Secret Lair/Personal Bases

Since there has been some recent talk about starting over with a new base editor and base system I thought this was a good time to re-introduce the idea of personal bases. I know we can have a personal base with the current system, with most of what I’m about to suggest, but maybe a new system can be introduced starting with personal bases and worked into a SG system if it is popular enough.

Residence –
Start with basic living area in your choice of styles: Apartment, Condo, Single Family Home, Mansion, Cave, Sewer, Ice Fortress, Hollow Tree…etc.
- Basic Residence area includes:
a. One Entrance area
b. One Living area
c. One Eating area
d. One Sleeping area
e. Clickable access to “Secret Lair” area
- Residence does not support Teleport or Crafting or Storage.

Living areas can be upgraded/enhanced by spending influence.

Any base portal will have the option to transport you to a SG/VG base (if
available) or to your residence or secret lair.

Secret Lair –
Access through a custom clickable object located in the residence area. The Secret Lair area is also available in your choice of different styles.
- Basic Secret Lair area includes:
a. One Entrance area
b. One Mission/Storage area
c. Clickable access to “Residence” area
available upgrade areas
d. Costume display area
e. Trophy display area
- Secret Lair does not support Teleport or Crafting.
- Secret Lair does support limited storage.

Secret Lair area can also be upgraded/enhanced by spending influence.

Mission/Storage area includes:
- Personal Mission Computer – gives missions similar to tip or radio/newspaper missions.
- Storage – includes a limited amount of personal storage.

Costume Display Area
- A display of your available costume slots.

Trophy Display Area
- A display area for your badges, achievements, accolades…etc.

I use my base for teleporting and storage...


/unsigned

I think the idea is to have something like this alongside bases...

To that end, I would say scrap the "secret lair" part, and just make the link to an SG that the toon belongs to.

While we do want people to get involved in the creative process of building, we also want people to join SG's, not alienate themselves from them. SG's need to be made viable again.

To make the personal apartment appealing, include the costume & trophy display, and I think one salvage rack could be allowed there... but no enhancies, crafting, or TPs.

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Whenever this comes up I've always been pro personal living quarters. Lots of potential here to get everyone who plays the game involved in the creative process of building if they so choose.

Lately, I've had some pretty strange ideas... brought on by how we would mix a new base building system with what we already have. I've been pretty reluctant to share these ideas because they are still largely half-baked and probably have more holes than Swiss cheese. But what the heck. We are all friends here on the Internet right (heh)? What if...

The existing base building system became the secret lair/personal base system for everyone. I'm picturing a tech or arcane 'vator in a base or designated apartment building in the game (for those not in an SG) that will whisk you to your own personal space. Everybody earns prestige (in an SG or no). Based on that prestige level, you build under the current system. The ground rules are: (1) This personal system has "limited" in game relevance (where "limited" is to be determined... storage yes/no... TPs yes/no... etc.) (2) The personal base (existing) system has limited capabilities (no xyz for example... basically what we have now with possibly more housing related decorating items).

All the bases out there today become the Secret Lair/ Personal Base of the SG leader accessible by who he/she designates (SG/coalition) through the base 'vator. Stuff not allowed in a personal area (say the CoP trial for example) would be movable into a new base system.

Bases become these new (SG based) super duper complexes designed from the ground up to be able to grow to be large, impressive and useful. The mission computer hums, optional SG activities are available, all in game conveniences (auction house, tailor, trainer, etc.) reside, porters go everywhere (even for Rogues and Vigilantes) and there would be lots of other stuff that I haven't even considered.

:Sigh:... that would be nice. But I do concede the need to maintain two "base" systems (one built from the ground up ) might be more development and maintenance than our dev team might be willing to undertake... especially given our track record so far in this regard. Can you tell I spend entirely too much time thinking about this stuff?

I would say try to keep everything as free-form as possible. Look at the personal base as an extension of the character's costume. Some people will make a personal apartment, some will do a secret cave, some will make a combination, the thing here is trying not to limit people's creativity. The idea of having an apartment and a bat-cave is based on a very specific type of hero and not all character's in the game will follow that model. Some will not need hero facilities and will simply have an apartment, some will live in their secret lair while those who have a public identity will simply build any hero facilities as a simple extension to their living quarters.

Features I would like to see:

NPCs. Is your character married? Are your Mastermind's minions hanging around (i.e. a barracks for your Mercenaries or an Assault Bot standing quietly in the corner of your workshop)? Is your character poor and living in a two bedroom apartment with three other down on their luck heroes (hopefully two of them do night patrols and two day patrols)? Adding wondering NPCs allows for this sort of thing.

Trophies and Costumes. Allow for setting up costume dummies not just with your active costume slots but specially designed costumes as well. That old costume you deleted because it looked dumb? Your character keeps it in storage as a reminder of the old days. Similarly allow for the display of some of the items acquired as souvenirs. Maybe your reformed villain keeps the letter from Miss Francine framed on the wall as a reminder that 'It's never too late'.

I don't think there is much need for functional items but I would like to see some which I think could be used to help build on personality. A techie character might well have an invention table and vault access. A character who makes their own costumes might have a small sewing room to edit costumes in. A rich character might have auction house access inside their apartment.

In any case I think if such a system is to really work it needs to be viewed like the costume creator, as a means fo defining the character's personality.

If the Devs don't have time / don't care to even touch up current bases / add anything new to current bases then they surely won't have the amount of time to do something like this, no matter how nice it might be.

I know this is a pretty big issue with a lot of players. But me, I'd rather have the devs do other things, like make ouroboros tp to all zones, and let all players be able to use it.

Revamp taskforces so they take place in the same zone, within a few hundred yards. Why waste time going from Talos to Sky to Kings row, back to Talos, etc.

That's my biggest problem with the game - too much time traveling to play, instead of playing.

Put in 1 teleport for the personal lair... a teleport to the active mission door. This would actually make them useful (beyond what a SG base does). Also, a craftable personal lair teleporter power (for getting back to the base fast).

I have to say when I had a short stint on LOTRO one of the coolest things I saw was the neighborhood themed housing. You had an actual residence with an actual "address" in game. I didn't get that far into the game but they had a rent system in which you could lose the address if upkeep wasn't paid for.

I could see this working for COX in that you could have different neighborhoods for secret lairs, SG towers, personal apartments, etc. I know some would hate having their base fixed to a specific address in the city but I thought it cool that anyone could "tour" the different neighborhoods and even enter certain parts of the residence. I like the idea of there being a Beverly Hills in FF or a Camden, NJ in the Hollows.

Not sure if SG's would take this to the extreme in trying t get into the "best" neighborhoods and have the most curb appeal but I thought it was a cool concept.