NiceMarmot

Congratulations, Doctor Kai! You really have been a building machine! Impressive. So, now that you're a Doctor, do you think the program has helped? I mean, has it encouraged you to raise the level of your building, or at least to build using techniques and subjects that were outside your comfort zone? Yes, I can see both points of view on this one. I think the History forum is probably OK. Not sure about Pirate MOCs, unless the subject matter doesn't conflict with GoH (no cannons, guns, etc). In a way, if you post on the History forum, it will probably hurt your chances, as you'll have to post here, and get the reviewers to check out your build...

That's a good suggestion. I suppose that the problem with allowing pursuing a new subject is more that it will be hard for the builder to get reviewers to come back to the thread and re-review the build for the new subject. How about we limit the requests for new subject review to two per build? Two more potential modifications: 5. Very large and diverse builds may request more than the standard maximum of four subjects. Each request will be reviewed individually by the Assistant Dean for the DoH Program (NiceMarmot) and/or the University President (SkaForHire), with input from the peer reviewers. In general, don't bother asking for an exception for builds that are smaller than two 32x32 baseplates. 6. When building for the content-related subjects, students should ensure that the build fully explores the subject. Since these subjects are not testing mastery of a building technique, students need to demonstrate instead that they can create a build that represents a well-thought-out and fully realized scene concerning the subject. Reviewers should expect that the build does not just present a small, standard representation of the subject. Let's take the example of the crop-farming subject. Is it enough to show a farmer tending to a single plant? Perhaps, if the plant and scene were really exceptional, but most likely not. How about a row of crops, with a farmer and a scarecrow? That's getting better, and if very well done, it could be approved. How about several rows of different types of crops, with several farmers doing different tasks (one weeding, one harvesting, one planting), a scarecrow, a farm cart and horse, a barn, and some good landscaping. Assuming the build quality is good, that is definitely a well-thought out build that well represents the subject, and would be easily approved.

Sorry, DM, I'm so behind on reading topics, I hadn't even seen this one until today. I'm barely keeping up with Kali guild topic unfortunately. I think the "Holy Crap!" comment just about sums it up! There's so much going on here; it's amazing. - Architecture: roofing (the flowers) +1 - Architecture walls: SNOT tiled walls (the camel and doors) +1 if you're asking for a wall-technique certification, but not if you're asking for 'Advanced SNOT' - Architecture roofrakes (the white roofrakes of the Horses Head Inn) +1 - General Building: Movement-enabled (the crane on the docks and the crane of the workshop) +1 Regarding manufacturing and art, I'm not going to +1 those, but I won't veto either. I'm expecting a little bit more for those, since they're content-related not technique-related. Maybe it's just that it's hard to see in the photos (especially the painter). My expectations for these type of subjects is an MOC that shows more than a single person working on the subject with one or two tools; like an MOC that really explores the subject in more detail. So for Art, I'd expect to see a museum; or a full artist's studio with multiple works-in-progress, lots of tools and implements, and maybe a model or something; or perhaps a large LEGO mosaic work of art. Likewise for manufacturing, I'd expect something along the lines of a small factory, or even a workshop -- but one that was fully thought out and built out, with everything the craftsman needs. You actually might have done that here; I just have a hard time telling from these pictures. Anyway, since there are no official guidelines on this yet, I won't veto these subjects. Regarding asking for more than four subjects (the maximum is four, not three, by the way): I think with a build of this scale and variety, that's acceptable. Especially since you could have easily posted these as separate MOCs. It seems that other guildmembers are generally positive on making an exception also. I'll write up a proposed guideline for this on the UoP thread. But consider this request approved.

Or turn on the macro function on the camera so you shoot closeups like that. Some cameras will show you, when you review the photo, where it was focusing; that can be very helpful in ensuring that it was focusing on the correct spot. Or, when reviewing the photo, just zoom in really close and see if it's in focus. Even with a cameraphone, you should be able to get it to focus on the fig, as long as you have enough light.

Good location. The lake is called Skoll Lake; I built a scene on its shore for my Tongue of a Bandit MOC. But no one has built a town nearby (at least that I can remember), so it's wide open territory for you. The lake has already been named, and an MOC built there, so you can't rename the lake. It's intended to have the shape of a skull, although that might be hard to see on the map. It's close to Nocturnus too, so probably a good place for a semi-evil band of orcs. The original intention of the Lick of Salt was that it was a regular, freshwater river that only becomes salty as it starts to peter out in the desert down by the Petraea-Qarkyr Road. Looking forward to seeing some MOCs in the area!

Let me know when you finalize the location, and then I'll try to track down whether anyone has claimed it before. Unfortunately, I'm a bit behind on the maps, so someone might have built in that area before, but it's not on the maps. You can claim an area, but it's not 'official' until you post an MOC for your settlement. That's a good spot, but that river is (probably) a major trade route between Avalonia and Eastgate / the Inland Sea. It's not a very isolated spot. Me too. I hadn't played with LEGO since I was 13 probably, building early Technics stuff. Then we were at Disneyland right before my son's fourth birthday, and visited the LEGO store, where they had a sale going. I thought: he can start playing with LEGO at age four -- I should load up on birthday presents. Three and a half years later, we've got a ton of LEGO. Yup, you can build a town on one of those islands, not claim the whole island. Once again, not sure if anyone has built anything there yet, but I can check. If no one builds anything nearby, you can probably exert influence over the local territory. One of the big differences between Kaliphlin and Avalonia is that the Avalonians claim provinces and are lords and masters of those areas, but in Kaliphlin our sigfigs tend to just be notable residents of a city or town, perhaps on the Council or something. There are some exceptions (Damaximus). You should read the Kaliphlin building guidelines.

Messahmuk Finally getting around to posting for Messahmuk, a decent sized city on the south coast of Kaliphlin. Military (gatehouse): Departure of the Southern Lions Scholars: Thieves Guild library (I'm not really sure what category this one fits under, but this seemed like a good fit) Agriculture: market selling pumpkins - The Mapmaker Craftsmen (Specialty): jeweler - The Mapmaker Services: cartographer - The Mapmaker

I want to clarify a few issues within the Doctorate program. Below are the proposed clarifications; let me know what you all think. 1. Builds must be posted within the Guilds of Historica forum. 2. LDD builds are acceptable for DoH credit. However, judging of LDD builds will be at a higher level, as you are not constrained by your brick collection. So the judges should have higher expectations and criteria for LDD builds. 3. Regarding the roofing and wall subjects: The text "Each technique is a separate certification" means that each technique can be separately judged -- a judge could approve one technique and deny another, even in the same build. They are each different subjects as it were, and count towards the maximum of four subjects per build. However, the trees subject is just one subject, as is the brick-built animals subject, and they only count as one subject each towards the maximum, even though you (may) have to build multiple trees / animals. In fact, it is acceptable to spread these subjects over multiple builds, acquiring partial credit with each build -- there is no need to have all the different types of trees in one build. Just make sure you ask in your final build for final certification, and reference the previous builds. If you do spread them over multiple builds, they only count towards the maximum per build in the final build. 4. You may retract a requested subject, even after it has been denied, and request certification in a different subject in the same build. For instance, if you requested certification in advanced SNOT for a build, along with three other subjects, but get feedback that your SNOT is not so advanced after all, you can retract it and request a different subject for the same build, e.g. roofing. Any feedback?

I like it. I think the rocks turned out fine. And a very cool little roof -- +1 for the roof. I'm withholding judgement on the round walls. The round roof is certainly well done, as is the base. I'll have to think on it a bit; maybe I was expecting more somehow... Certainly another round wall / tower build would put you over the top.

I agree. And hopefully you'll have LEGO connecting you. I know I have a lot of fun building with my son. He's actually a lot more creative than I am. Congrats!

Your MOCs clearly aren't nearly large enough. You still seem to have room to walk around in your house, barely. Seriously, I don't have any idea. Perhaps whoever did it just hasn't gotten around to adding it to your account?

Eccles, or whomever, thanks a ton for the new shield tag! I like the name of the of the image too... By the way, maybe you could look into what happened to my other tag? The image disappeared. I'm not sure I'm one of those more experienced builders, but I usually rework a build a moderate amount during construction. I rarely tear it all apart and rebuild. Usually I'll just play with a section or element for a while until I get it right. I often have a general idea of what I want to do, but feel that I need to make the details 'cooler', so I'll play with some particular element a bunch until I get it right. Sometimes the build doesn't come together the way I want it to and I abandon the whole thing. This doesn't look so bad, especially as a base. Sure it's all one color, but you could add a bit of color to it, especially at the bottom. It wouldn't be hard to pop off some cheese slopes and 1x2 slopes here and there and put on ones of different colors. You could also add different colored slopes up against the base of the rock too. Otherwise I don't think the bottom half is that bad. Plus if there was foliage on the bottom, or maybe structures up against the rock, it would look a lot better. Of course, I don't know what your vision for it was, so it's hard to give advice. By the way, everyone, I just finished a big (four baseplates) build, which I cannot yet reveal However, it came together much more quickly than usual, so I'm feeling confident and fired up, and will have to see if I can ride the momentum and crank out another (smaller) build or two in the next week or so.

Really like this build a lot! Nice clean lines, good design, nice parts usage (esp. Sensei Wu's hat!). Looking forward to seeing a temple in Messahmuk someday!

Well, you'll be building temples for quite a while at this rate. But Messahmuk would definitely welcome an Aslanic Order temple. The city has always been very diverse and tolerant. The general style of architecture is Mediterranean drifting slightly Middle Eastern, although there's quite a bit of flexibility. Buildings in the city tend to be a bit run down. Oh, and make sure you pay off the Teamsters Guild, or you'll never get your building supplies.

Temporary puppy-proof LEGO building area! Need to get some more of those plastic drawer units, and needs some more shelves for the other side. But I think we're back in business.

Well, this is probably a good fleshie alternative. Or maybe this one, but it's more expensive.

My sigfigs parts are listed on his wiki page, which probably is a good way for everyone to keep track of everyone else's sigfig parts.

Hah! I know what you mean. I seem to go several months without the time to build or even comment sometimes. Our town showed The Lego Movie on a big screen in the park on Friday night, so now my son and I are all fired up to build again. We're temporarily taking over the dining table, but really need to get a better puppy-proof building table.

Great little house, an especially good first build! Unlike everyone else, I don't mind the door at all. It's a bit different, but that's OK. Perhaps it blends in so well with the wall so that local burglars can't figure out how to get in. I wouldn't change anything.

First of all, Gabe, big congrats on landing the dream job! That's amazing (although you're very well qualified)! Please keep us all informed about the types of builds you're doing for your job. Next, re storage in drawers, bins, etc -- I used to use bins exclusively. SnapWare makes these stackable plastic bins that clip onto each other; they're really great (although they eventually crack). We used to build with 20+ bins on the floor surrounding the building area -- much more convenient than opening and closing drawers all the time. However, with the new puppy, no more building on the floor. Everything will have to be built on tables now. So I think we'll need to move most of the parts to drawers, as there's just not enough tablespace to put 20+ bins. I've always sorted by part type, not by color, as I've found it easier to find a light blue 1x2 brick in a bin of 1x2s of all colors, than to find a light blue 1x2 brick in a bin of all light blue bricks of different sizes. My eye just spots the color much more easily than the part type. Re steampunk and other non-medieval technologies, I think the steampunk look is great and wouldn't mind people doing that at all. As for actual steam powered technology, I'm not so keen on that, and never liked previous use of cannons or muskets. Maybe we could have some things that are magically run with steam assistance? Or perhaps magical golems that eat/burn wood or black oil. I'm sure there's some way to position it, but I wouldn't go whole hog and build a railway locomotive for Historica. And lastly, Bricks by the Bay was great. The conference sessions were hit and miss, but generally good. I met Lisqr, who used to be in Nocturnus; he gave a few talks, and exhibited his awesome Minas Tirith MOC. My wife and son thought the public exhibition day was awesome. There were a ton of great MOCs; it was very inspiring. Alice Finch exhibited her incredibly huge and detailed Rivendell MOC (google it on Flickr). I saw it on Flickr a while ago when she posted it, but seeing it in person was awe-inspiring -- it's massive (10 feet by 5 feet), and the filled with great details. (She could not have been nicer, by the way, and answered tons of questions about it. She's also now working for BrickLink, and we had some good discussions about its future.) I also picked up about five pounds of used bricks (individually selected) from MonjeBricks (at $10/pound) -- that's probably 2000 pieces (not looking forward to sorting all that). So now I'm all fired up with no place to build. Starting a new job Monday, but will have to see about getting a new building table that is high enough to be puppy proof, and get back to building!

There's a session at Bricks by the Bay called: "Sorting and Storage Roundtable." Maybe I'll get them to discuss storing and building LEGO with a puppy! Anyone feel up to quickly recapping the past three to four months of GoH for me? Or should I just read a hundred pages of posts...

Yes, I suppose a table is best. Although he's starting to be big enough to jump up on things, so it would have to be a high table. And I suppose we could do a better job training him not to jump up and chew things. The bummer is that all our bricks are in plastic bins, which we used to lay out on the floor. It would take a very big table to have room for all the bins. Perhaps moving the bricks to a drawer system would be better.

Hello all. Back again for a short visit after a few months... Haven't touched a brick in over two months -- we have a new puppy who loves to chew things, so all the bricks have been put away for a while. (Anyone have any good suggestions for building while you have a puppy? Unfortunately, we're unable to dedicate a room to LEGO.) I'm going to Bricks By The Bay this weekend in Santa Clara, CA. Is anyone else going? If so, look for me -- my brick-badge will have "Kaliphlin" on it.

Hello everyone! Sorry to be absent for so long; I think I haven't checked in since February. I probably won't have much time for building (as usual), but will try to follow at least this thread… It's been a rough few months -- I spent most of the winter on the east coast attending to my parents. My father passed away at the end of February, and then I spent most of March helping my mother get her life reorganized. I'm back in Kaliphornia now. However, my son has totally trashed the LEGO collection (meaning: huge amount of bricks everywhere, not sorted at all), and I'm not feeling motivated to clean up or sort. And the weather has been so beautiful out here, it's hard to justify staying indoors. Anyway, I'll try to go back and look at the discussions of new cities a few pages back and see if the maps need to be updated. Someone wanted a location where multiple rivers come together -- not sure off the top of my head where's the best place for that. I'll be away this weekend, but will try to get on top of things on Monday. Great to see the new members, and all the great new builds! And to whoever had the kidney stones (Kayne?), I feel your pain, man. Had one a few years ago, and I've never felt pain anywhere close to that bad. The nurses in the hospital said that women with kidney stones say that it's as bad or worse as the pain at childbirth. My doctor made me give up soft drinks afterwards; apparently they're one of the causes.

I'm behind on them. I'll take a look at these on Tuesday.