Dacy

There is a base building channel, Base Builders Inc. There is also the HC base building topic on Discord, which is well populated, and I also have a channel on Discord for base building. Any and all are great places to sing out if you need help or want someone to come have a look at what you've done! 🙂 -Dacy

I'll come help. Did you move the portal to a place that accesses the outside? Are you trapped in the entry room, or in the portal? Because the portal should not be trapping anyone, that bug was fixed by making the portal non-collision (you can walk thru it). Contact me in game @Dacy and let me know what shard. Or, if by "trapped" you mean you can't access the base because the portal isn't where the base is, I can help with that here. Or on Discord. Join my channel https://discord.gg/usNqXuzj -Dacy

Thank you! The Halloween base is a seasonal base, it will be back next year with expansions! But, especially since I have not yet started those expansions, I will be happy to do a private tour if you would like. Any item that will show a sg symbol can be something that you use for lettering. The sg symbols have the full alphabet on them, you just need to change the sg logo each time you place a new letter. The items with sg logos on them are: Banners, podiums, floor plates, and SG holograms (podiums are either arcane or tech, under those tabs, holograms are under the tech tab). The holograms are what I used in the Halloween base, they rotate. The banners I usually put just slightly behind the wall (this may take more than a few attempts) so that only the logo is showing. Also, many other items in the base may be used to create letters. I've used candles, soap, duckies, candy boxes (do not recommend), bones, wood...many things. -Dacy

Very cool, @Freedumbite! And I love your desire to have it just so, I can say that is quite familiar to me! And thank you for sharing that one. I'll go, and maybe some others will chime in: Things you wouldn't know just touring the space ship (Excelsior, ONES-5030): To cover the outside of the base like I did is a bit of a challenge, with the rule of having to have part of the item in a room. Angling some things helped, so the sides weren't that hard, as long as I had items big enough. There aren't many items large enough, but definitely the hardest part was covering the front and the back. In the front, I used curved pieces, and these pieces were being very difficult to work with. Not content with the regular "one bit in the room" rule, they insisted that they could get no where near the wall. So, I had to come up with a workaround, because these were really the only pieces I could use. What I did was added a room to the place where I wanted to place the object. I'd place it where I wanted it, which was essentially in the doorway between rooms. Then I'd delete the room I added. Most of the time, unless I'd gotten too far from the first room, the object stayed! I can only guess that the programming, when items are placed in between rooms, decides which room the item belongs to, so it's deleted or kept based on that assignment if the room is deleted. This trick allowed me to place the front pieces so that the wall did not show, and place the back piece entirely upright without it showing through the walls, plus all of the other bits I put on the back end to make engines. But when you are inside in the gym or theater, which is right up next to that wall, you won't see anything showing through. And I'm very proud of my air hockey table (see post prior to these) and ping pong table, and the windows I made that have "stars" and seem like you're looking out into space. Partly because those are very labor intensive. 😉 -Dacy

My questions have thus far not been answered. I'm slightly deterred, but still hopeful... Out of curiosity, are any of the GMs also base builders? I was just giving a tour, and realized, as I answered for the umpteenth time that no, the ping pong table and the air hockey table are not items in the editor, and pointed out as I always do that the windows in the ready room and the captain's quarters are not actually windows, but created stars, that when they said, "point out anything you want us to be sure and see", I should have mentioned these things! My thought was that they wanted to know about secret areas, and I was sure to point out some areas that were only accessible from certain locations, but did not think to point things like the air hockey table and the windows, even tho I regularly mention them on tours, doh. But other base builders know which are and are not items from the editor. I'm hoping at least some of the GMs do base editing, but, in the future, for any base contests (probably anywhere), should we just assume no base editing knowledge is held by the judges, and be sure to point out not just things that could be easily passed by, but things that we are proud of because they look as good as something ready made from the editor? I'm kind of putting this out there because it only just today occurred to me at all, and I bet there are other bases where something looks just like it should, and so people don't even realize it's a created item, not ready made. Not a big deal ordinarily, but possibly a bit of a deal if you're being judged on what you've put together. (Posting pic to remind you what they look like and show those who haven't seen, so they know what I'm talking about.) -Dacy

Almost done! Wow, took me way longer than I thought it would, and I still have the second of the smaller perched drums to do, but now that I know how to do it, won't take so long. I changed the color to red because the only thing I could find that didn't shift wildly for the smallest drum was the coffee can, which is red, so, red it is. The larger side drum sides are made from coffee machines. I don't think I will do a colored side for the short wide drum; I have already been thru every tintable item in the editor, and there is nothing that will really work. Pretty much all of the cymbals and drum tops other than the largest drum are made from reading light 1. To get the coffee cans to not bump up above the light stand that serves as the drum surface, I had to set up one light the way I wanted, and then I attached a second light to it using "surface" with no grid setting. Ever notice that when you place items on different surfaces to start with, they end up at slightly different levels when you raise or lower them? Well, I took advantage of that, and it worked. So, I set the coffee cans on the lower, first placed surface and then held control while moving them into position. I had to leave frequently to check to make sure it hadn't shifted past acceptable limits. The short wide drum is two operating lights facing each other, from medical/scientific. And, as I said in my previous post, the largest drum is the top of the number 8 with the center filled in with hyphens and colored 8s slightly shifted to show up around it. And, I just realized that the upside down light stand to the front of the big drum wasn't supposed to be there; it's the stand I used to place the coffee cans. -Dacy

I have not been able to get the rim of the grill to stay, but getting close to having the whole thing done. Base shift is making me miserable, but eh, that's a basebuilder's life. -Dacy

I have your big drum here 🙂 Still working on the smaller bits of the set (and right at this moment, working on getting the 8s to behave; I recommend placing things one at a time and letting the base shift happen, but this is basically what I'm going for, almost there!). This is a sunk down #8, the top part, with center filled with hyphens. The outside is a slightly offset colored 8. Metal ...I don't know what you call the tension rods on the outside of a drum, but those, I made that from knives. The inner rim on the white is the edge of a grill lid. I have made the flatter drum and the two that perch on top of the floor bass drum, but have not yet gotten the shift to behave yet. I'll post another pic when I'm done. -Dacy

I highly recommend messaging the base builder If you want a tour of a base; they always know all the little secrets, and it makes it very much more enjoyable if they are available. I toured Rat City with Crazy Cat, and it was utterly charming. Squidget is usually happy to give tours, and you likely won’t find all her amazing nooks if you don’t get a tour. I’m also happy to give tours. I’m guessing that most of the base builders would be happy to show their stuff off. 😊 -Dacy

Same. I'd prolly use bathroom stall panel walls, since they don't have the intrusive item box that alphabet letters do, but same idea and same reason I haven't. 🙂 I need to look into that aggressively. -Dacy

Say, judges...any chance on you releasing the rubric by which you judged bases? Not the scores, just what sort of qualities you were looking at; I'm sure it would help people improve their bases, because subjectively, most people think their bases rock hard, but giving them a list of things to consider could help them/us all see things through fresh eyes, as it were. I'm also sure that it came down to a matter of personal choice, which can't really be quantified, but again, having a list of things to consider would be helpful to most people. -Dacy

Okay, reminder, the next class (geared towards people either early on in base building, or those confused on this topic) will cover building above and below the base, and teleporters, as well as questions from people. This will be Saturday, Nov 14, 2PM CST (That's 3 PM EST, and Noon in PST). Join my Discord to access the chat channel, where I will be talking and sharing my screen. You don't have to talk, no one did last time, so if you're not comfortable with that, don't worry, you won't have to say a thing. Here's the link: https://discord.gg/fRReS4jq -Dacy

@Sakai, I'm doing a shared screen class on this very thing, building above and below, teleporters, and questions, on Saturday at 2Pm CST. Join my server on Discord to participate https://discord.gg/fRReS4jq. Sorry you are having problems! But follow along with me, and if you like, be in your own base and try what I'm showing you, and see if it works. If it doesn't, you can ask me questions. Hope to see you there! -Dacy

I'm interested in this, too, started looking into making a set, and didn't like my options. Tho, I know some have done drum sets, I personally didn't see what I wanted. I'll let you know if I come up with anything. -Dacy

Contest winners! I was wondering, what don't people know when they tour your bases? What was especially challenging? What, if any, tricks did you use to make something work? What's your favorite part of your base or thing you accomplished in the base, and why? -Dacy

I’m in shock, too! Thank you so very much! Words do a poor job of conveying the emotion here. Thank you. Congratulations to all the winners and a shout out to all the awesome bases which, even if they didn’t get an award, are still awesome!! -Dacy

Small favor, @Blushield, if you recall, I renamed my base to The Witch’s House. Could you please list it as that? Thanks! Thanks for the contest, and congratulations again to everyone! -Dacy

So, did we decide? I have this stuff which is screaming that I should give it away...can I? Hand it out to folks who need it? Or are we doing another event? Saving it for next year? -Dacy

It says in the original announcement that the prizes will be awarded at 7:30 PM EST, but where? -Dacy

I'm scheduling first (more advanced) class on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2PM CST (that's UTC -6, for international friends). I will cover spiral stairs for sure, plus a technique or two I've picked up to help solve some specific problems, and questions. Hoping the class will be about 30 minutes, give or take. I'll be doing a basic base building session the following Saturday the 14th, also at 2PM CST. I'll cover building outside of the base box and/or setting up the basics, depending on what people need. -Dacy

All right! I set up a server on Discord. Right now, I am trying to discern what topics people are most interested in. I will cover questions and topics people want to see, or topics I get asked about a lot, depending on what I hear from people. This will definitely be more ongoing than a one time thing, but again, that depends on interest. Right now, here's the channel: https://discord.gg/UsfqFyzA I would appreciate hearing from people as to when would be a good time for meetings. I could have a set time, and then do say, advanced techniques apart from the scheduled times, or vice-versa, or I could just schedule based on interest, but I have no idea what interest is, right now. So please, let me know! -Dacy

Okay, so, heard from a GM, it's not allowed...on Homecoming's Discord. I can make my own channel, which, I was going to do anyway. 😄 -Dacy

Having a format where there is back and forth would give me a chance to hear what people actually need to know, and not just have to guess at it. 🙂 -Dacy

Okay, I keep seeing and keep being asked the same sorts of questions over and over again, and sometimes, I really wish I could go back and redo some videos to clarify, but I can't. I was thinking, what if I offered classes/demonstrations on a Discord channel while sharing my screen? I could take questions, give demonstrations, etc. It wouldn't be video...would that be a problem? It also wouldn't be general public, it would be limited to people who are already here, because I would only advertise it on channels in game, on the forums, and on Homecoming discord channels. Is anyone interested in seeing something like this? I could take questions and so directly answer things that people are not clear on or are unsure about. If I am able to. 🙂 I'm fairly confident that, in most cases, I can, but obviously, there's always more to know! -Dacy

Well, I was really really busy yesterday, and now all the slots have filled. I am ambivalent about giving a tour; does Veracor want a tour, or will he tour it himself? I think about all I'd need to show the other judges would be the secret room, which is not inherent to the base theme, so, could be skipped. If Veracor would like a tour, I'd be happy to give one. I am available most of the time, just let me know. -Dacy