Mesabi

Can someone tell me what's up with " Aurelia" and "Dragonstone" ? As far as I can tell, y'all just renamed the settlement, but I can't find any forum posts detailing that happening. Or are they separate settlements?

Indeed! Thanks for letting me enter late. Thanks for the link! Now that you mention in, it does look a little crooked. That should be an easy fix for the next one, but do please call me on it if it's still crooked. I'm using phone, but I could definitely find something to stabilize it.

Thanks @Ayrlego!

Nice build! I love how clean this turned out. The Footprints in the sand are a great touch!

Thanks Khorne! I can't take credit for the Bookcase, it came from the Dr. Strange Set, and I've used it as one of my default props. It's a fact of life that the more cute an animal is, the tastier it'll be!

Great build, I'm very impressed!

Actually, Dolphin meat is a very rich meat apparently, due to all the blubber! Still need to get the TNT out of storage. Thanks! ...and don't even get me started about Sea Horses! Thanks @Ayrlego! Yeah, they have a little blowhole to fit a fire piece in so it looks like they're being cooked thoroughly! So I'm guessing you would say "Neeeeiiiiiiggggghhhhh" to eating horses?

I am US as well, and if he posted his at 6pm his time zone, and myself 16 hours after that, I am most certainly late

Ok, story time / word vomit. I get your points. My main point is Quality over Quantity, a lesson I learned too late. Far too late. Yeah, sounds about right. And I'd like to make a point very clear, I was a terrible player until about January of 2019. The WTC abusively Metagamed for the good majority of its existence, put out subpar builds, and soured the game for more than a few people. I started the WTC as a certified insane version of the POTC East India Company. Darnok joined me, as we have a very similar sense of humor, and love of metagaming, and we've been causing chaos on the brick seas ever since. That hasn't always been a good thing. Mesabi Landing holds the highest rank of city in BoBS. Why? Because the rules were written in a certain way, and Darnok and I worked to level up the city as fast as possible. We wanted to have the biggest and best city in the Brick Seas. Well, we reached the 2nd highest rank, but in doing it, we tainted our reputation, and the game for quite a few players. As a result, no one (other than us) builds there, no one docks there (even though the trade value is great), and we're shunned from quite a bit of the community in the game. (I suppose the last point is debatable, but that's the way I feel, accurate or not.) Did we game the game? Yeah. (again, see the ML paragraph) There was a time Darnok licensed 20 some prefab rowboats as class 0 ships to make a giant attack fleet. Completely against the "spirit of the game" to build ships, but completely legal at the time. I have more than a few spreadsheets that calculate out the % chance of how a ship battle resolves. I cared more about the "game" aspect than my build aspect, particularly because I'm not an amazing builder. Additionally, our combative attitude, and our general "letter of the law" rather than the "spirit of the law" attitude pissed off more than a few players. There was talk at one point of Darnok and I leaving COR, which we couldn't even really do because SR had enough issues with us. Anyways, between the two, the GMs decided to do the 'Tsunami' thing in spring of 2019. Granted, it hit me at a really bad time in my life, but with some time, I really think it was the shock I needed to really improve my builds. But even now, I still know that people aren't happy with my presence, and status on the Brick Seas. I have the third highest land income of any player (last I checked) but I would happen to guess more than a few people would feel that this is unearned. And I know, for the foreseeable future this probably won't change. I do take some offense to the idea of "Don't encourage the WTC," especially after near a year and a half of calm from us. But I do understand the sentiment, and I know that if I want to change it, I need to behave, and be a positive influence on the Brick Seas. Anyways, my two point is twofold: 1. Quality over Quantity. I would say, imho every post should be a unique build, and each build should exist as its own story, or chapter therein. That was the main point of my above comment. 2. I get why people don't particularly appreciate me or my stories. I screwed up, tainted my relationship with the BoBS community, most of which was due to ignoring lack of feedback on my part. So yeah, sorry for the word vomit, and all the chaos I caused over the years. Don't be an idiot like @Mesabi and sacrifice build quality, it's the path to the dark side.

Catergory A&B from myself! Feel free to exclude as it is late.

Location: Tortuga Type: Minichallenge Category A The WTC, though late to the party, was determined to make its mark on the Beaches of Tortuga. Dolphin was roasted... ...and a Oleander was pickpocketed for good measure... Later: (Category B) "It's perfect" And so, the WTC finished a small sandcastle of their 'classic' qualty. Meanwhile, the rowboat was loaded with some goods the Marines had 'found', The Dock was blown up, and the Oleander's sandcastle was kicked over for good measure. It was a good time all around. FIN A last minute entry to @Professor Thaum 's awesome contest. Feel free to exclude it, as it is late, but I wanted to do something for it regardless. The "B" part of the entry is a bit of a throwaway gag as to some of my older build's quality, as I have like no tan bricks at the moment. C&C appreciated!

@Professor ThaumThaum any chance I could get a late entry? I'm just finishing up mine.

@Count Vroskri Very nice microbuild at the end there, a lot of this build seems recycled, so I'll leave my comments where they were at last time. First, you're photography has improved, but I hope to see it improve a little bit more. If you could get some cheap foam sheets from your local hobby store, you can use that as an easy white background to improve things a little bit, by softening the square edges. Second, I've got to say, You're rushing out builds. I used to do the same thing, and when I started, I literally built so many things that they had to start lowering the number of builds that could be licensed in a month. ( @Darnok helped too, credit where credit is due) But, it lead to some really sloppy builds on my part. This, is an old shame of mine. (Granted it was done when I was in a dorm when I only had about a shoebox of lego) It was rushed, underbuilt, has too much empty space, and served no purpose other than to further my story, and give ML a plantation. now, of course I got more lego in the dorm but it really only lead me to build bigger things that were equally undetailed, or much of the same. These two were probably my last builds in the dorm, and you can't see much improvement overall. Sure, it's better, but we're still not cresting 4 / 10. Now, these builds aren't as terrible as my old ones ! Additionally, I don't want to discourage your enthusiasm! But I'd suggest a look at the structure of your story, and the builds you've put out. Part 1: A shoreline, and an introduction: Not at all a bad story, or build, and a good introduction to your characters. Part 2: Doors and a story: Probably the worst build of all 5. and doesn't further the story a ton. Also released 2 days later, so I do know you were rushing This build could very easily have been combined with 1. or 2. Part 3: A boardwalk. Probably my favorite build of yours in total, but it doesn't really do the build justice. Looking at your flickr, this shot shows a pretty awesome build, that I would have loved to have seen more of. Your post really just shows off the one corner! Part 4: A shoreline, and a small catacombs. It's a decent build and an interesting story. I don't have any complaints about this... Part 5: The Same shoreline, and a microbuild. ...but this is the same shoreline, recycled, plus just a microbuild. Why not just combine the two? What does the 2nd post add that the first one was missing? Third, if you want to use someone's character's / story / elements, PM them. Everyone I've PM'd to borrow their character / elements has at the very least given me a friendly no, and an explanation. Aditionally, I've gotten some great build ideas from it as well. So, since I know you're rushing to get things out, I'd really say, slow down! The brick seas will be here next week! Make sure that every build is built as well as good as you think it should be, before you move on to photographing. I'd also encourage that the shots look clean, well lit, and properly placed before you are even ready to post. There are plenty of technique tutorials, and easy things you can do to improve your builds, and photography. I'm telling you this because @Bregir told me this in 2018, and I 100% didn't listen to him. Additionally, at a certain level of laziness and metagaming, (Note, I have no idea if you've been licensing these builds, but if you are, definitely take not of this!) The GMs will step in. Granted, you need to be licensing way more than you should, and it requires a spectacular amount of Laziness (many, many magnitudes high) before this happens. This is was the straw that broke the camel's back for Mesabi Landing. So, I don't want to discourage, only suggest. And you'd need to try to be as lazy as me. I'm liking your stuff so far, and I want to see you go places.

Hands down, this is the cleanest build I've seen so far here. It looks amazing, and I love the use of all the tan parts. Bravo!

Thanks @Professor Thaum. I got a CMF giraffe guy, and I'm determined to use it! Thanks @Ayrlego! I really think the 2x2 Jumper plate floors always turn out well.

This turned out very nicely, @Count Vroskri. I really like how the treasure room below looks, it kinda reminds me of the scene from Indiana Jones 1. Overall the build is pretty nice, the vegetation looks good, and the story holds up as well. To improve your photography, I'd recommend getting a dedicated light source to put next to your builds when you photograph them. Honestly, you can just use a lamp or two, but what I've found to work amazing is a Sun Lamp, like the ones they use for Seasonal Affective Disorder, since they put off a ton of light. I know because my early (and a decent amount of later ones) had the same unlit tinge to them. As to the WTC marines, as far as I'm concerned, anyone on the Brick Seas is free to use the WTC for mishap, but we will deny any unofficial actions on our part (unless it makes us look good)

A Small Commercial Office in Port Raleigh

Thanks! Thank you! I really hope I have, I think the time off helped lol. Thank you @Count Vroskri! Good to see another Count on the Brick Seas.

Location: Port Raleigh Type: Small commercial Darby entered the study, to find Count Mesabi finalizing the 621 WTC budget. "Ah, Darby, my loyal accountant. I'd like you to take a look at these numbers, I think you'll find them, invigorating." With a disturbed enthusiasm. "Alright, looking at the list of expenses... why is our expense account total listed as "i"? Asked a very confused Darby. "Because it's impossible for us to lose money! Thus, our expenses are an imaginary number!" Said the Count enthusiastically. "That's not even how- Wait, and why do we gain money under "possible ship losses?" Asked Darby, exhaustedly "Because we don't have to pay the crews anymore, so it's a net profit." Said the Count. "Unlike my attempt to use giraffe as a substitute for Horse products." "Where did it go wrong? Their necks should have given us more than enough meat, and bones for glue!" muttered the Count, dejected. "And now, I've got a storeroom full of pickled Giraffe meat that no one wants to buy." "Sir? The Budget? I don't think the shareholders would appreciate projected profits to be quote 'Eleventy zillion and one of those big stone coins or two or whatever.' " Replied Darby, in a concerned tone. "Plus the shipping costs from Telvok, I know those traders screwed us Darby! Courtesy Fees!?!" Yelled the Count "I'm just going to need to do this by myself, aren't I?" muttered Darby. FIN Well, this is my first real build since January of 2019. I tried to pay attention to the concerns I've heard over the years, namely bricks pressed down, techniques, and Photography. I feel like this build really rectified most of those (I think I see one of the floor tiles not fully pressed in, but it's not super jarring, imho) but if anyone has any comments about things I could improve on, let me know. The original story of this build was this was the Count's living room in his Port Raleigh mansion, and he had a secret illegal horse glue factory in the basement. @Darnok pointed out that this kinda was silly, as there was no good reason for horse glue to be illegal, and after a few story and build revisions, I just turned the lower level into a standard 'commerce-storeroom' build. I'm pretty happy with this one, but I still need to get out some elements out of storage. I couldn't find any TNT bricks to hide in the build! Here are some pictures of the full build. My baseplate here this weird, 32x34 minifig-flesh-yellow one I've had since childhood, so it looks rather weird in the pictures. I cropped those out of the story shots, but to see the full build they kinda poke out. C&C appreciated!

Excellent build @Ayrlego, clean and neat as always. I'm not a huge fan of the brown vents being used for the roofing, I think red jumper plates would have captured the look of the shingles a bit better, but that's just me. Overall, great build though, and look forward to your next one.

Excellent scene! I love how busy and detailed the build is. I always like the technic of using masonry bricks as flooring and it works great here. And Large City! Nice, but it might take you a bit to catch up to Mesabi Landing

Great MOC, and I love the art and story that accompanies it.

Definitely a neat little build and a great addition to @Professor Thaum's contest.

Loving the smoothness of the build, and the use of the teal bricks. Not really a complaint, but I would say it could definitely look like a sci-fi house with a few easy modifications. Ancient Astronauts on Cascadia?

Loving the shingling, the Ground texture, and the attention to detail. The whole build comes together amazingly. My one comment is the old style horse looks a little off next to the modern one.