Kodan Black

I've said I was an Interceptor pilot since the beginning and it seems fine. I'd say Interceptor, fighter, and bomber are all at the same level.

Of the last 25 freebuild threads there were 14 total comments by non-SoNE participants. And most of those were of the "looks cool" variety. I personally would be fine with losing those in order to make it easier on the SoNE participants to find and comment on them. Over 156 comments in those threads. So basically over 90% of comments come from SoNE participants.

I do wish we had a SoNE freebuild subforum. The main SW forum tends to move pretty quickly so I feel like the freebuilds are moved off very quickly. It doesn't help when some new member signs up and spams 20 3-year old threads with "What a great build!" The whole point of freebuilds is to further our character's story and gain feedback from other builders so we improve. If I have to hope that within the first couple hours I get all the comments I am going to get it is discouraging. And honestly I don't think most members not doing SoNE care that much about our freebuilds. Generalized SW MOCs are of interest but few freebuilds tie back to movies/shows and therefore they aren't going to really understand what they are about or feel connected to my character's progression. If I'm honest the current setup feels like freebuilds are just about points because there is so little feedback and people aren't likely to go hunting for those specific threads. And while getting more points is part of the game, I don't spend days of time thinking about the build, the story, etc. just to get a few points. I'd rather have feedback so I can learn new techniques and improve. If we can't do sub-sub-forums we could easily put it at the same level as Watto's Junkyard.

I love Archer. Great translation from the show to Lego and the minifigs are also very spot on. I especially love that you included Babou, as I love whenever he makes an appearance.

I'm fairly in the same boat, my supplies of Tatooine colored parts basically fits in my hand. I'm going to attempt a very small build as a "yep he is on Tatooine" shot, and then do some interior "warehouse" type of builds. You could certainly do a shot of a bar or the like as there is no requirement that it be tan colored, bars can have all kinds of interiors! So you could do a shot of a bar interior setting up meeting the pod racer and then if you wanted to do your engine delivery you could do that in the racer's warehouse/garage. Ideally the pod racer isn't all gray (though bare metal is that color), so hopefully you have enough color variation to at least give it some flair. You also don't have to build the entire pod racer, you could have it be in parts as it is being built; hence the need for the engine!

It will be interesting to see if our hours of work come to fruition. We've compiled the rankings based on past episodes, so aside from new faces we have a pretty good notion of a mathematically projected order.

I'm working with Goatman to try and get the sheet sharing properly, then I can pass the link around.

A really brilliant build. The non-standard 90 degree angle is a very cool feature. Love the action feeling from the whole thing and the shots from the turbolasers, even down to them being different based on their timing within the scene. Excellent representation of the death star too. I'd say this goes beyond a MOC and treads into art territory.

Incredible building, looks so real! The moss (vines?) growing up the side was a lovely and subtle touch. Love the pathway work too. Can't wait to see the interior.

I've got a Google doc spreadsheet already for the Empire with some info. My main issue is that if I post it in "view" mode then only I can update it which means we discuss it here. If I put it into "edit" mode that allows anyone to make changes and they can do so without telling anyone. One thing I thought of that maybe tweaks things such that there are fewer concerns is what if we had the normal Episode contest and everyone did their builds. Then the betting phase takes place AFTER the episode but before the judges post. That way nothing can change and it won't matter if each side sees the other's entries. I know this kind of gets into a touchy space as it requires talk about quality of people's builds, but I'm not sure how feasible it is to keep the betting discussion outside the other faction's view.

Ok, wow. Even compounding the number has virtually no impact on the rankings. Given that, I would suggest we simply use the straight rankings unless there are individual tweaks we feel are needed.

Interestingly when I added a bias factor it actually didn't really alter the standings. I did .1 deduction for every episode participated in beyond 1. It had no impact. At .15 deduction 1 player moved 1 spot. I'm not sure if I can do compounding additions in Excel, I'll have to Google it. But what may help is to do .1 for the first beyond 1, .15 for the 2nd, etc. The one thing to keep in mind with them seeing our bids (which they will be able to do eventually anyway since we have to post it) is that it still requires them to build something and have it judged. So if we put Player X as first place, in order for them to impact that they need to have Player X do worse than someone else per the judges decision. So if they game the system too much they'll lose on points for the main competition and they would need to correctly predict how the judges would rank them anyway.

Isn't Sept 4th the date they all come out?

Sorry, I meant past participation. For example: the top 3 ranked Empire builders have 2 past episodes, 2 past episodes, and 1 past episode respectively. So #4 having all 6 episodes I reviewed participated in makes their standing stronger as the average is from more sources. I wonder if we need to come up with a "bias factor" to alter the standings with something like <50% participation having a penalty.

Ok, I just re-read the goals and realized we predict our own faction too. I only compiled the Rebel data. I'll have to add in the Empire data also and update the sheet. Ok, Empire data compiled. I'm not sure how we want to handle participation as it influences results. Obviously it makes the data point less reliable as we have builders that have a first place finish and an 11th place finish. So some of the top Empire builders are ones that have few Episodes they've been in, but they also happen to be talented builders. But let me know what you all want to do about the data. I've got it in Excel right now but I also have it in Google docs in viewable format.

But they won't re-release the same model. Even if they release another special, limited edition MF that isn't the same model. So it won't impact the "specialness" of the one you have. It would only matter if they decided to release the same model in the same exact box.

This is how it goes in any industry. You buy a new car and next year's model has more features. You buy a new camera and next years has more megapixels. If you bought something expecting it to be the last version ever produced you shouldn't have bought something from a mass market toy company. Unless TLG goes out of business, there is always a chance they release a better version down the road, when you factor in it being a lynchpin of the SW property it only makes it far more likely they release a new version.

Good story and some nice action with the blaster bolts and flames. I also like the landing platform the freighter is on. The freighter is well designed and certainly has an Empire feel to it! Nice to see you even included a nifty interior! I'm not sure what the white square is beside the door to the platform though. And I wish the shots were a bit wider at points, like in the 3rd picture you can see some details on the extreme left like the yellow topped pipe, but you can't really see much of it. Strong build overall!

I really like this build. The story feels "real" and after reading through I felt like I'd seen an episode of some show. There is a lot of good action and I think the pictures really enhance the story. The night shots are cool and generally speaking the lighting is top notch. The tracks as fencing is a good idea and the disheveled interior with lots of detailing is superb. Also love the mini-TIE bomber and the fact that there are so many shots!

Ok, so I went ahead and did Episodes 2-7. 2 episodes had very small participation (3 entries for Ep 5 and 5 entries for Ep 7). So some of the datapoints aren't super accurate because people entered 1 contest and got a certain ranking, but I also looked at consistency (how many episodes entered) in order to come up with the rankings. Not sure if I should post it publicly or if we should do something else. Let me know what the general consensus is. Edit: Did Ep 2 also to improve data.

I can compile an Excel spreadsheet of the past 4 episodes and the Rebel positions. Once we do that we'll have to identify any new players and determine where they fit.

So for the betting competition does it not make the most sense to look at the past 3-4 episodes and average each player's position to see their most likely predictive outcome? I know past results don't mean that is where they will end up in the future, but this seems like the most logical path. We would then have to make individual determinations for any ties and new players.

I think you have to put it in perspective. We get sick of the same thing over and over when there are other ships they could add to the lineup. Plus overall I think we get bored of the same stuff because there hasn't been a new movie in a while. So in a couple years when we are awash in new movie based sets, the redesigns will be fine since they will be more of a "side dish" instead of being the "main course".

I don't think any of us are really supposed to be pilots since nearly all of us are human: "The Empire's goal and the Alliance's goal is to depict their character trying to infiltrate the Black Sun's ranks by recruiting a racer / sabotaging a pod / helping to build a pod / move in the illegal betting circuit / hire Tusken raiders ... However, keep in mind that humans cannot pilot pod racers!" I believe we are supposed to be influencing the race more so than participating in it.

I love the foliage, water and forced perspective. I've been waiting for the continuation of your story! You have some great action shots with the ship. My one issue with the ship is the size. It doesn't seem big enough to hold 2 humans and a wookie in the cargo hold. Typically you wouldn't have cargo on the ramp, so if you look at the size of the ramp that cargo hold would be more Yoda sized than Chewbacca sized. I like the shape of the ship, it really conjures an image of its namesake. I just wish it was maybe 33% bigger. I also love the callback to last episode with the hammer. And the story continues to be compelling and leaving me wanting to know more! I think you did a great job making the limited color palette work and complement each other.