Base Costs for the solo base builder

I will admit, first of all, that I am COMPLETELY new to base building, but I've managed to get a decent sized base up and running Redside by myself, with only my prestige and good luck to help me.

I got to the point in my base building where i said to myself: "Alright Vojin, start to build some bigger stuff here. Let's move away from the Oversight Center and the Combo Power/Control Unit into separate entities."

So, with the 100K Prestige I had, I built an energy room. I was excited. Ya know, first step towards building a more complete and interesting base...

Until...I saw the price for the smallest Generator.

200K prestige.

O.o

Why is there such a large jump in prices? I mean, I understand trying to create a team environment and getting more people in your SG/VG, etc. etc.

but the combo unit is 25K, then the step up is 200K?

That's like a 9-5 employee going car shopping and thinking: "Man, I really hate this Pontiac Sunfire I am still driving....Let's get a Bentley" when in reality, all he needs is like a Ford Focus or something (I had to look up these car names, so if the Ford Focus is crappier than the Sunfire, i apologize, but I think you know what I mean [side note: my old Sunfire was a beast, drove it up 160,000 with no major issues till 148,000])

I'm just wondering why there are no steps up. Why such a huge jump?

I can say, for me, that would really increase my interest in base building if I didn't have to jump so far in prices and could actually step up slowly. Ya know, like building improvements to a house. You just don't add a four car garage in place of your single car garage on your ranch house, you slowly add onto that house.

I ehno, maybe this is insane rambling, but can anyone explain to me the drastic jump?

Thanks.

Oh, and HI D.H.!

The drastic jump is there because... it is.

Sorry, don't have another explanation for ya. And yes, I do think there should be something in between. It's been suggested before by many people (including me.) An Advanced Combo Unit, perhaps, or Emergency Generator (smaller than regular.)

That said, you're solo - get some throwaway alts, get some friends who don't play on that server to make an alt or two for you, fill up to 15 slots, get the bonus prestige. 300k there. (I'm actually doing this on another server - generally solo, redside, though I play the alts. The prestige does get there.)

(Oh, and carwise... probably cleaner to go, say, Sunfire to Taurus or something. )

See my Guides and Tutorials

The Taurus has been replaced by the Fusion. Focus is equivalent to the Sunfire. Fusion's a nice car, though, especially the '09 package.

Anyway, yeah. When you want to get bigger, you start looking at replacing the Oversight Center and the Combo Unit with a Energy Room, a Control Room, a basic generator and the first tier control. You're going to run into control issues well before you run into energy issues, btw, so pay attention there - that's your upgrade bottleneck.

Bill's right, the first step is to add in your toss-away alts, up to the first 15. You'll need about 450k to get over that first hurdle (including the amount you're refunded for the oversight room and the combo unit), so if you've got 100k saved up, you're most of the way there already, once you've got your alts in.

On the up side - even though that first step's a real doozy, once you're over it, you're done. Control is your steep upgrade path, but everything else comes in pretty cheap - even the rooms tend to be 50k or less for gradual upgrades. One night of play will get you a teleporter and pads, or some decorations.

Eventually, you'll even be able to get rid of those useless alts.

Good luck!

Heh, When Issue 16 drops, I'll have some alts to toss into the VG like my AR/TA/Mace, Plant/Earth/Lev and Claws/Stone brute.

the crazy thing is, I already have two teleport pads. Should I maybe delete one of my teleport rooms for the Generator Cost?

If it's a strait up solo base, you don't need more than one TP pad, because you can just swap out the beacons as you need them. And has been said before, throw your alts in there, having 15 will get you that prestige bonus.

If you complain about the prices now, you should have seen the prices before.

Heh, I've heard about them before.

I was just baffled that there was no...midway gear.

Stuff that is inbetween the 200K and 25k stuff

[ QUOTE ]
If it's a strait up solo base, you don't need more than one TP pad, because you can just swap out the beacons as you need them.

[/ QUOTE ]

I went with the 2x2 double teleporter room in my solo base. One pad is set to Atlas & Talos (get to the center of the world; get to the green line + wentworths + origin shops), and the other one is for switching around for whatever zones I'm doing arcs in.

-------

And, yeah.... that jump from Combo Unit to Energy Room/Control Room/Mainframe/Generator is huge. I got lucky with a few recipe drops, and got in on the tail end of Fulmens' prestige-matching offer, so I've converted a total of 300mil Influence into prestige. Between that, and getting my first character to 50 (via normal story arcs), I've had a decent chunk of points to spend on my base. Keep questing in SG mode. The points really do build up.

(Also - once you *do* cross that boundary and install the Generator and Mainframe? You'll be pretty set for energy and control for a good while.)

Good luck

Vojin, to put it in perspective for you, you're not looking at upgrading to a Bentley. You're upgrading from your first used car in high school to a brand new sedan. Big price difference? Congratulations, this is the midway gear, at a relative cost, using what you chose as your initial comparison.

After that you upgrade to a big, powerful SUV (Turbine Generator). Again a big price difference (One million, if I recall?). If you go to the next level, it's the Fusion Generator, and it's quite a jump to go up to that Bentley.

Luckily you've chosen to work on red side for your solo base efforts, where you don't need as much to afford the same level of functionality as you'd want on blue side. That basic generator would likely be all you'll ever need for your solo base on red side even if you chose to have all the telepads eventually.

I know a lot of people still don't want to hear this, but bases are priced to make it an achievement for a group to accomplish these things. It's something for the group to work toward. That 225K difference you're sweating over solo is a day or two's work for a group.

When you choose to make a solo base, unfortunately you have to accept that you're not going to have everything you've come to expect in bases from SGs that are far larger, and if you do, it likely won't be overnight and it won't be cheap if it is. And even as someone who works on many solo and small group bases, I think this is a good thing.

We're playing a game based on the world of comic books, so I'll use that to illustrate my point. In that world, only the big teams or the very rich can afford an elaborate base. I've used the comparison before. If you're Peter Parker, you're not going to have the same facilities available to you as either the Avengers or Tony Stark, even if you move in with the Black Cat.

If you really want to "Buy It Now" you can look into converting Influence to Prestige. It's a terrible exchange rate, and to be honest, I would never recommend you do that, my friend. But that avenue is open to you if you choose. It would cost about 125 million Influence for just the generator, 175 million for the generator and a 2x2 room to place it in. Tony Stark or Bruce Wayne went the "Buy It Now" route by the way, using their own personal wealth to buy the equipment for their bases.

O.o

125 Million?

I think the only time I've ever seen that much in game money on me at one time is when I sold a Purple...



Time to do some redecorating of the base I suppose!

Thanks for the answers guys.

Edit: Growing apart from my high school car sucked

My bad -- it's only 100 million to get your 200K Prestige for the generator. Makes it 150 million for the room and the generator.

*dies*

Thus unless you have 20 level 50 alts with ten billion inf gathering dust, best to, sad to say, farm for prestige using a 50 and AE.

I filled the empty space...



To give you some encouragement, my SG is just my husband and I (and our alts). It did take a loooong time to build up the base, but it really means something each time we can. We've been working on it for about a year, and have upgraded control to the supercomputer and are pushing now for the last 25K for a ley tap (energy). Well, it's MADE; we just can't afford to PLACE it. :P

As Dori says, "Just keep on swimming, keep on swimming..." You'll get there!

I'm running a solo SG base myself, and yeah, that initial step is a tough one.
Not only because it's expensive, but also because it takes a lot of space on your plot.

I now have a 2x2 energy room with a single generator standing in it .. all looking quite bare.
I with there was a smaller option, like, say, a 2 x 1 or so.

Also annoying that there has to be so much room lost between rooms .. but that's another rant altogether.

As it is, keep at it and eventually, it'll get better.

Vojin,

If it helps at all, a trick I had to do with many of my small SGs/VGs, aside from filling with alts to get the 15 person max prestige bonuses, was to coalition with another SG/VG and use their teleporters/vault until I was albe to get the energy and control rooms geared up. This took time, but it woiuld've taken far longer if I had to pay for teleporter room(s), telporter(s), and beacon(s).

Not all of my SGs/VGs have teleporters, but if you see me online (@Major Deej - global), I would be happy to coalition with you for what bases that may have teelporters/vault available to you to use while you build up energy/power.

I have a list of SGs and VGs via the link in my sig below (Major Deej Universe). On those SG/VGs website is a photo gallery where you can see if that particular server's base(s) have teleporters or not. If you see a base that would be helpful to you (not sure which server you are on), send me an in-game tell if I can help with getting a coalition going to help you along, if I can.

It's tough to get a solo SG/VG going; some of mine are nearly 3 years old and are still don't have a lot of the quality functions we all would enjoy in our bases.

May you have continued good luck with your base building!

Figure this be a good place to toss my question. Also a solo builder and have recently upgraded to the 8x12 plot (Small Hidden Spot). Then I notice that this plot has a 20k prestige upkeep! Is this true, and if so is there a way to downgrade a plot? Having to play an extra 20k every time the lights turn off will be a real bummer

Thanks.

Wherever you saw that, it's out of date (i.e. wrong). All plots have ZERO upkeep, regardless of size. Your upkeep is based ONLY on certain items *IN* the base (all 'workshop' items - storage, crafting, etc).

And the cost is dirt cheap. My SG is on . . . hm. 20x24 plot maybe? At any rate, our upkeep is 2900 prestige.

Thanks for the feedback, makes me much happier.

I should have looked at the wiki more carefully. After what you said I noticed that the part I was looking at was under the 'Old Calculations.'

Anyways this is what I was looking at: http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Rent