dpelectric Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 Is it worth it to build them? I'm in mid-Feb in a v21 game, haven't had a base attacked yet, but I assume it's coming. Are base defenses worth building, given my limited resources (and, in my main base, limited space) or am I better off investing in Foxtrots and Marauders (forward defense) and/or tanks for protection? I combed through a lot of older threads on this forum but couldn't seem to find one concerning this question. My apologies if it already has been discussed. I did see an earlier post where Chris said that, starting with v20, the aliens would begin to inflict damage on your base if you just turtled in your command center. Is this true? Do you need to actively seek out the aliens or pay a significant price? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoRRibeSHoTs Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 I did see an earlier post where Chris said that, starting with v20, the aliens would begin to inflict damage on your base if you just turtled in your command center. Is this true? Do you need to actively seek out the aliens or pay a significant price? yes this true, they hang around the hangers blowing up your missiles. most times they kill themselves do, they run up and blast the missiles in the hanger at point blank range, then missiles blows up and kills them, lol, you will hear a lot of explosions and screams if you dont leave the deployment area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbys Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 I am overly careful and pretty much cover every available place in my bases in AA defenses. I would rather not get attacked in my base and possibly lose my best guys so I lose massive income due to a large number of defenses. It is really up to you if you are willing to sacrifice space and money for troop survivability. My first base typically has 6 hangers (1 transport, 2 "interceptors" (condor, corsair), 2 Foxtrots (have not got to better replacements yet), 1 spare for construction), 2 Labs, 2 Personnel quarters, 1 Workshop, 1 Storeroom, 1 Medical, 1 Garage, 2 Radar, and the rest AA. I lose a lot of money but in my opinion that is better than losing a Col. due to a Ceasan assault party. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpelectric Posted April 2, 2014 Author Share Posted April 2, 2014 yes this true, they hang around the hangers blowing up your missiles. Well, if they want to blow up my missiles, and themselves too, why should I care? What practical cost does that have? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kabill Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 Well, if they want to blow up my missiles, and themselves too, why should I care? What practical cost does that have? It's implied in the mission briefing that the aliens can damage or destroy facilities. Certainly I've seen aliens unloading a lot of firepower into my radar during a base attack once. No idea whether it actually does anything, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpelectric Posted April 2, 2014 Author Share Posted April 2, 2014 (edited) It is really up to you if you are willing to sacrifice space and money for troop survivability Yes, but that's not quite what I was wondering. In essence, would money spent on AA batteries be better spent on Marauders and Corsairs? Likewise, would the space be better devoted to hangars and radars than batteries? Edited April 2, 2014 by dpelectric Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kabill Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 Sorry. That will teach me not to read the whole thread before I post! Apologies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quiescat Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 At face value it is a choice, but even if all you did was keep 1 foxtrot just sitting there doing nothing but attacking any ship that flys near your base your going to do more reliable damage to the landing ufo then equal tech missile battery's worth of space. 2 torpedoes from a foxtrot drops most ships to 50% if your missile tech is up to date, all that assumes that damaging a landing ship in air combat does any thing to the drop pods, if not killing them sure works. base defenses even if they dont kill the ship there fighting off they do reduce numbers so they are helpful. For me labs,workshops,radar,hangers,living space,and even the storeroom, all have no substitutes, but missile battery do, its the aircraft, or if at your main base the soldiers you have can defend. i might drop them on my hanger/radar bases where i have room.i will say that if it had no upkeep that would be much more likely as is extra hangers just makes more sense to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TornadoADV Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 4 Base defenses will kill anything except Battleships, when you get MAG, it'll basically cripple their attack and be a mop up when the mission starts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpelectric Posted April 3, 2014 Author Share Posted April 3, 2014 ...as is extra hangers just makes more sense to me. That's what I was thinking until I read this... 4 Base defenses will kill anything except Battleships, when you get MAG, it'll basically cripple their attack and be a mop up when the mission starts It's an interesting choice, one that the devs have deliberately calibrated by base defense upkeep costs and the 6x6 base size itself. From what you guys are saying, with more hangers & fighters you're going for the outright kill on the incoming ship (plus the significant added utility of having more aircraft for other situations) while with AA you're committing base space and money but getting guaranteed at least partial alien crew reduction. With the further complication that, since UFOs attack in waves, you're running a risk that your fighters may be out prosecuting another target when the base invasion ship is suddenly detected, whereas defense batteries are always in the right place... Hmmm. I guess I was wondering if there was any majority consensus on which route seemed the wisest. I'm guessing there's too many variables and too many individual playstyles for such a consensus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dranak Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 Another consideration is that defenses only have 60% accuracy, so they aren't really reliable in small numbers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troublechuter Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 That's what I was thinking until I read this...It's an interesting choice, one that the devs have deliberately calibrated by base defense upkeep costs and the 6x6 base size itself. From what you guys are saying, with more hangers & fighters you're going for the outright kill on the incoming ship (plus the significant added utility of having more aircraft for other situations) while with AA you're committing base space and money but getting guaranteed at least partial alien crew reduction. With the further complication that, since UFOs attack in waves, you're running a risk that your fighters may be out prosecuting another target when the base invasion ship is suddenly detected, whereas defense batteries are always in the right place... Hmmm. I guess I was wondering if there was any majority consensus on which route seemed the wisest. I'm guessing there's too many variables and too many individual playstyles for such a consensus. Well for my primary base I don't bother with any defences; its where I keep most of my soldiers and I have plenty of interceptors standing by as well, so in the event that the interceptors can't stop the ship at least I have the A-team on standby for the ground defence. My secondary base on the other hand has twelve privates with a few laser rifles and sets of jackal armor. Given that they're a last resort, ideally I don't want them doing any fighting at all, so I've packed that base with laser batteries. I should really rotate some more experienced soldiers in so that the defenders aren't all horribly inaccurate weaklings who can barely lift a rifle... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpelectric Posted April 3, 2014 Author Share Posted April 3, 2014 Well for my primary base I don't bother with any defences; its where I keep most of my soldiers and I have plenty of interceptors standing by as well, so in the event that the interceptors can't stop the ship at least I have the A-team on standby for the ground defence. My secondary base on the other hand has twelve privates with a few laser rifles and sets of jackal armor. Given that they're a last resort, ideally I don't want them doing any fighting at all, so I've packed that base with laser batteries. I should really rotate some more experienced soldiers in so that the defenders aren't all horribly inaccurate weaklings who can barely lift a rifle... That's what I was basically thinking of doing, keeping my A-team and best aircraft at my HQ, then building AA at my other 2 bases. I didn't know if I should make that commitment until TornadoADV stated how effective his batteries were. How skilled you are at dogfighting prob makes a difference too; I can't imagine somebody like Dranak forgoing fighters for base defenses. Since I'm not that good, though, the AA-at-secondary-bases strategy sounds like it's worth a shot. Thanks everybody for their input Troublechuter...um, yeah...you might wanna rethink the all-privates team Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troublechuter Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 I figured since grenades and rocket launchers are free I'd just load them up with explosives and hope for the best Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TornadoADV Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 My Primary Base has 6 Hangers. The design I use let's me easily fit 3 defenses, but if you don't want to use vehicles, you can leave out the Garage and get your fourth defense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpelectric Posted April 4, 2014 Author Share Posted April 4, 2014 My Primary Base has 6 Hangers. The design I use let's me easily fit 3 defenses, but if you don't want to use vehicles, you can leave out the Garage and get your fourth defense. I just finished demolishing the workshops at my main base and building new ones at my secondary base. This gave me enough space in both bases to have 6 hangars and 4 AA in each, plus garages (my only other base is just radars and hangars). Here's hoping this investment in demolition/construction/reconstruction (essentially defensive) pays off more than Foxtrots and/or Marauders (offensive) would. I guess I'll see soon- the UFOs are definitely getting larger and more aggressive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max_Caine Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 You can test it. If you open AM_BaseAttack.xml with with Excel or a test editor, you can alter the chance of UFOs in a wave being assigned the base attack mission, and also alter if more than one ufo per wave is assigned it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mangalores Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 Just a stupid thought but base defenses in Xenonaut and the OG seemed pretty underused. How about the aliens start bomb runs on X-Com bases even more regularly to knock the hangars out or giving those defenses an defense perimeter on the geoscape (a certain radius in which the base itself can engage an UFO)? Probably too much hassle but more uses for these things might go a long way to actually use them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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