Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

News Credits: 33 · by **Amelie** » Tue Aug 07, 2018 5:19 pm

ZeroWolf wrote:While I can't see IDW stopping them, we could talk about their impact here, would it be better if the previews were handled like the last post light one where you had to follow the link to get to it instead of having the pages mirrored?

I think, impact-wise - its best to only provide the link, with a separate topic for previews, so the current issue has space to breathe and for those that don't want to see previews to not have it spoiled in discussion.

News Credits: 226 · by **Burn** » Tue Aug 07, 2018 6:08 pm

Amelie wrote:
ZeroWolf wrote:While I can't see IDW stopping them, we could talk about their impact here, would it be better if the previews were handled like the last post light one where you had to follow the link to get to it instead of having the pages mirrored?

I think, impact-wise - its best to only provide the link, with a separate topic for previews, so the current issue has space to breathe and for those that don't want to see previews to not have it spoiled in discussion.

I'm all for a separate thread for previews, helps avoid any potential spoilers, keeps two topics of discussion going. But that's Va'al's call.

by **Chibi Starscream** » Tue Aug 07, 2018 8:07 pm

Looking forward to the reboot, while I will also miss the IDWverse since I feel like I just recently got into it (last year). I have since collected 66 issues and still collecting. I hope that at least some of the characters introduced in this current series will see new life in the next one, such as Lug, Anode, and Nickel as well as the DJD.

News Credits: 1350 · by **ZeroWolf** » Wed Aug 08, 2018 1:31 am

Burn wrote:
Amelie wrote:
ZeroWolf wrote:While I can't see IDW stopping them, we could talk about their impact here, would it be better if the previews were handled like the last post light one where you had to follow the link to get to it instead of having the pages mirrored?

I think, impact-wise - its best to only provide the link, with a separate topic for previews, so the current issue has space to breathe and for those that don't want to see previews to not have it spoiled in discussion.

I'm all for a separate thread for previews, helps avoid any potential spoilers, keeps two topics of discussion going. But that's Va'al's call.

I think a separate thread is a good idea :-)

unless anyone can think of a benefit to how it's done currently other than good housekeeping.

News Credits: 6188 · by **Va'al** » Wed Aug 08, 2018 2:25 am

I like the idea of a separate thread, and was thinking (last night) of implementing it from the new continuity onwards - but also, given that there are plenty of spoilers to come, might as well start now, no? :-?

News Credits: 1350 · by **ZeroWolf** » Wed Aug 08, 2018 4:25 am

Would the reviews go into a separate thread as well since they can occasionally go spoilerish?

News Credits: 226 · by **Burn** » Wed Aug 08, 2018 4:35 am

ZeroWolf wrote:Would the reviews go into a separate thread as well since they can occasionally go spoilerish?

MULTI-THREAD!!!!!!!!!

It's not like they're going to break the forums. And if they do, we blame Cobotron.

News Credits: 6188 · by **Va'al** » Wed Aug 08, 2018 4:41 am

My current idea is to have one thread for discussions with spoiler discussion - including reviews, which we keep at a minimum spoiler wise - and one thread for previews, with a spoiler warning if needed.

Are you suggesting a third?

News Credits: 1350 · by **ZeroWolf** » Wed Aug 08, 2018 4:52 am

It was more of a question, I'm good with the setup of them being in the main series thread but I know some don't approach the reviews till they've already read it.

News Credits: 55 · by **o.supreme** » Wed Aug 08, 2018 9:00 am

Tommy T. wrote:Mabey TMNT reached 100 because they dont have a bunch of there characters running around hugging and holding hands being in love with each other. Just saying

I'm not disagreeing, but The IDW TF continuity in truth has over 400 issues. IDW just chose to keep starting over and relaunching in an attempt to give newer fans a jumping on point, even though the entire 13 year run was all connected.

What will happen in 2019 is something completely new (for good or ill). I mean what Z3ROhour is afraid of losing, is pretty much everything I HOPE is NOT present in the new series. I want something closer to the original Sunbow Animated series, though I seriously doubt we will get that. So you can't appease all fans, just as IDW didn't.

I feel a great relief however that this current iteration of IDW is ending. I don't have to keep up with it anymore. The new series I can review form afar. If it turns out to be awful, then I don't have to get it. If it turns out to be good, I can purchase Trades over time, if it is consistently good, not just only on occasion.

News Credits: 3 · by **ArmadaPrime** » Wed Aug 08, 2018 1:30 pm

Burn wrote:
Amelie wrote:
ZeroWolf wrote:While I can't see IDW stopping them, we could talk about their impact here, would it be better if the previews were handled like the last post light one where you had to follow the link to get to it instead of having the pages mirrored?

I think, impact-wise - its best to only provide the link, with a separate topic for previews, so the current issue has space to breathe and for those that don't want to see previews to not have it spoiled in discussion.

I'm all for a separate thread for previews, helps avoid any potential spoilers, keeps two topics of discussion going. But that's Va'al's call.

At risk of a little equine necromancy, could this perhaps be solved by ending megathreads, and having a separate discussion for each issue? Thread gets created at the time of the preview, whilst those avoiding previews could jump on board when the issue drops. Meanwhile, the old thread still exists for people to carry on discussing the previous issue.
I'm not completely sure, as realistically there'll always be some duplication of discussion however things are divided. I just wonder if separating the previews would split the discussions into the "reading-the-previews" camp and the "not-reading-previews" camp, even for non-spoilery things. That might kinda stifle both discussions a little?

News Credits: 6188 · by **Va'al** » Wed Aug 08, 2018 1:33 pm

Also an ongoing discussion on staff, as the megathreads help news staff immensely, but do get in the way of linear discussions. Any good solutions overall, not just for comics, are welcome!

News Credits: 3 · by **ArmadaPrime** » Wed Aug 08, 2018 1:48 pm

Va'al wrote:Any good solutions overall, not just for comics, are welcome!

Dang, good solutions? Now those I can't guarantee... :lol:

To throw my own opinion in though, I do think I've been less active on the boards since the introduction of megathreads. That is about 90% due to circumstance, but there's definitely a small element of finding the big threads... overwhelming? Perhaps not quite the word, but with 5 different conversations and tons of posts daily I felt less able to keep up with the discussion. Then again, I had similar feelings when threads were separate and I was trying to keep track of multiple threads in parallel. :-?

Perhaps if there's a neat way to divide megathreads into... kilothreads, that could work? Such as "WFC2019 Toyline: Leaks, Rumours, Hopes, and Predictions*", "WFC2019 Toyline: Reviews and your in-hand thoughts", "WFC2019 Toyline: sightings and store-related news", "WFC2019 Toyline: the accompanying fiction".
Or, y'know. Some logical categories that actually made sense :lol:

*and oxford commas

News Credits: 1350 · by **ZeroWolf** » Wed Aug 08, 2018 1:52 pm

That might get a little to confusing with that many and I thought we were just on about idw stuff?

News Credits: 6188 · by **Va'al** » Wed Aug 08, 2018 2:45 pm

We were, this was me derailing the conversation, sorry! I'll open a thread as soon as get to it about new ways of organizing the forums, and see where we go from there.

As for the new IDW, I repeat what I said elsewhere: bring back something like the Spotlights!

News Credits: 1350 · by **ZeroWolf** » Wed Aug 08, 2018 2:50 pm

Va'al wrote:We were, this was me derailing the conversation, sorry! I'll open a thread as soon as get to it about new ways of organizing the forums, and see where we go from there.

As for the new IDW, I repeat what I said elsewhere: bring back something like the Spotlights!

No problem :-)

I do hope they bring the spotlights back and this time really shine a light on underused characters.

What's the chance we'll hear something at NYCC? I know we're still still probably 8 months+ off from the reboot starting but they got to be thinking now about things...right?

News Credits: 55 · by **o.supreme** » Wed Aug 08, 2018 2:53 pm

Va'al wrote:As for the new IDW, I repeat what I said elsewhere: bring back something like the Spotlights!

Yes! also... while were on the subject, how about profile books? I mean IDW reprinted DW MTMTE, DW did an Armada MTMTE, and IDW did one for BW... I still think it would have been great to get one for Japanese only characters, as well as profile books for other incarnations (RiD, TFA, Movieverse etc...)

Also, although it's come to an end, I'm sure some folks would like profile books for the characters as they were portrayed throughout IDW's 13 year run, since many of them deviate form their classic Original Series personality. I'm not sure how you could do it...

I mean if we gat a Star Saber entry, I'd want it to be all about the one form Victory NOT the crazy IDW zealot. Perhaps they could do both to make everyone happy??

News Credits: 6188 · by **Va'al** » Wed Aug 08, 2018 2:59 pm

o.supreme wrote:
Va'al wrote:As for the new IDW, I repeat what I said elsewhere: bring back something like the Spotlights!

Yes! also... while were on the subject, how about profile books? I mean IDW reprinted DW MTMTE, DW did an Armada MTMTE, and IDW did one for BW... I still think it would have been great to get one for Japanese only characters, as well as profile books for other incarnations (RiD, TFA, Movieverse etc...)

Also, although it's come to an end, I'm sure some folks would like profile books for the characters as they were portrayed throughout IDW's 13 year run, since many of them deviate form their classic Original Series personality. I'm not sure how you could do it...

I mean if we gat a Star Saber entry, I'd want it to be all about the one form Victory NOT the crazy IDW zealot. Perhaps they could do both to make everyone happy??

I think profile books would have to be based on new continuity characterisation, to be fair, so maybe there is no Star Saber at all!

News Credits: 6188 · by **Va'al** » Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:05 pm

Bringing this over from other thread:

Swerving a little here, but a thought I had finally coalesced into something coherent last night, and I needed to write it down.

Plenty of people have been saying this in the past years too, but what I'd also really like to see in a new fictional universe is something similar to the initial Spotlights that the -ation era brought in - not only focusing on new characters, and giving them a personal story that can then be woven into the wider narrative, but also to ..well, spotlight new creative teams. And I mean NEW creative teams.

I want to see the fan artists who made variant covers get to do some interior work, but I also want to see entirely new writers pitch a story and get to write it themselves, pairing up with artists and colours under editorial guidance from IDW (be it Barber or Mariotte, and Long on production, for example). Think of the Mosaics project, think of the Seeds of Deception et al. on deviantArt (that we keep seeing in the creative round-ups).

You could call it Siege: War Stories, if the new narratives have to do with War for Cybertron. Get fans - all fans - to pitch the plots, the team, the one character story, have OCs show up alongside the core cast from Siege, have stories that could be in the background (NAILs, grunts, Badgeless, whoever) take front and centre for one issue, and then be forgotten if needed, but give them and the fandom a chance to actually suggest what we could want to see. It's less feasible the more I get excited about it, but holy shirt it would be amazing and a way to get really new, fresh material show up from the already extremely prolific creative side of the fandom.

Va'al wrote:
Burn wrote:See, this would work!

There's characters out there that have only appeared in a handful of panels. Predators, Turbomasters, Obliterators, Cyberjets, Axelerators ... the list goes on! All these little teams that could be highlighted. It's something I've wanted to see for years.

And you could work it in with the Micro and Battle Masters for more Brand Synergy if you wanted to, or use it as a gauging platform for redecos or remolds or even exclusives. You want to make comics that sell the toys? Give us characters we really connect with, and then release the actual toy!

ZeroWolf wrote:
Burn wrote:Something completely random, something that would make IDW stand out to other publishers.
Short three panel strip in each issue (bottom of letters page), similar in vein to the old "Robo-Capers" that appeared in the Marvel UK TF comics.

Completely separate and not aligned with the rest of the book. Just a short little funny comic.

yes, I would like this as well, or alternatively have funny little outtakes of how key scenes might be messed up as if it was a shoot for a movie or tv show. Something light though wouldn't go amiss

News Credits: 55 · by **o.supreme** » Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:09 pm

True, but to be fair, before DW went under, they were planning an extention of MTMTE that included Japanese characters, as well as ones from the original animated series (Devcon, Female Autobots etc...).

I mean a new profile book based on new continuity would make sense, but you could have a separate series for characters already established in classic continuity that we did not get with the previous MTMTE.

News Credits: 1350 · by **ZeroWolf** » Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:16 pm

When you look at the wealth of suggestions we've gone through, it seems you can truly do anything with the tf licence. Which is why I don't envy the new creative teams. What my advice would be to them is: Don't look back too much, tell your own story and don't let the weight of coming after a thirteen year long continuity weigh you down. Yes, the reboot will be compared to the old continuity, just as that was compared to DW and to G1 Marvel before that. Take your time and ease into your setting and find your feet.

@Profile books

The only way I could see something like these working is if they did a series of them which covered every version of the character that existed. For someone like Starsaber, you would have five entries, first being toy bio, second how he was in the victory anime, third being how he was in the Victory Manga and lastly, covering his appearance in the Robot Masters toyline.

Something like that will get quite big, quite fast.

by **ausbot** » Wed Aug 08, 2018 7:35 pm

I hope the reboot goes back to the civil war story, I checked out over the last few years with IDW.

News Credits: 638 · by **ScottyP** » Thu Aug 09, 2018 7:27 am

They made profile books last year, y'all just ignored them because Hasbroverse.

News Credits: 55 · by **o.supreme** » Thu Aug 09, 2018 8:57 am

ScottyP wrote:They made profile books last year, y'all just ignored them because Hasbroverse.

I even purchased those, but forgot them :lol:

. But those were hardly complete, and only included as you say, the main players of the combined Hasbroverse. Besides, I don't need all those fleshies

Just the Transformers themselves are fine.

I don't think you'd have to do every iteration of each character. I mean DW seemed to do an amalgamation of the original toy, and animated series character. If the character never appeared in animation, then they expanded on the toy bio. I mean (I don't know why I keep going back to Star Saber) but....His Toy, Animation, Manga, & RM personas are all pretty similiar. It's only in IDW that things got way out of character. I don't need/want a Wiki in print form. Just a nice awesome profile pic in robot and alt modes, with a one page write up summarizing the character, as they are most prominently known.