City of Heroes Base Frequently Asked Questions

City of Heroes Base Frequently Asked Questions by Captain Solaris

Q1: How do I get a base?
A1: Generally you talk to the same person you talk to to register an SG in the first place. You have to be a member of an SG to have a base; you can be the only member if you want, but this will place severe size and functionality limits on your base.

Q2: What’s this “Prestige” thing?
A2: It’s Influence for bases. You use Prestige to pay for almost everything you add to your base. You also use Prestige to pay your base rent.

Q3: How do I earn Prestige?
A3: You earn Prestige by playing in Supergroup Mode. You can turn Supergroup Mode on by opening the ‘SG’ tab and clicking ‘Enter Supergroup Mode’. At low levels, you earn Prestige and Influence in equal amounts. However, the closer you get to level 35, the less influence you earn, until after level 35, you earn NO influence for playing in Supergroup mode. The amount of Prestige earned per enemy/per mission does not increase by level like influence does.

Q4: Do I start with any Prestige?
A4: All supergroups get a “kicker” of 20,000 Prestige per member up to 15, for a total of 300,000 possible “free” Prestige. If you have gotten this free Prestige and your supergroup membership drops BELOW 15, you will lose 20,000 Prestige for each member that departs. If your membership increases again, you regain the 20,000.

Q5: What’s the most efficient way to earn Prestige?
A5: Bosses and Lts give more Prestige per enemy. Mission doors in PvP zones give more Prestige for completion. Enemies at +con seem to give more Prestige. Due to the way rewards are split up, running a team with other SG members who are also in SG mode will result in more Prestige being earned collectively. So the most efficient way would obviously be a large team of SG members running PvP zone door missions at a boosted difficulty.

Q6: Can I take my Prestige with me to another SG?
A6: No. Prestige is a Supergroup resource. It is tied only to that supergroup. If your supergroup disbands for any reason, ALL EARNED PRESTIGE IS LOST.

Q7: How does Rent work?
A7: Rent is a regressive “tax” on the total value of assets belonging to your supergroup. Once bases are enabled, your group will face a regular (as of this writing, it’s not clear wether it’s biweekly or monthly) tax on your assets. This tax must be paid at the same contact you used to register your supergroup. The assets used for calculating this tax include not just what you own in your base, but also “banked” Prestige as well! The tax rate begins at 1%, and increases to a maximum of around 3.5% at a gross amount of Prestige (170million).

Q8: What happens if I don’t/can’t pay rent on my base?
A8: Some of your functional items will stop working until you cough up the rent. There is no “item decay”, so your base will not go away if rent isn’t paid. You can even continue crafting and building in your base. It’s not clear as of this writing precisely what parts of the base stop working when rent is not paid, but it almost certainly includes all raiding functionality.

Q9: How deep in debt can I get with rent?
A9: Rent is “capped” at one rent cycle. In other words, if you miss a rent bill, you will not continue to get bills. It is not known as of this writing wether rent is recalculated every month (ie, wether, when you have a rent bill due and don’t pay it for several months while continuing to earn Prestige, wether the bill will be recalculated to tax that new income).

Q10: How can my SG pay rent?
A10: You pay rent at the same place that you used to register the SG and get the base in the first place. Any member of your SG with sufficient priveledges can pay rent – it doesn’t come from their personal assets, but from the SG’s Prestige. You must physically meet that contact to pay.

Q11: Isn’t that kind of annoying?
A11: Yes.

Q12: Why can’t some of my SG members pay rent when it’s due?
A12: “Pay rent” is a priveledge that can be granted or withheld under the new supergroup priveledge management screen. It’s recommended that you enable “pay rent” for all supergroup ranks and be done with it, unless you are planning on not paying rent for a while for strategic reasons.

Q13: How do I get to my base?
A13: There are now “base portals” in most zones. These look like swirling blue columns of energy, and teleport you to your base (if you have a base). You can also use these portals to enter the bases of Coalition members (if they let you) or the base of the leader of your team (if they let you).

Q14: How do I edit my base?
A14: Once you enter your base, you will be in the “entry room”, in front of another column of blue light (you can click this to leave). If you have base editing priveledges, you will see a popup with several options: Edit Base, Place Personal Item, and Change Base Plot. The “Edit Base” option will take you to the base editor.

Q15: How do I control what members can edit?
A15: There is a “Base Editing” priveledge that can be granted or withheld from SG ranks in the SG permission editing screen. It is all or nothing; you cannot give someone editing priveledges in just one room.

Q16: How do I place a room when base editing?
A16: You will enter the base editor in “Create Room” mode. The menus at the bottom of the screen will display possible rooms you can build. To build a room, click on it and then move the mouse over the grid. You will see the outline of the room appear, blue if you can place it, red if the place is invalid. Rooms must be placed one square apart (to allow room for a doorway) and there must be a valid path to that doorway.

Q17: Why do doorways automatically open like that?
A17: The base editor does not have a “clipboard”. Any changes are made immediately to the actual base. So it requires that a valid path exist for all rooms at all times. Any newly placed room will automatically be connected to every adjacent room where the editor can fit a doorway in. You can delete some of these doorways afterwards, so long as there’s a valid path to every room.

Q18: How do I delete a room?
A18: Select the room (click on it in Create Room mode). In the upper-left corner you will see a menu appear describing that room. Select the “Delete Room” button. You cannot delete the room if it’s the entry room (the one with the blue column) or if deleting it would break the valid path criteria.

Q19: How do I put stuff in my rooms?
A19: Select the “Place Item” button in the lower left. The view in the editor will zoom in and the “pallette” will change to items that can be placed in the room. In general, the items in the first tabs will be the items which have a functional use, the rest are decorative.

Q20: How do I place a ‘crafted’ item?
A20: Those are placed through the “Place Personal Item” menu. Exit the base editor, and you should find yourself back in the entry room. Now select “Place Personal Item” to place items you’ve crafted into the base. If this button is greyed out, you don’t have anything placeable. Crafted items have a Prestige cost for placement, just like other items.

Q21: Do I lose Prestige by deleting items?
A21: No. The purchase and sell price are the same for all items. You are free to buy and sell anything to your heart’s content. Crafted items, however, only refund the Prestige used for placement. It’s not clear as of this writing wether the salvage used to construct those items is lost. Use caution when deleting crafted items!

Q22: When I’m placing decorations, how do I put things on top of other things?
A22: Practice.

Q23: What are functional items?
A23: These are items in your base that actually do something, as opposed to just look neat. These are items such as a Resurrection Ring – think private hospital – or a private zone teleporter, or crafting tables. These items all function differently, but they all require two things: 1, they must be placed in the appropriate room (Rez Ring in a Medical Room, for example); 2, they must have sufficient power and control.

Q24: What are Power and Control?
A24: A measure of the amount of power generation your base has, and how much computer power/whatever you have to run everything. Your base starts with ZERO! Before any items will function, you have to set up some power and control. Create a power room and place a Basic Generator (it will be in the tab at the far left), then create a control room and place a Mainframe and some Databases. This will give you enough power and control to run most basic items.

Q25: What are Core and Auxiliary items?
A25: To use the example above, the Mainframe is a Core Item. You can only have a certain number of these in your base. Each core item can have a number of Auxiliary items connected to it, such as Databases to the Mainframe. Each core item can only use certain kinds of Auxiliary items. There is also a limit on Auxiliary items – first, your base “plot” may have a limit. Second, the room you’re using may have a limit, and thirdly, the Core item may have a limit. The maximum number of auxiliary items you can use on that core item is the LOWEST of these three numbers.

Q26: How do I know wether I have enough power and control?
A26: In the lower right of your screen are two bars showing your power and control usage/generation. The top part of each bar is usage, the lower part, generation. If usage exceeds generation in either bar, no item in your base will work!

Q27: How do I get more/better Power and Control items?
A27: You can either craft better items, or change to a Secure base plot, which allows double the number of core items. Note that both of these options are extremely expensive, running into the millions of Prestige.

Q28: How do I change base plots/What’s the difference between Hidden and Secure?
A28: If you have base edit priveledges, entering the Entry Chamber will give you the option to edit the base plot. This can buy a bigger plot of the same type, or change types between Hidden and Secure. As of this writing, the only obvious difference between Hidden and Secure is that Secure is crazy expensive and allows twice the number of Core items.

Q29: What are some of the functional items?
A29:
* Rez Ring (equivalent to an Awaken, gives you the option to rez in your base instead of a Hospital, can be purchased)
* Auto-Doc (Auxiliary item for the Rez Ring, increases its rez ability, must be crafted)
* Inspiration Dispenser (Sells level 1 green/blue insps, buys some insps, must be crafted)
* Combat Logs (Aux item for Dispenser, lets it sell Break Frees, must be crafted)
* Basic Telepad (Allows teleport to two different zones, must be crafted)
* Crafting Tables (Allows item crafting, can be purchased)
* Supergroup Mission Computer (Allows PvP raids, Item of power Raid, special PvE task forces, must be crafted)
* Raid Teleporter (In combination with Mission Computer, allows you to attack other SG bases that are raid enabled, can be purchased)

Q30: Is there a difference between the Technology and Arcane functional items?
A30: Not really. The descriptions I’ve used here refer to the Tech items for simplicity’s sake. Every tech item has a corresponding arcane item that does the exact same thing. Any differences are unintentional design errors (for example, the technology Raid Teleporter is larger than the Arcane Raid Teleporter, allowing the Arcane to fit more conveniently in small teleport rooms). Note that you cannot mix types between Tech and Arcane when it comes to Core and Auxiliary items! A Tech Mainframe cannot be enhanced by an Arcane Auxiliary Control item!

Q31: How do I get salvage?
A31: You get Salvage by playing in Supergroup Mode. Playing in SG mode enables Salvage as an additional drop type, like Enhancements and Inspirations. Various groups drop different types of salvage. Alternately, you can trade for salvage with other players.

Q32: How do I set up crafting in my base?
A32: You must have power and control set up, first. You will require at least one table (the Basic Worktable/Forge) and probably all three to make some items. Worktables refine Tech Salvage, Forges refine Arcane Salvage. A complete “tree” of tables is Basic, Expert and Advanced. The Advanced table does NOT replace the Basic table, it supplements it. The complete tree is fairly expensive in terms of power and control, so you may need to add more control auxiliary items after setting the three tables up. It is unlikely that you will be able to keep BOTH the tech and arcane trees powered if you have anything else running in your base.

Q33: How do I craft?
A33: If your crafting tables are set up and have sufficient power and control to work, just click one and get to work. You’ll see a massive number of tabs under each one, showing what can be refined or created. Generally you’ll want to trim this list down. In the lower right of each table, you’ll see a select list. You can select options on this list to restrict it to only the things which can be crafted on that table (recommended). Note that this will generally lag you for a moment as the system trims down the list. You can also restrict the list to just the things you have the materials to make. And recipe which shows up in white is something you can make; click the double-right-arrow to expand the description, and then ‘Create’, and it’s done.

Q34: What happens when I refine Salvage?
A34: Salvage you get from drops doesn’t magically become functional items with one click. You must refine it first. For example, the salvage drops Black Market Super-Stuff and Body Armor can be refined to create “Tech Power”. If you find a recipe for tech power that takes those two types of salvage, you can refine them and create it. Tech Power will show up in your salvage list like the drops. While Tech Power is also a kind of salvage, some refer to it as “Material” for clarity’s sake.

Q35: How do I create a functional item?
A35: Functional items require refined materials. So, for example, the steps for creating a Basic Telepad go something like this: 2 Body Armor + 1 Black Market Superstuff = 1 Tech Power. 6 Tech Power = 1 Basic Telepad. Once you have enough material for the functional item, you can create it just like you created its materials.

Q36: How many ways are there to create a given material?
A36: There are dozens of combinations of salvage that yeild any given material. All materials of a given type (Tech Power, for example) are the same, however, regardless of what you used to make them.

Q37: Can I trade functional items?
A37: No.

Q38: What’s this Disruptor Pylon thing in the list of things I can craft?
A38: Don’t touch that button! Disruptor Pylons are used only in offensive raids. It’s a temporary power. If you create it, you will not see it in the list of personal items you can place, and you will not see it in your powers list unless you embark on an offensive raid.

Q39: Do I need base edit priveledges to place a personal item?
A39: No. Anyone in the SG who crafts an item can place it in any valid location in the base. There is no priveledge at present to prevent this.

Q40: How do I set up my base to raid other bases?
A40: You will need at least a raid teleporter and a mission computer to do this. If you want to keep an item of power after raiding another base, you will need additional rooms.

Q41: What is an item of power?
A41: An item of power is a magic item stolen from Rularuu the Ravager. It gives all members of the SG that holds it a +1% buff in one attribute (damage, XP gain, debt gain, psychic damage resistance). You can have up to 5. Having an item of power essentially “flags your base for PvP”. You can be raided at any point after you get one.

Q42: What do I need to do to get an Item of Power?
A42: You will need the following: An SG Mission Computer, a Raid Teleporter, a Vault Room with the placed item “Item of Power Base” (this is where the IoP will go when obtained), and 6 Anchors. The Anchors are what hold the IoP in this reality. Each room in your base can have only one; the Vault Room and Entry Room cannot have Anchors in them. This means the minimum base size to hold an IoP is 8 rooms. Once you have your base set up to hold an IoP, you can get one by embarking on the SG raid on Rularuu’s Cathedral of Pain, or by raiding another SG that has more Items of Power than you.

Q43: What happens when an SG raids another SG’s base?
A43: The attackers appear at random in the defending base’s “Doorway” rooms. Attackers on the same team are supposed to appear in the same place. Sometimes this even works. If killed, the attackers respawn in the same place they came in the first time. Defenders respawn in their base hospital (if there is an intact, powered rez ring) or in the relevant zone hospital. In the latter case, they must then run to the base portal to get back into the fight. The defenders must hold off the attackers for an hour. The attackers merely have to destroy 5 of 6 anchors, or place and defend Disruptor Pylons (only one Pylon can be set per room). If the attackers succeed, they win, and leave with one of the defender’s Items of Power.

Q44: Can I have an item of power and not PvP?
A44: No. The only control you have over PvP when your group owns an IoP is to set the scheduled raid time.

Q45: What is the scheduled raid time?
A45: You can set up a time when your SG is likely to be on; that is the only time that your base can be attacked. This is to prevent attackers from showing up at 2 am and wandering off with all your stuff.

Q46: Can the attackers destroy functional items in raids?
A46: Yes. Anything that has hit points can be attacked. Some of these items will be rebuilt after the raid.

Q47: What are defensive items?
A47: You can buy or craft defensive items to help defend your base during a raid. These are things like freeze ray turrets, defensive mines, and shield generators. Only some rooms in your base can have defensive items. Generally, a room that can hold defensive items is much more expensive than a room of the same type that can’t. For example, a Secure Control Room (which can house a few defensive items) is millions more Prestige than a normal Control Room, which can’t.

Q48: Do defensive items require power and control too?
A48: Yes. In fact, they require a LOT of it, necessitating crafter power and control items. This also means that if an attacker makes it to your control or power room and blows up the core item there, everything in your base turns off.

Q49: Can I PvP in bases without Items of Power?
A49: You can challenge another SG to an “instant raid”, or be challenged by another SG, even if neither of you have Items of Power. Instant raiding functions much the same as a normal raid, except it can occur at any time, the defending SG must allow it to happen, and nothing actually changes hands or is permanently destroyed as a result of the raid.