xenologer

Not Really, Lets put it this way: Ever go to a Zoo and see the cute monkeys beg for food, even though theres a sign that says 'don't feed'? Well, we are the monkeys. The guy who lost his job put food through the bars. When that happens, the Zookeepers don't beat the monkeys, they just throw the guy out of the park. The lesson is that the monkeys will Always beg regardless; its not their fault that they're hungry. It's your own fault if you give in and sneak them food... Anyhow, very sorry to hear the guy lost his job. I think that is a bit harsh for just two photos. Especially since these photos would have been seen by everyone Anyways in a few months... and we already had a good idea what the stuff looked like from comics and whatnot. It's not like he gave away financial data or something seriously damaging...

Anyone know what this one: is supposed to be? I recognize the RC car Motor, but is it just a spare motor pack, or is that a full RC car mechanics set? steering, battery, remote etc? Maybe someone recognizes the smaller parts in the cover...

I used to have this problem, if you go into your ATI Catalyst control center, and Disable VPU Recover it might help. I found that whenever LDD crashed, it was really because it was doing something funny with the graphics, and VPU Recover was in turn aggravating the problem because LDD didn't like being reset... There is a 'zoom centering' tool that will let you focus on a selected part, rather than the center of the grid. So you can do detailed positioning work. It looks like a dot with a square around it, it is located to the side of the camera rotatoin controls, next to the big + and - buttons. Yup, its a real pain sometimes! I have been working around this, by making it 'easier' for LDD to figure out what I want when I'm doing SNOT and other stuff by using 'brick scaffolding'. Basically, if I want a brick to be attached in a wierd position but LDD is being stubborn and wants to put it someplace else. I add extra bricks for it to attach to that are 'easier' for it to target. Just to get the new brick into position. Then I delete the extra scaffolding bricks, leaving the one I wanted in proper alignment. This is was extremely useful for doing constructions that depended on perfect alignment with other brick geometry... Sometimes this is a multistep process, I'll align the brick to another brick instead of the main model, then select both as a group and use the studs on the extra brick to connect sompleace else, then delete that...

If you look closely at the hip click joint, you can see that there are two of them stacked vertically to make a larger stronger joint. This allows them to rotate the leg vertically to point left and right, but should make any swinging motion forwards or backwards impossible. Unless there's a hidden joint in the top of each thigh, then it's pretty statuesqe. I doubt it, Especially considering the limited leg joint design on StrikingVenom; big sets are meant to be playsets more than anything else.

Thanks For The Photos! Interesting It looks like that WhiteLighthing changed a little from the Comic artwork we've seen so far - the Cockpit Glass got narrower and covers the pilot a lot less... Too bad.... they could have simply used Two of that narrow glass to keep the concept art design.... Close inspection of the Bridge Walker legs would seem to indicate they have minimal flexibility - they can rotate for poses a little, but for the most part its a Statue. -Notice the technic angle beam linking the thighs to the hips and keeping them a a fixed angle. And the alternates look Amazing as usual. Darn, I swore i wasnt going to buy any more of these... how much will it cost? PS, I wouldnt post those photos on BZpower, theyre real nazis about leaked photos in there

Nice I want one now! Can you show pictures of the underside? I'm wondering how the spacing on that landing gear frame works... And What is that piece with the two hand mechanical fingers clipped onto it? I've never seen it before.

Thanks for commenting. Update, new ships: Entire collection so far, available as an LDD set (when approved). 3 fighters and the tanker. Green: Scoutship, has noticably different engines with bussard hydrogen scoops to extend range. Red: Interceptor, generic fighter, notable extra gun under the nose (not visible from this angle) Yellow: Heavy Fighter, thicker armour and slightly enlarged fusion cannons compared to the others. Tanker: judging by the relative size compared to the fighter class ships, I'm thinking of reclassing this as a support ship, perhaps an in-flight refueler(judging by the 'tongue' sticking out front). or a resource harvester. One great thing about LDD is, if you decide you want a squadron of 5 of the Scoutships but have no interest in the Tanker for example; you can download the set, delete the other ships, and clone a few copies of the scout then purchase the modified plans... Great for custom built fleets...

UPDATE: My LDD order finally came in! sorry, but no photos my cameras dead just some of my thoughts here: First of all, the box that arrived on my doorstep was Huuuuge! far too big for legos. Upon openeing it, I see the reason why: I purchased 5 of my LDD models, thus they come in 5 individual 'Factory' boxes. All the boxes are the same size, about 9*12 inches. Even though 4 of my models are Very Small, the same oversized box is used for all of them. This is a waste of space in my opinion, TIP: when ordering LDD models in the future, combine several smaller ones into a single set to save space in the mail. (unless you are serously crazy about getting the 'custom' box) which brings us to: The Factory Box All the boxes are essentially identical carboard boxes, the 'custom' graphic on the front, is actually a piece of Inkjet Printed Paper, which is seen through a clear plastic front on the cardboard box. They do not actually print on the box itself! This really takes the value of a custom box away for me, as I said above in the future I plan on combining entire orders into single LDD sets. Inside: rather than the Normal perforated plastic sealed baggies, the parts come in what looks like a sandwich bag, with a red tie wrapping the neck closed (they are not heat sealed). It looks rather unproffesional. There are no printed instructions, you will need to go back to LDD software to view them. Parts: Of course, Since this is a model of my own design, the Parts Selection is excellent! a good number of Transparent Headlight pieces, and the new large wheels as seen on the new batman sets.(in gray, not yellow) There are NO extra parts, (with normal sets, you usually have a few extra round 1*1 'headlight' plates, or technic pins; here there are none) Overall: The 'custom boxes' are throw aways. However I will probably continue using LDD services, since it is a convenient way for me to get pieces for my custom models. I don't plan on buying anyone else's models from the Online Gallery though, since they tend to be overpriced. I had to do a lot of work on my own models with adjusting the bricks and construction to get as cheap as possible while mantaining a good value for the model built. They are still about a 10% more expensive than their official equivalents after optimization work, but since official sets nowadays don't always appeal to me this is acceptable. If you want purely parts (no custom model plans) you might stay with Bricklink though I havent used it myself so you'll have to ask someone else about this.

The only thing I would add is.... Heres a tip on how to align your sticker properly when attaching it, I take the sticker and peel it off the wax paper, then stick it to the very tip of my hobby knife. then I hold the knife with the sticker on the tip over the brick and line it up just right and carefully press one edge of the sticker down to the brick, while sliding the knife out from under the other end.

Orange Mudguards? Oh you mean those wheel well pieces on either end of the torture table thing with the laser pointed at it? At first I thought it was some kinda medical table, but considering that is has a laser aimed down on it, and red-hot heating grilles built into the surface... But why would torture be useful against a Robot? perhaps its for humans... I always knew they were evil... Wait a minute! what the heck are those giant orange bricks making up the Gate Arch? are those DUPLO bricks? yeah... <insert that tiresome argument>...

I dont see why they need to take things down to change them. Generally you keep a separate Copy of the website on a local computer to do your editing work, then upload the new site to the webserver all at once. So there should be no visible interruptions to users.

Yep, broke a piece today. one of those 1*1 plate with cliplight pieces. From the Aero Pod was sliding a lightsaber rod into it and it just cracked. Since when are bricks brittle? I think the lightsaber rod is mostly to blame. Nearly every single one I've seen has had problems with the alignment of each halve of the mould, so that instead of having a round profile, they tend to be oval shaped or like two semicircles offset with a jagged edge. The uneven shape probably didn't fit the hole in the clip correctly... tho they really should stretch, not just crack... Anyone else notice consistently bad lightsaber rods? Maybe TLC serously needs to update them....

(BTW, this is called 'skid steering' when you use the forward/reverse on diff sides to make rotations) Yes this is true. This is why real tanks are not long; it puts tremendous stress on the tracks. (I always thought the SW Clone Tank was ridiculous because of this, it has wheels but its the same idea) To help the problem you can widen the body, so the tracks are farther apart from each other. Basically the closer the track/wheelbase is to a circular shape, the less stress there will be with rotation. You could also do what you suggested, and put a hinge in the center of the body, then steer the tank like a car. So rather than turn in place, you would move in curves as you drive forward. Lots of Front Loaders and Dump Trucks use a body hinge like this. You could also do what the very cool Mars Rovers do, give each track it's own swivel joint at the tip of each 'leg'. So you can either turn like a car. Or rotate all the tracks to make a circle and turn in place. You'd definetly need lots of technic pieces and some kind of gears linking up all the 'foot' joints for this. pointing them by hand would be no fun at all. -okie... I am seriously starting to consider building a tank like this myself now... I dont have the Hero tank in the USA yet, but I do have Digger and Excavator So I have 4 tracks... Hmmmh I think I know how to add a HOG style steering wheel to a skidsteer tank....

So, in this game will you actually be able to 'build' things using bricks, meaning actual stacking bricks to build... whatever design you want? Or is it 'fake' building, like that Lego WorldBuilder game? Ok, game is in progress I guess, what are the final product featues going to be?

I'ts not a problem for me, since I disagree with 90% of the SW sets (I'm only buying a VWing or 2 for the parts). Between the two, ExoForce is definetly getting bought first. Tho the Creator Mythical Creatures set might go first of all.... On that note, how much is the Hero Tank supposed to cost in USD$?

From the Photos ive seen so far, I was worried that the 'hubcaps' on the sides of the tracks were kinda loose looking. how are they attached? It's too bad that the tracks are connected with click hinges, It would be nicer if they actually had working suspesion with springs or balance levers, so they could shift as the tank rolled over hills. Like the Scorpion tank from Halo....

Am I the only one who thinks the giant Bridge pieces in Heavy Loader are going to show up in some S.H.I.P. Mocs soon? I almost bought it the other day at TRU for that... but I don't see an immediate big spaceship shape that works with those...

Recently when doing 'check price' on a model I had a missing picture, when I did the actual upload though, it worked ok. If you actually select upload, at the very end does the picture show up? No harm in trying, you can always delete the model if it didnt work correctly.

I've started making microscale starships in Lego Digital Designer. I've always wanted to see a 'Homeworld' style Space Fleet theme from Lego, so I guess this is as close as we will get for now. Anyone else interested in adding some ships? At the moment, only a Light Fuel Tanker and an Interceptor for escorting it, but hopefully more in the future. At 5.93 and 4.08 $USD do you think they're worth the money? Available for purchase now, just search by builder name 'xenologer'. Of Course I'm obligated to get at least one of each myself... P.S. Enemy Faction: the Interceptor can be made in a white colored variant (with slight differences) from the Robo X-Pod.

I dunno But if you look at the Factory gallery, there are No 'parts packs' at all shown. Its hard to believe that no one else tries to build any... Maybe they let you buy them, but reject them from the online gallery, since no one else would care to see someone else's random parts? But that doesn't explain why it would be removed from my 'manage sets' personal gallery too... I wonder if they're being more... "stringent" with what gets posted to the gallery in general? With the old Factory and the whole 'see what else you can make' (since it was all brick pallets based) it makes sense I guess to see lots of possibilites. But now that all sets are individualized, maybe they want to save space? I note that there's no 'voting' system or top rated gallery anymore, stuff just disappears from the 'latest models' gallery after a few days and becomes all but impossible to find other than by username search.

Interesting I made a 'parts pack' set in LDD. And I guess it got Non-Approved, since it's gone from my set gallery online now. I purhcased it along with a few other sets though, before it got approve/rejected, and it appears on the invoice. Tho I havent gotten a final ship confirmation yet. I wonder if I'll get anything in the mail or not.... or if having the entry deleted from the LDD database will cause problems with their manufacture/packing process and make a big problem with the entire order. I suppose they don't like people using LDD just to grab bulk parts..... Humh, I thought I did a pretty good job of arranging the pieces to look like a plausible 'space junkyard' vignette... complete with mini rocketships I'm going to be highly annoyed if that order gets messed up.... Ohwell Anyone else actually purchase anything from LDD Factory yet?

Yes, I find that the 1*4 long narrow studless tiles in particular, seem to have some kind of 'bug' where they won't attach to even normal (not SNOT) bricks. Usually I find that instead of attaching, they end up 1 plate Above where it should be attached, and other strange issues. One thing I often do, is once I see that the troublesome tile has been placed somewhere on the grid(usually off by 1 plate or 1 stud or something; I leave it where it is and move then entire model to attach to it instead (the tail wagging the dog, if you've heard the expression...) (really silly, I hope they fix those tiles soon....)

The arrow (cursor) keys rotate the pieces, and depending on how your camera is pointed, they will rotate in different ways. It's kinda tricky, you just have to try pressing different direction arrows till it flips in the way you want. This is one aspect of LDD I think they could have improved on.... it'd be nice, when I'm doing a SNOT model, for pieces to automatacally remember that the previous piece I added was rotated sideways, and have them rotate the next piece I grab the same way by default. Save a lot of annoying rotations....

Is it just more or does Striking Venom look like a Statue mostly? From what I see in the pics: it has no knee joints, they stay at 90*. the hips only rotate up and down, but cannot make any lateral motion (like reach forward to take a step) for a walking gait. how much did it cost btw? It's wide and impressive looking, but most of that is empty space between skinny legs. I'd pay at most 30$USD for this, and only buy it after first getting the new Technic Telehandler set, and all my LDD designs.... well, at least it looks like a good army builder, 6 brown Robots, a Black Robot version of the Swift(gate assult alt model) and *maybe* enough click hinges to make a darkGreen Sentry.