I personally strap fuel tanks on my transport. Ive run into days where there are a crap load of crashes and a terror pop-up within several game hours of each other and hit 'em all without having to refuel. It would other wise have been costly as far as national relations go by wasting time going back for more fuel. You lose faction the longer events like terror or a crashed UFO is active, especially in the beginning when all you have is the first base. Just make sure you have pleanty of storage space before the transport returns lol. I make specialist bases, though, usually one Research and several Workshop bases with 8 troops stationed in case of invasion. My workshop bases continuously pump out ECM units for profit interupted only by priority work orders like weapons/ammo/ dismantle UFOs(I practically build my UFO hangers on top of em and surround them with SAMs). The rest of my bases are war posts loaded with aircraft and pissed-off troops split equally across the map to disperse fast and effective air/ground battle. Just for the hell of it, I build a radar tower in antarctica so the aliens have no where to go un-seen except in the mid Pacific Ocean. I love 2.3 so far, but there have been no spider bots or any other creatures in my game and I've researched everything. My alien containment units are full and nothing has happened since the serum was made, so I'm not even sure if anything more is in the game besides Tammys and Green Schwarzeneggers (Get to de Harvestahhhh!). But I haven't quite dismantled a Harvester yet, maybe everything is pending on that? It's not letting me use the Plasma Blades even though they're researched, and I'm surprised to not have stumbled over an alien base yet. Maybe I'm bugged though, I have no idea. I'm not a programmer, just a huge fan.