Base Off- A Bi-Monthly Base Contest

Hello, everyone, I'm Achikah and I adore base decorating.

For me, besides my friends, base decorating has kept me engaged with DCUO throughout its presence on the game. It's been an outlet of creativity and enjoyment, and one I am immensely passionate about, both for my own creations and seeing the creations of others. So, in light of this, I'm starting a reoccurring contest to help encourage fellow community members to find their own passion in building/decorating. Thus, I present to you Base Off- a bi-monthly base contest!

Every 2 months, a new contest will start with its own set of rules. The participants are given 6 weeks to create a base for the contest under specific themes/restrictions. The next week will be for touring, judging, and announcing the winner, with the last used for downtime to set up the next contest. After that, the cycle begins again with a new theme and guidelines.

So, now that you know what Base Off is about, let's get into the current contest!

Contest Guidelines

For the very first Base Off Contest, your theme will be...

Dive!

That's right, as simple as it gets- the free for all starter, lil cozy lair/hideout theme that serves as the most basic building block to base creation. The only parameter is to create a base in an actual Dive theme; the story, setting, atmosphere, and furniture used is all up to you!

Note: If you already have a completed Dive theme you're more than welcome to submit it as an entry! However, Dive-adjacent bases (Volcano/Space) will not be considered, only those made within an actual Dive theme.

Judging Parameters

Base Off is intended to stoke the flames of creativity. So, above everything, I want you to tell the story you've envisioned with your base. However, this is also a competition, and as the sole judge of such, I’ve designed a set of criteria I’ll be focusing on to choose a winner:

• Creativity- How inventive is your base: How the layout works, what story is told, how furniture is used; pretty much any and anything dealing with unique experiences and creations when viewing your base.
• Craftsmanship- The layout and flow of the base, as well as how it's put together: are the dividers lined up accordingly, are clipped items cleanly clipped, can rooms/halls be accessed as they should, etc.
• Logic- How believable is your base: do items work together constructively, does it make sense for them to be there in relating to the base's theme, do the rooms sync up in a logical progression, are items that are meant to serve the theme/room able to do so believably in the context given.
• Storytelling- How immersive and enthralling is the base's narrative: is there a story being told, if so how engaging is it, how does the layout/pacing progress, etc.
• Aesthetics- The overall visual presences of the base: how is furniture being used to create an atmospheric or cinematic experience.

Like all forms of art, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and like anyone else, I have my own personal tastes and opinions when it comes to decor. Because of this, you may gravely disagree with the outcome of the contest, which is understandable. However, I am the final say in deciding the winner and wanted to offer as much transparency to the judging process as possible. Below are a few Dive themes I've designed myself, as well as a link to my base tour and showcase playlists to help you gauge what my sensibility and tastes are when it comes to decorating.

||Equinoctial Delights| |La Litière| |Base Tour Playlist| |Base Showcase Playlist||

Prizes

What would a contest be without fabulous prizes! Each Base Off will offer different prize pools and include rarer items for avid builders such as out-of-season base items and elite furniture drops. For the current Dive contest, the grand prize winner will receive:

x1 Surging Chroma Pack

x1 Otherworldly Demon Skull

x1 Limbo Town Window

x1 Isis or Teekl Totem (winner's choice)

..and the big prize for this competition- x1 Coolant Beam!

Note: Depending on the number of entries, a second and third place prize pool may be added!

On the note of prizes, there is a drawback to them. Since they're in-game offerings and I'm only established on the US PC/PS server currently, eligible winners will only be chosen from there. I'd very much like to extend Base Off to all servers/consoles in the future, and am working on doing so as we speak. Hopefully in the next coming contests I'll be able to accommodate everyone. But given my own accessibility, both for playing and prizes, this is how it has to be for this particular contest.

Deadline

For the Dive contest, May 27th is the deadline for entries to be in, meaning you'll have roughly 6 weeks to plan, prepare, and finalize your entry. After that, the next week will be used for my own personal touring to decide a winner. I plan on livestreaming this on either my Youtube or Twitch channel and will announce when/where at a later date, both on this thread as well as my Youtube Channel.

Entry

To enter, add "Achikah" your base generator permission once your base is completed and post a comment on the provided Youtube video announcement above (or you can also find it HERE). The comment should contain both your character name on the game as well as the name of your base.

Subscription to the channel isn't required but would be greatly appreciated.

Again, only US PS/PC entries will be consider for judging and recipients of the prize pool. However, any others wanting to participate and share their creations are more than welcome to post their dive themes (screenshots or videos) here for everyone else to see.

Any further questions or comments are welcome here, as are Works In Progress for anyone willing to share.

With that, the first Base Off has commenced!

Happy decorating all, and may the best builder win!

For all my tl;dr friends, or just for clarity's sake, here's a more concise blurb of the contest and its guidelines.

Base Off is a reoccurring bi-monthly base competition to foster a community of creativity and discussion amongst DCUO base builders. Every 2 months, a new contest will start with its own set of rules. The participants are given 6 weeks to create a base for the contest under specific themes/restrictions.

The next week will be for touring, judging, and announcing the winner, with the last used for downtime to set up the next contest.

Base Off- Dive Theme Edition

• Contest Parameters: Create a base using the Dive Theme
• Starting Date: April 15th, 2022
• Deadline for Entries: May 27th 2022
• Winner will be determined by myself during a livestream at a TBA date.

• Grand Prize Package includes: x1 Surging Chroma Pack, x1 Limbo Town Window, x1 Teekl/Isis Totem (winner's choice), x1 Otherworldly Demon Skull, and x1 Coolant Beam.
• Entry: To enter, add "Achikah" your base generator permission once your base is completed and post a comment on the provided YouTube video. The comment should contain both your character name on game as well as the name of your base.

Note: Only US PS/PC users will be eligible for this current contest, but hopefully others will be more inclusive in the coming months.

Amazing, love to see that. I can see the effort that went into this. I might not participate myself, but I will try give a proper shoutout for this for you.

Thanks, Zoe, I really appreciate that! And again, hopefully for the next one I'll be established enough on the EU side to have that included as well in a proper prize-getting manner.

Always good to see you doing cool stuff

If you need help with rewards on EU just let me know, I have a few materials & auras left from previous giveaways.

Not that it matters for this first contest, but in the event that I need itfora future base off… how does one get the volcano base anyway?

From a feat in the BOP solo. At the end, when that teleporter thing is getting ready and you see the little circle loading on it, you gotta wait for it to fill up (IIRC it takes about 15 or 20 minutes >.>) and then the feat pops and you get an item grant for the base theme. When I did it, I used that time to just watch my character do all the emotes and random stuff lmao.

Aw, shucks. Thank yaz.

That'd be great! If things work out, I'll definitely take you up on that offer.

Exactly what K3str said. There's a feat attached to it waiting something like 25ish minutes at the end of the BOP solo which is nearly unbearable at times, especially since unlocking said feat does not grant the lair on alts, at least when I checked it back in the day. Needless to say, I've sat in that solo for close to 4+ hours now and have 20+ alts to go. x-x'

Luckily, there is another feat in there you can do to pass the time. You also have to kill 35 or so HIVE adds in one instance which you can only do from said waiting since they respawn. 2-3 sweeps usually does it, just about as much time as it takes for the timer at the end to be up and you to activate it for the lair theme.

Nice -I already have 2 toons that use dive - I like the tiny layout

I entered

Jeeze! I’m having enough trouble getting through that sub boss!I get him to almost ten percent of his health and no sooner do I pop a elder to finish him off then he one-punches me!

I adore the smaller bases as well, and Dive themes are actually my favorite to use: you can place items right up against the door and walls, never have to worry about the 700 spot restriction, and honestly I just really enjoy the wood panel ceiling too.

And excellent! Thanks for the entry! Feel free to edit or change whatever you'd like too in the coming weeks- no peaking on my end until the judgement deadline.

Ya, the HIVE Master has a really killer 360 beam move, like Krona or the Eye of Ekron with Cosmic Boy. It's been awhile since I've been in there but I think after 10-25% he'll do it. Just be mindful and know to circle him around that point and you should be good!

Update: To my total surprise, I hopped on the game today to a very kind message and donation sent my way to help support the contest. Thanks to that anonymous donor, I'm happy to announce (already!) that a 2nd and 3rd place will definitely be added to the Dive theme contest. What exactly those prizes are to be is still TBD but I'll be sure to keep everyone updated!

Bump!

Looking forward to the Atlantean base-off

That one might be a ways off. I'm trying my best to include as many people as possible, so I'm not sure when I'll go into the purchasable base themes as a restriction, if at all. Luckily, Base themes in general won't always be the overall theme of the contest. If I was to do an Atlantean themed one, it'd be with a broad stroke more or less, like an overarching theme of Water for instance. That is, unless there was an upcoming DLC focused on Atlantis specifically and a lot of newer furniture items emerged.

Again, we'll have to see. I just thought a nice start would be a Dive since it's available for anyone above level 8, is small and less intimidating to complete/fill, and isn't extremely restrictive to bounce people away.

Bump!

Update: You guys are insanely amazing. Thanks to another extremely generous donation, prizes are definitely secured for a long while. 2nd and 3rd prizes are still up in the air, but I'll let everyone know once I've hammered things out.

Update: I now have an EU character! Hopefully I should have enough prizes amassed to pool something together for everyone over there. I'll try my best to make it a one-to-one prize with the US servers, but if I can't deliver, I'll have two, separate contests for US/EU every two months.

I'm still getting used to the the EU broker/rarity of items, but to any EU residents- what sort of items would be appropriate as prizes for you decorators? I know this question is subjective given whatever base you're personally working on, but would out-of-season seasonal items, survival mode pieces, and elite furniture drops still be pretty good stuff for grand prizes? I know on the US side, those are usually the rarest/most coveted, so I just wanted to see if that's something that interests you guys as well.

Bump!