Base design

[Surrealistik]

It makes absolute sense to determine your soldier's spawn points (or at least the facility they spawn in) prior to the mission.

On devoted base defense facilities, from a position of experience it certainly would be effective as a partition and choke, and this is doubly true in the event of good base design. Their size does not change this, though yes, it would occupy valuable space that could be used for other facilities (an inherant tradeoff of the fortification though).

Not realistic? Well, given the commonality of alien ground incursions into PHALANX bases (to say nothing of the dubious realism of those attacks themselves), as well as the intensity of those incursions, I'd argue otherwise given the context, and at the very least, they are no less realistic than the completely unfortified entry points which currently exist. Assuming these entry points are later fortified by default, and made to feature more tactically sound and defensive layouts, then yes, I could agree that the security stations may no longer serve a viable purpose as a secure, devoted buffer to the rest of the base, that purpose and role already being solidly occupied. Sentry guns scattered throughout the base at module/facility entrances aren't quite the same thing, and would be signifigantly less effective by comparison (though I do like the idea, as a suppliment to a primary defensive line/choke).

[Sophisanmus]

Having just run another tedious base defence, I'd like to revisit this point.

Base defence currently takes to long.

The reason it takes too long is purely because you generally spend the last 10 minutes (or more) very carefully moving through the base, eventually discovering that the last alien is bumbling about amongst the no-access buildings on the surface, on the opposite side of the map.

...
 
Players should not be tempted to press "auto mission" because conducting the defence otherwise is a dull, painstaking activity.

One advantage I think Apocalypse had in this regard was the option to withdraw individual troopers from the battlefield, and especially the AI's ability to do so.  I don't think I need to go into detail about the mechanic, save to say that if the aliens had the option to flee the map, and would attempt to do so when nearly wiped out, might save the player some considerable aggravation when they have practically won the mission anyways.

[shevegen]

I have nothing against invading aliens, but what I would like to see - aside from being able to dig deeper into the ground, for a lot of money, to expand the base, would be to upgrade individual components of the base.

This way a player could decide where to "burn" his money, whether he wants to have gun-turrets or similar in order to better defend against aliens.

On a related note, I think it could be interesting for the aliens to disable the command centre and cause chaos this way - i guess communication
could be hampered there. Well... I just have a flashback of the alien movies, especially the one where the aliens chased the prisoners... :-)

[Xenomorph]

Defensive facilities make a lot of sense. Making it easier to defend a base is lame, but adding challenge by not placing any defenses at all, doesn't seem fair. Some challenge would come by choosing between placing defensive areas on the bases, decreasing building area and forcing to build more bases, more logistics, more troops deployed and equipped, management and stuff, or whatever, "bunkers are gay": defend when it messes up... player's choice.  If they can find the base (they will, i suppose). Players can roleplay or play for fun, choices. There's always that time when we feel like killing shit, not being killed by it.
Maybe much like D Day.

That's what makes Apocalypse so EPIC: in the end, aliens just get WTFSMDPWNED. Guess that now i have 2 favorite games heh 

[Draco]

I think a Base-Attack should be in 2 steps.

1) The UFO attacks/bombards the Base from the air. This would still be on the Global Screen, with the ufo circling around the base.
If you have no SAM-sites or other base defense, such as Interceptors, the UFO will blast open several entrance points.
The longer you wait, the more openings are being blasted - giving the aliens multiple entrance points.

2) As soon as there are one or more openings (depending on ), the UFO will land their troops and... wait or retreat(?).

[Aiki-Knight]

I defer to the developers. I'd like to say that explosive traps aren't a good idea: machines tend to malfunction, and I wouldn't want to live in a base with explosive traps that could go off by accident. If these can be applied safely, and according to well-tested, existing models, then I'd say it's consistent with the game.

Automated defences were great in XCOM 3, but aren't consistent with the UFO:AI universe, as far as I know. Some automated defences are possible, but nothing that would make having good agents in a base necessary to defend the base.

Defensible points are very believable: some kind of bunker or such emplacement to enable the player to assert a defensive advantage. We know they're going to raid our bases sooner or later; we should be able to prepare in some way. Certainly, we ought to be able to achieve some level of chokepoint defence by means of careful base design. I believe this is possible, and may be augmented by a defensive position to be occupied by agents. I'd like to be able to create two such points: 1 primary, and 1 for fall-back. Nothing super-mated, nothing that means you can have otherwise un-protected bases. I've always been a stickler for a backup defensive position.

I'm sure the developers are doing better than I can suggest. I know I'm wary of having too many entrances, and I'm not sure how many doors a super-secret installation would have, but I don't know what the developers have in mind, so I'll wait and see. I think the purpose is to strike a balance between terror, and the potential for good planning, experienced agents, the best equipment available, and excellent tactical discipline to counter-act that terror.

Terror - that's what the XCOM and UFO:AI genre is about. The terror that the aliens will conduct terror attacks at night. They will kill civilians every chance they get. They'll kill your agents every chance they get. And they'll raid your base and kill your agents in their beds if they get half a chance. The point is, that PHALANX fights that terror.