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XCOMUFO & Xenocide

Locating Bases


Bad-Wolf

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Hi there, new to the xcom forums and xcom. Just started playing last week and have been rediculously addicted ever since. I am trying to finish out a beginner game where I started with gay save reload tactics to get a feel for the game. Going to finish out the game with only saves on the geoscape now that I know how to play. The fact that my guys are walking gods and bristle with every high level armament doesn't hurt either. Plus having even scout bases with enough defenses to take out multiple battleships doesn't hurt either.

Okay on to the question.

I captured a commander from a battleship but after interrogating him I found out that you have to catpure a commander from a base. I had already sacked two bases before interrogating him. However, I am having incredible difficulty finding enemy bases! I know for certain that there is a floater base in south america and a muton base in australia. I have even followed supply ships incoming, jacked them when they landed and tried to have my interceptors locate the base near the landing. However, they can't seem to find a damn thing. I have combed these continents for these two bases to no avail. Australia isn't even that big for god sake! I use interceptors for scouting because they are fast but their fuel lasts and doesn't cost elerium. Am I doing something wrong?

 

Any tips on finding bases would be much appreciated. I mostly need specifics like within what range can an interceptor see a base? What percent change does he have of seeing it and how often does this chance "tick"? Does he need to be patrolling when he is near it or can he fly over it?

 

EDIT:Important extra question.

If my interceptor is close to a base how long in game time will it take for him to detect it? If it is by percent chance what is the average time?

Edited by Bad-Wolf
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The game doesn't make any distinction between battleship or base commanders. You might have missed a step in the end-game research. This goes: Any live alien > alien origins > any Leader or Commander > The Martian Solution > Any Commander > Cydonia or Bust

 

If you're in a hurry, a commander off a battleship will do just nicely.

 

The supply ships you mention, are they visiting the same sites regularly? If they are, send your interceptor to patrol in the general vicinity and then it won't take long for it reveal the base.

 

You could also encourage the construction of a base if you can identify if there's a base construction fleet around. If you spot any, leave them be.

 

- NKF

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Now that you mention it the supply ships don't always seem to land in the same area : / Also, you are also right about the end-game research. I think used the commander and got martian solution so I guess I need to get another commander. Which would be incredibly easier if I could nail one of those bases; floaters being extremely easy and mutons pretty easy with my game difficulty and present troops. I wanna beat it already so I can move onto a harder difficulty :P
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Now that you mention it the supply ships don't always seem to land in the same area : / Also, you are also right about the end-game research. I think used the commander and got martian solution so I guess I need to get another commander. Which would be incredibly easier if I could nail one of those bases; floaters being extremely easy and mutons pretty easy with my game difficulty and present troops. I wanna beat it already so I can move onto a harder difficulty :P

 

 

Remember that Mutons don't have commanders, so plan accordingly. A Floater base east of Germany (so supply missions land in daylight) is a coveted commodity, don't squander it!

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  • 5 months later...
Now that you mention it the supply ships don't always seem to land in the same area : / Also, you are also right about the end-game research. I think used the commander and got martian solution so I guess I need to get another commander. Which would be incredibly easier if I could nail one of those bases; floaters being extremely easy and mutons pretty easy with my game difficulty and present troops. I wanna beat it already so I can move onto a harder difficulty :P

 

 

Remember that Mutons don't have commanders, so plan accordingly. A Floater base east of Germany (so supply missions land in daylight) is a coveted commodity, don't squander it!

 

New BugZapper looking for some hints here... When do the aliens start building bases? I'm in month 5 of the game and my patrols haven't turned anything up. =p

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It varies. A few months in if you're lucky. Do you have the hyperwave decoder yet? If not, then it's possible that you might be shooting down the 'alien base' scouts.

 

Generally you'll get several waves of them and at the end a battleship will arrive to inaugurate the construction of the base. To avoid destroying them, set up a hyperwave decoder so that you can tell the missions the UFOs are on.

 

Sometimes if a country withdraws its funding from X-Com, it's worth surveying the country to see if a base has been built there, as one tends to auto-magically appear when the country decides to withdraw.

 

 

 

- NKF

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It varies. A few months in if you're lucky. Do you have the hyperwave decoder yet? If not, then it's possible that you might be shooting down the 'alien base' scouts.

 

Generally you'll get several waves of them and at the end a battleship will arrive to inaugurate the construction of the base. To avoid destroying them, set up a hyperwave decoder so that you can tell the missions the UFOs are on.

 

Sometimes if a country withdraws its funding from X-Com, it's worth surveying the country to see if a base has been built there, as one tends to auto-magically appear when the country decides to withdraw.

 

 

 

- NKF

 

No hyperwave decoder but I've tracked what would seem to have been a supply ship to Antarctica on the radar net but patrolling down there turns up a penguin's egg. I've also had to let several large UFOs go as I can't bring them down yet. I was researching the UFO tech before the prisoners. Research any Navigator for the decoder?

 

X

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Yup, any navigator should do the trick. :)

 

You know what they say: "Where there is a spark, there is a fire"? Well, the same thing applies to Supply Ships. If you detect one, there's bound to be a base somewhere. Save your game, then try using a couple Skyrangers to patrol a suspect area for a while. If you do find a base, reload the game and send your Skyrangers directly to the spot. Sometimes at the end of a month your operatives may locate the base for you, but don't rely on that much. Look at your graphs too. If an area has unusual alien activity (eg high score), send some Skyrangers there to patrol. ^_^

 

- Zombie

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  • 4 weeks later...
It varies. A few months in if you're lucky. Do you have the hyperwave decoder yet? If not, then it's possible that you might be shooting down the 'alien base' scouts.

 

Generally you'll get several waves of them and at the end a battleship will arrive to inaugurate the construction of the base. To avoid destroying them, set up a hyperwave decoder so that you can tell the missions the UFOs are on.

 

Sometimes if a country withdraws its funding from X-Com, it's worth surveying the country to see if a base has been built there, as one tends to auto-magically appear when the country decides to withdraw.

 

 

 

- NKF

 

 

Mystery solved OR dumb luck beats planning every time. I got the decoder but no base construction UFOs until after researching another alien navigator and getting an Alien Base mission report. I seem to get lots of stunned aliens w/o trying, even with heavy plasma. Although now the general UFO activity significantly drops off.

 

-Xero

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  • 2 years later...
Yup, any navigator should do the trick. :)

 

You know what they say: "Where there is a spark, there is a fire"? Well, the same thing applies to Supply Ships. If you detect one, there's bound to be a base somewhere. Save your game, then try using a couple Skyrangers to patrol a suspect area for a while. If you do find a base, reload the game and send your Skyrangers directly to the spot. Sometimes at the end of a month your operatives may locate the base for you, but don't rely on that much. Look at your graphs too. If an area has unusual alien activity (eg high score), send some Skyrangers there to patrol. ^_^

 

- Zombie

 

Are you sure that a supply ship appears only after a base exists?

 

OK, let's assume you are right about that. If an alien base exists "somewhere," that certainly does not make it easier to find. Suppose I discover a supply ship going to Siberia. How many patrols does it take to cover Siberia? How close do you have to patrol to a base to detect it? How long does it take for an alien base to cause a government to stop funding?

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Supply ships do occasionally go out on generic missions, but bases have a random roll of generating a supply ship on a base supply run every day. It's not a big chance, but it's there. So if you frequently see supply ships flying to a certain area, then that's a good place to check.

 

To detect a base it has to be within the patrol area of your aircraft. Aircraft only patrol when they aren't moving too, so keep that in mind. I'd think maybe 3 or 4 trips or 3 or 4 interceptors should be able to cover most of Siberia.

 

Alien bases generate 5 activity points a day. So in a 30 day month, that's 150 points. Not counting infiltration, if the aliens have greater activity in the country over several consecutive months, then the country may choose to withdraw. As long as you shoot down a couple of UFOs - or capture a supply ship on the ground when it docks at the base - you should be able to nullify the effects of the base easily.

 

- NKF

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Supply ships do occasionally go out on generic missions, but bases have a random roll of generating a supply ship on a base supply run every day. It's not a big chance, but it's there. So if you frequently see supply ships flying to a certain area, then that's a good place to check.

 

To detect a base it has to be within the patrol area of your aircraft. Aircraft only patrol when they aren't moving too, so keep that in mind. I'd think maybe 3 or 4 trips or 3 or 4 interceptors should be able to cover most of Siberia.

 

Alien bases generate 5 activity points a day. So in a 30 day month, that's 150 points. Not counting infiltration, if the aliens have greater activity in the country over several consecutive months, then the country may choose to withdraw. As long as you shoot down a couple of UFOs - or capture a supply ship on the ground when it docks at the base - you should be able to nullify the effects of the base easily.

 

- NKF

 

Thanks. I'm getting a better feel for patrolling now, and destroyed 2 alien bases in the last few game days.

 

Changing the subject -- I was thinking that supply ships have more elerium than battleships, but I assaulted one of each and got 200 elerium from the battleship but only 150 from the supply ship.

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Supply ships only have 3 power units whereas the battleship has 4. Each elerium pod that is placed on/in the power unit converts to 50 elerium on return to base, so indeed an undamaged Supply Ships lets you recover 150 units while an undamaged Battleship has 200.

 

The big difference between the two ships is when they are shot down. Because of the proximity of the power units in the supply ship, you almost never ever get any elerium as any one power detonating will destroy them all. The Battleship on the other hand has the power units isolated, so you'll often have some elerium to recover.

 

- NKF

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The big difference between the two ships is when they are shot down. Because of the proximity of the power units in the supply ship, you almost never ever get any elerium as any one power detonating will destroy them all. The Battleship on the other hand has the power units isolated, so you'll often have some elerium to recover.

 

- NKF

 

Thanks.

 

But on the other hand, it seems that a supply ship will be more likely to land (or does it always land?), and so if you can track it all the way you can get 100% of its elerium, while it's more likely that you have to shoot a battleship down. For example, if it assaults a human base you never see it on the ground on the map if you leave it alone. Does that sound right?

Edited by erasmus_b_dragon
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Supply ships on supply runs always land at their destination base for a certain amount of hours, then they take off and leave earth. During that window you can strike the landed ship independently from the alien base, it will be a regular landed ufo mission.
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Supply ships on supply runs are definitely the easiest way to snag elerium. Battleships you either have to shoot down or wait until they're on some mission like infiltration or base construction where they do choose to land for a few hours.

 

The good thing about shooting down Battleships though is still that your chances of recovering the elerium is much greater thanks to the isolated power units. Any other ship rarely has any to recover once shot down. Crashed UFOs also give you a bit more time to go to them, whereas a ship that has landed does keep you on your toes. It's just another option available, really.

 

- NKF

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