Chronicler06

Four more levels fully completed, so that was some good progress this week. I should warn you that the next two levels will have certain difficulties to them. First of them (the only one you have apparently yet to collect a certain amount of studs) will be on moving mine carts after the first area, but while those areas in constant motion are in a circuit, I'd recommend you be careful to not hit just any random thing or you might find yourself progressing through the level without being able to collect some minikits along the way. Second of them starts off with needing to collect two minikits while running through a chase zone (I remember being most frustrated with that particular area, though perhaps knowing that you can save and quit to grab at least one of those two might make things a little easier for you), and let's just say you'll start off with needing to immediately use that bazooka trooper as soon as the level starts. As for the achievements, like I said earlier, Steam doesn't provide achievements for the oldest Lego games (LEGO Lord of the Rings was the earliest Lego game for which I could unlock achievements on Steam), so I have no experience with which I could offer any assistance, so I'm afraid you'll need to figure out that aspect for yourself.

Nice to see you decided to get that Tales of the Space Age set I had recommended, and that you overall like it. Quite appropriate timing as well, considering the solar eclipse that occurred earlier this week. I do not yet have any other set recommendations (at least among sets that are still available for purchase), so I'll be interested to see what else you might have in mind. For the Lego Indiana Jones game stream, since it's become clear that your primary source for guides has failed to be specific enough, the link I'll provide at the bottom of this post leads to all the Lego games guides available on Steam, which I've used while playing these Lego games. Many of them provide images in addition to the text, which should help provide a better idea of where you'll find all of the collectibles. The only time where I would recommend a video guide would be for some that have proven to be a little difficult to obtain, such as trying to hop into the back of a moving truck (you may want to study that video for where they jump from and in which direction they go for that particular one). From my experience, the most frustrating minikits to obtain in this game were at the beginning of the last level of Temple of Doom since they're in a chase zone, but maybe you'll have better luck with those than I did, because I don't really remember having much of a problem with that one you're still missing from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Quite unfortunate that it's at the end of a level in an older Lego game, though I do have experience with a similarly frustrating minikit in Lego Lord of the Rings, but I did catch a break when I discovered that I could reset that chase zone by quitting the level without saving and then immediately restarting the level would somehow start me at the beginning of the chase zone rather than the entire level, so while I have no idea if that would be of any help to you, I figured it might be at least worth sharing as a possible idea to consider. Anyway, here's the link for those Lego games guides: https://steamcommunity.com/id/legogamesguy/myworkshopfiles/?section=guides&p=1&numperpage=30

Unfortunately, I missed the game stream tonight, as I was preoccupied with winding down after witnessing the total solar eclipse earlier today. I'll have to watch the recording sometime later. At least the other stream later this week will be a build, so that'll allow me to relax and talk about various things in the chat (such as the eclipse).

Pretty good progress going through the first Lego Indiana Jones game the last two days. I will say that the Steam guide I've been checking includes images to help out, so you might find that to be more preferable to what you've been reading. As for the achievements, let me remind you that I've played these Lego games on Steam, which for some reason does not have any achievements for the older Lego games, so I will not be able to provide you with any (experienced) help with unlocking any of those achievements. I'm pretty sure there's more I wanted to mention, but I'm currently in a bit of a rush to get to something else, so I'll probably post about it later if I can remember it.

Now that I'm more flexible with watching these livestreams, it's actually kind of nice that I had a chance to just chat a little bit about my own collection of Lego sets while you were building something. And while I do occasionally check brickset.com about Lego news, the announcement of those upcoming space theme collectible minifigures was recent enough that I had only just now heard about it, and now that I've taken a look, I'm beginning to consider possibly getting those as perhaps the only wave of collectible minifigures I may ever try to get all of them, let alone any of them. I do find it kind of strange that I'm once again apparently the only viewer using the chat, as I assumed it was builds like these that got other fellow members more interested. Eh, I guess that might change once awareness gets out there of this new schedule. Anyway, an interesting build this week, and I'll certainly be looking forward to what'll be on next week.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm really glad that as a result of both of us playing Lego Brawls recently, I had decided to start watching streams on my tablet rather than my computer, as that allows me to be more flexible with when I could be available to join in. Even so, 7:00 pm Eastern Time is pretty much right at the earliest moment when I could be available on a weekday, so as long as you don't try moving it to an earlier time, I'll be okay with this. I've always had at least a mild interest in the Architecture theme, so I was fine with watching today's build stream of Venice. As for which other sets I could recommend for upcoming build streams, the Tales of the Space Age set from the Ideas theme I had mentioned in the chat might be a good idea. Not only is it $50 (I think you mentioned that would be easily within you budget, though correct me if I misheard), but also you have a lot of possibilities on where you could place the completed set, either on a narrow shelf (only four studs thick) or even hang it up on a wall (each segment includes that special piece on the back you see on those Art theme sets). On the side of video games, I would first suggest continuing with Lego Brawls, since you've already got the first of six Champion characters unlocked, so you might as well go for the other five. After that, you could either keep going at least until you've fully unlocked everything in every available theme in that game, or you might consider picking up Lego Bricktales and trying that game. From my experience, it took me about an hour to complete each story level (five in total), a couple more hours to go for full game completion after that, and less than an hour for each of the bonus levels (four in total), so while it'll take some time to complete Lego Bricktales, it won't be quite as long as most of the other Lego games you've already played. Not a bad start to this new system, so I'll make sure to stick around and see what's next.

Now that I'm finally not so busy with other things, I can take this opportunity to share my thoughts on all of this. I will say that now that I know I'm capable of accessing a Twitch livestream on my tablet, that'll make it a little more convenient for me to be able to watch whenever the stream is on. The reason I had suggested a notification at least a day ahead of schedule is because I'm not exactly checking in on BZPower more than once a day. I typically check on things here around the early evening (6 or 7 pm Eastern time), so if the word gets out just hours ahead of a stream, there's a possibility I could miss out if I happen to be later than usual to check the site for whatever reason. Of course, that's more of a problem that I would have more control over, so long as I can remember to at least briefly check in early enough to find out whether or not a livestream will be on soon. While I'll definitely continue to watch livestreams of you playing Lego games, live builds are a more open possibility for me. While some builds would interest me more then others, I was usually never able to watch any such streams because my weekends are usually preoccupied with other interests, not to mention those build streams tend to last longer than the game streams which makes it difficult to me to have much interest in such live builds (unless of course if it's a particular set that I really like a lot). Now that I know that I have the option of accessing Twitch on my tablet, that'll make it possible for me to do other things on my computer while I listen and occasionally watch the stream on my tablet beside me, so I just might be able to join in on some of your lives builds (though weekends are still going to be very unlikely for me). Overall, I'm okay with whatever you decide to do moving forward.

Sorry, but that was Tuesday of last week. Normally, you could've tried again the following week, but as he mentioned in last week's stream, there will be no streams at all for the entire month of February. After that, your guess is as good as mine, as he's planning to spend this month adjusting his schedule or something like that. I don't know anything about his real life obligations, so you'll need to ask Black Six yourself if you want more information. Besides, it's should be obvious that 7:30 pm Eastern would mean 4:30 pm Pacific. Just basic math.

To give you an idea of what there is to see, G5 starts with the movie "My Little Pony: A New Generation" on Netflix, followed by two series that ran at the same time, "Make Your Mark" (also on Netflix) and "Tell Your Tale" (releasing on YouTube). "Make Your Mark" uses the same 3D CGI animation as the movie and follows a rather interesting story arc, consisting of six "chapters" for a total of 23 episodes and 4 specials (and only recently did I hear confirmation that this series will not be continued). "Tell Your Tale" uses an alternate 2D animation and focuses more on silly slice-of-life moments in five-minute episodes (the first season of 70 episodes ended at around the same time as the other series, but the second season has already begun with new episodes currently coming out every week). After you're fully caught up on FiM, I would highly recommend that you at least see the movie, as it's arguably the best part in all of G5. After that, if you end up liking the New Generation movie, you might find Make Your Mark to be interesting as well (not quite as high quality as the movie, but with a story arc that I found quite interesting). Tell Your Tale, however, may or my not be worth watching, depending on your tolerance for silly nonsense, because while I found some episodes to be somewhat interesting, there are others I would rather not watch ever again (especially the most recent ones from Season 2).

I suppose if you're going on a month-long hiatus from streaming, the end of today's progress seems like a good stopping point. Fully unlocked your first Champion character and gained access to your second, though not yet made any progress towards unlocking that new Champion. Also completed the Western theme and just getting started on the Space theme. In addition, I finally figured out that the key to staying in a party is to simply wait for the host to return the the party room, then the guests will be able to automatically stay without needing to re-enter the code every time. At this point, you now know how to unlock everything there is left to unlock in the game, so now it's just a matter of putting in the time and effort to unlock the Champion characters with their respective achievements, as well as complete the themes and open the mystery bags. (Speaking of achievements, I noticed your True Achievements listing of Lego Brawls finally updated last week. I guess it syncs only when you complete an achievement, rather than merely make progress towards an achievement.) Since unlocking all of the mystery bags is obviously going to be an immense effort, do you think at least completing all of the themes would seem doable for you? At this point, you've completed two and a half out of 13 themes (not counting the seasonal themes), so I guess it would depend on how much further progress you'll make by the time you've got all six Champions unlocked. Anyway, I'll be sure to keep an eye out for any updates regarding your new streaming schedule. Besides, I've got plenty of other things I'd like to get caught up on, so I'll make use of these free Tuesdays over the next month to try clearing my to-do list a little more quickly.

It may have taken a while, but congrats on finally getting the top brawler 20 times achievement! And with that finally accomplished, all there is left to do among the achievements is unlock the six champion characters. As I said in the chat, performance is no longer necessary, all you have to do is pick and use powerups as quickly as possible. It should be noted that when you're in the voting lobby, whatever option is at the bottom of the list (either Base Race or one of the small Free-for-Brawl maps) will always be a map where the powerups are pre-selected, meaning you will never find any of your character's powerups and thus you won't be able to make any progress towards unlocking the champions characters, so be sure to avoid voting for whatever that last option might be. Also, nice to see you've not only completed the Monkie Kid theme, but also made significant progress through the Western theme. If you somehow manage to complete that theme in next week's stream, just remember that what I would recommend among the remaining themes are either Space or Pirates, and of course I'll let you decide which of those to go for next. And since I got to join in Party Mode for the last few rounds, I'll now rewatch that part of the stream to hear what you said while I was busy playing. EDIT: After the rewatch, just a couple things I'd like to say. On our first round together, I voted for Monkie Kid because I kind of had that theme on the mind after watching your recent progress, and since it was just us with a bunch of bots, that's pretty much what we ended up with. At least we got to prove that the free for all maps really are a complete free for all, even if there are players together in Party Mode. The other thing, I will say that when we were on the Ninjago map, I was amused by your unintentional demonstration that while the tranquilizer gun can immobilize someone in a chicken costume (or whatever costume on other maps that provides instant kills), you can still get hurt if you run into the immobilized costume character.

Although I have a lot of new sets currently on my wishlist, I'll probably pass on this particular double points promotion. The gift-with-purchase set being offered at this time (some Chinese New Year themed set for spending over $85) doesn't really interest me, so I'll hold off to see what else might be offered later this year. Besides, my family and I are currently waiting to receive some replacement credit cards after one of our old ones was apparently hacked, so it's not like I'm able to make any online purchases right now anyway.

Well, pleased to see that you made further progress on the top brawler achievement, even if it did not quite get all of the times you should've gotten progress. But hey, just three more to go, so it won't be much longer until you'll get it. When it comes to items to unlock, I never bothered to specify the weapons like I did with the powerups because, as far as I'm aware, they all perform just about the same. Regardless, if you intend to create a character that uses the Monkie Kid staff once you unlock it, I would highly recommend you also include the two Monkie kid powerups (the skyboard and the food truck), because you saw how effective they were being used against you, so they might be worth trying out to see if they work for you. As for which theme to switch to after you complete Monkie Kid, I was going to suggest either Space, Pirates, or Western and let you chose between those three, but it seems you've already decided on Western, so I'll just leave it at that. Hopefully, things go good enough next week that you'll finally get the top brawler achievement. I'll be looking forward to returning to party mode with you soon enough.

Well, I did mention my own struggles with figuring out what did and didn't really count towards that achievement, and that my only real suggestion (besides my speculation to use different custom characters) was to simply keep checking it every time you thought you made any amount of progress to see if it actually registered as such. I'm sure I recall at least once that you were able to check the progress on that achievement while you were still playing the game, so perhaps you should at least keep that in mind for the next stream or two.

Since you found the information of powerups unlocked from certain themes helpful, I decided to check again to count the total amount of all content to unlock from each theme, so that you would have a better idea of how long it would take to fully complete each theme. Ninjago Dragons Rising - 24 Ninjago Legacy - 35 Juassic World - 22 Castle - 49 Ninjago Prime - 20 Ninjago Seabound - 26 Alien Conquest - 14 Space - 16 Monkie Kid - 25 Hidden Side - 15 Pirate - 29 Western - 24 Vidiyo - 26 Of course, this doesn't include the two seasonal themes, but you've already completed the Holidays one in December and the Spooky one won't become available again until next October, by which point it's possible you may already have every other theme completed. Also, from what I've counted of your current progress, you've unlocked 29 from Castle and 8 from Monkie Kid (with just four more until you unlock the second powerup from that theme), to give you an idea of how much further you have to go. Interestingly, while I was checking that out, it seems double studs are back in effect for this coming week (which I find kind of odd since I've come to expect it on the final week of each month), so that should allow you to make some significant progress through the themes in your next stream. By the way, I'm still eager to hear confirmation if I correctly counted how many times you've gotten top brawler so far. I've noticed that thing in your signature that seems to display your achievements progress on many games, but since it seems to falsely state that you last played Lego Brawls back in late December, I can't rely on that potential source of information.