I've occasionally gotten questions about what I plan to do with my 8x8 base plot (and how far I'll be able to push things in it) ... and the greatest concern has always been budgeting for Control (in my opinion, the REAL limiting factor for small bases!), especially if angling to host Cathedral of Pain Trials(!).
With an 8x8 plot, the best that can be achieved for room count is ... 9 rooms of 2x2.
2x2 rooms puts a really severe constraint upon how much Control a base can generate, because a
2x2 Control Room has a limit of 4 Aux attachments.
And if one of those 4 Aux Items is an
Oracle/Mission Computer ... the maximum possible Control the base can generate is:
- Magic Axis/Mainframe (-50E / +50C)
- Bookshelf/Database (-100E / +50C)
- Bookshelf/Database (-100E / +50C)
- Bookshelf/Database (-100E / +50C)
- Oracle/Mission Computer (-20E / -10C)
So just with the Control Room specified, I've only got +300 Control budget to spread around (of which -10C is already allocated).
Also, just for accounting purposes, a
2x2 Energy Room with a
Power Crystal/Basic Generator can have up to 2 Aux attachments ... so the maximum possible Energy the base can generate is:
- Power Crystal/Basic Generator (+1000E / -0C)
- Crystal Focus/Circuit Breaker (+150E / -0C)
- Crystal Focus/Circuit Breaker (+150E / -0C)
So with just the Energy Room specified, there can be up to +1300 Energy budget to spread around.
An
Entrance room is required (and automatically 2x2), but no items that consume Energy or Power can be placed in it.
A
2x2 Infirmary can be specified, which permits the placement of a Storage item in the room (I personally like putting the
Inspiration Storage/Inspiration Collector into my Medical room, hence the choice for an Infirmary rather than the cheaper Medbay room).
I personally consider a single
Resurrection Circle/Basic Reclaimator and a
Tree of Wonders/Auto-Doc to be highly desirable, mainly to enable the placement of the Tree of Wonders/Auto-Doc (requires 1 millionhealed in SG mode to unlock) into which you can empty (most of) your Inspiration tray in exchange for INF (giving you a good excuse to visit your SG Base after almost every mission). The Resurrection Circle/Basic Reclaimator falls into the category of "nice to have" if faceplanted and needing to Hospital in Hazard Zones that lack a Hospital.
- Resurrection Circle/Basic Reclaimator (-50E / -25C)
- Tree of Wonders/Auto-Doc (-50E / -15C)
- Inspiration Storage/Inspiration Collector (-0E / -0C)
So the Infirmary costs -100 Energy and -40 Control to my base buget.
I like having two (mirrored) Workshops to "store all my stuff" in my SG Base, but I separate them out into Arcane and Tech themes.
The
2x2 Workshop room permits 9 storage items, 2 workshop items and 1 empowerment station. This works out quite nicely since SG Bases have a hard limit of up to 18 storage items for the entire base plot, so having 2 Workshops fits this need just fine. Crafting Tables (that use Energy and Control) are only needed "temporarily" in order to craft some items such as Oracle/Mission Computer (requires a Basic Crafing Table) along with the Basic Telepad (both types require a Basic Crafting Table) and the Magicked Telepad/Hacked Telepad (also requires a Basic Crafting Table) in order to make each item. Once the requisite number of crafted items have been crafted, the Crafting Table(s) can be deleted to reduce the drain on the Energy and Control budgets.
Empowerment Stations consume no Energy or Control.
Nor do any Invention Tables, although they do count against the limit of 2 workshop items.
In fact, the only Workshop item that consumes Energy and Control is the
Personal Storage Vault, which costs -5 Energy and -5 Control ... and realistically, you only "want" 1 of these in your base (rather than 2) since they count against your limit of 9 storage items per Workshop room and against the limit of 18 storage items per SG Base Plot. However, once your account has unlocked the /Vault remote access command, the Personal Storage Vault item becomes relatively superfluous (and decorative).
This then leaves (effectively) 8 storage rack "slots" per Workshop room free, after accounting for the Inspiration rack in the Infirmary and the Personal Storage Vault.
I personally prefer to split this up into 6 Salvage Racks and 2 Enhancement Tables per Workshop (Arcane and Tech) so as to always have a sufficient reserve of salvage capacity to feed to alts on their rise towards Level 50.
- Personal Storage Vault (-5E / -5C)
The only other rooms (on an 8x8 Plot with only 9 rooms) that would consume Energy and Control are going to be
2x2 Transport rooms.
- Entry
- Control
- Energy
- Medical
- Workshop
- Workshop
- Transport
- Transport
- Transport
A
Raid Teleportal/Raid Telepad will be so large as to essentially DOMINATE the 2x2 room space it is put into (they're just that big). Resign yourself to the notion that this will be the only non-decorative item in the room (since they accept no Aux connections) and just leave it at that. At least they skew more towards Energy consumption than Control consumption.
- Raid Teleportal/Raid Telepad (-80E / -15C)
Whatever is left over from the Energy and Control budgets can be spent on
Magicked Telepad/Hacked Telepad items (up to 2 per room for the other Transport rooms) and
Teleport Beacons.
- Magicked Telepad/Hacked Telepad (-50E / -25C per pad)
- Teleport Beacon (-0E / -5C per beacon)
So an 8x8 Base Plot with nine 2x2 rooms in it that is
Cathedral of Pain Trial capable has the following Energy and Control budget constraints put on it before installing zone teleporters in the final Transport rooms:
- Entry
- Control
- Magic Axis/Mainframe (-50E / +50C)
- Bookshelf/Database (-100E / +50C)
- Bookshelf/Database (-100E / +50C)
- Bookshelf/Database (-100E / +50C)
- Oracle/Mission Computer (-20E / -10C)
- Energy
- Power Crystal/Basic Generator (+1000E / -0C)
- Crystal Focus/Circuit Breaker (+150E / -0C)
- Crystal Focus/Circuit Breaker (+150E / -0C)
- Medical
- Resurrection Circle/Basic Reclaimator (-50E / -25C)
- Tree of Wonders/Auto-Doc (-50E / -15C)
- Inspiration Storage/Inspiration Collector (-0E / -0C)
- Workshop
- Personal Storage Vault (-5E / -5C)
- Workshop
- Transport
- Raid Teleportal/Raid Telepad (-80E / -15C)
- Transport
- Transport
This yields an Energy budget of +1300 generated and -555 consumed ... a net balance of +745 Energy ... so the Crystal Focus/Circuit Breaker Aux items are completely superfluous for this SG Base, making them essentially Decorative items.
This also yields a Control budget of +200 generated and -70 consumed ... a net balance of +130 Control ... which is going to be REALLY TIGHT for a base with multiple Magicked Telepad/Hacked Telepad connecting to up to 6 Teleport Beacons each (combined -50E / -55C per pad). Two such Telepads + 6 Beacons each would require -110 Control from the remaining +130 Control surplu, leaving only +20 Control remaining (sufficient to control 2 Basic Forges if you want to keep yours, but nothing more). Of course, if you really want you can exchange the Resurrection Circle/Basic Reclaimator for a third Magicked Telepad/Hacked Telepad (no net change in Energy or Control budgets), but would only have sufficient Control remaining to support a total of 4 more Teleport Beacons (combined -20C) ... or 5 Beacons if also deleting the Personal Storage Vault (which in turn frees up another storage slot for another Enhancement Table if needed).
Other options to spend the remaining +20 Control budget on would be 1-2x
Spirit Signal/Robo-Surgery Aux item (-20E / -10C each) and/or 1-2x Contemplation Charts/Combat Logs (-15E / -5C each) after having unlocked the requisite SG healing badges (requires 5 million and 25 million healed in SG mode, respectively).
So ultimately, I'm probably going to wind up with something like this for my 8x8 Base Plot (and yes, I've been working this out while writing this post ... why do you ask?):
- Entry
- Control
- Magic Axis/Mainframe (-50E / +50C)
- Bookshelf/Database (-100E / +50C)
- Bookshelf/Database (-100E / +50C)
- Bookshelf/Database (-100E / +50C)
- Oracle/Mission Computer (-20E / -10C)
- Energy
- Power Crystal/Basic Generator (+1000E / -0C)
- Crystal Focus/Circuit Breaker (+150E / -0C)
- Medical
- Resurrection Circle/Basic Reclaimator (-50E / -25C)
- Tree of Wonders/Auto-Doc (-50E / -15C)
- Inspiration Storage/Inspiration Collector (-0E / -0C)
- Workshop
- Personal Storage Vault (-5E / -5C)
- Workshop
- Transport
- Raid Teleportal/Raid Telepad (-80E / -15C)
- Transport
- Magicked Telepad/Hacked Telepad (-50E / -25C)
- Teleport Beacon (-0E / -5C)
- Teleport Beacon (-0E / -5C)
- Teleport Beacon (-0E / -5C)
- Teleport Beacon (-0E / -5C)
- Teleport Beacon (-0E / -5C)
- Teleport Beacon (-0E / -5C)
- Magicked Telepad/Hacked Telepad (-50E / -25C)
- Teleport Beacon (-0E / -5C)
- Teleport Beacon (-0E / -5C)
- Teleport Beacon (-0E / -5C)
- Teleport Beacon (-0E / -5C)
- Teleport Beacon (-0E / -5C)
- Teleport Beacon (-0E / -5C)
- Vault (really just a glorified 2x2 Decorative room analog)
Energy: +1150 - 655 = +495 surplus
Control: +200 - 180 = +20 surplus
Obviously a Blue Base will only have 12 of 24 possible Beacons to assign, but with the Trams, TUNNEL and Ouroboros Portal for supplemental alternatives for zoning, I honestly have a hard time seeing this as being much of a problem. In a lot of cases, the only times when teleporting to a zone will be a faster connection is when you need to transit 3 zones, rather than just 2, in order to get from where you are to where you want to be. This will then put a priority on having Teleport Beacons assigned to Hazard Zones, rather than the main transport hubs (although Dark Astoria and RWZ make compelling cases as possible destinations). Including Echo: Galaxy City and Echo: Dark Astoria in those Beacons will also make it easy for low level alts to acquire their own Ouroboros Portal at Level 14, without needing someone else to drop it for them.
However, a Blue Base will have the option of dropping the T1 Control Main items for a T2
Supercomputer instead (which will fit into a 1x2 base plot area, unlike the arcane counterpart that requires a 1x3 base plot area), provided you don't mind using a Tech Control theme (required) rather than an Arcane Control theme (T2 can't fit in a 2x2 room) in your base's control room. This change from the above costs another -150 Energy (net) while adding +300 Control (net), before connecting any of the Tech Aux items available. Needless to say, such an "upgrade" can EASILY make it possible to support another 2x Magicked Telepad/Hacked Telepad plus 12x Teleport Beacons in a third Transport room (just delete the Vault and replace it). That arrangement then gives your Blue Base access to all 24 Teleport Beacons with enough Energy and Control to spare for kitting out your Medical and Workshop rooms, assuming you aren't adding in all that many Defensive items just for shizzle (why bother other than for decoration on an 8x8 Hidden Base?).
A Red Base will only need 10 Beacons to access all the Red zones, adding +10 Control surplus (yielding +30 total) back into the budget which can then be spent on other priorities (such as the aforementioned 2x
Spirit Signal/Robo-Surgery and 2x
Contemplation Charts/Combat Logs, just for symmetrical placement shizzle).
