Discussion: Community Spotlight: Down the Rabbit's...maze?

I was sitting upon a cement block in Atlas Park, lazily counting time as Avatea and Zwillinger stood nearby, looking alert and eager. We had received a cordial invitation from one Mr. Hassenpheffer, (Whose name is quite a mouthful) a prominent member of the base building community, to view his latest architectural work.

My mind was starting to drift when suddenly appeared a large white rabbit, eyes aglint, standing upright and stirring a cup of tea. I found none of this peculiar, however; this WAS Paragon City.

"Greetings," said the rabbit that was Mr. Hassenpheffer, "shall we be going?" We nodded our agreement. "One thing before we go," he said, "you'll want to shrink down for this."

Shrink down? I thought. "But why should we want to be small?"

"It's a surprise," the white rabbit said. "Hurry now," (Here he reached for his pocket watch) "there's not much time, and a lot to see!" And with that, he leapt into the shimmering base portal.

Intrigued, we three members of the community team shrunk ourselves down, taking the form of some miniature Clockwork machines. We followed headlong after the rabbit, jumping into the bright blue beacon--

--and were deposited on the stone floor of a very expansive room, made all the more enormous by our newfound diminuitive statures. This most peculiar burrow was all stonework and angles, stairways and doorways and masonry of different colors.

"Welcome to my maze," said the rabbit. "It took quite a bit of work."

"This is amazing," remarked Avatea, looking around. The rabbit nodded.

"Well, come along! This way!"

He led us to a wall perforated with square holes, indicating that we should enter. Each hole was its own narrow tunnel, with branching pathways, round-the-bends, straight drops and loops that took you right back where you started. We tried as best we could to navigate the wall (which was quite like a big stone block of Swiss cheese), eventually coming out the other side, face-to-face with high walls stretching floor to ceiling: a giant maze snaking across the floor.

Again, the rabbit smiled. "Follow the barrels," he said. "Without them, I think even I would be lost!"

"Barrels?"

"The ones in the walls!"

"How can a barrel be in a wall?" I asked. (At this, the rabbit bounded off)

We traversed the twisting corridors, the rabbit hurrying on in front of us, disappearing 'round corners and down (or up) narrow chutes and chimneys. We three split up, winding and winding down the path, retracing our steps back from dead ends, turning this way and that way, and every which way, trying to mind the landmark barrels. (Which I found to be a rather strange sight upon first seeing them! Imagine, a barrel, stuck into a wall! How can a barrel be a barrel if half of it is missing?)

The maze was not only horizontal, but vertical: at the exit of one maze I found myself in a library of sorts, with stairs portruding from a wall. "These stairs go nowhere!" I huffed aloud; but then, on thinking about it, "Of course! You walk UP stairs." And a jump put me into the next area.

This went on for some time, the areas looking curiouser and curiouser. There were walls of different colors, impossible things: ceilings without BEING ceilings; they were floors, or maybe they weren't anything at all, for if you looked up you could see right through them as if they weren't there. (But they most certainly were, if you tried to bump your head against them!) Time seemed to lose meaning in the maze, and with each step disorienting me a little more I was certain that the further I went, the madder I would become.

After some indeterminable amount of time the walls seemed to open up, as though the magic holding together the maze was lessening; stone blocks littered the floor, and in some places hung suspended in the air. Ahead was the rabbit, standing underneath a grand display of celestial bodies dangling from the ceiling. "You're almost at the end," he said.

We followed him down one more long hall, straight and unadorned. Through a doorway lay the center of the maze: a great room of glowing green crystal (Or perhaps it was solidified gelatin?) and criss-crossing arches, with a grand stairway lit by torches dividing the center of the room. A throne sat at the top of the stairs.

"This is really incredible," said Zwillinger. The rabbit nodded his thanks, and stirred his tea.

It was time to go. We headed out through a chamber that led back into the first room. We thanked the rabbit for the tour and stepped back out through the portal.

Thinking back on it, the talking rabbit and his maze may have been nothing more than a curious dream brought on by a bright and blustery day, but the strangeness and wonderful complexity of the rabbit's maze was an experience I shan't soon forget.

Hah...awesome.

Great job, Mr Hassenpheffer.

You saw it here first, people.

BASE LOVIN' IN ISSUE 21!!!!!


>.>

I've already forgotten about most of you

Dang this is amazingly beautiful piece of art

shows the potential and creativity going on coh, plus 7 years and counting

OMG please let this be a hint a some base love.... please please please....

**Damien**

I've on occasion wished for base options like:

Personal base: More like a hideout. Small plot, limited options, plenty of decorating ability. Not meant to be a base-breaker, more like a personal "secret lair" which is independent of the Base system. Something every player can make use of, whether they're in a supergroup or not, and which remains accessible regardless of how their alignment changes.

Plot sizes would start with studio apartment, and range up to a large house. There might be various things ported in from the regular base builder, but its primary purpose is to be another place for the player to play in, most notably when their group is unavailable, and the player is otherwise just twiddling their thumbs for whatever reason. Having somewhere like that to go "do stuff" in would be amazing.

The other thing for bases I'm hoping for is that they drastically lower the costs. Base raids never took off and were eventually scrapped. So why maintain excessive costs for bases? The only people who can have the gorgeous bases are the ones with large SG's and active members. If you're a solo player, or your SG has moved on to other things, you're stuck with a default base and a half-dozen items before you just run out of oomph. (Which brings me back to the personal lair concept above.)

Beastyle ... don't forget to put a post with link to this into the Base Building Forum ... <hint hint> <club club> <war mace war mace>

It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...

Where's my shrinking pill? I want to see it!

I wouldn't get my hopes up on the bases...nothing but empty hopes there.

So base lovin finally??? I can haz smaller size orbits of control???

That would be totally awesome if they did something about that... I cant edit mine cause it crashes my comp with loading all the detail Like load one room at a time and have it only refresh one room at a time so I doesnt have to refresh the entire base when you put a single item being either big or small

Whilst mazes are allright, there are SO many bases out there showing creativity and style, might I suggest that if you, Avatea etc enjoyed that maze, that you come tour some of the bases that the rest of us call home

Amazingly cool.

Well Done!

Your base is really, really cool.

I struggle just to keep floors even most times and my RP-based cloning the former Hacienda bar in Manchester is as close I've come to something that looks good.

You, Mr. Hasenpfeffer (sp?) are my new hero.

Rabbit's hole is right but I've joined some SG's lately that will make this base look like child's play. Some of the minds of CoHers are an enigma. Also, I hope we do get some new base features but only if I can buy them.

I appreciate the time spent by Z, Avatea and Beastyle.

Your company was most welcome and all efforts exposing the need for base love to the powers that be are much appreciated.

If any base love is to fall upon the very deserving citizens of Paragon...

I shall return.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely, Mr. H

I once had the privilege of attempting to navigate the maze of Mr. Hassenfifer, Mr. Hasselhof--, Mr Rabbit's wondrous Maze. I dare say it's gotten far more complex from the last time those years ago. Welcome to the wonders of Infinity!

Excellent work! Sorry I coudln't hear it all but I had something slick in my ear!

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

I see the mad hare of Infinity finally unlocked his base(he kinda erm overloaded it past what the server could handle item countwise) Was fun running the maze right after Unmasked one week. Glad to see it's back up and running