Alien base defended by UFOs

[lefty]

How about if the Alien bases are defended by fighters?
When the player tries to fly near the Alien base the aliens scramble a Harvester, or a corrupter. This would effectively prevent the player from getting near the base until he had advanced fighters. It would also give the player more motivation to research craft weapons / armour, etc.

[geever]

It would also give out the positions of the alien bases. Bad idea.

-geever

[Anarch Cassius]

Isn't that also how the aliens pinpoint our bases? Seems only fair.

I try to launch interceptors from as far away as possible to minimize the odds of them being tracked back to base. If a UFO is right on top of a base when I spot it and I don't think the aliens know about then I maintain silence. Unless that UFO is heading right for the base in which case it's probably an attack anyway.

Now if I'm making my strategy unessicarily complex because I read too much in to some flavor text this may not be viable. However if this is really about how detection works the aliens just need a reasonable AI for it. If the aliens think the base's location is known because you are making a beeline for it or because you've attacked before, then and only then do they launch defenses.

Of course this is an asymmetric war so maybe it wouldn't work this way. The alien ships seem to fly around with little regard for fuel once they enter atmosphere. They may have less need to keep them docked at a base. In this case the ideal alien response would be a bit like how the buggers in Ender's Game organized a fleet... keep ships close to the base/queenship but not in such a way as to make the location of it obvious if not already known.

[Unisol]

The base won't be detected if aliens launch interceptors from carrier on the orbit. This would look like some pilots got bored and came down to shoot up some human aircraft. As for increased response time... aliens could use their superior sensors and computers to detect and predict which aircraft will fly too close in advance and take it out before it enters base vicinity, probably causing some collateral damage. Again, this would look like random attack to humans (pefrectly normal alien behaviour).

[Anarch Cassius]

This would be kind of cool in that you would get a hint if you paid attention but subtly. It would be like a Bermuda triangle where bad stuff happens if you go but it's not totally obvious.

Also do the aliens have some particularly liking for certain areas or my main base? I just caught them putting a 2nd one in close range of my HQ.

Also if you want to locate bases, tracking the movements of Supply Ships is the way to go. I saw one disappear off radar and assuming it was a bug but the interceptor I sent out just in case found an alien base. They tend to come and go heavily from those spots.