Base Assault

[Ildamos]

So far my bases have never been attacked by aliens. I have just researched nanotech armor.

Are there base assault in this game? Also, if they do get in, will the map follow your base layout?

[BTAxis]

Bases do not get attcked yet as far as I know, but yes, the maps do follow your base layout.

[Mattn]

we've deactivated the base attack by aliens due to some problems (balancing) with it - you can get there with some console commands though - base_assemble afair

[Ildamos]

the maps do follow your base layout

Awesome.

we've deactivated the base attack by aliens due to some problems

Can't wait for 2.3. 

[Zorlen]

There was a bit of discussion on base defence in "Symbols for the geoscape" thread, I think this is better place to continue.

I support this but there is one problem: Will the the squad/soldiers in this base be able to grab some equipment before the mission starts or is it necessary to take this into account before an ufo is able to land near you? If I employed 10 soldiers in this base it would be unrealistic to handle two of them as civis. I guess I'm raising a complicated matter. 

So, in general, the question is - can soldiers not assigned as dropship landing party take part in base defence? By now the only way to equip your soldiers is through Aircraft menu. And if I want to garrison a secondary base against alien attack, I have not only to build living quarters, hire soldiers and buy them equipment, but also build large hangar and buy a dropship, even if that combat team is meant for base security only.

This could be handled in the same manner as in UFO:ET, when you equip soldiers right before the combat mission and all combat personnel is available (or the first n soldiers, where n - maximum team number). In this case there should be a way to equip them outside aircraft and equipment should not be stripped off if a soldier is removed from dropship crew.
The other idea is building a sort of security station on the base and assigning soldiers and UGWs there in the same manner as for aircrafts. In this case, only security personnel defends the base, while aircraft crews, well, perform regular aircraft maintenance.

[eleazar]

The other idea is building a sort of security station on the base and assigning soldiers and UGWs there in the same manner as for aircrafts. In this case, only security personnel defends the base, while aircraft crews, well, perform regular aircraft maintenance.

That sounds like a very unnecessary dividing of the usually limited soldiers available.

[SpaceWombat]

Eleazar is right.
I think -again- a redesigned soldier handling menu (recruiting/team assignment/equipment/training/hospital assignment) will solve a huge amount of problems existing right now and lift the gameplay to a new experience.
Before the mission starts this menu could show up and you would be able to mobilize all your fighting personnel for defense (you cannot recruit if soldiers will arrive delayed in the future) no matter whether they are assigned to an aircraft.

[Zorlen]

That sounds like a very unnecessary dividing of the usually limited soldiers available.

Yep, it does :-)
I was not serious about aircraft maintenance part.
Perhaps there should be some pre-mission aircraft/security reassignment of soldiers. The purpose of suggested "security station" is to have a best-suited and appropriately armed team for defending your base rather than random eight soldiers from your list.

Before the mission starts this menu could show up and you would be able to mobilize all your fighting personnel for defense (you cannot recruit if soldiers will arrive delayed in the future) no matter whether they are assigned to an aircraft.

I was thinking of it, but I tried to suggest something that not changes the way the soldiers are handled now. Pre-mission assignment/equipment interface sounds an obvious solution, but as long as unassigned soldiers lose their equipment, you'll have to re-equip them from the scratch before each base assault.
Though if a new system is going to be implemented, I tend to agree with you.

[eleazar]

...but as long as unassigned soldiers lose their equipment...

That's a recognized problem anyway

[nemchenk]

The "special 'Base Defense Roster' aircraft" solution has the merit of needing very minimal coding -- you can set your own up just by tweaking the scripts, in fact. I'm a nobody here right now but I would recommend getting something into the game now, and then working on a new and improved solution without holding back another release... It may be clunky, but at the moment there are no base attacks at all


nemchenk

[EuchreJack]

That sounds like a very unnecessary dividing of the usually limited soldiers available.

Actually, a security team wouldn't divide up the limited resources of personnel, since if a base had an aircraft present, such a force wouldn't be needed (they could just deploy out of the dropship and defend the base, in a manner of speaking).  I was thinking of the same idea, with the security team, but I was going to call it "base garrison".  The only real problem is that this "aircraft" would need a hanger. 

I feel the quickest way to code this would be to call it an aircraft with no allowed equipment, and no fuel capacity.  Thus, it would only be eligible for base defense.  To save space, the "aircraft" should only require a small hanger, or maybe even a specialized hanger that's really cheap, and only eligible to store this "aircraft".  Also, the production costs and time should be very low, such as 1 hr for one worker and a couple hundred dollars (enough for barbed wire, I guess).  And, don't forget an awesome UFOapedia listing!   
After all, that's my favorite part of playing the game!   

[nemchenk]

The only real problem is that this "aircraft" would need a hanger.

Not really -- I've set up mine to need a Base Entrance

[Zurak]

Kind of bumping up an old thread here but now that base assaults are in 2.3 i have a suggestion.

make the aliens not stupid please. For 20 turns my guys sat at defensive positions, and only one alien poked his head out.  I enjoyed shooting him at point blank with a machine gun on full auto My favorite gun.

So getting tierd of waiting i spent another 10 turns heading out my base to find them but did not find them....so i just quit because i was tierd of the mission.

Seems like they were using defensive behavior for a mission where they should have been using offensive behavior.

[BTAxis]

You make it sound like it's something that's easy to do, like set the "stupid" flag to 0 or something.

[Zurak]

lol the command is actually +set alien_iq 150

Seriously though i hope my message did not come across the wrong way.  I understand programming an AI is hard and its a work in progress (hence beta).  Was just putting it out there in case you guys had not really messed with base assault too much.