base defense missions -- do the aliens never attack?

Hey,

I just restarted a game and got hit with a base defense mission mid-October. I have no SAM batteries, just jackal armor and 15 guys so I decide to camp at the barricades and just defend the central area, waiting for the aliens to come to me.

Much to my surprise, they never attack. I mean I hit next turn like 100 times , and not one alien comes through the door.

Is this a bug? Shouldn't an alien base attack be about the aliens assaulting me, rather than them camping in the restroom? I thought they wanted to blow up the central reactor?

Has anyone else experienced this behaviour? It feels like this really ought to be fixed before launch.

I believe this is a reported bug. Apparently the can just start milling around and never make to the control areas.

In my only base defense mission (v19), the aliens rushed forward, sometimes running past my soldiers, but did little in the way of actual shooting. Was a weird experience .

In my only base defense mission (v19), the aliens rushed forward, sometimes running past my soldiers, but did little in the way of actual shooting. Was a weird experience .

*According to the lore the aliens have atrophied bladders due to lack of use from years of catheterized suspended animation to reach our solar system.

Seems to depend on alien spawns. Sometimes they're unlucky and some alien squads (or even all) can end up stuck in their starting areas. At other times the spawns are good and then the aliens attack like they're supposed to.

Speaking of base defense,

Speaking of facility repair, does anyone have had their facility damaged during the base defense, because it seems like quite a rare occurrence to me. I propose at higher difficulties at least one squadron of aliens should have 'destruction AI' where they move room-to-room, firing at the equipments with explicit aim of destroying the facility until they directly engage the enemy.

This should force the player to be proactive during base defense, and reduce effectiveness of camping tactics where one sit all his troops within the command center relying on reaction fire to wipe out all the aliens without even stepping out of the room.

Besides the above I agree that alien not being aggressive seems to be a bug. Sometimes alien squad do not seem to attack even when there are clear path between their spawn point to the command center, unless "activated" by someone actually seeing them.

The ones ive done have always had about 5 - 6 come towards the control room but not really attack me and the rest just hang out in the hangars until i come kill them all.

I dunno about you guys but I had a base invasion in January that was a nightmare. Only one alien even made it into the central command area, but the rest of the punks were running around the base, hiding in my store rooms and in the missile launch bays. It was a tense mission with a few unexpected deaths so I'd label it a success. I even had two laser batteries fire on it for what little they did.

But a group dedicated to destruction would be fun. It would make me want to pin the aliens down less and force me to be drastic to take them out.

If the base defense mission is going to be about hunt the aliens it should change a lot to make that more fun. For example, you could start with your scientists and engineers unevacuated and the aliens could bring in the zombifying critters.

Right now I get told to defend the central core, and I get the idea that the aliens can destroy parts of my base but I am not sure that is actually the case nor do I know what mechanic would be used.

To me, the base defense mission should play very differently than a downed UFO mission, and it currently doesn't, except that all your guys are present.

If the base defense mission is going to be about hunt the aliens it should change a lot to make that more fun...

Base defense missions are beautiful when they come together. Which is a crapshoot in the current version admittedly.

Had this beauty happen to me. One small squad got stuck in one of my hangars, but I had one alien squad attacking through workshops/labs while another was attacking through a radar array and adjoined living quarters. It was amazingly fun.