NuckElBerg

[K - A05] The Heart of Awsomnium Location: A08, Crentium Tags: Spaceship, Building (the hangar, the judges will have to decide if it counts), Science, Kawashita Before we begin, this story is a direct continuation of Agent Beltar's post "A Strange Deal" which was posted earlier this week, so it will make a lot less sense if you haven't read that one. It's also the culmination of a 3 week storyline I have been doing (previous entries: "More Than Meets the Eye... and The Investigation Continues...). Earlier this week, I discussed with a friend and fellow AG builder. He said that I should probably build a little smaller, since the details might get lost when the size gets too big. I pondered upon this and thought "yea, that makes sense... I should start building smaller things". Then I completely f*cked that up and went on to build my largest build yet. The spaceship is a bit over 3900 pieces, and then there are various scenes, etc. on top of that. The design might seem a bit odd at first, but take into account that it's supposed to be a prototype for testing this particular engine. Now, let's begin. (Since Bluerender renders transparent images very dark, I've decided to include unrendered versions under the Spoiler button directly after the renders. Also, isn't it odd how much "Light Stone Grey" in LDD looks like white?) --//Alpha Level Encrypted Private Log Begin. Date: 1307(38)15. Scramble code: ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... [Encrypted].//-- [Alpha level clearance check... ... ... ... ... Passed.] As expected, Agent Beltar "came by" earlier. After making sure he received the mail from Lauren, I was pretty certain he would seek me out, and that I would get my pilot for The Heart of Awsomnium. When we got down to the hangar and he first saw the ship, Beltar immediately let out a little gasp. It was clear that he was impressed, despite doing his best to hide it. Recording... begin: Beltar: You want me to pilot... that? Q: Yes. Remember, if you do this for me, I'll get you your files on Lauren. Beltar: *Sigh* Fine, so what is it that is so special about this ship? What do those rings back there do? Q: The Heart of Awsomnium is the first recorded attempt of teleportation by mankind. Beltar: *O_O* What?! Q: I know it may be hard to grasp. A couple of weeks ago, we came across what seemed to be an Awsomnium generator created by an ancient civilization. However, some things were quite off about it. It didn't seem to have any way of outputting the energy, and we found it in the middle of the ocean, not near any other recorded ruins. So, I ordered a team to bring it here in order for me to study it. After a few days, it was clear that my suspicions were correct; it was the remainder of an old teleportation experiment. After a lot of tinkering and even more calculating, I finally managed to create this prototype drive. It is still fairly large, but I hope I can reduce the size over time. The "rings" which you refer to are part of a black hole generator, which has enough pull to fold space-time, thus creating a wormhole between your current location and the destination, which you will go through. Beltar: So... you wish me to become swallowed and spit out by a black hole? Q: If you want to put it like that... yes. Based on my calculations, the shuttle should be able to withstand the pressure, and you should survive. Beltar: And then you will give me the files I need? Q: Yes. [beltar ponders for around half a minute.] Beltar: Fine, in for a penny, in for a pound, right? Also, if this goes according to plan, I'll be the first teleported human! Q: Yes, I suppose. I have downloaded PauL into this smaller astromech droid shell, which will fit in the dock of the ship. The ship is ready whenever you are. [beltar boards the ship and flies it out outside the Kaiju.] Q: I have set the ship's coordinates so that you will be teleported to Marden. It's a peaceful planet within our area of control, so you shouldn't have any problems. As soon as you arrive, set up a comlink to me, and I'll have the coordinates for you to be teleported back calculated. Beltar: Roger that. [beltar takes a deep breath, closes his eyes and turns on the teleporting device.] Beltar: Am I alive? I am alive! Yattaaaa! Wow, awsome, I am the first teleported person! You rock Nu'q! Q: Uhm, all those are technically correct, but it seems you have ended up near Mynderis instead. Also, it seems like you ended up right next to a large M.A.N.T.I.S. fleet. Beltar: Oh, it's gonna be one of THOSE days... Recording... end. The prototype testing was in the end considered a success, despite the loss of The Heart of Awsomnium. The incorrect location of the teleportation device was found to be a result of a minor miscalibration in the calculation software. This has since been fixed. Thanks to its highly explosive Awsomnium core, it seems like the Heart of Awsomnium was completely destroyed and thus unable to be recovered by the nearby M.A.N.T.I.S. fleet. Preliminary readings suggest Agent Beltar managed to escape. His current whereabouts are however unknown. --//Alpha Level Encrypted Private Log End. Signature: Col. QL. Scramble code: ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... [Encrypted].//-- More pictures under the (sixth) spoiler button. C&C always welcome!

Great review! I'll definitely buy a couple once I find them on sale!

I'll probably pick up a couple of those when/if I can find them at a 30-35%+ sale...

Nice mining base Little John, I almost missed this one! Great use of wheels to create the tubing! Also, I really like the look of the ground!

For what it's worth, I'd like to say that I agree with Kodan Black and kabel. Sure, some judgings may be a little questionable from the outside, some practices may be improved (I for one would like to see an unrounded scale from 1 to 70), but over time, I think most things even out and become "fair". Some weeks you get a higher score than you expect, others you get a lower (which I guess is happening more than the first-mentioned for most of us (myself included) since we're all self-centered bastards ), but in the end we're all just playing for fun (or have I missed something? ). I do sincerely agree with Kodan that AG could use more constructive criticism. It feels like words such as "wonderful" and "amazing" gets thrown around too easily and lose their value. I, for one, only comment on builds that I really like, in order to not promote this kind of circlejerking (even if it can be nice when you are the center of attention )... One way of encouraging constructive criticism could be to ask all players who want it to add that to their builds (C&C is appreciated or something like that). Some things I have noticed (solely based on my builds and the scores they receive) regarding the judging: - Judges like more advanced techniques. One might dismiss this by saying "why use an advanced technique when standard 'studs-on-top'-bottom-up work?", but the truth is that most builds actually benefit from using from using more advanced techniques... it simply makes them look better and more well thought-out (if you know how to use them correctly). Look at a lot of builds, both real ones and LDD ones, and build a lot, in order to get ideas for advanced techniques! - Judges like creative techniques. This is really a sub point to my previous one, but what I'm saying is; try coming up with new ways to use bricks and not just throw on "standard" advanced techniques and hope that you will get a good score. New, creative uses of bricks always shine through! - Judges like stories. A good story is always great, and it can really enhance a build. However, what this really ties into is: - Judges like a concept. Sure, you might've created a cool vehicle, and written a fun little story about it, but turning it into a concept, is what really makes it stand out and not just being "this is my thing this week, and this is the story". So, what turns a build from just being a build to a concept? Well, start by creating thinking up a backstory... what's going on outside of the build and the written story? After this, create an environment based on the backstory. A great environment which ties into the story and the "main attraction" can really make all the difference. Longer story-arcs, some mystery, collaborations, etc. are also great ways to turn a build from a build to a concept. - Judges need a good presentation. I'm sorry, but in order for a judge to make a good call, the pictures submitted have to be good. This means good lightning and good angles, zoomed in shots, etc. so that the judges can accurately judge your build. If you only include a couple of zoomed-out shots with so-so lightning, then it's impossible for the judges to make a good call on how good it actually is. As I said above, all these points are my own observations, so I can't guarantee that following them will net you a higher score (except maybe the presentation one), but I think they could be good guidelines (both in order to do better builds and to net you higher scores). In the end, I would like to end this comment with a shoutout to all the involved staff: You are all doing a great job in creating and keeping Andromeda's Gate afloat, especially you Bob (I can't believe you have the time for all this...)!

Bob, please purchase a Domination for Dummies for Aera Lure! Thank you!

Great build rodiziorobs! I love how well integrated the story is with current going-ons within Octan (scorpions and laundry, woho!), while still being excellently in-line with Scorpio's... well, character. I also agree with Mike that it's nice with things not always working out for Scorpio as he would've liked. Looking forward to the continuation next week!

Haha, I actually thought about how it looked like all of the weight was above the back wheels when I first looked at the Cockroach. But okay, cool, then I know. Also, it seems like I didn't receive any job bonus for this one (and this time I actually looked at the time-line correctly, sorry about last time ), which seems a bit odd since the huge bay/garage/hangar/lab is like the majority of the build...

Thank you everyone! First, thanks for the kind words Bob! The logo took quite a while to do, but I'm happy with how it turned out. Some quick responses: - About the colours, well, I'm sorry! My usual process is designing a build in Dark Bluish Grey (for speed and to easier know which parts exist) and then colouring toward the end while cross-checking against Bricklink what colours exist for the pieces (in order to create a nice colour scheme). I was a little tight on time this week (the build took longer than expected ), so I didn't have the time to cross-check everything, sorry! (I would like to re-colour the mech anyway, so no big loss there for me. ) - I didn't think that the foot ball-joints would be a problem for a physical build, but you probably know that better than I anyway. I could probably switch it out for double ball-joints without losing any functionality, since I the lower leg-part rotates anyway. - I guess you are talking about the small arms regarding the angles. In that case... well, sure. The thing is, these arms would be so much easier to shape in real life, so I guess I mostly just tried to get it "to work" within LDDs pre-defined guidlines. My general idea when doing LDD is that it should be able to be done IRL without any significant alterations to the build. Since these arms do not provide any functionality other than just... being there, I didn't think this would be a problem. Still, great to hear your input. I'm sorry and I'll do my uttermost in order to adhere to it in the future!

Damn, you guys are a colourful lot! Not like the well-organized Kawashita, who stick to the assigned colour-code (credits to EpsilonEta whose picture this is):

Didn't I comment here on this already? I am very certain I did. Ohwell, you know I love it Mike, great job!

Great build! I love The Beast (had to go to Flickr to see more! ), and the foliage is just beautiful! Great job!

Haha, love Octan's obsession with laundering! Nice little builds with great humor, good job!

Great build with beautiful details (such as the greebling, the door, etc.)! I think the dialogue works perfectly as well, so once again, great job!

This is actually the second time I read through the story, and it's just as awsome as last time! Nice little builds, awsome story and dialogue! :D

Hi Bob! Under the "AG - Technologies Tree and Personal Equipements"-topic it says the following: My question is: Does the random resource gained via Prospecting (which is a Technology and not a Personal Equipment) trigger Personal Equipment effects (i.e. would a Randomly gained Biomass when farming on a Water planet trigger Wolverine's bone? (also, if this is the case, would a randomly gained Biomass when farming on a Biomass planet trigger Wolverine's bone twice?))? Thanks!

Thanks guys! The Floor logo took some time to build (it's 96x48 pieces after all ), but I'm very happy with the result (even though, as Turtle mentioned, it's a bit tricky to do 5-way symmetry in Lego)! Haha, yea, I know regarding the size. I didn't realize how big it had gotten until towards the end when I was trying to move the mech onto the build and the computer just froze. I think I started counting then and was like "shit, this thing is 96x48 studs".

Beautiful! The building in itself is great, but the cave underneath it just makes it superb!

Great story and build Epsilon! I adore how "action-esque" all your stills feel, especially the fighting ones, and I really, really love the Lego "special effects"!

Oh yes, I really, really love that one, such a beautiful ship (especially since I'm a huge KotOR/SW:TOR fan as well ). I don't think I commended you in the original thread (since I wasn't a member then), so let me praise you here instead!

I think I posted my build after you wrote this message. It was posted before the 10:00 GMT deadline though, so I hope you will accept it... (I had some trouble uploading my pictures.. I know you hate last minute postings, so I'm really, really sorry Bob! )

Hehe, I might've gotten some inspiration from there. (And wouldn't it make sense if Kawashita hangars/garages in general share a similar design. )

[K - B05] The Investigation Continues... Okay, so, somewhere in the creation process, I lost around 3 hours of work, so the scene ended up quite differently from my original idea. However, I'm very satisfied with the result (I've been wanting to build this particular mech (which is also my first), for quite some time now). The build is around 6500 pieces, of which the mech is around 800. I had some trouble uploading the pictures, but the build was still posted before the 10:00 GMT deadline. --//Alpha Level Encrypted Private Log Begin. Date: 0607(38)15. Scramble code: ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... [Encrypted].//-- --//Alpha Level Encrypted Private Log End. Signature: Col. QL. Scramble code: ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... [Encrypted].//-- Additional pictures under the (second) Spoiler-button. C&C always welcome!

Great work Turtle, love the design and all the cool functionality! Love the small details, such as the sliding door, the microscope and the usage of old train controls for the control panel. Awsome build!

Haha, great build AlienCat! Love the bulldozer, the Caddy and the foliage, just awsome!