2025 HC Base Contest Discussion Thread

[Easter Bunny]

Use this thread to discuss the 2025 HC Base Contest hosted by @Easter Bunny and @Dacy.

Entry submissions should not go here. Please use this thread for entry submissions.

[Easter Bunny]

Guess i'll use this post here to keep a running tally of the number of bases entered per category. Keep an eye here if that's of interest to you:

Fantasy / Arcane: 7
Nature: 3
Novice: 15
Realism: 5
Tech / Sci-Fi: 2
Other / Misc: 5

Edited 10 hours ago by Easter Bunny

[Aalya]

A couple of questions for you:

If the base is meant to be for private use, not for public events (AKA not a club, but someone's house for example) will that alter how things are scored?

If the functional items are hidden because they don't fit the theme/decor, will that count against us? For example, if I don't want a random NPC in the middle of my bedroom and so I hide the face maker in the closet, will that still be kosher for functionality? Will we need to list all of the hidden functional items on our entry if they are hidden?

[Easter Bunny]

10 hours ago, Aalya said:

If the base is meant to be for private use, not for public events (AKA not a club, but someone's house for example) will that alter how things are scored?

No, the rubric does not favor event spaces over personal residences.
The only potential difference is in the Player Engagement category, as event spaces are generally designed to host players. However, as we've stated elsewhere, no base is expected to achieve a perfect score. This rubric is simply our attempt to capture the multitudes of ways that a base can be special.

 

10 hours ago, Aalya said:

If the functional items are hidden because they don't fit the theme/decor, will that count against us? For example, if I don't want a random NPC in the middle of my bedroom and so I hide the face maker in the closet, will that still be kosher for functionality? Will we need to list all of the hidden functional items on our entry if they are hidden?

Not at all! While we appreciate seeing services in a base, this time we aren't awarding points just for including them. In fact, we find it even more impressive when services are cleverly hidden or integrated into the design. If your base has hidden functional items, please let us know in advance so you get credit for the effort you put in to disguise them. 

[Easter Bunny]

@Snarky

Attempting to keep discussion off the contest entry thread, but we did see your request here:

The category your base is entering under: Arcane or Other ( please advise ) 

Two judges have taken a look and felt that out of the two options Arcane made the most sense. That being said, it's your base, classify it how you feel best fits your intention. No wrong answers 🙂

[Snarky]

18 minutes ago, Easter Bunny said:

@Snarky

Attempting to keep discussion off the contest entry thread, but we did see your request here:

The category your base is entering under: Arcane or Other ( please advise ) 

Two judges have taken a look and felt that out of the two options Arcane made the most sense. That being said, it's your base, classify it how you feel best fits your intention. No wrong answers 🙂

arcane then.  

[Rudra]

Would it be possible to get a base or a few bases graded without entering the competition?

[Dacy]

10 hours ago, Rudra said:

Would it be possible to get a base or a few bases graded without entering the competition?

Great question, Rudra! We would, actually, be happy to evaluate your base, but: we would prefer to do this after the competition, so as not to confuse people or judges (okay, they are people too, just judge shaped people) :). In the meantime, if there is something specific you'd like to know regarding your base, or if you'd like to talk to someone about it 1:1 and get some feedback, there are many of us who are happy to do that.

 

The easiest and fastest way to get responses regarding your base would be to join the Builder's Discord (see my sig for a link), but if not, we will look for you after the contest and see about getting you an evaluation if we've not heard from you before then. And if we don't, well, sometimes we get busy and forget, so track us down! 🙂

[Forager]

How literally should I take the description for the Realism category? I was shooting for realistic in style, but it's still definitely a CoH base. Realism was the driving force behind most of the design, but there is an aspect of pillar on the back of a truck and a giant robot rat parked outside the nightclub... so it couldn't exist in the real world.

[Dacy]

Neither do teleporters, but, we accept them in THIS reality. 🙂

 

Realism is a style, not a definition of every item in the base. This is why we had a really hard time naming this category, because there are bases that are meant to be every day living, but it's every day living for a game where super heroes and villains are reality. So reality is somewhat flexible. 🙂