On the Customization of Bases

[superpirson]

I I recently did a game in which for the first time I had to defend my base, and needless to say It was exhilarating. to see the space I had spent so much time on building up and researching parts for - under attack! That being said, it really made me feel like the base design was quite boring, and it sorta made me think why you even bothered to include base customization if our only choice is a simple square base. I feel like this is an easy thing you could implement in order to give the careful player some reason to feel like the base is important.

half of battlefield strategy is playing the field, and if that field is an extremely permeable square shaped block, it sorta kills half the strategy.

proposal:

1. increase space for base construction. just increase the grid size. this would allow us to space out our rooms.

2. give us some otherwise useless or near useless room to add some spice to the bases. it can be a security checkpoint that has small barricades, or a staff lounge that slightly improves solder recovery times, or a memorial. It really doesn't matter what it does in the rest of the game, as it exists and it's presence is our choice.

3. give us some incentive to not have every room interconnect everywhere. you could include dead space with some of the rooms, like a storeroom or morgue that had no significance other than to make base more serpentine and interesting when navigating and defending it's pathways.

[Gauddlike]

Space for construction was recently reduced to force the player to consider what to build in each base and promote multiple bases as one place cannot do everything.

With more space you can build everything you need in one base which was not what the dev team wanted to encourage.

[Skitso]

I agree in a way that human base submaps could be a tad more intresting in layout wise. Also, the huge amount of work and money put in the tileset, I kinda hope those were in better and more frequent use. Chris said some time ago that he would maybe introduce new military base missions or similar to use them in? Are we still getting them? (or some other additional mission types?)

[Asmodean]

I can see how limited base size is indeed important to game balance.

But I really like SuperPrison's idea of building base invasion defenses... checkpoints etc...

What if the base building area was much bigger, but you had a limited amount of points you could use. These points would be equivalent to 1 square for all the current buildings. Net you cannot build any more mission relevant buildings than you can today, but you are not confined to a square. In addition then you get some other flavor buildings that cost no points and are more dedicated to building defense... so check points, maybe a guard station staffed with CIVs. Lots of potential for future content there.

[superpirson]

I really like the point idea.

the critical thing here is simplicity. the faq already establishes that there will not be significant base defences due to a desire to focus of infantry combat and the amount of work defences would take to code. I think what we need here is something to occupy space in the bases, so the idea of "tactics slots" where the number of real base facilities is limited would really help that without making base construction boring.

[Gauddlike]

There are problems with that idea though.

The main one is that the checkpoints would be largely useless as Xenonauts doesn't use the same kind of breaching system the OG used.

Aliens will not always come in through the hangars and be forced to pass through your chokepoints.

They can breach in from any free edge of a base structure.

It is just as likely they they will breach behind your defences and be closer to the vital command centre than your own troops as it is they would breach at an extreme edge and have to fight through them.

The aliens were also supposed to be able to do damage to other base structures to reduce their effectiveness until repaired, I am not sure if that is going to be in the final version though.

It is actually a bad idea in this system to build a sprawling base with a large external surface area as you are opening up more potential breaching spots.

If you build a sprawling base with widely spaced areas that are in need of protection then you also need each of those to have a guard detail which spreads your forces thinly while the enemy can focus theirs on an objective.

The best option is to place your command centre in the middle of a set of defensive structures and build around it so the aliens have to travel as far as possible no matter which point they choose to breach from.

You should also concentrate your troops as the enemy will likely be individually more powerful.

If other structures are not important to protect then it is even more important to concentrate your troops in the centre.

Having your troops by the command centre with your other important structures close by allows you to respond quickly with overwhelming force to any part of an incursion you see.

The current design works well for this as the command centre already has surrounding defences, meaning you can concentrate on building the important structures needed to progress the game.

To make the proposed changes, and to have them be a meaningful part of the game, the current system of base building would need to be reworked as would the current base breaching system used by the aliens.

I am not sure what effect this would have on the system that generates the base combat maps but I imagine it would need some attention.

I would put this down on my list of nice to have things but it would be much lower than other things, for example more map variation and more mission types, including a military terror mission to make more use of the Xenonaut base tileset.

[Asmodean]

Without having to do a lot of rework I suppose there are certain base structures which could be considered breachable and some that are not. Not sure what the assumption in xenonaughts has been but I would assume hangers radar and turrets are above ground and breachable while other rooms are under ground and not breachable.

Anyways I agree this is a longer term nice to have, not a current game issue.

[Gauddlike]

The aliens use tunnelling breaching pods to reach your base in Xenonauts rather than using the doors so they can attack anywhere on the edges.

That way even a research base with no hangars or radar can be attacked.

The OG forced the player to always have an access lift so that all bases had an entry point for the aliens but that central structure is replaced in Xenonauts with the command centre.

That means that it is possible to build bases with no way for the alien to assault if you limit their access to certain structures.