vynsane

This may have been said already, but I was looking at the set names again and it appears that it's split half and half between featuring a major "bug" vehicle or major "squad" vehicle (with a smaller vehicle for whichever faction isn't the 'featured' one). In my estimation, the sets are split thusly: 70700 Space Swarmer: "bugs" 70701 Swarm Interceptor: "squad" 70702 Warp Stinger: "bugs" 70703 Space Mantis: "bugs" 70704 Vermin Vaporizer: "squad" 70705 Bug Obliterator: "squad"

I don't think the 'boxy' nature is that big a problem - what I do think is that the exterior is very plain and homogenized. It doesn't necessarily need to be over-greebled, the amount that you have is understated and well-done. But you could easily vary the weight of the studs in some places on the long sides, and also stack up plates in areas for a bit of variety and contrast. Angled and straight plates with a bold color can be used for accent stripes, and those 4x4 plates with four studs and 4x6 plates with studs along three edges can be used to mimic riveted hull plating. Additionally, the 4x4 and 4x6 triple wedge pieces can break up long straight runs with some curves. One builder who excels in the "studded hull plates facing out" is nate_daly over at Flickr - check out some of his bulkier ships. He has a knack for studs-out hull construction that's not too repetitive.

If it's going to be another cargo hauler like this one, I could see some sort of crane or manipulator arm on rails above or below the container area, for loading/unloading. I also think the engines could/should be larger - it's going to be hauling a lot of cargo, after all. There are also opportunities for some understated greebles, like on those 2x4 plates in the rear of the engine pods.

I don't know if I can pick out a single "worst. set. EVAR" but I will say that both Space Police 2 and Blacktron 2 were major disappointments to me in comparison to their predecessors. As much as I loved the designs and color schemes for both SP1 and BT1 so did I loathe their descendants. It was not long after their release that I went into my "dark ages".

These are very cool, nicely done! I like the shot depicting the variable weaponry options.

Nice! It has that very utilitarian feel to it, completely bare-bones (which seems to be the point, so mission accomplished!)

^ It's best to type a space before and after the word or ID you're searching for - it acts as an 'exact match' search, whereas just typing in a string of characters without a space before and after will more likely result in a 'contains these characters' search.

Interesting... I guess I've always had these options on, since I've always had PNG screenshots output with a transparent background. Frankly I dislike the limited, rather silly looking backgrounds that come in LDD by default, so I appreciate the transparency - but to each their own.

I think the talk of orange and lime was originally (at least on my part) excitement about having Classic Space-style figures in those colors since we've already had white, blue, red, yellow and black - the discussion then turned towards assuming the over-all color scheme would be orange and lime, but going back to the original description, that's probably the color scheme for two different spaceships out of the entire lineup - a primarily lime one with a lime-colored pilot and a primarily orange one with an orange-colored pilot.

I'm surprised that these two weren't added in the newest release (and also surprised they're not in here already):

It seemed to work fine for Classic Space...

To be honest, I've not used it in quite some time and it's quite possible that it won't recognize a lot of the newer parts and colors.

This was actually what I was thinking too - some sort of team of intergalactic spacefaring heroes or something. Maybe a little Thunderbirds thrown in for good measure. Of course, had I been in on the planning meetings, I would have suggested an over-the-top name like "Super Galaxy Squad 6000" or something.

Cool stuff. "Ice Tunnelator" makes me think of Dr. Doofenshmirtz on Phineas and Ferb!

There's also a Java program called Brickhelper, which I've used in the past. It can generate an XML file that's compatible with BrickLink "want list" bulk upload format. I've used it because LDD Manager is Windows-only and I'm on Mac. The program can be DL'd here. Scroll down the page a bit, it's like the third or fourth item.

Interesting... While I'm a bit disappointed that we won't be seeing Galaxy Patrol style armor, I'm digging the idea of a new generation of multicolor spacemen/women, especially the prospect of orange and lime, since we already have ADU blue and CMF white and pink. Hopefully we get hair AND helmets for each figure (probably wishful thinking). If we do, it would be fantastic to get some oddly colored hair, like blue or pink etc sort of like ExoForce but different styles. This also means that the Space Marines CUUSOO project might not be given the thumbs-down (due to competing with another theme, as could easily be the case here) after all - they might produce it as a sort-of add-on to Galaxy Squad.

Outputting HTML instructions also generates a part list at the end, same as the instruction booklets in sets.

Great MOC and wonderful presentation!

The user-defined palettes is a nice start - ultimately I would like more robust versions of the palettes we have now, like the ability to sub-categorized the 'Templates' palette. I had a few crashes on the same system setup (MacBook Pro, Lion) yesterday morning, but nothing more recently. I save all my work directly to my DropBox folder, and haven't changed that, so I'm not sure that's the issue.

Hrm... I'll have to see them to make my final judgement, but I'm not really too fond of Insectoids - it came out after I entered my dark age and still doesn't appeal to me. BUT, the past two Space themes really caught my imagination (Space Police III is the main reason behind my emergence from my dark age) so I don't anticipate disliking this theme.

So, were these pieces always in LDD? I think I would have come across them by now... The top piece is used in the new Gungan Sub, but the bottom hasn't been seen since 2003... If they're new, is this a hint at the rumored Space theme for next year???

Woah, there are some wild shapes going on here!

Sounds similar to how minifig heads behaved with the torso neck stem before they shortened the design of the stem.

I wonder if there are any sneak peek pieces in this update, like the two inverted brackets that showed up in LDD 4.2.5 long before they were released in actual sets... EDIT: Also, I thought it was odd that my ears were burning since February...

All I can say is WOOT! EDIT: Now that I've opened LDD and installed the update, now all I can say is I LOVE THE NEW PIECE CATEGORIES!!!