Lush Laboratory

My most important consideration when creating my hideout was practicality. Important stuff has to be positioned logically and close by when entering or using the hideout.

Because of trade customers the stashes must be located close by the waypoint, but for mapping they must also be close to the mapping device. Hence the mapping device must be placed close to the waypoint.

All the other master crafting devices have also been put into a cage near the waypoint. When I enter my hideout I can immediately lightning warp into the cage and all devices are at hand. Because I'd also want to craft on lower level or warpless characters, I placed the crafting devices so that they clip the cage and that I can access them all from outside the cage as well.

As connecting theme I tried to let the hideout give the impression of an experimental laboratory, completely overgrown with foliage outside the well maintained paths+equipment.

On the central platform there are rails connecting all the cages, suggesting that the cage doors can open and experimental tables be driven around. In the room behind the terrace there is a cage with an experiment gone wrong.

On the upper platform there is dinner room with room for 7 and 1 special guest.

On the bottom platform I wanted to build an encampment with supplies, prisoners, sleeping and leisure areas. I kinda ran out of the necessary favor points, so I just filled it up with other master's stuff, trying to stick to the theme.

My hideout is based on Zana's Immaculate Hideout. The Forest Encampment would have been an obvious choice for the overgrown look, but I wanted it to be a nighttime forest, where the lightsource consists of lowplaced lights around the paths and equipment, contrasting the lighted areas with the darkness of the forest.

In all areas I try to make as much use as possible of the play of light on the golden cages and the foliage. The contrast between the light and dark also makes the place look bigger than it really is (imo) and adds to the mystery feeling.

Using trees and lights to fill the hideout also made it fairly efficient to fill up the hideout while still remaining pleasing to the eye. Tiles, walls and other structures need to be placed with proper pacing and orientation. Trees can be put anywhere out of the way, then varied and rotated a bit.

When GGG changed the 4th hideout master and 3rd tier template from level 8 masters to level 7, my old fully decorated Tora hideout became unexpectedly obsolete. The only master I had at level 7 at the time was Zana, so naturally I chose the Immaculate Hideout. Starting from scratch again it was time for an experiment: I tried to put all the basic necessities inside one medium bird cage placed on top of the waypoint, with the stashes+crafting devices clipping the edges to leave as much room as possible inside. If the center of the bird cage and map device are the same, all 6 portals just fit inside the cage. Around this single cage I placed 4 lights and planted a forest.

Thanks to the play of lights on the metal cage and upper/lower foliage, I had with minimal effort created a hideout that looked pretty beautiful and mysterious. But stuffing everything inside the medium birdcage was anything but practical, I could only fit 1 master conveniently and when doing maps with a full group teleporting outside was the only way to get to the stash. So in the end I had to abandon this concept and work towards a conventional hideout. Since I liked this look so much, I decided to base my hideout on it completely. I'll probably try this concept again in standard if level 8 Zana sells a large bird cage.