Chronicler06

While bringing back post rank images and titles for all of us to see is obviously something you're still working on fixing, I'd like to point out that I am able to see my post rank image and title in the drop-down list from clicking my username in the upper right corner of the screen, with the additional note of it being rank ###/293. (For a forum that has been notoriously secretive about the post ranges of various images and titles, knowing the total number of them all is quite a significant clue for those of us interested in keeping track of them.)

I don't have much to say this week, as I had attempted to explain everything relevant in the chat, because I assumed the forums would still be down at this time. Anyway, good to see two more levels fully completed, along with a few more achievements unlocked. And yes, I agree that saving the 2-player achievement for last would be a good idea, especially since some of the achievements for game completion seem to specify that they must be done in single player mode. Oh, and if you did happen to collect everything in some of the upcoming levels, then at the very least you could just start those levels and toggle through all of the characters to be sure you're getting all of the Extra Toggle characters, then you could simply quit the level since there would be no need to go through the whole thing if you already have everything there is to find.

The Ninjago world was fun to explore. Even though you can now access Spinjitsu switches, there are obviously still a few more abilities that will require further additional characters (such as Emmet, Unikitty, and one of the Chima characters). Not to mention, there's a bunch more Ninjago characters yet to bring in from all those separate Fun Packs, but that'll obviously have to wait until sometime later. I've already mentioned last week some various things for next's week's Pirates of the Caribbean stream, so instead, I'll mention here my thoughts for the next Dimensions stream, next month. Since you mentioned next month will very likely be the last Lego Dimensions stream for a while, I think it would be best to open the last remaining Team Pack among the Year 1 content, and that would be the DC Comics pack featuring Joker and Harley Quinn. Of course, the DC world has always been available to explore since you already have Batman (as well as Superman and Aquaman), but since you have not yet visited it at all, opening that final Team Pack would be a good reason to do so next time.

It sure is nice to have one more episode of this podcast to listen to. While I'm already familiar with much of the history of LDD thanks to previous episodes, I liked learning about the backstory of Bricklink and its Stud.io design software (with a rather tragic irony that both were originally started by someone who passed away at a rather young age). But while the recent news that Stud.io will be replacing LDD as the main Lego design software for fans might have caught some people by surprise, I was actually not that surprised at all. Considering the fact that LDD has not really seen any updates in the last five years and that Bricklink and Stud.io had been acquired by the Lego Group not long ago, I always felt that it was only a matter of time before the switch would be declared official and LDD would be essentially shut down (though apparently it'll still remain in use for those working within the company). Anyway, just having another episode to listen to was a fun surprise I had today, and even though there's no set schedule to any future content, I'll be looking forward to whatever they come up with next.

Going over the list of achievements, I think you managed to get a total of nine from this week's stream, though I've also noticed three more that are also relatively easy to unlock with what you currently have available, so perhaps next time before starting the next level, it might be a good idea to get those out of the way. Also, I think it might be reasonable to accept that you might not obtain every single achievement for this game, especially since one of them is for completing a level in 2-player co-op mode (believe me, from my experience in other Lego games, getting that kind of achievement on your own, while doable, can be quite awkward and tricky, and I'd rather not force you to rapidly fumble between two controllers). As for the Extra Toggle characters, I just looked up this game's guide on Steam (my preferred reference) and it seems that while some of these characters do appear in multiple levels, others appear in only one level (in fact, it seems at least four of them are found only in the very next level you'll be playing). Keeping track of them through all twenty levels might get confusing, so it's probably better to just quickly swap between all given characters as you did recently in the first level (after all, you only need to be playing as each character, even if only for one second for each of them, for the achievement to count). And for that final locked character, it's apparently a variant of Jack Sparrow that can only be unlocked by a entering a code in the Extras menu (I'll share it with you in the game's chat next time if you're interested, or you could just look it up yourself). Anyway, excellent progress this week, and I'll be looking forward to exploring Ninjago in Lego Dimensions with its Team Pack next week.

Personally, I prefer to keep the voices, as it makes the game feel more alive to me. I suppose having the feature be optional will allow both sides of the debate to feel satisfied. Anyway, as thrilled as I am that the first new Lego game in three years has finally got a specific launch date, I will not be rushing to purchase it myself when that happens. Unlike Lego sets that get discontinued after only a year or two, major video games these days will almost certainly still be available after several years, long enough for me to wait for the price to come down a little and get it during a sale (as I've done with all other previous Lego games). By waiting to get this game a little later, not only will I have the benefit of more likely finding a complete guide to help me if I need one, but also I actually welcome the chance to watch this game's content on Twitch Tuesday so I can have an idea of what to expect when I'm eventually ready to play this game myself. All in all, I'm definitely looking forward to the new Lego Star Wars video game.

Just in case if I end up with little time to spare after next week's stream, I think I'll take this opportunity to talk about what I would like to see in the next Lego Dimensions stream (which will be two weeks from today). Of the two remaining Year 1 Team Packs, I would prefer to go with Ninjago next. While there's obviously quite a lot of additional Fun Packs for the Ninjago theme, I would recommend at the very least to open the Team Pack, which features Kai and Cole. While each Ninjago character will certainly have their own unique range of abilities, the one ability that nearly all of them will have is the Spinjitsu ability (not quite sure how that will work, but it does at least somehow involve the use of those red and gold round platforms that have occasionally appeared in some places throughout the game). As for what kind of content to expect while exploring the Ninjago hub world, keep in mind that this game came out in 2015, so the TV series was only up to Season 4 at the time.

It's always nice to see some of the projects that I gave one of the 10,000 votes of support for to be listed as up for review, meaning it's now only a matter of time before we know for sure whether any of them will become sets. For this group, I had given my support to four of them, but the one I would love to have more than the others would definitely be the James Web Space Telescope (and with the enthusiastic kind of support I've been seeing from some other fans, it could be possible). Another one I had voted for that I foresee lots of enthusiasm for would be the Big Boy train engine (there's plenty of train enthusiasts out there, and very few trains are as well-known as Big Boy). I'll also be keeping my eye on the Clockwork Solar System and the Rubik's Cube.

Yeah, some of those achievements look like quite a grind that even I might find challenging to accomplish myself (and since Steam doesn't offer achievements for those older Lego games, I have no way of knowing if I ever managed to actually pull it off), but some others look pretty simple, such as purchasing all of certain groups of characters. In fact, the very first thing that I recommend you do when you return to Lego Pirates of the Caribbean is to purchase all of the remaining characters, since you've already got more than enough studs for it. To save time, I suggest that you enter the two large buildings in the left section of the hub area; the right building is where all the friendly characters will show up, and the left building is where all the opposing characters (which means you'll need to sword fight them before you can purchase them) will show up. (Only two characters will not appear in either building, and that's the two tribal guys, who you'll find wandering around on the beach in front of the main pier.) Also, I recall from the 24-hour stream that you struggled to obtain the last few Red Bricks because you couldn't figure out how to destroy silver objects underwater. The solution is actually rather simple (even without any characters that could both walk underwater and blow up silver objects). Use Jack's compass to find a box of bombs on the beach, dig up that box, then use any underwater character to carry those bombs over to the underwater silver objects. By obtaining all of the characters and red bricks, I'm sure you'll unlock a few achievements before you even start your first attempt on any of the levels.

In all honesty, I'm finding it a little hard to justify sales and special offers like this at a time when more than half of the listed products on the site have been marked as "out of stock" for almost two months now. I mean, isn't the point of such deals meant to clear excess inventory? It just seems to me that, in order to reach the threshold for such free gifts, you have very limited options...

Not bad progress this week. Interesting to see some of the quests and renovation builds in the Scooby Doo hub world and which characters from the other worlds had to be brought in to complete those various tasks. As always I'll look forward to what's next. As much as I'd love to talk about my advice on resuming Pirates of the Caribbean (as well as my suggestion for the next Dimensions pack to open), I'm afraid I'm a little short on available time this week, so I'll have to wait until next week to explain everything (thank goodness you're taking the next two weeks off).

I had a feeling it wouldn't take long to collect the last few Master Pieces to fully complete The Lego Movie 2 Videogame, but at least it came with great timing at the very last week of the year. I'm definitely looking forward to Pirates of the Caribbean next month, and I've already got a good idea on the first few things you could do (I'll save that explanation for next week). For Lego Dimensions next week, seeing as we're no longer voting, I'll just go ahead and say that I think the next pack should be the Scooby Doo Team Pack. Much like with Jurassic World last time, it's the only pack to access its respective world to explore, and there will be new abilities provided by the new characters (though after all the previous packs you've already opened, the only really new ability you'll get this time will be the digging ability from Scooby, to dig up various things from piles of dirt). I've already explained last week my thoughts on which remaining packs to go through in the near future, so I'll wait until the stream next week to talk more about what you can expect from this next pack.

It sure was a very nice podcast to listen to. Some episodes really had my attention, others not so much, but overall, I enjoyed learning so much about the history of such a wide variety of Lego games. Following this series for the past year has been quite the experience, and I certainly look forward to what might be coming next.

While I correctly assumed you would not quite finish the game this week, I am impressed by just how much you were able to complete. Just seven more of those "Super Builds" (which is apparently what builds from the gold instruction page are actually called), then just collect the ten Master Pieces from the bonus world to reach 100% game completion. Seems quite fitting that this game will be completed at the very end of the year and you'll start the next game at the beginning of next year. Since we seem to be in agreement on moving on to Pirates of the Caribbean for the next game, I'll wait until next week share some advice on what to do first when you get to that game.

I just realized that I never really responded to this. Now that you got me thinking about it, my initial plan for Dimensions (go for 100% completion of all Year 1 content before even touching any Year 2 content) might not be the preferred approach for your livestream. I think what my new suggestions will be is to at least visit all of the remaining themed worlds not yet visited among the Year 1 content (I will count even the brief visits after completing the Level Packs, so we don't really need to revisit those worlds just yet), and after all 14 of the Year 1 worlds have been accessed, then feel free to start trying some levels from the Year 2 content (there are Level Packs for Adventure Time, Mission Impossible, Sonic, and Goonies, in addition to Story Packs for Lego Batman Movie, Ghostbusters 2016, and Fantastic Beasts (though you'll probably prefer to ignore that last one, despite how much my completionist desire would argue otherwise)). Not to mention, your suggestion of doing a stream dedicated to just opening packs and building the characters and vehicles sounds like a great idea, but only after all 14 worlds have already been accessed so that it'll feel more like you're just catching up on the additional stuff rather than being distracted by accessing and exploring new places (themes like DC and Ninjago will definitely have quite a lot to go through, even after their respective Team Packs have already been done). For the immediate future, that means going through the remaining Year 1 Team Packs (Scooby Doo, Ninjago, and DC Comics), which will then leave only three more worlds to visit through some Fun Packs (Lego Movie, Legends of Chima, and Wizard of Oz). At the rate of one per month, it'll probably be next summer by the time I'll be okay with making suggestions for Year 2 content. Also, I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but since you're trying to figure out which characters and vehicles would be ideal to keep handy, I can provide a link to the Lego Dimensions Wiki site so you can quickly find out which abilities each character and vehicle has to make it easier for you to eventually determine your "dream team". (Though, as the most recent stream showed, I think it's fair to say the three Starter Pack characters (Batman, Gandalf, and Wyldsyle) should definitely be among that team, while the Batmobile is generic enough that you could probably swap it out for some other wheeled vehicle.) https://lego-dimensions.fandom.com/wiki/LEGO_Dimensions_Wiki

Back when I listened to the first episode that talked about the failed Lego Minecraft game, I had thought the brief mention of Lego Worlds near the end of it would be all we would get about it from this series, so I was very pleased to have this episode focusing specifically on Lego Worlds. As a gamer on Steam, I certainly remember when Lego Worlds first became available on Early Access, but I didn't bother getting it myself, as I had yet to find the time and opportunity to try any of the other Lego games I had just purchased back then, and since I didn't really feel like playing what was essentially an incomplete game at the time, I figured I could wait until the full release before trying it, and in hindsight, I feel like I made the right choice for my preferences in gaming. One thing not mentioned in this episode is that new content stopped being added to the game at least a couple years after full release, so in a way, what you can get with the game today is pretty much its final version, though it's still a great game to play. Overall, I love listening to episodes that focus on some of my favorite Lego games, and this one was no different.

That sure went by pretty quickly. Just one more story world to collect everything, then finally onto Syspocalysestar for all those big builds (each of which will provide either a brick to collect or a quest to earn a brick), and finishing off with the last ten bricks to collect on that bonus world. Personally, I doubt you'll get through all of that in a single session, but just in case, I'll take the time now to share with you my thoughts on which Lego games to try next (and which ones to save fore later). I would recommend that the very last Lego games to try completing would be the Star Wars games, not only because there are three (and soon to be four) of them, but they also include timed challenges (not just races) that I have a feeling you might find almost impossible to complete. Second-to-last I'd recommend would be the Batman/DC games, mostly because there's four of them to complete, which will obviously take a while to get through. Third-to-last of my recommendations would be the Marvel games because there's three of them, although I've found them to be among the most time-consuming of all Lego games, so definitely better to save those for later. Prior to all of that, I would suggest the themes featured in two games, which would be Lord of the Rings and Indiana Jones (and Harry Potter, though I'm sure you're tired of me begging for you to acknowledge that it even exists). With all of that out of the way, that leaves just the one-off games to be among the ones I recommend you play next, which would be Pirates of the Caribbean, Jurassic World, the Incredibles, and Lego City Undercover (there's also Lego Worlds, but since that's such an open-ended game, my suggestion there might be to have that become the monthly stream if you ever manage to fully complete Lego Dimensions). Of those four one-off games, I think I would suggest Pirates of the Caribbean to be the next game to play, mostly because you already made some progress on it during that 24-hour stream last year, so you might as well get around to fully completing it. The only problem for me is that since it's one of the older games (for which Steam did not provide any achievements for), I can't be that helpful with unlocking any of the achievements. (Sure, I'll look them up to see what they are and try to offer suggestions, but I won't have any of that experience to be of any real definitive assistance.) So, what do you think of my suggestions?

Once again, no topic for this week's episode, so I have to post my comment in the previous episode's topic, which is a shame because this week's episode covered Lego Creator from 1998, one of the few early Lego games I was able to play. I remember playing that game quite a lot as a child and had quite a lot of fun with it (especially with destroying models with those "destructa-bricks"). Unfortunately, I couldn't enjoy it as much as I would've liked, due to a weird issue that made the game incapable of playing on any computer newer than Windows 98, so for the last few years I was able to play this game, my only option was to visit my grandparents house six hours away where they still used such an older computer in those days. Anyway, this was an interesting episode to listen to, such as how through the evolution from the Creator games to the Digital Designer software tool, the whole concept was completely scrapped and rebuilt twice. Although the Creator games were really discussed in only the first half of this episode, it's still one that I enjoyed listening to.

I guess time really flies when you're exploring a hub world rather than progressing through a level. I honestly thought you'd have time to spare for maybe opening one or two other packs, but I guess I should probably not expect that. At least you finally got your current game to recognize Superman's vehicle, so that just leaves Ghostbusters Marshmallow Man left to go before you've fully covered all of your old progress. I guess I shouldn't complain about you not getting certain things, since you'll inevitably have to return to each and every hub world after you've collected all the minikits in all the levels, but I'm sure you shouldn't be too concerned about spending studs on renovation builds (according to the guide, the one you did choose to build just so happened to be the most expensive one for that world at 70,000). At this rate, it might be quite a while before you finally have all of the Year 1 packs opened and could then go back through all the levels to unlock minikits and other things. Well, at least there aren't any achievements for full completion of that game or collecting all of everything, but certainly at least a bit of progress in each thing would be worth it. Anyway, nice to see Jurassic World in Lego Dimensions, and I'll look forward to whatever else there is to see.

Once again, as much as I'd like to watch a livestream of building one of the Architecture skyline sets, I won't be able to see this live and will probably just watch the recording sometime later. This time, it's because I just started assembling my Lego NASA Space Shuttle Discovery set, and since that's a rather large set, I'm expecting it will take me quite a while to complete it.

I somehow never heard of this game, but now that this episode provided me with an idea of what it would've been like to play it, I must admit that I do have some interest in considering trying it out, if possible. The concept of various themes at the time being featured in the gameplay (the teams you play against and the fields you played in) kind of reminds me of the different locations and competitors featured in Lego Racers, and one of the reasons I had liked that game was because of that concept. Not to mention, the Brickster from Lego Island being the main opponent only makes this game even more interesting to me. I don't know if I'll ever have such an opportunity to try such an old game, but what I found especially notable from this episode was the mention that this was one of the last Lego games to be released before Lego Star Wars in 2005 changed everything, so in some way, this game really did mark the end of the first era of Lego video games.

Well, aside from that one excessively frustrating quest to just take a picture of something, progress in this week's steam went rather well. I don't recall ever having a problem like that back when I played this game, so hopefully you won't encounter anything like it ever again. As for next week's Lego Dimensions stream, I decided to vote for Jurassic World. With all of the Year 1 Level Packs now completed, I think moving on to the Team Packs next might be a good idea, and among the four I had listed in the previous post, Jurassic World has the most new stuff to offer in just one pack. Among the new abilities you'll get is Owen Grady who can follow tracks and cut through vines, the ACU Trooper who can use electrical switches without needing to use an Elemental Keystone, and the Gyrosphere vehicle that can use ball switches. Of course, since there's no more special levels to play, you'll have to select and travel to the correct hub world after you've summoned the characters (and built their vehicles as well). Also, since Jurassic World consists of just one pack, it might be a good idea to have some various other packs set aside if you have time to spare for additional things. Some possible options might be the Doctor Who Cyberman from Wave 3, the Ghostbusters Slimer from Wave 5, or simply arrange to have your current saved game finally recognize the vehicles built for the Wave 4 characters (Aquaman, Superman, and Ghsotbusters Marshmallow Man).

While racing and vehicles are only a mild interest of mine, this was still a nice episode to listen to. I liked how the integration of the Lego bricks was done in an incredibly realistic design, along with a rather amusing sort of story to go along with all of this Lego content. As much as I would be interested in trying this form of Lego game, I'm not exactly that eager to obtain the base game just to experience one specific DLC, so at most, I'll probably just try to find some gameplay videos to watch at some point to see what it's all about.

Finished one world and had just barely enough time to complete another world, both of which were the larger main system worlds. At this rate, I estimate it'll take probably three more sessions to complete this game, so I guess there will be another poll sometime next month for the next Lego game (besides Dimensions) to play. I already have an idea for that, but I'll wait to explain it later, as there's quite a bit on the subject I've thought about and would like to mention. Anyway, with the last remaining characters unlocked (except the ones that must be purchased in a shop), there is now no need to bother collecting or opening any more relics (from my experience, the number of each relics you can collect max out at 99). Of course, you should still make sure you open chests to collect the special build bricks offered in each world. I don't know how many of each kind you'll need for all of the big builds, so just make sure you collect as many as you can. As for the upcoming poll on Lego Dimensions, I mentioned that with all the Year 1 Level Packs now done, I suppose it makes sense to next move on to the Year 1 Team Packs (consisting of two characters and their respective vehicles). From what I've looked up, there are a total of four such packs among the Year 1 content (DC Comics, Ninjago, Scooby Doo, and Jurassic World), and I'll reveal my choice among those after I vote in next week's poll.

I wonder if anyone here on BZPower is interested in applying. I've considered the possibility, but I don't think I'm ready to handle that kind of attention and activity, so maybe another time (besides, I don't even know who I would partner with, anyway).