I've got the video of that Muton firing the blaster launcher right into the wall in front of him and taking out himself and 3 buddies playing on a loop while I'm writing to you. It just never gets old.

By the way, princess, you've been looking mighty buff, but I bet I can still take you in a hoof wrestle. The stats guys are backing me up on this one. You may have 62 strength now, but I've got 64. See that, right there, is obviously why I made colonel.

Your faithful DJ,
Vinyl Scratch

Hey, Marble Top isn't an idiot, people want more than just a marble table, some prefer just wood(quality wood, at that) and metal; Marble won't pass up a sale by limiting himself. Smashing Good Marble is a good name regardless, it works quite nicely given the sales pitch is it won't break due to cranial collisions. (New personal project; come up with as many ways possible to say 'head impact' without actually saying 'head impact).
Obviously in the fine print is that he is not liable to any and all injuries to one's self inflicted by the table. Written up to be air-tight in a court of course.


Look into the Hyperwave Decoder if you captured a Navigator. It makes Radars useless, and gives better info about what you're chasing down, like alien race, ship size, and the general region they are going to. Unless you just plan to wrap it up as soon as possible.

[OracleofWuffing]

Also, how about "Smashing Good Marble?" or, if we're sticking with the theme that every store in Ponyville sells two things, I suggest "Marble and fruit baskets." No, I don't know why fruit baskets, just run with it.

My inability to keep up with the ponythread gives me a hunch that this has already been suggested, but "Don't Lose Your Marble," must be in the suggestion pool.

[Strife Warzeal]

My inability to keep up with the ponythread gives me a hunch that this has already been suggested, but "Don't Lose Your Marble," must be in the suggestion pool.

Darn you ponythread, once again making it difficult to choose a name because you like all of the suggestions.
I guess I could always keep it as a motto type thing, if I end choosing something else as the name.

[Forum Explorer]

I don't give a damn whether you're teasing or not. My ships are nothing compared to the unrealism of this dimension. I mean c'mon, let's do a little list here:

A self-proclaimed god that is somehow more pwerful in all ways than a 30 dreadnought.
A mad scientist who wields an entire fleet of orbital friendship cannons. Not to mention that said scientist also has a flame giddes as a wife.
An failed undead cult leader that transfers his soul from body to body in a pathetic effort to survive.
A ponythid, who is now, I might add.

Not to mention the millions of other things out of whack. I'm staying in my dimension from now on until either you guys need me to fix one of your problems, or I go to war against the thread. Whichever comes first.

Sure but now in comparison to my dimension you are just as ludicrous. It's a simple dimension where the biggest explosion is exclusive to Rainbow Dash and her Sonic Rainnuke. Airships have never been militarized and pies are commonly used as weapons. Forbidden magics may exist but ponies are generally smart/wise enough not to pursue them.

On another note:
UFO 41

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Yo Dash,

Another mission in the desert another bunch a tricks wasted on these nonflyers. Pretty boring mission overall. I mean I didn't even get to fire my gun! And while these new plasma guns are nifty and good at killing these green armored lameos they just aren't as cool as my autocannon.

Like I said though, boring mission. Zecora stole all the kills! And I didn't even get to storm the UFO. Oh right, forgot to mention. The UFO had landed this time so it was entirely intact. But what do my idiot squaddies do? They miss the alien and blow the power core up! Way to hit the most expensive piece of equipment in the place guys. At least our tank survived.

This month in general has been pretty boring. Just a couple of small ships buzzing by that half the time are either over water or going too fast to intercept. Hey at least you're back on your hooves! About time, am I right? You should drop by sometime if things stay so boring.

Keep it cool,
Gilda.

[Tiki Snakes]

I don't give a damn whether you're teasing or not. My ships are nothing compared to the unrealism of this dimension. I mean c'mon, let's do a little list here:

A self-proclaimed god that is somehow more pwerful in all ways than a 30 dreadnought.
A mad scientist who wields an entire fleet of orbital friendship cannons. Not to mention that said scientist also has a flame giddes as a wife.
An failed undead cult leader that transfers his soul from body to body in a pathetic effort to survive.
A ponythid, who is now, I might add.

Not to mention the millions of other things out of whack. I'm staying in my dimension from now on until either you guys need me to fix one of your problems, or I go to war against the thread. Whichever comes first.

Ponythread's Ponithid Count is currently somewhere between 0 and 1, but only because Sean Mirrsen has an extra-dimensional temporal clone of her that he keeps outside of the multiverse itself.

Ponithid Prime is no longer with us. (She was also almost entirely lacking in powers).
Bleakmane and crew are a little more ott, but thats only really because they started off as blatant alternate-universe knockoffs ENTIRELY ORIGINAL CHARACTERS.

[SiuiS]

You know what? How about I just shoot you with airship cannons until there's nothing left of you but memories? Sound good?

Oh, no. That would be... Bad. I took precautions a while ago because I expected Boffenspark to shoot me. If you did instead, I'd actually feel bad about the results of my defenses...

You know what? F*ck it. I'm heading back to my universe where I shall continue to post from. This universe has WAY too many overpowered/extremely unrealistic machines of war that suddenly appear whenever I list my ship's capabilities.

*Teleports.*

Aaahh, it's good to be home.

Awww man! Now who will I convince to be my downfall?

Jayden? You up for an emotionally charged nemesis match?

I don't give a damn whether you're teasing or not. My ships are nothing compared to the unrealism of this dimension. I mean c'mon, let's do a little list here:

A self-proclaimed god that is somehow more pwerful in all ways than a 30 dreadnought.

We actually had this discussion a while ago. Power means a lot of things; a dreadnought only has destructive power. Maybe horse power. Of corse something more versatile will overcome it.

[quote]A mad scientist who wields an entire fleet of orbital friendship cannons. Not to mention that said scientist also has a flame giddes as a wife.[/auote]

Yeah. Hard to shoot those things down. They didn't even do any damage, either, until some pony climbed aboard and started wailing on them with a wrench...

An failed undead cult leader that transfers his soul from body to body in a pathetic effort to survive.

I tried to stop that! I figured a powerful body was a perfect anchor. How was I to know he's a promiscuous poltergeist?

Not to mention the millions of other things out of whack. I'm staying in my dimension from now on until either you guys need me to fix one of your problems, or I go to war against the thread. Whichever comes first.

OOOH, yeah, okay that might work... War we can do... Er wait... Maybe that would be too RP intensive?

I shall alert the local hospitals to expect a sudden influx of marble-related concussions.

Also, how about "Smashing Good Marble?" or, if we're sticking with the theme that every store in Ponyville sells two things, I suggest "Marble and fruit baskets." No, I don't know why fruit baskets, just run with it.

On goodness an you put the basket on the table its brilliant

They're totally comparable, they're just not obvious in most people's brains. It's one of those things where you have to kind of sit down and hone in on what things are worth. I bet if I offered you a million dollars (note: Anarion does not possess a million dollars) to live further from a friend, you'd take it and use the money to visit the friend more often, plan cool activities, or just be happy enjoying your life with the million bucks. Then you can sit down and think about it. Maybe you'd do it for way less, like only $100k, but you're pretty sure that $10k would be too little to convince you to move to a worse location.

Broadly, maybe. But they don't scale anywhere near the same, and each has a different minimum threshold. Money is $0, or maybe in the negatives depending (meaning you woul pay more than your current set point), friends is 0, and goo neighborhood could be "just don't mad dog the biker next door, and you're cool" or maybe "walking alone at night, but not on drinking holidays". And there's a difference between what I would do for a thousand dollars versus ten thousand, and it suddenly jumps so each equivalent unit is worth more or less.

And I know none of the other two except for safe enough to surviv in would matter if I were, like, an hour from EVERY friend I had.

Yeah, the interdimensional bombardment one-upmanship is not really roleplay, is it? War history is better known through stories about generals, their personalities and tricks, and not army statistics and weapon comparisons, for a reason. It's remembered as stories and stories are about people after all. So you either attach faces to armies (generals), or tell a tale of a small group in a warzone setting (guerrilla heroes). Insert death of a million is a statistic quote here.

And seeing as forum RP has no gameplay mechanics, it's inevitably narrativistic rather than simulationist and needs to tell a good story. Otherwise all that's left is the visceral third-grader thrill of arguing who has cooler relatives. Not that there's something wrong with that, I can just continue skipping the epic action, but so much more can be done with it...

One way to make this more fun is to have your personality affect what you do. Refuse to attack someone for moral/selfish reasons. Choose a weaker weapon because of personal preference. Be surprised by your opponent because his way of thinking is so different to yours. Become enraged and make a mistake because of it or something.

Wow, you're way better at explaining that than I am.

When you do make something cool happen, work on the sell. See example, broken image links notwithstanding:

Wasn't that cool how he annihila... no wait he eradica... wait he destro... nope. He just did what on epicness scale is equivalent to a coin-in-your-ear magic trick

Dude you'll ruin the trick

You don't even need to actually fight to RP a powerful being or leader of a huge force. See the CommanderXGoddess otp. Granted, they've had millenia to become this good at being nonchalantly powerful, but I bet they can give a few pointers. The threat is that much more credible because it's never enacted (and as a bonus consequence never anticlimactically countered by a stray godmodder) and the audience is free to imagine the horrible consequences.

Commander
X
Goddess

Why am I not flying this beautiful ship?!?!
Quick! Starry! Go take over that ship!
Can't. Horn's broken. No magic.
... Is that why you disappeared?
*nod nod*
Huh. Go figger.

[Thanqol]

Yeah, the interdimensional bombardment one-upmanship is not really roleplay, is it? War history is better known through stories about generals, their personalities and tricks, and not army statistics and weapon comparisons, for a reason. It's remembered as stories and stories are about people after all. So you either attach faces to armies (generals), or tell a tale of a small group in a warzone setting (guerrilla heroes). Insert death of a million is a statistic quote here.

And seeing as forum RP has no gameplay mechanics, it's inevitably narrativistic rather than simulationist and needs to tell a good story. Otherwise all that's left is the visceral third-grader thrill of arguing who has cooler relatives. Not that there's something wrong with that, I can just continue skipping the epic action, but so much more can be done with it...

One way to make this more fun is to have your personality affect what you do. Refuse to attack someone for moral/selfish reasons. Choose a weaker weapon because of personal preference. Be surprised by your opponent because his way of thinking is so different to yours. Become enraged and make a mistake because of it or something.

When you do make something cool happen, work on the sell. See example, broken image links notwithstanding:

Wasn't that cool how he annihila... no wait he eradica... wait he destro... nope. He just did what on epicness scale is equivalent to a coin-in-your-ear magic trick, but boy was the execution fun. As Rainbow Dash would say it, style, coolnes, awesomness and radicalness are not the same thing.

You don't even need to actually fight to RP a powerful being or leader of a huge force. See the CommanderXGoddess otp. Granted, they've had millenia to become this good at being nonchalantly powerful, but I bet they can give a few pointers. The threat is that much more credible because it's never enacted (and as a bonus consequence never anticlimactically countered by a stray godmodder) and the audience is free to imagine the horrible consequences.

Word.

This is also why Metal Mask is so coy about her powers, if any. She knows better than to try and cut loose in a freeform. If you try to one up anyone then you'll be one upped in turn. We're all True Fae fighting in Arcadia and the only way we can escape the 'I'm infinity!' "I'm infinity plus one!' is to work out a Deal.

If we want to fight each other and have it be meaningful, both sides have to agree on the rules right at the start. If they don't both sides can endlessly contest the premise and nothing gets done. That's why when you sit down to play World of Darkness you're implicitly accepting the contract that if you run out of health levels you die. By setting your Intelligence at 4 you accept that you're pretty smart but there is the possibility for a few smarter people to exist out there in the world. Once there is a condition on your death, a limit to your infinity, only then can you tell a meaningful story.

The only way to lose in a RP is to agree to lose. You can either do that in a Freeform because you're a nice bloke, or you can do that in a structured game by making the possibility of defeat an accepted option right at the start.

For a Freeform like ponythread this is as much a feature as a bug. No one can lose. No one can win. Everyone's free to bring their personal infinities, Mary Sues and best-case scenarios to the table but Celestia help you if you try to enforce your will on someone else's author-avatar. They can either shut you down in the game with the same ease as you shut them down, or they can reach across and slap you OOC.

So make a few contracts. By accepting some weaknesses people will become more forgiving of your strengths and more inclined to play your game.

[Tiki Snakes]

This is also why Metal Mask is so coy about her powers, if any. She knows better than to try and cut loose in a freeform. If you try to one up anyone then you'll be one upped in turn. We're all True Fae fighting in Arcadia and the only way we can escape the 'I'm infinity!' "I'm infinity plus one!' is to work out a Deal.

I just realised something.
Bleakmane believed everything Mask told her.

Is that bad? She seemed genuine enough to me.

Aha. hmm.

[SiuiS]

Word.

This is also why Metal Mask is so coy about her powers, if any. She knows better than to try and cut loose in a freeform. If you try to one up anyone then you'll be one upped in turn. We're all True Fae fighting in Arcadia and the only way we can escape the 'I'm infinity!' "I'm infinity plus one!' is to work out a Deal.

If we want to fight each other and have it be meaningful, both sides have to agree on the rules right at the start. If they don't both sides can endlessly contest the premise and nothing gets done. That's why when you sit down to play World of Darkness you're implicitly accepting the contract that if you run out of health levels you die. By setting your Intelligence at 4 you accept that you're pretty smart but there is the possibility for a few smarter people to exist out there in the world. Once there is a condition on your death, a limit to your infinity, only then can you tell a meaningful story.

The only way to lose in a RP is to agree to lose. You can either do that in a Freeform because you're a nice bloke, or you can do that in a structured game by making the possibility of defeat an accepted option right at the start.

For a Freeform like ponythread this is as much a feature as a bug. No one can lose. No one can win. Everyone's free to bring their personal infinities, Mary Sues and best-case scenarios to the table but Celestia help you if you try to enforce your will on someone else's author-avatar. They can either shut you down in the game with the same ease as you shut them down, or they can reach across and slap you OOC.

So make a few contracts. By accepting some weaknesses people will become more forgiving of your strengths and more inclined to play your game.

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man, what are you even talking about?








Just look at all the fun we're having! There's a smoking crater over there, a blasted landscape over there, pretty sure that hole in a mountain was Derpy, and so on.

I just realised something.
Bleakmane believed everything Mask told her.

Is that bad? She seemed genuine enough to me.

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Sounds legit.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

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Sounds legit.

Hoy! Nize hat!

[Thanqol]

I just realised something.
Bleakmane believed everything Mask told her.

Is that bad? She seemed genuine enough to me.

Aha. hmm.

Not gonna lie, that was pretty hilarious.

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man, what are you even talking about?








Just look at all the fun we're having! There's a smoking crater over there, a blasted landscape over there, pretty sure that hole in a mountain was Derpy, and so on.

Nopony is crying with devastating emotional heartbreak. Therefore you are having The BadWrongFun.

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Sounds legit.

When all else fails, blame it all on the Mask.

[Kd7sov]

What would Lixie compute to in your magic level system?

Don't you think that's a bit... personal? And possibly requiring Bleakbane to have information Lixie doesn't hand out casually?

A self-proclaimed god that is somehow more pwerful in all ways than a 30 dreadnought.

Would you honestly expect any god to be in any way inferior to a dreadnought, no matter what the latter's tech level (within typical interestingness constraints)? How very strange.

And, so that this post is somewhat related to ponies:

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Huh. I don't think I've ever seen Pony Wheatley before.

[Thanqol]

Don't you think that's a bit... personal? And possibly requiring Bleakbane to have information Lixie doesn't hand out casually?

Never ask a lady about her divine rank.

Would you honestly expect any god to be in any way inferior to a dreadnought, no matter what the latter's tech level (within typical interestingness constraints)? How very strange.

Yeah, now that you mention it I think saying "I don't understand how the direct intervention of a greater deity can defeat my flying boat" is just a little short sighted.

[Thanqol]

All right, it's not pony but it addresses a concern that this thread has discussed plenty of times before, and it's a brilliant phrasing of an age-old concept. Seriously, give this a read:

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From SMBC

[SiuiS]

Don't you think that's a bit... personal? And possibly requiring Bleakbane to have information Lixie doesn't hand out casually?

Nah, that information has already been given out casually. The answer is "which Lix Lorn?"

Would you honestly expect any god to be in any way inferior to a dreadnought, no matter what the latter's tech level (within typical interestingness constraints)? How very strange.

Well, yes, actually. I wouldn't exactly expect Inari to do much against an airship strafing. It's really more that you walked into a divine "Warrior Princess" club and then were surprised at all the princess warriors inside.

Why does My Little Pony attract such attention? No clue. That, along with 'what did McCerberus do to make an OFC lethal?' are the great unanswered ponythread questions.

Nopony is crying with devastating emotional heartbreak. Therefore you are having The BadWrongFun.

Wait

Okay

I'm new at this, but
No one is crying so I'm not doing it hard enough?

Please tell me that is not how you meant that

When all else fails, blame it all on the Mask.

Nah, I just drew these and then Maxtronaut decided to win by not playing. And I'll be darned if I'm gonna draw something for the Internet and ten not put it there! Do flimsy excuse.

Goodness, but it's a lot easier to zoom in on a computer screen than real life. Is that my art? Is that, my art? Oi! It looks so much better in real life, where it's not ballooned up and High Def >_<

Never ask a lady about her divine rank.

Huh. This makes me want to make dirty jokes.
Time to go to be then.

Yeah, now that you mention it I think saying "I don't understand how the direct intervention of a greater deity can defeat my flying boat" is just a little short sighted.

Maybe it's an exalted flying boat!
You don't know!
You weren't there!

...

Would exalting Maxtronaut's ship be something I would eventually regret? Because I've got some spare exaltation lying around, no joke. I keep "acquiring" it, and then you guys thwart my plans to use it.

In the one hand, IN YOUR THANQOL FACE
On the other, eventually getting punched out by a flying boat

Oh what the hell. I'm not gonna draw Celestia and Luna breaking free and stomping me into the dirt, so why not? Let's isolate the dimension hop used... Find a way over to Maxtronaut's boat dimension.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

All right, it's not pony but it addresses a concern that this thread has discussed plenty of times before, and it's a brilliant phrasing of an age-old concept. Seriously, give this a read:

Very true! I've spent the last seven years studying chemistry only for things to turn out that teaching English as a foreign language is the path I shall be taking for the forseeable future. Wonderful thing, the twists and turns of life.

Wait

Okay

I'm new at this, but
No one is crying so I'm not doing it hard enough?

Please tell me that is not how you meant that

Pretty sure he meant that to be sarcastic. "BadWrongFun" is a pretty dead giveaway.

[DigoDragon]

My sister shared this video with me:
YuGiOh reenacted by Ponies
Funny!

Comic:

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Reminds me of a Johnny Bravo quote:
Velma: "My glasses, I can't see without my glasses!"
Bravo: "My glasses, I can't be seen without my glasses!"

You see it's reasons like this that I love this fandom so much:

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Vampony Hunter T

I need to see that Anime at some point. Never found the chance to do so yet.

Asylum of the Daleks celebratory pony/Dalek image dump!

Heehee, love them! My wife had just watched the new episode of Dr. Who yesterday so the voicing of Daleks was fresh in my mind reading the pics.
And yeah, Celestia's was the best one.

[DigoDragon]

you could try experiencing the circle of life

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Oh wow, the whole story of "Wizard of Oz" just flashed before my eyes. AJ as Dorothy, Winnoa as Toto, Twilight as the Scarecrow, Dash as the Tin Woodsman, and Fluttershy as the Cowardly Lion.

Hmmm... Rarity as the well-dressed Wicked Witch of the West demanding the ruby slippers and having her army of Flying Scootaloos?
Oh yeah. Idea.

Have you ponies heard of Freefall? Here's an oldish comic of theirs you might enjoy

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And that's how Equestria was made!

[Grif]

Very true! I've spent the last seven years studying chemistry only for things to turn out that teaching English as a foreign language is the path I shall be taking for the forseeable future. Wonderful thing, the twists and turns of life.

I might joining the ranks of an atypical career path change soon. Or I might not. Suffice to say that I'm not happy with my life at the moment, and I really, really want to make a career change. (At least I think so. I have my inner demons saying no.)

Really, now I'm just trying to work up the courage to say no to the nay sayers who seemed to think I cannot deviate from this path I committed myself into. So far, no luck yet.

Sigh.

[Beacon of Chaos]

Watched the new Doctor Who this morning. Have a Dalek pony to celebrate:

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With September upon us, I await eagerly to see if the pony artists in our ponythread will be making some pirate ponytars for the ponythread ponies.

(pirate ponies)

*Points to pokonic's avatar.* I drew that.

Oh? Do tell!

Hoo boy. Long story.

[Non-pony tangent]

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A while back I was looking through the D&D SRD while bored at work. I've never played D&D, but I love the game and its settings. I was looking through monsters to see if I could find anything cool that I had missed before. I found the coatl, a creature I had previously dismissed as just another hybrid (Birdsnake? Pass). Of course the coatl is based on Quetzacoatl, the sun god of the Mayans (or possibly Aztecs. I forget and can't be bothered to look it up) so I took another look.

It was interesting. Had a couple of neat abilities. It was an outsider, a sort of serpentine angel, which was cool. It also had spellcasting, but when I looked, I thought the spell list was kinda boring. So I figured I'd play around with it a bit, give it some more interesting spells. Also changed the feats, because Dodge is so dull. And while I was at it, I might as well give it another level, to get those level 5 spells (though I've never been happy with Sorcs getting spells one level later than wizards. Seems unecessary considering they also get fewer spells). Then I figured, why not just go straight to epic levels?

Of course I'd never looked at the epic rules before. I knew epic spells were different, but not how. After reading them, I loved how epic seeds were a sort of "build your own spell" kit. I started calculating all kinds of different super spells that this coatl might have. Oh, but in order to cast that, it'd have to be a much higher level. I'll just add a few more. And then I realised that as well as racial levels, I could have class levels. And since I was being silly, why not add a template or two?

End result? Psuedonatural Paragon Coatl with 70 gestalt levels including half a dozen psionic and arcane prestige classes. Stats in the hundreds.

Yeah, I went nuts on that one. But hey, it was just a thought experiment really. I wasn't going to USE it.

Then I started thinking about how such a being might be created. Came up with a backstory and turned that mass of stats into a character (or rather characters. Long story). I'm not going to recount that story now though, because... well honestly I can't be bothered to type it up now. I've tried a couple of times and I just can't get it right. Perhaps some other time. ^^:

All right, it's not pony but it addresses a concern that this thread has discussed plenty of times before, and it's a brilliant phrasing of an age-old concept. Seriously, give this a read:

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From SMBC

I just saw that in my feed and my first thought was "I bet Thanqol would like this". No joke.

[Alabenson]

That may or may not be true. Don't you remember? YOU HELPED ME WITH THE FFCs I PUT ON THE HARMONY.

Ah, that would be correct, wouldn't it. By the way, how are those working out for you?

ok, given the large amounts of stuff I've been doing, i guess I can say already: I'm a brony..... a bit I think

Though I don't really feel like one, mostly cuz of the lots of stuff I dislike that the fandom seems to point as "basic things to like", but given that most of my actve RPs are in that setting and a lot other stuff others already pointed out (several which I don't see really as bronifing anyways XD) and 3 freaking weeks of sweet ponydreams with RD, then I think I'm somewhat one

So yeah, there goes youe "Element of Denial" thing

Luka has finally admitted to being a brony? Luckily, I have a link for just such an occasion!

Have you ponies heard of Freefall? Here's an oldish comic of theirs you might enjoy

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I can't say I agree with that robot bug-thing's conclusion.

Oh, no. That would be... Bad. I took precautions a while ago because I expected Boffenspark to shoot me. If you did instead, I'd actually feel bad about the results of my defenses...

Hmmm, now all I need to do is figure out a way to trick Silent Night into shooting SiuiS, or Starry Notions, or that damned changeling...

Yeah. Hard to shoot those things down. They didn't even do any damage, either, until some pony climbed aboard and started wailing on them with a wrench...

I'll have you know, percussive maintenance is a perfectly legitimate method of performing adjustments on dangerous and unstable pieces of weapons technology!
Do you even listen to yourself anymore?

[Aotrs Commander]

What would Lixie compute to in your magic level system?

Also why no tanks? Doesn't AORTS have tank-robots as standard equipment? I can never remember what they are actually called though.

We have tank-sized walkers, tank-sized war droids and war droids, though technically we don't have tank-war droids. (Storm Cleavers, Enragers/Profaners and War Droids/Hunter Drone/Scarab Mines/Sentry Drones respectively.)

Also, just as a point of order: I have had to make up nothing for pony thread, I have not had to fabricate a single ability, nor to lie and say we've got something we really haven't or can do something we can't. At all. In the nearly year-and-a-half I've been a regular poster. Everything we have, everything I've referenced or used, we have had since long before pony, with all their attendant advantages and limitations (given we are on the upper end - but by no means the top - of the power scale.) As we've gone on, I've clarified a lot, since I started off using analogues to D&D terms for a lot of things (so as to not go into explanations when all that is required is a humours aside phrased in the D&D terminolgy which is common reference to most of the forum-goers) but I've not, in fact, had to fabricate or lie/blag about anything - the potential only exception being that horn-ring I conned Midnight with, which even then that was a piece of junk of the floor of one of the lower decks. I know exactly what our capabilities are. (And how to gloss over the limitations, because, y'know, not stupid.)

See the CommanderXGoddess otp. Granted, they've had millenia to become this good at being nonchalantly powerful, but I bet they can give a few pointers.

*twitch*

Also, I ain't that old. I'm just exceptionally advanced. (Lord Death Despoil, on the other hand...)

The I shall as well.

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Umm not following here. (perhaps put it out in math?)

As a vessel gets bigger the armor doesn't get better, because without improving the armor itself a certain amount of destruction focused on an inherently limited area (the AoE of the weapon) of it will always breach the armor.

To positively use a D&D comparison, a bigger vessel may have more Hit Points but it will not have an increased AC/DR. It is tougher from a certain point of view, especially if properly constructed and appropriate material conditions, but it doesn't take somehow less absolute damage unless one increases the volume/thickness of the armor uniformly across the ship.

But after certain levels of that added HP starts meaning less. You don't need to break apart a vessel, just mission kill it. A strike to the propulsion and power systems will always be the best way to achieve that. I dare say targeting specific parts should be feasible for smart weapons.

Really I think more protection is more about higher proportionate amount of armor. You want a truly tougher ship you improve the engines as much as possible so you can have thicker armor for tolerable performance standards. That's not really a matter of size to me.

I'm only gonna respond to this part at length, because I forgot I was out at a wargames convention today, and thus with last night's late meditation, and I am somewhat lacking in energy and motivation (and there's really no point arguing against your opinions, when you have a self-confessed problem with how virtually everybody does starships.)

D&D is not even remotely a good way to model armour in any realistic sense, especially vehicle armour.

Armour protection is a surface-area to volume function; it's fundementally all about armour thickness over the volume of thing you are protecting.

Square cubed law: increasing size of something, the surface area increases by a squared function, the volume increases as a squared function. The bigger something is, the less surface area is has proportional to the volume (and the less proportion of it's mass it needs to skin that volume).

It's why small creatures lose heat faster than large ones, for example.

Example:
Maths

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Volume and surface area of hollow sphere, diameter 340m (r = 170m), 10m thick

Overall volume = 20 579 500m³

Volume of armour belt = 3 422 200m³

Outer surface Area = 363 168m²

Armour belt volume/total volume: = 16% overall volume.




Surface area of sphere, diameter 680m (r = 340m)

Overall volume = 164 636 000m³

Volume of armour belt = 14 103 000m³

Outer surface Area = 1 452 670 m²

Armour belt volume/total volume = 8% overall volume.



So to get the same level of armour thickness (10m), on something twice the size, you only need proportionally half as much material.

If the larger sphere used 16% of it's volume on the armour, it would have an armour belt just under 20m thick (20m => 16.7% by volume).

(You can substitute mass for volume, but the same principle applies.)

The point is, that for the same thickness of armour (which is a surface-area function) you need to use a smaller proportion of the overall (volume/mass) for a larger vessel - and, thus it follows, for the same proportion of (volume/mass), you will get better protection.

(This is just as true for tanks and naval vessels as for starships, by the by.)

Also note that the same amount of material used on the big sphere would cover four little spheres (14 x 10⁶ = 4 x 3.4 10⁶, multiply by density for mass) - but the HALF amount of volume protected (2.06 x 10⁷ x 4 = 8.2 x 10⁷ = 1.64 x 10⁸/2).
(Because when you double the dimensions of something, you increases the volume and mass by eight times, of course.)



Of course, as absolute mass/volume increases, the difficulty of pushing it around get higher; which is why small ships are lightly protected and are fast and agile, and big ships are lumbering and hevaily protected.

(Of course, the other downside to large vessel is that once you do penetrate their defences, there's a lot more stuff to damage - too many eggs in one basket and at that. And, of course, it's concentrating a lot of your force in one place, as one big ship can't be in six places at once. It's always all about balance, and not relying one one tool to do all the jobs.)

[Tiki Snakes]

Not gonna lie, that was pretty hilarious.

Okay, I'm going to be taking the metal mask off of my ensemble and putting it back in quarantine now. -_-

Also, just to chime our 2cents in, a God is defined as a being, entity or phenomina arrogant enough to claim the title and powerful enough to keep it. Nothing more, nothing less.

It's fair to say, Ma'am, that our perspective is not the typical one, being as we are Space Vampires.

No, no. The only thing that changes is our position on the curve, not the truth underneath Joyreaper.

Oh, and I'd just like to draw attention to one thing;

You don't use the Elements of Harmony as a power source.

You have essentially converted the Elements of Harmony to weapons of war.
The irony is delicious, well done.

ok, given the large amounts of stuff I've been doing, i guess I can say already: I'm a brony..... a bit I think

Though I don't really feel like one, mostly cuz of the lots of stuff I dislike that the fandom seems to point as "basic things to like", but given that most of my actve RPs are in that setting and a lot other stuff others already pointed out (several which I don't see really as bronifing anyways XD) and 3 freaking weeks of sweet ponydreams with RD, then I think I'm somewhat one

So yeah, there goes youe "Element of Denial" thing

I'm not sure this is really news, but it's good you're coming to terms with who you are.