Administración de Bases
Administración de Bases, la habilidad ubicar mantener y defender las bases de el X-COM es una de las mas necesarias para combatir la amenaza Alien. Esto incluye emplazar las bases en lugares adecuados para maximizar las posibilidades de detección en intercepción de UFOs, agregar los módulos requeridos para satisfacer las necesidades operativas, y ubicar esos módulos para dar una ventaja a las fuerzas defensivas en caso de ataque.
Buscando Cobertura Global
Tres tipos de cobertura deben tenerse en consideración.
- Cobertura de Detección de UFOs por radar / hyperonda es la primera y la mas importante al decidir donde emplazar las bases.
- Cobertura para la Interceptación de UFOs es la segunda, y de importancia considerable, sobretodo al usar Firestorms.
- Cobertura para misiones de asalto o recuperación de UFOs es la menos importante.
Detección
Bases de detección son aquellas que tienen al menos una instalación de radar, también llamadas "puestos de vigilancia". La mayoría de las bases comienzan asi, y a medida que los fondos lo permitan, evolucionaran al agregarse otros módulos.
Estas bases suelen tienen un Ascensor, un radar (de cualquier tipo) y poco mas. El bajo costo de estas bases, y los pocos objetos de valor que suelen estar en los almacenes las hacen fácil de remplazar en caso de ser destruidas en un ataque de retribución.
Un puesto de vigilancia da posibilidades decentes de detectar UFOs que esten operando en el area. Si uno pasa a traves del area de cobertura en el intervalo entre búsquedas del radar, no sera detectado. Mas bases implican mejores posibilidades de detectar estos UFOs mientras pasan a distintas areas de cobertura. Una vez que a sido detectado, permanecerá visible mientras se mantenga dentro de cualquier alcance del radar. Este es considerablemente amplio; una base en el norte de E.E.U.U. puede mantener el seguimiento de un UFO hasta la costa norte de Venezuela, por ejemplo. Con varias bases ubicadas en posiciones clave, podra detectar la mayoría de los UFOs.
Debido al "bug" de pagar por tierra, no tiene sentido vender los viejos radares a menos que el espacio sea inmediatamente reutilizado por otro modulo.
Por mas información sobre radares en general, vea Detección de UFOs.
Intercepcion
Interception bases are extensions of radar bases with the addition of at least one hanger dedicated to aircraft that shoot down UFOs. A base garrison may be added to protect the aircraft and its supplies.
How you have the intercept outposts deal with UFOs will depend on what types of ships you have stationed at each base as interceptor speeds and operational ranges will vary. No matter the case, a good network of intercept outposts scattered around the globe can let you snare any UFOs that enter the atmosphere.
In general, for slower or shorter ranged intercept craft, it's best to wait for the UFOs to reach their destinations/area of operations before launching an attack.
Recovery/Assault
An assault base has at least one hangar that houses one of any of the three troop transporters.
You can launch an assault or recovery from anywhere on earth, however if you take too long the downed or landed UFO may have taken off by then. Most UFOs either land twice or not at all. Those that do land will remain in their theater of operations for about six to ten hours. Just set a waypoint for your Skyranger and see how far it gets within eight hours: that's about the maximum effective range. You should be able to get there in time more often than not, but may be forced to fight at night – an assault craft that had been based closer could have picked the time of the battle.
If you find a base with weak aliens, you may want to set up an assault base nearby to raid the Supply Ships on a regular basis.
Of the three possible choices of aircraft, Skyrangers and Avengers have terrific range, with the Skyranger offering amazingly extended flight hours while the Avenger has great acceleration. The Lightning on the other hand has shorter range but offers the rapid response time of hybrid aircraft. Avengers and Lightnings are also used as interceptors.
Utility Bases
Utility bases are ones that specialize in filling a particular need. Supply depots, R&D centers, factories and psi training centers are all common base types. There is also the empty decoy base.
When a whole base is dedicated to one or two functions, all of the resources involved can be pooled together for a concentrated effort. Used in small numbers, they are often mixed in with other bases to provide additional functionality to them.
Empty bases can also be constructed near existing bases to function as decoys for alien retaliation teams. The more bases there are in the same location, the better the odds that the retaliation team might just pick the wrong one. Due to their temporary nature and the limited amount of space you have for bases, decoys can be quickly decommissioned to make room for new bases.
Base Placement
Base placement is often dictated by four factors: amount of country funding, coverage of funding countries, cost of base placement and finally terrain.
When deciding by the amount of country funding, the United States is the highest payer and this often makes it a high priority location to build a primary or secondary base.
When deciding by coverage of funding counters, large clusters of countries such as those located in Europe/North Africa or more moderate clusters like eastern Russia/Asia/Australia make for common first/second base areas. Though each country doesn't pay much, the concentration and the potential number of fund increases can prove to be highly rewarding.
Cost of base placement. The access lift for your first base is free, but all subsequent bases will have varying costs attached to them depending on the zone they are built in.
Finally, terrain. This primarily affects assault bases. When placing an assault base, you may prefer to have it in an area with plenty of terrain that you are most comfortable fighting in so combat will be on your terms. For example, if you find that you fight better with dense cover, the jungle areas such as those in South America would prove to be most ideal. If you prefer wide open combat, deserts or polar caps will provide adequate cover. If you love farm-land combat, Europe has a disproportionately high amount of farms. So on and so forth. Placement by terrain only applies to local missions.
Spacing
Keep in mind that as you shoot down UFOs you will piss off the aliens. When they go searching for your strike base, they may stumble upon your factory. There is very little penalty to spreading out your bases. Building bases at the poles is probably not fun for the personnel there, but makes a good isolated spot for non-strike bases.
Facility Placement
Base Defense is a primary consideration when choosing what to place where and when to build what. The higher the difficulty the more important a defensible base is, and your placement strategy also needs to account for at least 4 different known bugs.
The secondary consideration is the amount of time modules take to build. Apart from decoy bases and listening posts, all bases need General Stores and they are a fast module to build. Even if not needed yet,they can speed the construction of other modules by quickly opening up extra construction slots. Consider placing them first when you have to choose between them and something like a large radar that takes more than twice as long to complete.
For a structure to be useful it often needs to be matched with another. For example building 2 Laboratories and 2 Workshops but only 2 Living Quarters means you have approximately 375+ technical jobs to fill but only enough room to house 200 staff.
Finances
Money is the final arbiter of what you should build. Monthly income and expenses are not particularly relevant but you need to remember purchases that you have earmarked for later. Be sure you save enough money to staff your new structures or manufacture the goods you need. You may have $3 million spare now and spend it on new workshops but in 3 days the lab you started way back when becomes operational and you needed that money to staff it with scientists. You may be sitting on a pile of money now, but what happens when there are no UFO's to shoot down for a week or two? All that lab space and time you could have been researching will go idle.
All things considered, unused facilities are much cheaper (monthly) than unused staff or (rented) aircraft. The up front cost of facilities is usually cheaper than the cost of staff/craft to fill them. And facilities have a much longer lead time, by x8 - x10. So if you are unsure of future cash flow or your future plans, facilities are the safer bet.