Dacy

I love seeing all of the participation! I do hope that those of you sharing your thoughts on what you've seen are also sending these comments to the builders, as some people do not visit the forums particularly or at all (which admittedly does make it hard to get the word out for things like this!), but part of the idea of the showcase is to let builders know that their work was seen and appreciated. 🙂

Ha, I was about to talk you through making an entry when I saw who it was, lol. Now I'm tracking with you. So, I'd start with the first thing that comes to mind when you think of that base. Then, if that wasn't the thing you liked the most, do that next, what you liked most about it, if you can pick out one or two things. Give your general impression, and maybe something you thought was really well done. That base IS huge and a bit overwhelming at times. 🙂

Angle, this code is not working

Sorry, that won't be possible, but those defense items are target-able while you have the pvp flag on, if that helps. 🙂 Raiding became impossible when they gave us the massive flexibility we have in creating things wherever we want, and it never worked great from the start.

An array of tech or sci-fi bases are open for you to see! It is appreciated if you can send your comments about the base to the builder; there will either be a sign in the base which tells you the preferred way to send a comment, or, use the global in the list. We'd LOVE it if you'd visit these bases! Easter Bunny and I have made a "Base Tour Hub" on each shard, for this and future showcases, where you will see a list of the bases on that shard, which ones are a WIP (work in progress), and which ones are best viewed with the ability to fly. There will be a macro listed that you can make to hop to each of the bases from inside of a base, so you don't have to leave and reenter each time. There will also be a macro listed for the hub base, so you can pop back to it and get the next code, if that is how you want to do that. (This is an example of ONE of the hubs; there is a hub for each server). Here are the bases that have the lists posted: (hubs where you will find macros and bases list is in header). This showcase will last for 2 weeks, until April 28th. Everlasting: TOUR-33691 Excelsior: TOUR-30788 Reunion: TOUR-9105 Torchbearer: TOUR-14480 BEYOND-32772 TSN-159 CYBERPUNK-14407 MARSBASE-3909 EDGE-33106 CRASH-15210 HOPE-14269 HOPE-15001 LIGHT-14474 ASTRAL-16800 HALLOFMEANWHILE-33491 KLAATU-14298 ONES-5030 TNG-25980 MAYHEM-19149 OAA-19403 COUNCIL-14532 COSMIC-770 COSMIC-8540 0-2401 SGL-28076 MOBO-22827 WANDERINGSTARS-30426 UPLINK-20164 CORPS-8904 by @Doctor Radon (It's helpful to have fly for this base) STARRFORCE-13203 HOP-9999 FFLEGENDS-2882 FEELTHEFUSION-119 FUSLABS-3309 CLONES-10732 PLATINUMS-11229 TTL-13910 Unfortunately, there were no bases submitted from Indomitable, and only one from Reunion, so the hub for that one on Reunion is not really necessary. Because the hub is not helping to make the tour easier, I included the global and the fact that it's helpful to have a way to fly for the Reunion base. Please visit all the bases! It's simple to transfer a character, or copy a favorite costume and roll a tourist character. Just be sure they have the money for a jet pack if they're a level 1. We will have more showcases in the near future!

Flintlock, this is probably a good one for the category "LIfe-Like" which will be reality based; this is for tech focused or sci-fi focused bases, like something that's alien, or futuristic, or entirely tech. 🙂 I know I told you this in Discord, and you acknowledged it, but I wanted to be transparent as to why it won't be listed in this particular showcase.

Thank you! Yes, I see them!

I need the following people to please list the following bases on the directory, and also I need everyone who has not yet done so, to let me know if they will want feedback, and if they want feedback and/or critique from the CRs. Here is the link to the directory: http://tinyurl.com/mr4dvhyn @Snarky please list MAYHEM (and I do not have your in game global) @Battle-Angel please list HOPE-15001, LIGHT-14474, and ASTRAL-16800 @Dr. Rogue, I don't seem to have your forum name, but you need to list HALLOFMEANWHILE-33491 @Crystal Dragon, you never listed your base, or told me what to list. @Triumphant, please register CORPS in the base directory

Submission for @Dr. Rogue: HALLOFMEANWHILE-33491 on Everlasting

There's a ton to see in this one! I really love your custom air-hockey and ping-pong tables on the reck deck! I'm also impressed with how you are able to put your zone teleporters so close together without getting the anchors to cross-pollinate. I've never been able to figure out how to prevent that, so I tend to space my teleporters relatively far apart. Looks like you also have plenty of room for expansion. Several decks looked like they had access points for crew quarters or some such. Will be cool to see what you do with these! Thanks, I like the tables, too. I have never had a problem with "cross pollination" (lol, good word); I fill each teleporter before moving to the next, I place the teleport beacons very close to the teleporter; touching if possible. If teleporter is going to have fewer than 10 beacons, yes, you sometimes still get migration if you leave slots open, so I fill with extra teleporters until after the next nearest is placed. But, I did not have to do that with the turbo lift teleporters, and the ones on the deck are fairly close. I consistently place my teleporters close together, so I would say this technique should work for anyone; the times I have come into bases to correct drifting beacons, the beacons were not very close to the teleporter, so they went looking. I have not often had to fill a teleporter to keep it from exploring other options. All three of the inside the base levels have crew quarters lining the halls; I asked the owner if he wanted me to open any and do the insides, but he did not. The build is finished as is (although the owner is mostly not there, so it sits), but yes, there's room for expansion if the owner desired. Did you notice in the captain's quarters and ready room, that the starfields were fake? Thanks for touring! 🙂

@Crystal Dragon, you don't need to guide anyone through the base; you can simply post the code and shard and your in game global here, or message me on Discord and I will post it for you. 🙂 Of course, you should also please make sure the listing in the directory for any and all bases, but especially this one, is up to date.

Submission for @S o l a r i s 0-2401 N X S Excelsior Hidden areas; flight capability is suggested.

Submission for @Caddaric: COSMIC-770 COSMIC COUNCIL Excelsior COSMIC-8540 COSMIC COUNCIL REVENANT Excelsior

I think it's more likely that the storage system would get redesigned, because I know they don't like it as it stands, but I also know it's a very tricky and difficult thing to change. So I'm not holding my breath in anticipation, because I have no idea if it ever will be redone. I just know that's the sentiment. But fortunately, it's very possible to hide all of the services, including storage, so at least we have that for now. Probably the reason so many people use the interdimensional shard is because it's small and silent, so we actually already do have a small teleporter. 🙂 But I'm sure it would be nice to have one that's similar in Arcane.

I'd like the grouping, copy/paste, or "apply style" (which basically means, do to this piece what I did to that piece, which I know already exists in some form in the editor because it's possible to do it with attachment), and the ability to search for an object and have it highlight or better yet, take you to the object. Also, better organization in the catalog. I am working with a couple of others to do a catalog that you can search by things like shape, size, color, ability to tint, collision, etc., so hopefully we can get that together, but that's a fair amount of work (will take time), and won't be in the actual editor, it will have to be a reference outside of the editor. Maybe we can get a more organized editor at some point. I'd like the editor to show you not only what item you have selected, but what values are in anglesnap and grid. I'd like to be able to manipulate an item I've selected without having to find the grab point. I mean, I can click to rotate it, but I want to be able to lift and turn it more precisely without having to grab it. And yes, it would be nice to be able to "turn off" the ability to grab an item, which would for all intents, lock it into place until you enabled editing again. That would prevent accidental grabs, which I know is the bane of many players. A couple of tips/tricks you may or may not be aware of: hit <esc> to release an item, rather than having to undo it (which won't work if you grabbed storage, anyway). Hold shift to grab the item behind another item. Hold control to target the base instead of items. Item position is determined by the nexus location of the camera view, the mouse pointer, and the nearest surface with the item's attachment orientation. To prevent things from sailing across the base, work with your camera pointed down more than aimed into the distance. Hold control to keep items from changing height. When items move here then there when you are dragging them, likely there are different things that register as floors in the editor underneath that item, and it's finding different location triangulations because the height and placement of its attachment surface keeps changing. To prevent, have an editing surface tile at the level you are working, or close to it. If you find yourself teleporting down to the floor or across the base (camera angle determines where you go), use the command /unbind leftdoubleclick. You will have to renew this each time you enter the editor if you want to use that again. If your leftdoubleclick is not disabled, you can double click in a room of the base, and the editor will teleport you to that spot. That only works on floor spaces, not on a filled in section on the top of it. Filling in the entry room will stop you from being yoinked there when you first enter editing, but you will still end editing as close to the entry room as the editor can get you. When trying to get items placed either very close to a base wall (some items get stubborn and don't want to place too near the walls) or even just outside of it, if you are in a base room that's smaller than the very largest 24x24 room and not on the very edge of the plot (with no space to move to), then you can try this technique: add a temporary room on the side where you wish to place the item. Put a doorway between the temporary room and the room you want to work in. Place the item, making sure the grab point is not farther away from the room than mid-line in the doorway between the two rooms. Now you can delete the temporary room and see if the item stays. It should stay as long as it's on the half of the doorway that belonged to the room you wanted to place the item in or near. If it didn't stay, hit undo (ctrl/z) and try placing the item again. More tips as I think of them. 🙂

YES!!!!! Usually you can stop doing this by typing /unbind leftdoubleclick. Most don't know that you can double click on the floor of where you want to go in a base and it will teleport you there when in edit mode; this gets rid of that, and usually, the flying across the base that goes with it.

You will always return to the entrance room or near to it, if it is filled, when leaving the editor. If you made a bigger room outside of the entry room, open your map and you should see it. If you have doubt that the editor did indeed place the larger plot, go back into editing mode to check, there's no real workaround there, but I've never had it fail that task. The system will put messages up that the whole sg can see as to what you are doing, though, so that is one way to check, especially as the build gets bigger and memory issues and lag sometimes mean a move didn't "take", if working in one large room, so that feedback is there to confirm, yes, you bought that next piece, which means it's placed somewhere. Now, that will only record "buying" and "selling" items, not moving them.

It's the interface we all have to use to build our bases. How is that working for you? I know there are lots of suggestions out there (we did a poll), but here's a place to also note frustrations and perhaps find options that will help. Some may not love the editor...maybe all of us don't love it! But we do love what it can do. Here is also a great place to note any tricks you've discovered that let you do things you didn't think you could do. I will ask that this topic be pinned if there is a lot of interest in keeping it easy to find. If not a lot of people need it, it'll slowly drift away...

I do want to apologize, @Excraft, for going into details I should not have. I doubly apologize if your in game global is not Excraft, for that is who I had contact with, and that Excraft is still on my global list. But I should have let that whole post sit for a good while before I posted, it likely would not have seen daylight. I also basically let this become more of an argument than a discussion, and let the feeling of offense translate into saying more than was needed or good. I am sorry for that; from the start I should have acknowledged that all feelings here are valid for that person, and we need not think poorly of ourselves or others because their experience differs from ours. No, I still don't think the editor itself is buggy, and I do feel that the controls are simple, but the process itself is time consuming and there's a definite learning curve. It's like picking up a paint brush. Simple to dip into the paint and put to canvas, but painting with skill is going to take learning the finer points and working until you master them, and everyone is different in approach, style and the time it takes to do something they are satisfied with. Everyone can paint as in, put paint on brush and put on canvas, but how much time you want to invest to get to where you're happy varies with each person according to their motivation and time. And I understand that no matter what I think, some of you are convinced by your own experience that there is nothing simple or easy about the editor, and for you that is also true. Easter Bunny and I talked, and realized there's no place here where you all can express your frustration with the editor or suggest improvements (just want to do a reality check on suggested improvements, tho; I've said in this thread many times, the chances of big improvements to how the editor functions is low, and it is unlikely to gain functions that will allow beginners to do complex projects in a short amount of time), but yeah, who knows, right? Maybe there's something someone would suggest and the devs might say, you know? We might be able to make that work. They surprised us by fixing base shift, and that was the number one thing on the poll we did a couple of years back, and tbh, we didn't think shift was something they COULD fix. So I'll be making a topic for commentary on the editor, and yes, we know there will be negative comments. However, if there are problems people have that I know how to counter, I will also be giving information on how to deal with that editor oddity. 🙂 I will try to be careful not to sound like people who are frustrated have no right to express it; I'm only here to try to offer things that might help, Thanks for giving me more experience in understanding where people are coming from.

Also, please let me and/or Easter Bunny know if you want feedback from us, and let us know if you're looking for that feedback to tell you what you're doing well, or more along the lines of what could be improved and how. We're not going to give critique unless it's asked for. 🙂 Don't forget to please put up a sign or afk Character with your preferred method of contact, as well, so people can send you comments if you want those. Some may and will comment here as well, but many will not, but sending a tell or an ingame email is easy.

Pro tip: the Nightward sky is always night, so lights that only light at night, are on all the time! It's also in the placeable skies, in case you want another sky for most of the base. The fx of any sky are only visible while your character is under that sky. REMINDER: all bases need to be entered into the base directory https://tinyurl.com/HCbasedirectory Please be sure to enter or update your bases! 🙂 (Bases that were previously on the old directory have been added to the new, but this is your chance to make sure it's described accurately and its status is set to what you want. Do you want visitors to be able to just stop in? Or would you rather they messaged first? Etc. The process is simple and quick, you just choose words from dropdown menus.

Oh, and, officially enter ONES-5030, Excelsior. This is not a possible entry into any contest, but it's sitting unused for the most part, and I'd like for it to at least get seen. Flight is good if you want to cruise around the outside of the space ship (accessible through shuttle bay). Has some Trek flavor by request, a little BG and Expanse thrown in as well. Maybe a little Bab5 in the arboretum....

Yay! Reunion! The smaller shards get at least one to represent! 🙂 One of the things about a showcase is, you can see what others have done, and I LOVE that you are visiting and commenting!! You can learn from what you see, and you can make an informed decision as to whether or not you'd like to try to enter the contest next year (and you have time, now, to work on improving if you care to). Now is the time to ask questions and soak it all in. 🙂 I will describe my method of making a sign, hopefully this translates: First of all, as with any fine detail, get close. The editor places things according to where the mouse is in relation to your camera angle, and the type of surface your item is oriented to. Watch your item window to make sure you're not grabbing other things across the base by mistake, if that happens to you frequently. Now to place letters: (here, I'm using tiny letters and the back of a shower floor) Hit F1 and disable grid. Get out a shower floor and hold control and alt at the same time, and rotate it until it's standing upright on its side. If the side without the drain is not facing the direction you want it to, hold shift and alt and rotate it around until it's facing the correct direction. Get out a surface tile, no collision, 32x32. The shower floor is seen as a floor by the editor, so the surface tile, which wants to attach to a floor, will place and stay level if you position it using your mouse pointer on the surface of the shower floor. Click to place. Now go to whichever set of tiny letters you want to use, PCity or Motiva. Motiva has a lower case as well as an upper case, and if you use lower case mostly, you can fit more on your sign. Select a letter. Hit F5 twice. This will set the letter attachment to "surface". Place the letter so it's facing up on the surface tile. Now, for this first letter, you can set the color you want, and all the following letters will be that same color, so choose the color. I choose black, using the small black/grey/white three square color choice, not the gradient scale (that's the darkest black). Now, HOLD CONTROL and slide the letter over to the floor tile (I would recommend placing the letter close to the floor tile) until the letter pops upright on the floor tile. Release the mouse hold before you release control. This allows you to align the letter precisely to the surface level of the surface tile, without having to adjust the height more. Repeat until all the letters are on the shower floor that you want on that line. IMPORTANT: if the letters do not attach in the upright position, if they want to stand up upside down or sideways, that is because the surface is upside down or sideways; items on surface attachment will attach using the orientation of the surface they are attaching to. So, if the letters want to attach sideways or upside down, instead of having to click each letter to reorient it, put that first letter back on the surface tile (if it's crooked on the surface tile, that does not matter, only final placement matters) and select the shower floor again (check to be sure you have it selected by looking to the item window, it should appear there if that's what you have selected). Right click to make the surface upright; if the letters were upside down, you'll need to right click twice. Click rotation is always 90 degrees and always counter-clockwise, so if you're using the square shower floor and your letters were sideways, I can't tell you how many clicks will make it be upright, you'll have to experiment if knowing the direction it rotates doesn't help you figure out how many clicks to make). I know that all sounds very complicated, but it's a long explanation for a pretty short process once you understand how to do it. Call for help (pref on my Discord so I can answer faster) if you have problems with this. Now, if the letters aren't arranged and spaced the way you want them, again HOLD CONTROL and make sure you are clicking ON the letter itself, and move the letter to where you want it. The Control key will keep it on that same height line, and you can move the letter by mousing over the shower floor anywhere. If you grab another item instead of the letter (watch the item box or window) quickly hit escape, and the editor will let go of what you accidentally grabbed. If you accidentally clicked and the editor completed the action you didn't mean to complete, hit control/z to undo it. Again, especially for this part, being close is a good idea. I hope this helps. Again, call for help if you're confused. I can quickly demonstrate.

No, you can't do much with the NPCs. This would be a character of yours that you can leave in the base; maybe a separate account, if you have another account. Otherwise, I would make a sign.

Just a note, be sure to send comments also to builder, and if you want others to know, put it in the directory please! (See link either above or pinned to base building). 😄