At this day and age I'd never thought I'd still be finding hilarious bugs in the original UFO, but here we go. I couldn't find any other reports of it, so I figured I'd post it here.
Start a new game, build a new base anywhere, try to transfer stuff from the starting base to the new base.
You think you can't transfer anything because the new base doesn't have any facilities. Oh really? Try pressing the Down button next to one of the crafts. Then try pressing Up again.
Surprise! When you pressed Down the game internally added one to the target base craft capacity, so now you can transfer that craft because the game thinks there's enough capacity.
Even better, if you press down next to a transport craft like a Skyranger, it'll also add the capacity of the crew inside the craft (still with me?). So with SKYRANGER-1, you get a magical capacity of one craft and eight personnel!
This doesn't work on the Down buttons next to personnel/items.
Congratulations, you now have one goofy looking base! Everything still works as normal, except you don't have to pay base maintenance since there's no facilities, so you could theoretically use this to have a base with tons of craft and personnel for no extra facility cost (those salaries might be a nuisance though).
Ok, so we've created a base which completely exceeds capacities. But that's kid's stuff, can we kick it up a notch?
Sure we can! If you followed the previous example, you'll note the base has no facilities. Does that mean we can remove it? You betcha! What's the worse that can happen?
Whoops. Look on the bright side, now you've got a set of wonderful magical orphaned craft! Since they have no base to return to, they can be permanently in the air with no care for fuel. They won't even cost you a dime. Sure you can't repair or rearm them either so they probably won't last long, but hey you can just make more!
If you remove the base while the craft are in it, they'll just launch out of the old base position and never go into "low fuel" mode since there's no base to tell them to. However, if you remove the base while the craft are
in the air, they will hit "low fuel" mode, get confused, and decide to automatically target every single thing that shows up on the map until they die. Congratulations, you've created horrible unstoppable killing machines!
The downside of "low fuel" mode is that you can't change their orders until they find a new target to chase around, resetting their status. But why would you want to? Sometimes they'll even beat your base radars to the punch.
Other times they'll get so damn obsessed in their blood oath they're not even sure what's up and down anymore.
Sure you won't be able to ever take advantage of those mission recovery goodies, but who cares? The world will love you for it!
Have crafts patrolling every corner of the world. Have simultaneous 4-craft-interceptions without the need for minimizing. Give them lasers so you don't have to worry about rearming. Keep every single mission infinitely active by keeping crafts targeting them. The sky's the limit!
If you have trouble getting the bug to work, I've attached some saved games.
