Dacy

While I can't help you with the different looking items, I can help you with disguising them! They can all be completely and I mean COMPLETELY hidden and represented however you would like. -Dacy

New, very short tour of The Chapel, a new community base, free to use. Contact me to reserve a date! -Dacy

Oh, I didn't feel you were taking anything away from them; indeed, it's something of a compliment for someone to think that maybe that base just wasn't possible within the current system! 🙂 I'm just here to tell you, it's very possible, and I think anyone can get there with enough vision, determination, information, and practice. If you're looking to give it a go, feel free to join my Discord, and sing out if you want any help! (Link expires in 30 days, apparently they've changed the ability to have a permanent link for Discord...) https://discord.gg/tjqvx8EvG -Dacy

All of the bases were done using the tools available to everyone. No mods, no other coding. Just pure determination, skill, practice, and patience. Afaik, there is no coding one can add to a base to do things to it, and any mods would require people coming into the base to have the same mod. Mods were never even brought up by anyone, so, no mods were seen or used, and if any were present, they wouldn't have been seen because we did not have those mods. This is a fallacy I'd like to see die. I prefer to build inside the base, myself; there are several advantages you lose once you build outside of the base, things like tintable lighting, and base shift is much worse outside of the base. Of the winners in the original contest, 3 of 6 were built completely inside the base, and one (mine) was both inside and outside the base (I actually built around the base to use it as my space ship, using inside for three decks). Of the 7 winners from this contest, one was built entirely inside the base (The Station), but only one was built entirely outside of the base (Super Nation); the rest were a combination, with the bulk of what they did, inside of the base. This base, Chapel-24315 on Everlasting, was going to be built entirely inside of the base, but lag considerations made me put the prep room insides, outside of the base so they'd place in the small rooms at the end of the plot, instead of the one big room. However, the bulk of the base, again, is inside the base. My favorite Easter Bunny base, SleighBelles-7920 on Indomitable, is entirely inside the base. Having said that, none of the bases that are inside of a base, FEEL like they're inside a base. That's where the skill comes in. Skilled base builders can make bases that don't immediately remind visitors that they are in a base; visitors, instead, are transported mentally to another place. The only way to "level the playing field" is to work on whatever skills need polishing to bring you up to where you want to be. Other than the plain knowledge of how the controls work and (very important) knowledge of how to correct things like flicker (I CANNOT overemphasize how important controlling flicker is) and shift, and attention to detail, I think the most impactful skill you can work on is learning what's in the editor and use this knowledge to learn how to create things that are NOT in the editor. Don't settle for what the editor shows you for different materials: This is a wall, this is a floor, this is art. If you stick with just what the editor offers for materials, you will be very limited. Spread your wings of creativity and experiment with making things look the way you want them to look, not how the editor tells you they will look. If you take a look at the contest winners, this is what they all have in common: they took what's in the editor and made it do what they wanted it to do, instead of just taking it as it was, and they did with technical precision and artistic creativity and skill. Runners up, as well; we did not have enough awards for all of the crazy great bases in the contest. Concept, creativity (especially in use of materials), technical skill, and consistency in the application of all of these, this is what separates and elevates. Typically, the people who are doing this sort of work have worked on it for a while, or been working and learning about base editing either for a while, or in a fairly focused way. They talk to others, they experiment with techniques and items, they research. They tour other bases and images for inspiration. Having a clear mental image of what you want to do, and then working to get what you're doing as close to that as is possible, that's key. Where you build, not so much. 🙂 @Easter Bunny and I are always happy to help, give tips, be a second set of eyes to help you see if you got the effect you wanted, give tips on how to get there if not, and there are a lot of other really skilled builders around who are more than happy to help in this way, as well. 🙂 Sometimes, admittedly, it's nearly impossible to get to exactly what you are imagining, but no matter where you're aiming for, having someone to give input or feedback is incredibly helpful. EB and I bounce things off of each other all the time. There actually have been contests for these, that's what the awards that show up next to the missions are about. I have nothing to do with that, however. 🙂 We probably need an AE CR to do more of those! -Dacy

I was told there are lots of weddings; but it's also great for just contemplation. I'll put a podium with a cross on it if you want to use it for mass. -Dacy

That is good to hear! So far, several likes but no one seems to have immediate plans that need a venue. 🙂 I'm looking forward to seeing who will be first! -Dacy

Now Open, and available for reservation at no charge: The Chapel. Set in a lovely woodland, interior decor can be added to for your wedding, and seats can be changed to your wedding colors. Prep rooms (some details still being added), available for your wedding party. Passcode for the base can be changed to make your event private, on request. Contact @Dacy to reserve a date and time. Make sure to say if you want the code changed for your event. The Chapel is currently set to perma-day with the Cimeroran Sky. It can be set to other skies, but then you will have a day/night cycle, and it will be much dimmer at night. It is set to outdoor lighting, which means none of the lights will actually give light, tho some have auras that look like they give light. The Chapel is open at all times for viewing or quiet contemplation, unless a private event has claimed that time slot. CHAPEL-24315 on Everlasting. -Dacy

I've seen some really well done small bases. The the things that made the biggest impression in the contest were concept and then how well that concept was carried out, both in the technical skill and the artistic impression (and attention to detail); both of the winners in the utility bases were fairly small, tho in the case of the Station, huge amounts of detail added to the piece count in what could have been a very low count base. That's basically what upped the count in this base I Just released, the Chapel; it's just a chapel in a wooded setting, and we threw in a couple of prep rooms for wedding events. However, due to all of the arches throughout the building, and the fact that there are no thin curved pieces in the editor, each arch (and most are double arches) had to be made with individual small dock posts, angled to make the apparent curve. There are also a lot of pieces from Nature in order to make the forest setting look more realistic, and then in the prep rooms, there are things like makeup, all of which had to be made. So yeah.. item count was much higher than I first thought it would be, even though the concept sounds fairly simple, and it's certainly a fast base to explore. I'm really glad you entered the contest and enjoyed the feedback! Always happy to help people who'd like to stretch their base building chops. 🙂 -Dacy

Announcing a Community base, a great place for RP weddings, or just quiet contemplation. CHAPEL-24315 on Everlasting. Booking a date for an event at the Chapel is free, first come first serve, and the base code can be changed for reserved events if it's desired to keep the event private. Contact @Dacy here or in game or on Discord to reserve a particular date and time. Visitors are welcome at any time the Chapel is not booked for a private event. Main builder is @Dacy, with contributions from @Easter Bunny (bridge, prep cabin outside design, replication/construction of many arches), and some, tho more minor contributions from @Vexxillion and @Aalya. Credit to @Aalya for introducing us to the inspiration for this chapel: the Mildred B Cooper Memorial Chapel. And this is my version: And there are prep rooms for a bridal party: (some finer details still being added) Please, stop by! -Dacy

Okay, I did a video on this very thing, with a demonstration, because I think it's hard to get just from an explanation. Here's the link, and I'll also explain further. https://youtu.be/9qfSzBfljfc So, first of all, if the NPC is sitting on the base itself, and not on a floor you pulled from the editor, you should be able to select it (mouse around, if you get an item box, you should be able to select it). So for the other things, yeah, tabbing isn't great, but will work, but it works faster if you have pulled an item from the editor as if to place it. Pick something, anything, in the editor, get near the NPC, and start tabbing. For some reason, this usually prioritizes the NPC, but that just means you will see it sooner rather than later, you still may have to go through several items to get to it. If you can find it in "current room" that may be faster, but usually it's not. So, IF you picked an item out of the editor before you tabbed, once you have the NPC you want in your item window, you can now edit it. Now, this will work a bit differently than editing usually does, you actually can move it, lift it, turn it and not have to worry about it placing UNTIL you click. You don't have to keep hold of the keys, the item stays in "move me" mode until you click to place, so you can do several manipulations, tho I will say, using shift will immediately bring the NPC back to where it currently is, so if you are changing its height, do that first. Then do anything else. You will still have to guess at placement, but in general, the back of the item box is pretty close to where the back of the NPC will be (it's the centerline for the feet for standing NPCs, and only a little bit of the NPC will be behind this line ever). If you still can't get it, message me in game at @Dacy, or join my Discord https://discord.gg/8pMP3qbxXB to always be able to contact me or someone who's knowledgeable to come help you get it sorted. Also, in game, the Base Building channel, even if I'm on my alt account (and I've been building a great deal with that account of late), I will see you on that. -Dacy

I'm sure that the builders appreciate your admiration, but please, don't limit yourself to a screenie! Please, go visit the bases. They are incredible works of passion and art. -Dacy

Huh. Okay...weird. But ultimately helpful this time, so I won't complain. I will watch to make sure I'm in general when I issue the next invite, tho, hehee. 🙂 -Dacy

Updated the building above and below to reflect the new tools from Page 6! This is actually a revised version of what I had before. I addressed a copyright claim that only appeared after publication, improved sound quality, and noted to use F3 for those that forget to do that when they start building. So if you commented, and if you liked the other, please revisit and tag it again, if you'd be so kind! Thank you! -Dacy

Teleport points: I'd say likely. No promises. Doors: Seem to be problematic, which sounded a lot like a hard no. -Dacy

Trying to figure out how that was the first thing you saw… Don’t get me wrong, I am happy that you found it! Lots of other things and tips where that came from. It’s just…not a video that generally hangs around, accosting people. 😊 -Dacy

Had a friend not in the server yet test it, it does work. -Dacy

huh. I'll try again... https://discord.gg/8pMP3qbxXB -Dacy (Same link, but let's see if somehow had an error)

Thanks, Techwright! @savair, also please you are welcome to join my Discord, the only channel all about bases and base building! https://discord.gg/8pMP3qbxXB -Dacy

You can also move all the functions into a small area and build elsewhere until you are ready to move the items to their new home. Your base will function as always while you build. -Dacy

We, your Community Representatives and the judging panel, would like to thank this community very much for helping us bring this community choice vote to its conclusion. We didn’t really plan to put in the week of extra work it’s taken to do this right, but we’re base builders: when do we ever take the easy way? When doing things right is important, you do what you have to do. And there were problems with the first round of voting. We wanted to make sure that, whomever won, there was no question about it. And we are very satisfied with the process this time. In fact, we saw more bases visited by more people. We saw people who might not have voted on the forums, who heard about the contest for the first time and were able to vote. They could vote while in the game they were already playing, with the much higher likelihood of actually looking at the bases involved. We got to hear more from the community about the bases, we got to build more awareness within the community about what bases can offer. And we can prove the integrity of the vote. There were many positives, in fact, and should we ever do another community vote, in person would be really the only way to consider doing it (although figuring out that there was a way to be afk and still verify that someone had been in to vote definitely is a factor in that equation). Thank you to the amazing finalists who allowed their bases to be open to the public like this. We heard more than one person comment on how eye opening it had been, how impossible of a choice, and how they were looking forward to adding the bases to the roster of ones they visited frequently. So thank you, again. We know it’s been a difficult process at times. We didn’t like that part, either. But now, we would like to announce your choice as the base that will win the award for being the Community's Choice for 2023. Congratulations!! Final Vote Tallies

And Pshaw, we have GREAT respect for you and Veracor, who have stood with us and been rock solid throughout this heavy time commitment. Hopefully we learned enough that the next judging will be much easier for our guest judges, and thank you for being the best about being guinea pigs for us. 🙂 I was just musing about what we've learned, and what is going on right now. The re-vote, I feel, is really going well. Sure, there is a small minority so put out by the whole affair that they've decided that to not vote speaks more loudly than a vote, but I'm seeing really good positives here. If we were ever to the point where we forgot how badly this can go and went and did another community vote, I think I'd want to do the (only) vote this way. What are the positives here? Some people don't go to the forums, but they can vote in the game they are already playing, and very easily. Monitored vote is something that is easy to verify, and it seems like the supervision keeps people conscious of their own integrity; there have been absolutely no reason to doubt any of the voting we have seen. Some people are still visiting bases; some didn't have time last week, some, I think, once we made them come in person, decided, well, may as well go see what we're voting on, and that is only to the good. More bases appreciated. More fairness in the decisions made. I think invisible voting is definitely the way to go on a voting poll like this. I wish I could have done that for the first one! Forums need an upgrade. All in all, even though it's been made CLEAR that some people are very unhappy with the situation, I'd say I'm very happy we did do the re-vote. Yes, it cost us time and effort, but the positives seem to outweigh the negatives here. But then, I give a great deal of weight to integrity, and I want to have confidence that the results are clean, probably more than anyone else other than Easter Bunny. The outcome of all this could well be the same. Or similar. Or entirely different. But this time we will know that things were well monitored. And whether you believe it or not, we'll know that this time, for sure, things were all above board, and we've done all we could do to make sure of that. I think at the heart of this is the fact that most of the people who are complaining don't know us at all, so they are not as likely to trust us as those that do know us. We will both continue to reach out to the community, build relations, and be ready to help with anything we can help with, and hopefully connect people together. Especially in base building, there's no need to reinvent the wheel; there is so much we've learned about the editor that can help people build the kind of base they want to build, and we, the CR's would love to help you learn what it is you need to know. This is why so many bases are so excellent: they have learned what's possible, and they have learned the techniques, and honestly, many of them learned those from us and each other. With base building, it's our strong belief that sharing ideas and information is how things improve for everyone. That is why it seems like bases just are getting better and better: we are literally building on each other's discoveries. Those not connected to the community resources have to discover those same things on their own. So, if you want to improve, I suggest you get connected. 🙂 Next time, from what we learned and what we'd already planned: No base built even partially by a CR will be in the competition. No matter how much we reassured people, a vocal minority still felt like that base was getting some special consideration. I am not really (myself) sure how one can look at it and think it had to have some help to be considered as a top contender. We agreed when we agreed to become CRs that we wouldn't get to compete (and learned that this principle is applied even when it's not we, ourselves, competing); now that extends to anyone who wants any sort of a building partnership with us. It would not, however, apply to bases where we simply help you with something. The next contest(s) will have different categories. That was always going to be true. Some will fit some bases better than others. We now have a better idea of how much time different parts of the contest will take. We have a better handle on what more we need the rubric to evaluate. Community Choice voting is very problematical. IF there’s a next time, any non-judge winners will probably be selected by a vote of the contestants who entered the contest, or some other group easy to identify and verify. No matter what we do or how hard we try, there are people that are not going to be happy. And that's just how it is. We can't and won't ever be able to please everyone, and so we just focus on making sure that, at the end of the day, we are comfortable with how we did things. And I have to say, even with the complaints...we are happy with how we did things overall. Thank you for the patience, grace, and understanding. 🙂 And the awesome bases! -Dacy

Let’s not go to personal attacks, please. The people you refer to were not connected to either base or any base in the contest. The reasons we decided to do what we did are complex and I’m not going to get into them here. I would however, appreciate it if speculation on the subject could end. In the end, you either trust our judgment because, as CRs, it’s our job to know what’s going on, we have access to all the information, and we do what we can to improve the situation, or you can just decide that we don’t know what we’re doing. That’s up to you. And let’s drop the whole infighting bit, please. It’s not needed or helpful. The other thread was closed because people couldn’t let it drop. We’re moving on. -Dacy

I guess you must have talked to the builder, hmm? Because when we did the judge tour, I asked him about it being a PVP base, and he said he did not make it as a PVP base, and did not know how to turn on the flag. I imagine there are lots of the bases that are on the list that would be great for PVP, if that was your aim. I am sure that we will need to make a PVP category at some point for a contest! And even though rampage was not made as a PVP base, I can see how it would be fun. I can also imagine hiding in the foliage in the Dryad, popping out from one of the hidden caves in Lake, fighting as a pirate in the Hidden isle, or raiding a socialite event in Vault Luxe. What awesome bases we have! -Dacy

Suit yourself. We did not take on the labor intensive job of redoing a vote because of “people complaining that the ‘best’ base didn’t win.” We are also, believe it or not, familiar with what a community vote is. And still will be. Clearly you aren’t inclined to believe we had reasons we felt sufficient to take on what we took on, and if someone isn’t willing to accept our judgment no matter if you know specifics or not, then clearly you don’t trust us, and there’s not much to say. Personally, I love all the people I see coming in. They are still, some of them, going and visiting bases. People have with rare exception been positive, and we aren’t seeing any of the things that made us decide this was our best option in moving forward. Another week of intensive work for us. More complaining. Long nights. And we knew that’s how it would go. But we felt it was the best and most fair. Sorry the vote isn’t “fun”. It truly didn’t didn’t seem like a lot to ask. And most people are happy to help. -Dacy

That is important to me, as well. See my bases Overkill-2729 on Ever, and a commissioned one, ONES-5030 on Excel. All services up front, but worked into the design (space ship ONES much more than sea base OVERKILL) Was on the rubric, too. You can disagree all you want on the RP, but the RP crowd is pretty clear on what is needed. Of COURSE you can make the best of anything, and the STATION is definitely set up to be accessible to RP, too, but if you're in a dining room and can't sit at the table, it's a little hard to say that you can RP there. So there are, actually, considerations. -Dacy