Dacy

So. Yeah, we're wiki idiots who know next to nothing about anything except what we can see of what we know that's not accurate, and we want to change that. I understand and respect the fact that a Google doc link is not a wiki format, and not what people expect to find in a wiki entry about base listings. Having said that, I also know that EB isn't keen on being responsible for updating a wiki and entering all of those bases in the new format, and we have no idea at this point how we'd DO a format for wiki. (And responding to your last: EB is super frustrated at this point. I am too, but you came back more reasonable than I expected, so I'm still here.) If I can find someone to make some sort of script to input the values...hmm, but. Our page is much much wider than your format allows. I think we'd have to lose some information to put it into the Wiki...but anyway. Can you show me the format for entering information into a format such as you have here, a table? And EB is concerned about veracity. We don't want to have to monitor two different base codexes, with two different input points; can we make changing or adding to Wiki bases very limited? Btw, I am an editor on the wiki. I've been updating base information, because most of it is from Live and has changed significantly. So, two points here: we want to be able to control access so we can make sure things are correct and stay that way, and we need to know the format for inputting information into a table; are there scripts that can fill in a line of a table from a line of information that goes in the different columns? Or is it always entered information piece by piece? -Dacy

Okay. My misunderstanding. They put up a link, correct? And took out the inaccurate information? So, you say on the one hand, and other than that, you say people should make an account and edit. Um? Confusion here. Because nowhere does it say "Edit if the wiki editors agree" and HOW do we get the "wiki editors" to agree?? Nothing is very clear here. I have no idea who these editors are, how to contact them, or what information they need beyond "this is incorrect and we want to fix it with carefully researched data with controlled input access for veracity". Can we edit, or not? If not, it would be helpful to have something of this process for submission for approval listed somewhere. -Dacy

I wonder that you do not seem to realize that the source of the base information in the wiki is from a Google document that is open to player editing? Now, I do not know who is transferring that information to wiki, I have been trying to find out, but most base owners did not even know there WAS a wiki for bases; I only discovered it myself recently. Which, it's possible that the wiki, because the players did not know of it, is more accurate in reflecting bases as they were listed if they were immediately transferred; what we do know is, that after Easter Bunny meticulously combed through all information on bases that were listed, there were quite a few discrepancies. I know of people whose bases have been deleted or altered from the google doc. If people did know of the wiki, it could have been altered; does anyone go out and check to verify if the base listed matches the information given? The wiki, however, has no way of knowing which of these bases have changed codes, been abandoned, or are now physically there but inactive. The categories were never adequate to the bases that are out there; we have tried to give better and more inclusive descriptive tags, which are able to be used for sorting to find particular bases of a particular design or style. See, the format of the Wiki is based on the format of the original Google doc. Here are three examples from the Google doc, and their corresponding entries on the Wiki: Google: Vel's Folly Transit Hub Storm Palace @Vel Mori A quick travel hub project The STATION Transit Hub Pocket Dimension STATION-18074 @Garbage Wizard Official Transit hub of the Justice Division. A subway station themed base with all amenities and several pop culture references. /macro_image "Temporary_Warburg_MegaBuff" "Teleport: THE STATION" "em trainwhistle$$enterbasefrompasscode STATION-18074" The entries in the Wiki: Note that the categories, the order of information, and the text of the descriptions all match. Note also that there are missing pieces of information: whomever transferred the information for the Station (it was not Garbage WIzard) did not choose to include the macro for it. And the code for Vel's Folly is missing; one of the compromised posts on the document. So, we are sure that the format and the very information that is input into the Wiki is coming from the Google doc. Which, as mentioned, is corrupted and out of date. We have no idea who has been inputting information, because we can find no one who says they have, and most did not know that the wiki was even there, as I said. Now, we have expanded the information about each base that doesn't rely on the description, for better searchability. The new format will not transfer into the old format very well. They are different. The current wiki entries are out of date and in many cases, inaccurate. Will you help us figure out how to get the wiki to be up to date and aligned with the Google sheet we're using to organize the information? I mean, yeah, we hate that it's Google, but it was difficult to find anything else that was accessible and met the needs. Like with Wiki, we are careful with this information. Only editors may enter a base onto the master sheet. The copies that people see check themselves against the master so that nothing can be changed without our so say. Anyone who has an inaccurate listing can come to us to get it fixed (and we will investigate). We've tested base codes to see which are still valid. Here's an example of a listing, and the differences. Current wiki: Here's what those listings look like in our directory: (has slider, this is second half) Powergirls: Second part: We are listing both the owner and the builder. As you can see here, sometimes it's different. (I had to use bases I knew of and that were inputted into both directories, but there are other situations where this applies). Many more tags for people who want to find a particular type of base. And a guest book for commentary. We will lose a lot of that information if the current format is kept. Wow, You are coming off as someone who has no interest in information accuracy or truthfulness. When told something isn't right, your proposed solution is "just get rid of it"? Why moderate a wiki at all, if you have no interest in accuracy or truth? Why say in your signature that people should edit and you "need help", and then proceed to be just as nasty and unhelpful as I've seen anyone BE in this game? SMH so dang hard. WHAT DO YOU THINK WE'VE TRIED TO DO. EB made an account. Put up a page fixing multiple errors. Got chewed out for not "discussing it" with some committee that is listed NOWHERE, we've been TRYING to find who's running this and it's really not easy to even find that information out...until you "break the rules", apparently. And THEN, are you helpful? No. Snarky, dismissive, condescending, rude, and very unhelpful. You are anything BUT encouraging. You've pretty well convinced me that it's pointless to talk to a snarky brick wall that has no interest in correcting a problem; we'll get nowhere here. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong on that. But that's the view from here. Last chance to show a different side of this little "club" you have going here. Because honestly, despite my annoyance with your attitude, I'd -still- rather have a listing that was accurate, than to leave feeling like the whole system is a farce by committee, and likely untrustworthy. I'd -like- to be able to continue to recommend it. But that's up to you now. -Dacy

Well, Easter Bunny may be able to elaborate more, as he spearheaded this project, but here's why we got involved. We found that: 1) there were many discrepancies between the wiki and the forum google docs. As evidenced by the sign asking that people not delete other's entries, the entries could be changed, and some were. Our system does not allow for that. Changes have to go through one of the directory caretakers. 2) The docs that were in place were hard to navigate, because things were in the order they were input and not alphabetical order, and Google docs are not easily searchable without someone who knows what they are doing at the helm. (THANK YOU @Matsiyan!) The person who made the original doc is not here anymore. 3) The docs' descriptive categories leave a lot to be desired. 4) We wanted something searchable, especially, searchable by category. We wanted something where people could add guestbook comments. We wanted features that would appeal to people, and we have hopes of getting this version accessible in game, because too many people just ignore the docs as they are now. Most people don't even know that the Wiki versions exist. 5) We have/are collating all of the entries from various places and hope that the owners and/or builders will submit how they'd like the entry to be. See, some bases aren't there anymore. Some bases have inactive codes. There was a directory in my Discord of some, some had entered/listed their base in a topic such as Show Off but then there was nothing for that base in the docs, even some contest entries had never been listed, so we're just trying to do what we can to get things all in one place in a usable format. 🙂 Also, we want to help all of those who want to find a particular kind of base; we get requests like, "Do you know where I can find *a particular kind of base*? Some people want to see particular things, whether for builds of their own, RP, or just curiosity, and there's no real way to find those bases right now without spending a lot of time in the current docs. It would be best to link the new docs to the wiki; any idea who to talk to about that? -Dacy

New video! Everything you need to know to get going on base building, including a guide to set up a basic base with all the services!

Okay, well, key info: no cel shading. If you want to help debug it, I would suggest playing with a few of the settings, one a time, and see if you can replicate the bug. @Etched, you've had this same issue, are any of his settings the same as yours? In game, not system wise, although if you also share any components, that would be of note. -Dacy

I think I was talking about that with someone who has high rez monitors and it wasn't an issue for them, so it may depend on perhaps the graphics card? I know, for instance, Discord doesn't play well with systems that run certain types of system components. It's not out of the realm of possibility that the engine for COH isn't so compatible with some of the newer components, either. That's what I remember, anyway, tho I don't have more details than that, perhaps someone out there can confirm if they are running a high rez monitor and are able to use their whole screen in edit mode. -Dacy

Also, couldn't help but notice, you were placing dock platforms both times! See if that is the item that is somehow triggering this. Please note which dock platform if so. -Dacy

You tried re-enabling clipping, to make sure it didn't get hit by mistake, I assume. Also, please report your graphics settings at the time, and whether or not you have any experimental graphics (cel shading) enabled. Hmm. Really strange, I will pass it along. Thanks! -Dacy

That's not the Table of Contents. That's the actual category. Under the Table of Contents, we apparently fall under "and much, much more". That actually made me a little sad. I thought someone had gone and realized, oh no, we forgot to put that in! And had edited it in. But, no. Got my hopes up and everything. The point is not, hey, we can search for it. The point is not, oh look, there it is....yeah, way far down and hidden, but oh look, it's there. The point is that the presentation of the base items feels very much like an afterthought. Like it doesn't matter. And basebuilders are here saying, yes it does. It does to US. However, I like that Jimmy responded so quickly, and yes, I've already set up one shot, and we're working on more. As for the announcement of such a size being difficult to navigate, there are a couple of options. Have the category titles have collapsing Hidden Contents so that it's easy to see everything quickly and open the areas each person is interested in. Have each category actually be a link to a post in the topic (with a link at the end to return you to the table of contents/categories). @Easter Bunny did this when asked to tidy up the pins in the base editing topic. Now all the pins that are there for building help and information are now condensed into one post, and each topic links to a post containing that information. It's very possible to make even long posts more user friendly, but it will take a bit of formatting. -Dacy

Hmm. I searched for "base" In this topic. My success rate with the search feature in this forums is really, really not good, and "base" is actually a fairly common word. Funny thing, I got one page of results and none of them were the actual part in the patch notes that referred to the base items. Do you have a lot of time, Doc? I would bet a lot of people don't read all of the patch notes. Especially not when they are 70 pages. Or even a super long scroll. I think most people look for what interests them. And point being, the new base items were one of a very few things hidden. Miscellaneous fixes, they were there. AE changes? Oh yeah. Every new tweak to costumes? YEAH! At length! Small bug fixes? Yeah. Graphics issues? Sure! Some people are slow readers, and I am a fast reader, and it still was a lot to wade through before I found the base items, and I already knew they were there. And I entirely MISSED the new player changes, and that was originally what I'd gone to see! But that, too, was hidden, tho, hidden at the top. I wasn't expecting it to be labeled "Build 2 Changes". But it's easy to miss things when they are buried, which is why I made the points I did. Why is it buried? Why should we have to search to find them (when it works)? And why not make the notes more convenient and easier for people to peruse and find what they are interested in by collapsing most if not all of the sections? Treat all the information and categories the same. As I mentioned, base items are not even in the table of contents, and I'd like to point out that there are literally hundreds of people who are interested in new base items. Maybe some are on the forums, maybe some aren't, but it's still a significant group in the player base, and for many, bases either ARE the game for them, or make the game as enjoyable as it is. So I feel that changes to base building deserve as much emphasis as other topics. If they don't want to hide everything, I would want to know why. Why are headlines alone at the bottom of a long scroll good enough for some things, but not all things? If hiding things is less desirable, then nothing should be hidden. Things should perhaps be separated into pages and linked to a table of contents that actually lists ALL the categories. This isn't a newspaper that you have to read all of it to find the tiny mention on page 45, this is a forum on the internet, where we can link to things for easy navigation! Wouldn't it be great to take advantage of that? -Dacy

That...shouldn't happen. There should be no difference in performance if the teleporter is over the beacons, whether flush to the wall or any other way. I routinely place my teleporter next to the wall, (tho attachment is set to floor) or the teleporter is even partly buried, and all the beacons are buried in the floor or behind the wall, and I've never had an issue with a teleporter working, ever. Some things I have seen that do interfere: Beacons are too far from the teleporter, especially if other teleporters are nearby. The beacons end up not knowing where to attach. Beacons are of a different origin than teleporter Beacons are there but due to alignment, can't be seen (as stated above) (rare and they think they fixed this when PvP was introduced): beacons are being interfered with by another teleporter, such as medical or even the AE rez pad. (It can't be used as a teleporter, but apparently still has a little bit of teleporter programming tied to it, because it will sometimes interact strangely if other teleporters are nearby) If you have the problem you just described again, please give me a DM in game @Dacy, and let me come see it. -Dacy

You are making sure that you are OUT of the search field, right? Because you can't do anything if you've clicked in the search field except type in the search field. Until, of course, you click OUT of the search field. -Dacy

With a free jump pack and avoiding mobs, I get the long range in a few minutes at level 1. Or you can park in Pocket D for an hour making costumes and have to go nowhere. I mean...how much easier does transportation have to be?? I rarely even USE my travel powers unless I want to. -Dacy

A suggestion for the patch notes for the Homecoming servers: How about you use this "hidden contents" space saver for all the contents under the main headlines? Or at the least, the contents under the main points? It would make scanning for areas of pertinent interest easier for everyone, and make the areas hidden like this feel less like unimportant afterthoughts. After all, the dev worked hard on this content, there are a lot of people eager to see it. It makes it more readable to have just the headlines and important points, and it makes it more fair. I'm sure you didn't intend it, but having so few areas be "hidden contents" seems to indicate they are less important and relevant than the areas that aren't hidden. Everyone I showed this to got that same impression. I mean, the fact that base items are included in the patch isn't even in the table of contents! If you were one of the hundreds waiting eagerly to see what's new for bases, what would you think? That there was anything even there for you? Hiding just a very few topics makes it feel like they're unimportant and an afterthought. Wouldn't it be best to treat things equally and give all of the topics their due, and let people choose what they are interested in enough to reveal and read? After all, it's a game for everyone here, and one of the wonderful things about COH is how many things there are in this game to keep the interest going even when you've done everything many times. All the parts are important. 🙂 -Dacy

And thank you again for bringing this to my attention, and thank you @Monty Haull for calling my attention to the fact that what I wrote was confusing (and counterproductive, meh). -Dacy

I'm not able to say no one else has had it happen, I'm just saying that I personally have not yet heard of this (or run into it myself). As for the categories switching, I agree, it's annoying. I would not count on that being addressed anytime soon, however; the base code is uncooperative, and they have found that messing with it can sometimes break everything, so they don't really like touching it and they have a lot of projects, plus their full time jobs. I can't say for sure the status of that, I'm just saying, this is what I know of the situation. That caution was ONLY for doing the cel shading data dump. Enabling diagnostics will not endanger your base. But the diagnostics may help them figure out why you freeze like that. Cel shading is a known factor in crashes, that's what that was about, so because it causes crashes, I don't recommend trying it on a large base just for the experiment if you weren't having problems already. -Dacy

Thank you for reporting this, I have never heard of this particular bug before, and how wonderful, Etched, that you figured out a workaround! Please let us know, Monty, if that works for you. And both of you, if you could please sign up to allow data dumps for diagnostics, it'd help to figure out why things like this happen. -Dacy

Etched, we are prohibited from revealing what's coming before it's released, and believe me, that is hard to do. The reason for this is because if we tell you it's coming, and something happens to take it out of the lineup before it arrives, then we have to explain that what we said is now not true, and people can get upset, is the rationale, so it's better to show what we've got when we're sure we've got it. Now, if you join the closed test server, you can see what's coming. And test it. But you are also prohibited from revealing it at that point. However, the next issue is moving to open test soon, and they have revealed what's coming here . As far as bases go, as usual, the programming goes into what serves both the majority of the players and the devs own personal tastes, and that's work on powersets, difficulty, and, well...read the open letter. There will be new base items coming. The timing on several of them will be bittersweet. As usual, the items are all created to the highest standards by our base item creator, and are marvelous. What bugs in bases would you want to see fixed? Other than shift. The solution for fixing shift seems to be "put everything back on grid only", and that's not something most people want, especially as we have the option to use the grid already. I would love to see place-able lighting, like I'm sure you would, to avoid having to sink lights into things when using indoor lighting, that would be awesome! I have asked for this a few times. I have no idea if the idea was taken up or not, because I don't get to know what might be coming until it shows up on test. 🙂 I would not look for new NPCs; if they do anything with NPCs, it would probably be to slim down the editor catalogue by making NPCs more like characters that you customize to some extent, but again, that's programming, and our volunteer staff can only do so much, which is why they are asking for people who might be able to help, to please help. Hopefully, we will all get to see the new stuff soon! I'm always excited by new things, no matter what they are. Tho there are definitely things I'm hoping for the most! -Dacy

Syk, we all started at the beginning. Now, it is a matter of application of time, energy, and effort, this is true, but I know you can do great things if you choose to. I'm here to help with your questions and to give you tips. 🙂 -Dacy

I'd be happy to get in the editor with you and show you a few options and how to use them. -Dacy

VIdeo Guide This topic gives a list of videos created to help people with everything from basic base questions to more complex editing techniques. Feedback, questions, and requests are all welcome. I now have these listed by loose category; some are in more than one category. Here is the link to the channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/DacysBaseBuilding Most of these are short quality, and can be viewed in HD if you set your viewing for that. URLs and descriptions are listed here, thumbnails are throughout the topic. Start Here: Introduction to Base Editing: Build a Basic Base This is a comprehensive video that will tell and show you most of the basics you need to move forward. How to start your sg/vg, changing the plot, setting up rooms, choosing styles, colors, lighting, skies...what things need to go into a base to give you all the services. How to put in teleporters, suggestions for organizing teleporters and salvage setups, and lots of tips and a few tricks to get you off to a great start. Close captioned. Introduction to Base Editing: Getting Set Up, (This is one of the first videos, and covers only the very first steps to starting a base) A brief look at what you need to get your base started, and also, how to set the sky to "open sky". COH Base Quick Tips: A Quick Look At Editing Commands (More concise, with visible cursor) A very short overview of what commands you need while editing. A Look At Base Editing Commands (recommend Quick Tips version) Improved to cover slightly more, more concisely. Looks at setting up the editor to make editing as easy as possible, which keys to use to manipulate objects, and placing your base entry portal in or out of the base, and how to deal with the error when people get stuck in the entry portal when entering base. All New Building Above and Below the Base With Page 6, everything changed! Updated info on how to get set up to build above or below, followed by information on things you need to know: what are the advantages and disadvantages and trade-offs. Base Quick Tips: How to Open The Sky The often asked,"How do I change the ceiling to sky?" COH Base Quick Tips: Placing Plot and Rooms Start with the basics! COH Base Quick Tips: Moving Entry Portal Often asked right after they learn how to open the sky... COH Base Quick Tips: Placing Objects on Top of Other Objects How to put things on the table instead of them appearing to float over the table... COH Base Quick Tips: Interior Base Teleporters The how-to for how to connect the pieces so you can zip about your base in no time! Quick Tips: Fixing Flicker, a.k.a. Glitching Are flickering bits in your base driving you and everyone else crazy? There's an easy fix! Specific Guides Kitchens! A guide to putting together the appliances you've seen in my kitchen, with some options to what's been shown. Windows You Can See Through, Plus More Construction tips for making windows you can see through, and a look at options the base editor offers for ready made windows; which walls are best for the outer walls of a house, and different door options. Base Sky Options Goes over some of the different base-wide sky options, and how they effect objects you place, plus, the place-able skies found in the "Skies" tab in the Place Item category. Terraforming Making higher grass hills, rock formations, and floating islands. Roads and Cement Surfaces The replacement for the one with the wonky video; a look at good materials in the editor you can use for roads and other cement surfaces. Building Material for the Outside of Buildings A look at some materials good for the outside of buildings in actual finished buildings in a base. Both house and city buildings shown. COH Basebuilding: Creating Roofs Creating roofs, different types of roofing materials. TOURS Base Tour: Power Girls See a high-end townhouse. COH Base Tour: The Invincible Ones Tour of Dacy's award winning space ship base on Excelsior. Base Tours: The Pagoda Base tours of the most awesome bases in Paragon: Today, the Pagoda! *Award Winner* Base Tour: Rat City Tour the one, the only...Rat City *Award Winner* Base Tour: Karma Tour the island everyone talks about...Karma Island! Base Tour: Sleigh Belles The holiday base everyone will be talking about! Base Tour: Paragon Galleria See a wonderfully realized full scale mall! *Award Winner* Living in Style: Apartment Tours Two apartments by @BBBadger, beautiful! The Chapel Dacy's own build, a perfect place for weddings! Granny Victoria's Tea Room A gorgeous Victorian tea room. Go for the tea, stay for the decor! Boardwalk Shouldn't a boardwalk be fun? This one is! Boxfort An adventure in imagination! New Series: Base Quick Tips Base Quick Tips: How to Open The Sky The often asked,"How do I change the ceiling to sky?" COH Base Quick Tips: Placing Plot and Rooms Start with the basics! COH Base Quick Tips: Moving Entry Portal Often asked right after they learn how to open the sky... COH Base Quick Tips: Placing Objects on Top of Other Objects How to put things on the table instead of them appearing to float over the table... COH Base Quick Tips: Interior Base Teleporters The how-to for how to connect the pieces so you can zip about your base in no time! COH Base: Quick Tips: Positioning Those Pesky NPCs Can't seem to target NPCs? You're not alone...but there's a solution! COH Base Quick Tips: Using Banners: More Than Just Decoration! Make colored walls, carpets, and more! COH Base Quick Tips: Making Spiral Stairs Creating spiral stairs is easier than you might think! COH Base Quick Tips: A Quick Look At Editing Commands A very short overview of what commands you need while editing. Quick Tips: Raising and Lowering Room Section Walls How to raise and lower sections of walls inside of rooms, even if they're blocked by objects. New Series: Building Skills (Placed some older videos in this category on my channel, more in depth than my quick tips on a single topic) COH Building Skills: Lettering There is a lot more to lettering than just the oversized alphabet in the editor! (issued before the new letters came out) Building Skills: Disguising or Hiding Base Services Get your salvage and other services to look like the rest of your base! Building Skills: All New Building Above or Below the Base Same video as referenced above, but is part of the building skills series. Lays out both the technique for building above or below a base, and the considerations you need to know about before you make a decision on where you want to build. COH Building Skills: Making Slides Flat, self-propelled slides, downward slope slides, and...UPWARD slides? See how to do them all! Older Videos, Still Good Info, But On the List to Update! Creating Different Levels in Your Base A look at the different items you will need to create different levels in your base, how many levels you can put into the base within the walls, and different items you can use to achieve different looks. Advanced Base Editing Techniques A few things I’ve learned that should help you edit some trickier things more easily. Working With Water Placing water so it looks good, without flicker or gaps, which water plates need solid surfaces under them to prevent characters from falling through them if they are placed over air, and making pools and rivers and lakes. Building Complex Items Shows techniques I use in making complex items, with a demonstration build using the techniques. Base Lighting Options It might seem unimportant as a topic you should visit before you start building, but how you choose to light your base has a big impact not only on how it looks, but impacts the decision on whether or not to build outside of the base walls. Know exactly what you're choosing if you choose to build above or below. Wall and Ceiling Options in Your Base A look at what your options are for walls, both as part of the base itself, or as in what items make good walls and ceilings, and where to find them. Dacy shares her favorite way to make straight white walls and ceilings. Make Your Base Work For You (shorter, but the all new Introduction to Base Building: Build a Basic Base covers all this and more) Setting up base functions: Storage, Rez Facilities, Teleporters, Services and Buffs. Dacy shows you what is available and where to find it, and how to set it up. She includes a trick she picked up to make storage units disappear. Making Base Function Look Fabulous (Recommend instead: Disguising or Hiding Base Services) A short tour of some bases for samples of what Dacy spoke of in "Make Your Base Work For You", in making your functional pieces look good, or seem to be part of your design, or even completely unnoticed. Help For Editing Problems The editor has quirks and outright bugs. This segment is a bit longer than others, but deals with negotiating these bugs and quirks. Why is your item jumping around? What do you do when things have shifted around from where you put them? How can you get rid of flicker? These and other problems are sorted out. Quick Tips to Fix Editor Errors For those who don't want to watch the longer and more complete “Help For Editing Problems" and just want to know what they can do to avoid or fix a problem. Return to the Table of Contents

Hello, Builders!! Happy New Year! Here in CR land, Easter Bunny and I have been busy planning what we’re going to be doing in this coming year. We wanted to give you all a little bit of an idea as to what to expect. We are hoping for a fun year, with more opportunities for base builders to show off what they’ve done, and more chances for people to appreciate their efforts. We heard a lot of feedback from the first contest, the big Spring one that we did in 2023, and we have listened and tried to improve on what we did. Which, according to many, wouldn’t be difficult, heh. So we hope that this year will bring many pleasant surprises to those that were disappointed last year. For this year, we thought about what it is that base builders want the most. We consulted with quite a few to make sure we were thinking along the same lines. We believe that: Most base builders want people to see and appreciate their work. Base builders in general hate creating something only to have it sit, unappreciated. Base builders also appreciate recognition. (Which has usually meant gold titles) This is a bit harder, because gold titles are kind of the standard in recognition, but, only the lead GMs can give those out, and for one, they don’t want to have to do that too often, and for another, handing them out in numbers large enough to make everyone feel recognized will make them not very special. So we wanted to do some things that will help people feel appreciated and recognized for their talents, but we still need to reserve the gold titles for those few that win in contests. But...we’re going to level the playing field a bit so that new builders aren’t competing with all of the experienced builders who’ve been working on their bases for years. More on that, later! We’d like to find other ways to let builders feel recognized and appreciated. So, we’re going to be trying a few things this year. Yes, we will have one big contest. But we wanted other ways to allow builders who do not relish competition to showcase their bases. So here are some things we have planned. Base exhibitions, showcases, “Base Con”...still working on the title. This is not a competition. We will be asking for bases, by category, whose builders/owners would like them to be seen and (hopefully) appreciated by the public. (categories: Arcane/fantasy, Nature, Tech/Sci Fi, Reality/modern life, other/mixed) We would have a “hub” base where we’d list the base codes for visitors to go see. (We would of course also list these in other places.) We would like the visitors to send any comments they’d like to make to the builder or owner (exhibitor chooses where/if people send comments, and we CRs won’t see them unless you want us to). This gives the builder feedback, and I’ve seen with one base in particular who demonstrated to me how effective this technique was, asking for feedback generally gives you very positive results, and can be a real boost. CR feedback would be upon request, likewise for critique. We know some do not want to hear critique, and some want to hear it very much. We would be publicizing this very hard, like a contest, without the competition. We would be open to holding a SG Fair, for SuperGroups with bases that are recruiting. We plan on one large base contest, for sure. It will be different than last year’s. We would like to continue with the “challenge” contests, the small specific building challenges, spread throughout the year. We would like a weekly listing of bases based off a set of more specific, smaller categories. These categories are to create a directory that is category based, and people would be encouraged to visit the bases listed each week. You list the code of a base that fits the category of the week, with the understanding that people can (and should) visit your base that week. (Optional: list your base but specify it is closed to the public. Let people know if they can request a tour.) This will help us fill out the categorical directory, which will help people find your base when they are looking for something specific, which means your bases get used (if you want them to be; if you do not, just indicate that on the listing). CRs will select a “base of the week” (if you’re in Dacy’s Discord, you will be given that title as a role) from the bases listed in that category. (This would be probably mid-week, TBD) The “base of the week” will not be the “best” base, this is not a competition! “Base of the Week” may be chosen for any number of reasons, from showcasing a new builder, to something unique about the build, to the overall skill of the build, etc. Bases can and should be entered in any category they match, but any base chosen as “Base of the Week” will only be given that honor once. “Category of the Week” listings and the “Base of the Week” will be suspended during Showcase and Contest times, and will be suspended indefinitely if there is a lack of participation. “Base of the Week” will be listed, with pictures, in the base building section of the forum, and on HC’s Discord, and listed by code on the Base Building channel’s MOTD. So, that’s a mix of contests and exhibition opportunities. We hope that everyone finds something they would enjoy there, even if you’re not a builder, and just appreciate bases! Now, this is the plan as of now. If you have comments, please give them to us NOW. We promise to listen and consider your input. One last thing: The success of this program, and really the entire CR presence, depends on you, and on participation. We’re here for you. If the community signals that it isn’t interested in what we are doing, then, we don’t need to do it, right? So here’s the crux of the question we have: do you want to be a community? See what others do, support each other, learn from each other? Do you want organized efforts to let people see your work? Some people won’t, and that’s fine. Some people prefer to be on their own, and we understand that. But we need to know if we’re, well, needed. And if we’re doing what you’d like to see! So here’s your chance to weigh in. Let us know. And join the fun! Cheers to all the hard working base builders! Your Community Representatives, Dacy and Easter Bunny

I've had this up, but it needed a few edits, and the edits don't seem to have "taken" when I try to replace the older versions, so, am re-uploading it. Long story, but tried to make it exciting (has gotten good reviews.) 🙂 Was written during earlier on Live. This is essentially the origin story (with a plot) for both my first main, Dacy's Trick, from whom I took my name Dacy, and her companion character who inspired her, Trick Dacy (hence the yellow coat you see on my avatar, he was inspired by Dick Tracy). -Dacy (I appreciate comments from people who have read this!) The Fight Begins.docx

Doh, I DID forget those, thanks!!