MstrOfPppts

First of all, I'm glad this debate got some interest and that my initial thoughts were confirmed. To everyone saying that they're having some busy times, no need for excuses. I too had little time this month though I find it quite funny we all were so busy at the same time. I still think that at least some would be still able to squeeze in something out if there was a bigger purpose for it (mini challenges, quests ...). Even free builds if as said XP had some higher meaning / value. Well I have a free build ready and waiting for some ordered figs to arrive ... The inactivity of you guys replying to this is acceptable since everyone at least did something. I'd also like to hear opinions of those other guys joining either side and not having done anything yet. Did they join just for the sake of joining, were the episodes not interesting for them yet, don't they like building free builds and so on ... But the problem is also in not many new recruits are joining the fun for maybe having the feeling that SoNE might be a bit slow paced at the moment? @Lobot: I do understand that people have things in real life and that all they do here is free and I really appreciate that. But still can't loose the bitter feeling that it was all launched prematurely? If first 3 or 4 episodes were planed prior to launch, it'd give the staff almost half a year time to think about the next ones. I don't understand how being scattered all over the world has any impact on judging - judges don't meet in RL or do they? They don't even need to look at the entries at the same time and anyway had the time to have a glimpse whilst the episode was running to get the first impression. However I still understand it might take a bit longer sometimes, but as already said, I guess we'd all like to be informed on the progress. If none of these guys even logged into EB it'd be understandable that they have other things to do. But being active all over other forums and ignoring this part of the forum in my opinion is not acceptable! I know I can't say what people can or should do, I'm just saying that this is not an exemplary way of organizing things and am asking if things could be improved in any way also by offering suggestions. Well I already got used to the OT times and as said other universes attract me only for their bigger diversity. As some have already stated changing the setting along the time is not such a great idea for I think that getting used to or thinking of another character might take some time and people might lose interest in starting all over again. Even if after a cycle we returned to the first character I think that all this is not necessary. OT is just fine. @Nom Carver: Making a sub forum and moving all the SoNE threads to it should not be a big problem though of course might take some time. This change I'd suggest to be the first step after episode III is launched ... @Brickadeer, and any other non participants reading this: that I think is wrong thinking. I think that SoNE and any other similar projects or competitions here on EB is far from being there just for the participants to comment on each other's work. I think it's more of a reason for us lazier types to build something and also to meet with certain challenges the rules restrictions give us. Some just don't like building anything just for fun. It's also meant to revitalize this part of the forum. And once someone builds something it's put on display for everyone! And anyone that feels the need to say something about the MOC be it good or bad (in a nice way) should do so. I guess everyone likes feedback from anyone and not just the participants. Else we could have a secret forum and just play for ourselves or even build things without putting the images online.

First of all, I'd like to thank the organizers for creating the Shadows of Nar Eurbrikka RPG. It's been around for quite some time now, but the interest seems to be declining too fast. There's some things I've been thinking about for some time now and I decided to share them with everyone. Please don't take this thread to offensive though it might sound like that in some places so my apologies for that in advance, but this is only intended to make things better. I did some comparison with GoH which Brickdoctor already admitted SoNE is a rip-off and there's nothing wrong with that. Firstly - I've mentioned it a couple of times but can't help saying it again that placing SoNE into OT in my opinion was not such a great decision. The Rebel vs Troopers seems a bit chewed to me and especially our side has a big lack of possibilities for creating interesting characters. Which reminds me that could've been one of the first mini challenges so not so many generic avatars were present ... Though following the story canon is a nice challenge and making as little oddities as possible is quite fun I don't think it outweighs the fact that we could be creating our own story in TOR universe or in some CW or even OT parallel time happening somewhere far in the outer rim with interesting characters that could also be Sith or Jedi, joining different fractions with different interests later along the timeline. And already the biggest blooper was creating another planet in the so well defined part of the universe. But I do know it's too late to change this now. Secondly - I think that SoNE deserves it's own subforum. There's no problem in the junkyard at the moment but the freebuilds usually get to bottom quite fast because of people having more interest in discussing about future sets, wishful thinkings, their purchases and what not other stupidities instead of commenting creations (SoNE or not). I know I'm not much of commenter myself but I don't participate in other chit chat either. Another reason for that is now having the freebuilds separated from the episode builds and other SoNE related stuff for no particular reason. It'd also make it easier for someone in a hurry just checking if there's something new in SoNE ... The next thing is a bit more disturbing and that is the lack of staff. I can't get rid of the feeling that SoNE has been started and it's left on it's own on a "from us to us" basis. People are like sheep and they need leaders. Guilds of Historica has a leader for each guild and they are pretty active there and quite a leading horses of the project. Brickdoctor's very active in the Heroica at the moment and has not been around since the first episode's results, except for some rules and the moderating purposes. But hey, he's not the only one. Where's Erdbeeries, Piranha and Stash2Sixx?! Also there's a few other fellows that were thanked in the introduction topic and also haven't been seen around since! My apologies again for this part, but I'm just trying to explain why I feel the current state of SoNE is a bit empty and not many new recruits are joining the fun. And I think I'm not the only one feeling this way. However I do understand that there's quite some work done behind the scenes yet still coming around just to say hello from time to time wouldn't hurt, maybe even build something even if it's out of competition! The judging for the first episode took twice as long as it was stated but at least we were informed about the progress. This episode is taking ridiculously long despite having almost only half as many entries as the first one. I understand there's complications and real life is getting in the way sometimes but as long as we get some information on how much longer, what's happening or how things stand, the wait is so much easier. Otherwise it seems as if everyone would prefer to just forget about everything. The freebuilds judging is a bit behind too ... Another thing I really miss is the lack of any feedback (nothing to do with this topic). I know that the judges are supposed to remain anonymous but some feedback in about 2-3 sentences would be much appreciated and a reward for the participants of an episode! As already mentioned there's not much constructive commenting going on despite Star Wars being one of the most popular themes I think here on eurobricks in general the SW forum is getting less and less attention. It's almost like pirates with no LEGO theme around at the moment ... Also it's nice to get feedback from a MOC expert or someone who knows how things are done. If Darth Vader says that you're strong with the force it means a lot more than if a 5 year old Rodian does (I know that this is a bad metaphor but it's just that and was not aimed at any particular participant)! Also some mini challenges or quests would be nice. No rewards needed or maybe just a tag or a title, some people around here would kill to get one of those. I for one am that kind of person who finds it hard to just build something. If I have a goal then it's a lot easier. That would maybe fill the gap of freebuilds and add some more content to SoNE. Also tags are free advertisement for SoNE around the forums! The experience gained through time was a nice idea and I think it's a step forward from the GoH but misses more content. Currently there's no difference on what you can do apart from some little guidelines what you character is capable of doing. For example in episode II 1 extra part per 5XP gained would be a brilliant idea! Maybe in some episodes players with more XP could also gain a disadvantage for others to catch up and so on ... Further more I find the scoring rules a bit disturbing - seems that the organizers are not that good with numbers (just kidding). In the previous episode it was stated that the Empire was beaten in quantity and quality though the results don't show that. We were far superior in quality (10.5 : 10.4375). The final result rule is a bit odd here for first calculating the average and than adding the entries x 2 points. This means that even by having only one more entry the quality of the opposing team has to be superior by 2 to win, which is impossible. That results in that more entries = auto win. My suggestion would be to multiply the average scores by 10, meaning that 5 entries equals 1 point in average quality. Also it might be considered to lower the XP gained for each episode to max 15 points after the second round. This way the difference between the players would not be so big and the top 10 could simply be caught by 2 or 3 freebuilds. Considering that the XP had a bigger meaning and that people would be more interested in climbing the ranks. The current cap of 100 is also quite low compared to the points available per episode including freebuilds. It's been a bit steady at the moment, but some of us might reach that in an episode or two - and what then? Are there more ranks more possibilities? Just a thought: characters with no XP should be removed from the player index and readded after receiving XP. Else they're just making things less readable. This way anyone wanting to be part of SoNE would at least create one freebuild. Last but not least I think that the way SoNE is designed at the moment it misses some bigger purpose. For example there could be a big score screen in the first post of the player index Rebel : Empire. The score should include the sum of all the episodes + freebuilds + any possible mini challanges and so on. To make it more interesting maybe reset the score after a Chapter - let's say 5 episodes and reward the winning team with some virtual goods (tags, auto XP burst, rule changes, etc ). This is a sum of some of my ideas but there's still more. There's always ways of improving things further - maybe something like a hidden subforum for each fraction in the way that pirates TOR participants get for each the red and the blue team where secret plans are discussed and so on ... Sorry for this big wall of text but I think it was needed. I'd really like to help to improve this experience and anyone could help by stating their opinion in this thread. If that is not acceptable, mods feel free to remove this thread. I placed it here rather than in the SW forum so it gets more attention from whom it concerns. I've seen people participating in both SoNE and GoH. There's nothing wrong with that and I must admit that I've been holding back from joining a guild for SW is still my preferred theme and I doubt I'd have time for both. However if SoNE turns to get even less entertaining things might change and we might loose more participants instead of time warping some of them Historians to our universe! Everyone involved please take this as a constructive critic and not as an offense and keep up the good work maintaining the Shadows of Nar Eurbrikka! :wub:

That's a really neat story. The build is is nice and smooth though a bit square. I presume that brown plates are dirt, so it's a bit funny how they are rounded in the corners and the exact same destiation from all the edges. I'd mess it up a bit to give it a more organic feel.

It looks better, but it's still more a stand than an actual base. What I had in mind is terrain which you're flying on, which is larger than the speeder.

First attach the head and than the beard - does the trick ...

Interesting design. To me it quite has the SW feel. A bit more CW, but it's not that colorful, so I'd belive it's OT material. I too like the open front and gues what, my first impression too was: "A boat?". I thank the stand does this to your MOC, so I'd advise you to build a simple terain to go underneath. It'd look way cooler!

Nice list, spotted 2 more mistakes: Mirkwood Elf Chief - 1 total 1 - Barrel Escape, Mirkwood Elf polybag +++ Mirkwood Elf polybag should be deleted Mirkwood Elf Guard - 5 total 2 w/olive shirt - Barrel Escape, Mirkwood Elf polybag +++ This too should be split like the next two - hair (Barrel escape) / hood (poly) 1 w/hair & chainmail- Mirkwood Elf Army 2 w/hood & chainmail - Mirkwood Elf Army

Nice story and the build is clean and good as well! I think it misses some finisng touches though ... what I'd try first is to create some kind of frame around your MOC. That would make your creation not look lke something built on a plain XxY plate. It could be a simple border or the floor could be built thicker with some detail around making it look like it's cut from a bigger scene. This way you could also add some bumps or other relief to the floor where it's just tiles. Also to make the MOC feel more complete, I'd put a 2x2 light blay tile on top of the monitor by the guard. The studs look a bit unfinished if every other bit is tiled. They're OK on the computers ... I really like the prison cell design and the doors though it's a bit funny to guess in which direction the doors open or where they go.

Thanks CopMike for doing this again! This is the most fun part of December - checking the calendar every day! So here's my entry ... I know it's a bit soon, but in case I forget later, Marry Xmass everyone and good luck in the raffle!

I think this is still two pieces here we get. The wierd side color on his face is probably for the head having the beard printed despite having a mold for it. It's happend with some dwarfs in the theme already ... but on the images it does look like his head is at the same height as the head of the orc wearing armor. Maybe the head is not pushed down the whole way. At first I thought they'd use a ring around the neck and then the head, but that is a bit too thick ...

Maybe he has printed legs and gets the NEW sticker besides therefor! Has happened before ...

Well for the freebuilds you still have time until the results are out. Also the story doesn't need to be in time order, you could first show the episode entry and then told what had happened ...

Okay, may we now know what the reason for the rule change was? I didn't think that adding other avatars for free was a bad idea. All it could result in is some inconsistencies with each others stories ... Also making a very fig heavy MOC doesn't help that much it would be frightening? Although it seemed tough, this parts pile was a very good idea and a worthy challange. It was really hard to get idea from just thinking about it, so after a few days I just decided to sort the bricks out, disassemble the built set, sort a bit and then it all comes easier. Else all I had on my mind was a huge TIE wing and the useless white A-wing pieces ...

Tear dropping storry ... that is one hell of a trooper that should serve as an example to everyone! The dropship looks nice and the scene is well done. Maybe adding a bit more debris wouldn't hurt. Looks a bit empty ...

Although this ship doesn't look too OTish, I quite like it. It is well made and the shape is really nicely achieved with all those curvey pieces. Also nice use of the planet. Feel free to add more pictures next time from different angles. Only now I've noticed that the ship is not simetrical ...

I like how you took multiple shots with your fig being in all the places where you previously had minifigs. Including only the Jawa head and the R2 cone is also a great idea!

The baseplate counts as a free piece only if it's one piece baseplate - 16x16, 16x32, 32x32 or any modified ones ... Since you only stated 18 extra parts and if the two 8x8 plates with Grille are the only ones in your base that are not from the sets, than you're OK I suppose. If there's more extra parts, than I think you'll have to change something ...

That is one lovely speeder! Very nicely built and a great idea. The wreackages and everything around is nice too. Like the use of multiple baseplates - this way there's nothing conecting the pieces, but still is the void and does not feel empty or missing the scrap parts as a huge baseplate with only the builds would.

... we crash landed in the heavy sandstorm. Our drop ship was luckily heavy enough not to be thrown around but still there were some casualties. The storm did not last long and the surviving troops divided into small groups to search for any way of transportation. From what I knew about Tatooine, it was about four days walk to Mos Eisley. I decided to go for the huge wreckage of a cruiser with two stormies under my command. On the way we found a small speeder that could use some fuel and a spark plug. It's fuel pipes were also broken. Arriving at the debris of the cruiser we found everything in one place. Seems like that Jawas have already done some sorting. We better hurry fixing the speeder before they return with the crawler to pick things up ... Extra parts used: only the two troopers, two blasters and my extra helmet if that counts ...

Hahaha, what an interesting veehicle! It reminds me of the good old Renault GTL 4 - something like the rebels would use The build is nice and clean, a bit too clean though. I miss some wreckage and debris scattered around the baseplate. This place doesn't look like it's been through the sandstorm at all. Or were you there so long to have time to clean it all around your hut?

These builds are very nice and also is the story. I think you could simply seperate the build in multiple MOCs and have them judged!

Wow, I really like the feel of the mess left after the sandstorm. The four big builds are nice and also the leftover parts scattered around work well. A lot of things going thanks to the figures, BUT I'm sad to inform you that you forgot to doublecheck the rules after their change - now each figure counts as multiple parts (depends on how many it's built from - torso + arms + hands is one piece) so Jawas is 5 extra pieces for the cloak. Also free sigfigs apart from yours were removed, so I guess you'll have quite a challange recreating this with only two figs since you used a lot of other extra parts.

Even though I had a very busy month and had no time for freebuilds my entry will be finished by tomorrow. I don't have anything against extending the deadline though I really doubt the ammount of entries will change significantly. Maybe just for a week? The wait for the results and the next episode is killing me after finishing my entry I also agree with everything said above me ...

So it's not Star Wars themed this year? Anyway I guess most of hard to find figures are licensed so they all fall under my themes of interest! I'm glad this raffle is here again and will sure enter it - having a lot of fun! The number of winners is not important but from the previous similar raffles I predict there'll be quite a few ... Assuming you're from the UK you should know what a raffle is. Yes there are randomly picked winners no matter how the build looks as long as they can be hung on a tree. But the important rule here is also to have fun! You might get disqualified if you don't have fun so if building an entry is a pain for you, you better not enter

Yes, if you look at it that way, actually anything Sci-fi can fit into Star Wars. It's fiction after all. That's why at the beginning I stated that SoNE missed it's opportunity to be more fun going either the CW or TOR way. I consider myself a big SW fan (not a hardcore nerd) but OT is my least favorite for obvious reasons - the lack of interesting stuff and diversity. But since organizers decided to take it into the OT and also mix it into the story instead of continuing it after the sixth movie, I prefer things to be in canon with the OT story and feel wise ... and also struggle with that when thinking about my builds ...