Deterring raiders by fear tactics

[klappertjes]

I was thinking maybe you can prevent raids by displaying yourself as "tough".

Originally I expected gibbet cages to have this effect. "This is what happens when you mess with us". So far they don't, or I just haven't noticed.

So putting the corpses of dead raiders in gibbets, or maybe just put thier corpse in a strategic place so raiders see it, might make them turn around and leave deciding that they have easier targets to pick than your death trap.

For me, I really like the "price of freedom" story you get in most playthroughs. The colonists live fairly peaceful lives within their colony but outside the door is a line of turrets and the land has been cleared out to create a dead man's land between them and the rough outside world. When danger shows they have to pick up their weapons and do gruesome things so that they might continue their happy lives in this rotten world.
Being forced to be inhumane in your pursuit of being left alone would fold into this nicely, I think.

[Creepypastaanime]

i think completely deterring them would be a bad idea, but i agree that it should have some effect. like they would be more likely to run away in the middle of the fight.

[ShadowDragon8685]

i think completely deterring them would be a bad idea, but i agree that it should have some effect. like they would be more likely to run away in the middle of the fight.

At some point, it should deter them completely. If you've put hundreds of raiders in the ground and suffered few/no casualties yourself, they should either resolve not to attack without truly game-breakingly overwhelming numbers (like, no fewer than 200 raiders at once,) or they'd prefer to just besiege you and prevent trade and try to extort a payment to go away.

[Untrustedlife]

I think fear should make raiders fight less effectively. But large amounts of fear should make them come in tougher (grenades and rockets)

[Untrustedlife]

i think completely deterring them would be a bad idea, but i agree that it should have some effect. like they would be more likely to run away in the middle of the fight.

At some point, it should deter them completely. If you've put hundreds of raiders in the ground and suffered few/no casualties yourself, they should either resolve not to attack without truly game-breakingly overwhelming numbers (like, no fewer than 200 raiders at once,) or they'd prefer to just besiege you and prevent trade and try to extort a payment to go away.

Or they could decide to come in with much better weapons..you know grenades and rocket launchers in order to blast your decrepidly evil colony off the face of the moon.

[Galileus]

I would go for the double-edged sword approach. You never know who's head you just put on a spike. If it's captains... well, you bought yourself a week of peace and prosperity. If it was captain's daughter... Ooops. So, guys, how is the progress on that space shuttle?

[palandus]

Well put Galileus. I agree with your approach. However, do you think there should be a way to determine if one is a pirate king, over someone close to a pirate king when choosing to display whose head is on display?

[Galileus]

Well put Galileus. I agree with your approach. However, do you think there should be a way to determine if one is a pirate king, over someone close to a pirate king when choosing to display whose head is on display?

Wonderful! Add some idle chatter on traders or some random messages from raiders and hide clues in them. Then we can have fun with it! Let's say there is ALWAYS a clue somewhere about real bad things (like the daughter of local warlord going off on "sidemissions" with her own band), but there is not always a clue about every single guy you should not "display in public". And you can easily miss the clues - simply by not contacting the trade ship in time, or by not making a connection between certain idle chatter and a nickname of the body you just used as a decoration.

Idle chatter from traders could also have other info in it - like information, that their scans show increased solar activity or that from orbit they can see some weather phenomenon coming your way. Or maybe just that they have seen other ship coming behind them, or something completely useless, just in favour of flavour.

[TechnicPyro]

Idle chatter from traders could also have other info in it - like information, that their scans show increased solar activity or that from orbit they can see some weather phenomenon coming your way. Or maybe just that they have seen other ship coming behind them, or something completely useless, just in favour of flavour.

I think trader chatter would be a nice addition to the game.

[Coenmcj]

i think completely deterring them would be a bad idea, but i agree that it should have some effect. like they would be more likely to run away in the middle of the fight.

At some point, it should deter them completely. If you've put hundreds of raiders in the ground and suffered few/no casualties yourself, they should either resolve not to attack without truly game-breakingly overwhelming numbers (like, no fewer than 200 raiders at once,) or they'd prefer to just besiege you and prevent trade and try to extort a payment to go away.

Or they could decide to come in with much better weapons..you know grenades and rocket launchers in order to blast your decrepidly evil colony off the face of the moon.

And in addition to this, what if happiness affecting items also had a similar effect? They see your walls are lined with flower pots looking all beautiful and whatnot, so they expect you to not put up a fight and roll on in with minimal resistance?

[Galileus]

"... so, there it is, you roll out your good and line up your girls, and we'll have our pick! Ain't got no say in this, see that? That, boy, is a gun. How it works is..." [HE-HE-HE-HE-HEADSHOOOOOOT!]

Hell yes.

[palandus]

Headshot in the UT Game Announcer's voice (1:05 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pyc3fBNoZyw)

[Untrustedlife]

i think completely deterring them would be a bad idea, but i agree that it should have some effect. like they would be more likely to run away in the middle of the fight.

At some point, it should deter them completely. If you've put hundreds of raiders in the ground and suffered few/no casualties yourself, they should either resolve not to attack without truly game-breakingly overwhelming numbers (like, no fewer than 200 raiders at once,) or they'd prefer to just besiege you and prevent trade and try to extort a payment to go away.

Or they could decide to come in with much better weapons..you know grenades and rocket launchers in order to blast your decrepidly evil colony off the face of the moon.

And in addition to this, what if happiness affecting items also had a similar effect? They see your walls are lined with flower pots looking all beautiful and whatnot, so they expect you to not put up a fight and roll on in with minimal resistance?

I don't think I like this idea. Though it MAY be realistic, of course the fact that they see a large barricaded wall ...........

[palandus]

I think if it was something to deter raiders to avoid your settlement, you'd do something like:

Have a big sign saying "This will happen to any raiders we capture"

And next to this sign if a bunch of raiders who died horrifically by jamming them butt first on a long sharp pike that drives all the way up the bowels and exits out around the shoulder bone. If I was a raider and saw that, I'd turn around and run the other way. Or, say, Nuke the site from orbit.

[ShadowDragon8685]

I think if it was something to deter raiders to avoid your settlement, you'd do something like:

Have a big sign saying "This will happen to any raiders we capture"

And next to this sign if a bunch of raiders who died horrifically by jamming them butt first on a long sharp pike that drives all the way up the bowels and exits out around the shoulder bone. If I was a raider and saw that, I'd turn around and run the other way. Or, say, Nuke the site from orbit.

You'd have fit right in in the dark ages. >_<