How aliens attacking your base should work.

[MrFrustrated]

1. Aliens should not forget where your base is without good reason.

Good reason is you built a mindshield.

Decent reason should be you destroyed a bunch of bases in the area.

2. When aliens retaliate, they should do it en mass.

As soon as a retaliation mission is triggered (ie that scout is looking for your base), the game should generate multiple battleship  attacking all known bases. If the scout finds another base, then another round of all your known bases being attacked by multiple alien ships.

The aliens are suppose to have unlimited resources, they should use them.

3. Battleships or a new larger capital ship should have the ability to bombard your base while you defend it.

If you have no base defenses, aliens win automatically.

Assuming you do have base defenses, every 10 turns, the alien ship takes a blind shot that could destroy a whole room. There should be a certain chance that the alien's bombardment fails to get through. Meanwhile, so long as you have base defenses, they get to keep shooting at the Alien ship. 

4. Multiple ships means multiple waves of invaders.

[Meridian]

1. Xcom should operate on 600 billion budget, not 6 million.

2. There should be 800 bases all over the world, not 8... new ones being constantly built.

3. Bases should be deep underground so that they cannot be bombarded.

4. When aliens attack, all personnel should be evacuated via escape tunnels and the base should automatically self-dustruct when the aliens reach it.

[Dioxine]

1. Xcom should operate on 600 billion budget, not 6 million.

2. There should be 800 bases all over the world, not 8... new ones being constantly built.

3. Bases should be deep underground so that they cannot be bombarded.

4. When aliens attack, all personnel should be evacuated via escape tunnels and the base should automatically self-dustruct when the aliens reach it.

+1

And 5. the alien tech should be industrialized and built in huge quantities in some of these bases, as well as factories hidden in plain sight (in normal industrial areas), with the focus being on really long-range anti-ufo weapons, so you could shoot them down (them and anything they throw your way) before they even make it inside the geostationary orbit

[Hobbes]

1. Xcom should operate on 600 billion budget, not 6 million.

2. There should be 800 bases all over the world, not 8... new ones being constantly built.

Who cares about saving the world from the aliens? Let's conquer Earth for ourselves and live the rest of our lives on top of a huge pile of money! 

[Dioxine]

Who cares about saving the world from the aliens? Let's conquer Earth for ourselves and live the rest of our lives on top of a huge pile of money! 

Part of that 600 billion would be allocated to people who are going to behead you for treachery if you even joke about such a thing They'd far less nice than those clowns from the Earth Council...

[Hobbes]

Part of that 600 billion would be allocated to people who are going to behead you for treachery if you even joke about such a thing They'd far less nice than those clowns from the Earth Council...

Nah, give an external enemy (aliens) to distract them, several multibillion weapon projects to distribute new shiny toys (and hide graft from manufacturing them) and all is good.

[Solarius Scorch]

Nah, give an external enemy (aliens) to distract them, several multibillion weapon projects to distribute new shiny toys (and hide graft from manufacturing them) and all is good.

I think that's more or less what X-Com initiators do.

[Sturm]

+1

And 5. the alien tech should be industrialized and built in huge quantities in some of these bases, as well as factories hidden in plain sight (in normal industrial areas), with the focus being on really long-range anti-ufo weapons, so you could shoot them down (them and anything they throw your way) before they even make it inside the geostationary orbit

Alien tech can't be industrialized because Elerium-115.

[Dioxine]

Forget Elerium. Elerium is bad for you, as it depends on a rare material, controlled by a bunch of shady guys in hooded robes. Plus, we don't need it, we have nuclear and thermonuclear technology. Think Alien Alloys. Room-temperature superconductor and cheap-to-mold supermetal in one. Nothing else needs to be said. Sustainable Fusion Power in 3, 2... (and then everyone who stood before humans, was f***ed)