As some of you may have noticed, we had to shut the forums down for some maintenance. During this time, we were working very hard on upgrading and improving the forum in various ways. As such, a variety of new features are now available that I will quickly explain below:

.::"Like" Feature::.
It is now possible to "like" content, simply by clicking the "Like This" button found in the bottom right corner of a post or other likeable content (such as calendar events). This has been a demanded feature for a long time now, we hope everyone enjoys it. Additionally, content that a user has liked will appear under the "likes" tab of their profile.


.::Status Updates::.
Users of the Members group can now post status updates on their profiles. These can be used to tell your friends what you're doing or to make announcements on your profile! Keep in mind that BBCode and Smiley codes do not work in statuses.


.::Notifications System::.
I'm sure most of you have noticed the new userbar at the top of the site. It contains two new icons, the first is your messenger icon and the second is the notification icon. The notification icon is helpful in many ways as it allows you to keep track of various of happenings around the site. If you click your notifications icon to reveal the menu and then click the "options" link, you'll be able to completely customize your notifications to alert you to any of the following events:

• Posts you've made that other users have liked.
  
• New posts that have quoted your post.
  
• New replies to your own topics, followed topics and followed forums.
  
• New comments on your profile.
  
• Replies to comments you've made on another user's page or status.
  
• Friend status updates.
  
• Replies to personal conversations.
  
• Alerts for when a user adds you as a friend or approves a friend request.
  
• Follow the calendar for events or updates to events you're following, as well as notifications to comments on followed events.

In addition, it will also alert you of any moderator actions regarding moved and deleted posts/topics, along with warnings.


.::Personal Conversations::.
The Private Messaging system is now in the form of Personal Conversations, what this means is that a PM is basically a private topic between yourself and your recipient. Users of the member status, may also add up to 5 participants when creating a personal conversation. Keep in mind that additional participants cannot be added after creating a conversation.


.::Profile Updates::.
A field Skype field has been added, as well as fields for inputting Mario game and Nintendo console friend codes. But don't limit yourself to just Mario games, feel free to list other game codes, usernames and gametags for other games in your About Me. We also have another highly requested feature, display name history, which can be found under the User Tools section when viewing a user's profile. Lastly, the Profile Feed tab is for viewing a user's status updates and comments from other users.

Due to the way avatars work now, most of you will have to re-add your avatars. Very few of them actually converted over and some didn't because they were too large.


.::Board Index Updates::.
In addition to profile updates, the board index has also received some updates. As you may or may not have noticed, there is now a bar to the right of the forum categories on the board index. There you will find the recent status updates, topics and item additions to the marketplace. There are also blocks for upcoming calendar events and birthdays that are only present when relevant.


.::Calendar Updates::.
The Calendar has received a few minor updates, such as the ability to follow and comment on events. You may also follow the calendar itself which will give you a notification when a new event is posted. We highly recommend following the calendar so you can instantly receive these updates!



.::YouTube and Other Media::.
It is now possible to post a variety of different media on the boards simply by posting the url. The list of supported links include:

• YouTube (YouTu.be links included)
  
• Google Video
  
• GameTrailers
  
• MySpace Video
  
• Flicker Image Set
  
• Mp3s

Once the url has been posted, it will automatically format and embed it into your post. Mp3s will be set up to be playable through a flash mp3 player.


.::New Emblems::.
Some new Emblems have been added, some which are automatically awarded for reaching a certain number of posts. Those of you that registered before today may find that you have enough posts but are missing emblem(s). Don't worry, they'll be awarded when you make your next post.


.::Marketplace Item Pop-ups::.
Items in the marketplace now have pop-ups that make viewing items such as BMTCG much easier and more convenient. Simply click the "Copy BBCode" button found next to an item in the marketplace or your inventory to copy it's BBCode required to link the item within a post. Here's two quick examples, give them a click! (Note: Doesn't work for guests.)



.::Weekly Lottery::.
The lottery system has returned! Purchase tickets here in the Marketplace.



Now regarding the BMTCG... Since the market system we were using was absolutely terrible, we have since moved on to a newer and better market system. Unfortunately this means that we are unable to transfer your BMTCG cards and other items. However, we were able to transfer everybody's coins. But rest assured, we will do our best to work swiftly in adding BMTCG cards and other items!

Due to the upgrade, we've had to disable all but the default skin. But no need to worry, we'll make them available again as soon as we're finished updating them. For now though, please enjoy all of the new features and don't forget to leave a comment below and hit that like button! =D

Great speculation. Well thought out.

(I'm still convinced that the Team is gonna be Team Algebra.

I'm going to be keeping an eye on this topic as well.
If this is going to be a debate topic like it's supposed to be, people need to be mature and maintain their cool, no matter how much you disagree.

Fodder that one must know the Mario destroy the block of brick with fist and hand, not head. It is a bad one.

Oh gods, I've come back to quite a large change.

It's pretty cool, although I was never one for social-networky implications. I could see the Web 2.0 stuff slowing down my shoddy computer, although it hasn't been much of a problem so far.

ALSO HOLD CRAP WE FINALLY HAVE A REPORT BUTTON

So I haven't done any spritework what seems to be ages, but I had some time yesterday and started on an Axe Knight sheet. I'd like to share it and get some opinions. Cavaliers only have animations for Swords and Lances in the GBA Fire Emblem games so I decided to make some Axe animations. The sheet isn't finished since it still needs critical and hand axe poses.


I know it's mostly just an edit but anyway, thoughts?



It's based on the sword animation that looks like this:




Edit: I animated the hand axe critical animation.

The mouse of Micky is a quite fresh individual. Grown upon watching it and reading its books and also has taste to me of the films. Fodder that this game will be much of fresh and the purchase of him will do to me.

dragon87, on 17 January 2013 - 04:50 PM, said:

I think you're missing the point of the topic here. I'll agree that Paper Mario: Sticker Star had a few challenging points and took awhile to complete, (simply due to the fact that the game has no hint system and never directs you to where you need to go next) but that alone does not make it a good game. The difficulty of a game doesn't contribute much to whether or not the game is good or bad. PMSS lacked story, there was also the lack of interesting and fun characters, instead we get a bunch of generic toads that aren't memorable at all. We get a game that basically feels like they took New Super Mario Bros. and tried to make it Paper Mario, which was a horrible thing to do. (In fact, this is what Miyamoto wanted. He literally stripped Intelligent Systems of all their creativity.) This lack of plot greatly reduces the motivation to play through the rest of the game, simply because it starts to feel like we're only progressing for the sake of progressing and not actually accomplishing anything. You go around beating a few bosses and then Bowser, that's it. There's nothing more to it. Not even the dialog is that great, the only remotely interesting character throughout the entire game is Kamek. I found myself not caring what anyone else had to say. Should I even mention Bowser doesn't have a single line of dialog? His dialog has always been some of the best in ALL of the previous Mario RPGs. Then there's the battle system, which is completely useless without any type of reward or level up system. Why waste your stickers when you don't have to? In fact, you can just run away from enemies and they disappear on the map! I avoided battles as much as I could in this game, which is something the game shouldn't make me feel like I have to do. In the previous games in the series I would always fight everything I could, but this one... Nope. There is no point to battle, you don't even lose coins for running. So it's better to just save your stickers and run away until you reach that inevitable boss encounter. There are so many problems with this game that any pros that exist simply don't outweigh the cons and this is easily the weakest entry in the Paper Mario series. There isn't really any replay value either.

As for NSMB2... That felt more like an expansion pack to NSMBW than an actual new game. It takes more than throwing in the raccoon suit and putting coins everywhere to make a good game. Even the final battle felt like the same thing we did in NSMBW. At least NSMBU mixed things up and provided a few new concepts for the bosses. NSMB2 was fun yes, as most Mario games are (though I want to make it clear that I hardly enjoyed PMSS at all) but if the only thing Mario is going to strive for is interesting level/design and gameplay and not memorable characters, music or moments in the game, I feel like the series is only going to stagnate. It is already beginning to.

So he's wearing a pot....is he Intelligent Elbot?

Or, *snicker* ELPOT? HOHOHOHO

It's such a bad pun that I just had to like my own post

Why does she have the new scout secondary stuck in her chest?

The series has been an absolute mess since around 2009. I've got a lot to say for this topic.

-I'd stop pulling things from old games and trying to pass them off as new. I'd actually invent new concepts instead of thinking "Hey, let's bring back the Raccoon Suit, those dumbasses will eat that up". There would not only be new power-ups, but new core abilities and the like.

-Different level archetypes. Grassland, cave, desert, forest, underwater, castle, volcano; Level archetypes in this series don't extend far beyond these. I don't see why Nintendo keeps reusing these, I can think of plenty of new ones right on the spot. Factories, outer space, swamps-- Heck, you don't even have to invent entirely new archetypes. Just change the tired aesthetics of existing level types and they'll be much more refreshing. Like, try giving the desert levels a nighttime or sunset background, or change the forest levels to have dead trees and mist everywhere. Yoshi's Island did this very well in the past, learn something from that game, Nintendo.

-Give the series a graphical overhaul with 2D hand-drawn sprites. Me and Senor had a discussion a few days ago about how 2D Mario artwork looks fantastic, but the actual in-game 3D models are unremarkable, and have even grown stale over the years due to how little they've changed since the early GameCube days. For future 2D platformers, I'd propose a new graphical style similar to what was featured in Wario Land: Shake It. I'm not sure how much effort hand-drawn graphics take in comparison to 3D models, but it'd be just the kind of visual refreshment the series needs.

-Have some sort of a story. I don't care if it's Mario. Mario is still a video game, and video games always benefit from intriguing stories. it wouldn't have to be a dramatic or sappy one that interrupts the gameplay, but it would at least shake things up from the typical kidnapping escapades that most Mario games have.

-Get rid of the lives system. Really, why does this still exist? Not only is it completely pointless in any game with a generous saving/checkpoint system, but oftentimes when players go out of their way to find secrets, they're rewarded with nothing but useless 1-Ups. I'd like to give them something a bit more practical.

-Have Mario gain abilities as he progresses. Mario games have always given you all of your moves from the get-go. I'd like to try making something where Mario just started off with being able to run and jump. I'd put in secret exits that lead to levels containing items (like World's switch palaces) that expand Mario's moveset with things like the triple-jump or the spin-jump. I'd at least like to give players more of a feeling of progression.

Tabby, on 10 July 2012 - 06:21 PM, said:

Watch it be the most simple type of raffle. Lol.

Nin10bros, on 27 June 2012 - 07:01 PM, said:

I'm just going to try and maintain a wait and see attitude for this one. I was too hyped for Brawl and was generally kind of let down. I prefer Melee heavily. It wasn't a bad game. Just not what I was hoping for is all.

Also, 5 player gaming? The person with the Wii U Gamepad controls the stage and items that appear? I think that would be awesome.

It gives forage to wonder what end it must come to if the Bill of SOPA has to pass? Am not of American land sadly, but it wishes to be! Fodder that the sadness it gives to me is great for its to help is failing.

i wonder why i made this comic


I know BT probably had nothing to do with the actual changing of the avatar pictures but SOMEONE HAD TO APPROVE IT

Not that I don't like it, it just surprised me. so mission accomplish i guess :l

The first part is probably the longest of all 3. Anyways I finished it. :l

The only reason there are more pages is because I tried to incorporate larger panels for drawing instead of cramming things into 9 panels a page.

SO READ NAO











part two be done whenever i give terrible estimates

I've had 2 fatally serious ones where I could've been dead by an inch, actually.

I got stabbed in the gut protecting my friend in high school, and I was hospitalized for days. My doctor then told me the knife barely missed an artery. I was that close to death.

Another time, I was stabbed in the gut by a broken beer bottle while I was training at work as a bartender. (The other actual workers that should've been there werent there so it was up to me to break up a huge bar fight) Again, it turned out that broken bottle also barely missed an artery.

I dodged death twice. And I really hope I don't have to dodge it a 3rd time.

I want those miracles.

I enter 28 tickets.

Personally I want the next one to be a "Mario Party Generations" of sorts featuring one mini-game of each type (4P, 2v2, 1v3, etc.) from each previous party....but the Wii U opens up loads of possibilities as well.

I did come up with a variety of mode ideas though:

1) Classic - Track down the Star Space, pay 20 coins for a star. You all know how it works.

2) Stamina Match - Based on the Duel Maps from MP3. Each player hires a partner to chip away at their opponents' stamina to win.

3) Shuffle - A new kind of mode based on Sonic Shuffle. Instead of rolling dice, the players must use numbered cards to move around the board.

4) Fever - Another new mode sort of based on Pac-Man Fever. The boards are all one-way paths and the goal is to reach the end first by doing really well in mini-games.

5) Road Trip - Based on MP9. All four players take turns driving car from one end of the board to the other.

'Evening gents.

I bring you the next installment of the FE joke pics.

Senor Yoshi as Lekain



Ledah as Mia


Zap as Lethe



Comments? Questions? Insults?
I won't know if you have any unless you post 'em!