Dacy

No, you sadly cannot change anything about the rooms you start with other than their position , rotation, and whether or not the space in the room is filled in part or totally. For whatever reason, too, doorways no longer get the same look of fill as the rest of the base when you are building above, either, so if you have doorways, there will be gaps. This is one reason I suggest building over one big room; you can always build smaller, but you can't build between rooms with anything other than a huge piece that's anchored in a room, and you can't change the room size and still keep what's inside. -Dacy

Thank you. I do realize that fixing the code as it stands is pretty impossible, yes, it would have to be completely redone. But. Surely the editor items could be reorganized, if nothing else! And since we have tintable items like the alphabet letters, it stands to reason that we could also have shapes and things like walls that are tintable and made in different sizes. If we were able to tint the grass, it could look like sand. Or maybe even snow. These seem to be things that could be accomplished, given what we already have. -Dacy

I know this is probably low on the priority list, but is there any chance the base editor could be redone? If not, is there any possibility that it could be at least reorganized? The problems it has are too many to list, but I know that at the bottom of it all is rotten original programming. Slapping little fixes on it is more likely to break it than help anything. Currently, it's using text fields for numerical values. This results in rounding errors which shift objects out of place/alignment. In fact, the math is so wonky on this editor that setting the grid to 1/4, which should be a constant value, is in fact likely to be slightly different each time you log in and edit, resulting in things not aligning when they were done in two different sessions. Many items were added, which is great, but the interface is now full of items that aren't grouped well, making things difficult to find. At the least, it would be wonderful to reorganize how these items are categorized. If the editor were to be redone, I would suggest adding some basic shapes that you could color. A size slider would be awesome. Making several objects that you've used to make something be grouped together so they are regarded and can be moved as one object would be phenomenal. I heard that texture mapping was something someone was trying to do at one point. I don't know how far that went, but we are missing so many basic items you would think would be the first things any base editor would be able to offer: a fair variety of floors, in various shapes and sizes; ground, such as grass, sand, snow, dirt, in various shapes and sizes, walls, maybe a basic tintable wall with no trim to mess up your lines when you're making stairways. Stairway landings. Trim. Windows that are already in a wall section that blends with other wall sections, preferably the tintable wall segments. Curtains. Doors. Door frames. The list of things people want is fairly endless, I know, but honestly, items we can color and put together to make things we imagine (tintable shapes in various sizes) shouldn't be that hard to add, seeing as we have alphabet letters and other things we can tint, and that would be the fastest way to make life easier for base builders. Overall, I appreciate the freedom this game has given to base builders, and the creativity people show with what we've already got is phenomenal, but there are also so many people who struggle with the bugs in the editor, the difficulty of finding things, the awkwardness and frustration of trying to find something that works to make that thing you're imagining or you saw in the game, or something that seems like it should be easy and common, but isn't in the editor. It would be so fantastic if the thing could be redone partially or completely. Thanks for all you do! -Dacy

The building and street construction is very possible. However, we are unable to animate anything in the base, although a few objects have inherent motions. Cars are not one of these, nor are NPCs. Everything else is possible, but the door either has to be permanently open or you use a teleporter to get through it. -Dacy

Very cool! -Dacy

Did a stained glass window of sorts for the castle I'm working on. I think it turned out well! The overall view with the chandelier is fairly impressive, I think. I just wish the white walls had a better rendering distance! -Dacy

It’s not a glitch, it’s the easiest way to get above or below the base confines so you can work. You remove the ceiling segments in a section, room, or whole base, and set the style to “open sky”, and then you can fly out while in edit mode, and this means via anything that lets you fly. You might want to check out my video series on base building, I explain the ins and outs and hows of building. -Dacy

The main problem is, we have no shapes at all that dovetail like a roof side needs to. Nothing really triangular or trapezoidal...except the roofs already part of a building. One thing I noticed about the top building: the roofline really isn't much different than ours. The same basic look could be achieved by putting on a raised snub triangle on the corner, so the line of the roof goes up at the end. It would have to be the corner of something solid and square, or made to look like that, preferably with rounded edges, not super sharp edges. The rest of the apparent bow to the roof comes from what's under it, and how those materials are positioned relative to the roofline. You'll have to try to smoothly blend same type materials to form the lines of the trapezoid, which means you're going to have a real problem with flicker. Slight angles as they intersect will help with that. And that's about all I've got at this point. If I stumble across something that makes a better roof, I'll tell you. Myself, I had to cobble together some things to make a tech style roof of a castle turret; I've been thru all the materials (except didn't really look at the stone), and there's not much that will make a good roof that can be blended to make a four sided rooftop. (here's a shot of the roofs I put together) -Dacy

If your med stuff isn't working, have you looked to see if it is powered? Medical items, even the inspiration dispensers, require power/control. -Dacy

How big of a pagoda roof were you wanting to build, @ShardWarrior? -Dacy

Wow, no, @ShardWarrior, I have no idea...they need more curved and triangular objects, that's for darn sure. Good luck... -Dacy

Great advice on the visscale! Yeah, I experience the mapserve for a couple of seconds when I access storage the first time and when I enter edit mode, no matter the size base. That just seems to be what it does now. It doesn’t seem to be a dangerous mapserve, one that loses things or actually disconnects you; might be interesting to measure the time and see if it’s longer for larger bases, because that could be an indication that it reaches the point of disconnect danger in very large bases. I have yet to experience actually losing materials on homecoming, or getting mapserved to disconnect simply by accessing storage. Knowing how the base storage is handled by the game, tho, means that that could be a danger at some point, but that might also depend on the actual server. -Dacy

Your computer CPU and memory will have a great deal to do with this. Note: fx items may only count as one item, but they take up much more memory proportionately. If you are using a large number of fx, or really, any, I'd save installation of the fx until you are done with everything else. However, side note: if you have problems editing with memory slowdown and general bogginess, people have a much greater chance of problems if you have anything in storage in the base. Items in storage are treated as base items, and each time they are added or removed, the entire base is rewritten. Memory problems and lag abound with this design, and items can be lost, people can be mapserved in the middle of moving items, etc. The higher the memory usage for a base, the greater the risk of memory related problems. If this is a base that is supposed to be functional, I'd suggest a lower item count, or a separate base for storage. -Dacy

Cool. Some thoughts on the answers: -Dacy

You'll get there! Some questions in my mind, maybe they'll help spur something, maybe I'm just putting these out there: Does Marilyn know or think she has any special abilities, or would she say she's ordinary, because that's ordinary to her? Annabel made a lot of assumptions when she saw Marilyn. At what point might she start asking questions, because she was clearly so excited about where Marilyn is from? Or, what would need to happen to spur questions? Is Marilyn the least little bit curious about Annabel? Like, why does she think she is a vampire, or why does she love vampires so much? I know I'm curious! So far, there seem to have been quite a few supernatural occurrences around these girls...or perhaps just around Marilyn? If so, is she used to that? If not, why now? This school, why are they there? Apparently they are not college age, so it must be a boarding school. Why this school? Or, if it's not the school, most kids don't go to boarding school, how is it these two wound up there? Is the school special in some way? I can think of three main ways that characters are developed or their important qualities are revealed: through personal glimpses of thoughts, memories, desires, or reactions; through interactions with other characters, and through reactions in situations. I hope this helps a little! 🙂 Happy writing! -Dacy

QB: woo! Nice!! Now hurry and write more, I can’t stand the suspense! 😁 @iynx, wow. You have a fascinating way of revealing your character. Very evocative, I find myself being drawn in and wondering so much about this character! -Dacy

Okay, so, I needed a larger chandelier for a castle entry hall. Very happy with the result (It's hard to find round things that can serve as a base for something like this. Finally found the perfect thing for this particularly sized thing! Can you tell what it is?) Again, the sparkling effects make this much prettier in person. 🙂 -Dacy

Your mastery of lighting and shading is amazing. So good! -Dacy

AWESOMELY AMAZING!!!! @Giovanni Valia, you should include a base code tag; heck, you should set up a tour! This whole base is *fantastic*, pictures do not begin to do it justice, and it’s incredibly complex. Bravo! -Dacy

Hey, on the topic of player conduct, I have a question: (this is the first topic I found that dealt with this even obliquely) Is it possible to find out a player's history at all? You know, as in, this player was warned for this behavior, etc.? I was warned of a player by another player. I tried to get clarification on what this person had done, and I got some of it, but wanted to know more so I could decide whether or not it warranted breaking a promise I made, myself. Promises are a big deal to me, and I do not like breaking one, and even more so on someone's so-say, but I also do not wish to risk the behaviors described, so, horns of a dilemma. I'm guessing there's not, because the desire to keep privacy I bet outweighs conduct concerns, but I thought I'd ask. -Dacy

@Snark, here is some math for you: 30 converters, bought for 10 merits, will make you usually less than 3 mil, right? At going rate, usually 2.7 mil. Okay, so. You make a level 10 IO for 3,600, using one uncommon salvage and two commons, typically. One uncommon is 1,000, two commons are $200 total (I'm using figures that I know will get you the salvage, you can often buy for less if you will wait or the market is feeling generous). So that's 4,800. So. Even the least profitable IOs will sell for 100k-300k. I've found recipes you can buy for, on a good day, 100-500; it's pretty easy to find recipes that go for 1500 or 2k. I'm sure you can see the profit in that, already you are at what you'd get back for one converter. So now you take that recipe and make it into an IO, and let's say you make a really low end IO which sells for 200k. Market takes a small percentage (I'm sorry, I don't pay close attention to that, I think it's 5%?) You buy an attuned version of that IO for 200k (I suggest you buy one before selling yours, because the sales records aren't the most accurate guides). You put yours up for the same amount, so you're only out the market cut. * (see note later) Now you convert. It might take 10, 20, even 30 to get to something really profitable, like a Luck of the Gambler, but even if you spent 30 converters to get one LOTG, which you sell for 7 mil, you're ahead of what you would have gotten for selling just the converters by 4 mil, give or take. I don't think I've ever had to spend that many to get that specific one, but you can get a bad run and it can happen. Preparing you for that. But I've also had it come up in one try, from random in the rare category. Some days are better than others. Now, if you just go for an IO that is middle of the road, 3-4 mil, which is not too hard to come by, you will still be ahead, because you can do that many times with fewer converters, see? It's random, so I can't give you hard numbers, but using the rarity level converter, to either uncommon or rare (I will usually turn an uncommon to rare at some point by staying in a category...looking at the category will give you an idea of how many of the recipes there are rare vs. uncommon, so, you can figure out the math from there as to your chances of getting a rare in that category. I have noticed that the converter tends to go from uncommon to rare to uncommon while converting within a category...not always, but your chances are good. So if you just go with middle of the road, I'd say you could probably on average see 4-5 IOs converted into 3-4 million IOs, so, now you're looking at 12-20 mil from those 30 converters, instead of under 3 million. Less crafting costs and market cut, which, if you do it the way I mentioned, shouldn't be much. If you get lucky with the rolls, you could be looking at more, too. And most of the rares sell for 1 mil minimum (check this), so even if you go with the lower end IOs, eventually you will see a good profit. *Note on Demand: lower end IOs tend to sit on the market longer, since, lower demand. That's the trade off in going with a low priced IO, it might take a bit to sell. Also, prices can be deceiving; you might have to buy an IO at more than the rate anyone else is willing to pay for a while. Well trafficked IOs will avoid this problem, but the cost to exchange them will be higher. -Dacy

Nope, and I doubt anyone wants you or anyone else to do that. How about the simply clueless? The "I just don't get this" people? Okay, putting you squarely in the "nope, don't give them money" column. I got it. Me, with the "millions every minute" that farmers are making, I don't see a huge economic impact from giving people a bit to start with. It worked great on the private server, apparently. I'm not a hard core capitalist, at heart. To me, it's not about "survival of the fittest", I don't subscribe to the philosophy of, I got mine, if you can't figure it out, tough. Farming was invented so people could make influence and experience easily, even afk, in some cases. But many people just do not have the time or mental resources to sit down with all the info and build a farmer. If it's not breaking the game to let farmers earn influence while afk, I do not see why starter funds should be a big deal. It wouldn't make a long term impact for any account, anyway; it just makes the early game more enjoyable, especially for new people who are trying to learn everything, or returning players who forgot everything they ever knew and are starting again. @Snarky, a couple of tips for you for the market: don't sell those converters, use them. Make your uncommon recipes, the lower the level the better (less crafting cost). Sell that, buy it back as attuned (or buy back something even cheaper). Convert to something you can sell for more. You should check prices as you convert. If you convert within a category instead of in the same rarity, it will likely convert to a rare (some categories are more likely to do this than others). Example: you have an attuned (that's important) Rooted IO, one of the immobilize sets. You convert it to another uncommon (cost of one converter). It converts to Reactive Defense, in the defense category. You use the drop down menu on the upper right and this time, you convert it to another defense. It converts to a Gift of the Ancients,, which sells for a decent price..or you can convert again and try to get to a Luck of the Gambler, which is very good, especially the Global Recharge enhancement, which goes for 6.5-7 million. It's important that you get the attuned version, preferably one that is very cheap, before you start converting, so it can change into any IO, not just the ones that are that same level. Also, when buying for yourself, never buy the IO, buy a recipe. If you can't get the recipe you need, buy one in the same category and convert to what you need. Buy low level recipes to save on crafting, then sell that and buy back the IO at either the level you need or attuned. I certainly hope you're not one of the ones paying out the wazoo for superior anything! Buy the lower version and use a catalyst, even if you have to buy the catalyst, still less expensive. If you want an IO that's really expensive, try buying a less expensive IO in that same category, and converting it. IOs cannot convert out of their category! Pvp will always convert to PVP. Very rares will always be very rares, and winter attack IOs only convert to other winter attack IOs (not the travel, that's another category). You will never get a regular IO to convert to a PVP or a Winter. So category is very important. I hope this helps. 🙂 -Dacy

I was also completely I decked out and ready to go to purples, but I know how to use what I get to my advantage. What I’m saying is, it’s harder than it should be at the lower levels, IMO. You can make an argument that people are just too lazy to read up on the information that’s out there, but honestly, some people genuinely do not understand what you need to do in order to be able to do this. Just because I have been fine doesn’t mean it’s good the way it is. It means it’s possible, not optimal. What would be wrong with giving new players some influence if they wanted it, to help them get going? -Dacy

Yes! I liked what you did with the glare section, and the POV is now consistent. I’m not as clear on the changes in the middle, with Annabel’s thoughts. It sounds like Marilyn has been pointing out vampires, and Annabel hasn’t been clear on how she’s been doing it. And yet the text states that this is the first time that Annabel has met a vampire. In other words, it sounds like she just had suspicions confirmed, or confirmed the method, and then it doesn’t make sense that she would have to go on to validate how this is done. Also doesn’t make sense that when she does go on, since she now knows how Marilyn is doing it, that she would doubt when she does point out a vampire. And I don’t see a reason for her to want to check her makeup. However, if Annabel is incredulous that Marilyn could see under the makeup, all of the above makes sense. I could see her wanting Marilyn to prove it, and wondering whether or not Marilyn could see under her own make up, or maybe wonder if there’s something she missed and this is possible to do, and still being doubtful that this is for real when she does point out the vampire. Hopefully that made sense. 😊 -Dacy

I will definitely agree that SCORE made things much easier with the changes to the market and the drop rates, etc., and I love converters!! However, one side effect of the market being a pool instead of level specific is, you pay as much for a recipe or IO set at level 10 as you do for 50. Unless you’re topside with a decked out 50, you’re struggling! And believe me, not all farmers are making millions per minute. Also, I’m not sure how much play time you are using to show that you can deck out two to three characters a week, but it’s definitely not a casual player like many I know. You only do well in being able to outfit characters in this game if you have an outfitted 50 or better yet an outfitted idealized farmer, and you understand the system, as in how to leverage what you have on the market or build that farmer who can rake in millions per minute. I have given away millions to players who understand neither of these things. I have heard people comment over and over again in help that they have no influence and no way to buy enhancements. I’ve known people who are still playing a level 50 with few IOS, let alone sets. Yes, the game is much easier than it ever was on live, and if you understand the systems, especially if you already have a 50 making you all your influence, it’s really easy to get your characters completely set. But, it is really hard to get going if you are a player who doesn’t get to get on all that often, and who doesn’t have a 50 they play to get their influence. You should not have to have a high top tier character to be able to outfit your lower level character! And I do not think that you should have to understand how to work the market to your advantage to be able to do so, either. -Dacy