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

We did a lot of discussion among the judges and substitute judges (who are GMs). We did not want to give away the winners before we announced them, preferring to award them all together. (Joke's on us, I know.) But if we only listed certain bases, the winners would be, I think, fairly conspicuous in their absence, and, we rather wanted the voters to have a larger choice than just 5, like last time. There were too many great bases to not want to offer them for public tours, because most builders, the thing they want most is to have their work seen. Even better if it gets some votes. Put up too many, and the list is daunting, and then people skip more and more, and little is more disappointing to get not only no votes, but no visitors. So we settled at 15 as being generous, but not overwhelming, and since that included 6 winners, there were only 9 actually available, which was clearly (we thought) indicated and we hoped it would spread out the votes, as how did you know that that lead base wasn't already a winner? So many wonderful bases, we thought, surely this will encourage people to vote for their favorite, rather than the typical tendency to vote for one of the leaders, where your vote "counts" more. There was also an element of recognition for well deserved excellence in being on Community Choice. There were a lot of bases that could have been on that list that wouldn't have been out of place at all, but we had to choose a cut off point. We only can do so many winners, but truly in our eyes, we were giving every chance for the bases to be seen and appreciated, which was an award of a sort. The reaction we got back from some that felt they should have made the list does confirm that it is seen as an honor, and for the record, I'm sorry it just wasn't possible to make everyone happy. But that was the logic. We had, in fact, finalized our decisions. The way we decided to choose the CC finalists was by score, which I didn't really want to say specifically, because I do not want people feeling badly as that sort of info tends to do, but the truth was, we had some very excellence-heavy categories. Not only did the fabulous and experience builders on Everlasting put in some (but not even close to all) of their best, but we saw more excellent bases from other servers, especially Excelsior, than we'd hoped! So, we presented what we felt was the best of the best to the community for their choice, without considering categorical finalists. Yours was not the only base that did not make the CC, but was in fact, a finalist. And I'm again, sorry for the misunderstanding. As I said in that post, if you weren't on a tour or on the CC list, you did not have a shot at winning the category. But that did not mean you weren't second or third. But since the judging was done, we knew who had won. Next time we know to send out letters sooner, before we announce anything, but of course, people were asking and impatient, and we had a LOT of work we were doing at that point, so that was the quickest way to get the information several people were wanting to know. This year, our first, we learned: how long to plan for touring, more about what sorts of things should be scored, what rules need to be clarified or changed, and that Community Votes are a really bad idea in general. We also learned to listen to the GMs, they have good experience, and that whatever you plan, sit back and watch it not work out the way you thought, so expect the unexpected and learn to deal. 🙂 And, of course, shake it off. We had already planned very different sorts of categories for the next time. Whatever we're thinking now, of course, may change, so we're in no rush to announce anything, especially since another thing we discovered is, this contest was too long. You all know that the next big base contest will be in the spring, so build for it now, because we won't give you as much lead time next year. 🙂 Utility did not seem to evoke the same sort of base concept I had in mind. Basically, to me, bases are first and foremost, for convenience, which means services. But I like bases to look nice, or to create something that I want to make, usually with services. So to me, Utility just meant, great base that also has services but doesn't worry about the sometimes picky RP character space requirements (now much easier with the fit gizmo). I have a base I consider utility; it's an ocean island with a lagoon, and inside the lagoon is my undersea base, which you can see as you look down from above. It's not huge, everything is very close to the entry, and I didn't bother with living spaces, just services, but it's got a nice sea view and the island above. But still, utility. To me, Utility is any base...with services...that doesn't have an RP focus. Multi is the hardest, bc they have to consider both. Then RP is RP focused, might have services tho. I think there is another category there, perhaps Concept or Specialized, and I believe there were several bases entered that would have fit that category nicely. Again, we will have very different categories next time, and we may do smaller contests here and there that are much smaller in scope and faster to do. "Pretty much any base can (be RP)...not really. RP actually requires people to make sure the seating is usable, both in what sort of seating (not all the chairs can be sat in) and spacing to the table, height of table, walk space between couch and table and so forth. If you actually RP in spaces, you find very quickly what doesn't work. That was why the category had specific requirements. You shouldn't really try to enter a base as RP or Multi if no one, in fact, RPs in the base and you have not planned for it. If no one RPs, even if it has a story that you're doing for a character, then it's a Utility (or better, a Concept or maybe we say, Character Story, bc that is what most of the non-RP but theme focused bases are made for, to fill out a character's backstory). And that is what you mean when you say, doesn't really fit, I'm sure, and that was a shortcoming we will admit on our side, we hadn't really thought about bases that didn't have services but also didn't plan for RP. But next categories will not be anything like these categories. The focus of the categories was to let even smaller, non-RP bases shine, and I am confident we did that. Last contest, they were only looking for the top (and runners up) overall, and those tend to be the eye popping RP type bases that have been worked on for years, with every detail just so, and barely a hint of technical problems. It's hard for equally well done bases that are perhaps a little less heavy on the detail and less epic in scale, to win when put up next to the others. So we put things in categories where apples competed with apples, and oranges with oranges, and you didn't have one gorgeous apple being compared to a gorgeous basket of fruit. The apple may be perfect, but the basket of equally great fruit will get the award because it doesn't just have a gorgeous apple, it also has a bevy of other gorgeous fruits. So we broke down the categories by type of base and then by size (as best we could without having tried to compare base sizes before.) And I do feel as though we were able to shine a light on and reward some work that wouldn't have been seen in a contest such as we had before. So, that's a glimpse of what we tried to do, and of course, everything, both good and bad, is on the record now. I hope that clears up your confusion. Thanks for asking, and sorry for the brief response before that led to more confusion; yesterday was really something on the busy scale. -Dacy

Yes, sorry, Supa, Messaging was awkward because no, you weren't in a position to win your category, but. That message you quoted was a general one; you should have, last week, gotten a letter near the beginning of the week in the Forum messaging system to the effect that you were in the top tier of your category. If you did not, I am sorry and that was another error. I did not personally send that message, so I can't confirm or deny, but it was supposed to say, come to the awards. We had a different system in place for the CC contestant choice. I'm sorry for the confusion and miscommunication. We will do better next time. -Dacy

BASE CONTEST RESULTS! The results are in for the Second Homecoming Base Contest! We had 74 bases that were entered into 6 categories. These are the finalists and the winners! UTILITY BASES These bases offer services. They may or may not have a story, but should be decorated in a consistent and thematic way, but without consideration for making sure characters can sit or access things as if it was a real situation. FINALISTS Lava.. LAVA-24772 on Everlasting by @Interrabang Spectrals SPECTRALS-23761 on Excelsior by @Sp3ctr4l The Station STATION-18074 on Excelsior by @Garbage Wizard Zynavia SEPT-3012 on Torchbearer by @SupaFreak and @Nymloir UTILITY BASE CHAMPIONS Lava.. LAVA-24772 on Everlasting by @Interrabang The Station STATION-18074 on Excelsior by @Garbage Wizard Utility base size categories were combined due to the number of entries over 7,000 items MULTIPURPOSE BASES These bases offer services combined with factoring in character accessibility. Characters should be able to sit in chairs and at tables instead of on tables, and services should be thematic and convenient and complete. Multipurpose Bases Under 7,000 Items FINALISTS Evil Eye PANOPTICON-6422 on Excelsior by @Beowulf Chaffeur Super Nation SN-9845 on Excelsior by @Gem Wild West All-Stars WWAS-16037 on Excelsior by fistsand45s MULTIPURPOSE BASE CHAMPION UNDER 7,000 ITEMS Super Nation SN-9845 on Excelsior by @Gem Multipurpose Bases Over 7,000 Items FINALISTS The Divine DIVINE-1512 on Excelsior by @ank Hidden Isle PIRATE-16269 on Everlasting by @CptCoggs Shades of Arachnos 315-6811 on Excelsior by @Gio Valia MULTIPURPOSE BASE CHAMPION OVER 7,000 ITEMS Shades of Arachnos 315-6811 on Excelsior by @Gio Valia ROLEPLAY BASES These bases may offer services, but the focus is on character story. The base is either part of the story, or provides a setting for character stories. Characters should be able to move freely in the base, and set up should make sense for the theme. Characters must be able to sit in chairs and at tables instead of on tables. Roleplay Bases Under 7,000 Items FINALISTS Crash Castle CRASHCASTLE-26019 on Everlasting by @Thunderchild Lake EXPLOREONFOOT-20176 on Everlasting by @Wravis The Dark Coven DARKCOVEN-5519 on Everlasting by @ScarredSilencer ROLEPLAY BASE CHAMPION UNDER 7,000 ITEMS The Dark Coven DARKCOVEN-5519 on Everlasting by @ScarredSilence Roleplay Bases Over 7,000 Items The Deep Star DEEP-16353 on Everlasting by@Riptide6 Dryad's Tree DRYAD-20249 on Everlasting by @Aalya Firebrand Island FORTUNE-13524 on Everlasting by@Kataklysm Rampage City RAMPAGE-27317 on Everlasting by @Fir Bolg Buildcrew ROLEPLAY BASE CHAMPION OVER 7,000 ITEMS The Deep Star DEEP-16353 on Everlasting by@Riptide6 CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF THE AMAZING FINALISTS AND CHAMPIONS!

Sorry to hear that. I agree it's a mess. I agree, I'd rather be doing a lot of other things. It's a shame some people decided to make this a contest of factors other than the bases themselves. But I do disagree that it won't help. I can't be positive, of course, and there are people like you who are just done. Some of the base builders feel the same. Some are really hurting because the way things were, it became about things very not related to base merit. We can't ensure everyone has visited all the bases, and that's not a rule, it's a fair play suggestion, it's an encouragement and a chance for the builders to have their creations seen and appreciated. But the in person aspect does mean that the people who show up care enough to make the effort. Will it repeat the same results as before? Doubtful exactly as to the numbers and proportions, perhaps,, because of people like you who don't want any part of this, and perhaps people who've changed their vote because perhaps they got swept up in a campaign that had nothing to do with the base itself, and now, I sincerely hope, they have had time to think and do better. Some even had a really busy week and didn't have time to get to all of the bases, and so either did not vote or voted with incomplete information. I know some of those people whose week was too busy to visit. And so, I hope. I hope that this is reassuring to the base builders who are right now unsure that any of the votes they got meant what it should have. I hope that people decide to be better. And I hope that the base that wins is truly chosen because it is the Choice of the community. Whatever the outcome, we've done all we can do to make it the cleanest we can. And I hope that counts for something. This is your chance, Paragon. Choose who you will be. And please visit and vote. And I will continue to hope, because I know this community is at its heart, a good one. Dacy

My apologies. Yes, Everlasting.