Anti-sniper siege with off-the-shelf elements

[b0rsuk]

I have an idea how to make sieges harder to snipe. Do you like it ?

I painted this with dev tools. It's a mix of a siege and melee raid. There are no shooters in this team, only melee guys equipped with personal shields. Because personal shields are a nightmare for a sniper. Normally, snipers can take their time and slowly kill siege teams one by one. If siege crew all had personal shields, slow attrition would no longer work. You would need to have very accurate snipers or shoot in pairs.

The mortars in the picture are in unroofed rooms. This is to prevent them from being sniped too easily.

As for behaviour of such alternate siege, they would start chasing when under fire similar to mechanoids, then return to their position. During all that time mortar operators would keep firing.

[quxzcover]

+1

[Nickvr628]

I think it would be cool if they built small structures like this, and to store their food/shells/etc.

[Britnoth]

There are no shooters in this team, only melee guys equipped with personal shields.

Sieges are a joke already. This just makes them even more ridiculous.

[hwfanatic]

I wasn't laughing when a shell hit my hospital and killed half of my pawns. Never really got that joke. It shaped my RimWorld strategy forever.

I like the idea of making them less susceptible to sniper fire, but I believe this could be accomplished by "simply" making them more situationally aware.

[Dante King]

Half your pawns in a single shell? Jeez... that must've been devastating, but hey! Every survivor gets new attire, made from the freshest of leather! As long as you don't mind explosion dust and such on it.

[Reviire]

I wouldn't mind sieges being stronger, if mortar shells weren't so good at completely removing your base. If you build it out of steel, it should be able to take a few hits. Pretty much the reason i modded out bugs and went back to mountain basing.

But I'm all for smarter and better prepared sieges, I'd love to see AI improvements, and just maybe, an enemy AI that adapts to what you do. So no more killboxes.

[b0rsuk]

There are no shooters in this team, only melee guys equipped with personal shields.

Sieges are a joke already. This just makes them even more ridiculous.

How so ? They would take much longer to kill with a sniper rifle, and during that time mortars would be firing. And it wouldn't replace all sieges, it would be a variant of siege. And if they take cover with those shields, it's going to take a few days to root them out.

This siege would need a bit different tactics. Maybe you could distract them at one side and send someone with molotovs or incendiary launcher. Maybe you would fire your own mortars. Maybe you have a whole team equipped with decent medium range weapons - but many colonies don't, especially if they're tribes.

[keylocke]

i think it's a good idea, but building walls takes a long time. in most of the sieges i encounter, i kill builders asap. 95% of the time, sieges aren't even able to finish building their mortars.

for this to happen, they need to increase the number of people in a siege and also increase the number of raiders that would participate in the building process to make it a lot faster.

[cultist]

I feel like this is once again a problem with the sniper rifle and not the siege mechanic.

[Listen1]

Steel walls are faster to build, and somewhat sturdy. I like b0rsuk idea, but they would be a real pain to handle. But as a counterpart, I would make mortars highly flamable so that you could thrown a molotov at night and destroy it.

In my tribal colony, the thing I fear most is that everything I have is made of wood and sieges will be my nemesis, I only have 2 personal shields, and I'm pretty sure I would not withstand an siege without major damages.

[isRyan]

You could have the sniper shoot a hole in the wall and then blow up the mortar. Now that I think about it though, can your colonists target walls while drafted? If not that should be a thing

[Listen1]

Bonus Idea!

Claim the building, let your constructors build a roof over it, laugh.

[b0rsuk]

Bonus Idea!

Claim the building, let your constructors build a roof over it, laugh.

I already thought about that. And the walls would have to be unclaimable before the raiders are taken care of.

Incidentally, I think you can currently do that with to sieges. Build while they sleep, and now you only need a single wall square + Build Roof Area. The reason you don't see me doing such antics is because a single sniper (or rifleman) typically takes them out before they have chance to sleep.

bonus idea 2:
when they go to sleep, build IED traps in mortar interaction spots. Put an extra shell nearby to destroy mortars. Use their own shells.

Steel walls are faster to build, and somewhat sturdy. I like b0rsuk idea, but they would be a real pain to handle. But as a counterpart, I would make mortars highly flamable so that you could thrown a molotov at night and destroy it.

That's why I made a picture with steel walls. They're the sweet spot. If they're still not fast enough, pirates can be made to build out of wood.

I don't think you need to make mortars extra flammable. Those walls are flammable in the first place, unlike the usual sandbags. Use a pincers attack (from two sides), one side pulls melee pirates another side throws molotov. Cavemen in Quest For Fire can do that, why not you ?

This siege probably wouldn't build sandbags because it would take too much time. They can still use chunks and trees for cover. Yes, you could probably punch a hole with sniper rifle, but that would take time. The point of this siege is to buy as much time vs sniper rifle as possible... I mean hard to snipe, not impossible.

Finally, this siege could be unlocked after sniping your first siege, to give an illusion of pirates adapting.

[Britnoth]

How so ? They would take much longer to kill with a sniper rifle, and during that time mortars would be firing.

Without any ranged weapons, you no longer need to worry about the range of your own fighters. Instead of a sniper you can safely use your entire colony to deal with the siege, with zero risk.

A few charge rifles and someone with EMP nades would make this a 30 second turkey shoot.