Base Improvements

[Alberto]

     Let's ask ourselves something, shall we? What does the Groom Lake Facility, Pearl Harbor, and just about every other military base in existence have in common? Take your time. I'll wait.

     You give up? Well... How about the fact that the soldiers are paid to guard those facilities, instead of sitting around all day? I can see why some of these nations get so pissed!!! I mean... Wouldn't you be upset if you found out that the military installations that your tax dollars funded were overrun because some idiot left the back door open?

"Elite Soldiers" my ass.

We need to implement security measures, such as CCTV monitoring. I also recommend stationing guards in and around the base to minimize the risk of security breaches.

I'll leave the rest up to you.   

[geever]

Security cameras are being implemented (if not already ready), guards: your soldiers.

-geever

[Alberto]

Security cameras are being implemented (if not already ready), guards: your soldiers.

-geever

1.) Cool.
2.) They need to do a better job!!!

[geever]

2.) They need to do a better job!!!

You're controlling them, do a better job!

-geever

[Alberto]

You're controlling them, do a better job!

-geever

Can you imagine what a military commercial in the future would be like?

Tough Sounding Voice: Are YOU looking for the challenge of a lifetime?
Tough Sounding Voice: Become a LEAN, MEAN, KILLING MACHINE...
Tough Sounding Voice: Using skills honed from countless hours of playing Super Legend Of Warcraft DX!!!
Tough Sounding Voice: The OFFICIAL hologame of the Soviet American Military Regime!!!
Soldier: Before I joined the SAMR...
Soldier: I never put my mind to good use...
Soldier: And they laughed at me for playing hologames in my mom's basement...
Soldier: But...
*enemy explodes in the background*
Soldier: Who's laughing now?
Really Fast Voice That You Can't Understand: These results are not typical. Please be informed that you will probably die. Any attempts to perform any of the things in this commercial will probably lead to funny Internet videos of you copping a squat and as sick and demented as the Internet community is, there are already enough videos like that circulating around. We don't need any more. In fact, I was surfing the Internet just a day ago and I found an old clip called "Two Girls, One C-"-*TRANSMISSION ENDS*-

[geever]

Can you imagine what a military commercial in the future would be like?

Tough Sounding Voice: Are YOU looking for the challenge of a lifetime?
Tough Sounding Voice: Become a LEAN, MEAN, KILLING MACHINE...

Actually can, like this (classic)

-geever

[Crystan]

Actually can, like this (classic)

-geever

Haha this was also the first thing which came up in my mind

[Nutter]

Now all we need is Klendathu Drop in the soundtrack.

[Alberto]

Actually can, like this (classic)

-geever

Classic.

[Rodmar]

Security cameras are being implemented

You mean hidden cameras... Or a stern message "Radar room compromised", with the whole building being highlighted in red or some effect, and no Aliens precise visualization (same as what have been suggested for see-through-walls thermal googles).

I rather have 8 soldiers defending the base against the usual mid-game crew, than a whole platoon trying to oppose some flies-like fast agile, scorpions-like armored, octopuses-cyborgs, with LOS mental attacks and a hive mind to coordinate them.
Think that it could be far worse.

[Snowblind]

How about that every building in a base has to be built on a 'tunnel' building first. That is just an empty corridor (4-way, of course) dug out of the rock? Then you'd have a fort type building, (security zone or fortified hall) you could build which is where your soldiers would have top priority in spawning and would include, whatever, autoguns and excellent cover.

Corridors could be dug out in 2-3 days for 10000/square so you could map out your new base and build on top of the tunnels.

Think of the entrance to NORAD. It's not a ramp and then people's bedrooms. It's just a long assed tunnel carved through the rock until far down. A long assed tunnel is great for base defense, so maybe some folks would carve out their base and leave the gap between their hangars and main entrance a corridor and have a security area at the end of it?

Anyways, it costs so much and takes alot of time to get a well designed base up and running in UFOAI, my idea might make it more simple and add a bit more strategy in base-laying. Most folks will probably not leave a vacant tunnel unused just to have a clear line of fire incase of invasion, but the more paranoid will.

It sets aside using living quarters and storage rooms as buffers for defense, bases get invaded, why not have a dedicated structure used to deal with it?

[homunculus]

true, the phalanx bases are pathetic, but aliens who are trying to invade are even more pathetic.

if the aliens are supposed to have any chance at all, i guess they should create a breach somewhere with bombardment from the ufo (some broken terrain and building models needed), and then use some nice things like poison gas and smoke (and ir-goggles to see through the smoke except for the shevaar who see infrared anyway and should therefore not be affected by smoke), and grenades with some shockwave.
but then players will probably ask for gas masks for the soldiers, and corridors with armored mechanical machine guns that aren't affected by such cheap tricks at all, and from the top of my incompetent civilian head, i don't seem to have a good idea how the aliens could ever invade such base.

i wonder how effective even an ordinary CH₄ gas cylinder (open), tossed into a room and thereafter ignited, would be at clearing out a room in the current phalanx base?

[Anarch Cassius]

Well if the bases had more destructability and the aliens had more heavy weapons that could be interesting.

You could also have the alien ship bombard the base before attack. They don't want to destroy it, they are trying to take it intact like we do to theirs but they could rattle the windows a bit before hand. This would be like the pre-damage for crashed aliens and possibly some base pre-damage too.

If the UFO took heavy fire coming in it should do less, so there is some incentive to fire at UFOs and risk interceptors when you probably can't really bring it down in time.

Also simply having the base invasion options regarding the power plant, aircraft and containment should make the results a lot more interesting and give the aliens more partial victories for their efforts.

[ShipIt]

... they should create a breach somewhere with bombardment from the ufo ...

Sometimes there will be no UFO.

[Nutter]

Explosives.