Functional bases


Ad Astra

 

Posted

Does anyone have a working base? By working I mean do you have power, control and a workbench?

From speaking to people, it seems most have the rooms they need or a power room and a generator! With CoV just launched a lot of SG's are a "bit thin on the ground", and so the prestige earning potential is low and coupled with the fact you dont get much anyway this is going to take for ever.

I would like to see the nessesary core items and rooms (Power, generator, control, mainframe, workshops, and basic workbench) either be made more affordable or maybe given free to help this.

Dont know how feasable that would be but it would be a help to all SG groups both naughty and good ones.


 

Posted

Hey T,
I have to say I disagree. The base SHOULD (imho) be a mammoth undertaking - something that's always needing one more thing, is always requiring the SG to save for the next big purchase. I would be disappointed if you have one fully kitted out within a couple of months.
And here are the reason for that opinion -
It's a constant focus and goal for the SG - something that was sorely lacking in CoH until now.
It'll help detract from the vastly rich high lvl characters as they'll have to divide their time between their own Inf requirements and the gigantic prestige requirements of the base.
And it'll push SGs into becomming more cooperative and active. The downside of which is I see a lot of SGs, especially the smaller ones die out as characters are lured towards SGs with bigger, more functional bases and more ppl out collecting prestige, thus more rapid future expansion.
But the flip side of which is we might see, instead of 100+ (or whatever) small to medium SGs with half their members being out for weeks at a time and only a few players on at any one time to a much smaller number of SGs with more active players on at any given time - should be good for teaming and the like.


(\_/)
(O.O) Bunny: Our time is coming
(> <)

 

Posted

i think its kinda fair make fighting things exspensive and decoration cheap i would like to have a really big house with posters and flowers :P and BEEEEER and tv just to hang out lol superheros watching tv
please real working tv with sumo

hehehe sorry but i think its okay if they just make it possible to make good decoration stuff

irl you also cant just buy a rezz machien


 

Posted

So far we have a Functional Base. 4 rooms, power gen, mainframe, console, workshop with 2 tables (standard and advanced).. we just scraped through it. - although now.. we have rent to pay so we wont be able to enjoy it for long!
In the next few days we managed to get enough salvage that we will have a basic teleporter and room too..

I belive that it should be difficult to get things, but not as in the way it is now. even if it was "ALL" levels of the SG members that could contribute (as lvl 35+ you dont earn inf so you need inf for SO's) or maybe just a zero knocked of the end of all base rooms/main structures should be better. - I belive that there should be a ultimate thing for base that will cost millions for a SG to have a target to aim for....


 

Posted

We've been doing the calculations for our (fairly small) SG.

A fully functioning base (power, control, teleporter, infirmary, 2 workshops) is about 1.2 mill prestige (this isn't a PvP raidable base, but has enough room even on the smallest base plot to add the remaining missing rooms so long as they're 2x2 and the vault.)

pad the SG with alts/friends to 15 - 300k pres, 900k still to find.

1 hour missioning with the SG nets 1-1.5k prestige (normal instanced missions, team of 6, all SG members)

900 man hours to build a base.

We have 6 active SG members playing for an average of 2 hours a night (this is low, since RP and CoV eats into our time)

It's going to take us 75 days (or 3-4 months) to build a PvE functioning base (pessimistic estimate using 1000/hour). This is the bare minimum functional base.

For a "normal" SG - 15 members all active primary alts, again assuming 2 hours playtime a night it takes 30 days, about a month. Whether this actually _is_ a normal size for a SG I don't know, most of even the "big" SG's that are full list 10-20 primary players and are then alt padded.

If you have a "full" 75 man SG, all unique players and averaging 2 hours a night it drops to 6 days for minimal functionality. This size of group pulling in abour 150k a day.

A dedicated gamer clan like they have in the US could be pulling in 250K a day (assumes about 30 players playing 8 hours) and I have the horrible feeling it was these guys they had in mind when they set the costs...


 

Posted

Have a horrible feeling you're right. Either that or the Prestige earning rate is way off base.

Though if the devs are listening, simply knocking the last zero off all the prices would get us into full-on raider mode a lot faster...

Seems a bit pointless to spend all the time developing wonderful base design systems and then we can't afford to play with them

PS: Balance is one thing. Fun is another. The two should not be confused in this case. I spend my 9-5 day grinding for real cash...

PPS: Here's a thought. How about special SG cash-earning missions: say a giant bank job for villains or confiscating drug money for heroes?


Is it time for the dance of joy yet?

 

Posted

Same here we have a base with workshop, energy room, control room, and 1 workbench.

Flicknife


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
So far we have a Functional Base. 4 rooms, power gen, mainframe, console, workshop with 2 tables (standard and advanced).. we just scraped through it. - although now.. we have rent to pay so we wont be able to enjoy it for long!

[/ QUOTE ]

There's a point. What is rent calculated on and how often does it need to be paid?


Is it time for the dance of joy yet?

 

Posted

The prestige earning rate is taken from the rates we've been earning at over the last few days in CoH and CoV, it seems to be somewhere between 1000 and 1500 (team of 6, heroic dificulty missions)

Higer difficulty levels may well give a prestige boost to the end of mission lump sum, can anyone confirm?


 

Posted

Maybe limit the size of plot available to the size of the SG would be better and lowering the prices for all but the most advanced equipment. On the packaging it says - "Design your fortress of evil - Build a bastion of villiany from the ground up isong stratagy and style. Construct bases with teleporters, hospitals and elaborate defences, then ward off the attacks of meddling heroes!" but I think someone forgot to mention the rest - "All you need is 15 friends willing to let you design the base for them and 10 hours playing time a week to keep it up and running"

It seems quite silly that one of the main selling points of the game is only available to those who want to be in a large SG - some of us like soloing missions and being the social outcast villian.

Tbh other than guildwars I've never been that keen on all the guild/SG politics crap that comes with having facilities like bases or towns.


 

Posted

Why cant the core essentials just be made cheaper so all SGs can get a working base fairly quickly and then have the more desirable items costing the ridiculus amounts.

We are being penalised for being a small SG. And because of that we cant use the functions that we paid out for CoV for (dont want to be a villian, not interested in PVP). I wanted a base, and i want to craft things. Things like your own medical center and transporter room should cost loads as they are the desirable bits, but the basics should be more atainable for everyone!

Will people want to activate the base raids where things can get destroyed once they have saved for 3-4 months to buy them?? I think NOT! So only the larger SGs that have a major income of prestige will activate this feature,and so another apealing part of the game becomes rare and only accessible to the really commited gamers (my friend got me onto CoH by saying it can be played fairly casualy and there is no penalization for this, but now there is).


 

Posted

The solution I feel is to become one of the larger SGs


(\_/)
(O.O) Bunny: Our time is coming
(> <)

 

Posted

Why make a bigger sg its not fair these issues need to be look at .


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
The solution I feel is to become one of the larger SGs

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm sorry but I'm not a power gamer who can spend hours a day doing missions and recruiting other players to join my SG so this isn't a solution. As I stated in my other posts as soon as a large group of people get together and have shared property the politics begins and tbh I play games to get away from that sort of trash.


 

Posted

I agree. It is WAY too expensive.

We're a small supergroup admittedly, but what about RP'rs who don't want a base, but they want a house?

More to the point, a small but functional base should NOT be such a huge undertaking to achieve - an elebarote base with an item of power and the best of each item SHOULD be a big undertaking.


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
The solution I feel is to become one of the larger SGs

[/ QUOTE ]

The point is that this should be available to all SG's not just the larger ones. The SG I am in is made up of friends that have enjoyed teaming together and we share the same twisted sense of humour etc. I do not want to leave my SG for a larger one!

Bases are advertised as a feature on the CoV box and so the basic base functions should be affordable to all SGs.

People have all this salvage building up and are asking what to do with it?? "Keep hold of it for 4 - 6 months till the base is ready (maybe longer), and then we might be able to work out what to do with it." Yay what fun!

Seems a really useful adition to the game to be enjoyed by all, and that is all that I am complaining against. A massive base with teleporters and medical centers are not what I am asking for, just someway of being able to use this salvage and enhance my game experience.

Ah but PvP will enhance your game experience I hear you say. PvP doesnt interest me at the moment (may change in time but at the moment no), ok well be a villian I hear u say in response. I dont want to be evil, I enjoy being a Hero. So my nice expansion pack I have bought has now only updated the graphics for me and given me a room with a blue portal in and a seemingly impossible target to reach before becoming useful! Yay for my well spent £30.


 

Posted

Together with a friend of mine I've made a new SG, filled it with atleast 15 alts, and made a decent house base...
But no functionality other then scene setting for RP and to have visitors go "oooh" and "aaah" (which is fun in it's own right...)


@ShadowGhost & @Ghostie
The Grav Mistress, Mistress of Gravity

If you have nothing useful to say, you have two choices: Say something useless or stay quiet.

 

Posted



[/ QUOTE ]I'm sorry but I'm not a power gamer who can spend hours a day doing missions and recruiting other players to join my SG so this isn't a solution. As I stated in my other posts as soon as a large group of people get together and have shared property the politics begins and tbh I play games to get away from that sort of trash.

[/ QUOTE ]

Then JOIN a bigger SG and don't get involved with the politics. Problem is if it was tailored for someone who came on once in a while in an SG of similar players then the SGs where ppl put in the hours would have everything within DAYS rather than weeks or months.
However I do agree with Tuarus (who's on my SG btw, or I'm on his, whatever way you want to look at it) that the very basic items should be more affordable - OR that the start bonus per SG member should have been big enough to take the base essentials into account.
But if you don't want to get into the politics of a shared base then why have one?


(\_/)
(O.O) Bunny: Our time is coming
(> <)

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
So far we have a Functional Base. 4 rooms, power gen, mainframe, console, workshop with 2 tables (standard and advanced).. we just scraped through it. - although now.. we have rent to pay so we wont be able to enjoy it for long!

[/ QUOTE ]

There's a point. What is rent calculated on and how often does it need to be paid?

[/ QUOTE ]

simply dont pay rent until u ave a fuctional base

if u ave a fuctional base and u dont pay rent u lose the ability to fuction ,but u still keep ur base

how the rent is worked out i'm guessing it on plot size , the biggger thee plot the more u pay

ooh and its rent day monthly


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]

Seems a really useful adition to the game to be enjoyed by all, and that is all that I am complaining against. A massive base with teleporters and medical centers are not what I am asking for, just someway of being able to use this salvage and enhance my game experience.


[/ QUOTE ]

If all you want is the ability to do something with your salvage and maybe a pretty room this becomes a lot more affordable. The quoted 1.2 Million is for teleporters and infirmaries as well.

The only thing I'm not certain on is if you can use auxilliary power items without having main items. If you can then the cost is about 455K - 300K of that can come from alt padding, and our SG (7 players - 5 primries, 2 other secondary alts) has earned about 100K since I6 went live (just over in fact) without particularly heavy play (most of us have been playing CoV and RPing too!)

If you can't place auxillaries then the cost jumps to 750K

450K to find. 1K an hour is about right for casual playing, so assuming your playing on average 2 hours a day and have 5 people, 45 days.

Organise a couple of weekend massive SG events (we often do TF's/storyarcs at the weekend) and 1 5 hour session with 5 people will net you 25K, so for "heavy casual gamers" (a could of hours a night and more on weekends, assuming 20 hours/week in total) you get 100k a week, or the base in about a month.

Remember that alts under 35 earn both prestige and inf (and while the inf is lower, the prestige is the same, our current biggest earner is getting both) so if you're really stuck sign all your alts into the SG, play in pure SG mode and bankroll them with your higher levels to make up for the inf loss.

For an utterly unfunctional pretty place, you can build a 3 room apartment in the emtry room with the 20K given to starting SG's with 1 player. You just have to remember to move the entry portal to 1 edge of the room.


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The solution I feel is to become one of the larger SGs

[/ QUOTE ]

The point is that this should be available to all SG's not just the larger ones. The SG I am in is made up of friends that have enjoyed teaming together and we share the same twisted sense of humour etc. I do not want to leave my SG for a larger one!

Bases are advertised as a feature on the CoV box and so the basic base functions should be affordable to all SGs.


[/ QUOTE ]

Well we'd be in good shape if 2/3 of the SG weren't spending 90% of their time on CoV. No finger pointing, I knew it would happen. I'm not really condoning what's going on, but it's the inevitable consequence of the way it's being set up.
Someone raised the more interesting point of after you've scrimped and saved and prestige mined for weeks/months are you then going to open the base for raiding and have all this lovely and expensive kit get smashed?


(\_/)
(O.O) Bunny: Our time is coming
(> <)

 

Posted

Also, how are small supergroups supposed to become larger now?


It was already hard to get new supergroups off the ground, but when a new player is given the choice between a big supergroup with a fully functioning base, and a small supergroup with a non-functional base (because they can't afford one) which are they more likely to pick?

And since the small supergroups can't increase in size as easily the base won't increase much and they'll be stopped.

The amount of prestige for BASIC items is ridiculous.

My supergroup only have the entrance, an energy room, and a control centre. (With no generators or mainframes) What do we do with our salvage til we can get these, and a workshop, and a workbench??

If we EVER do.


 

Posted

Shimmer, I've been that very thing since the Bases expansion was announced - which is why I'm frantically running around trying to pick up prestige - right now there's an arms race going on around Paragon as SGs kit out their bases. The less active SGs will start to bleed players as they shuffle off to bigger SGs with nice bases and whatnot.
The situation will compound when the IoPs start coming into play.

I'll make a prediction now; at some point in the future, on any given server, the IoPs will shuffle back and forwards be the biggest and most active SGs whilst the rest of us dont even get a lookin.


(\_/)
(O.O) Bunny: Our time is coming
(> <)

 

Posted

Ok take this scenario - I join a big SG who have a functional base I spend my free time over the next 3/4 weeks earning prestige for them and seem to get on alright . Then I move house at the beginning of December and will have no phone line or cable until the end of January - I come back on to find I've been kicked and the guild don't want to know, they have 15 active players earning enough to cover the rent no need for anyone else !!

As for large SG's having everything within days well why not ? It gives them more of an insentive to open them to attack by heroes and more of a challange for heroes imagine this -

Heroes storm a base enter a room take out some defences and enter the next room where a couple of villians stand.

Hero: "Ah ha we beat your puny defences"
Villian: "Please don't attack the power generator as it took us a week to afford it"
Hero: "Ok let us beat you to a pulp"
Villian: "Ok but in 2 months our defences will be better"

From a story point of view its a bit daft - I just robbed 3 banks in 2 days (well prob more tbh) and I can't even afford to put an extra undecorated room into my base ? I do agree that large bases should cost much more and that transporters and medical facilities should be expensive to build and operate but a basic level workshop or a large computer ? IRL I can build multi processor server with 10Gb for under £2000 so why can't a villian in a game "aquire" one for the same price ?


 

Posted

Shame there cant be some SG instanced missions where an SG team (good or bad will change the senario slightly) goes and robs a high tech electrical/computer firm and the loot is a computer or a generator ect.

Heroes can help recover some experimental technology for the aforementioned company and then when the return it the companys CEO is so gratefull he gives them a mainframe or a generator.

These could be run like a respec mission with the only requirement being a minimum number of players on a team and they must all be in the same SG and all be in SG mode. Can be done over a few missions with the objective to track down the location of the missing equipment/ location of the equipment.

As others are stating it would be nice to have a functional base so all can retain there current rosters with out people being poached or leaving with a functional base being the reason.