In this FAQ I will review several aspects of designing your base,
from the easy to do, simple base designs, to the incredibly hard,
but very useful base designs. I will also cover the designing
methods as well.
Each base design submitted will be judged according to 6
characteristics:
Complexity (How complex or convolouted the design is)
Time (How long it takes for a minion to travel the length
of the base)
Efficiency (How well your minions work in said base design)
Cost
Security (How easy it is for agents to infiltrate the base)
Modularity (How modular the base is, IE, how easy it is to
add traps and other extra items, such as loot.)
Each characteristic has 5 potential judgements:
Very Low
Low
Medium
High
Very High
Here is the best rating for each characteristic possible:
Cost: Very Low
Time: Very Low
Complexity: Medium
Efficiency: Very High
Security: Very High
Modularity: Very High
Submit designs and tips to dragonmaw@gmail.com
This FAQ is also featured in Torias's comprehensive FAQ,
with my permission.
Table of Contents
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1.0: Design Reviews
A simple design, and the most often used, this design
focuses on keeping everything connected to a corridor,
which ends up allowing for massive trap potential,
and a long base design, but it is rather easy to navigate
and has poor efficiency. It also costs quite a bit and
takes quite a long time to travel, unless you add extra
entrances, which leads to decreased security. Good for
early in the game, but later on, you will want to switch designs
Cost: Medium - High
Time: High
Complexity: Low
Security: Low
Efficiency: Very Low
Modularity: Very High
---------------
Interconnection
---------------
Another simple design, it saves money on corridors, and if
used right, takes efficiency to soaring heights. Instead
of wasting money on long corridors,each room is interconnected,
saving travelling time. Thanks to the decreased time travelling
and the increase in efficiency, you can afford to have just one
entrance.However, due to it's compactness, modularity is not
very good and security is somewhat lowered thanks to the absence
of trap-infested corridors.
Cost: Low - Medium
Time: Low
Complexity: Medium
Security: Medium - Low
Efficiency: Very High
Modularity: Low
The best of the simple base designs, the efficiency expert
combines the corridors ofCorridor Madness with the efficient
compactness of Interconnection to bring youa great design.
It is characterised by corridors filled with traps immediately
followed by complex, compact grouping of rooms, allowing for
massive potential.However, the cost is high, which makes
building such a base quickly very tough.
Cost: High - Very High
Time: Low
Complexity: Medium
Security: Medium - High
Efficiency: High
Modularity: High
=================================
Section 1.2: Complex Base Designs
=================================
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Deathtrap
---------
A base design which focuses entirely on setting up trap
potential, it is characterised by long, twisting corridors,
infested with traps, large rooms with many, many traps
and sensors, and finally, the heart of the base,
where everything takes place. It is a great design for
eliminating agents, but is very bad in most other respects.
Because it is so complex and long, efficiency drops to a
minimum and the time it takes to complete even simple tasks
skyrockets. Friendly fire is a problem as well, becuase
eventually minions will stumble upon your traps and kill
themselves. Finally, the cost of such an endeavor is
enormous, which means that it is not to be built lightly.
Cost: Very High
Time: Very High
Complexity: Very High
Security: Very High
Efficiency: Very Low
Modularity: Very High
----------
Deep Earth
----------
Very similar to the Deathtrap design, deep earth consists
of building a long convolouted corridor which ends up in
the center of your base. Agents will spend such a long
time just trying to reach the actual base that they will
go home before seeing anything bad. Coupled with
psychological weakening, this design almost ensures that
agents will never find anything to incriminate you with.
It often includes corridors that go in circles and large
empty rooms. However, the cost is VERY high, and efficiency
drops, as well as time.
Cost: Very High
Time: Very High
Complexity: High
Security: Very High
Efficiency: Low
Modularity: High (But isn't used)
A base design centered around fooling agents into thinking
your base is merely a simple corporation or company, this
base design is characterised by a front, often consisting
of a Barracks, Control Room, Mess Hall, and all the other
low-no heat rooms, followed by a trap infested corridor
which leads to the high heat rooms such as the Armoury,
Sanctum, Power Plant, and Freezer. It has high efficiency,
high security, but only a somewhat good Modularity rating,
and high costs. It is quite possibly the best design I have seen.
Cost: Very High
Time: Medium
Complexity: Medium
Security: Very High
Efficiency: Very High
Modularity: Medium
=============================
Section 2.0: Base Design Tips
=============================
- Keep rooms that replenish minion's stats near the heavy
work areas. In other words, keep rooms such as the Mess Hall,
Barracks, Staff Room, and Library somewhat close to the Control Room
or other areas where minions are often found. This will increase
efficiency
- Build a good security network. With cameras and loudspeakers
placed properly, your base willbe the epitome of secure.
Remember, in order for cameras to see someone, you must have
them tagged.
- Traps are your friends. They help keep enemies out of
sensitive areas, which means low to no heat will be generated.
I suggested traps such as the attention or intelligence draining
gas traps, or wind tunnels, or the like. Sending an agent home
alive and without suspicion is better than killing him by far.
- Loot is used to keep up your minion's loyalty, so place it
in areas where it will be easily seen. However, moderate
this with caution, or you will lose the loot along with
some notoriety, which is very bad
(Thanks to Saureco for the following tips)
- Ever notice how after you interrogate someone it leaves a nasty little
bodybag? Well, you can quickly reduce loss of loyalty if you attach your
freezer to your armory. Plus, in order for agents to find the freezer,
they'd have to go through the armory. If you keep the armory staffed, you
can nab them before they get any evidence, laugh at them with your genius
(for an extra infamy point), interrogate them to increase loyalty to your
immediate minions, then dispose of the body.
- If you can manage an extra $100,000, build a basic hotel hub in an area
that's large enough for expansion later on. In that hub, build a lobby on
less than half of the hub and put in a front desk and time clock. On the
rest of the hub, put a lounge with a dance floor and bar. Put doors on the
entrances, but remember to put them at level one security (to let ANYONE
through). Keep your hotel staffed with valets to make sure that tourists
are tended to. Also, if there is room, put in a pressure pad and a pop-up
dummy trap. Any tourist that trips it will reduce his smarts, eventually
wasting time sitting there scratching his head. The more he wastes time,
the less likely he'll see anything bad.
- Ever notice how the door security level attracts and repels tourists and
enemies? If you want to waste the time of your enemies and reduce the death
toll of your minions, make your door entrance have another door a little
further in. Set the inner door to level 3 security to prevent any minions
from venturing outside and getting mowed down by soldiers who shoot on
sight. With the outer door, keep switching it between level 1 and level 2
security. When the door is on level 1 access, enemies actually IGNORE the
door. Apparently, if it's too easy for them to get in, they won't bother
with it. Once they start to walk away, switch it back to level 2 security.
That will entice them to come take another look. Keep doing this until they
eventually leave with no heat. Should they actually get in, let your traps
soften them up. Set your base to red alert so that everyone arms
themselves, have your henchmen gather guards, and then rush the enemies
after they have been softened up. You'll find that the enemies go down
faster and your losses to personnel are much less than if you just let them
go on their own.
- You'll notice that for all the Acts of Infamy that deal with stealing an
artistic object, the object generates loyalty for all minions in its area of
influence. Usually, your minions will bring these trophies and put them in
either your lair or strongroom. Instead, place these objects in work rooms,
like control rooms, near where your minions sit. As they work, they'll gain
loyalty. Without these objects here, they'll start losing stats, one of
which is loyalty. The last thing you want is minions abandoning you. Plus,
it saves you the time of capturing/executing traitors.
Submit your tips to dragonmaw@gmail.com
============================================
Section 3.0: Placement Tips (Loot and Traps)
============================================
(Submitted by Justin George)
My favorite trap design in the beginning is using sets of two wind
traps and four pressure sensors to create a long hallway that sweeps
agents out of the base, usually without harming them. Usually eight to
sixteen units long, then a turn, with more wind traps. The real trick
is to link the later traps to the earlier ones, so if the agents
near-ish the base, they all fire and sweep them all the way back to
the entrance, but an agent tripping the trap at the beginning doesn't
interfere with your minions running around near the base. This also
allows running minions (money, construction) to make it past, since
the agents go at a slower-than-walking pace.
Dragonmaw's Playtest Rating: 8 (It works well, but not all the time. So
it gets an eight)
(Submitted by Emil Fortune)
In my current base, I've added a 'backdoor' to my strongroom. It's an
extra base entrance with an enticing lv. 3 door on it. Inside, there's a
corridor with a couple of doors and traps in it like so:
BASE ENTRANCE lv 3 door
POISON GAS TRAP
lv 1 door
DREADMILL and MOTION DETECTOR
ELECTROSHOCK TRAP
lvl 2 door
lvl 2 door
STRONGROOM
Agents love to break in and then one of their team usually wanders a bit
further in and triggers the motion detector, which is linked to all of
the traps. At this point, the gas trap kills anyone who is hanging back,
and the Dreadmill and Cannon trap combine to get rid of anyone further
in. For some reason, even though agents can't pass the Cannon trap, it
doesn't count as an 'inaccessible' design, and I don't get those pesky
burrowing agents.
Dragonmaw's Playtest Rating: 5 (While it works alright, the enormous
amount of body bags generated is not
good policy.)
(Submitted by Jake King)
This is an expensive tip, but a good one. Build a lot of outdoor shacks.
Make them Corridors with four pressure plates in the middle, two pop up
traps in back, and a door in front. Set the door to 4. Since there
isn't room, it won't be guarded, but it is one of the first things the
forces of justice looks at. If they manage to break in, they will trigger
one of the traps.
Dragonmaw's Playtest Rating: 8 (A little expensive, but definately pays off)
(Submitted by Andreas Baird)
I call it "The Circle Of Doom". It is very expensive, and only really
works on the second island due to its vast size, but it maximizes security
and efficiency. You start by building a 2-tile wide corridor ALL the way
round the outside edge of your mountain, before building a large number of
base entrances (as many as you like, the more the better as it increases the
chance of fooling somebody with disguised entrances). You then build your
actual base within the circle, with a number of entrances to the circle
spaced between outside entrances. You then fill the ring with a large number
of stat-reducing traps, with each space between an outer and inner entrance
focused on the same stat. If an agent comes in they will have to run a
gauntlet of traps to reach the actual base, and will most likely end up
standing outside scratching their noggins, while the large number of
entrances means the distance needed to run to build things is kept low
(maximizing efficiency). A good internal security network followed by lots
of psychological tagging means that agents will get nowhere near valuable
base components. This is also very entertaining, as at any one time there is
almost always a tourist or agent getting zapped, gassed, stung, crushed or
otherwise put out of action.
Dragonmaw's Playtest Rating: 6 (Way too rich for my blood, but it does work.
However, even despite the entrances, efficiency
still takes a large hit.)
(Submitted by David Shorr)
I've been using a variation of your Corporate Facade base design with success.
I call it the "Bodyguard of Lies" (from the Churchill quote).
My base has lots of entrances, but only one of them is the real entrance.
Some of them are just the entrance elements with no interiors. Some entrances
have a short hall with a door and no other structure. Some entrances lead to
a low heat structure that does not join into my base (a barracks or mess hall,
etc). Some entrances lead into traps.
I also have built a large number of topside shacks near the base entrances.
They contain the usual low heat structures from the Corporate Facade.
I have built a few topside shacks in the most remote and distant parts of the
island that contain a control room with just a timeclock (so I can turn the
room power off). These have the heaviest doors I can buy set to Level 4 security.
This draws investigators like flies.
My real base entrance opens into a series of low-heat rooms that are filled with
confusing pop-up traps. My minions can just walk through them to the main part of
the base, but visitors are distracted and weakened by the traps.
This structure along with the valet minions has handled all my needs for most
intruders. I commonly will see numerous investigators snooping around the buildings
and real base elements, but they get confused and go home.
Dragonmaw's Playtest Rating: 9 (Very nicely done. A little expensive, but definately
worth it in terms of security)
