Transformers are way better than Gobots

[patiirc]

Nice custom of the Megatron Ratchet Fusion 

[air_raid]

53 minutes ago, DEF said:

Any tips?

Upgrade your hq as quickly as possible so you can upgrade your shuttle and take more troops into battle. Don’t forget to upgrade your Energon and alloy storage as you go or you’ll find yourself unable to store enough for necessary upgrades (especially Energon for research on bots and upgrading abilities) and you’ll save time later.

Dont waste too much spark on 2*/3* as it gets really expensive when you want to improve 4* as they will be the core of your war team forever (5* take forever to earn). 3* bots, don’t level ability beyond level 5, it’s a waste.

Make sure to put a gun or outpost near enough to your hq to defend it from Kup/Dead End if they teleport in. Leaving hq to the back and guns up front is easy pickings.

Dont get half baked ideas about creating an alliance, you’ll want to join an established one to get event rewards and level up quickly. Just make sure you read the requirements in global before joining and that you can meet them. Waiting to hq10 might be best, even mid table alliances tend to want that.

Above all else, don’t waste cyber coins on anything other than saving for build bots to improve your base quicker. Drop rates on character crystals are terrible.

EDIT 

when you get to earning Shanix from raids, spend it on Ore13 rather than XP boosts. When you have a combiner you’ll want to take into battle often and Ore takes ages to harvest. Also if you get to 2500 prime core shards don’t be tempted by GMetal cores. Save up to 5000 for a Prime Core. 11 out of 12 of them are real game changers.

Edited July 24, 2020 by air_raid

[BigJag]

These 3rd party builders are getting very very good.

TFC Toys ST Commander.

Edited July 25, 2020 by BigJag

[DEF]

Been playing Earth Wars for nearly a week now and I'm pretty hooked. Spaffed 20 quid on it when I swore I wouldn't when I started. Struggling to get 3* bots. I have two so far and I'm level 19. That seem about right or am I screwing this up? Also what's the point of joining an alliance? I've not bothered so far as I'm not sure I'd be good enough.

In other news tomorrow the Netflix TF series goes up and I can't wait. I suspect I'll binge it in one day.

[BigJag]

An upcoming transformers VR game. The game footage begins at about 9mins in. The arcade machine is a full sit down mechanised unit.

 

https://www.allspark.com/2020/07/bumblebee-vr-arcade-game-coming-out-this-september/

[patiirc]

Some one's been playing a lot of Armada. Looks phenomenal though

 

Finally got around to some of the Transformers uploads.. Enjoy

 

 

Loads more on top of that .. eeeeeh

[Carbomb]

HOT SOLDIERS 

[air_raid]

4 hours ago, DEF said:

Been playing Earth Wars for nearly a week now and I'm pretty hooked. Spaffed 20 quid on it when I swore I wouldn't when I started. Struggling to get 3* bots. I have two so far and I'm level 19. That seem about right or am I screwing this up? Also what's the point of joining an alliance? I've not bothered so far as I'm not sure I'd be good enough.

3* bots within the first week is better than I did, but then I pumped no money into it.
 

The point of joining an alliance is that most weekends (though not this weekend) the event requirements are to be HQ4 and be in one. The better alliance you’re in, the more event points you get and the better share of rewards you get. These rewards include shards for Premium, 3* and 4* crystals and very rarely 5* (which usually only come from 4* dupes), Energon, alloy and spark (regular, COMBAT or combiner), special crystals to earn the newest bots before they get added to free/Premium drops, Cores of various themes including elusive Prime Core shards, and sometimes unique prizes. A few weeks ago there were five different Quintesson avatars to unlock, which my crew managed to earn all of. Before that there were Golden Lagoon temporary cores that gave your bots 60% damage reduction for 24 hours. Also a strong alliance will get you Shanix from raids that you can spend on XP cores, combiner spark, Ore13 to activate your eventual combiner, or BW Primal/Megatron if you’re weird enough to save up for him. Put simply you get more out of the game and will improve your base and bots a hell of a lot quicker in an alliance as long as it’s good, plus you’ll become better watching replays of more experienced players.

As for being good enough, you can easily find one where you’ll be good enough. Take part in this weekends individual event (good timing) and observe how many points you post. Then keep an eye on Autobot/Decepticon “global” chat for an ad. Anyone recruiting that mentions a HQ minimum that you are and an events total you think is achievable, talk to. I casually mentioned doing 3k a day and got offered a spot in a crew requiring HQ10 and 10k event score and they let me in despite only being HQ9 and only having 2* bots, initially getting crushed by B1 in every war. Currently I’m lv50 hq14 with 10 4* bots, 2 Prime Cores and disappointed if I do <16k each event, regularly top 10 in a decent mid table 35 strong alliance, routinely getting to B3 and sometimes B4 in Silver League wars.

If you’re not in an alliance it gets samey quickly.

[air_raid]

Marvel Comics UK

Of time travel, Rodimus Prime and Galvatron, and which future they inhabited.

So, there are a series of events of the “present” of the comic continuity that put it at odds with truly being the past that the Movie represents the future of, by the time(!) of Time Wars and beyond. Even discounting things that follow that completely disrupt the possibility of the events of the Movie happening, namely that Unicron is destroyed in 1991/2 and can’t come to Cybertron in 2005. Discount further that future Autobots like Rod and Magnus would have lived through the past and should remember Galvatrons appearances “from the future” yet in 2007 genuinely have no idea where he might be. The true meat of the argument is lots of characters already being dead who are present in the Movie (such as those massacred by Starscream in the Underbase story, and Starscream himself), there being a bunch of Headmasters, Targetmasters and Pretenders running around (Spike being one of their heads) and Optimus Prime walking around as a Powermaster. Fair enough, Nucleon happens which makes all manner of revivals possible later, but Furman doesn’t know that in 1988 when he’s killing off toys still shown alive in the Movie.

 

I’ve long struggled (even as a child) to reconcile that the “present” story really can be the past of Galvatrons life that he jumped back into/that Rodimus etc followed him into, from the story of the Movie and beyond, even before Time Wars alters it. After all, from any given point in time, you have infinite potential futures but only one past. This idea is developed further when Unicron later plucks a Galvatron from (I’m paraphrasing) “one of many possible futures, a Unicron I may or may not become.” Unicron’s positioning as God-like levels of power excuse this quite easily, his omnipotence extending beyond space and into time in both directions including the infinity of alternate realities. 

 

The differences can be attributed to the butterfly effect/Homer treads on a bug idea, even that Galvatron, Cyclonus and Scourge jumping into 1986 could have changed the future in untold ways, the “present” of the 1986 story could easily have become the future of the Movie and only diverges after the first jump, where the present starts to change and leaving behind a future where Galvatron jumps again, into 1987, staying in the past until Time Wars rips him back.

 

However recently I’ve become as interested in the idea that the future of the stories in the comic not only comes from an alternative future to one that emerges from our (comics) present, but one where even certain events of the Movie either didn’t happen or happened very differently to how they did in the Movie. We’ll disregard stuff like Shockwave still being around despite being intended to be an off screen death in the Movie (thus not written into s3 of the cartoon, which the comic largely ignores). Also the apparent visual deaths of the coneheads (who DO appear in s3) we will consider unconfirmed. 

 

In the first story set in the future of 2007, Wanted Galvatron Dead Or Alive, they clearly want to establish continuity with the Movie to the point in the Autobot “ambush” panel, the only clearly defined Autobots are Magnus, Bumblebee, Jazz and Cliffjumper. Clearly at this point Furman is non-committed to writing any Autobots into this future unless they’re confirmed Movie survivors. This tie-in makes perfect sense, as in Target 2006 there was a discussion about the future site of Autobot City, courtesy of Unicron doing some transtime Inception on (IIRC) Ironhide. He also commits to this being the future that comes out of the comics present storyline as Rodimus is shown mourning Firebolt in the follow up story Headhunt, indicating that by the time of the Movie, Targetmasters happened in the past. Seems legit.

 

Wonderfully, this arc contradicts either that changes to the past immediately will affect the future, Quantum Leap style, OR that this is indeed a future stemming from the 1987 Galvatron jumped into.... because we see Bumblebee in 2007 even though Deaths Head blows him to bits. Which nicely precipitates a rebuild into Goldbug by Wreck-Gar without the awful GI Joe involvement. Fair enough, Bug is later remade into Bee as a Pretender, but Furman doesn’t know that writing in 1987.

 

However, moving into the 2008 stories it gets muddier. There’s nothing too bad about Legacy Of Unicron even if you’re adamant that most 1985 bots would have been wiped out in the battle for Autobot City, Inferno and Grapple were both storyboarded to survive (hence Inferno being listed in the voice credits despite not appearing in the Movie). The only anomaly if Movie storyboards matter is Smokescreen being alive. Wheeljack is even miscoloured as his corpse in one shot. I’m assuming we can forgive that. Space Pirates however features not only characters killed in Movie storyboards or early script drafts such as Smokescreen and Trailbreaker, but actually shows Autobots strung up by the Quintessons on the walls of the city that 100% died in the Movie - Brawn and Wheeljack. I’m assuming you might be tempted to reach for Nucleon again to explain these resurrections but again, Furman wouldn’t have known about that when he wrote Space Pirates.

 

As if it’s not confusing enough for Rodimus whether his present makes sense or whether the past is really his past (why he didn’t cross paths with Hot Rod in Time Wars is a good question), the future he returns to is not only different from what he left behind but it’s also impossible to be a future stemming from the past he visited, establishing again that things don’t flow Quantum Leap style. Ignoring little details like the Technobots being - briefly - alive (murdered by Starscream in “our” present between Galvatrons second jump and Time Wars), you have the irreconcilable presence of Galvatron, created by Unicron, despite the past Roddy visited now leading towards a path that ends with Primal Scream, Matrix Quest and the destruction of Unicron some 15 years before the Movie events. Of course, the life force of Unicron which Rodimus absorbed into the Matrix in Legacy of Unicron before he travelled to 1989, comes back with him! Though the rules (LOL) are a little sketchy here anyway, as Galvatron was able to jump back to 1986 and return to his same present in Target 2006, but Rodimus was not able to return to what he had left behind.

 

I’m perfectly happy to entertain the idea that Unicrons power even from within the Matrix can bend time and reality to influence the journey through time of its bearer, although no explanation needs making for the existence of alternative futures, as even disregarding Generation 2/Regeneration One, outside of the “main”/altered future following Roddy through 2007-09 to 1989 and back, there are three total futures written for Prime in the comic continuity. The elderly/dying Rodimus from Aspects Of Evil set in 2356 which follows directly on featuring Unicrons attempt to escape the Matrix in 2010, “Peace” from the 1989 Annual set in  2510 where Prime is neither ravaged by Unicrons influence or depicted as elderly (Technobots still alive, Blurr still alive, explicitly different from the previous), and the Rhythms of Darkness version of 2009 mentioned near the start of this post, where Unicron and Galvatron won. And Christ, Prowl is alive in that one!

 

Conclusion : the G1 comic timeline is a fractured multiverse where not only do multiple futures exist, some of which share some but not all similarities to the events directly following The Movie, but characters travelling (by choice or involuntarily) into the past, can actually end up in a past that isn’t actually their own - ironically, suspected in error by Galvatron to be the case in Target 2006 when he thought he’d destroyed Starscream 19 years too early! .... which actually ties in rather neatly to a plot hole I referred to in a previous post, where you can argue that Galvatron remembers events he’s watching Megatron take place in (during Time Wars) differently to what he sees, not because they never happened as this Megatron is a clone (you can easily ignore this retcon if you choose to) but because it’s not actually his past he’s watching unfold. Either way, no wonder the paradox drives him crazy.

But of course, if you’ve read Regeneration One, you know this already.

Just don’t get me started on Ark Duty, that Arcee story set in 1995, or any other stories that attempt to fill in the gaps. We’ll be here all day.

Edited July 30, 2020 by air_raid

[DEF]

That's an incredible run down Air_Raid. Great work. I've never read much of the old stuff mainly because it seemed exactly as complex as all that.

I've just finished Netflix's War For Cybertron and my spoiler free review is it's ace. Probably the best Transformers show since Beast Wars (that I've seen) and frankly I loved it. I have a couple of minor quibbles like the occasional bit of animation physics but overall tremendous stuff.

[air_raid]

14 hours ago, DEF said:

 I've never read much of the old stuff mainly because it seemed exactly as complex as all that.

It can be if you try and make sense of it but in isolation the stories are brilliant. The TPB of Target 2006, Fallen Angel and Time Wars are an easy read of the Galvatron stories without too much thought required unless you’re weird like me.

[BigJag]

War for Cybertron was fun. Left me wanting more. They do fit a lot into the 6 episodes.

For a metallic world. Cybertron seemed to have a lot of organic material.  Cloth, dust and clouds. Actually there seemed to be a lack of metallic noise. Jet fire was as cool as I had expected. Good mix of recognisable characters with welcome trait twists.

Agree with @DEF about the at times awkward animation.The animation on the abdominal and verbal  communication portions of what are robots is just plain strange.

[ReturnOfTheMack]

Really enjoyed that. The nuance was surprising, as were Megatrons blowjob lips.

[Joe Blog]

Just finished MTMTE and Lost Light. What a brilliant arc that was. Going in blind and watching the characters develop was a real treat, it was funny, heartbreaking and epic in equal measure. I am a total Marvel comic fan boy (spidey, xmen, avengers etc) but that was hand on my heart the best comic I have ever read. 

[DEF]

20 minutes ago, Joe Blog said:

Just finished MTMTE and Lost Light. What a brilliant arc that was. Going in blind and watching the characters develop was a real treat, it was funny, heartbreaking and epic in equal measure. I am a total Marvel comic fan boy (spidey, xmen, avengers etc) but that was hand on my heart the best comic I have ever read. 

I've only read Lost Light Vol1 and then gone back and done the first 4 vols of MTME but I'm starting to think the same thing. I really love it. I was trying to sell it to my best mate and the best I could come up with was its basically the Battlestar Galactica of Transformers. I genuinely think it's THAT good too.