Kai NRG

This is a lovely interior! Your skills are really improving, the furniture is all great and I really like that window!

Thanks dG! Waterfalls seem to make any MOC beautiful, so they're always a great addition! Thank you Faladrin!

All three of the builds are very nice, I really like how colorful the beehive build is and you've got some great little tree designs for the micro gardens! And great use of hands for tiny details in the cotton plantation!

Enjoyed reading your story, as always! The manor is great, the bright red is a really bold move but it works! Looking forward to seeing what's next for Pontelli!

Your own faction thread is a good place, or this thread would be okay!

I did totally expect Gideon to landslide that category. Though I think there are at least a few people who could tell you with a straight face that mine is better than Mike S's - not that his wasn't really good, but ours are quite different and I dare say opinions would be split as to which is better. And I guess Elostirion's open air basement was a just a big hit! In past challenges there has been a judging score for story as well as for build, and that may possibly in some cases edge out a slightly better build. I think it's usually something like 1-10 points for the build, 1-5 story. Presentation and Following-challenge-guidelines are also often criteria. Dude you need to join GoH if you think this was a long judging time.

Great job on this inn interior, Garmadon! The silver goblets in the wall are perfect. I really like the green tables too, and Colonel Graybeard is hilarious!

Congrats to all the winners! Pleased to see my entry got a second place.

So stylish...

Great house Elostirion, the texture is wonderful! I really like your use of light grey pillars as well, and the plants on the little balcony look so nice!

Thank you! I saw that tree technique on a different Japanese style build a while ago and have used it a couple of times since. It uses a ton of flowers, especially for a big tree, but is really pretty! Thanks jakbar! Thank you! I'm really glad you like it so much! Thanks narbilu! Indeed, we might have to revisit our new style sometime, because it turned out great! This is actually our fourth collab I think, although none of the others were GoH collabs, so this one was certainly overdue! Thank you! Thanks gedren! Yes, I imagine it somewhere around there. Or maybe to the southwest, since there have been several Japanese-inspired builds there if I recall correctly. Thank you! Thanks mccoyed! Thank you! I'm Kaliphlin to the core though, not Nocty. Unfortunately this build was destroyed only a few hours after being photographed, so there's no chance of doing a tutorial from it. But the link SK gave you is a great way to do angled rockwork and that was what I used for the smaller rock out front. For the cliff, we used technic pieces. We did a row of the long + axles parallel to the cliffs and stuck bricks with pin holes through them (8x1s and 10x1s for the most part). Then we stuck dark grey pieces onto those, making sure to cover them in the process of course. Thanks Isaac! We really enjoyed seeing it come together! Thanks LJ! I absolutely love that water technique and definitely need to get myself some more trans-light-blue tiles. In the end not having enough worked out okay because the extra rock and the landbridge worked well, but I'm sure a couple hundred more would really come in handy! Thanks! I think we may try to come back to it someday! Thank you! I wanted to keep the black and white building together so I could build it its own little scene, but sadly I was going on a trip just after I finished this build so I didn't have time for that! But I hope to rebuild it (or something similar) when I get back to my bricks! Basically that style uses clip pieces to angle the rock, so it's more compact than technic parts. It's not too hard to figure something similar out on your own so if you have enough grey clips or 2x1s with bars you can probably do some experimenting on your own!

Welcome to the guilds LordBevis! Looking forward to seeing your creations!

Great little build, love the stilts idea! Nice contrast between the green of the oasis and the sand around. Great details on the house porch too!

Very nice build, the stripes look great and so does the roof! Excellent job on the details too especially with the interior!

Thank you Captain!

Wow, great job Bregir, both on the builds themselves, and on bringing together so many sigfigs - quite an achievement! I really like the arches of the ballroom, the checkered floor, and the rug. And of course the piano! Nice job on the library and smoking room too, and the garden! That sounds like Uncle! I'm surprised Agnes didn't have something a little sharper to say though, considering that their last meeting was in dangerous proximity to a palm tree...

What do you get when you smash Venice and Japan together on the edge of a cliff? Welcome to Shinmizu village, where small canals thread their way between houses before rushing over the rocks in foamy waterfalls, where arabesque domes stand side-by-side flowering Japanese-style trees, and where, no matter how straight the border, everything is at an angle. This build is a collaborative effort between @Garmadon and myself! I built the nearer half, Garmadon the farther half. To save on slopes, we decided to angle the rockwork... but that sure made building an overhanging balcony difficult! This tan house was pretty fun, but getting the roof right was a pain. I generally regret doing non-rectangular houses by the time I get to the roof, and this one was no exception! There's a little garden off to the side of the black and white house! Here's the front of the tan house. And duplo bricks for the canals... those were a gift from a well-meaning friend. As a matter of fact though, they're pretty useful! This black and white house is one of my favorite of all the houses I've ever built! Had fun mashing together Gothic and Japanese styles for this little chapel. I believe I took flying buttresses to another level! When I built this little boat I was actually surprised that I had never built one like this before, it was so obvious. Lots of waterfalls on this build, and lots of crazy rockwork too! One of my favorite details has to be the little cave! Moving on to Garmadon's section, he did a great job on that little gondola - bringing back the Venice theme! Enter the village over this little bridge! Garmadon really likes his tried and true Japanese roof here. This round pavilion looks like a pleasant place to spend a summer afternoon! A traditional Ninjago Japanese minifigure drinks tea on the brink of a waterfall! And one last shot of the cave! This was initially going to be an entry into the Safe Haven contest, but since we only started four days before the deadline, it's not to surprising that we missed it. In the end, it took us about four weeks. Garmadon will be sure to blame me, although if the truth be told, I finished an hour or so before he did... C&C welcome! Feels good to have a build for GoH again! As for where the village is located, I expect it's somewhere in Kaliphlin. After all we have everything else, why not a Japan-Venice mashup?

This is a great build, I particularly like the stonework behind the arches, but the scaffolding, steps, cannons, line of soldiers, all really help to set the scene!

Of course, first thing I thought of!

Things are heating up! I really like that ship - great name for it too! The 2 brick tall black slopes work very well on the side!

I think into one particular slot it's very stable, but rather loose in the others.

If someone was managing your ships for you though that person would (or at least could) know, and could submit a new one.

This is really neat, great job with the water and with the underwater part too! The sand being lower than the water is really interesting but I guess it's conceivable that the waves are rolling in at the moment and will roll back out shortly. Great work on that little boat!

From that thread: Squatter Settlements: A player can establish a colony (and then charge others to build property on their lands) or a piece of individual property anywhere in unclaimed lands. Squatters control the rules of the town/colony, but the above chart on settlement size still applies. If a nation expands its territory into the region where a squatting colony or property is, the owner may lose control (or have to fight for their property via the small conflict rules). Squatter colonies only pay half of a license fee, except in the case of forts (see below). A squatting colony can become an official colony of a faction through the proper process. Pirate colonies of any size always have the ability to fight an aggressive nation trying to establish dominance over them. What you probably didn't realize is that all Sea Rat settlements are squatter colonies, because they're not under an Empire's control.

It seems to me like we would benefit from more transparency on this issue. I agree with Bregir in thinking that our players are honest, but prevention is surely better than cure and it certainly wouldn't be hard at all for someone to claim that an inactive member had given him/her permission to use his/her ships, even if the inactive member had never hinted such a thing. And transparency would be very easy to secure if people could just state in the MCRA thread, "So-and-so, would you please manage my ships this month? We'll arrange details in a PM." Or even, "So-and-so, please manage my ships for the next X months." There's absolutely no need to police this, but it would always be there in case someone suddenly wondered why an inactive member's ships kept sailing - all the curious one would have to do would be to check up on the MRCA thread that antedates the last activity of the inactive member. Supposing that could not be discovered, it could be brought to leaderships attention. Possibly the player managing the ships could point out an overlooked post, or if necessary the inactive player's ships could be held out of the MRCA. The "rule" then would be: publicly state in the latest MRCA thread who it is you are asking to use your ships and for how long. The more specific you can be as to how they are allowed to use them (trade run, escort, etc.) the better. Previous exceptions can be grandfathered in I suppose. I don't know how many there are, but KB at least will surely be back soon enough and able to take care of his ships again. I kind of like the sleeping captain idea, it makes a lot of sense and could be thrown in with my idea fairly easily I think (a plus of course! ), but I don't know if we want to add yet another mechanism to the MRCA. It would be easy enough to add to the form though, and might prove a nice check on whether or not the player is submitting his/her own forms. (I'd make for a funny kind of question though. "Is this ship's captain sleeping?" ) There's my answer to question 1 above. I'm not sure what you mean by 2 exactly but I think my suggestion may address it (any BoBS member). 3: No. 4: No - unless every member of a TC becomes inactive, I guess... 5. Actively ask someone to fill in your forms for a specified length of time. I also think that if the time is over 6 mo. it's a little ridiculous... 6. The real issue to me is, preventing people from using inactive player's ships so long and so much at their own discretion to the point where they basically have a second account. Also, simply being able to verify that the inactive player really did ask someone to use their ships. Personally it seems to me that unless you've asked someone to use your ships they should not be used. So if you have a sudden inactivity streak, so sudden that you don't even have time to ask anyone to use your ships, then they shouldn't be used. If you don't even have time for EB, I doubt you'll be having time to worry about whether or not your imaginary ships are making money.