@Surf,
In response to your observation of the lurking thing...
I can't speak for all the Bloomilk community...,
So I wrote a novel instead.

In my personal situation, I work long often haphazard hours and usually outside of communications range.
That, and stuff happens real world which means I can't spend as much time here or elsewhere on the web. Im sure similar reasons also impact on other fellow Bloomilkians...
My content production (miniatures, research, chatting with fellow fans of SW/SWM) is also effected, reducing when I upload stuff and what I can upload.
In terms of feedback on content produced by others, I tend to be quite selective of the content I'm hunting for (Droids, Aliens, Separatists, Jedi, Republic, Fringers, and Ergesh ).
I no longer play Rebel or Imperial as competitive factions, partly cause I traded them away and partly because they didnt capture my imagination...
I've never played the Vong (can never forgive them, for the death of my boy ... Chewbacca!)
I do look at all the content however, and enjoy reading for synergies and the design commentaries that go with each piece.
I skip over all Vong pieces you've ever made; its not you, its me: I dislike the Vong as a faction. Call me faction-ist, but I really disliked em. Ever since nom bombs, and the whole "you cant force push me around" funny business...

Besides, its always been the age old "Quality" vs "Quantity" debate hasn't it?
I think you've achieved both.
You've got 30 pages of thread that contain high-quality discussion and loads of design notes, thats an achievement that'd deserve some celebration...
Also worthy of recognition is the sheer amount of custom, high quality stat cards that you've been pumping out over the years Surf! That's a pat on the back scenario right there.
Not to mention all the awesome request cards you've made over the years that are cherished (at least locally)/ though notably loathed/feared in the case of Jango Fett, Survivor

Warm and fuzzy digression aside (and maybe its my senility, sentimentality, or just the recent events of a crazy world we live in that makes me put the rosey glasses on )
I also think that for really lengthy or heated chats, Instant/Private Messaging is more the way to go, and that might be why lurkers 'lurk' (they don't want to butt into a conversation, start a Flame War, or they think we're having too 'loud' a conversation in an inappropriate place perhaps?). Perhaps users know each other real-world, and talk to each other outside of Bloomilk via Facebook or phone...
And despite how widespread the internet is, I think its subject to the Iceberg effect: that is, only a small percentage of people actually play SWM and have access to the internet/desire to post content online.
All that, and feedback guidelines are so sketchy, so people often don't comment if they think a comment would be only negative or too subjective.

A bit of perspective might help identify bits of the lurker thing;
I'd say it is a small online community here at bloomilk, but an overwhelmingly friendly one, and I don't know about other bloomilkians but I do try and recruit/advertise a bit for the bloomilk community out in the real world It's not converting or preaching, its sharing a good thing with like-minded people.

I suspect other Bloomilkians do this too; I maintain webpresences elsewhere on the interwebs.

I have some google alerts set to particular keywords, such as "Star Wars Miniatures, Sci-fi Tabletop Wargames, Custom Figure" etc, so that the moment any content goes on the web (that google knows of), I could swoop in Hawk style and take a look.
Not sure how many other bloomilkians are that gungho about Star Wars Minis hehe... On other places of the internet, such as Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest, filesharing or Devart, its possible to follow content producers once they've made certain content (which can be easily identified by a keyword search or by category search).

Partner boards, like Lead Adventure.de, Dakka Dakka, Modelermagic.com, Pathfinder, DeviantArt and elsewhere, these are fellow gamers and miniature model makers too.
We're all part of the tabletop games spectrum, fans of science fiction, patrons of art (we buy little figures and make customs), supporters of the economy (customers of bricks and mortar stores like your LGS, which in turn supports international relations since all our minis are made of plastic often sourced from factories in China, Germany, Spain, UK, USA); and also partly responsible for just, ah who are we kidding?- a LOT of pollution... maybe a little more wealth/better working conditions in China, but who knows?

Back to addressing the problem of lurking,
we'd need to encourage more discussion via some guidelines/incentive (we pretty much are already doing this),
somehow free up existing users time so they can actually comment (this one's a hard one to accomplish),
and recruit more users/get exposure to more users (since more users = high chance rate of comment).

For the last one to take place, maybe a spokesperson can reach out to other parts of the hobby spectrum and liaise with them for mutual interest? I envisage a mutual free-advertising agreement between bluemilk and other like-minded forums/stores on the web, and making it a "web ring" as other places do... Bloomilk would lose it's relative anonymity however, and perhaps some of its independence.

In any event,
this is a great rumination and maybe an interesting thread topic starter for a conversation in the general area?

Well, I see it's been about three weeks since I dropped anything new here; it's very quiet in here except for some good talk on 3D boards, so I thought I'd finish up my next set. It's all done except the pic creations from the PowerPoint templates and of course the writeups/descriptions of each piece.

I'm volunteering at the local Film Festival, have grades due friday but maybe I might be able to squeeze them out next weekend. As usual, I've got a little of everything (No Republic or Vong) but some new ideas and hopefully fun mini's.

Cheers

Well, the whole world is still comatose from a V-Set 5 hangover and otherwise gearing up for regionals. Perhaps this new set will at least bring out a smile, or at least a smirk ....


This group has a little of everything except Republic or Vong; Republic has no need of anything and good Vong pics are hard to come by. Curiously, I had a Lot of Sith here and Sith are usually rare for me with maybe just 1-2 a set.
Comments always welcome, Good, Bad and Ugly. I believe in Alpha order, they are ....



Anomid Emissary Anomids are rare for me and I thought I'd do a twist on the Diplomat idea.







Anti-War Protester Another twist on a character. This one, from the TV show, is a twist on the Peace Brigade character's SA.







Aqualish Shipjacker The idea of the "Joyride" SA came to me in the lunch room as we were talking about a former student who got busted recently for carjacking and joyriding. The idea of a Fringe mini doing this in the middle of a game amused the heck out of me ....







Askajian Cantina Pickpocket This one's actually been on the backburner for a few months and I decided either use her or recycle her. She seemed like an amusin enough piece so here she is. What else besides grenades and Medical supplies could she steal? Maybe the "Override" equipment?







Crowd Suppression Droid The first of my Sith pieces; how nice would a Sith Crowd Control group be? Probably real Blasters and Stun Gas, but the Net Gun sounded too fun not to use.







Darth Maul, Shadow Collective Leader I just Had to bring in Maul as a Shadow Collective piece; I opted Not to give him a CE because he's always been a creature of action not thought, although he did more thinking on TV than he ever displayed in the Movie.







Desperate Smuggler Another Shadowport piece, someone a little more desperate than Han would be.







Feeorin Commando A pic I cobbled together; Im still not 100% happy with his abilities but I also didn't want to get Too weird on new stuff either; he's sort of a compromise and an "I'll look at him/revist the idea" later piece.







Gloom Walker Sapper I tripped over this pic last January and finllay thought that the Gloom Walkers would be the kind to be digging in and fighting in a trench warfare style ....






Imperial Knight Blade Master Yes I know, a Selkath and the Imperial knights are a strange match; shoot me :) I also thought the Knights relying on their Cortosis gauntlets would sit well with a Blade Instructor, so I came up with this variation for them.







Inquisitor Probus Tesla Another Character from the Jax book; a strong but slightly flawed character that would probably get chewed up and spit out but a real Jedi Master (or even a battle tested survivor from the Clone Wars like Jax.)







Jedi Hunter It occured to me that during the Sith Wars, certain Sith would have sacrificed anything just to kill Jedi so I came up with this piece after tripping over the idea of Force Destruction. Now, he Could kill a big piece if he could save up enough points for a second shot with this SA, but he's also be sacrificing himself, which sounds like a fanatical Sith type move. I thought about calling him Sith Jedi Hunter ... not sure why I didn't ...... interesting idea for a piece though, if I do say so myself.







Jedi Temple Guard Kinda reminds me of what the Jedi Brutes are (I wonder if anybody bothered reading up on the EU when they created this guy .... seems not if they Tturned Bariss Offee into a traitor ....







Mandalorian Infiltrator I was just finishing him up when I noticed the new V-Set 5 had a piece with his name. I said the heck with it and decided to include him as is as my own version. I beat the V-Set to the punch on occasion, why can't they? I'm fair .....







Mercenary Armored Car I've actually had this piece sitting around since last summer; another example of use it or recycle it I guess .... hey, it's appropriate if the V-Setters are thinking new vehicles!







New Republic Counterintelligence Agent I actually like the idea of an Anti-Disruptive SA; I'm not sure I like the name "Counterintelligence" however, but it is what it is. Psychometry was an idea I tossed in because he's Kiffar ... but I still like the Counterintelligence SA if not its name.







New Republic Guerilla Fighter I kinda picture the idea that as the Vong steamrolled through the galaxy, pockets of resistance would pop up and be good at hunting the Vong. Should I have given him Evade to denote him as a survivor type?







Rishii Reconaissance Trooper Hey, he's a Rishii, what else do you need?







Sith Agitator I was thinking as the Sith invade and fight the Old Republic, they would have Fifth Column types sowing trouble ahead of invasions; sort of a Peace Brigade type of trouble maker with a variation of Swarm if you will.







Sith Death Squad If anybody had a Death Squad it would be the Sith and somehow I don't see Sith Not having a Disintegrator.







Sith Political Agent Variations on the Counterintelligence idea that suppresses Recon. I think the Sith Empire had all types of KGB types within their ranks.







Theelin Guerrilla Fighter Hey, it's a Theelin ....( a rerun of my Rishii explanation.)







Togorian Blade Master I looked and saw that only the Mandalorian Training Sergeant had Evade and Parry and was a non-unique. I thought these were interesting SA's to combine and feline Togorian's would be an interesting species to pair these SA's with.







Ubese Jedi Hunter Since the pic had a handheld device I thought a Sensor SA along with a Jedi Hunt SA would be an interesting matcup and Imp seemed a good faction to go with them.







Whiplash Pilot This piece was the easiest/hardest to do of all. Its based on another character from the Jax novel; a unique named Sacha Swiftbird who fairly fleshed out and described. I thought about using her name and the abilities she was described/implied to have. So writing her stats was easy. The problem was that she was described with a scar (I faked that) and had silvery hair. The hair threw me for weeks and I couldn't find a way to cobble that together and never could find a good enough head with silvery hair. Oh well. She's an interesting character and I'm thinking we'll see her again in some future books.






Well, that's it for this set. I hope there're some tidbits worthy of note here. Looking forward to hearing what everybody thinks.


Cheers.

I like Premonition as a weaker Intuition.
The Anti-War Protester is cool, I like your take on the nano-droids.
Aqualish Shipjacker is awesome!
I think a Sith crowd control response would involve Force lightning. But I like your crowd ontrol droid. He's overcosted by a good deal, though.
I really like your Maul, SC. I think he needs some sort of defensive ability, though.
I like the Desperate Smuggler and his jumpy flavor. Might up the cost to 7, though.
I think your Feeorin Mec looks fine. Good piece to engage a big troper squad with while remaining at a distance.
I think the Gloom Walker Sapper is somewhat overcosted. I like it otherwise though.
The Imperial Knight Blade Master is great! I love the choice of a Selkath and the flavor behind not having CG.
Inq Tesla seems pretty strong, not sure Jax would beat him. I like the piece.
The Jedi Hunter is cool, I like FD and the flavor of the piece.
I really like your Jedi Temple Guard, and Force Hold is cool!
Mando Infiltrator is cool, it feels well matched with the name.
I think the Mercenary Armored Car is significantly overcosted. Otherwise I like it, it's a neat idea.
I think the Counterintelligence SA's name is fine. You could add a line to it "Allied commanders within 6 squares may not have their commander effects suppressed."
I like the NR Guerilla, I agree that they must have existed. I'd give him Evade like you said and up the cost a bit.
I like your Sith Death Squad, I think he could stand to have his price lowered though.
I think you should up the Togorian Balde Master's HP to 50. Right now I don't think he's worth the ost. Cool piece!
I like the Ubese Jedi Hunter, very well balanced piece!

Premonition - You may not move first, but you might be able to move out of immediate danger

Conditional - I've actually used it several times already.

Pickpocket - I thought about giving the Pickpocket my Thief ability, which I've used a few times

Thief (Replaces attacks: touch. Adjacent enemy with the Grenades 20 ability instead has Grenades 10; Adjacent enemy with the Grenades 10 ability loses their Grenades 10 ability. Save 16. Use of this ability does not provoke attacks of opportunity.)

Tesla - I believe looking at this I may have mixed up Soresu Style with Soresu Style Mastery - hmmm yes, I believe that's where I went wrong.

I've used Sensor Readings before, but Psychmetry is a new idea; I looked at other people's idea on Psychmetry and didn't like them. Frankly I'm not 100% happy with the SA but until I come up with a better one, this'll do. Disinformation began as Disinformer, but that sounded like a person not an ability.





Maul? With Defense? This second incarnation seemed waaay more Offensive than anything.

Desperate Smuggler to 7? I could see that ....

Overcosted, Overcosted, Overcosted .... Yes, I definitely erred on the side of caution with a lot of these pieces. Any suggestions? Lower everybody 2-3?

Counterintelligence - I wanted to keep it simple, what can I say.

NR Guerilla with evade. Up his cost to 15 with Evade?

Sith - Glad you liked the Death Squad killer. What did you think of the Agitator and the Political Agent?

Togorian - I had him at 50 originally, but changed him to 30 to match the Togorian Soldiers HP.

Glad you liked the rest





Thank You!


Thanks for the commentary! Definitely food for thought on lots of stuff. Appreciate it!

Changes

Too Many to change the pics of, but ....

NR Guerilla - Evade added and cost now 15
Gloom Sapper - cost now 14
Tesla - Soresu Mastery changed to Soresu Style and given Lightsaber Block
Maul - Took out Force Leap, given Lightsaber Block and cnow costed at 56
Armored Car - now costed at 30
Togorian - HP at 50, costed now at 19

Hmmmm I get the feeling I missed something ......

Thanks for the kind words Koba; I have a few other new species waiting in the wings for ideas on how to use them.

The actual act of "making" cards. I've been told the best is the thickest, high gloss card stock you can find works best but frankly, I've actuall never made my own cards. My local group isn't really interested in expanding out from the standard cars (Yes they allow the V-Sets) and I'd rather not alienate the group or I'd Never have anybody to play against

While I was toying with making new card templates (and creating my logo) I actually did make a few creative Backs for the cards. I may put them up for fun next weekend.

Anything strike you as particularly good since you seem to like the whole set?

Cheers

Speaking of card printing, does anybody actually use both sides of the card I create, or are you guys just interested in the stats side of the card, the "Front" side? I only ask because Gamers uses a generic back side, slightly different for every set, on their cards. I've been toying with a new generic "Back" side of a crad and was wondering if people actually would use it.

Yes, I'd actually rather have the big card art of the mini Like WOTC did. Gamers put generic backs on their cards. I toyed with the same idea since it would be "cheaper" to do one backing for the cards.

This is what happens when you get bored ......





What can I say, creating it was amusing

@surf
It looks like the time vortex from austin powers...