The Intergalactic Highway

Hmm.. The list is inaccurate in a few other ways. If it's for season 2, Tarantulus's rank should be a 0 and he should be set to neutral. If it's for season 1, then why is Silverbolt and Quickstrike listed? And why is Silverbolt's so high considering he joins the Maximals, while Quickstrike's is set to 1? If it's season 2 then Tantrum and the others like Phoenix has mentioned should be listed.

Tarantulas fights side by side with Megatron in the Coming of the Fuzors arc. He's a Predacon then, therefore, he should start off as a ranked Predacon. Silverbolt is higher on the list than Quickstrike since each faction ranks their members differently. Quickstrike is seen to be disposable on multiple occasions (i.e.- fight with Dinobot, manipulated by both spiders into doing manual labor, being the boob in Season 3, etc.). If you want him to be higher, then we could certainly do that because that 1 is just the opinion of one player. As for Silverbolt, we just started from his toy rank (7) and then proceeded to gradually drop him. If you want him to be lower, then we could also do that. Although, based on his personality I'd say he'd realistically be higher than Frilla and Cheetor. Naturally, that puts him at a 5 at minimum. That's just me, though...

I didn't add the really new bios yet since they haven't been discussed on the scale of relativity yet. That's why I've even withheld Onyx. If we haven't heard from the players yet, I don't want to make the assumption myself. Drillclaw is the exception since we collectively talked about her on Skype (and you're the owner). Currently, I have no opinion on Silverstreak but I'd really like both Wildfire and OOP to voice their opinions on the rank. One person plays the character and the other person plays the leader of said character.

Tantrum - 1 because from what I hear he's not suitable to lead. His ability to follow orders without screwing them up is also questionable.

Aphrodite - Last time I checked her profile was still incomplete. I have no opinion on her rank.

Onyx - The collected nature of the character makes me want to say 5 or 6, but Wildfire knows more about him than I do. I personally would probably just go with whatever number the owner throws out.

Oh, and I'm also looking at like a million character bios that Starshadow made. Is she actually using them? Is she going to kill off Cecaelia or not because at this point I'm really confused.

Uhm.. just tossing these in here since Blazemane posted them in the profile thread:

Blazemane wrote:
Tantrum:
Win.
Rank: 3- not a leader, but respected by Megatron for his strategic potential.

Aphrodite:
Rank is hard to pin down right now. If her life is devoted to hunting Rampage, then I don’t think she’d be a team player. Conceivably… 1? If she is more team-oriented though, 2.

Drillclaw:
I can concede waiting on a rank until she sees play in the game, but I feel like a 3 might be appropriate for the moment.

Silverstreak:
An optimistic cyber-ninja? O.k., I like it.
I think, rank 4

Xychona:
If she's with Maximals, I think a rank of 3 would be a good starting point, and if she's with the Predacons, a 4. I think these could easily go down or up, however, depending on how her character is presented.

Warspark:
Aside from that, o.k. I feel like, maybe he should have a rank of 6?

Sorry for the late feed back, but finally here's what I think: Onyx I would think would start out a rank 5, at the most or minimum 4 since he is still a little new among the ranks for the Predacons while also he has taken part in some battles. Plus he is also one of the more willing to listen to orders, nothing to a skid plate kisser, but more of for the cause.

Silverstreak I agree with being a low rank,I'd say around 3-4 since she is fairly new and well she still is young and wants to prove herself, much like Cheetor and possibly Aurora. But lower also is understandable because of this very reason and I really don't see much of a problem with it.

Now with the authority with Megatron I promise I will do my best to uphold the 'control with an iron fist' thing, though do kind of bare with me as this is the first real time I've tried for a commanding officer. Also my first real time with an actual canon and the fact coming into this was during the final ending of Season 1 so I haven't had much to do with keeping much order at the moment. But seeing as we're about to have 'peaceful' face-off I will see if Megatron's need to enforce more cooperation is needed, which I do apologize if my playing Megatron isn't currently at the standards you guys need.

- The list that's been posted is merely a proposal and it is far from being finalized. Only a few people were involved in its creation, which is why I'm posting it publicly in order to get feedback from the rest of the players. We cherish recommendations and revisions! Complaining over trivial matters, however, will only hold us back.

If I may be so bold, that WAS our feedback based on the comment that was made about the Pred's erratic behavior. And it's not "complaining over trivial matters," it is a legitimate opinion regarding how a Pred's rank should be judged. I don't actually have any problem with the ranks themselves. My comment wasn't really about the numbers end of it; it had more to do with how each side would determine when a bot has "shown themselves" to be worthy of changing their rank.

Predacons and Maximals are different and therefore it is not unreasonable to expect each side would have different views regarding how they are viewed by others on that side. A Maximal commander expects his troops to obey his command and even though he chastises them when they don't, he encourages them to speak their mind. He awards leadership roles to those who learn from their mistakes, step up to more challenging tasks, respond to a crisis with a cool and clear head, and respects his fellow Maximals. The Maximals are orderly and they work together as a team.

But a Predacon views the Maximal beliefs as weak and irrational. If we consider the Maximals orderly, a good word to describe the Predacons is chaotic. A Predacon does not see the value in respecting one's peers and may go against the commander. They may decide to work together occasionally, but they definitely don't play fair. A Predacon commander may be frustrated by his underlings lack of obedience in certain situations, but he appreciates that his most scheming and conniving Preds have "something up their sleeves" (so to speak). That is why Megatron trusts Tarantulas with certain tasks over the others and awards him with leadership roles. To a Predacon, if you don't have a diabolical plan, you must either be a Maximal....or a drone. That is made clear by his attitude towards Waspinator and Skorponok and Inferno when compared to Tarantulas and Rampage. Yes, Tarantulas feigned allegiance and loyalty, but Megatron always was wise to the spider's plans....always. I certainly understand the need for being united in a battle, but I don't think it is a bad thing to have that element of chaos among the Predacons. That is how the Predacons make themselves stand apart from other Predacons. That is their nature....you might even go so far as to say that is their culture.

Not listed: Onyx (waiting on Wildfire's feedback) & Arachnitron (she's neutral and so she's sort of unranked)

Sounds okay to me.

I'd like to start off by reminding everyone that this is just a GAME. We don't have to be THAT critical about everything. My goodness.

The Maximals are more of a tight-knit group due to the efforts of Primal (kudos to OOP) being such a strong leader figure for all of them. Without Primal's presence, I doubt the Maximals would be what they are today.

Awww. Really? Thanks, Phoenix.

Drillclaw: She's a 1 because thus far she has yet to have operated under the Maximal chain of command. Once she becomes introduced into the group, her aloof character will gravitate her to lone-wolf and/or one-woman-army tendencies rather than teamwork. If Drillclaw is able to overcome this, she will in turn be able to rise in the ranks.

Agreed. I have no idea even where she came from. All of the questions WorpeX recently asked in his post in the game, I was asking myself the other day when I was very surprised to see NK posting again out of the blue. I know I hadn't approved Drillclaw's profile, and NK can't really approve it himself, so... Anyway, here were WorpeX's questions:

Why did NaitoKage randomly join back in with an unapproved character? How is it that she got to the predicon base undetected? How did she even GET here? Does she know about this truce? Where did this tunnel come from? Where does it go? Where is Ironclaw currently at? WHAT IS GOING ON?

I, for one, would like clarification. And an answer as to why you, NK, entered the game with her before her profile was approved by anyone other than yourself. The rules apply to you, too, you know. Even as a Moderator, they also apply to me.

Saber-Fang: We bumped her down because she hasn't acted her official rank thus far. We've seen her run off on multiple occasions despite Optimus Primal's warnings. She still has the unpredictable habit of changing into an uncontrollable monster. She hasn't made much of a commanding presence despite her past as a vaunted general. If Saber can learn to control both the Beast as well as her emotions and follow orders, then she'll most likely get back to that rank of 7 that an ex-general deserves.

Alak, not too far off from my explanation I gave Phoenix on Skype about demoting Saber-Fang, which was:

I thought it was harsh at first as well, especially since Saber's a former general. However, I have yet to see any great evidence of her even making it to that sort of ranking. She hasn't offered much advice for Optimus at all, considering he's new at this war-time leadership. And she hasn't even been very helpful for at least half of the first season. She was always running off to Sonar, or running off on her own. The Beast in her is a high risk for everyone, including herself, and I just feel like she hasn't offered much at all for the Maximals, especially with her last long absense and disappearance.

Perhaps a rank one might be harsh for Saber, but two would be pushing it in my opinion. Optimus is NOT pleased with her performance at all at this point in the game.

Every Predacon who's a 1: Without Glowstick, you all would've been lost. The lack of Predacon ambition has been replaced with a really bad case of "I don't care about the plot, I'll just do whatever the heck I want" syndrome.

Pretty much what I've noticed as well. But now Glowstick is gone, so I wonder what will happen now...

Currently, I have no opinion on Silverstreak but I'd really like both Wildfire and OOP to voice their opinions on the rank. One person plays the character and the other person plays the leader of said character.

Silverstreak I agree with being a low rank,I'd say around 3-4 since she is fairly new and well she still is young and wants to prove herself, much like Cheetor and possibly Aurora. But lower also is understandable because of this very reason and I really don't see much of a problem with it.

I agree with, Wildfire. She could start at a rank of three. After that, gaining more training and experience, I have a feeling she will bump up a couple places.

Tantrum - 1 because from what I hear he's not suitable to lead. His ability to follow orders without screwing them up is also questionable.

Agreed.

Aphrodite - Last time I checked her profile was still incomplete. I have no opinion on her rank.

Aphrodite:
Rank is hard to pin down right now. If her life is devoted to hunting Rampage, then I don’t think she’d be a team player. Conceivably… 1? If she is more team-oriented though, 2.

I'm currently leaning toward two.

Onyx - The collected nature of the character makes me want to say 5 or 6, but Wildfire knows more about him than I do. I personally would probably just go with whatever number the owner throws out.

Onyx I would think would start out a rank 5, at the most or minimum 4 since he is still a little new among the ranks for the Predacons while also he has taken part in some battles. Plus he is also one of the more willing to listen to orders, nothing to a skid plate kisser, but more of for the cause.

I agree with Wildfire. Rank five would be a good start for him. He obviously has some previous experience, courage, and an IQ higher than most of the Preds.

Please remember what Alak said about rankings, guys; they fluctuate throughout the progression of the game. Nothing is set in stone.

Now with the authority with Megatron I promise I will do my best to uphold the 'control with an iron fist' thing, though do kind of bare with me as this is the first real time I've tried for a commanding officer. Also my first real time with an actual canon and the fact coming into this was during the final ending of Season 1 so I haven't had much to do with keeping much order at the moment. But seeing as we're about to have 'peaceful' face-off I will see if Megatron's need to enforce more cooperation is needed, which I do apologize if my playing Megatron isn't currently at the standards you guys need.

Personally, Wildfire, I was thrilled and grateful enough of you just volunteering for Megs. I know he can be a difficult and complex character to play. You are always welcome to use the show as a reference. Watch it and study him a little. I certainly do not expect anything perfect with your ability to play him. I'm passionate about playing Primal because he's one of my favorite characters. If Megs isn't in one of your top five, that's okay. I really just wanted someone who could make him appear in the game more than he has been, which would then lead to a stronger leadership and hopefully a little more organization with his troops. If he wants to be successful, he should know every detail about every one of his minions, and secretly keep a very watchful eye on them, learning about them and then using that against them without them knowing, and so forth. Be manipulative and lie a lot. I think so far you have been doing a wonderful job. But if you can indulge in him just a little more, that would be great. Take control of the Predacons! They are at your mercy.

I also wanted to address that I'm tired of all the complaining about how long the game takes from one episode to another. We've been dealing with this "issue" since the beginning, so it's nothing new. And since we have more characters and more players, it's only going to take longer now for everyone to post for all of their characters. That's just the way it is. Can't please and accomodate everyone. We can't very well rush through things when people want to develop their OC's and let them grow. That's not fair. I have been trying to keep things moving as smoothly and as quickly as possible playing OP and making sure his Maximals get things done (which also helps move the game along), but sometimes I have to wait for several days for someone else's post. This is how a message board RPG works. People have lives beyond this place. At least, I hope they do. And some people run into writer's block, which is understandable. Sometimes I just don't feel like posting one of my huge posts late after work. Anywho, I know people want to start playing. I know people need the second season to begin in order to bring in their characters. But you know what? Instead of whining about how slow the game is going and that we won't reach the second season until 2014, why doesn't everyone make it a priority to post in the game FIRST (if you can) before you waste all of your time posting on another topic like this one, and by the time you're done posting here, you realize it's too late to make a nice, lengthy post in the game, which makes players wait even longer before they can post. Also, those who wish to join the game so eagerly but can't until season two, why not pick up a canon for the meantime and help us out playing that character (take said character off of someone else's hands so they can post more effeciently since they're probably already playing two or three other characters)? At least it will you give something to do in the meantime, and you'll get familiar with the characters and the game.

Eh, to be honest I jumped in since the part with Ironclaw going to the Pred base seemed.. really poorly planned out. He nearly got ganged up on again as he was running away. Anymore captured characters on this game would be pretty bad.

Next..

Optimal Optimus Primal wrote:Anywho, I know people want to start playing. I know people need the second season to begin in order to bring in their characters. But you know what? Instead of whining about how slow the game is going and that we won't reach the second season until 2014, why doesn't everyone make it a priority to post in the game FIRST (if you can) before you waste all of your time posting on another topic like this one, and by the time you're done posting here, you realize it's too late to make a nice, lengthy post in the game, which makes players wait even longer before they can post. Also, those who wish to join the game so eagerly but can't until season two, why not pick up a canon for the meantime and help us out playing that character (take said character off of someone else's hands so they can post more effeciently since they're probably already playing two or three other characters)? At least it will you give something to do in the meantime, and you'll get familiar with the characters and the game.

So.. here's the problem. The players want to do their own thing, which is fine, it promotes growth and fun elements. The problem then is the set out plot, as you probably have noticed along the way, nobody really wants to do the end of season 1. They don't want to do the story elements from the tv show, which is slowing the game down further. It's pretty obvious the spiders already want to do the stasis pod part of the episode, which is another episode entirely, while we still haven't even gotten to the aliens yet. Which is also why alot of the older episodes seemed faster. Atleast, that's my analysis of the situation. So.. turn the episode to look like candy, instead of broccoli and the kids will eat it up.

Eh, to be honest I jumped in since the part with Ironclaw going to the Pred base seemed.. really poorly planned out. He nearly got ganged up on again as he was running away. Anymore captured characters on this game would be pretty bad.

It was planned that Rattrap and Airazor would stay behind close enough to help him as soon as he would escape. Did everyone forget? And not too far behind would be some of the other Maximals. Tigatron got away in the show just fine. I don't see why everyone was so worried about Ironclaw escaping. The Preds would've had to just behave for once, not go postal, and let him slip away. I may not have had Optimus voice the whole plan of making sure the other Maximals at base should be ready to head out, but Ironclaw wasn't going to be entirely alone anyway. Why Aurora and Rhinox were freaking out about this, I don't know. It's not like Optimus wasn't already thinking that far ahead. Mystrea should have been able to improvise with Ironclaw and get a head start away from the Preds in order for Airazor or Rattrap to help out in time and get some of them off his back before Optimus and Aurora show up.

So.. here's the problem. The players want to do their own thing, which is fine, it promotes growth and fun elements. The problem then is the set out plot, as you probably have noticed along the way, nobody really wants to do the end of season 1.They don't want to do the story elements from the tv show, which is slowing the game down further.

Says who? Where is this coming from? I was under the impression that everyone was anticipating the end of season one for one reason or another. Everyone wanted to do this truce first and now people are just lazying about. It was supposed to be done quickly so we could hurry to the alien stuff and kill Optimus and end it. But everyone is dragging their feet and people are taking their merry old time posting. You guys wanted to play out the truce so get in gear and get it done. If people are bored, speak up and we'll fast forward. Otherwise, I haven't heard any complaints, so I'm going to keep going and push through this.

It's pretty obvious the spiders already want to do the stasis pod part of the episode, which is another episode entirely, while we still haven't even gotten to the aliens yet.

Well, they were supposed to time that better with everything else. Lack of coordination with the rest of the episode. There are more characters involved with Ironclaw than there are with the spiders and the pod, so naturally, events with Ironclaw are going to take longer to achieve.

Aurora just lost the most important individual in her life, and had not been fully informed on what the exact plan was for the escape. So she is somehow supposed to be all happy-go about it and blindly trust nothing else to go wrong?

The reason I've been sloow with posting in the episode is that unfortunately it did not hold my interest enough to keep up. Saying everyone was for a truce and wanted to follow the plot of the show is a bit of an exaggeration. So I kind of just spaced out from not really having anything to do. Aurora worrying was the closest to 'fun' I could think of having in this idea drought I'm having. I think when they get back to base I'll just have her take a very long nap for the duration of this episode..

As for Ironclaw being ganged up, I planned Star to trap him first, ask what he found when he was obtaining info from the Darksyde and let him escape without the other preds noticing like a good lil ex-maximal.

Since the tunnel thing has happened, I suppose that's fine with me.

As for Star, I'm having new plans for her after thinking about the old ones since my previous idea looks stupid. Star's gonna be a rogue predacon at one point(if that's okay with all of you), leaving Cece with the preds. Cece will be killed on an undecided episode. Banban will probably arrive on the episode or after the episode Cece dies in.

Maxies, preds, do your best to convince the doctor to join your team! Just a note: She's a difficult bot to persuade..

I hope I'm not getting a telling off here lol. I mean I'm just following the story and doing as I'm told. About the worrying thing, I rather like it, it's only natural no matter how good the plan is. Pheonix please carry on just as you are, it's a great perspective. Ironclaw and Aurora have been worrying about each other and I hoped when see each other again their friendship/relationship (whatever it is) will improve. Plus a little more respect for Ironclaw too ^^

Whoa whoa whoa!

The pod thing that is happening right now with the spiders won't work. Our posts made sure that it gave off that hint with the pod being damaged maybe too bad. So, please relax, guys, we are not getting ahead here. Also, add in the fact that it is getting delayed and I plan Blackarachnia taking a long time to get back for a creepy spider to do his thing.

We are not getting ahead here so don't panic.


No, Mystrea, you are all right.


I think everyone needs to take a deep breath and settle down here.

I agree with Una although I have no idea what's all the commotion part except for Worp's question and Ironclaw's escape thing.

Calm down people.

starshadow wrote:I agree with Una although I have no idea what's all the commotion part except for Worp's question and Ironclaw's escape thing

Me either.

But I think it is the question of pacing...again. Also, the shock of a new character coming out of nowhere.

Really, I'm glad you are back, NK , but I understand the confusion here that Worpex has expressed.

Phoenix, if you are losing interest, maybe someone can help. Maybe another player and you can come up with something or a post with Nemesis (I have been anticipating her escape. )

Also, the people who posted in the First Season Finale Discussion wanted the truce. No one actually objected or anything. We were even discussing having a fun epsiode before all this drama and Optimus' death, but everyone wanted to get to the Finale.

I just don't get it.

To me, I just pokerfaced when I saw the new maxie popping out.

I'm just finding the time to post as I have a stack of homework waiting on my precious table. Yes I'm procrastinating I hate my homework, especially when it comes to drawing up accounts and cashbooks and stuff.