Elostirion

That's actually a fantastic point. Trade Values of the old world capitals seem inappropriately low in comparison. They probably should reflect the whole region (and thus be multitudes higher). Maybe @Bregir has some clever ideas to incorporate some benefits for transporting goods between the two worlds in a future revision of the MRCA?

And they call Terraversa the gate to the east? This map clearly shows that Nova Terreli on Nellisa is the one and only true gate to the Colonial World. :-) Fantastic map, thanks for your work on this one.

The sloped cracked wall towards the water is absolutely amazing. Might be the best quay I have seen in BoBS. And more beautiful details stand out: The creative attachment of the rounded windows outside the actual building, looks fantastic (especially with the trans-yellow behind), the rider statue, and the water. this water... WOW!

Well done, the posing of the statue is quite fantastic. Great work!

Incredible, stunning. I assume this is the best MOC I have seen from you so far. Marvellous! What is that outside the window? Brickbuilt landscape? Playing mat? Some random colours? Printed on paper? Looks perfect! The arched window, the furniture, the billard table, the aceessories, the vividness of the room, the hatrack (brilliant!!), the maps at the wall - so many outstanding details. Just fantastic!

Will try to do a quick how-to next weekend. If you haven't heard back on this from me within the next two weeks, please give me a reminder. :-) Thank you, "texture king" sounds great. Always looking to improve, and I feel especially wall-texturing can always be done even a slight bit better. How-to of the wall will follow next weekend. Thank you, and happy to see you like them all: story, MOC in general and all the minor details. :-) The cheese-slope technique is 100% stolen from @Bregir's Ball of King's Harbour; they might look slightly different there, as they are below arches in Bregir's MOC, and carry weight in mine, yet still his idea. Thanks for all the kind words, will look to not disappoint. Thanks. :-)

Very nice scene - story and MOC go hand-in-hand, which I love. Really like the design of the clothing dolls, the empty one is a great detail. Most outstanding part to me are the windows with the curtains, those look fantastic. Great work, looking forward to see your story progress further.

I have just gone ahead and done it the way I wanted to; please let me know if that is fine. Thanks.

After challenge 5, the Fontonajos have added further properties to their estates in Jameston (microbuilds to activate challenge rewards): C) Medium Plantation: Bees & Honey (hope this counts as a micro build; if it does not please let me know, and I will license this as a small plantation and come up with a real micro) The Myzec of Cascadia collect honey from wild bees as a sweetener for their foods and drinks on special occasions. Celestia, as the neighbouring island, has even more biological diversity. The businessmen they are known for, the Fontonajos have decided to have some honey bees imported from the old world, to recreate the excquisite in a controlled environment near Jameston on Celestia - and potentially the wild bees of the island might be attracted and both types of bees - if they are different in the first place - might interbreed eventually? B) Large Educational Property: Botanical Gardens In the rapidly growing settlement of Jameston on the island of Celestia, Juan Alfonso Fontonajo has opened a small Botanical Garden to display the wonderful flora of the island that he and others have discovered on their adventures deep into the jungle covered mountains of Celestia. A) Large Property of my choice: Cotton Plantation Near Jameston the Juan Fontonajo has setup a cotton plantation - and with the help of Corrish scientists has come up with an innovative irrigation system. In the middle of the concentric fields there is a well, and water is pumped up from that well into a very long tube that ranges all over the field, to automatically irrigate the whole width of the field. An ox is walking circles around the well all day to turn the tube, which is placed on stakes with wheels at the bottom - and the whole field is irrigated. Will that new technological advancement spread over all the Brick Seas?

Very nice little scene, the dragons above the door work wonderfully - really Oleander, this scene, looks amazing.

Rule question: Is there a difference between "micro scale build", "microbuild" and "micro build"? Or in other words: Does a micro have to be micro scale? Or can it be just a small part of a whole building, e.g. one hotel room in normal scale of a large hotel with 20 rooms, or one apple tree to present a whole large plantation of apples? In category C (free medium plantation) I do have just sth. like a cutout from a larger plantation scene, but in normal scale, and am not sure whether that counts. If you need an image just let me know.

Really well done, on both outside and inside. Those cracked plates add a lot, clever use. Nice to see the Sinbad-saga continue.

Oh yeah! I didn't expect these results at all. Really happy right now - thanks! Congratulations to all other winners, and thanks a lot to Ayrlego, Corrington and all judges for hosting this challenge. I enjoyed the search for the orchid a lot. I do agree. Category A could have used a broader variety of prices for more participants. However everyone who entered here did benefit, winning or not, because it was an EGS property. But yes, large-medium-small or medium-small-som DBs might have been better. Might even have been creative, like trading benefits, MRCA benefits in Jameston, etc. I wholeheartedly disagree! Who forced you to build jungle? Did the category? I don't think so. Inside a cave, inside the ruins, at a lake, under the surface of a lake, at a barren mountainslope, a snowy mountaintop, a dried out vale, a plain landscape within a volcano crater with hot steam destroying all plants, inside the temple ruins - so many options which don't need a single plant. Sure, jungle was the most easy and maybe most appropriate, but by far not the only option. Regarding parts: That is a general problem. The more parts you have, the more options for great MOCs you have. The better your digicam and your photosetup, and also your editing-skills, the better your presentation. And so on. Every challenge will have this. And even if it was a pure jungle category, I think almost everyone here would have had some plant parts and could have participated. I think it makes total sense to setup a base camp on Celestia. I agree that it might have been another settlement on Celestia, but the Corrish designers of the challenge decided to give Jameston some love. Why not? I don't think it's unfair, all three other factions will have the same chance in the future. Also I think it's some great lore. In the real world cities developed during gold rushes for example, Jameston will always be remembered as the town of the orchid rush. Also most of us build in our own towns anyway, and being forced to MOC somewhere else, something else, is what challenges are good for, right? Noone is forced to participate. I really don't get why this feels so unfair to you? Agreed, that would have been great. I'd even say a price for the best "non-Corrish" faction. I agree, this has always been a problem of BoBS: People in leadership are full of amazing ideas, and then lack the time to execute them. Which is fully understandable, however I agree with Drunknok: Just don't announce it in the first place. However I'd call to everyone: YOU may take this as a chance to draw this map, based on the challenge results? I agree, communication could have been better here. But did it have any negative impacts on the game? I don't think so... So basically you don't like my MOCs, I get it, and that's fine. But obviously the judges did like them. Everyone may have their personal opinion. I find it a bit weird, though, to take your personal opinion and question the whole judging - which has always been done by a group - based on it. So basically your opinion (as a player who is rather new to the game) is more valuable than the combined and agreed upon opinion of the group of people who have been here from the start and lead the game? I don't think so at all! A) I think that Gideon's entry is the best MOC in general MOCing quality (challenged only by Kai's entry in this regard), and comes along with a fantastic presentation - definitely one of those outstanding MOCs that deserve to be frontpaged. However a tavern is not a unique idea (like Kai's or I guess mine too), which is absolutely fine, but which I guess might have been a deciding factor for judging, seeing the first two places? Also I think that Gideon's entry does not match the style of Jameston very well. It might be any city in the Brick Seas, but Jameston had a style suggested before the challenge, and I could not recognise too many elements of this style in Gideon's MOC. Which does not take anything away from its quality as a MOC, but if I had been a judge this would have been the very reason I would not hvae voted for it as a winner. Also I'd say with a straight face to you that while Mike's entry is amazing, I feel that Kai's entry is definitely better in regards to MOC quality, idea, presentation and storyline (not so much in matching Jameston style). I personally would have voted for Bregir's entry, btw., I personally think this was by far the best entry. Also Kai had great characters and amazing descriptions, and I remember I got a lot of positive comments for my characters, so I guess they were well done - might have been a judging factor as well. We just do not know, so please do not say that one entry is "better" than another - because in some regard it is, and in some it is not. B) Your comment "enough to build a sloped mountain and place some prefab animals" makes it sound as if it was no effort to build my MOC. Let me tell you: it was. An earlier version lacked a lot of detail and quality, and with some feedback from others I tore down most of the mountain again, just to add some round 1x1 plates and some vines to it (which was then completed about 19 days later, so I did take my time). I placed a lot of emphasis on details, for example I researched treelines to decide which kind of vegetation to use, and many, many hours went into this MOC. And prefab animals almost always - unless from some masterbuilders - look better than brickbuilt ones (which are usually really cool, though). I have failed horribly in the past at brickbuilding animals. So why is my choice for prefabs bad? But anyway: Just don't presume this was not a lot of effort, because it was! Overall I think category B was the lowest of the three regarding general MOC quality (I thought so even during the challenge). There were no true master-entries like Gideon's category C. There was a lot of great scientific exploration stories, presenting plants, animals and other details (and that's what the detail categories are here for, and I would definitely have declined all prices in those!) - but really not so many great overall MOCs in regards to MOC quality, presentation, etc. (i.e. frontpage material) - in my opinion. I personally think that my own category B entry was one of my personal worst MOCs during the last year (not that I didn't try, I just couldn't get it to work out 100% the way I wanted to), and definitely did not expect to win here, but obviously the judges think it was the best entry for their criteria - and I think this decision can be justified, comparing it to the other entries. The same can be said for Bregir's entry. Also as you can see by your entries placing second and third - every entry was judged individually, and placed individually, so in regards to winning overall it did not matter whether you had submitted 1 or 5 entries. Which single entry do you think should have won, and why? C) Hard to dispute Gideon's outstanding entry, at least we seem to agree here. Regarding 2nd and 3rd: Order of those three can definitely be debated, to me they are all quite on the same level. I have looked through all other cat C. entries and I couldn't find any entry that is, in my opinion, better than any of the three from Mike, Bregir and myself. So what exactly makes it so incomprehensible for you? Also I don't think all decisions have to be justified. Judges don't explain why they chose Miss Corrington over Miss Oleon in the vote for Miss Brick Seas (unless it's a TV show which gains its only interest from the conversations of the celebrity judges, but that's not the case here...). Just take it as it is, enjoy your wins and learn from your losses. And don't forget: It's all about having fun with a great hobby, right?

Thank you, and you are right about the wall technique. :-) I saw a similar technique from someone on flickr some months ago, though I couldn't find the MOC anymore. So the general idea is not my invention anway - looking forward to seeing you use it! And I only found out about the existence of the olive green masonry bricks from Gideon's entry to cat C of the "recent" orchid challenge. So I ordered some, and have already used them here. Thank you for all the nice words. :-)) Thank you - glad you like the pillars, I wasn't 100% sure about them but decided to like them in the end. Thank you. Building that kind of wall is quite... intense. :-) Thank you, glad you like both build and story. The basic idea for the wall technique is quite simple: mix 1x2 plates and 1x2 tiles. I can upload some kind of "instruction" if you want to?

lol nice one! Keep the dark side of the Brick Seas alive. :-)

A Medium Residence, owned by Fontonajo, in King's Harbour.

Clarissa Fontonajo: "You really like him, don't you?" Román Fontonajo: "Who?" "Cooke." "He is... honest, straightforward. And knows his business." "That's not what I meant." "I know." "Then why are you afraid to admit?" "Because... I don't know... old habits maybe? Affection makes us vulnerable, after all." "And also human." "I know..." "Then stay in touch with him. Become friends." "I might..." Román and Clarissa sat in their house by the river in King's Harbour, enjoying a sip of wine, the night after the Great Ball. What an event it had been! "You think the kids are doing alright?" "Clarissa... they are hardly kids anymore. Even Isabella has turned 18 a few months ago." "I know... but still... she..." "You keep underestimating her. Marja once told me that Isabella is the most dangerous of all our kids." "Juan is your heir, both in age and skill, and you know it." "I do... yet they are all our heirs, in one way or another. Joaquin will be a father, soon." "Half Fontonajo, half Tenotaxclan. I'm curious what the little one will look like." "We will be grandparents, Clarissa." "Yes, we will. Soon enough. Like an old couple." "You know what I like most about not being Admius Legistrad anymore?" "That you finally have some time for yourself?" "No, my dear. That you and I have more time." She took a pause and looked at him. "Never before have I asked you this, Román. But do you love me? I mean, not in the way that our parents decided to marry us, and we do have our children together and share our lives. No, I mean in the way that you really love me for who I am..." He took a moment to think. He had never told her before. "I have loved you since the night we got married. I am glad my father chose you. I could not have been more lucky. I have always loved you, and always will. And we both know that I would be nothing without you. Nothing but a lost soul, sitting lonely in his tower, waiting for the world to keep turning. But you and I, we have already changed the world, and will continue. I love you, Clarissa. More than you could ever imagine or believe." Silently he took her hand, and so they just sat there and enjoyed the water stream towards the ocean. "You see those ducks down there?" "Those are ducks? I mean... they have silver wings? Isn't that rather odd? Not that I knew too much of it?" "Montoya once wrote me about them. The Royal Society found them to be a special species of ducks. That was not too long ago. Actually it might even have been the last letter I got from him. I don't know if he has ever named the ducks..." "You miss him..." "I do..." "What a curious friendship. The philanthropic scientist and the ruthless tradelord." "Politicians, both... If only our shipyards were doing their duty..." "It does take its time. You will find him. Just wait some more." "I cannot. It has been too long." "Then Román, we will leave tomorrow." "But you still wanted to go to -" "It doesn't matter, Román. We will leave tomorrow morning, we will make sure those ships are built, and then you can go ahead and search for Montoya." And he looked her in the eyes, and he felt his undying love for her. And so they sat, by the river in King's Harbour. (the mentioned people from the Fontonajo family can be found here: Fontonajo family) (Colourscheme inspired by Bregir's Colonial House)

Didn't you already get the Admius Legistrad position from me a while ago? :-P But yes you were, and thank you! Again. As well as to all the other great comments. Quite happy you like this small MOC.

Marvellous Oleander architecture. That looks absolutely amazing. I'd suggest a small crack somewhere in the wall, and a little bit of dirt on the ground somewhere. But that's about it and takes absolutely nothing from the greatness of this MOC. Love it!

Just want to drop in that I - while I personally hardly care at all - can fully understand Maxim's point of view. The EGS is part of the game, and everyone can define for himself how he wants to play and where his focus lies. In ERA 1, I was all about that EGS, and put lots and lots of effort into gaining riches. That was all that mattered for me. EGS for myself, for Nova Terreli, even for Eslandola. I fully understand if people take economic success as a motivation to MOC, and as such I can fully understand the frustration that comes from other people "gaming" the EGS. And please do not use arguments that BoBS is not about the EGS, or that the EGS does not have "winners" - because for some people it does, and for some people it's a lot about the EGS, and that is just as fine as those who ignore it. However I also do think that to some degree helping each other out with the paperwork is absolutely fine. If I build a MOC for a group of people to share the license and the earnings, do I really have to be the only one who may transfer the money to the other accounts (because that is what this would ultimately lead to). Also I do like an active BoBS with many ships sailing the Brick Seas. If that comes at the cost of someone managing an inactive player's account, I am fine with this. As long as people do not start setting up multi-accounts here, and as long as the gained money stays within this one account and does not go to e.g. the faction of said player, I do not have a problem. Also there is no need to have too many rules. So I think a general policy from leadership will be perfectly fine here, and is what we should all accept.

Fantastic little build. The underwaterpart, though (or because?) hardly visible stands out the most. Wonderful.

That wall is incredible. So fantastic that I will surely have to replicate. :-)

Impressively cool! WOW!

This is absolutely fantastic. Read through all of it, wonderful storyline and great to see Terraversa get some more love. @Bregir: Great storytelling from you as gamemaster. @Captain Genaro: While your partial shipdeck is great, your architectural MOCs are even better. The temple is wonderful, but the Archduke's Hall is absolutely fantastic and nails it 100%. The mix of styles works so well, just great. As are the characters and your storytelling. Great to see you based Miro Oldis one of my versions (or is it coincidence?). All in all amazing work from you here!@KotZ: Both the theatre as well as the warehouse-scene with the lovely tan horse carriages are really well done, but your micro of the ships entering the harbour of Kings Port is just marvellous. Wonderful! @Bodi: So much to love from you here. The small scenes with the shipwrecks in the water are great. The hasty repairing of the ship is brilliantly depicted, I love it. Your micro of the port of Westface (especially the fortress) is spectacular. As are the battlescenes. @Dukesc: Looking forward to see more from you here, but the ship you have built is definitely well done and fits the colour style. I like it. Thanks to all of you for this wonderful AMRCA so far, I will definitely keep track of your further progress!

Nice story and some cool MOCs around it. Especially the micro of the island is lovely.