Evil Genius =============== Base Design FAQ =============== 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 ----------------- 1.0: Design Reviews 1.1: Basic Designs 1.2: Complex Designs 2.0: Design Tips 3.0: Placement Tips (Traps/Loot) 4.0: Revisions/Versions 5.0: Credits ========================== Section 1.1: Basic Designs ========================== ---------------- Corridor Madness ---------------- 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 ----------------- Efficiency Expert ----------------- 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 ================================= --------- 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) ---------------- Corporate Facade ---------------- 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. Hope that helps someone out (at the beginning, you can build a two or three layer thick wind trap and it keeps all the pathetic investigators out) Dragonmaw's Playtest Rating: 8 (It works well, but not all the time. So it gets an eight) =============================== Section 4.0: Revisions/Versions =============================== .2 - Added some new tips and base designs, as well as the new placement section .1 - Completed the first few base designs, as well as added some tips. First version of semi-finished FAQ ==================== Section 5.0: Credits ==================== Evil Genius is copyright Elixer Studios, and is published by Vivendi-Universal Games Writer: Dragonmaw Editors: Dragonmaw Torias Contributers: Dragonmaw Saureco Justin George Copyright 2004 James Murff