What do they do?

Uhmmm... HIT!! .. ok... great, thanks!

Thats all.. I don't even bother.

1. Base defense is fun
2. They don't seem to do anything.

How many do you need to actualy destroy the threat.... and wouldn't it just be easier to put in that MC Generator thing?

Mostly for cosmetics and getting into the spirit of things. Nothing like big explosions and a horrid racket for waking up the rookies and walking wounded when the A(venger)-team is out fishing on the other side of the world. Someone must defend the base, after all...

(Aside: do almost-healed characters participate in base defense? I think not, but it would be neat. Something for bman.)

Torpedo defences are rubbish, you need a load of them to defend a base properly. Once you get some better defences, it becomes a more practical option, especially for unmanned bases that are used as listening posts or interception bases.

Well how many of the least amount of defenses do you need? So lets take the most powerfull base defense you can research... is one enough?

I see your point though, if you can't afford to have a skeleton crew around might as well have something... but you'd want to make sure you always blow the ship up right? cause if you have no crew don't you lose the base instantly?

Also so far in my game the Aleins have ONLY attacked my main base... and I have 3 others.

3-4 of the strongest defenses backed by whatever they call the grav shield in TFTD. 6 shots should be enough for 90%+ of cases, 8 shouldn't realistically let much of anything through. Personally, I wouldn't bother. 10-15 men should be adequate for most attacks and you get the loot from the battles. Use those 4-5 base squares for something useful.

Haven't a clue as to torpedo defences, problem is with those their accuracy is Maggie's drawers, so you need lots to compensate. 2 of the best plus the TFTD-grav shield equivalent is what I usually build, but you need 4 to be 100% protected I think.

The black mark against the base defence modules is that they will not stop the raid, and even if the USO gets through, the damage on the USO is not even considered and the troops enter the base unscathed.

The group of aliens that are attacking the base will just send an endless stream of ships against your base until at least one gets through before they give up. This means that to stop the assault, you have to let them in. Since the modules prevent them from getting in, they're only stalling them.

Impenetrable base defences will mean that they'll never complete the assault. Since you don't get any points for destroying the USO, you'll just waste a bit of time watching the assault reports. Over and over. When multiple parties decide to launch an attack on the base, you'll quickly get sick of having to read about the defences in action every couple of game hours.

You'd only really want to use them to slow down the attack if you think they'll catch you with your pants down. One failed assault will immediately alert you that you've got a problem and you'll ready yourself for the oncoming assault.

In UFO, the weakest module had a very unique floorpan, which can be used for strategic defence of the base. I don't remember what it's like for TFTD as I don't use them. The best defence is a solid group of sentinal aquanauts armed to the teeth with drills, their favourite guns and accompanied by one or two Sonic Displacers.

The M. C. Generator on the other hand is the oddball out and by far one of the best investments you can make, pushed out only by the even more useful Transmision Resolver. It's a passive defence mechanism and makes it harder for retaliation teams to find your base. It won't stop them locating the base, but it still reduces the chance of them spotting it right off.

As for torpedo defences - just build six of them and throw in a Bombardment shield for an extra volley. They're weak, but they're cheap and with so many of them you're bound to get some hits in. The strongest defence module, the PWT Defenses, requires about 3 - 4 solid hits, so you'll usually want up to 3 and a Bombardment shield. That destroys some and lets some in. To be totally impenetrable, just throw a few more in. (PS, like the radars, only one instance of the Bombardment shields works at any given time)


- NKF

Eh, I'll just tear them down and let them come.... I think defending the base is fun I was just curious if these defense systems were as useless as I figured they were.. and that seems to be the case.