mechanoids way to OP and more and more OP in every single patch?

[zandadoum]

toxic fallout + 3 poison ships + 1 evil ship (with more mechanoids than I have colonist!) all at the same time and within the first 6 month? that shouldn't happen regardless what storyteller and difficulty you play. that's not a challenge, that's not fun.

Well. I don't agree with your conclusion.

If I disallowed certain combinations, he wouldn't be random any more. He'd just be another rubber-banded AI storyteller similar to Cassandra. But he's Randy Random, which is exactly what it says on the tin.

Where's the fun in that? It's in the fact that the system doesn't coddle you at all. Outcomes are true. It's fun if you're willing to just play out a scenario to death and let the drama unfold. Not everyone likes this, but some do.

If you want a balanced, steady, consistent storyteller experience, we have that. Cassandra can be hard as hell, but she won't do anything ridiculously out of line. Randy is exactly what his name suggests and I think playskool-izing him would just take away options to replace them with something the game already offers.

can we NOT focus here on the storyteller or all what he threw at me, and go back to what i originally am trying to say:
mechanoids are (imo) overpowered. for more info, read all i said in my previous messages in this post.

and while i got your attention, something from previous alpha (don't know if this was changed in this alpha)
triple rocket launchers same or more range than a sniper rifle and quicker aiming? working as intended?

[akiceabear]

I don't think they are OP on rough or challenge level of difficulty. Just wait until you have EMP grenades to disturb the ship, then its merely a battle you need to approach carefully (although you're screwed if your grenadier dies!).

Also don't have much sympathy for those on Randy Extreme...

[christhekiller]

Mechanoids are difficult, aye, but get some good cover, or some EMP grenades, and it's all a matter of getting your colonists into a position before the fight. The best thing about ship parts is that you dictate when the battle starts. So, you can fight for a bit, take care of one ship, or a few mechs, retreat and heal, then mop up the next ship or the remaining mechs, you don't have to gung ho them all at once. And the best part is those mechs won't really chase you down, you run the hell away and they'll linger around their ship.

[Elixiar]

Sigh.

Mechanoids are not OP.
Some people just don't know how to fight them/ can't accept they are superior alien forces yet.

That is all.

[zandadoum]

Mechanoids are difficult, aye, but get some good cover, or some EMP grenades, and it's all a matter of getting your colonists into a position before the fight. The best thing about ship parts is that you dictate when the battle starts. So, you can fight for a bit, take care of one ship, or a few mechs, retreat and heal, then mop up the next ship or the remaining mechs, you don't have to gung ho them all at once. And the best part is those mechs won't really chase you down, you run the hell away and they'll linger around their ship.

please read my previous posts
1) as stated in my previous posts, this happened so early i didnt have weapons, emp and not even cover due a toxic fallout.
2) their AI has been improved in alpha 12. scythers now react way too good against snipers. they move out of range so you can't hit them and then they quickly come close and shoot your sniper while he is still moving back. add to this that they have way to good accuracy, fire rate and damage... and you're screwed. regardless on what difficulty
3) they also have too much hp and stay at around 1hp (before you down them i mean) for ages. it takes 1 full day for 4 of my guys to kill ONE mechanoid. mechanoids aren't affected by psicological effects or exaustion, so yeah. you're screwed again. and don't you take too long to kill the ship or your colonists will go crazy and kill each other
4) which gets me to the next point: yes, they do linger around their ship. yes you can prepare (if it's a ship and not a raid), but now they reposition too well to "easily" kill them. and once the ship goes down to (i think it is) 500hp, they stop lingering and attack your base

all nice and dandy. all fun... unless it's in the first 6 month, you haven't got any weapons yet, much less EMP grenades and you just came out of a toxic fallout.

oh and about EMP grenades: absolutely useless when you get the mechanoids with rocket launchers. your guy will have died TWICE before he can even throw one of those grenades.

i have put hundrets of hours into this game, for plenty of alphas.
i have tried all storytellers and difficulties, i have played vanilla and with mods, i have used plenty of strategies to deal with mechanoids...

and the ONLY gripe, the ONLY thing that pisses me off over and over and over... are how OP mechanoids are.

[zandadoum]

Sigh.

Mechanoids are not OP.
Some people just don't know how to fight them/ can't accept they are superior alien forces yet.

That is all.

please enlighten me... how do you fight 3 poison ships (3 mechs each, if opened) + 1 evil ship (7 mechs if opened) right after a toxic fallout, when only 6 month into the game, your only weapons are a sniper rifle and a shotgun, you only have 5 colonists and a warg, barely any cover due trees dying in the fallout... and all this BEFORE the evil ship drives your colonists crazy?

but as said, never mind the evil ships. never mind alpha 12. never mind early game.
my gripe with mechanoids comes a long way, even in previous alphas.

late game, 10 years into it. 40 colonists well geared, happy, etc. base with defenses both outside and inside.
mechanoid raid right on top of my base. around 20 scythers, 15ish big guys. half of those with inferno launchers.
EMP grenades? riiiight. their rocket launchers have like 3x the range of grenades.
(emp) mortars? i did mention, they dropped right on top of us, right?

and i could go on and on and on...

every single time someone came with a late game screenshot on how he "easily" destroyed gazillions of mechanoids, every single time they had mods on like the one with huge shield dome over your base, improved turrets and guns and whatnot.

[Panzer]

You re not supposed to beat it? Sometimes it just doesnt work out, thats what you get when you re playing randy random, hes more rogue-like than any other storyteller.

Sniper rifles still outrange scythers and inferno cannons, you just need to be really careful and run when you get too close to the ship scythers, a pawn with normal movement speed can always get out of range without taking fire, provided you tried to engage them from max range.

[Play2Jens]

Hey Ty, I have to say I also think they are overpowered. I was playing Cassandra classic on Rough. Previous games I was challenged, but not as much as in A12. Raids were hard, but controllable with tactics and a few trained dogs. But I got 2 poisonous ship events in the first year. And I had to take them out ASAP because otherwise I wouldn't be able to get enough food for the winter.

They were so powerful that they often 'one shot, one kill'ed me. When the second event came, I had no other use to use all advantages the game gave:
- Building a solar panel with a few turrets
- Luring one Mechanoid at a time into combat
- Colonist with shield who runs from cover to cover to distract him
- Colonist with grenades and hit & run tactics
- A LOT of SAVE RELOADS

I don't mind using advanced tactics like this, but it was just too much and not really enjoyable anymore. What I suggest: Less poisonous ships (first only one, afterwards maybe two) and Mechanoids getting injured due to the crash (so their handling is hopefully worse)

[Play2Jens]

Also, I get that the game sometimes want you to lose. But I just feel like they are a bit overpowered and I would have to use savegame reloading way too often while I encounter poisonous ships, even if I start new games.

Unless you play Randy random extreme. Let that sun of a muffalo f*ck you up big time. That's the purpose of this story teller.

[Tynan]

I've made a bit of an adjustment so you won't get really early mechanoid ships any more.

[Panzer]

There goes my early cash

[A Friend]

To answer your question:

I don't think mechanoids are OP. I don't have too much of a problem with them as I rarely encounter them in huge numbers. What I have a gripe with is how damage sponge-y they feel. The centipedes specifically.

Also it pretty much sounds like Randy just caught you with your pants down and screwed you over in that save.

[Barley]

Mechaniods are easy once you have shields and frag grenades. You use the same tactic used in the picture, but since the grenades damage MULTIPLE Mechaniod "Organs" they are garenteed to hit something critical every time. Unlike a pulse rifle, which always seems to hit "Fifth Body Ring" or "Right Senser Port".

I find 4 guys with grenades while one or two shielded people distract can kill a Mechaniod in one volley. Six or more will vaporize the corpse. Adding in some turrets also helps as it gives the mechs something else to shoot at.

[Mihsan]

toxic fallout, followed by 3 (!!!) poison ships, followed by one evil ship. all in less than a week of gametime

Seems like bad luck, which is good part of fun. But...

This new poison ship event is so much frustrating. For a start I did not realised, that there was few of them in the same event. I hardly beat one of them and then saw another two (and wanted to quit). Had to leave them be for almost a year.

After two events like this (and toxic fallout... and volcanic winter) my arid shrubland looks more dead than desert. In the middle it has just NOTHING. Just no grass and no trees (except planted by me). And for my opinion this is just plain stupid. How is this even possible? How does it kill plants, but not colonists and animals? Why there are no dead trees to harvest after? What is the purpose of such machine? Too many questions.

I really want to see some changes with mechanoids. There are too much things, that I do not like. Not because they are hard to beat (which is good for this game), but because they are annoying, frustrating and gamebraking. I do not like:
- Inferno centipedes (WHY they are 1000% more deadly than other centipedes? Are they some special kind of centipedes? I can just hide behind rock from minigun/blaster, but single inferno will turn up the table for me. Looks more like balance issue.)
- Just the whole "ship part" thing. Do not like the idea of stationary defenseless thing. Do not like random mechanoids instantly spawning around it out of nowhere. Do not like, that it can lay down forever and never go away. Do not like that it is always the same part. And there are no smart tactical way to beat it, but only the ways with straight brutal force. Do not like "magical bad mood and killing plants" part (just want it be less out-of-nowhere magic and more justified, explained and giving choices).
- This new poison ship. Beign just the same "evil" part, but green (even with the same mechanoids inside)... it is just bad design decision IMO.
- Only two (three with inferno?) types of mechanoids. IMO it is obvious that for reasons of balance there should be more types of them both for less and more challenge provision.
- Scythers in A12. Something broke on the way. In A11 they was OK, but now they are too much rapey.
- No mechanoids-fighting weapons presented in game. Do I really must fight tanks centipedes with common firearms? How about some special AT weapons? This would be only fair.
- EMP grenades is a joke againts mechanoids. Never used them with success even though they look just like the right weapon for the cause.

[Bohb Daishi]

I think evil ships can be very beneficial early game. If you can take it out, the AI core is a SUBSTANTIAL reward when you are just starting out. Just keep a couple mortars going 24/7 for a week or two to soften them up and attack when you're ready. Heck, you might get a couple lucky shots early on that disables most of the mechs early on.