Questions, oh Questions Galore!

[King Metamorphosis]

Hi!

I'm really confused about the backstory part, because I want my character to have been made after the war's begin, and I'm not even sure how the backstories work, could someone help me out?

I'm not gonna lie...the system you guys have set up is kind of intimidating, I'm used to a small knit group of people who I regularly RP with (I'm trying to branch out), the thing that's confusing to me is the 'Episode' thing...

Also, my biggest question: Why no beast modes? You guys had/have an Airachnid..she's clearly Spider mode..?

[Zercon]

Welcome Metamorphosis, first off thank you for taking a look at our forum. While it can seem like a huge bite of information that can be a bit overwhelming, we are more than willing to help you figure out some of the smaller details. On that note though, I am a very wordy Administrator, so I apologize for my wall of text D:

First off in regards to creation, once the war got underway, Optimus, who didn't want to see Cybertronian birthed into war, ended up containing and launching the All-Spark into deep space so that no new life can be constructed. This is seen in the Transformers Prime movie, in which he tries to bring it back to the Autobot claimed Cybertron. This said, there was a slim sliver of time between the war starting, and when this was launched off world ((making new life impossible)). The first type are 'War Born' ((or whatever the proper term is)). Built for war, born into military effectively, they are rare, few, and far between. The other type is 'Last Sparked' which is the youngest Cybertronian possible. Example is Bumblebee and Smokescreen.

So for your OC character, you just need to look at what they are doing. Are they medical? Technology? Fighting? That can help guide in the right direction.

When it comes to our Episodes, all they really do is elongate sections of time so that things don’t move TOO FAST for players to keep up with the slower writing process. If we were to make the forum set in 'real time', then by the time a large scale event is resolved and over, there'd be an entire year of nothing between it and the next big thing, creating a lot of awkward voids of inactivity.

Episodes are effectively 'Months' without using a month name. You pick what day in the month you want to have your thread set, and then you keep track of what things happen when, so that everything keeps in a nice tidy timeline. I got real confused by it at first as well, but once it clicks it is nice and organized.

In regards to Beast Modes, this is a bit of a touchy subject. If we were to allow beast modes, then suddenly everyone would want to be a dragon, or a wolf, or a large feline. The amount of animal alts would easily surpass those of vehicles ((because frankly who wouldn't prefer to be a bitchen hydra over a pickup truck?)). This not only is skewing the rarity of what they would be in that universe, but also makes it near impossible to make plotlines that they can be involved in.

Many events occur in cities, and other public areas, needing to try to pretend to be native to Earth and not an alien life form. While Grimlock in the latest cartoon can hide under a tarp and skirt by unnoticed, this RP is set in a far more realistic environment and such things wouldn't be feasible. This means not only would we have a lot of feral possibly overpowered beasts on our hands, but we wouldn't be able to do plots with humans and those beastly characters would be alienated and left out.

Airachnid gets to cheat this system, because she seems to be a near trippleformer in the Transformers Prime series. She has her humanoid root mode, the ability to become effectively a spider centaur, and then she has the ability to become a helicopter.

If you are looking to add animal attributes, and not necessarily a full blown quadruped animal alt-mode however, we allow that no issue within reason. Dart for example has a superior sense of smell and is attuned to her environment, Carbine is very canine like in his mannerisms and has a prey drive to chase things that move fast, and Flatline has been compared to an insecticon due to his four arms and angular appearance. In the past we had a character with a feline like tail ((explained within back-story as a tool, and not 'just because')) and we had someone with larger finial like ears.

I hope this clears things up for you, if you have any further questions feel free to post again!