I've always loved games where players can set their own goals and fulfill them creatively - there's lovely freedom that comes from setting an ambitious project for yourself and seeing it though piece by piece. MoteMancer always had tiling patterns and interesting shapes in mind as part of the joy and personalization of base building. I always imagined that instead of bases looking like circuit boards as they do on a traditional grid, they might look more like a Mandala or stained-glass window on a hex grid.
The thing about bases in games like this, is your base is often just as much your 'character' as the alchemist running around. It's a trail of breadcrumbs because you placed every single item, made every single decision, and it feels like home. Today I'd love to shine a bit of a spotlight on the many creative ways the community has tended their automagical gardens, showing off the diversity of thought, playstyle, and techniques used to grapple with the hexagonal tetris that is MoteMancer.
So without further ado, here are just a small handful of amazing designs from our community:
I want to start with this shot from According-Studio-658 because it's a great shot of bases from both the Earth and Life planes at once. There are many unique techniques used here like the choice between single and double 'vertical' lines, radial power generation, simple mall setups, and a clear progression of understanding the game's building language. Wonderful shot.
This compilation from Wempi_01, vonBoomslang, taronin, and Vazhi shows 4 completely different approaches to using Tidal Collectors. They each speak for themselves, and are a wonderful demonstration of how many ways you can choose to solve spatial problems, even on something as simple as resource collection.
Syuushi is our resident mall builder, and it was hard picking out a specific shot because there are so many to choose from, but I always appreciate the time put in to not just be functional but aesthetic. I look forward to seeing more designs as more pathways are added to the game and more building animations bring the malls to life.
I love Gibli's mix of Ichor Slick and Torrential Streamways here. Ichor Slicks are fairly late game if you have not seen them yet, and cannot be adjacent to each other like a Streamway or Shifting Slab can be. This base does a superb job of keeping the logistics separated by organized, all while keeping a harmonious vibe.
zoycite has done much work to pioneer functional and aesthetic Earth Chest setups - too many to even show here, but these are some of my favorites. I appreciate the time taken to just make something cool for cool's sake, especially since you'll run by it another dozen or hundred times over the course of your playthrough, and will be a constant source of joy.
Tenebrais has a lovely shot of a fire base at night, alight with Fire Wire and Collector crystals. Honestly when I look at this shot I'm reminded of how much work I want to do to improve the night time visuals in MoteMancer - Emberboughs and Shadefangs should glow, Ichor needs some galactic vibes. Those will all come in time, but gameplay still takes precedent for now :)
falk has too many builds to show (and also streams! check it out!), but this is one of my favorites. Even though there was a lighting bug on streams and pathways that I cannot unsee (and has since been fixed), this design is still awesome to look at. I look forward to many more functional and aesthetic creations to come.
I love this base from nnelg, there are 3 specific things that stand out for me: I love the repeated theme of elemental binders, definitely a reminder that the game needs blueprints; I love that there are still a few ad-hoc areas that needed to 'just work'; but most of all i love that there are clearly manicured trees and bushes set in areas that could only be done by Nudging the doodads into place. Well done on all counts :)
In this build, Salty Minstrel truly embraces the 'pool' aspect of Ichor Slick. While you can treat Ichor like a traditional belt in a lot of ways, it also has incredible use-cases for being whatever shape you want as long as you can keep the pools separate. I'm so happy Ichor is landing in the clear arc of "I don't get it", "Oh that's interesting", "Holy crap this is powerful". An analogy floating around the community is to think of Ichor Slick as a 'paintable Chest', and I think that description is very apt.
There are so many more designs that I could show off, definitely join our discord and reddit to see more of the amazing creativity rampant in the community. It's wonderful to build a sandbox for people, and then see all the ways they use their toys to build their own personal castles. I think I'm going to start using people's builds as capsules for devlogs going forward because there's so much to share :)
The factory gardens must grow,
~CyanAvatar