Making this my fourth topic of the day I think I'mn on a roll! I realised how bare the interceptor topic was looking though so I thought I'd lend a hand.

The base construction in Interceptor is the whole point of this topic. I mean, what IS the point? When you construct a new base it has to be within a couple of miles of your old base! I had one game of interceptor that was completely useless because the black hole was on the opposite side of the map to my base. The probe didn't have a long enough range to get to it so I couldn't explore the other side! Even after building two new bases I still couldn't get there! Why can we not just build a base anywhere we want??? That's how the other games worked...

Damn Vet, your posting like it's going out of style, man!

I too always hated the idea of posting your next base within just a few light years away. I eventually would build a base next to my first one, and then build a third one farther away, and dismantle the 2nd one. Worked well, until I found out why they try to get you to put them so close:

The bases, when their radar ranges are connected, provide a kind of "net", to catch the UFO squadrons. When I tried my "1,2,3 take out 2" idea, it eventually ended up that UFO squadrons were popping up everywhere. They'd go into radar holes in between my bases and disappear, and my forces would be in disarray. Sure I could use the probes, but they get to be a major pain when they disappear, not to mention when they get attacked.

What I'm trying to say is, I think Microprose encountered this problem, and decided to implement the base link idea. Not only does it make your "radar net", it also prevents a newbie from setting up an outpost way in the middle of nowhere, thinking "hey how come theres no UFOs?".

true as that may be, there comes a point when you've advanced your radars to the point that it becomes rather redundant....

at that point you build three bases in a line and the middile one is completely useless except as extra storage/research. it's detection area is completely overlapped.

having said that, i've pretty much no idea as to how i'd have fixed it....

...If I remember correctly, the max distance you can build a base from the original is as far as the best radar can go... True if you get it right, there will be one point where the radars overlap, but you have have slim coverage there.

hmmm.... i seemed to recall otherwise.... perhaps i am mistaken, it has been a while.... of praps an experiment is in order... if i could be bothered.

this sounds like a job for NKF

A fix, somewhat, is wait and get radar range up as fast as possible, and then build a new base.
But there are ofcorse obvius limits/downsides to that idea.
I dont think i need to bother ewen mentioning them.

EDIT: Hmm, i may remeber it wrong tho..