Big Sal

Welcome to AG! You don't need to wait, post whenever you're ready

This just keeps getting better. I can't wait to see it when its finished Incidentally, how did I miss that you finally joined EB? I expect you to sign up for MANTIS any day now

Location: B05 Marphacia Tags: Land Vehicle, Science Note to judges: Only the scenes with the swamp speeder should be judged, the rest re-use my build from last week. I’m just worried after what happened last time. Ah, but last time we didn’t have the expert advice of Ensign Stevens. He’s part of Moose’s team so he’s up to date with all their latest findings. Isn’t that right, Stevens? Err, well… Excellent! Plus, I’ve completely redesigned the stabiliser architecture. Speaking of which, where the hell is Redsyn with the last stabiliser? I’ll give him a call. Redsyn! Where are you? I'm having a little difficulty with the natives. Well, hurry up, will you? I’m getting bored here. Yeah, I’ll try. Some time later… ...and I usually play as Mitgardia. Redsyn! What’s the hold up? Trouble with the locals. Still?! Different ones this time. Unbelievable. Right, let’s just go ahead with three stabilisers. What?? It’ll be fine. We almost had it right last time with four stabilisers, but these new ones are a lot stronger. We could probably even manage with two. What do you think, Stevens? Err, well… Exactly! Norton, activate the stabilisers. Activating stabilisers! Sal, I just did some calculations, and going from fourfold to threefold stabilisation symmetry is likely to decrease the discontinuity threshold by at least seven orders of magnitude! Good point! Norton, only initialise the GATE drive once Stevens and I are a safe distance away. I promised Moose I’d get Stevens back to him in one piece. Wait, what?? Initialising GATE drive! --- To be continued! Thanks for reading, C&C welcome! The build below is the new stuff for this week. More pics of the speeder in the spoiler.

There seems to be a widespread issue with uploading pictures to flickr at the minute. It's been going on for at least a few hours. It might be fixed by the time most of you start posting, but if it's still an issue later, please just make your post as best as you can and let us know that some/all pictures are missing. We'll wait until you're able to upload them before judging.

Location: B05 Marphacia Tags: Science Are you sure this will work? Oh, yeah, totally. Moose’s team has been messing around with this stuff for a while. They’re off testing it out near Donwarr as we speak. You mean it hasn’t been tested yet? Uh… it probably has? I kinda just skimmed Fields’s notes: superpositions, n-dimensional singularities, certain death, blah blah blah. Anyway, I figured if we can create a stable hollow GATE field around a ship, the field should transport all incoming or outgoing signals through the GATE, meaning that the ship will be undetectable. But couldn’t we wait until Moose’s team has finished their tests first? And let them get all the credit? No chance! GATE stabilisers equalised at 100% Sal. Excellent. Ok, you ready Walker? I guess…? Ugh, it stinks here Sal. Why did we have to do this in the middle of a swamp on a planet we haven’t even settled yet? Blame Chief Accountant Long. I wanted to do this on Torresta but Long got all upset about it just because the risk assessment said there was a small chance of a catastrophic Rhumkopf discontinuity. She insisted we do it out here where no one will notice if we implode a continent. What was that?! Nothing! Fire it up! It worked! We can’t see her! Err… but shouldn’t we not be able to see the GATE drive too? Hmmm… Switch off the drive and see if she comes back. Nooo! Where is she?? Calm down. She probably ended up in a parallel universe or something. I’m marking this down as a success! What?? Well, the aim was to make her undetectable. Norton, can you detect her? Er… no… Exactly! Success! Now, who wants to go next? Thanks for reading! C&C welcome! Make sure you check out the spoiler

Oops, how could I forget that?! Added

First, I'd just like to say thanks to all the players and staff for creating this awesome world for us all to build in I've been looking over the stats for the first year, and here are some of my findings: Congratulations are in order for Pombe, who is the only member to have built every single week so far, and to also have entered every category of every challenge SpacerSteve and Kodan have also done the same, except they didn't join until Week 2 and Week 3 respectively. So congratulations to them as well! Unless I've missed something somewhere, it looks like the only other player to have entered every category of every challenge is... uh... me Though EpsilonEta came close! Counting only players with more than 5 weekly builds, the top 5 players by average score so far are: 1. shmails: 13 builds, average score 5.38 2. Bob: 13 builds, average score 5.15 3. Sal: 29 builds, average score 5.14 4. Andrew JN: 9 builds, average score 5.00 5. StarHawk3: 30 builds, average score 4.97 (From which we can learn that it pays to be a judge . But let's all try to either get shmails back to the game, or knock him off the top spot!) Finally, I'll leave you with pictures of the nine builds that managed to score a perfect 7 in this first year. Special mention should go to David FNJ, who managed to drop three(!) 7s in the space of 2 months! So far, no one has managed to score a perfect 10 for a competition build - consider that a challenge for year 2! Battle on Guinevere, by David FNJ: Mission S-F02, by David FNJ: Do I Really Want to Know What That Is?, by Lady K: Sorn Sabotage, by David FNJ: The Ancient God of Jurin II - part 1, by Aliencat: Experiment L6C10, by Big Sal (judges must have been drunk ): The Palinurus, by Ecclesiastes: I am the Turtle Pt. 3, by SpacerSteve: Hostile environment exploration, by Bob De Quatre: And since we're ending with Bob's beautiful build, special thanks to Bob for building the game and doing so much behind the scenes to keep it running :thumbup:

Nice build! I like how you did the water - it looks great! Glad to see the General does things by the book

This is great! The plot thickens! Now I really want to know what happened to Leone Jr and what his research was! I really like the spaceships at the start too

Poor FAPPIE! That expression! I didn't get time to comment on your build last week, so I'll say this week that I really love Alan Bobby Jonny's brick built body Wait, not like that!

Wow, this is great! Welcome back! I really like the drill! Everything about it is wonderful! In fact, you could even say I dig it I've been trying to come up with a cool drill design for a while, but you've beaten me to it! --- Judging mode: I don't know if you were trying to claim the speeder as an air vehicle (i.e. spaceship)? Speeders usually count as land vehicles.

Great lighting effects!

Great job on the table, especially the black part where the laser has burnt through

Took me a second to realise the yellow and black pattern was brick built and not a sticker - it looks great! I really like the wheels too

I can only echo the praise for the lamp and open drawer - perfect!

I wonder if Brik will be getting a fancy new Kawashita cybernetic leg, or will a poor redshirt be donating one of theirs?

Thanks everyone! It's good to have Sal actually doing some 'science' for once I can't take any credit for the GATE drive - I mostly stole it from woofmcmoose

I like the shaping on the spaceship

Earlier that night... This started off pretty hard, but the more I drink the better I get! I'll be ready to hit the clubs in no time! I'll just have a couple more bottles and then I'll head out...

Oh man, I thought I was rich!

110 credits to Hawk please!

Ok, should be fixed now. Because of a glitch MKJoshA's build got counted twice, instead of yours. This is what happens when I try to do the scores Bob will have to deduct credits from MKJoshA when he gets back!

Location: C03 Torresta "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this airborne tour of the M.A.N.T.I.S. Volcanic Research Centre. I'm sure most of you arrived here today by taking the monorail east out to this outlying area of The Core. This volcano is one of many that provide geothermal power for The Core, and you can see two power stations at the foot of the volcano, to the west of the main landing tower. The pipelines you see leaving the power stations provide both power and water to settlements all over Torresta! To the east of the landing tower you can see a large building with four biodomes. This is where M.A.N.T.I.S. scientists use the natural underground heat to research rapid plant growth. One day soon you may be eating vegetables grown in as little as a few hours using techniques discovered here! The four buildings you see in a row at the front of the centre are various laboratories. On the roofs you can see amplified radar, solar panels, a greenhouse and a landing pad. These laboratories are personally overseen by Big Sal, M.A.N.T.I.S.'s Chief Scientist! Oh! Speaking of which! Look down on the platform of Volcano Monorail Station. Unless I'm very much mistaken, that's Big Sal himself, talking to an elderly lady. What a treat for you all!" Thanks for reading! Didn't think I'd have time for this, but managed to throw something together Unrendered version in the spoiler. C&C welcome!

Location: C03 Torresta I still don't see why we have to stop at this research centre of yours. I'm not interested in volcanoes. For the last time, Mom, I just need to pick something up from my flat upstairs. Then we'll get back on a train to The Core. Hmmmph. Alright, well, let's get on with it. No, you stay down here. I'll get someone to bring you a coffee and then I'll be right back down. Larry, get my mother a drink, would you? And do not let her come upstairs under any circumstances, ok? Yes sir! If I don't kill her by the end of her visit it'll be a miracle... Now, where did I leave that thing...? Here you go, ma'am. Our house speciality! Young man, there appears to be a large maggot in that drink. Yes ma'am! A fresh cup of larva java, on the house! ... ... ... ... ... It's very small in here. What the...? Damn it Larry! Your brother's flat is much larger than this. I already told you, this is just a crash pad for when I'm at the Volcanic Research Centre. I'm the First Branch Executive of M.A.N.T.I.S! I have an executive apartment in The Core, quarters on all our capital ships, and a whole mansion on Linopeia III! Yes, I was talking about your brother's crash pad on Earth. It's much bigger than this. What?? He can't possibly afford property on Earth! Oh yes he can. He's very successful. But he's never too busy to remember my birthday, unlike some people. Oh boy... His wife is lovely too. Isn't it about time you were getting married? Ugh, could this day get any worse?? Oh good, the coffee guy said you'd be up here. Damn it Larry! What do you want, Long? I just came here to tell you that you've been demoted to Second Branch Executive. Who's this? WHAT?! I'm his mother, unfortunately. Well, well, well... Your brother's never been demoted. It's just promotion after promotion for him, and... Sal, what the hell have you been eating? This looks disgusting. Oh, he's always eaten badly. I remember when I first took him to... Please let this be some kind of horrible dream... --- Thanks for reading! C&C welcome! The photos didn't come out quite as well as I wanted, but I've been at the Yorkshire Brick Show all day, and all day tomorrow, so they'll have to do. More below. Tracks and platform removed to show the landscape below: The basement of the station, where Larry goes to avoid difficult customers: A difficult customer, and the coffee preparation area: Sal's crash pad: Top view: Front view to finish:

The challenge is now closed! Thanks for all the great entries! For Cat A I count: 4 Octan entries 4 Kawashita entries 6 MANTIS entries And for Cat B: 3 Octan entries 2 Kawashita entries 6 MANTIS entries Scores will be up as soon as possible