SoNE Contest Episode V: Secret Plans

[Lobot]

Rebels

General Madine: “Right chaps, it’s imperative that we find out what the Empire is planning to construct. We cannot allow them to succeed; we must make every attempt to locate and destroy it, whatever it is.

General Rieekan: “How are we going to do that, we don’t have the resources to commit to an extensive search?

General Madine: “I’ve heard that several Bothans may be sympathetic to the Rebellion, and they’re renowned for their spying abilities, so they would be the perfect for such a mission”

General Rieekan: “And how are we supposed to make contact with them, they could be anywhere”

General Madine: “I have a few potential leads, we’ll deploy several teams across the galaxy to try and make contact with them”

General Rieekan: “Right, I’ll gather any troops that I can find, and brief them”

"I don't suppose that you're a Bothan spy by any chance?"

Rebel Objectives:

Your primary aim is to search for, and make contact with the Bothan sympathisers. You can travel to any part of the galaxy where the Bothans are rumoured to be located; your entry should depict one of the following:

• The search for the Bothans, this can include any method of travel
  
• The first contact with them, in any suitable location
  
• Negotiations and initial briefing
  

Imperials:

Admiral Piett: “Right then, the Emperor has decided to build another Death Star... and this time we’re going to actually protect it with an impenetrable shield!”

Imperial Officer: “Wow, that’s just genius, why didn’t we think of that before? Is the shield going to be generated from inside it?”

Admiral Piett: “No, that’s going to be far too expensive, so we’ve decided to construct a small & badly protected shield generator on a nearby moon instead”

Imperial Officer: “Fair enough, what’s the plan?”

Admiral Piett: “I want you to lead a team to survey an area we’ve provisionally identified, and to start construction of both the shield generator and landing platform. Our remote sensing indicates that the moon is devoid of any intelligent, or plausible, life-forms but you have my permission to neutralise anything you encounter that could hinder our progress”

"Is it me or did I just see an armed teddy bear?"

Imperial Objectives:

Your primary aim is to travel to the moon of Endor, as part of a small Imperial team. Your entry should depict any of the following:

• Preparing for the mission
  
• Surveying the site for the shield generator and landing pad
  
• Clearing the site in preparation for the construction (including removal of any native inhabitants if required)
  
• Start the construction of the shield generator or landing pad
  

Rules

From the Core Rules

Your faction will receive points based on two factors:

Points: The average number of points per builder.

Builders: Two points for each builder.

These two totals are added to each other, and the faction with the higher total is the winner.

All the players on the winning team will receive this tag to commemorate their victory

You can only have one of these tags or one of the Community Build tags at a time, but a log will be kept of all the tags you've earned in your profile in the Characters topic.

The player who receives the most total individual points, regardless of team, is guaranteed a spot among the next set of the blog's Showcased MOCs. (This member must still be able to provide a picture big enough and of suitable quality to be used in the Showcased banner.)

You will receive XP equal to the number of points you are awarded from the judges.

Episode v Rules (all rules in the Core Rules topic apply):

The Episode will run from 10th May to 21st June. As long as it's still 21st June somewhere in the world, you can still enter.

All entries must be built from real LEGO or with Lego Digital Designer LDD). No clone brands, no third-party custom parts.

All entries must be posted as a new topic in the Watto's Junkyard subforum, the title prefixed by, '[soNE Ep. V]'. (For example, '[soNE Ep. V] Survey of the site').

Entries can be of any size, and must meet at least one of the objectives for your faction.

Remember to make your entry appropriate to your rank and goal. From the Core Rules:

Your build will be scored in two stages, to make it easier on the judges by lessening the number of builds that must be scored in greater detail:

In the first stage, the judges will award a score from 1-10, with a '1' being "Minifig on a Plate", a '5' being "Your Average MOC" and a '10' being "Flawless Concept and Execution".

In the second stage, the top five builds of each faction (so ten in total) from the first stage will be scored based on basic predetermined criteria: up to 10 points for the concept and appropriateness to the objective, up to 25 points for your execution of the build, and up to 5 points for your presentation of the entry.

For builders who make it to the second stage, their second stage total is added to their first stage points, and that total is divided by two. You can earn a maximum of 25 points in each episode.

The amount of points you earn is also the amount of XP your character earns.

Entries posted after the deadline will be disqualified from the episode and will not be eligible to receive XP.

This episode/contest is open to all players of Shadows of Nar Eurbrikka, even if they joined EB or signed up for the game after the episode has begun, with the exception of the Star Wars staff, who are not eligible to win XP or prizes; the EB admins and moderators, who are not eligible to win prizes but may earn XP; and the episode host, who is not eligible to win prizes but may earn XP.

One entry per member.

All entries must be new creations, not posted anywhere else prior to being entered in the episode. You may be asked by a staff member to change your entry if it is too similar to an earlier creation.

Post pictures no larger than 1000x720, as specified in the EB Member Guidelines.

You may do a 'full-blown photo edit' with all the text, effects, background compositing, support erasing, and other effects on one picture. All your other pictures may have no editing other than colour adjustment or background removal for a solid-colour background. For obvious reasons, any photo editing that changes the shape, functionality, or colour (not tint or adjustment, but actual colour) of a LEGO piece is prohibited.

All entries are considered WIPs (Works In Progress) until the deadline passes. Until the deadline has passed, you are allowed to change and improve your MOC.

[Dapper-D2]

Sounds exciting, any idea yet what the new tag will be?

[BEAVeR]

'Secret plans'... some one has been playing Lego Star Wars II, I guess...

It's nice to have an episode that isn't centered around conflict... I'm curious to see the stories every one will come up with. And a job on a nice quiet forest planet? I can handle that. At least there won't be a lot of killing involved this time. But wait... Endor huh, why did Markus post his spectacular diorama a week too eraly? Darn it...

I'm just wondering why the old scoring system is adopted again without any changes. Bu at least now, I guess there will be an even amount ofentries from each faction, so that should be okay.

So now on to build some vegetation... there's a first time for everything and I just love that SoNE keeps pushing me to tackle all those different challenges!

[Mr Man]

Hmm, flamethrowers and Ewoks, sounds like fun .

[Lobot]

Sounds exciting, any idea yet what the new tag will be?

We're currently working on it, but it shouldn't be too difficult to guess

'Secret plans'... some one has been playing Lego Star Wars II, I guess...

*snip*

I'm just wondering why the old scoring system is adopted again without any changes. Bu at least now, I guess there will be an even amount ofentries from each faction, so that should be okay.

I'd forgotten that 'Secret Plans' was used in it, honestly!! I had a random thought of some stormtroopers carrying chainsaws one day, and built up the concept for the Episode from there. Re: the rule changes, we haven't forgotten but most of us are very busy at the moment (Doc especially) so we'll hopefully do something about it for the next Episode....

Hmm, flamethrowers and Ewoks, sounds like fun .

Don't forget H&S though, chainsaws and strimmers are probably more appropriate, otherwise it could be a rather substantial forest fire

[Mr Man]

Don't forget H&S though, chainsaws and strimmers are probably more appropriate, otherwise it could be a rather substantial forest fire

Won't it be a bit messy killing Ewoks with strimm.....

Ahhhhh clearing the forest. Right sorry .

[markus1984]

Ahhhh, thans not fair!

All my plants are in my Endor MOC :laugh:

I take this for my entry

markus

[Mr Breden]

Sounds good, I'll try to participate this time.

[MKJoshA]

So, what are the limits for where the Rebels can search? Are all planets up for grabs?

[Lobot]

As both factions have different objectives, and aren't directly competing, there aren't any planets available in this Episode.

Within reason you can travel anywhere you want to contact the Bothans as it's a covert operation. Tatooine might be a good option, or somewhere similar that's not under total Imperial control! However, as explained in the rules it doesn't necessarily need to be a planet; meetings on ships etc would be fine as well......!

[Bob De Quatre]

Don't think I'll participate in this one... I still have a big LDD project and a smaller real-brick project to finish...

And we have to let the Imps win someday... or not?

[Lord Tyrus]

Imperial Objectives:

Your primary aim is to travel to the moon of Endor, as part of a small Imperial team. Your entry should depict any of the following:

• Preparing for the mission
  
• Surveying the site for the shield generator and landing pad
  
• Clearing the site in preparation for the construction (including removal of any native inhabitants if required)
  
• Start the construction of the shield generator or landing pad
  

By 'preparing for the mission', can I show a hangar or a lab room?

I've got an idea, involving an Imperial technician and an experimental starfighter for the mission. Otherwise, I'll show a landing craft if this isn't within the rules.

Edited May 19, 2014 by Lord Tyrus

[Lobot]

Hi

I'm not sure that a lab would really meet the 'spirit' of the Episode. To be honest I''d imagined hangers, shuttles being loaded with construction equipment etc and I hope that you can build something suitable around that. For example, a small amount of 'experimentation' within the hanger would be ok; there's already an entry which includes something similar!

[Lord Tyrus]

Hi

I'm not sure that a lab would really meet the 'spirit' of the Episode. To be honest I''d imagined hangers, shuttles being loaded with construction equipment etc and I hope that you can build something suitable around that. For example, a small amount of 'experimentation' within the hanger would be ok; there's already an entry which includes something similar!

Ok, thanks, that's cleared that up... I'm not sure a hangar would be possible now, with my palette of bricks, but I'll see, otherwise it's down to Endor with me!

Edited May 19, 2014 by Lord Tyrus

[Lord Tyrus]

Sorry, me again, are we allowed to take photos of our builds outside, like to make it look forest-y and Endor-y?

[Lobot]

Yes, that's fine if you want to. The rules also allow for one of the photos to be photo-shopped as well

[TWP]

Are we allowed to take photos of our builds outside, like to make it look forest-y and Endor-y?

Well it is sort off, but the environment may not influence the MOC I think. So using a real tree as endor tree or trunks as a cover for minifigs will violate the rule of not using non-official pieces. Your MOC will be judged separate from the environment. It does add to the presentation though, as it could sort of blend into the environment and that way look more natural, just as TLG's packaging.

[MstrOfPppts]

I must say that I'm a bit disappointed with this episode. Nothing really special about it though I think it was said that there might be and that there were some extra tasks for the higher ranks planned ... I see nothing of that here and besides I find the rebels mission far more interesting. The possibilities of their builds are endless! What I really miss is some kind of originality like episode II or the last episodes scoring system. Some size limits would also be nice from time to time to get even more interesting detailed builds ... if there's no limits everyone usually just goes as big as possible ...

Anyway, just threw out a few of my thoughts. Nevertheless I really hope I'll find some time to participate in this one, since I'm way busier than I'd want to be lately ...

[Lobot]

I'm sorry that your disappointed with the Episode, I've spent a lot of time working on it. The idea is unique, as far as I'm concerned, as it's the first Episode where each faction has a totally different objective. I tried the balance the objectives of either side as much as possible, that's why I included the option of preparing for the mission. I also hoped that a different type of environment (e.g. Endor) would make an interesting change. As I've mentioned previously a lot of the SoNE team have been busy with their own lives, and it wasn't possible to finalise any change to the scoring system, but we'll try and update it for the next one.

[Bkrosell]

Maybe I can find time for this, school ends the first week of June so I've got time.

[BEAVeR]

I have a couple of (unimportant) questions:

- Is it allowed to use custom decorations? If not, I hope it's okay to use decorations that replicate existing ones when you don't own hat particular decorated piece or when the decoration isn't available in LDD.

- I'm digging my own grave here, but wasn't it stated in the previous episode that the victorious faction would receive a bonus? Or os it the fact that the Rebels have more locations to play with now?

- When will we get to see the special tag? Then we know what we're fighting for ;)

- I know it's busy for every one (These exams are killing me and my MOCcing time!), but when the XP still hasn't been updated, a lot of freebuilds haven't been judged yet and the MOC index doesn't include the entries of the previous episode... I'm beginning to get the feeling is initiative is a bit being neglected. I hope to see a glorious revival in the summer, that will motivate us all! Also, the statement I (and several others) made in the feedback thread is still true.

Edited June 2, 2014 by BEAVeR

[goatman461]

Just to add to BEAVeRs questions

- Since there is no limit on Rebel locations in this episode, does that mean that Imperial freebuilds can be located anywhere too? From the core rules: "the planet of an active episode is open for free builds from both factions, until the episode ends." So I could build on Kashyyyk, Mustafar, Yavin 4, etc.

[VK-318]

Just to add to BEAVeRs questions

- Since there is no limit on Rebel locations in this episode, does that mean that Imperial freebuilds can be located anywhere too? From the core rules: "the planet of an active episode is open for free builds from both factions, until the episode ends." So I could build on Kashyyyk, Mustafar, Yavin 4, etc.

I don't think so. I believe that the implication was that while the Rebels could build anywhere, we Imperials were only supposed to build in the Endor system, which could include on Endor or in the Avenger and other craft located in that system. I suspect this freedom of locations is the bonus the Rebels were promised.

[Lobot]

Hi, I'll have a word with the rest of the team, but my initial thoughts are as follows:

- I'm not sure what you mean by 'custom decorations'? As far as LDD is concerned, I think the rule we agreed was that if it was a real part/colour that's fine, otherwise not.

- The tag has been a bit of a nightmare to be honest. I tried to do something which didn't work, but Masked Builder has helped out and all it needs is a slight photoshop 'tweak' from Doc. It's going to be something like 3062bpb042!

- Doc's been very busy as you've probably gathered and I've been doing what I can; the blog, keeping the forum tidy and also updating the first post on the 2014 rumours thread which took several hours this weekend....! I'm sorry that it's not ideal, but I'm sure Doc will have a lot more free time soon, so we should be able to catch up a bit!

- Re: the freebuilds, I'm not sure I see the point of building on another planet...especially when it hasn't been covered in one of the main Episodes yet? You've got the entire of Endor to explore anyway!!

[BEAVeR]

Great to see all of this is still being taken care of, and in good hands too

- I'm not sure what you mean by 'custom decorations'? As far as LDD is concerned, I think the rule we agreed was that if it was a real part/colour that's fine, otherwise not.

It would correspond to using custom stickers in real life, but only digitally. So if I don't have any stormtroopers, but I decorate some white torsos with a sticker that is as similar as possible to the official priting, would that be okay? And if I use stickers that do not attempt to replicate existing prints or stickers?