Scavenger Raider Event

[erdrik]

Hostile factions don't always have to come in to just wreck our junk.
Maybe they just want to steal our claims.

It should be in the same category as Raiders, but less violent.
Basically they come into the map and instead of attacking the roam the map and pickup items they find.
They should also avoid the colony by staying X distance from any HomeZone.
(May want to add limiters to how far you can make a homezone beyond a colony construction, to prevent players from just homezoning the whole map.)

All that Steel that dropped last week, but was too far to warrant pulling someone away from other jobs to get?
Welp, too late. Them darn'd scavengers got it.

Left a bunch of gear and material after clearing out an enemy mortar position, but couldn't bring it all back swiftly?
Scavengers got it.

I think this would be a great way to keep the pressure up on the colony without resorting to just 'endless gun toting varmints'.

[ITypedThis]

I like this idea.

However, I think they would need to stay X tiles away from colonists, not home zones to avoid exploitation.

[MrSurvivor]

This sounds like a great idea to have bad guys that don't actually kill you but just rob you.
But I have a question. Will they try and break into buildings or not for items?

[Dextor]

I was thinking about this as well while playing my 9b games on max difficulty.  When the fifth group of 35 tribesman rushed the 14 turrets, 4 guys with MiniGuns and 3 with Sniper rifles.. I just had to wonder about the population of the "tribe" and the mental impact of the losses.

[erdrik]

I don't think they should enter the HomeZone because that is where the colony defenses are likely to be, and a scavenger is all about minimal risk for reward.
Coming into the colony can escalate, and then it just becomes a small raid.

The idea is they come and take the things that are outside of your colony's purview.

[PigletsFury]

I don't think they should enter the HomeZone because that is where the colony defenses are likely to be, and a scavenger is all about minimal risk for reward.
Coming into the colony can escalate, and then it just becomes a small raid.

The idea is they come and take the things that are outside of your colony's purview.

I disagree, if the scavengers avoided the homezone players could easily abuse this mechanic by homezoneing all or most of the map when this event occurs.
     I feel that if they instead avoided the colonists it would result in much more interesting gameplay

[erdrik]

..
I disagree, if the scavengers avoided the homezone players could easily abuse this mechanic by homezoneing all or most of the map when this event occurs.

You mean that potential that I already addressed in the opening post?

...
(May want to add limiters to how far you can make a homezone beyond a colony construction, to prevent players from just homezoning the whole map.)
...

     I feel that if they instead avoided the colonists it would result in much more interesting gameplay

And how is it interesting if its just a raid mechanic that avoids colonists?
If anything it will make mountain colonies super easy to defend.
Just put yer colonists at the entrances and the scavengers would never get in.
That is not even remotely interesting.

EDIT:
I think it is far more interesting an idea that they take the things that are outside of your colony's purview, to draw you out of the colony and force you to take a risk to protect your distant claims.

RNG could even throw an actual raid in the middle of it and suddenly your caught out of the colony during an attack!
Not only is that more interesting, its much more emergent.

[Snowpig]

They should try to stay away from turrets, not colonists.

As for the mountain colonies: Let them dig additional entries to the base. 

[PigletsFury]

..
I disagree, if the scavengers avoided the homezone players could easily abuse this mechanic by homezoneing all or most of the map when this event occurs.

You mean that potential that I already addressed in the opening post?

...
(May want to add limiters to how far you can make a homezone beyond a colony construction, to prevent players from just homezoning the whole map.)
...

     I feel that if they instead avoided the colonists it would result in much more interesting gameplay

And how is it interesting if its just a raid mechanic that avoids colonists?
If anything it will make mountain colonies super easy to defend.
Just put yer colonists at the entrances and the scavengers would never get in.
That is not even remotely interesting.

EDIT:
I think it is far more interesting an idea that they take the things that are outside of your colony's purview, to draw you out of the colony and force you to take a risk to protect your distant claims.

RNG could even throw an actual raid in the middle of it and suddenly your caught out of the colony during an attack!
Not only is that more interesting, its much more emergent.

Hahaha woops, I totally read over that part where you addressed the homezone limiters!
I think I'd much rather prefer you idea over mine.

[praguepride]

I like the idea that they avoid colonists and turrets absolutely but they could also just put a preference not to go into homezones as a priority (i.e. if there is loose items outside of the homezone they would prioritize that first...)

This doesn't have to be a deadly raid, in fact it could even trigger as a non-violent "neutral" event that a group of scavengers from [INSERT FACTION] have arrived.

This would also be interesting if it could come from a neutral faction so if you just go in and murder-death-kill them all then you piss off that faction and could trigger a war (maybe not as absolute as unprovoked killing/kidnapping but if you're on the border then that could push them to hostile).

The "proper" resolution would either be to secure all the goods, give them some trivial loot to fill up on (wood, berries etc.) or have pawns either guard important areas OR even chase them around.

The idea would be that until mid-to-late game there is usually still a lot of loose items on the map, especially after a big battle or a cargo pod event or even when you're strip mining a steel/silver/plasteel/gold deposit on the other side of the map. The game could easilly track the amount of "unclaimed" items on the map and if it reaches a certain threshold bubble up the scavenger event to trigger. So sure, if you have everything in the map locked down and secure the event might not trigger, however if you'e been doing remote strip mining and have hundreds of pieces of plasteel just lying around, suddenly a bunch of tribals spawn, grab it all up and dash out.

Man...you would be PIIIIISSSED!

You might also learn the lesson of not pushing off hauling tasks

[SuperCaffeineDude]

Sounds awesome, I think it'd be great to see some sort of middle ground between being attacked and being visited, like scavenging/poaching/looting/squatting. And even generally when attacked it'd make more sense for the pirates to take the silver than a captive.

If the AI could be developed to avoid concentrated fire-power, then all sorts of awesome possibilities might emerge. Tribes being cautious and pirates brash. Easier said than done I imagine, but cool to imagine.

[Barley]

I, too, enjoy this idea. In fact I like just about any idea that "Cleans Up" the map of old junk. My original idea was a Mechoid Queen that ate the junk to produce more mechoids, but this event seems much more tame and could be made much more common, plus it doesn't actively punish you for ignoring old trash.

[FridayBiology]

fuck yeah for scavenging bastards.

> would need to set start location
> haul items not within # number of tiles of homezone to start location
> load up on highest value items and leave map...

> second scavenger raider event
> build sand bags with 3x3 storage point
> haul items not within # number of tiles of homezone to storage
> load up on highest value items and leave map...

> third scavenger raider event
> build small 5x5 structure (3x3internal) to house items for storage
> haul items not within # number of tiles of homezone to storage
> load up on highest value items and leave map...

raiders would return in greater numbers and # would decrease range per each event after

[Mckee]

I think this would be a fantastic mechanic to include.

Scavs could build a small encampment with sandbags and an orbital beacon, collecting anything too far away from colonists, prioritizing based on wealth. If you have any silver/steel/gold/platsteel on the map, especially in quantity, you'd want to guard/haul it ASAP. Might be extract fun if the scav offer to sell it all back to you at over the top prices, before leaving. Gives you a chance to buy back any vital stuff, but punishes you for it.

[windruf]

This sounds like a great idea to have bad guys that don't actually kill you but just rob you.
But I have a question. Will they try and break into buildings or not for items?

like normal tiffs: if there is some stuff outside - they grab it and run. if there is none - they'll try to break in, but not if there is some dangers for them.