Supply ship taking off from alien base does not create notification event

[beng]

In 2.5 when a landed supply ship takes off from an alien base there is no notification event. No mission button appears in the top left of the geoscape screen, there is no message, and the game does not pause. The only thing that alerts me to the fact that a UFO has been detected is that all my SAM site and laser turret red range circles appear and I have to manually pause the game and search the globe to find the supply ship in order to launch an interceptor after it. This happens every time (it is reproducible).

[anonymissimus]

Supply ships landing don't create such event either. ("Our radar has lost the tracking of...")
Not sure whether to call this a bug though.

[ShipIt]

The explanation seems to be simple: When the Supply UFO lands, you do not lose track, thus there is no such a message. And, because you never lost track, there is no message about it beeing detected when it starts off again.

This happens, because there was never a decision made what to do when a Supply UFO lands. Should it create a battlescape mission? Or not? Should a landed Supply UFO reveal the location of an alien base, if any? Or not? Should we do something else? Or not? Will someone code it? Or not? Life is hard these days

To be honest, it is somewhat tricky. If the ship lands to supply an existing alien base, the map shows the UFO inside the base, so creating a battlescape mission at the surface would be inconsistent. While, if the UFO originally lands to start building a base, there wouldn´t be a hangar at that point. And iirc, Supply ships do other mission types as well.

[beng]

Since it disappears when it lands, it should be treated as lost track. Ground-based aircraft detecting radar cannot track aircraft below a certain altitude. When it takes off again it should be treated as re-detecting it on radar.

Also, it is really difficult to detect the alien base using aircraft. I tried sending an aircraft to follow a supply ship until it landed then i tried to make it park above where it disappeared but it is hard to get the exact spot.  I only managed to do it after 2 or 3 times following supply ships.  It would be useful if aircraft had a follow UFO mode like in XCOM as it is a real pain to manually follow a supply ship by clicking to set waypoints.

[anonymissimus]

because you never lost track, there is no message about it beeing detected when it starts off again.

The "tracking a flying UFO" button in the top left is also missing for supply ships relaunched from bases though IIRC.

If the ship lands to supply an existing alien base, the map shows the UFO inside the base

There is always a supply ship in the bases's hangar, even if it has already launched again though. I usually wait for it to launch after detecting the base with it and then attack the base.

Also, it is really difficult to detect the alien base using aircraft. I tried sending an aircraft to follow a supply ship until it landed then i tried to make it park above where it disappeared but it is hard to get the exact spot.  I only managed to do it after 2 or 3 times following supply ships.  It would be useful if aircraft had a follow UFO mode like in XCOM as it is a real pain to manually follow a supply ship by clicking to set waypoints.

It seems to work pretty well if a supply ship is flying to a spot which you already know has an alien base. Have 2-3 aircrafts there and wait a bit after the UFO landed, works most of the time.
Detecting without a landing supply ship or right away at base creation seems to be much more difficult.

[beng]

I have found that the first time a supply ship lands, it is impossible to detect an alien base.  Don't bother sending aircraft to patrol there, you can't find it.

The supply ship will take off in a few days time and unless it flies across a SAM site, it will get away because you will probably be fast forwarding the time and it will not create a notification and pause the game. You will just see your SAM sites briefly flash on and off and that will be it.

The second time a supply ship goes to the same place the base will become detectable if you send an aircraft to patrol exactly where the supply ship disappeared.

If you then assault and destroy the base while the supply ship is inside, you will only destroy the base and not the supply ship.  It will still take off from the destroyed base a few days later!

IMHO when a supply ship lands, it should create a landed supply ship mission like in XCOM. The UFO mission button in the top left of the geoscape screen should change from supply ship to alien activity. If it then takes off the flying supply ship mission button should reappear if it is under radar coverage.

[geever]

When the supply ship goes there first time, the base doesn't exists, that's why you cannot detect it it is founding the base, it will be only finished when its gone, could be several days.

The notification issue is known Bug#3352, I'll try to dig into it (2.6).

-geever