Basiliscus

I'll try and answer the concerns raised by Dunedain, and echoed by 2Maxwell: Here's a bit of background about the project There are a number of people (myself included) discussing the project, and how it will be run and what will happen in it, as we speak. Unfortunately, I am not building just now while I sell my house and have a baby, so I am unable to volunteer to move the project forward. One of the key participants is SkaForHire but he is busy with the GoH Kaliphlin civil war challenge, and it's unlikely he will be free for the next few weeks. I would say that a realistic timescale for this being released is a few months rather than weeks. I realise this isn't a question that was specifically asked, but I thought it was worth giving everyone an update on what the status is. The Game Building on the success (and things which could be improved) from similar collaborative building games such as Guilds of Historica and Lands of Roawia, a set of provisional rules are being reviewed at present. But for now here are some things I can confirm: BotBS primarily will be a collaborative building game. What does that mean? The players create a non-changeable character, choose a non-changeable faction, and create MOCs together to advance the common story. The story will be initiated by the faction leaders, but after that the players will have a lot of input into the next chapters of the story. The exact mechanisms by which this takes place are still to be defined, but as an example it could be that players get to vote on different outcomes of events after each challenge has been completed. The story will mainly advance through challenges. Challenges are issued by the faction leaders (collectively, not separately) and the faction members compete to win the challenge prize by building the best MOCs as judged by an independent panel of judges (independent in this case only refers to the fact that they cannot compete as well, they could be players already playing BotBS). It's worth emphasising that MOCs are the main way to earn prizes - these prizes consist of points (more later). The world of the story is created by the players. Macro-landscaping (continents, islands, seas, climate, environmental-landscaping) will be done by the faction leaders (possibly in conjunction with the players following challenges, see above). Micro-landscaping (rivers, lakes, cities, towns, ports, hills, fortresses, etc) will be carried out by the players. Ownership of land will be determined by the faction leaders (initial conditions at game start) and can be influenced by the players by winning challenges (through accumulating points and defeating other factions in war). One important point: since the world is shared between all players, players cannot own large areas of land, otherwise later players cannot join in without becoming marginalised. This needs to be better defined. Each players will create one main character which they use to interact with other players in the game. Your character must exist within the parameters of the world, i.e. no game-breaking superpowers! As I described above, there will be some loose rules to follow, but ultimately each player's character can have any backstory they like. Your character will be the main way to collect points and conduct the role playing part of the game (see below), so in general you should create a character you want to play as for a considerable time. MOCs are not limited to those including your main character and/or your chosen faction - you can build anything you want, as long as it is consistent with the story. Some examples might be your character visiting another faction to conduct a personal trade deal (or even settle an old score), showing your characters butler going out to find him clothes, showing another player's character doing something (with their permission, of course!) or showing a battle from a war 100 years before the game begins. These MOCs which are not directly related to challenges, are known as "free-builds" and may generate your character points (again, exact rules to be defined). Points can be spent on doing things and advancing your character. This may include purchasing ranks and/or land. We are hoping to introduce a basic role-playing element to the story, but this needs to be better defined. Does that help?

Glad that my post has been well-received. I think in summary I'd say that while there will have to be rules (of course!), they should be fairly open to interpretation if someone can find a good way to justify something!

To answer the questions posed by Master_Data and Captain Brickboot I think I need to clarify that the world is there to be created by the players! As I am sure you are all aware, people are motivated by many different things, and this is especially true in times gone by as it was not as heavily regulated and monitored as the modern day. Also, players belonging to a certain faction can have wildly differing opinions on decisions made by their government - the concept of nation states that is so heavily imbued in our consciousnesses was still in it's infancy. Want to be a smuggler? All factions will have smugglers! It might be that the corrupt port master in a Corrington town turns his eye to illegal shipments for the right price. It might be that the lack of centralised control in Eslandola means that traders are actually breaking the law because it's so laxly enforced. It might be the pirate chief is smuggling arms to one of the main factions who is attacking the pirates, because he is making a tidy profit. Use your imagination! Want to have your own fortress? All factions will have fortresses! It might be the ancient seat of an Oleon noble, held by his family for hundreds of years, nestled away in the countryside. It might be an Eslandola colonial outpost which comes under regular attack from hostile native tribes. It might be a hidden pirate lair, which can only be visited at high tide in an inaccessible cove. Use your imagination! The only area we need to apply some common sense to is the issue of land "ownership". Just because a colonial island is coloured green/red/blue, doesn't mean that a hidden pirate base can't exist on the far side of the island! However, clearly it's unlikely that a huge pirate lair exists just outside the Oleon capital, for example. The way the map works will be revealed in due course. As a final point, when picking your faction remember that just because factions are considered friendly/unfriendly doesn't mean your character has to agree with the consensus. Perhaps your character is a Corrington soldier who's brother was killed by Eslandola merchants after a bad deal (and is hostile to Eslandola despite the official friendly stance)? Perhaps your Oleon noble was rescued by pirates after his ship run aground and has sympathies towards them despite the governments hostility? However, remember that in the faction challenges you will need to participate with the government actions - i.e. you can have as nuanced a backstory as you like, but you can't fight against your own government if you don't agree with the war they are embroiled in. So choose carefully!

I agree with that, but as Kolonialbeamter already stated, it'd be good if players also made their own flags (in their factions colours of course). That would allow more variety!

Great work Maxim I. I love these flags! The East Xulumandia Trade Company is definitely the star of the show, I really like the crossed anchors. It'd be great to see similar versions for Corrington and Oleon.

Agreed on both counts. Personally, I'm OK with limited depictions of slavery provided there is no clear race aspect, i.e. an islander tribe enslaves their captives regardless of skin colour. Trying to model the African slave trade in this game would be best avoided. I like the imaginary names. As Maxim I says, they are imaginary nations, and it's worth remembering that! Just like the slaves issue, it's best trying to avoid linking Britain/France/Spain to the imperial powers because this adds an emotional involvement to the game that is best avoided.

Glad to see everyone answering the poll and giving their opinions. Keep the comments coming!

Congratulations! A very nice theme and not too overdone. I am sure the guests would have loved it!

Despite what I said in the other thread, I voted for Oleon. I think I'd go with either them or Pirates. In the latter case, I quite like the idea of being a corsair!

Don't worry about it Goliath! No hard feelings...! Welcome Lord Renyrth and your tribe! Look forward to seeing more from you.

This is an exciting project! Typical to see SkaForHire involved again, that man is omnipresent! Good job though, I think he'll be a great person to have involved from both a historical and gameplay perspective! My own feelings about it would be to keep the number of factions to a minimum. The less factions, the more faction participation. Some ideas: I like the idea of having the pirates with "roaming" allegiance rather than being a separate faction (I don't know if this goes against SkaForHire's reveal of the Empire of Corrington in post #160). I'd also argue that the "Islanders" faction could have a similar role. So I'd have Corrington, Oleon and Eslandola as the main factions, with Pirates and Islanders having floating allegiance. To present abuse of this system, perhaps everyone could have one character from the main imperial powers, and one from either Pirates/Islanders. Alternatively, the Pirates/Islanders could have a different risk/reward system, i.e. if you are a Pirate and you align with Oleon for this challenge, if Oleon win you get double points, if they are 2nd no points, and if 3rd you lose some points. Additionally, it could be that the imperial powers have to sacrifice some of their points to hire the Pirates/Islanders. For example, the Pirates decide a bounty in points (either collectively or on an individual basis) and each empire decides who to hire for the challenge. Pirates affiliated with an imperial power get normal points (and the hiring faction gets the pirates points x2 but lose to the pirates the number of points they agreed to pay to hire them). I think this could be designed better, but you get where I'm going with it. Further to this, it would be interesting if we could represent the advancement in democracy with some kind of minister system here. For example, each faction has a limited (e.g. 2 or 3 max) number of ministerial posts available, and they incumbents have to be voted in by the rest of the faction. These players have some perks (e.g. ministerial entries count double for the challenge) but they can only serve two consecutive terms (where one grand challenge is one term). This would encourage the most active builders to be voted into these roles, encouraging participation. At least, that's the theory! Hope that makes sense. My favourite period in history is the Spanish "discovery" of the Aztec Empire (see 1, 2, 3, 4), so I'd be naturally inclined towards Eslandola and/or the Islander faction (plus I'd get to be in the same team as best buddy Maxim I again, woohoo! ). I like that we're not using historical empire names (even if they are obviously rip-offs...!) to avoid any nationalistic feelings, but I'd have some questions regarding the setting: What is the scope of the map? It is just the colonies as the main action point with the "old world" being depicted in MOCs but can never be fought over? (That'd be my preference) What is the approximate focus of the colonies? As you will all be aware, it wasn't just the Caribbean being colonised at this time - Africa, India and Australia all had European colonies, and trade with China and Japan was also common. I realise it's fictitious, but could the Islander faction be Africans/Indians etc? As for the magic/realism argument, I'd say that I'm fine with fantasy elements as long as they are less than GoH. GoH lends itself better to a fantasy setting due to it's "medieval" setting, but I'd say the age of enlightenment would have less fantasy due to the advancements in science and understanding. So having monsters and the undead on unexplored islands would be fine, as well as in the Islander realms, but I'd be against seeing a massive fantasy monster in the middle of Bellson for example. As an additional point, I'd be happy to help out run this project in any way, I have plenty of time on my hands at the moment. Just be aware I won't be doing much building for the next 9-12 months due to my personal situation. I'm sure you're all fed-up with my use of "quotes" in this post! These are a really interesting idea. I've always wondered whether that torso could be used in this setting, but I must say that for me, these look a bit out of place. The thing that puts me off is the colour seems too much like camouflage for the period, typically uniforms were gaudy and bright, it wasn't until much later (circa 1890's onward) that uniforms were designed to blend into the landscape to give the wearer some cover.

I wouldn't worry about posting several minifigs - your character introduction can have whomever you like! I know you're being a good citizen Goliath and trying to fit in, but try and not worry too much about parts of the rules not explicitly covered, if you can justify something then do so, I will be first to support you. I feel like you are worrying yourself about offending someone when you should be focusing your energy on building. Don't take this as a criticism, I'm just trying to help you stop worrying about everything! Edit: Look forward to seeing your backstory!

Great work MassEditor! Lovely counter build to Adair's original, the MOC itself is brilliant but the story takes it to another level. Nice to see those mummies, despite being dead, still have a heart!

Nice to see a square close to Avalonia...might make for some interesting architecture!

Nice counter build! Bet the dwarves didn't see that coming... One point: you've got the title as DK vs U whereas the original guerilla build was for the HC.

Really nice hut design! The smoke is a nice touch, although it seems like it could be a bit more natural (the 2x2 round plates look good, but are too "sparse" to do justice to smoke). I still absolutely love your Ulandus troops...they could be my favourite of the whole challenge! Not just because I'm biased towards Ulandus

Beautiful fireball! Nice SNOT design there and the trailing flames look great! I also like the letter you've written, I can see the effort you put into that. Great work!

Love the bamboo and foliage, but as Kai NRG has pointed out, the stream would benefit from being level with or below the surrounding landscape. But only a minor nitpick. Your wingless serpent minfiigs look great!

Nice SNOT rockwork! The mixture of light and dark bley works very well. Nice use of the minifig heads for the rebels...they look desperate enough! Go Ulandus!

Well played. Beautiful brick built animal. The studs out construction really makes it look like fur!

What Graham said...but funnier! The first picture is excellent too with the 100% LEGO shot. I love those!

Beautiful architecture on this! I love those minifigs as well, really nice use of the leather fish-scale armour!

Nice use of history there to make a good scene! Sounds like those Ulandian soldiers have a lot to learn...

Haha, very sneaky of those Desert King agents! Well done getting the monkey to balance like that, you sure have patience!