Due to a lot of its moderators losing interest and real life getting in the way of development, the current owner of Pinkie's Hyperactive Chat has decided to pull the plug on his web-based MMO by the end of the week, much to the chagrin of its active playerbase. It's quite a shame, I know, but at least Lordcerii has the decency to wait until sometime around Friday evening to shut it down, giving players a chance to exchange contact information so they can keep in touch after the end if they so desire.
To the best of my knowledge this will leave Ponyplace as the fandom's only active MMO, although opinions on its overall quality are mixed. Not sure if >CLOP counts as a MMO either...
If you have visited MLP:Online's website at all during November you would have noticed that the game was no longer available for download, with an announcement that the game was no longer under development. No details were given as to why this might have been the case, but today our suspicions were confirmed in that the project had been taken down by Hasbro for copyright reasons. All hope is not lost, however, as the developers have stated that they are going to begin work on a new MLP-related fangame, and will give details on how to help fairly soon.
Anyhow, in case you want to read the original announcement you can do so via this link or just go down and read beyond the break.
Just over a month ago, we released our first episode of our game. After a year and a half since the outset of the project, we were happy to present our first Episode to you. Though our servers suffered, we were pleased with the response and the great feedback we received! Shortly after that–exactly 4 weeks prior to now–we received a complaint about copyright and trademark infringement. We initially dismissed this it was most likely submitted by some trolls, as they could be submitted anonymously by anyone through our CDN. However, we continued to look into it, and by the following Monday, found it to be very real. Hasbro is not to be blamed here. As per U.S. Trademark law, as soon as an infringement comes to light, they are obligated to defend the trademark, or they will lose it. They had no choice in the matter, regardless of what they thought of the project or how it benefited them. The matter was quite strict: there was little that we could do to work around it. We removed the download link and development was suspended. Discussions continued through the month, but it came down to one fact: MLP:Online had come to an end.
MLP:Online: April 2015-November 2012. RIP.
We apologize for the wait. The time that we were taking for our discussions and to announce this publicly was time-boxed. Salty will be posting a eulogy about the project. But all hope is not lost. While MLPOnline is officially dead and buried, the team is mostly sticking together. Some took their leave due to real-life considerations, but about 75% of the old team remains. We've officially changed our name to Starlight Studios, as per a team vote last week. We have selected a new project. It is pony related, but otherwise we're keeping most of the details secret. It is our goal to have it completed by Bronycon 2013, though this may be ambitious. You should expect to see something unveiled this summer. EDIT: If you would like to help out with our new project, keep an eye out. I will be posting information about how to within the next 8 hours.
Kind of a bummer, eh? At least they're going to be working on another project, so at least there's that to look forward to.
In order to ensure that their upcoming public stress test gets as much publicity as possible, the Legends of Equestria team decided to announce this one over a month in advance. As can be mostly deducted from reading the header image (unless you're a hardcore CLI fanboy browsing this site with Lynx, in which case you should probably ignore this game and go back to Angband), the event starts on January 24th at 12:01am EST and ends at 11:59pm on the 26th, and will most likely feature overworked servers crammed with seas of ponies to murder your framerate, along with a snazzy new Linux client. You'll also have to register on their forums in order to play, which can be done at http://forum.legendsofequestria.com/index.php?action=register.
This will also coincide with their Ohayocon panel, where you'll be able to watch people demonstrating a game that you could have played yourself had you stayed at home.
In case you've already forgotten (in which case you should be ashamed of yourself, as we only posted about it 3 days ago), the Legends of Equestria team is livestreaming right now, and will continue to do so until tomorrow at noon EDT. They'll be making stuff live in front of an audience, and cover up their extended breaks with panels on various things related to their upcoming game.
If you've been following Equestria Gaming over the past couple months/years, this banner should probably tell you all you need to know, but if you haven't figured it out yet Legends of Equestria is holding yet another 24 hour livestream, in which they will be extra productive in order to please the general public and hold several panels which may or may not interest you. The event will run from the 2nd of November at 12 noon EDT for a full 24 hours until the 3rd at 12 noon. And before you ask, the stream will be held at http://www.livestream.com/legends_of_equestria.
If you'll recall, we had an article on this FiMMMORPG(try saying that 10 times fast!) not too long ago. It seems the project's been picking up a lot of steam, as you can see from the video above. In fact, the game was presented at BroNYcon(which I sadly missed) to high praise. This new, public demo is an enhanced version of the single-player portion of the one seen there, so if you were lucky enough to be there you should know what you're getting into. Regardless of if you were or not, definitely check it out and give the hardworking devs some player feedback here.
We figured that you would all like to know that during Canterlot Gardens, Legends of Equestria will be undergoing a little stress test. What does that mean for our readers? Well, it means that from September 28-30 LoE will be open to the general public! That's right, for a limited time only everypony will be able to give Legends of Equestria a spin (except for Linux/FreeBSD users, who will have to wait for the release of Unity 4), and we'll be able to see how far the dev team has come. Once my extremely slow 20-90Kbps internet connection finishes downloading the game I'll test it myself and give you my thoughts on the game so far, but don't worry! Since the developers openly admitted that it's still in Pre-Alpha and not a finalized product I won't be unfair and give the game a score, but only a "first impressions" post. That sound good to you?
Everypony loves Legends of Equestria, and if you don't then this update might just convince you to follow this game more carefully. They show off a ton of new features such as the inventory system, a new flight system, an upgraded Everfree Forest, fireballs, and a visitable Tartarus! Sadly enough there is still no release date in sight, but I'd rather have a well-polished game later then a buggy and unfinished MMO now.
And one more thing. It keeps bothering me in that the game has a very distinct lack of cartoon shading for the ponies, and without it they look rather...ugly in their current, untextured state (no offense). Perhaps they should look into a similar shading system as what PonyKart uses, eh?
We already posted about this when the announcement was made, but Legends of Equestria, the most well known horse MMO in the fandom, is hosting an open server this weekend to live out all of your romping around and boundary-escaping fantasies in. They've now put the client up for download, and the servers will be going up soon if they aren't already. Check out their news post for more information, or read the important bits mirrored below the break (as their site servers always seem to go down often during open servers).
Hi there, everyone!
Legends of Equestria is now available for download! Get it now, and prepare for the Open Server Weekend!
NOTE THAT YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PLAY LEGENDS OF EQUESTRIA UNTIL THE SERVERS OPEN AT 12:00AM EST ON AUGUST 8TH. THE SERVERS WILL REMAIN OPEN UNTIL 11:59PM EST ON AUGUST 10TH
Player Character Notice Old characters will be buggy due to updates to the client. It is recommended that you create a new character before playing, even if it's just a copy of the old one.
System Requirements To run our game, you'll need to make sure you have the following:
2 GB ram
Dual core processor, somewhere near 2 GHz. A single core processor works, but is not recommended
An okay graphics card. If the computer is made after 2007, you'll be fine. The bare minimum would probably be 128 MB vram, DirectX9.0c/OpenGL2.0
You must have the newest game version downloaded in order to get all our brand new features! If you have an older game version from a previous open server weekend, it will not work!
Please remember, the servers will only be open from August 8th-10th. You will only be able to login or play while the servers are open.
Lets you report a player to the moderators. You can also click on a pony to report them.
/playervisible <true/false>
Toggles your player invisible for you only, everyone else can still see you.
/cinemacamera <true/false>
Your player will disappear and the camera turns into a camera-fly mode.
/removeitem <inventoryslot>
Removes a game item according to the inventory slot it is in. Starts at 0.
/stand
Makes your pony stand.
/sit
Makes your pony sit.
/dance
Makes your pony dance.
/unwearall
Removes all items from your pony.
/facehoof
Makes your pony facehoof.
/inventory
Opens your inventory.
Getting to Cloudopolis In order to get to Cloudopolis, you must travel via the airship in Cantermore!
If you're in Cantermore, travel up the cliff to the airship port and board your way onto the airship.
If you're starting in Ponydale, you must first go to the train station and travel to Cantermore, and then go to the airship port.
Getting to Cantermore In order to get to Cantermore, you must travel via train from Ponydale or via airship from Cloudopolis!
If you're in Ponydale, you must travel via train. The train station is just past Sugarcane Corner.
If you're in Cloudopolis, go to the airport located high up and to the right of the main cloud.
Getting to Ponydale If you'd like to visit the quaint little town of Ponydale, you must go by train from Cantermore.
If you're in Cloudopolis, go to the airport and get to Cantermore.
Once you're in Cantermore, simply go to the train station by by Astral Charm.
Questing Plenty of NPCs (Non-Player Characters) need help with their tasks! Some give out special prizes if you lend them a helping hoof!
Go up to any NPC, right click, and select "Talk." NPCs have a "..." over their name.
Listen to what they have to say, and be sure to follow their instructions in order to move on in the quest.
At the end, you might get a reward for your kindness!
Battling Watch out when going to the Evershade Forest! It's home to some scary monsters!
In order to defend yourself against the creatures you'll encounter, try using your special combat abilities!
Earth Ponies have Seismic Buck and Rough Terrain, Unicorns have Rainbow Fields and Magical Arrow, and Pegasi have Dual Cyclone and Gale! All three races have Ground Pound.
When ready, select a creature, a target reticule should appear. Attack the mob by getting in their range and selecting your skill.
When the enemy's health gets to zero, they'll faint! Don't worry though, I'm sure they can just walk it off.
Parties If you want to form a party with other players, you can right-click them and add them to your party!
Parties are useful for going out and exploring. You never know when you might run into monsters, and there is always safety in numbers!
Trading Do you have an interesting item that you'd like to give to a friend? Well, you can trade them!
Simply right click on your friend and hit "Trade." The other pony needs to accept your trade for it to continue.
Once accepted, you'll see a screen. Left click and add the item to the trading menu.
When both players are satisfied with the trade, they both must hit "Ready." When both players hit "Ready," a "Done" button will appear. Once both players hit the "Done" button, the trade will be completed.
Stuck Somewhere? Have no fear! No need to call the moderators! Simply type /stuck or unstuck me and you will be moved to the starting point of the map. (This will not work if you are in combat.)
I may or may not be around the servers during the weekend. If I am, I'll be romping around as Jalapeño Billy if anyone's interested in stalking me or goofing off. See you guys there, maybe!
Equestria Online is a 3D My Little Pony Friendship is Magic MMO in progress. The current releases are being developed in Unity, though the team has not decided whether to use Unity 3D or Panda 3D for the game.
The game is still in it's early stages, but still has plenty of progress to show off! The creators recently released a demo for Unity, which you can download here, which includes the player model, moving, the partially created map, and a few static NPCs.
A short demonstration of the game so far
The world of Equestria is literally being re-created for this game, and is planned to be as accurate as the show. There was a larger scale map created of Equestria that they will be using as reference, and screenshots and other maps for the smaller scale towns and cities.
Sweet Apple Acres
It has been confirmed that you will be able to not only customize your pony's color, mane, and cutie mark, but give your pony accessories as well, such as hats. Different outfits have been planned, and a few screenshots showing these off have been released, which you can find right here.
My hair is a castle, your argument is invalid
The team for the game consists of many different artists, music designers, programmers, and more. Each field has it's own separate team leader, ensuring that nopony will be overworked with multiple tasks for different things, and improving the overall quality of the project. You can find the complete team list here.
Unless changed in the future, the NPCs are planned to have actual voices, creating a need for voice actors. The voice auditions are currently closed, but you can find the original video announcement right here.
The music developed by the Audio Department are all completely original pieces, and can so far be found all on the Equestria Online's official Youtube page.
It sounds amazing, doesn't it?
The game does not have a planned release date, but they are making progress extremely quickly, so looking forward to seeing the released MMO in the near future isn't a far off dream.
MLPOnline is ready for Pon-E3! Join us for our livestream at http://www.livestream.com/mlponlineteam?t=174065, where we'll take you behind the scenes of our game-making process, and answer all the questions about us you've been dying to know! Plus, get a first look at our brand new game trailer, and an exclusive sneak peek at what's in store for Episode two of our single player game. See you there!
Thank you to everyone that joined us today! The team had a great time sharing all that they’ve accomplished and we hope that you’re excited for what’s to come!
Also, we are always looking for new talent. Artists, programmers, game designers, etc., if you’re interested in helping us make this game happen, drop by our forum and say hello!
Last but not least, thank you again to Equestria Gaming. You guys put a lot of work into this event and it has been a pleasure.
To our viewers, on behalf of all the Mock Equestrian Wars Development Team, thank you!
Thank you all for joining us! For those of you who may have missed the livestream, don’t forget to check out the link above to see all that the team has accomplished in just a few short months!
Hello and thank you for joining us! My name is Earth_Pony and I will be your host today, bringing you plenty of news about our exciting new game, Mock Equestrian Wars! Before we kick off this event, however, I would like to thank our gracious hosts Enigma Sage and all of the Equestria Gaming crew for putting this together, we’re honored to be here. If you’ve never been there before, I would highly encourage you to visit their website. Equestria Gaming is easily the number one source for all gaming news within the Brony Community. Thank you guys for everything you do!
Project Overview
Now, just what is Mock Equestrian Wars? This game is technically known as a Simultaneous Turn Based Strategy MMO. What does this mean? Essentially, gameplay is mostly composed of tactical, squad based strategy, placed in the context of a full-scale (mock) war. Each game has the capacity for hundreds of players, with two sides contesting for control of the map. Games are expected to last up to two weeks, ending only when one side achieves victory. Massive, player coordinated strategies will pan out, resulting in glorious victory! ...or miserable defeat. Players must come together to achieve user-set objectives, capturing strategic points, collecting valuable resources, and waging full fledged battles against enemy squads. Work your way up the ranks and you may find yourself in a position of leadership, becoming responsible for strategy in your local area or even, if you’ve proven yourself capable, oversee the entire battlefield operations.
Player Tiers and Roles
MEW features three tiers of play: Squad leaders, Captains and Commanders. Each tier comes with its own set of responsibilities and roles. In addition, leadership roles are given only to the individuals who have demonstrated good leadership ability and have earned the respect of their peers. Now for the specifics of the three tiers:
Starting with squads, these are the players responsible for working with one another to accomplish objectives and consist of a single player plus up to 9 controllable units. Squads are frequently pitted against enemy squads when in skirmishes, and such encounters make up the majority of the game.
Next up are the Captains. These players control only their own pony, but also command up to 10 nearby squads. Captains will be able to use skills on the battle map to do damage to enemy squads or to aid allied squads through various means.
Finally we have the Commanders, which are the top tier of leadership in the mock war environment. Each side will have only three of these high ranking officers, whose responsibilities include the management and coordination of the entire war effort. Usually operating within buildings, Commanders issue orders to Captains regarding construction, resource disbursement, battle tactics, and game strategy, but can also use their royal guard squad to go out in the field for combat purposes, providing a powerful stat boost to nearby allies.
Victory Conditions
There are three ways in which victory can be achieved in Mock Equestrian Wars. The first of such methods would be the defeat of two of the enemy Commanders. This may prove a difficult feat, however, as Commanders are extremely well guarded and have many resources at their disposal. Another method would be to destroy the opponent's Headquarters. The final path to victory would be the conquest of a significant portion of the world map, achieved through gaining control of the various flags and outposts spread throughout the landscape. All three methods offer serious challenge and require team coordination and organization to achieve victory.
Project History
Now, I am aware that our project is a bit “out-of-the-blue” for some of you, so let me share with you the story of how our project came to be. Mock Equestrian Wars stems out of a discussion question posted to Equestria Daily back in early January. The question pertained to what role you (the reader) would like to take were you transformed into a pony and thrown into a giant, full-scale equestrian war. The question was very popular, as evidenced by the hundreds of individual comments and responses which followed the post. Among the interested was Ryex, our project leader, who would organize a brainstorm a few days later to explore the possibility of making a game out of the “Equestrian War” concept.
We are super excited and honored to kick off this event! While we're getting set up, check out our website at www.equestrianwars.com. Mock Equestrian Wars is a revolutionary MMO that combines the best of turn-based and real-time strategy games. Our goal is to provide a casual, web-browser based multiplayer platform for all Bronies to immerse themselves in a playful and competitive environment!
Looks like the Legends of Equestria team has decided that it could use a couple more developers, so they decided to send out a press release to various pony fansites. We weren't included in that list for some reason, but ah well. Might as well post it anyways...
Interested in working on the fandom's largest MMO? Then head on below the break for more details on submitting an application.
Texture Artists - 2D team
To apply for the 2D team, please email kit@legendsofequestria.com and vector@legendsofequestria.com with a link to an online portfolio containing examples of your skills. The 2D team leads would like to see plenty of examples of environmental art or textured 3D art, rather than 2D character work or fan art. Applicants must understand the basics of color theory, be able to mimic the art style of the environments and buildings in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and be able to create vector graphics. Please state how much time you are able to devote to Legends of Equestria, and remember that you will be expected to complete at least one texture per week. Access to programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, or Flash is not necessary but would be very beneficial.
3D Modelers and Animators - 3D team
To apply for the 3D team, please email savanapope@legendsofequestria.com with links to examples of your skills. Any additional unrelated, high quality designs you have done helps too. Applicants must have working knowledge of 3D modeling and/or animating and be willing to learn, design critically, and give and take critique. It is preferred that applicants have a specialty in organic modeling, 3D animation and rigging, terraforming, or any combination thereof. Please include how much time you are able to devote to Legends of Equestria, as well as a list of programs that you use.
Concept Artists
To apply for the concept art team, please email anyasmash@legendsofequestria.com with a link to an online portfolio containing examples of your drawing skill. Although the team is looking for individuals who are comfortable with drawing characters, creatures, and architecture in the style of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, we would like for your portfolio to contain something other than My Little Pony fanart. Your email should also include your Skype username, the amount of time you are able to devote to the project, and your strengths and weaknesses that are relevant to the position. Please keep in mind that the concept art team is hiring on a rolling basis, so you can apply at any time.
Writers
Applicants for the writing department must submit one or more examples of their writing to bloomberg@legendsofequestria.com. Creative prose is preferred, but not completely necessary.
All applications must be submitted via email with a link to a Google Document in the application. Your name must also be included. Any applicants who are copying from an outside source such as Microsoft Word must paste the text directly into Google Docs rather than uploading a file. They must also be visible to the parties which will judge entries. Submissions which require a download or do not have proper permissions will be ignored. Examples must be at least one page in length and cannot have been edited by any outside party. Experience is not necessary, but any applicants capable of listing qualifications should do so. After applicants have been reviewed, the most favorable will receive a prompt, at which point they will have one week to submit a story that falls within the guidelines of this prompt. After these have been judged, the new writers will be announced.
Designers
To apply for the design team, please email savanapope@legendsofequestria.com with examples of design materials, as well as how much time you are able to devote to the project. Prefered examples are design documents which focus on gameplay mechanics, systems, and the equations and numbers which make those systems tick. Potential design team members should be able to contribute to discussions about ability trees, as well as independently write complex design documents which focus on attribute balance and gameplay integration. Potential design team members with large scale map layout abilities will also be considered.
Programmers
Potential programmers should be proficient in C# and the use of code to design working mechanics applicable to a 3D MMO environment. Experience and integration in Unity 3D is extremely helpful. To apply please send relevant examples of creative code design and a list of software you use/know to cerebrate@legendsofequestria.com. Only the applicants that the respective team leader is interested in will receive response emails.
Fan MMOs are sort of a rarity, especially when they are released in quick succession. It wasn't too long ago that MLP:Online was released, and even then it was just the single player mode. And all of a sudden out of the blue pops a brand spanking-new pony MMO that nopony has ever heard of and takes the crown for the first playable MLP MMO (and one of the first ever HTML5 MMO games). Mind you it's still in an early alpha state and doesn't have all the features of the final product (it lacks different hairstyles and races), but it's still quite worth playing already.
