< < < DEAR DEVs: A letter from the Base Builders > > >

The below post was written over a year ago. Have we seen ANYTHING happen for bases since? Nope.

And the same is true for the last half decade. Wake up people.

I said it before, I'll say it again...the devs do not give a rip about base builders, and could care less if we even left the game.

It's been a year and not one developer or red name responded in this thread. The thread started strong, as intended, and became a solid discussion.

They could have taken a moment at anytime in the past 383 DAYS to say "We hear you, and we are working on it."

But nothing. We have been protesting for nearly half a decade.

Anyway...see my latest comments HERE

- American Angel
05-19-2011

Also, I encourage people to post pics of items they've seen in maps that would be nice to be added to bases.

Dear Devs........

This one does not speak for all of us that enjoy base building. Not all of us feel like we are entitled to special treatment and are very satisfied with the way our bases look and function. I guess it depends on how innovative and artistic one is.

Just sayin.....Please keep up the great work you do on a daily basis. You make the game what it is and compared to most MMO's it rocks.

Always, we Base Builders hold back, because we live under the fear that if we speak up, the developers will take things away from us.

How much power are you willing to let them wield over you?

Is anything I said above NOT true? Anything?

Because I noticed you did not speak against any of my points.

And as a subscriber to the game...yes, we do deserve special treatment. Especially since we are the most neglected faction in the game.

I have to agree with combustibear in that you don't speak for all of us.

While I do agree that bases need some loving, a belligerent and confrontational attitude isn't going to help one damn bit.




-np

I hope we get more base building tools.
I asked in the Devs meet at test the 28th...
If we could see an update of items in the base editor. For there are many items in missions etc that are not included in the base editor. It would be easy (I believe) to add them...

Did not get an answer...

I've sent a big little list and suggestion in an e-mail that was forwarded to Positron. About various shaped blocks (think lego) that would be great for basebuilding... This was mostly in regard to the fact that im in a roleplaying group and we use shelfs as walls. (Would save a huge amount of items if we had some blocks of various sizes and hights).

I really, really hope we get new stuff for the base editor (or well old stuff presently existing ingame). For how long is it since there lastly was added anything to bases (apart from price reduction etc)? Somehow I hope that the original title of a certain lost issue, well the renamed.. "all your bases belong to us"... will be brought to us. Somehow I do imagine there must have been some new items in there.

That the slow field we use for water is looking bad now? Not seen the "water" effect in some time now due to having turned my ati card water effect off. I should visit the base now. O.o Darnit, double darnit... Our Pool!!

A whole issue devoted to Base Building?????

NOOOooooooo.

However, I want some of what you are drinking


Lisa-Grinning.

A-Angel, while I understand and share your frustrations, I have to disagree with the manner in which you've chosen to express them. It's difficult, I know... I've been known to spout off on occasion, myself.

However, there's a fine line between the occasional snark, and a full on rant. As has been mentioned, a confrontational, accusatory and temperamental tone is counterproductive in the long run.

A couple notes:

• The double doors was a bug, it was not a feature. Therefore, it was a FIX, not a removal.
• The clear glass was also a bug. In fact, it was due to SG symbols that were not showing up. Imagine the SG's that couldn't use the symbols they wanted because of that bug. That was also a FIX... not a removal.

• The problems with the crystals & slow fields can be attributed to Ultra Mode. They are not the only objects in the game that have been reported as uglified because of some players' inability to utilize UM (older graphics cards - includes myself). Unfortunately, I don't think these were results that could have been forseen.
• The beaker racks, however, are definitely new artwork, and it is my position that the artwork change was badly handled. BUT if we want the old artwork back, we need to state our case for it calmly and succinctly (easier said than done, I know). We need to ask that the old artwork be brought back, and the new artwork be implemented as alternative additions. We need to ask that this be the protocol for future artwork, as well.

Question for those who consider themselves Base Builders (rather than those who just threw together a functional base and haven't touched it since. I fall under this category, though with more tools and more variety I would be happy to be included in the designers category):

Any of you show up to a Con where Devs were present and try to talk about these things? HeroCon, PAX? Anything?. Sending PMs and missives and creating reams of threads pointing to other threads doesn't seem to be working. Any of you trying to communicate in person?

Base Builders aren't the most ignored/abused/whatever you want to call it group in the game. Ask a PvPer how they feel about the attention they got recently. I'm sure they'd gladly change positions with you. Ask the people who use the Architect regularly and have to make change after change to their arcs due to exploit fixes and other things. I'm sure they'd love to be ignored rather than have to constantly be editing arcs to keep them playable. Careful what you wish for.

That being said, keep calling attention to what would be good for the Base Building community (and even better, for those who might wish to join that group, but are put off by the learning curve), but keep the demands and the entitled attitude to a minimum. You might get further with the Devs that way.

The no response thing is a regular occurence. Since Bases were introduced, we Base Builders have made list after list, friendly request after friendly request.

If you continue the same method year after year with no results, you can expect the same results in a year that you had last year. (if I'm saying that right)

In no other part of this forum are people always nice about how things are put.

I didn't actually go on a rant. Rants are threatening to leave if something isn't done...or claiming to plan to leave when subscriptions run out.

The truth is, we should not have to go to a Hero Con (which apparently doesn't work either). We pay salaries, do we not? We should have a voice. Yet our words are ignored.

This thread is to let the Devs know we're not happy with that. That it upsets us.

We each choose to show it in different ways, and that's fine. But we're mostly all upset about the lack of attention in some way, right?

I'm not trying to start a war here. I'm just tired. Tired of being ignored. Tired of seeing all Base Builders ignored. It took years to get two things added...individual permissions for storage and the new pathing rules. Those were great things, and I'll admit, they encouraged me that we were finally getting attention.

But then the faucet ran dry. And we went back to nothing again.

All we really want is a real upgrade to the base editing system. More items...items that exist in the mission maps, for example. Yes, there are other features that we would like added, but at this point we are all starving for anything...anything....as a show of good faith.

Yet, between the lists, nice posts and frustrated posts...we hear nothing.

And all it would take is a red name stopping in to say, "Hey, we hear you and we want you to know we're working on it."

That would make so many people happy and satisfied...just to be acknowledged. It's a simple thing, isn't it? But it would go a long way.

I agree in spirit if not method. Bases -have- been overlooked for quite some time. The -only- other game I play, (and I'm not kidding) is Sims 2. And I don't even really -play- it. I simply build houses. Because it's what I like to do. Some of the things people in this game have managed to do with the current limitations have been......simply amazing. Kudos to you all.

I'd like to see a more -intuitive- system for building bases. Things you can build secondary floors on, so you can make a multilevel room. I'm sure most people have seen the pool by the hotel in Faultline. Its -right- by the AE building there. Before the AE building, there used to be a little round hot tub. It's gone now. I wanted -that- ingame item for bases ever since I saw it when Faultline first came out. Side note: That pool itself wouldn't be a bad addition.

I realize the difficulty in adding new things like this. Every issue that comes out brings inevitable bugs which get worked out. Sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly. Fairly certain that there's one or two that have been 'round for quite some time. *shrug* I can still -play- the game, so...I don't complain. Hell, I don't even normally -post- on the boards. Mainly because almost every thread eventually becomes trollbait or flamewars. But, it's still a good way to keep abreast of changes/developments in the game I've grown to love.

All in all, yes. Please. More base things. PLEASE.

I would like to be able to choose map layouts similar to how we pick maps in AE.

The difference would be the maps would be empty of all content so that we could place it ourselves...from trees to pipes.

And it would also allow for multi-level bases with elevators (which would be placed in set locations)