Hey guys, we’ve been getting a lot of feedback on the approvals system since it opened, and a lot of people are feeling frustrated by the strictness of masterlist art approvals. We hear you, and we have some thoughts on improving the experience for everybody.

The main reason we have been so strict on masterlist art, is because the masterlist is the place most people go to see what traits and mutations look like. This puts us in an awkward position of knowing if we let things slide it’s likely to slowly push mutations, tail lengths, etc, further and further away from the standard Mana has set forth. We’ve been grappling with how to make approvals less of a pain without pushing Elnin traits and mutations in a direction Mana may not want.

Here is our plan moving forward:

• We’ll do our best to be more flexible on design approvals
• Guides and encyclopedia entries will continue to be fleshed out to give more details on traits as well as the best examples of the trait we can find (example: Starlit Anima)
• We’re still in the process of updating our resources, but as they are updated they will be the main point of reference for traits and mutations.

What you can help us with:

• Send in sketches for approvals before final art. We continue to get complaints when we request changes on final art, even though we received nothing leading up to it. Please save yourself and ourselves some pain and send in a sketch first.
  • This is not a requirement. It's up to you how you want to work, as long as you are able to make any adjustments needed. Just a strong recommendation - especially if you are newer to Elnin or are commissioning someone not super familiar with the species.
• If we let you know a trait or mutation is out of line and needs changes please do not go “yeah but this elnin has this! [link]”. We do our best to be consistent but we are human and inevitably there are going to be inconsistencies. Designs approved in the past don’t guarantee future approvals. It is fine to point out inconsistencies with the resources that may need to be fixed, but please do so in a separate support ticket.
• Please encourage your fellow community members to use the correct resources for reference (Guides linked in the Directory of Resources, and the Trait and Mutation encyclopedia). If people are pointing to outliers in the masterlist warn them that it should not be considered a proper reference and to follow the official resources.

We know getting things off the ground has had its share of bumps, and we appreciate everyone for working with us and letting us know how they are feeling. We hope this clears up the reasoning behind our approach to Design Approvals. We will do our best to make getting your designs approved more fun and less of a headache (it hasn’t exactly been a barrel of laughs for us either). We ask that you keep working with us and do what you can to make the process smoother such as sending in WIPs and pointing new members in the right direction.

Thanks again for the patience of everyone who has sent in design approvals so far, and to those who have provided polite and thoughtful feedback. We ask that you continue to have patience with your approvals since the mod team are volunteers, our schedules vary, and we juggle a lot of things. Thank you!