Big Sal

I don't think I can give this the spying tag, sorry - I can't see where your character is "gathering information about another faction, hacking their computers, or sabotaging their equipment."

Location: E02 Tags: Land Vehicle (boat), Spying Based on the information from our spies, the Octan sub must be somewhere nearby. Keep looking Grayson! Holy periscope! Over there, Sal! Well spotted Grayson! Ready the MANTIS™ Depth Ray©. We’ll disable the sub’s engines and drive it to the surface. Target locked! Firing! Alright Grayson, cut the MANTIS™ Depth Ray©. They’ve had about enough, I reckon. You’re right, they’re surfacing fast! Now remember, we don’t want to add to M.A.N.T.I.S.’s image problem, so try not to kill anyone. There’s no hurry; it’ll take them days to fix the damage to their engines, so just knock them out or throw them overboard. Ugh, PR takes all the fun out of life. Ready to board – go, go, go! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Er, thanks Grayson. I was just about to do the same thing… Yeah, of course. No problem... Excellent. We’ll interrogate this one when she wakes up. This submarine’s probably full of top-secret research or strategic information. I always knew I’d make a good spy. Just wait until I tell- Er, Sal? -everyone about this! I bet- Sal! What? Oh... I knew we should have killed them. --- Thanks for reading! This week I took inspiration from one of the ever made . C&C welcome!

Yeah, nice speeder!

Ha, I liked the perspective joke at the start Three really great builds!

Amazing and hilarious build, as always! My favourite part is the alien getting squashed Um, so I'm genuinely unsure if the reply above mine is serious, but I enjoy it very much either way

This was one of my favourite childhood sets too, and you definitely did it justice! I like how you used the drill(?) piece for the base of one of the trees, and how the radar dish looks like a slice of lime

Great skimmer and a really nice re-imagining of the original - it puts my straight-up recolour of my set to shame! Is that another new way of making a logo? How many are you up to now?

Nice ship and outpost. I know you've done it before, but I still really like the use of crates to texture the walls.

Yeah, that 'octopus' is great! Nice build!

Very atmospheric build and story! I especially like the shots with all the colonists milling about.

Nice job on the photos this week!

Er... I guess prisoners are technically 'objects or resources', so sure

I'll allow it this time, but I'd like to at least see more of the environment next time

I agree with EpsilonEta, this doesn't get the building tag. The building doesn't seem like it took much effort and isn't an important part of the build (it's only shown in one photo, and it's blurry there). Remember: "When deciding whether a tag should count, the judges will consider how well it fits the descriptions below, how much effort went into depicting it, and how big a part it plays in your build."

I fixed that for you (I think!)

Yeah, you can't get a bonus for a vehicle you already used. Really nice build though - I love how you textured the walls using tiles (right?). That fence is great too!

Nice restrained use of colour! Are those rock panels at the back? Took me a while to figure them out!

Location: E01 Tags: Spying Guard, I need to see the prisoner. I’ll need to see your authorisation. Excuse me? Let him through Fischer! Sorry Sal, she’s new. No problem Mendez. Got a nice new ‘experiment’ lined up for the prisoner? Heh heh heh. Not this time. I just want to talk to him. Huh. Well, he’s all yours. Noooo! Not you again! My hay fever’s totally cured, you don’t need to take me back to the lab! Oh, don’t be such a baby. Anyway, I’m just here to tell you a story about my amazing spying exploits. No one else will stay and listen to me, but you don’t have a choice. Professor Bland wouldn’t even let me tell my story in spy school, even though it’s been all over the news! Er… So I’d discovered that the Octan diet biomass was chiral and that we could revert it back to sugary, fattening fruit using a mithril solution. My mission was to infiltrate a plant where the fruit was washed and introduce the mithril solution to the water supply. I managed to hitch a lift into the plant with two agents hidden in barrels… --- Well, I guess now I know who M.A.N.T.I.S. buys its doors and air con units from… Now remember: when I say ‘Octan’ you’re to pass the mithril solution out to me. And if I say ‘Kawashita’ it means I’m in trouble and you’re to come out and rescue me. Got it? Yes sir! Good, then let’s do this. Hello there fellow employees! I’ve brought some more barrels of water for you. Yeah, thanks pal, just leave them there, we’re kind of in the middle of something here. Uh, ok… I, uh, also need to inspect the barrels you’ve got hooked up over there. Water quality test. Wait, you’re a delivery guy AND an inspector? Uh… yeah. Two jobs. You know how it is – gotta pay off the mortgage somehow, right? Tell me about it. My name’s Stan. This is Dan, and that’s Locke. She won’t tell us her first name. Hi Stan, nice to meet you. Locke. Dan. ‘Octan’! Code word received! What? No! What? Uh, never mind. Hey, what’s with the chicken statue? Oh, some new order from CEO Pombe. Apparently corporate is looking to promote workers who prominently display cocks in the workplace. You a chicken fan, pal? Oh yeah, I’m a huge cock fan. ‘Octan’! Code word received! NO! Huh? Uh, no time to chat any more. I’ll just get on with the inspection. Alright, do what you gotta do. Um… how exactly do I get over to the barrels on the other side? That’s what the table’s for, pal. Just jump over. Typical Octan engineering right? … Ha, yeah. I said… typical OCTAN engineering, right? … We heard you, pal. Ahem… I sure am glad to work for OCTAN! … You ok, pal? You sure are saying Octan a lot. Looks like we have a right corporate pet here. Ooh, you luuuurve Octan. Heh heh heh. Hey, don’t mock, Dan. ‘Octan’! Code word received! Typical. --- Hey! What? Did you just put something in the water? Uh… no… why would I… hey, have you guys seen the new Star Wars? Episode 137? Yeah! It was awesome! Totally! What was your favourite part? Uh, all of it! Except the bit where Darth Leia died. I can’t believe they decided to have jawas eat her! ‘Kawashita’! Code word received! No, abort! What? I said… uh… I bought some new…uh… plants the other day. Oh yeah? Yeah, they’re not doing so well in the cold though. Had to get a flowers heater. ‘Kawashita’! Code word received! NO! Damn it! Huh? You’re acting kinda fishy. Yeah, and I’m sure I did see him put something in the water. What did you say your name was again, pal? Gulp… Kawashita. … Your name is Kawashita? Kawashita. … KAWASHITA. … KAWASHITA! … Ah, I understand. We’re all stressed about this war with Kawashita too. Yeah, we get it. Sorry for doubting you, pal. Er, right… I’ll just be on my way then… I’ll take these new barrels with me. Turns out their contents are idiots. Hey... What a strange thing to say about water… He was a strange fellow, though. Yeah. Everyone knew the jawas were going to eat Darth Leia – how could that have been a surprise to him?! --- Thanks for reading! Apologies for all the terrible word play. Finally managed to finish off this story though - C&C welcome!

Your photos this week are great - really clear and bright! New camera?

Are you claiming the stuff in the background as part of the build? I can't remember if some of it has been shown before?

First, thanks everyone for keeping the discussion calm and civil. We have a great little community here. We're all creating our own versions of the AG story, and we all choose how much we want to incorporate from other players' stories. The point I want to make is this: just because goatman decided that MANTIS troops committed rape in his version of AG, it doesn't mean that MANTIS troops in your version of AG committed rape. It's not something you should feel the need to respond to or include in your stories if you don't want to. Actually, that goes for everything that happens in other players' stories! But most of us like to include things from other people to build up a common shared universe. The judges have the responsibility and authority to guide that common story. In this case, we're explicitly stepping in to say that we don't want 'MANTIS are rapists' to become part of the common story. I hope that makes sense! Feel free to ask questions.

AG staff aren't the same as EB Admin staff. No one's saying that EB rules were broken, or even that any written AG rules were broken. We're just trying to guide the game away from becoming too unpleasant. You can depict MANTIS as mean and nasty all you like. Depicting them as rapists is significantly more than that, and significantly worse than Octan being depicted as dopes. I don't really think that needs explaining, but you can PM me if you want to debate it.

That's the key thing I think. Just like with other players' characters, i.e. you shouldn't make any major developments or changes in their story without asking first. If you want to say that your corporation has started doing something awful, then that's one thing (you should still check with your team mates first!), but you shouldn't impose that detail on another corporation. EDIT: Oh, and if it wasn't clear, EpsilonEta was speaking on behalf of all the AG staff.

Location: E01 Tags: None Incoming call from Big Sal. Accept? Sigh... accept. Long! Are you watching this? No, Sal. I'm too busy to be watching TV. You should be too busy as well. Just switch on Channel 1134. You'll like it, I promise. Hello and welcome back to OBC news, with me: Joan Hapley, broadcasting to the galaxies live from Earth. If you’re just joining us, we’re discussing the recent allegations that the wildly successful new line of Octan Mills diet products has stopped working, causing many to suffer dramatic weight gain. With me now in the studio is Dr Perkins, who claims to have seen a number of patients with the alleged problems. Welcome Dr Perkins. Thanks Joan. Also here with me is friend of the show Leslie Haverford, from Octan’s PR department. Nice to see you again Leslie. It’s nice to be back Joan! Dr Perkins, you claim that some of your patients have actually started to gain weight by eating these products? Yes, that’s right. They had all been losing weight by eating Octan diet products, but recently, despite no change in their eating habits, they’ve put on a significant amount of weight. They’re actually less healthy now than they were before they started losing weight in the first place! How strange. Leslie, what do you make of this? Dr Perkins, isn’t it true that medical science has no idea how the body works? No, that’s not been correct for hundreds of years. In fact there’s now almost nothing we don’t know about the human body- Almost nothing. So you admit that these people might simply be lying? Wait, what?? That’s not- Well, there you have it folks. Sounds like there’s really nothing to these malicious rumours. Next up, we take a look at the latest speech from Octan’s Pombe. Some are calling the Andromeda CEO’s speech the greatest in recorded history, while critics claim it’s merely the speech of the millennium. All that and more after these messages! --- Thanks for reading! C&C welcome!

All my credits to SpacerSteve please.