Cende

The combo unit is just to get started, as you've discovered the hard way. It doesn't power a whole lot, unfortunately, and you run out control really fast.

When you're in the base edit screen, on the tool bar all the way to the right is a pair of green/red bars, with little symbols. One of for control, one is for energy. As long as the green bar (available) is longer than the red bar (used) that it's above, you have enough power and/or control to do what you're trying to do.

Right now, you're trying to figure out how to get more power and control. The bad news, it's expensive (getting over the hump from "tiny base" to "small fully functional base" is not easy). The good news is that if you're not all the way there, you're really close - and I think you're there.

The first thing you do is place an energy room and place a control room (for starters, I suggest going with the 2x2 of each. They're the cheapest, and they'll hold what you need to get started). Delete the combo unit (and if you're not using it for anything else, the oversight room) - that'll get you the spent prestige back, so you're not losing anything.

In the energy room, place the item "basic generator" out of the energy items tabs (for tech - if you want arcane, there's a similar item in the arcane tab, but I forget what it is).

In the control room, place a mainframe (same note as above) from the control items tab.

Now, keeping in mind that I'm doing this from memory and my numbers may be off , you should have about twice as much power and control as you used to have. The better part is that over time, you can upgrade your basic power and control items, to get more power and more control.

For now, if you need more, you can place up to two circuit breakers in the power room, which will add on to the amount of power you have. You MUST have a main unit (such as the generator) before you can add on an axillary unit (such as the breakers). Once you have the mainframe or arcane equivalent in the control room, you can add databases (bookshelves, in the arcane version) for more control. Control is likely going to be more of a limiting factor than power will.

The above is just to get you started. Someone will probably come along and post a link to the handy "guide to small bases" that was written - it's useful for a starting builder. The other thing to remember is that you can always join the global chat channel "basebuildersinc." (make sure to include the . at the end), and ask questions there - usually, there's someone available to come on and take a look at your base and help you out a little. Or show you their base.

Hope that helps.

The other suggestion I've seen is just to auto-SSK anyone who's running newspapers and mayhem/safeguards to the level of the mission. You need the KR safeguard, just go to KR and run newspapers to get it, and then do the mayhem... you'll just be level 8 at the time.

This would only work if a couple of the zones didn't have overlapping levels, though.

I think you just got hit by bad timing. With GR just around the corner, an awful lot of us are in the beta and finding out what we can and can't do with bases - and other stuff.

That is cool.

I know people on Protector who occasionally set up rep farms for badges (specifically to get the gladiator). I can have them mention next time they're going to be doing this.

It doesn't help the "hate PVP" and "next builders" arguments, but it's a small cooperative step. :P

I'll be setting up a rep farm on Triumph one of these years.

The answer is... you've been neglecting it.

It's a known bug. If you ignore the base long enough, and have no rent to pay (either because you were on the smallest size before the last set of changes went through and haven't gone into since then, or because you have nothing that charges rent), the power and control will go into a form of hibernation. We have no idea why.

To get it fixed, send a /petition explaining that your rent is paid, you have the generator and the supercomputer, you have no power/control, and could they please turn it back on? Be polite, and it'll probably be done within about 15 minutes of your sending the petition. Be rude, and it could take over an hour. They won't tell you when it's done, it'll just happen.

What server are you on? If it's any of the US servers, I (or some other helpful forum denizen) can log in and help figure this out. If it's the Euro servers... well, I'm sure there's still helpful forum denizens, I'm just not one of them in that case.

We might not be able to help you with the fire thing, but we can certainly help you with the discovering if you're invisible thing.

You don't actually have to create it. You just place it. It's located in the Control items tab.

It has to go into a control room - I don't believe it'll go into an oversight room with the underpowered startup combo unit.

You WILL need to make sure you've got sufficient power and control to run it, as well.

I just pay rent for both bases on or around the 1st each month. It's easy to remember.

Well, I did a search - and as usual, nothing helpful showed up, so if it's out there, I missed it and do apologize.

My husband (was) running a Raedon 4850 with two monitors. When i17 dropped, he started crashing at irregular intervals - the kind of crash where you've got the freeze, and Task Manager reports that CoH isn't responding, and if you let it go long enough, you get the nice little notice that the program has encountered a problem and must close.

I am running a Raedon 5770, and at the time i17 dropped, I only had one monitor. Because my husband spoils me rotten, I was recently upgraded to a pair of 22" screens. Immediately after upgrade, I started having the same sorts of crashes.

The interesting thing is, it's only with CoH - so I turn to you folks, who might actually have a clue, for help.

We're both running XP home SP3. We're both on the latest ATI drivers. As far as I know, all our drivers are actually up to date. I don't think we've got that much running in the background (I'm probably worse than he is).

If I need to run a dxdialog or hijack this or anything else, I'll need someone to please drop me a quick note with slightly more detailed instructions on how - I can do it, I just haven't before.

Suggestions, comments, thoughts, questions, instructions all welcome, and thank you for any help available.

It's the weekend. Copy tool won't get restarted until Monday, most likely.