Darnok

Happy new year everybody! I hope life is going well for each and every one around here - and that things get better if not.

I appreciate the violence... but why? Some more story context would be nice!

You can build them now, do pictures once done, and store those until needed. Have some picture material ready, and write stories fitting both those MOCs and the upcoming Era III lore if and when it is out. Really no need to wait with building.

So sorry to see this end. I hope @Capt Wolf stays around as an active player? Or is this a ride into the sunset?

Again, the interior really delivers on the promise the front makes. These are excellent! Also: good to know we will see more story unfold around these builds. They are brilliant overall, it would be a shame to only "use" them once!

The house front is already great, but the interior really elevates this thing to awesomeness - so good! Already looking forward to all the other ones. Yeah, Oleanders usually just run or die.

Great looking street! Any plans to modify the build over the next weeks for some "christmas market" version?

Sorry for being out of the loop to miss this years round - but great to see this is still going! Congrats to both winners, each build deserved the win despite such low numbers. Well done both @Justsomebrix and @NOD!

I have been in some kind of mini Dark Ages lately, but things should be a bit more back to normal now. So this prospect of a new Era for BOBS sounds great to me! I think my life is a bit too volatile to be reliable enough for leadership here, but I am looking forward to what a change in the team will look like. Been there, done that. Condensing the world map a bit would be a good idea in my opinion, including maybe removing some locations that were not settled so far. It has been years with literally no activities on some islands - maybe those can just disappear in whatever catastrophe might be about to happen? I would also really appreciate the return of some meaningful economic system. The one we had and still have was great overall, but over the years it has made money almost pointless for long-time players, while still putting some serious barriers in front of new players. I have no brilliant solution here, but something that works for both new and old players alike and does not suffer with "inflation" too much over time would be great.

Just sharing this, I found it very enlightening:

I guess most people are aware of ChatGPT and its abilities. I was wondering how knowledgable it is about BoBS, so did some testing. Enjoy the ride: For those not overly familiar with the games lore: only the first two questions were answered correctly, the rest is complete nonsense. I would be interested to read what others can get out of our new arificial intelligence overlord - please share!

This is awesome indeed. Great work man!

Mine are not for sale!

Salt mine near Mesabi Landing, licensed for the faction.

Copper mine near Quinnsville, licensed for the faction.

At long last, after salt had been found under the sands near Mesabi Landing, a mine had finally been set up to dig up the white gold. While some had a good time, happy to work in the mines... ... watching guard was apparently not as popular. Maybe it was the proximity to the... mining equipment? ================================================================ Licensed for Corrington as a salt mine in Mesabi Landing. Of note for @Ayrlego for this: the faction income goes up 30DB. Not a lot to say really. One more view at the entrance... ... and an overview:

When copper had been found near Quinnsville, the WTC had plans to get a mine set up as soon as possible. Unfortunately it had taken much longer than anticipated - but by the end of 622 the mine was up and running at last. A local offical had been invited for an inspection, approaching the mine with WTC representative Arthur Mengsk: "So as I have explained previously, all of this will be formally run by the WTC, but the Crown receives a good chunk of the income. You provide minifigs for the digging and get plenty of copper for all kinds of stuff. May I suggest bronze cannons?" "I do not yet understand. Mr. Mengsk. This seems so very unlike everything we heard of the WTC so far?! Why do you not do it all for yurself, it surely would be more profitable that way?" "If only it were so easy. The WTC is stretched a bit thin due to the Lotii, and we just do not have the manpower for all of our projects. Still, this way Mr. Mordo believes we can both have our cake and eat it: here I have the contracts, already signed by him. Similar ventures are to be set up in other locations, so we would much appreciate if you could inform your superiors, so the formalities can be dealt with quicker in the future." "I will see what I can do. If this turns out the way you described it, there should be no issues whatsoever. Pleasant business with the WTC, who would have thought?!" Nearby, next to some crates of copper ore, a worker on break watched the scene... ... while more ore was carried out of the mine already... ... and even more was about to be ripped out of the heart of the mountains. ================================================================ Licensed for Corrington as a copper mine in Quinnsville. Of note for @Ayrlego for this: the faction income goes up 40DB. Most of 2022 did not go as planned for me, so of course it takes the last evening of the year to get some stuff posted. With this mine I went for more of a "playset approach", meaning everything is easily accessible provides a variety of eperate scenes: And yes, you can watch the very end of the mine from the front: Last, but by no means least, some of the reference pictures I took as inspiration:

No explosions? Your standards were higher once upon a time! Nice and clean architecture, you keep on improving. On top of the hilarious story (as usual!) I also really like the tie-in to a variety of ongoing story threads. Well done!

Another excellent build of yours, with a suitably hilarious story worth of the Count. Loving it! And those damn Oleonites are up to no good, as usual! On the plus side: canned meat for everbody!

Sounds like a great idea to me! Also: if at a later point some WTC troops got wind of this, things could get... interesting.

I am not entirely sure if this is a threat... or a generous offer!

Lovely procession and surroundings there! The writing is inspired as well, I chuckled quite a bit. Where are these cool black frame parts from? Those are awesome!

The WTC has finally set up camp.

It was a cool afternoon, Colonel Archibald Galloway was inspecting one of the WTC camps that had been set up near Seawatch. "Easy lad. I see things are going along as planned. If it wasn't for the aftermath of the Red Angel sinking, I would even have made it to that first meeting of the other bigwig redshirts." "Sir, it is an honour to serve with you. After what you have done to those lunatic Oleandoodlers at Fatu Hiva... good times. Regarding the Red Angel, there might be an issue. Rumour among the troops has it that almost our entire supply of canned horsemeat was on there. Sir, is this true?" "See, officially I can neither confirm nor deny this, but... you better honour what you have left of your stock over there. Despite how this may turn out: I wish to remind you all of the strict order to not touch any horses of the Crowns forces!" "Sir... yes, sir. I guess our allies in blue and green are fair game?" "Again, I can neither confirm nor deny. I would certainly put a blind eye to any... accidents. And you better keep me a can of 'Roasted Horsebelly In Rum Sauce' if you know what's best for your career!" "Sir? Yes. Sir!" ================================================================ Nothing special really, just a small vignette to introduce the commanding officer of the WTC for the Seawatch campaign - that is until the Count joins the fray. If and when that might happen? We will have to wait and see... Some more pictures of the whole build: Thanks for watching, and I hope we all have some good times with this storyline! Well, maybe not the horses...

Having served the WTC - and by extension, the Crown of Corrington - well in the past years, Captain Gerard Wilton, of WTC infamy and nicknamed "Old One Eye", has been promoted to the rank of Commodore some time ago. His current whereabouts ore unknown, but only time will tell if his past achievements can be seen as promises of greatness or warning signs...