[Barskor]

I will start with what I think is obvious.
In the Barrens take over the basment of a office or apartment tower clean it out set up sesors in the sewer access and all the way to the top. On top use SunCell paint as graphity to power your base and sensors.
Water it rains in seatle acid rain but we can fix that by running the water through tanks filled with clean sand and Charcoal done in layers till we get it right.
Assuming we could get one with under ground parking we layer the driveway with wecked cars so you cain't drive striaght up and in but have to weave in and out.
Doorway if it did not come with a latice gate roll up Make a second gate with old cars the bottom one rolls the rest cut and gut to lighten one side and armor the other rigger ready the bottom one.
Faraday cage as much of your work and living space as possable you can allways phisicaly conect to a nanospray painted antena for matrix access when you want it.

So that is the basic set up I would want after my first run or so.

What would you want and what kind of ugrades to the building would you do as your carrer grows?

[Socinus]

I had a character that used an abandoned missile silo as a home.

There are tons of them around, probably moreso in Shadowrun because of budget cuts and simply not needing them any more. Why have ICBMs when the enemy has lasers that can shoot a missile down?

[CanRay]

Also, getting the nukes out of the area before the NAN took control of the area was probably pretty high on the agenda for the USA.

[Joush]

Old breweries tend to be very heavily built, especially turn of the century buildings that were build with brick or cement. They are often no longer economical to operate but structurally sound and uneconomic to demolish. A few have been converted to bars, clubs or condos. More have just been left derelict and empty once the salvageable equipment has been removed.

So.. I'd go with an old brewery, replace the doors with higher security ones and keep the loading docks and lower floor as a workshop and parking area, bars on the windows. Hard wire motion sensors, cameras and some laser tripwires. Add in monowire on the air vents and such.. some housekeeping drones, and a comlink to manage the security.

Then of course, security drones as you can afford them. Make the second floor and higher into a lounge and bedrooms. Set up the blimp-drone tethered to the roof to provide an eye in the sky and comlink relay and make sure you've got a drone LZ on the roof.. and maybe a little garden. (What? I can't wish for some fresh tomatoes and herbs to spruce up the soy?)

Just out of curiously, could you use a small sensor and combine it with grenade to make a mine? Are grenades wireless enabled, so you could set up the security system to detonate them when they detect someone in a certain location?

[CanRay]

Surprised I didn't think of a brewery before.  The one back home closed just after I moved out, and it's been in limbo ever since.  The perfect hide-away.

Too bad, too.  It was a great addition to the Captain's Sermon on Sunday at the Salvation Army...

[Barskor]

Brewery looks good all right.

Definetly get sesor rigged explosives covering vital areas of approch and cover on and around the base.

Drones are a must, Little Ferret drones swarming out with Narcojet pistols Steel Links LMG hotness? you can get more ferrets for the yen but the SL has stopping power.

I would have a mainframe node set up to run things with wicked fire walls and Black Ice With a paranoid smart program running random searches.

Maby get some Bever construction drones to dig out a bigger basement and escape tunnels?

[Joush]

Slick plans, but remember that setting off some frags is something for your inner perimeter. You want an outer line before that to discourage the idle curious without..

1) Looking like you are guarding something worth stealing
2) Blowing some urban explorer kid with rich vindictive parents to tiny bits.

So a few gas grenades with pepper punch on the outer line, along with some tags that say your a nice squatting gang. Top the wall with razor wire rather then monowire, you want to say "(expletive deleted) off" but you want to say also "I am on a budget and have invested only a reasonable amount in deterrents."

Lethal deterrents can be placed past at least one maglock, or set up to only be detonated when you tell them to rather then by a sensor trigger. (Sort of like modern claymore mines). Once someone's broken past a security door they have deiced to take their chances. If someone's outside in full gear looking to do mischief, it's nice to have thecover they are using wired with some frag mines.

As far as digging deeper, it's an option. Make sure you know what you are on top of though, lots of cities in the 6th world are built on top of layers of tunnels, old ruined buildings, aqueducts, storm drains and sewers.

[kirk]

So, how do you plan to obscure or explain all the construction and life? Don't forget that the matrix never sleeps and is always watching.

[Barskor]

Well in the Barrens if you look like a squater and nearly everybody there is you blend in and Matrix coverage is spoty at best so it has to be high altatude blimps watching the secret reasearch facilitysand as long as I don't luck out and pick a spot near one i think i'll be ok.

For the Brewery if it is not in the Barrens hack a bill of sale and pay taxes on it tell anyone asking  who you are your Joe Smith site manager fixin up the place for an investor (hack shell copany) Hell start a neborhood watch and homeowners association and be the guy asking about things.

[kirk]

My main point was this needs thought about or the little things will slip you up.

Getting the building isn't really the hard part. It's all the heavy earth moving you mentioned. Or rather, hiding the earth you're pulling from the tunnels.

If it's not Barrens - or even if it is - actually turning it into a working brewery is probably a better option.

hmmm. Buy the brewery that's actually IN the barrens, and turn it into a working brewery. First, it justifies the first layer of security just due to location: wire, sensors, a bit of security force.  Second, your excuse for digging gets easily justified: you're making a secure and temperature stable storage site for your beer (or distillates if you want to go that route) for aging. You can even build a reinforced access tunnel for transports.

The working brewery/distillery also gives you cover for bringing in goods. Regular truckloads of grains and such, materials for the labs (yeast development, gruit development {an alternative to hops}, etc), you get the idea.

And if it happens to make a profit, that's just a bonus.

The downside, of course, is that this creates an infiltration point. On the other hand it's an avenue you know and can watch.

[JoeNapalm]

Is this to set up as a prime base of operations? Or as a bolt hole?

I try to find bolt holes that require little set up/maintenance, and are easily secured with something to let me know if someone has been there...(like a claymore  ).

My Runner's prime bases of operations tend to be...mobile.

"You're in the office, baby!" - Lorenzo, Training Day

-Jn-
Ifriti Sophist

[shion]

Hmm,
   I'd build a big dome under the earth and ward it with runes so that "horrors" couldnt get me then I'd call it a kae.... oh right, wrong game.

  The point is there in my humour, I don't know that you've considered making your base secure against astral intrusion.  I'd look at something with only the access doors exposed to the surface, and then I'd grow grass over them so that when shut the form a living barrier.  If I recall this should stop astral forms from waltzing in, with budget in mind.

I will start with what I think is obvious.
In the Barrens take over the basment of a office or apartment tower clean it out set up sesors in the sewer access and all the way to the top. On top use SunCell paint as graphity to power your base and sensors.
Water it rains in seatle acid rain but we can fix that by running the water through tanks filled with clean sand and Charcoal done in layers till we get it right.
Assuming we could get one with under ground parking we layer the driveway with wecked cars so you cain't drive striaght up and in but have to weave in and out.
Doorway if it did not come with a latice gate roll up Make a second gate with old cars the bottom one rolls the rest cut and gut to lighten one side and armor the other rigger ready the bottom one.
Faraday cage as much of your work and living space as possable you can allways phisicaly conect to a nanospray painted antena for matrix access when you want it.

So that is the basic set up I would want after my first run or so.

What would you want and what kind of ugrades to the building would you do as your carrer grows?

[Stormdrake]

I used an old church as a base/home for a character many years ago.  The old ones have a place for the priest to live already so your utilities and comforts are already built in and again the old ones are built with walls so thick you could bounce a truck off the outside, lol.  Leaves you lots of space for gear and stuff.

[JoeNapalm]

Hmm,
   I'd build a big dome under the earth and ward it with runes so that "horrors" couldnt get me then I'd call it a kae.... oh right, wrong game.

  The point is there in my humour, I don't know that you've considered making your base secure against astral intrusion.  I'd look at something with only the access doors exposed to the surface, and then I'd grow grass over them so that when shut the form a living barrier.  If I recall this should stop astral forms from waltzing in, with budget in mind.

I will start with what I think is obvious.
In the Barrens take over the basment of a office or apartment tower clean it out set up sesors in the sewer access and all the way to the top. On top use SunCell paint as graphity to power your base and sensors.
Water it rains in seatle acid rain but we can fix that by running the water through tanks filled with clean sand and Charcoal done in layers till we get it right.
Assuming we could get one with under ground parking we layer the driveway with wecked cars so you cain't drive striaght up and in but have to weave in and out.
Doorway if it did not come with a latice gate roll up Make a second gate with old cars the bottom one rolls the rest cut and gut to lighten one side and armor the other rigger ready the bottom one.
Faraday cage as much of your work and living space as possable you can allways phisicaly conect to a nanospray painted antena for matrix access when you want it.

So that is the basic set up I would want after my first run or so.

What would you want and what kind of ugrades to the building would you do as your carrer grows?

Have your resident Mage set up a the place as a Lodge - that should keep most of the scary stuff out.

The rest of the stuff...well...you're screwed, anyway. 

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!

-Jn-
City of Brass Expatriate

[shion]

You can technically force through a ward, or do metamagic to slip by it... but doesn't enough earth prevent penetration?  At least unless someone is in the process of entering, at which point your astral form could follow them in, and so a ward would be handy in that case, while the door was revealed.