I can't help feeling it's the "fault" of the contest in general and the mailing list in particular that the boards are so silent at the moment.

For a while it seemed as if all "talking activity" was relocated to the mailing list....  but what's funny: now the mailing list is pretty silent too !!

Is everybody so entangled in building their contest mansions or playing around with the new XP features ?    ::) :o :-/

:o I have been thinking quite the same this morning, almost* word for word! But real life is getting quite hectic* for the moment, as actually pretty much every year around May.

* Yeah, well, in substance anyway.
* Though not in the way I would have wished :-/

I've been thinking that for a while now. I'm looking forward to the new mansions as a result of the contest, but I really miss having new mansions to play now. And yeah, I know I'm guilty of not building any. I've started a couple times, but haven't had any inspiration. Real life gets in the way.

aquaMat, what do you mean by the mailing list? What is that?

What really had me disturbed is that I've been starting on the new design of the board and that maybe I had accidently brought the board down, although it still worked for me. Actually I've had MORE time lately thanks to a huge reorganization at my work which was eating up a lot of my spare time. I normally do an 8 or 9 hour day but with all the meetings across the country and the time differences it's been more like 14 or 16 hours.
Glad to see that you're all still there. What aquaMat is referring to is the contest mailing list which has also been uncharacteristically quiet. Even Wingy and Mikee have been silent ( ::) ::) ::)), no forum ping pong. Indeed it might be the contest and I've gotten and seen a couple of posts about designer block. For those on the mailing list (in the contest) I'm about to release Ghosthunter strictly to the mailing list as it's an XP mansion and only those in the contest will have the ability to play it (hint, hint, hint....get in the contest) it's an 86 "room" mansion although 2/3 of it takes place outside in rain, snow, and on ice wandering thru little homes. There are a TON of custom graphics and a lot of XP stuff as well.
Around the release of the REAL XP I'll be releasing the sequel to Ghosthunter, Search for Jack which would have been my contest mansion. The entire layout is finished and about half of the 80 rooms are done. With the exception of Jill the character who replaces Jack and 2 graphics that will only be used in 2 rooms, the entire mansion is done with XP graphics.
And lastly is our monster size mansion thats at about 450 rooms right now and is the final episode in the GH series and will be called something like Escape from Ghost Mountain. Matt has about half of those rooms on paper and with school just about over will have a lot more time to work on it.
Well good luck to all the contestants out there and as I've mentioned I am available as a resource for you building questions and now have quite a bit of experience with XP so can help out there too. See you all on the board or the mailing list.

Joe B

ps check out the posts in Layout of the boards. I now have 5 different color schemes up for comment.

jb

Whoops, almost forgot.....

We finished our section of the Catacombs and sent it over to Freddy on Saturday. It's 15 rooms and as with most M&J stuff is a mix of inside/outside. So there'll be a little new stuff to play.

Joe B

I have been buisy buildin' my contest mansion and finals are coming up... I'm pretty buisy...

I haven't been posting simply because I've had nothing to say. I hit builder's block with House of Coine and that delayed it's completion significantly. However, I'm past that and the mansion is really almost done (for reals this time!).

My "buiulder's block" (that kept me from finishing TheMansionFamily2) vanished once I got seriously started with the XP contest mansion.... as I had anticipated all those new features trigger new creativity.

The downside: now I can't imagine going back (to 1.0.8. standard mode) and finishing The Mansion Family 2 as it was planned.....
>:( :'(

aquaMat wrote on 17.05.2007 at 22:34:32:

My "buiulder's block" (that kept me from finishing TheMansionFamily2) vanished once I got seriously started with the XP contest mansion.... as I had anticipated all those new features trigger new creativity. The downside: now I can't imagine going back (to 1.0.8. standard mode) and finishing The Mansion Family 2 as it was planned..... >:( :'(

Which is precisely why I haven't even touched the XP yet, and won't until HoC is done.

Very wise decision, ryos.....     ;)