Things on My Mind

[Vierlyn]

So I'm very interested in joining and having at least one character on this board, but as I went home last night a few things mulled around in my brain about how this would work.
It certainly appears that the story line has been extended by members and some serious role play time. I really like that, but it's quite a bit to mull through and digest. I've been pulling up various tabs trying to get a general idea of what has been going on, the history, and such.

First of my concern is activity. I've been on some boards and they've kind of hit a lull. I think that has happened and you all are trying to get it picked up again? That's just a generalized statement, as I've only been poking around at first.

Secondly has there ever been any Andalite characters? Are they allowed to be created and roleplayed on here? I really wanted to have an Andalite character and I wanted to make sure before I spent a good amount of time researching and fleshing out one that they were allowed/accepted/okay to have.

With that I was wondering about the general plotline itself. How close to the books is this site, with the exception of the general ending. I have all the Animorph books at home (big kid nerd) and I remembering the ending well enough I think.

So If I could get some more info on the Andalites and the timeline and such.

For the character I was hoping to create I had the idea of a biologist that had come to earth to study the wildlife before the Yeerk's took over Earth and destroyed it all, for scientific and historical reasons. So that there would at least be a database and genetic history of the planet and various species on Earth because the Yeerks have a nasty habit of just obliterating wildlife.

I think the majority part of creating an application would be easy enough for me. I just wanted to make sure that I would have a feasible and accurate history for the profile that would go well with this site.

I appreciate your time and I'm certainly excited to get some more information.

Edit: Also, how are the Yeerks portrayed/how many are on the site? Is there a certain Animorph/Yeerk ratio that is upheld or are the majority of the evil guy's movements Events or NPC things.

Also could there possibly be a new faction created closer to the Mid West? Or is it mostly those three sections/forms already created.
How do people know what kind of missions need to be done and such?

Sorry, I may be rambling.


-V

[Aubrey]

Feb 20, 2011 15:49:13 GMT -5 Vierlyn said:

Edit: Also, how are the Yeerks portrayed/how many are on the site? Is there a certain Animorph/Yeerk ratio that is upheld or are the majority of the evil guy's movements Events or NPC things.

While the Admins can answer your other questions better, I can possibly answer this one.

Yeerks on this site are in control of everything--they've basically settled down onto Earth and made it their home. There are two controllers on the site, but only one is technically active (I play him). In the past, I wrote the controller character for the Vegas faction (she was a major/recurring villain that caused the Animorphs in that faction--and others--a great deal of problems). So while there isn't a large presence of player controllers, I can say that you'll still probably get to interact with one that's had some experience (and hopefully have fun in the process!). If you want more information on how they've been portrayed in the past, take a look through the archived Vegas threads and look for threads with Catherine/Sedra.

There's no Yeerk/Animorph ratio, and so I'd say that most yeerks played are NPCs.

[Vierlyn]

I think my secondary character (When I get to that point) would probably be a controller, possibly a HB one, cause I just am terribly in love with that species.

[Drake]

Feb 20, 2011 15:49:13 GMT -5 Vierlyn said:

So I'm very interested in joining and having at least one character on this board, but as I went home last night a few things mulled around in my brain about how this would work.
It certainly appears that the story line has been extended by members and some serious role play time. I really like that, but it's quite a bit to mull through and digest. I've been pulling up various tabs trying to get a general idea of what has been going on, the history, and such.

Suji has typed up some useful summaries that you should look over if you haven't already. Essentially the original animorphs tried to stop the yeerks, but failed. Earth was conquered and Cassie started up some animorph resistance groups to try and take back our planet. And that's really where the site's plot started, but it has since gone much further through natural story progression. The Hoover Dam yeerk pool was destroyed, Dallas was wiped off the map, and Cape Town has been burnt to the ground. It is open to interpretation who these events hurt the most. The animorphs are currently searching for new ways to resist the yeerks, specifically in Miami and Rio de Janeiro.

First of my concern is activity. I've been on some boards and they've kind of hit a lull. I think that has happened and you all are trying to get it picked up again? That's just a generalized statement, as I've only been poking around at first.

Yeah, the site isn't as active as I would like it to be, but the people who are here are pretty dedicated. However, real life can keep some people (like me) from contributing as much as they would like to. But we are picking up steam again and hopefully we can keep the momentum going.

Secondly has there ever been any Andalite characters? Are they allowed to be created and roleplayed on here? I really wanted to have an Andalite character and I wanted to make sure before I spent a good amount of time researching and fleshing out one that they were allowed/accepted/okay to have.

Andalites are a tricky subject. There haven't been any andalites thus far, but that doesn't mean there never will be. I still need to talk to Suji more about this so I can't give you any concrete answers right now. However, I'm pretty sure that if an andalite app were to be accepted, it would have to be both top quality and believable.

With that I was wondering about the general plotline itself. How close to the books is this site, with the exception of the general ending. I have all the Animorph books at home (big kid nerd) and I remembering the ending well enough I think.

This site's history stays pretty close to the series until around the last few books. That's where the story takes a turn fore the worst and our site's plot begins.

For the character I was hoping to create I had the idea of a biologist that had come to earth to study the wildlife before the Yeerk's took over Earth and destroyed it all, for scientific and historical reasons. So that there would at least be a database and genetic history of the planet and various species on Earth because the Yeerks have a nasty habit of just obliterating wildlife.

Sounds interesting.

Edit: Also, how are the Yeerks portrayed/how many are on the site? Is there a certain Animorph/Yeerk ratio that is upheld or are the majority of the evil guy's movements Events or NPC things.

I think Aubrey's answer was as good as or better than anything I could have come up with. She is totally the authority on controller characters.

Also could there possibly be a new faction created closer to the Mid West? Or is it mostly those three sections/forms already created.

It is a possibility for the future, but probably not any time soon. To open a new faction we need enough people to RP there, as well as a faction leader. And we don't have either at the moment.

How do people know what kind of missions need to be done and such?

The short answer: We make it up.

Aside from "You are in a small group of animorphs trying to take the world back from the yeerks," the entire plot and history of the site has evolved from the ideas of the site's participants. Each thread is built upon the foundation the previous threads have lain down. If you have an idea, there is usually a way to incorporate it, and maybe it will even lead to ideas for future threads.

I think my secondary character (When I get to that point) would probably be a controller, possibly a HB one, cause I just am terribly in love with that species.

Hork-bajir are a lot like andalites in that there isn't really a precedent set for them yet. At least as far as playable characters goes.

If you have any more questions, or would like some clarification on anything, don't hesitate to ask.

[Suji]

Hi Vierlyn!

I think that Aubrey and Drake both did awesome jobs of answering the majority of your questions. The only thing I think left to weigh in on is the role of Andalites.

The site leadership (which is to say, the long-running members, not just staff) has gone round and round in circles regarding Andalites. For a quick sense of context, the site we originally hailed from was extremely restrictive in terms of playable races (no aliens except for human controllers, etc). While we have improved upon many of the old systems and adopted that general style, we try to have less hard-and-fast rules.

That said, I'm a firm believer in the theory that people will produce better quality writing and stories when they have to operate within a set of restrictions. For example, the morph level system prevents people from acquiring tigers for quite a while, even though the original Animorphs had extremely powerful animal morphs early on in the series. Our reasoning is more OOC than IC: this restriction 1) makes people think of more interesting solutions to a lot of RP situations, 2) adds a progression mechanic to the usually formless blob of forum roleplay, so that more active players are rewarded. It also has side benefits of teaching you to value every morph, and you end up learning a ton about new animals from Wikipedia, haha.

In a way, allowing Andalite players is very similar to if we allowed players a "Red" level morph from the get-go. It isn't a completely analogous comparison, but there is still some sense of "cheating the system." The fact is, an Andalite character would need to be exceptionally well-played and dedicated. At this point in time, giving the low level of activity (though we do have a good handful of long-term members), it is difficult for me to see that a new player would have the same inclination to "stick it out," and not through any fault of their own. Whenever we have other players go missing, it's easy to explain away their absence: "They're on a special mission! They got reassigned!" This is more difficult with a rarity of an Andalite.

Within the context of our site, where Andalites are extremely rare (we're talking 0 known Andalites other than Visser Three, except maybe that Cassie knows, and even that is an edge case) it's also very hard to imagine how they would integrate into the current faction set-up. The world has been all but conquered by Yeerks, and many times the Animorphs only manage to eek out an existence on the edges of cities, relying on their ability to blend in. IC reasons are weaker than OOC for barring something (since they are generally more flexibile), but I don't think Cassie would send an Andalite into just any faction, especially if they were a biologist. If there were an Andalite, they would likely be stationed all but permanently at the Academy, which they pose the least risk to themselves and the institution at large.

For these reasons, I'm mostly against the decision to incorporate an Andalite character. I'm willing to take other's opinions into account of course, and Aubrey and Drake's say has as much weight as mine on the issue. I know this was long-winded, but I wanted to be clear about the reason for denial. Just saying "No! Not allowed!" doesn't help anyone.

Also, on the subject of Controller characters: the life of a Controller player-character is one of long stretches between posts, compared to Animorph characters. We remove some of the restrictions on them (they can travel more easily from city to city, for example), but the fact is that there are less Controllers than Animorphs being played on the site. That doesn't make them any less rewarding to play, but it does mean less people to play with. I don't want discourage you from creating a Controller, because they make the site better as a whole, and it's healthy to have some villains and anti-heroes thrown into the mix. However, it's just something to keep in mind, from what I've seen over the course of playing on AE and its predecessor!

Please feel free to ask questions. =)

[Vierlyn]

You guys have given all really good answers and I certainly appreciate the time you have put in to responding to my post. Thanks a ton.
So I'm going to try and boil down all that I just read.

Yeerks basically are having a hay day on Earth. Key points on earth (mostly USA) have been taken over or at least are heavily influenced by the slug-y invaders.
How much does the public know about the invasion or is it still mostly hush hush?

The main thing I was interested in was the possibility of having an Andalite character. I totally understand what you are saying Suji about the red level morphs and having people just pop in with Alien Characters considering the setting of this role play and I can respect that.
I'm having a devil of a time trying to type out what's in my brain >.<

If part of the problem is a concern about dedication, posting, and activity for the site I am certainly willing to put in the time so that later I could possibly have an Andalite character in the future. I'm more than willing to prove that to members and staff.
If the concern is that the application may be off or not realistic to the site, I'm also willing to tweak and repeatedly change it so that the Andalite showing up into the RP flows naturally instead of looking like a nasty purple pop-up of "TADA! WEIRDNESS!"

So basically I'm still really set on figuring out a way where everybody can be happy, because even if I can't play an Andalite character I'm certainly not going to skip off into the interwebz and never be seen again.

Again, I'm really impressed and very happy about all of your responses. I certainly appreciate the help and friendless I've seen thus far.

As for the inactivity, I've seen that happen for years, I think it's kind of the roller coaster of RP. I've been roleplaying for almost 10 years now, so I'm not really concerned too much about the lull here. Considering the amount of RP back story that has gone on and the obvious loyalty of the members I'm, again, impressed.

I hope we can figure this out soon, cause I'm itching to work on an application.

[Drake]

As Suji mentioned in the c-box, for now it is probably best if you create a human animorph or controller to start off with. If for no other reason than to get more familiar with and integrated into the site's history. And as you RP, you can keep an eye out for potential plot reasons to bring in an andalite character in the future.

See where the plot takes you.

As for this:

Yeerks basically are having a hay day on Earth. Key points on earth (mostly USA) have been taken over or at least are heavily influenced by the slug-y invaders. How much does the public know about the invasion or is it still mostly hush hush?

At this point basically everyone knows about the invasion. Namely because most people are controllers. Cities have clearly visible yeerk pools built, bug fighters don't always bother staying cloaked, taxxons and hork-bajir can walk freely in the streets. That sort of thing.

There are still resistance groups out there but nothing that can really stand up to the yeerks outright. It is more like bands of humans who are trying to evade infestation. But of course, like real life, it is more complicated than that.

Anyway, hope that helped. I can't wait to see what kind of character(s) you come up with. And as always, if you have any more questions, just ask.

[Vierlyn]

I'm super duper stoked. I will be trying a Hork-Bajir controller character then. If there are any problems with the application I will be most happy to tweak it.
Depending on muse and internet connection it should be up by this weekend at the latest.