mccoyed

Thanks Garm. I think the Akuma is probably a favorite of mine too. Thanks Patrick! You should see the artwork that inspired her...

Just gorgeous. You haven't lost a step, Patrick.

Can we change corporation or are we expected to stay in the same one? Have there been significant changes to the job/role mechanics? I found that a lot of the time, the "spying/espionage/special operations" stuff was either too restricted and literal or way too vague and wide open. Too much focus on whether something should really count as a "special operation" when the exact meaning of that terminology is vague by design and was never properly defined in AG. Basically, this means I'd be reluctant to continue in that role unless it's been changed to either be very well defined or if the lack of definition that I think is inherent to it has more consistent support during judging and feedback this time around. Does this all make sense?

Thanks Titus. I always like knowing what the favorites are. :P

Thanks mrcp6d! I guess I don't quite have the Japanese flavour of Kawashita out of my system. Thanks, that's very flattering. Thanks Narb! Of course you can! I was really hoping someone would want to play in the sandbox with me. Send me a PM if you have any questions or want to has out some world-building or whatever. My overarching idea for Yureishima is that it's basically like GoH or AG in structure. There are three main factions (Red Lotus, Blue River and Green Dragon) fighting for control of the Empire. The "fourth" Nocturns/Outlaw/Alien faction is the Yokai. I actually have some story build ideas and I plan to bring a character back all the way from when I first joined GoH... That said, it can also function as its own faction, like Varlyrio. Depends how popular it is. Thanks Gun. I drew a lot of inspiration from the very colorful Japanese mythology and the wide variety of visual resources available. I hope that Snake Woman is not disqualified because I definitely think she's stretching the minifig box a bit haha.

Here is my category B submission. I know it's way early but what can I say? I'm back. Thread link, with individual "cards" for all the characters:

Folk of Historica, the Crownlands and the Guilds, allow me to introduce you to an ancient and haunted new land, the Ghost Islands of Yureishima. Yureishima is a cluster of four major islands surrounded by smaller (mostly) uninhabited isles. It is a land dominated by humans, but also filled with creatures, spirits, demons, and inhuman races almost beyond description. It is an ancient land where every rock and tree is alive, both with meaning and with the local spirits and gods that the folk of Yureishima recognize. Because the empire that has long ruled the islands has had a policy of hostility to foreign visitation, no trade or diplomacy has ever been established between Historica and Yureishima. However, times are changing and the Empire is in disarray. The Imperial Family has fallen and the cohesion of the realm has drifted into civil wars, clan feuds, and power struggles between their feudal lords, which they call "daimyo". It is possible that soon, commerce and diplomacy will be possible with the Ghost Islands, leading to a great potential for adventure, fortunes, and knowledge. Though dominated by humans, the Empire is also home to nonhuman peoples broadly referred to as "yokai". Depending on context, yokai can refer to evil demons or benevolent demigods. The yokai are not collectively organized into a political body, kingdom or otherwise, and instead live within or at the edges of human civilization. The more numerous and humanlike yokai can be exceptions, such as the oni who are orc-like in appearance and dwarf-like in industry. Other yokai are difficult to categorize, especially since many of them are said to be shapechangers and tricksters, possessing supernatural powers and mercurial, alien personalities and motivations. Whether this is true or whether these "yokai" are mortal creatures we might find familiar remains to be seen. Here is some information gathered by the few Historicans who have manages to reach Yureishima and return alive: t Builder's Note: These pictures are MUCH bigger and clearer on Flickr. Please check them out there if you want to get a little more detail. I was worried about posting overly large photos here... Group Shot: groupmastershot2 by mccoyed, on Flickr

Well... it's gonna be weird photographing 2 extras in what would usually be a 4x4 grouping. I was all finished with this when I double-checked here and saw the # is 18. I will add two more figs and reshoot my photos I guess!

Of course a CMF challenge will bring me back in a big way, but I have to ask why 18 and not the traditional 16 figs? 18 feels like a weird number, did Lego change the number in their Series releases while I wasn't paying attention?

Everybody probably thinks I'm dead but I've been working on a huge build, my biggest ever, though it unfortunately does not fit with the Castle Joust categories this year. I COULD have made it work with the Immersive Scene but I just don't have enough Lego. :P

Can you give an example because I think it is just a common mistake made even by native speakers. A lot of people will say/write "a asteroid" when they should say "an asteroid". Just one of those smaller grammar things that gets overlooked. Like "their" vs. "they're" or even the spelling of "rogue" as "rouge".

I've been gone for a long time and was slowing down before that. I've been doing an internship (becoming a high school teacher) and it's taken up most of my free time and creative energy. That said, as more or less a founding member of AG, I'll weigh in on some of the things I think about the game: We should do whatever we can to reduce gamification while still keeping AG distinct from the other role-building games. One of the things that annoyed me was the way that the game would often get in the way of stories and builds, which also affected judging. Many builders tossed out weekly vehicle/tag/bonus builds simply to be effective at the mechanics in the game. I'm with goatman about getting rid of tags altogether since cultural difference, language differences, and overly literal thinking all seemed to get in the way especially with the more loosely defined roles like "special operations". I typically ignored the theory-crafting and min/max playing of AG and did what I wanted with my builds. This meant that I wasn't as useful to my corporation even when I was a very active builder. This may have annoyed my CEOs sometimes, but I never took the "game" all that seriously and the more AG became about the game, the less I was interested in stories. It's no one's fault if builders like me felt pressure to "serve the game" by playing to mechanical benefits, but I think we should reduce this in AG2. I got tired of seeing weekly (excellent) builds that were just going through the motions to score the maximum number of points. Eventually, the game became driven by a dichotomy between the players/teams that focused heavily on "playing the game" and those who were more focused on "casual" role-building along the lines of GoH. We need to develop more baseline lore if we're going to further develop aliens and worlds. I think freedom is great, but limits also boost creativity so I'm for keeping corporate colors and actually developing more clear cultural/aesthetic/procedural differences that players will have to adhere to (or there should be consequences!). The tension between being a "company person" and going your own way should be relevant to both narrative and game-play. That way players like LucByard and myself can have our cake and eat it too. I like the idea of balkanizing the corporations that lose the game. Assuming Octan wins, Octan gets to stay its big imperial self, while the other corps should break up into smaller corps alongside more new corps introduced in AG2. That way, individual players could control their own small corps just as GoH players can be feudal lords in charge of their own mini-faction within the larger Guild structure. I think AG should work like that, and it will definitely promote "mergers" and alliances and more chaotic espionage/sabotage. The scaling you're talking about would also work well by encouraging mergers and takeovers and small inter-corporate wars. There was a lot of defensive playing in AG1 and I'd like to see more action and boldness in AG2. If we stick to the big corporate faction system of AG1, I think the aliens should get wise to the corporate warfare paradigm that humans brought to Andromeda and they should found their own alliance of alien species as a new fourth corporation. It makes sense to me that the aliens of Andromeda would start to organize given some of the big events of AG1. If we want to maintain the factions of AG1, it makes sense because it'll give players who prefer less strict faction-based rules to play Alien because there will be looser cultural/aesthetic/procedural standards due to the variety within the group. Turnover needs to be reduced in faction leaders, staff, and judges. It seems like that smoothed out eventually but there was a time when there were new leaders every week, it seemed like, and new judges too. There needs to be a little more stability and accountability. Some other members have already made suggestions about how faction leaders can minimize their biases when judging. I think this problem should be taken seriously so that judging isn't such a bone of contention in AG2. I'm not sure how to tackle turnover since this is a hobby and people have lives or they get burnt out or move on to other things.

Excellent GARC. Very alien compared to a lot of the designs we've seen so far.

That roof is awesome. It may take some time/work but you should try and get some kinda background together for your pics. That way, all that stands out is your build.

One of the best builds from Kali and that's saying something since I think Kali has some of the best builders out there!

Thanks Bossk. I will be sure to try and add that to future builds.

Great parts choices here. Those gates on the sides are inspired.

Thanks. Was definitely going for a helicopter-ish look. I'm not super satisfied with the design though. Will have to come up with some excuse to scrap it and give Blue a hotter ride.

Love the pics.

Great story. Hat's off.

Love how compact this is. I also like the black color scheme.

Very cool. Reminds me of classic flying cars, the spinners from Blade Runner, and Speed Racer all at the same time.

This thing is awesome. Looks like no one would be able to drive it.

Really dig the black ship. Nice style. Interiors and figging are great too.

Awesome. So much going on here. I really like the manta ray hats.