Base Building Etiquette

I have a question about base building etiqueete.

I volunteered to help a friend. He has a small SG with a modest base which another member of his SG had started. It was unfinished, and maybe a little clumsily constructed in spots, but the overall plan was pretty good. He asked me, and I offered to work on his small base and spruce things up, at no cost. I created a character to join his SG and started working. So far, so good.

So, I'm maybe a dozen or two hours into working on it; he's seen and approved of my work so far. Then, while I'm alted on another character, he tells me he's found someone who's got some great ideas for the room I'm currently renovating, and wants to give that person a shot. He said "...maybe we'll tear things up a bit...", which perhaps he meant to prep me to see things changing, though it mostly made me upset.

So, at this point, my question is, should I be offended and upset at this? Now, I realize base builders will come and go, and revise things, sometimes by a great deal, previous builders have put effort into. However, this is a room I have already put hours into but haven't finished, that he didn't ask in advance if it'd be okay to look for someone else, and that he hasn't seen how I would've made the room look and perform for his SG when I'd have finished it.

Etiquette-wise, if you were working on a base, would you expect other builders to leave your works-in-progress alone? Would you expect your client to give you exclusive reins to rooms you were working on? Or even the whole base? Should I have told him, up-front, that sure, I'd rework his base, but he should not let anyone else have building privileges while I was doing it?

I appreciate any insights.

I've only worked in tandem with another builder once, and it was with a friend. We operated under the understanding that an area one person was working on 'belonged' to them unless a specific invitation said otherwise (Like, "Jello, while I'm working on the second and third floors, could you take the staircase?"). The client was one of the hands-off sort, but he was very careful to get the other builder's approval before signing me on to help.

Personally, I'd be a tad annoyed if the person I was working for (paid or not) decided that the project was a collaborative one without telling me prior to just throwing someone new into the mix. I don't appreciate it in real life, certainly, and while "it's only a game", it's still work they asked me to do. I certainly don't mind working with other people on things, I just like to know about it, and get a chance to actually collaborate, beforehand. There's virtually no way for two or more people, thrown together like that, to actually work toward a common idea. We're not mind-readers face-to-face, let alone through a game interface.

Taking into consideration this is a pro bono project....

While it is "rude" to do...it is his base. Unfortunately if a friend were to do this to me...that would end my charity work on their base. If they wanted help in the future it would be on a for-pay (inf) basis.

Sorry to hear your friend did that to you.

when i have friend who ask for base help, i usually give them suggestions about what to do, but i usually let them do the actual detailing themselves since a base style will not be the same for every person

yes some poeple dont know how to use the base editor well enough to do all the fancy stuff out there, but you can make a pretty fancy base without too much know-how

all in all i would prolly do what Fixxer did and start charging them if they ask for more base service and/or never do work for them again

Thanks for the comments and thoughts; I think a lot of this is just applied common sense in how we treat our friends and respect our hired or volunteer artists.

After he said they might tear things up a bit, I was instantly miffed, but held that in and told him it was okay if he wanted someone else to work on it, and was ready to let the whole thing blow over for the sake of our two-year close in-game friendship; still, it stung, and I had decided in my mind that I would stop work on it -- he could see if his "I just met somebody in the D" builder would do better. A little while later, he asked me if I wanted to see what the other builder did. I answered "Not really." He got upset with me then. I don't know, it felt like he was rubbing salt in. I logged, to cool off and get some perspective, and later, when I log back on, he's further upset with me for logging off. I think he wanted me to stay on so he could discuss/argue with me.

My friend ungfriended me last night. He wasn't happy that I'd gotten upset over what he'd done, and put the whole thing in my lap, responsibility-wise. I wished him well, and that's that.

I'll continue to help friends with their bases. However, I -am- going to tell them that I will be the only person working on them -- imo a base is a painting, not a jam session.

Sorry to hear about your friend Ardrea but I think that you did the right thing. Those that we help should have the common sense to talk to us about bringing in others that they meet about ideas that they have for the base. I also like your opinion, base building is a painting.

Well, I'm sure communication could have been handled better all the way around... but seriously, anyone who unfriends you over something this trivial isn't a terrible loss, in the long run. As opposed to, y'know, at least having the courtesy to ask why you were upset. Who knows, maybe he'll figure that out later.

In the meantime *shrugs* the game is still full of potential new friends.

Well, that is kinda crappy. I think if someone is the dedicated base builder, they should be consulted first before anything is changed, just as a courtesy if nothing else, but more because if they were half done with something, what was added might interfere with something they were working on.

That said, if this happened on Virtue the other morning, it sounds very much like I may be the guilty party involved in the added base editing. :P I was chatting with someone in the D and they offered to show me their base, a small set up that sounds a lot like what you described, and I told him I could show him an idea for a dance floor design... didn't know that someone else was the base designer :P But it was just being shown as an example so he could tear it up quickly if he didn't like it, it didn't interfere with anything already in place. He did tell me after the fact that the person who designed the base was annoyed and didn't want to come see it, so we took it up. Anyway, sounds way too similar, so if it was the same base, my apologies. Certainly didn't mean to step on any toes, was just going with the information I had.

~Fomsie

Neh, hardly your fault, even if this is the case. Again, is on the base owner for not telling both of you what "the deal" was from the beginning.

Ardrea version is a bit different from how I remember it. Ardrea sent a tell saying that she was thinking about creating a sg herself so she could tinker some more with basebuilding. I told her that I have a base in which the main basebuilder had been gone for 30 days. If she wanted to tinker with base building she could do so in that base if she wanted. She agreed and made a toon and began her work. I went and put a put about 150 million of influence into the base so she could have a lot to tinker with.

She got skills and she do amazing work. I am really impressed with what she did within the base. Taking nothing from her skills at all, if you have her helping out in your base you'll most likely be satisfied. I like everything she was doing within the base.

I had someone I'd met r/ping in the D, who came to the base to check it out. She was checking out the base and she said she had a nightclub VG awhile back and offered to show me the type of dancefloor she created in her VG. She no longer had access to the VG nightclub, so I couldn't alt redside so she could show me. I agreed to let her construct it in the base just to see how it looked. It was just someone showing me how they went about making a dance floor by using the green crates to give the dance floor a neon type affect to it. I repeat, I just was curious and wanted to see how the look. Wasn't an etched in stone deal at all.

Ardrea logged on while this work was being done and I told her that someone was showing me a different type of dancefloor in the base, and asked if she wanted to come check it out. She said not really and told me it was like a slap in the face to her. I told her I'm sorry, that I just wanted her to see that person's concept. It wasn't me saying her work wasn't good enough or that I wanted that person to take over base construction none of that. I appreciate all the effort she put into the base, Ardrea knows me and I thought of all the things she know me to be, ungrateful isn't one of them.

I asked the person to stop construction on the dancefloor. I continued talking to Ardrea letting her know I was changing everything back. I apologized for hurting her feelings. She logged off in the middle of the conversation. Just logged off, no goodbye or nothing. She's done that many times to me before. Anyway, after I had changed everything back how it was before the dancefloor work had been done, I logged off to take care of a few things. When I relogged I saw had removed her builder from the SG.

Ardrea knows that 'basegate' isn't the sole reason I unfriended her. We have known each other in game for 2+ years and I've been as good of a friend as she's had in this game. She's been that to me as well. I felt as a friend she should know by now that I wouldn't purposely do anything to hurt her feelings. It's like every hiccup along the road in trying to be her friend has been met with an extreme reaction. I've tried to have lots of patience with her concerning this and she knows it. I'm not going to go into the history because that doesn't relate to this issue.

I changed everything back, I apologized profusely. What more can I do? I am not programmed to know what will offend someone and what will not. I am tired of experiencing extreme reactions to what should be a forgiveable blunder between friends.

No one tore up the work you had done. Nothing you did was touched. You know what I thought it was a win/win situation. You said you wanted to tinker in a base. I had a base that had some pretty cool concepts down in it, we were friends. I thought it would give you a place to tinker and I would get the benefit of having the quality of your added to the base.

I would've checked in with you, but as I said the person was ONLY showing me a concept and you weren't online at the time. They didn't tear up any of your work. That's the crazy part about all of this. Nothing you did was affected at all. Nothing was touched. You just jumped to the conclusion that I would've said to hell with all you did in the base and just someone else take over construction. I'm not like that, but you sure are making me out to be.

I apologized, I took everything that was added down and changed it exactly back how it was. I did not do this so you would continue working on the base. I did it because what I was being shown was never an absolute addition to the base. The builder knew it, was just showing me a concept. I was trying to give you the heads up just incase you logged onto to your builder toon came into the base and didn't know what was going on. I told you something was being tried out with the dancefloor. I was being showed something. I can not see how that meant I was destroying all you had done.

You used the exact metaphor that it was like a slap in the face. I have the tells archive to back it up. I'm not putting words in your mouth. If you had stopped for a moment to actually hear what was being done instead of logging in the middle of me trying to explain it we would've had a better outcome. You were so angry you wasn't listening to anything I was trying to tell you.

If you had've took the time to let me explain you would've realized that I was saying that Fomsie's dancefloor would've "tore up" the feel of what I was going for in the theme of the base. The sg theme is an Entertainment group/record label. The base is the buisness headquarters for said entertainment group with recording studios, a lounge, dj booth, and a modest dancefloor etc. A two tiered dancefloor would've been great for a night club, but would've been too much for the direction I was trying to go in with the SG. The whole "tearing down" statement didn't apply to anything you had done, but you weren't listening...you were reacting.

If I was asking someone to do permanent work on the base I would have checked with you. I concede that I should have check with you first on this occassion, but if you have this type of issue surrounding basebuilding, would be nice to let someone know. Matter of fact, maybe you just need to write a list of things that tick "Ardrea" off so that people can avoid your unfair, hurtful, and spiteful reaction to things that happen in game. After having you delete multiple toons that my toons and other people's toons were in storylines with. After having you blow up over stuff time and time again...it's just better we go our seperate ways. You reserve the right to your reaction and this time I am reserving the right to mine.

Take this to PMs, please. The rest of us do not need to read your discussion.

I am done with this matter. Enjoy your day folks. No drama intended.

this is why I don't work on other peoples bases. Bases are a personal thing. well, they can be for the most part. Just one more reason to add to the pot of "we need a save/load feature for bases and rooms" I hope your friendships mend.

And we need it to work like the costume editor, where you can save the costume from one character and load it on another.

I always make sure my pinkies are fully extended as a form of proper base building etiquette.