An unguarded Firebird getting hit by a Gunboat out of nowhere without a chance to escape is not unfair imo. It´s just what happens when the player is still using the starting equipment, whilst the aliens already did upgrade theirs twice. In other words - What do you think your chances are with just a knife in a gunfight?
Oc, not all of the game mechanics are implemented properly (or at all) yet. E.g. we are missing the Hyperion Armed Dropship, and there is no option to let fighters auto-guard a dropship.
I'd like to make a late comment. I lost myself a Firebird to a Corrupter. It was my Beta team toward an easy mission.
As it was a trans-continental mission and should the Corrupter's mission have been an interception, the transport was doomed the moment when the Corrupter was detected thousands of kilometers ahead (before flying out of radar coverage). But as I didn't realize that the routes were crossing (so far away: Baltic Sea - Bering Straits; mission in Ural), I let the transport pass the point of non return, and despite I had saved prior to the ground mission (i.e. too late), whatever the direction I would flee in, the Corrupter would appear again when detected by the Firebird, and start chasing it.
In another XCOM game, Xenonauts, transports are attacked too, and pretty soon. You escort them. Is there a difference? Maybe. I don't remember the relative aircraft speeds, but :
- the sense of danger is more present (tragic events pop up on the Geoscape on each day: Earth is under attack);
- cargo crafts may be attacked, and you probably already lost one cargo with some weapons inside (cargo are AI unarmed aircrafts that fly from base to base when you order a transfer);
- as such, you get accustomed to escort valuable cargo;
but most importantly
- thanks to a tactical aerial fight mini-game, you soon get used to deal with bigger UFO. The UFO sometimes fly in squadrons (mostly the fighters), and you have to launch squadrons at them. Escorting a transport is then more natural. Even the Harvester-equivalent can be dealt with 3 starting or poorly upgraded aircraft (1 fast Sarrasin-like with long range Sparrow-like missiles that unload them all to severely soften the UFO if lucky, and mainly to "draw aggro" before acting as a bait, and 2 Stiletto-like that manage to maneuver and pin down the UFO from behind with SR missiles and SHIVA-like; when the big UFO is escorted, you may need a fourth aircraft and deal with the escort before). Also, dogfight is important as the bigger, the less nimble UFO.
In UFO:AI, it's true we are not so urged to research PBW and new fighters, until the very first Corrupter appears (and even then, they could be dealt the same way the Harvester still are at this time: let's wait for them to land, or build a SAM network and lure them into it if you're faster). In 2.4 on normal, the Starchaser could be skipped (to save resources), and when the last interceptor would be build, now the Harvesters and Corrupters may now be taken down quite easely.
It's frustrating that the first or second time you spot a Corrupter, it's when it targets a transport.
That said, it's true that I had postponed the 2-tier transport (not build already by Ortnok and needler times) because I was waiting for my second factory base (the first one is to dismantle the UFO), and chiefly, because a 8-men team is enough to deal with Harvester and Fighter missions (until alien last tier equipment). I'd became lazy...
Suggestions (if not already implemented) :
- Soften the learning curve by
- adding more alien patrol (1 or 2 fighters) that will target lone PHALANX fighters at first;
- ensuring that no transport is targeted by an alien retaliatory mission before a fighter is (a fighter only cost 50 kc, 1-2 Harvester missions in playing time, whereas a full transport cost probably thrice, plus several in-game month);
- having Col. Falkland send a memo to warn the uncaring base commander (if at a given alien interest, research X, Y are not researched, and craft/weapon Z is not in base inventory). - Allow emergency landing and subsequent SAR missions, as suggested above, but know that it can be easily quite bloody (for instance, put 16 civilians on the map, and kill one rescued PHALANX soldier for every 2 civilians killed during the SAR mission, also, the first transport is considered to have crashed (the alien ship landed on the spot to finish it), or devise another, more imaginative, specific SAR mission (kill X% at crashing/landing time, kill Y%/hour if SAR is delayed, ...).