Do prisoners warn their buddies your base coords?

[EclipseDog]

I was looking at my researchable projects list today and saw something that made me ask myself exactly how safe it is to keep those alien prisoners at your secret bases.

 

At the same time I had captive in the alien confinement chambers a Sectoid Leader :alien2: , Sectoid Navigator :alien2: , Sectoid Engineer :alien2: , Sectoid Soldier , Reaper Terrorist :devil: , and a Floater Soldier .

 

At this same time I am already busy researching the components needed to make my own aircraft so I've just been leaving those guys in there... but since I started harborring them I'm suddenly seeing very large ships routinely overbuzzing my base.

 

I never really put two and two together until it suddenly hit me when I looked at that list of projects available to begin researching that I had possibly leaked my base location to the enemy by putting those prisoners in it... especially that psi'ing leader... *stares at that alien trying to whistle harmlessly and twiddling his eyeballs* :angel: argh!

 

Can anyone please confirm my sudden fears or else relieve the tension now racking my brain every time I see that list of prisoners (I really hope it goes the second way). I really hope it is pure coincedence but there are a lot of things in the game that at a brief glance seem unrelated only to later on proof connected.

 

(Such as how terror sites almost always pop up as far as alienly possible from your bases even though they don't actually know where those bases are... very weird... )

[NKF]

No, there's no connection. I'd say it's a coincidence.

 

The game's not that complex.

 

My main research roster is often packed with aliens. In fact, I ignore almost all the aliens except the three primary aliens required to win the game - I leave them all for last or during those slow periods where my scientists have nothing important to research. However, alien activity centres shift from place to place during the course of any given campaign. Therefore, I'd say aliens in containment cannot influence alien activity near your base. (think about it - they're all knocked out and other states of unconciousness - can't have the psi-endowed causing trouble)

 

Heavy alien activity near your base can often be attributed to:

 

1. The aliens decide to focus their activity on or infiltrate a nearby country (they seem to like sending mass infiltration fleets to countries near your primary base - it only appears this way, and need not necessarily be true)

2. You shoot down too many UFOs near your base. Retaliation scouts often go out to search around the areas where you frequently shoot down their ships. Multiple groups can go out and search for you at the same time.

3. There are multiple undetected alien bases in your area. Two or three supply ships coming constantly can be a little unnerving (or will make you jump for joy). This one is very unlikely.

4. The aliens are scouting for a site to build their base. A number of ships may arrive for the actual construction.

5. etc.

 

Truly, there are many things that can be attributed to coincidence. Look at the aliens' choice for terror sites. In many games Novosibirsk is often the very first city to get attacked. When I was playing with the Dos edition, Novosibirsk came up almost every time, even when my base was practically inside the city. It's not always Novosibirsk, but it almost seems that way at times.

 

- NKF

[EclipseDog]

Weird... I don't recall ever getting a terror site there. For me generally the terror sites pop up in either South-most Africa, China, or Australia for the first and second terror events. Or at least that is typical for my America-startup base.

 

When I start up in China first the first terror sites are almost always in Brazil with some USA & Canada's added in every so often. When I do Europe as my first base it's almost always either Australia or Brazil.