I want to hear about exploit strategies!

[Ramsis]

When mechs with miniguns attack, shielded pawns can stand up to them for a long time due to the minigun spread.

Move a shielded pawn up first, until they become targeted. A shield can withstand a single minigun often forever, while non-shielded pawns get plenty of time to shoot from another direction.

The exploit here would be that the mech doesn't detect that the shielded pawn is not a threat, while the multiple pawns with rifles are.
Perhaps a threat/aggro mechanic would be helpful here.

To hell with you Leth, that's the only time shield-gens are useful is to take bullets for my gunners. Oh, you're a colonist who refuses to use weapons? Here, enjoy being my literal cover.

Would be silly to see an aggro system pop in nowish but I guess anything is possible.

[keylocke]

well an aggro system (like the way mmorpg bosses behave) would make combat more dynamic and less predictable.

since i also abuse the shielded-bait-running-around-while-others shoot strategy, coz i'm naturally degenerative/exploitative and lazy when playing. lel.

but adding a real aggro system could increase battle difficulty without needing to raise the quantity of attackers.

[RawCode]

The problem is the same with a lot of similar issues, which is that there's no really good way to determine *why* an event happened for AI purposes.

As in, a guy starved to death - how do we know it was intentional by the player, and not just because everyone is starving?

A trader starved to death or burned to death - should his faction get angry? How do we know?

I can think of ways try to detect it but it gets tricky.

1) traders lost in colony
2) investigation event
3) where are items and bodies?
4) inside stockpile? well - blame player.
5) still on floor? - well - recover items and blame raiders.


player try to build wall section that will trap trading party - throw warning and set flag, if trading party die afterwards - blame player.

If trading party survive - kay, no punishment.

[RickyMartini]

That sounds way to complicated for an issue that is just slightly off.

[RemingtonRyder]

Well, I guess that you could somehow track the origin of injuries back to the original source. For example, lightning starts fire, fire burns trader, trader dies -> nobody's fault, just a tragic accident.

But yeah, as Tynan says, it's not always possible to come to a solid conclusion as to why an event happened to justify making the AI hostile. You could spin a whole new game out of that called CrimeSceneWorld.

[Tynan]

Here's my factory:

http://puu.sh/nP1LP/cddecca5fc.png

Bugs die on the traps and the colonists clean and rearm the traps consistently. Jelly factory voila!

Ok, this should be impossible in next build (1122). You may still be able to kill an infinite number of bugs, but you aren't harvesting infinite jelly this way.

[RickyMartini]

Noooooooooooooooooooo

I'm conflicted now. Should I further expose exploits or keep them for myself? Hmmm

[Tynan]

lol.

Well, they'll all get exposed in the long term anyhow.

[RickyMartini]

You sure, Ty? 

[Tynan]

By my secret exploit finder, o elite private tester.

[Coenmcj]

By my secret exploit finder, o elite private tester.

It's a conspiracy! 1122 was an inside job!

[skullywag]

Im probably gonna be hated for this, but...

doing anything in diagonal cells should be disallowed. Repairing turrets through a corner...no, stop it.

[Tynan]

Im probably gonna be hated for this, but...

doing anything in diagonal cells should be disallowed. Repairing turrets through a corner...no, stop it.

I agree, I have a note written for this. It's just that it's a bit of a tricky technical problem. But I'll try to do it for A14.

[Hiztaar]

This is not a "real" exploit but it's a kind of.

Using growing areas to grow flowers in a room without a roof and using this room as a "gate" for the base. When raiders attack. You just need to open the first gate and set the flowers on fire then close the second gate and put a roof to the room. When raiders enter, they will suffer overheating and burn to death.

Easy way to annihilate entire hordes of raiders.

Here is a screen :

[keylocke]

yea. the flame room trap is an old exploit.

i think burning pawns or overheating/cold pawns should automatically run outside on instinct, before they start doing their panic dance.