The fact that none of them were maxed out.

I keep forgetting that she's a Jack of All Stats, hence why I'm resisting the urge

She'd be maxed out in Stamina.

It was only a rough draft...she can have maxed out farming skill then.

That too.

edited 5th Feb '12 2:14:15 PM by ApplelightLimited

Was Canterlot founded yet in The Classical Era?

There is a lot of potential for a Classical Era, you could met up with the Pony sisters before they arouse to power, learn Discord's backstory, etc.

Can somebody link me to that era timeline please?

Well...there is no offical time line per-say....but

The Founding Of Equestria happens -> The Three Pony Tribes enter losse harmony and form civilzation -> ??? -> Discord rises to power -> ??? -> The Pony Sisters rise to power and defeat Discord -> ??? -> Luna goes NMM and is banished -> ??? -> Mordern Equestria Period beings with the purification of Luna and the rise of the Mane Six

edited 5th Feb '12 2:23:31 PM by LMage

Starswirl the bearded precedes Luna and Celestia, for what it's worth. Precedes Equestria, actually. And the three pony tribes were at a lack of harmony before Equestria was founded.

edited 5th Feb '12 2:22:43 PM by Arha

probably well past the MMO discussion at this point, but...

Having it set during the show would make for a good opportunity to go on quests with the mane cast - they could build it around another discordian sort of enemy as the main questline, something that all of equestria needs to band together to defeat.

Interesting that you chose to apply the three base classes to each of the races individually - I would have thought of applying each race a class (EP warrior, pegasi rogue, unicorn mage), and then giving the player the ability to branch out from there. So unicorn could get battlemage, healer, wizard, and that sort of thing, EP could get a tank, a DPS and maybe an alchemist or something, while a pegasis could get a scout, a heavy DPS, and a ranger. Stuff like that. Basically give them a set of skill trees and let them build and customize their own class based on what they want there.

If it were to be made for the target audience, though, direct combat isn't necessarily out of the picture, but they couldn't go for the world-crusher levels most MMO's hit. What might be interesting is to build classes and combat around the elements of harmony. Increasing your laughter levels, say, turns you into a bard, and you can give your team stat bonuses. Kindness or generosity lend themselves to heling skills... or kindness could actually be an offensive stat, since you gently work the enemy onto your side. All told it's more than likely the enemies would be corrupted after some fashion, so the most likely 'offensive' classes then would be loyalty (refusing to give up on them), kindness (wanting them to get better), and... maybe magic, I suppose? But since Twilight was the one to unlock that, they may want to actually leave it out of the class system. Honesty might make another potentially good offensive class. Generosity is healing, laughter is buffs... loyalty is your tank, and kindess your DPS. Honesty could be a bit of a mario class.

Again in this instance I'd probably go for skill trees, one for each of the elements. Moving further along an elemental line gets your certain skills, but there's no real penalty for not dumping into a single path. Going for multiple paths allows for a mixed build... which could potentially break a loyalty/generosity build, come to think of it. Tank plus healing? sounds like how healer paladins in warcraft are pretty much invincible.

Still though... what kind of a role would honesty play? Another buff class? An... antimagic class? Honesty levels can resist corruption? Makes them a tank again, I guess. Hm... loyalty is a physical tank, honesty is a magical tank? Potentially makes them a wizard sort of role.

edited 5th Feb '12 2:24:45 PM by kegisak

Yeah, best I can figure it goes like this:

• Pre-Equestria period. The three races live independantly.
• Equestria founded. Races live in harmony.
• Discord appears. The problems are obvious.
• Celestia and Luna defeat Discord and assume control of Equestria.
• Luna becomes Nightmare Moon and is sealed by Celestia.
• Nightmare Moon breaks free but is defeated by the Mane cast.

By the way, I realized something else. Battleship is owned by Hasbro, right? Do you think it's appearance was intentional?

@ Kegi: I'd make Loyalty the buffer since it fits with keeping your team alive.

@ Arha: Starswirl could die shortly after Celestia and Luna arrive. Depending on how they arrive (fully formed or as fillies) he could be the one to teach them magic.

Wasn't there a mention in Hearth's Warming Eve that Starswirl was Clover The Clever's mentor or something? Or did my headcanon invade my memories of the episode?

Clover the clever was his student. I imagine Starswirl was probably dead by the time Celestia and Luna were born.

^ Nope, not just you.

edited 5th Feb '12 2:32:14 PM by Arha

We still have no solid timeline of events. For all we know Discord showed up the morning after Equesria was founded

When Equestria was founded, it caused an imbalance in the harmony/chaos scale...Disord was born as result...the Eo H restored the balance.

My head canon is that Discord showed up after a few decades. The power in charge at the time is balanced between the six ponies we see in Hearth's Warming Eve. They are woefully unprepared, the magic that stopped The Windigos doesn't faze him, Hurricane's all out assault does nothing etc. Discord then rules for however long until the Alicorns show up (preferably before the deaths of the six rulers)

edited 5th Feb '12 2:43:39 PM by Badwolfwho

Back on the RPG talk.

What about a kind of Morality Metter (like Lawful/Chaotic/Good/Evil/Netural) only instead it imbodies teh Eo H? With each descion making you lean twoards one Element or another and changing you slightly as a result (or what type of gear and spells you can use)

That could work.

Though do you have to be a goodie four shoes? I'd love to play as a more dubious pony at Trixie or the Brothers level.

My headcanon is still that Discord uses the Windigos as his makeshift heralds. The scour the land and freeze everything. Anything that manages to fend them off has to at least be SOMEWHAT interesting, right?

SO I assume he appeared in like a month or so

edited 5th Feb '12 2:40:05 PM by gingerninja666

Dork.

@ L Mage Something like ME Paragon/Renegate system but repalced with Eo H related choices and their disqorded versions?

@Kegi

In Star Wars: The Old Republic, all the non-Force users can heal (if they pick the Advanced Class that can heal, that is). I leveled a Trooper that was a spec'd into Combat Medic for a while, all the healing was done via droids & tech. Seriously, you cast "medical droid" and a little robot pops out of nowhere from the sky and flies back in the span of two seconds. Where do they come from? I could also throw bombs that healed people.

Anyways I can see an Earth Pony being a healer, maybe a traveling nurse that throws healing seeds at ponies. Earth Pony Naturalist?

@Bad maybe, but on the same vein kindness should be healing. The classes are kind of hard to assign to the elements because the elements tend to be helpful by nature, and not at all aggressive. So you kind of have to tweak the combat around that notion. If there were one that sort of embodied self sacrifice, that would be the obvious tank... which I guess is generosity, isn't it?

Okay, so if the big idea behind the combat is that you're fighting against corrupted ponies (let's say whatever force caused nightmare moon found a way to gain power and affect more than one pony at once, so it's turning them into it's sort of mind puppets), and combat is done by curing the corruption, then how would the corruption ultimately be cured? I'm almost inclined to say it would vary from enemy to enemy - which would make for a really interesting combat system, as you would have to find the enemies weakness and exploit it - but for the time being let's keep it with Luna's example. It preys on feelings of jealousy, inadequacy and resentment, which means the easiest way to beat the corruption is to prove to the corrupted their value.

This probably makes Honesty an attack class, since being honest with someone who feels bad, telling them straight up that you care, is a good way of making them feel better. Being there is pretty much the most sincere expression of honesty, since you can't lie about being there.

Kindness has a pretty big lean towards attack as well - being kind to someone to show them you care about them. But at the same time it could also harbor more resentment, because they could feel your being patronizing. So its focus is best spread out... kindness is a sort of everywhere, support class? they can do a bit of damage, but can also hop around healing? I don't think I've ever seen an actual battle healer build, but it's certainly possible. Still, if we're doing a tree system each tree should have a very specific role. Maybe it could be a ranger - in a lot of MMO's the ranger is a suppression class, keeping the small enemies under control while the tank and the rest of the party deals with the big ones. Since kindness is good in small amounts, it works well for suppression, keeping the corruption from spreading.

Laughter is pretty obviously a support role - laughing at someone who's angry isn't going to help at all. So laughter is good for buffs and debuffs. Fairly clear, there. Whether or not they could end up being the healer class...

Loyalty is a tricky issue. You're right in that it could be a support class, since loyalty tends to be towards people you already know. So it doesn't really work as an assault. But if laughter is already buff, it can't be that. I suppose it could be the healing class - knowing that you have someone who's always on your side is a great morale boost, and keeps you from falling into the corruption. So loyalty is our healer. Still, healing tends to share a role with buffs... but if you could find different ways of healing, the tree could still be valid. Since the enemy is corruption debuffs could be a big part of the enemies combat, so removing debuffs would be huge.

So... Generosity is tank, Honesty is DPS, Kindness is ranged and suppression, Laughter is buff/debuff, and loyalty is healing?

In a racial/class system, I could actually see that, I suppose. Could be like the system Kingdoms Of Amalur is using - you have a branch for finesse, strength and magic. Each race can use each, but there would have to be a racial bonus of some sort. Even if it's just a predeliction towards one of the branches. Could be a racial ability, though. Pegasi get flight (increased speed/evasiveness in combat), EP's get iron will (increased endurance/strength), and unicorns get magic (increased... dexterity/wisdom)? Still, that does kind of lean them towards one of the tress already. I suppose you could pick the race with the tree bonus that you want to major in, then pick another minor tree. A EP alchemist would be largely might based, but still have magic.

Plus, each race could have different skills in their trees - but that would be a HUGE scope for a game.

edited 5th Feb '12 2:54:16 PM by kegisak

An EP healer could specialise in potions I guess... or they could BR like a magical cyropractor (sp) healing injures by cracking limbs.

All good!

A confrontation could be more an argument then, rather than a physical fight?

edited 5th Feb '12 2:51:30 PM by ApplelightLimited

Japenese Teeth is right. Clover said the she learned of wendigos from "My mentor Starswirl." I remember that too.