Techwright

Beat me to it, so I second this. Before reading this, I did a wiki search on "Mapserver" and only got a brief technical description unrelated to the event.

Mind control?

Having reviewed a couple dozen bases now, I've occasionally bumped into something that is mystifying me: the use of Supergroup graphics as "decals". I assume they are not, since I've (so far) not found any such decal in the parts lists. So that leaves visual effects, but those items that I know to have the supergroup graphics either rotate the graphics or curve the graphics (holograms) or have the image embedded into something 3D in a way that seemingly should not display as a flat, solo graphic. So how are these created? And taking it a step further, is it the same method like the pictured, layered, double graphics, which Dacy apparently compiled? I assume the white background is the shower floor tile.

No Man's Sky? Yeah, frequent radical changes are actually one of the three reasons I stopped playing last June-ish (though I still have it dormant on my computer). I might return at some point, but they've already had something like 4 major updates to the game, meaning there's a lot to relearn and a lot that should be working according to they way things had been and is not. I stepped in the game briefly, last month only to find my second most important base completely compromised by the terrain and new, regrowing plants in the base space...yet again...after I'd been very careful to build it above terrain. I've lost hundreds of hours of careful base building, literally, to their random and radical planet changes that come with updates. That doesn't engender loyalty to a game. That said, I'm very interested in their upcoming game Light No Fire, in part because it doesn't isolate the player from other players, like NMS does. We'll see whether they do better in regards to bases. Meanwhile, it's unlikely my bases here will be destroyed in such a cavalier manner, and I've 4000 piece more to work with!

MMO Firefall. Technically, it never left open beta, but beta ran for years, and at one point was functioning pretty close to a full starter game.. I joined during closed beta for 3 years before the ultimate shutdown. So much potential wasted. The game's funds were used up for expensive, unnecessary bling during the development phase, forcing the sale to a Chinese company who hadn't a clue how to finish the game and market it. It died about a year or so after that. I've never had an MMO that allowed freedom of movement and attack like that, nor one that allowed, even encouraged hiding in the higher rocks and sniping your opponent relentlessly. MMO Tabula Rasa - The behind-the-scenes failures that deep-six'ed this game are almost legendary, but despite a lot of problems which made me feel the game released 6 months to 1 year too soon, I did find the game a heap of a lot of fun. It did have one of the earliest "storm and control the fort to open up missions" mechanics that I'd ever encountered.

No crying, only a worried look when I declared that I have lots to use still. I'd built a maximum-piece base on No Man's Sky. That game is a decade newer, but was limited to 16,000, or 4,000 less than our bases.

And I'm noticing three notable character actors in roles I would not have foreseen for them: Anthony Carrigan as Rex Mason (who of course is...IYKYK). I thought Carrigan was a good fit for Victor Zsasz in Gotham. Pruitt Taylor Vince as Jonathan Kent (loved him as the penny-carrying guy of Heroes: Reborn and the slave-driving miner of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 5. Sean Gunn as Maxwell Lord. I like Sean's work on Guardians of the Galaxy. Lord is just not something I would have seen him in. I am therefore curious. My jury is still out regarding Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor. I like Hoult, it is just that I tend to see Luthor as a character with a level of gravitas, for lack of a better description, that I've not seen...yet...in Hoult. I look forward to being surprised.

Just finished another round of base visits across the servers and man-oh-man, we're still getting winners, er, incredibly good bases! (Changed that so as not to bias the judges, lol.) Considering the circumstances of one base which I just visited, this is probably a good time to mention to the uninitiated that you may want to utilize two tools when visiting bases: 1. Turning on/off the user interface (UI) - some bases, you just want to drink in the view, and the UI can tend to clutter it. To create a toggle for this (see CAUTION before beginning), on a per-character basis: go to the character's Menu, then Option, select Keymapping tab, then scroll all the way to the bottom grouping called "Other". The first line under "Other" called "Disable UI" is what you want. Most likely it is not defined yet. Click once on "Disable UI" to activate the line for receiving input. Now click on a button that you want to use to toggle the UI on and off. The game will assign that button. Click on "Close" to close the window when done. Now you can turn on/off your UI to clearly see bases, or anything else for that matter. CAUTION: make certain that the button you choose is not already doing duty for another task. Scroll through the Keymapping tab to see if the button of your choice is already assigned. 2. Visual Scale - a useful tool to command your computer to better render items with effects and at distance. For example, in the base I'm attempting to construct, there's a long room, and I cannot see the smaller items I've set at the far end of the room without upping the visual scale. This will reset with each exit of a base, so you'll have to type it in again each time. There are different levels (I hear various levels as the upward limit) but most builders who recommend a change suggest a setting of "5". You'll see a comment from them in their forum posting, or perhaps a sign just inside the base. The command is: /visscale (and then the number) So for the most-commonly asked change, the command you type into the chat line would be: /visscale 5

I saw it the other day. There really needs to be a "normal" standing next to it for scale. It really is a remarkable creation.

I'm so glad I'd read this before last night. I'd not previously encountered this phenomena. I was building in my unfinished base last night, was facing a wall at one end of a large room, and suddenly saw a speech balloon coming from somewhere behind me...in a base no one else has entered. I don't even have a base passcode yet, and I had the chat window closed. So it really creeped me out. I turned to find the message coming from my Vanguard enhancements NPC, and finally noticed it was Max. Because of your comment, I realized what had happened. I opened the chat window and saw Max had posted on the Help Channel.

I do like the damage/accuracy ones. I tend to get annoyed when the game fills up my box with the standard ones, especially on those occasions when it keeps spitting out the same type 15 to 20 times before another type appears. If that happens to be accuracy, getting a damage/accuracy one at least gives me a secondary effect.

You say "dangerous radiation", I say I'm fighting cancer, even in those that just don't know about it yet. (You're welcome, by the way, all you wretched, ungrateful hive of scum and villainy!) I just utilize an on-the-street, full-bodied approach as oppose to doctors using a machine in a (supposedly) sterile environment. Po-tay-toe, Po-tah-toe.

They've got Krypto and they've got the fortress droids. This is indeed looking so on-point. With Guy Gardner present as well, I wonder if they'll reveal the Eradicator in the fortress as well? (Guy and the Eradicator interacted in the "4 Supermen" storyline from the early 1990s.)

Seeing that photo...did you run into any guy in a suit with Horned-Rimmed Glasses? 😉

Eric Voss over at New Rockstars covers it in more depth ⬇️ , including casting calls, and speculative theories based on what is known to this point. Looks like there'll be a female villain this time. The only one I wish it was, and could not be, would be Black Cat. She's Peter's age, and the casting call is asking for one who is much older than college-aged Peter. Black Cat would have made a certain sense because (SPOILER STILL?) Peter is without friends and has left MJ for her own safety. Black Cat would likely be seen as filling that void while being able to take care of herself (despite the whole cat burgler bit). She's been portrayed as a stand-in in multiple interpretations of the Spider-man mythos. But, apparently not this time. I'm wondering if this will be a female Doc Ock? Probably not since we've had "Liv" in the animated movies recently, and "Otto" in live action recently. That suggests they'll be going with a rarer character, unless the MCU is going to do another gender swap. Oh, and if anyone sees a "trailer", there's not a real trailer nor teaser released yet.

Kilmer was robbed, ROBBED of an Oscar, even an Oscar nod, for Doc Holliday. That may just be the greatest western performance of all time. Mad Martigan was just a lot of crazy fun. While I do think he was miscast for Batman, or rather, for that campy movie (he probably would have made a great Batman in a serious film) I do appreciate his effort. I loved how he embraced his physical troubles and used them to add great depth to Iceman in the second Top Gun film. Sorry to hear he's not among us anymore. I'd always hope for a reversal of his physical misfortunes and a return to the powerhouse roles.

I've been doing some digging, and I think it might be a Gozanti-class cruiser, or possibly the variant Imperial Gozanti-class cruiser. I magnified the image, and though fuzzy, the ship does bear the "slash" window up on the nose, as well as the stubby wings. What I though were rounded edges, were just distortions of the poor image. The ship appears to have the appropriate edges on the nose cone. The tail area is a bit confusing. Again, the image is fuzzy, but it almost looks like someone mounted a dopplar radar ball on the tail. Standard Gozanti-class have a tail gunner in the spot. It's probably just the poor quality of the image, again, or perhaps this is another Gozanti-class variant.

1. Corridors: Makes one wonder if they will give Cassian, or perhaps one of the other characters, a hallway fight/domination scene such as that started with Vader in Rogue One, and perpetuated by several Star Wars characters since then. 2. Now that we have a clear view of his face at 0:48, he's not a Talz (unfortunately), but something just as cool. I even have the character's name, so dropping in a spoiler box: I'm wondering what the flying craft is at 0:32. It doesn't look familiar, nor Empire, so my first thought is cargo craft, Trojan horse attempt by the Empire. Judging from the reaction of the folks on the ground, they're suspicious immediately, possibly due to an unscheduled appearance. I keep wondering about this wheat planet. In the dining scene (0:28), we can see what appears to be a communications tower and stubby rock hills in the background, both of which have associations with crop planet Lothal in Star Wars: Rebels. I'd like it to be so, but something feels off. I'd like to see Eric Voss' translation of the Aurebesh on the wall at 0:43, when K2 yeets a trooper over the bridge. My own attempt to translate failed, though I was able to determine that the video was reversed. (K2's "backpack" features are reversed, as are the Aurebesh letters). While I got several letter right, I'm sure, much of my failure revolves around at least one symbol used twice that does not appear in any aurebesh translation graphic that I've looked at, which makes me wonder if someone is messing with those who seek out the translations. I find Luthen's appearance at 0:54 interesting. I'm wondering if this scene is showing some inward struggle related to the two faces he shows to the public: the foppish curator of archaeological wonders and the revolutionary.

MCU plays fast and loose with government ownership of Captain America and the shield. My personal feeling is that the title belongs to the government, but the shield belongs to the person it is bequeathed to. I'll not belabor that point here. Personally, with Steve Rogers being my favorite MCU character, I'd clamor for more Steve Rogers. I don't really care if it is Chris Evans or someone else playing the role so long as the other actor is selected with care. It's a bit like Doctor Who. It's common to say "no one can top..." and then people realize the newcomer doesn't have to. He/she just has to be iconic in the role as well. Since Chris Evans is a real person with real aging issue, to see an aging Steve Rogers would be interesting: how a super soldier copes when he's still super, but less so. I think it would be wiser, though, to cast any other actor as a multi-verse alternate Steve Rogers, than to just put the actor into the same Steve Rogers role. The latter would force a comparison. The former would allow people to accept variations in appearance and personality (the other actor's imperfect mimic of the part) as the variances of the multiverse. I suppose one could get into another comic trope and go for cloning, choosing a young actor, say a teen, to become a Steve Rogers "clone". That would allow for variance in personality, though they'd have to go to special makeup effects or CGI to handle visual differences. It's my understanding that on-the-run, bearded Steve Rogers, first seen in Infinity Wars, was a nod at Nomad. Chris Evans actually did something akin to that in his second Fantastic Four movie, when Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm got into repeated power swapping.

I don't join the higher end Incarnate stuff often, so there may be an element I've not observed there, but from observing ump-teen BAFs and LAMBDAs, I'd say its a pretty good bet that (A) people are not watching their chat, (B) people become overly excited by their assault and get tunnel vision, or (C) both.

*Glances at "MAG TRIPLE THREAT"* You must've been trying to herd catgirls on that one.

Thank you! Found it, and yes, I've got lots of creative room to spare with decorative. Yay! That is, assuming I have the time. Storage I recognize. Entrances I presume are base internal port points, with one used for the secret portal to the base? Workshop I'm guessing represents all interactives that are not storage or entrances, including NPCs like nurses, trainers, vendors, and tailors?

I've seen chatter suggesting there's a maximum piece count for the base, but despite trying a lot of search terms, I've yet to hit on something that will tell me two things: 1. What the maximum object count is for the base. 2. A method for determining how many objects I've currently placed in my base. After a few bases I've viewed, I suspect I'm not close to the maximum, but I have some detail work in mind that will likely drive the count up, so I'd like to know exactly where I stand. Also...might I make the suggestion that The Powers That Be consider adding the results of these questions to the FAQs?

I thought that nerf happened back in 2008 when they added sparkles? 🤔

Just visited several more bases that were added after I posted the OP. More of them had me picking my jaw off the floor, especially now that I've begun to understand what's involved in the creation process. I'll not influence competition viewpoints by say how many or which ones. You'll just have to visit. 😊 I will say that one of this lot had me breaking my personal record for reference pictures and note taking by more than 1/3 of the previous record. A few more like that and I'll need a new USB drive to hold all my reference materials.