NiceMarmot

I suppose that's more up to people's preferences. Personally, I don't like huge long pages that I have to scroll through. I'd rather see a list of links and click through to get to the exact detail page I want. The main Kaliphlin page is already quite long (mostly due to a large history section); if we put all the maps on that page, it would be even longer. Plus, then it becomes harder to link to just the maps from some other page on the wiki (I'm not sure if you can link directly to a section on a page). But as I said, it's mostly a preference thing -- do you prefer to click through to detailed information, or would you rather scroll through a really long page? In any case, I'm not even sure we need pages for individual MOCs; isn't that what the EB posts are for? In Kaliphlin, I've been just linking the MOCs name directly to the EB post for the MOC, and haven't created any MOC pages on the wiki at all.

One thing I've noticed about this wiki -- it doesn't prevent you from modifying a page while someone is also editing it. So there's a chance that two people modify the same page at the same time. Sometimes it seems to catch that, and ask you to resolve the discrepancies between the two edits, but it doesn't provide very easy tools to do this. If you do see that message pop up when saving your changes, it will say something like 'someone else modified this page while you were editing it', please don't just blindly save your version. Try to merge the two edits together and then save it. Otherwise you'll totally overwrite the other person's changes (this has already happened to me once).

Yes, I agree about the roof. First thing I thought was -- jeez that must have been a long tedious build placing all those tiles like that! Really nice clean design. Although I must say that the interview was not terribly informative! Those grelves sure play things close to the chest. Maybe you can discover some more information about them hidden in ancient documents in the Petraea Library.

Lord Flagg, will there be an individual scoring or feedback of all the guild MOCs? I'd be interested in my score or at least some feedback. For instance I know my lousy photos hurt this time, but I wonder how much. Also, how does the scoring work? We don't want to get beat by a guild that pumps out tons of lower quality builds, but on the other hand we do want to reward high participation rates. But i don't think we should get hosed if a much bigger guild participates at the same rate we do but does better just because they have twice as many members.

No idea, but SI-mocs thought it was a good idea for the Kaliphlin Guild at least. I'd prefer to use a wiki tool on the EB site itself, but there doesn't appear to be one.

Way to go, Gabe!! Congratulations, and a very well-deserved win. A great, detailed, and really innovative MOC.

I just created a character page for myself on the wiki. It occurred to me that it might help if all our character pages follow the same format generally. Not saying my format is the right one, but it might help if we all had the same type of information on our pages. Take a look at mine and let me know what you think. Perhaps there are more sections that could be added. It seems fairly easy to change.

Or you could just rename the existing wiki to be the GoH wiki, maybe? Not sure if it's that easy. In any case, I will hold off making any updates until you do your thing on Thursday. But I will make some updates to the detail Kaliphlin maps to get ready.

Belkar-- welcome aboard! Glad to have you with us! I like them too. Looking forward to more backstory on the Grelves. Well, I was in Mitgardia at the time, so I was roaring down the snow-covered mountains, not dunes. But I suppose it could work in dunes, as long as you kept away from the sand-worms. Or in the northern Rakath mountains. The dwarves have rigged up some ingenious contraption to take us back up to the top of the hill. Couldn't tell how it worked, something about lava heating water into steam and turning wheels and moving cables... Apparently they tried using tame dragons to fly people back up, but the dragons' breath kept melting all the snow.

2x4, 2x2, 2x3, 2x6, 2x8, 1x3, 1x2, and 1x1 bricks in whatever color you want (I use light bley and tan). Light bley is expensive on BL; see if you can find it at the PAB wall of the LEGO Store instead. I don't know the ratios. Obviously 2x4s are the most used. But I'm always amazed at how many 2x2s and 2x3s I use; maybe 1/3 to 1/4 of the number of 2x4s Arched window frames and lattice window inserts 1x4 arches to go over the window frames 1x6x2 arches to go over the doorways Inverted slopes: 2x2 and 1x2s. Probably 1/4 as many 1x2s as 2x2s. I use these to make the crenellations on top of the wall stick out 1 stud from the wall. 1x1 bricks with stud 1x1 bricks with horizontal clip, for holding torches, as well as supporting doors Door 1x4x6 with round top and window (64390) 6x8 plates (or 6 x anything) for the walkway at the top of the walls Tiles, if you want the tiled look instead of exposed studs, or if you want to have SNOT tiles for texture on your walls Slopes for roofs. You'll need a ton. A combination of angles looks the best. Mostly 45 degrees, but some of the 33 and 75 variety are nice too. Or you could just design a castle in LDD and then look at the parts list (via the WantedBricks or LDD Manager tools).

I like it a lot! Sort of like what I intended to do with my embassy background -- runic writing over a faded map of Mitgardia, but ran out of time. You should definitely try it more in the future; it's a great look.

Is this the BrickWorld in Chicago (Wheeling) June 13-17? If so, I may be able to arrange a work trip to Chicago that week Probably wouldn't be able to bring anything large however, maybe a small MOC if it was fairly modular and structurally solid (i.e., able to survive the plane trip). Will let you know as we get closer to the date, as these work trips typically only come together a few weeks in advance. Sounds like a great idea though.

Interesting idea. Personally, I find discussion boards (like EB) to be great for discussions and hashing things out, but once a fairly solid, canonical set of information is agreed on, that info should really be stored in something else, like a wiki. That's because discussion boards are difficult to search and nearly impossible to organize information in. As you pointed out, the best you can do is edit first posts and pin topics. I'd guess that the powers that be at EB wouldn't be thrilled with us storing all our important guild information on another site. The best solution would be if EB offered some sort of linked wiki. I'm sure the technology exists. Maybe storing info somewhere else will prompt some action on the EB side...

Can't wait for the next challenge; the backstory is great so far! After the opening of the embassy in Valholl, her ladyship and I took a bit of a tour of Mitgardia. It's been a while since I'd been up there, and it was good to see old friends and revisit some old haunts and tour some areas we hadn't been to before. My old smuggling days used to take me up there quite a bit, especially to the Isles of Solitude and the desolate Great Elk coast. And I know well the area around Mt Mitgard and the Orcish Marches from my treasure hunting days. Luckily, we didn't see any of the dragons whose treasures we had confiscated back in the old days. Up in the mountains outside of Helgestorp, we indulged in the favorite pastime of some of the locals, attaching a plank of birch to our boots and riding down the snowy mountain slopes. What great fun! Roaring down the mountain faster than sand cobra strikes a desert rat, with the cold brisk air whistling by. Thought you all might like to see a scene from our vacation: Anyway, it's good to be back home in the sunny southlands. The vineyards have been well tended to in my absence, and it's looking like a good vintage so far, although the lack of rain has me a bit worried. I've sent word out to my clan and various adventurers I know that we've got some quest coming up, related to the Crystals. We'll be ready when the orders come through from the High King. Yours in Kaliphlin, Gex

I also really like the paving stones in the street. Great idea. Was it a real pain to arrange them all so that they fit well and the gaps aren't too big? I'm also a sucker for using those arches to cantilever part of the build out; I think that's a great look. Good job overall. Although it does seem like it could use another window or two. Must be a really dark, smoky tavern inside.

You could certainly build in Derfel Cadarn's style in any of the other guilds. Mitgardia is close enough in style that DC-style buildings would fit right in, maybe with a bit more grey stone and snow. Kaliphlin has extensive forests in the west, near the Avalonian border, so DC-style MOCs fit in fine there. And in Nocturnus, a DC-style building with some bizarro touches would fit right in; there have been several examples already in the embassy challenge. When I originally signed up, I went for Kaliphlin because I have a lot of tan bricks and a bunch of PoP sets I bought on clearance. But now I realize that I could have easily gone into any guild. The bricks you have don't matter as much as the type of stories you want to represent. Go for Nocturnus if you want dark, bizarre, and somewhat evil, Mitgardians are more solid, practical, and tough Scandinavians, and Kaliphlins are sunny, trade-happy, anything-goes southerners who enjoy the good life. If you're still set on Avalonia, you can either wait, or join another guild and develop a creative backstory that involves getting exiled from Avalonia and your lifelong quest to prove your innocence and return to the land of trees and flowers... If you went that route, you could even build vignette MOCs based in Avalonia depicting the events that led to your exile!

I really like this MOC! I too thought about a Petra-inspired build, but never got past some basic thoughts. Great job. It occurs to me also that you could do endless builds of the interior for this one. The size is unlimited, so you could build tons of room and tunnel MOCs to expand the storyline if you wanted. And, with your permission, so could other guild-members, as long as they stayed within the general bounds of your story.

Wow, who knew Mitgardia was so colorful? I thought it was all grey and brown, with a bit of dark green thrown in. Lots of nice details here. Really like the fountain too. You should name it, give it a location, and create a short history / backstory for the port.

Thanks! No problem, you're right, we were up in Valholl supervising the finishing touches on the embassy. Believe me, her ladyship was none to pleased to be spending Valentine's Day up in the cold north. She's a true Arizona, er, Ariz-Onahi girl. I tried to get her some Northern Warg fur coats to warm up, but of course she insisted on only the much more expensive Nordheim ermine furs. They set me back almost as much as the tilework on the embassy. Might have to go treasure hunting again this spring to make up for it. Looking forward to next year's ball though. Oooh, that definitely gives me some ideas about what to do with all those microfigure mummies from those Ramses Pyramids that I bought on sale!

Wow, I never realized that Percy and Mary Shelley were husband and wife! I can't believe I never made that connection. What an idiot I am. You learn something every day... I'm not sure anyone saw my revision of Ozymandias earlier in the thread, so I'll repeat it again here: I met a traveller from our old Guildland Who said: "One vast and dark bley leg of stone Stands in the desert. On top, high above the sand, On an array of mirrors, the sun beams down And sends via pulses our every command. Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed. And on the pedestal these words appear: `My name is Legomandias, Builder of MOCs: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!' Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of those colossal bricks, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away.

I don't know. My opinion would be that LDD is fine for free builds (and welcomed). But less accepted for challenges. I don't think LDD has been accepted for the overall Historica round 1 or 2 challenges (I haven't seen any LDD entries). We haven't really had any Kaliphlin-only mini-challenges yet, so I don't know what the rules for them are. If I was in charge, I'd probably say that LDD entries are OK, but will not be rated quite as high as an identical brick build would. Having just recently completed my first major LDD design, followed by its brick build, I realize that an enormous effort goes into an LDD design. It's not easy. And the advantage of LDD is that lack of bricks is not a disadvantage. So I wouldn't want to shortchange it (much). But brick-building is a bit different. And I admire people that do very creative things with their limited brick inventory.

Thanks for all the compliments! It was a huge effort (and a bit of a financial drain). I don't think my son will let me take it apart anytime soon; he will be busy 'customizing' it So my next build(s) will have to be considerably smaller, as a lot of my bricks will be tied up in this one for a while. I think LDD is the way to go for a big build like this. It's not too hard to use (once you get the hang of it), and it really helps you to be able to plan things out and make sure it all fits together. Plus it was very helpful to be able to create a big BrickLink wanted list of the missing parts. Will post the cellar and opening party photos when I get back from vaca, probably on Sunday or so.

I like it a lot! Good revisions. It does look more cohesive and the penultimate floor stands out better now. Reminds me that I still haven't taken photos of the cellar of my embassy. On vacation this week skiing in the northern Rakath Mtns, so I won't be able to post them until Sunday probably. I like the myth challenge. No ideas yet, but will work something up. A bit limited on bricks right now as almost everything is in the embassy and another free build I'm working on right now. But this kind of challenge shouldn't require a lot of bricks.

Funny, so did I. Bought a LEGO set for my son when he turned 4, and then bought a bunch more at the after Christmas sales, and then a fellow dad clued me into BrickLink and EB, and a year later we're all in. Pretty much the same situation here! Although she has a few nerd tendencies of her own (scrapbooking). And she really likes playing LEGO with the kids, especially doing farm and village scenes. I got the boy an MVR set for Christmas, and she and him play with that a lot, expanding it into a full blown farm and mill scene. But she doesn't play with LEGO unless it's with the kids. I think Barqa is wide open for settlement. Kind of odd no one has settled there, since it's one of our three largest cities. As such, it's viewed as a bit of an 'open' city -- anyone can build anything there. I think your ideas would fit in well there. The other unsettled large coastal city is Ras-Akhenaten, but it's in the swamps, sort of a New Orleans type of place (so no cliffs). Barqa probably fits better.

Thanks! It's quite big -- it is currently occupying about half of our dining room table. Thankfully no one in the family has complained too much yet. My five year old is itching to start "customizing" it, but I've still got to take pictures of the cellar and the opening party. BTW, I hear that certain members of the PGTC are attending the opening party, along with various notables from Kaliphlin and Mitgardia! If I get a chance, I'll build out the street level and take a few more pictures. That might have to wait a bit, as we're on vacation next week.