Late-Game Woes

[Goldenpotatoes]

I understand that alpha means laying the foundation and gameplay elements before tweaking them during beta, but there's an issue when the staple of every long-lasting colony is an entrance better suited for a tower-defense game.

Whether it be a maze of dead fall traps, a room of 10+ turrets lining the walls, or peep holes for your dozen+ colonists to throw as much lead down-range as possible, the game in its current state will always end up with this issue if players would rather stay than leave. The worst part is that this kind of setup is required due to raid scaling making the initial skirmishes of early-game into some sort of blob of red death. You simply cant realistically deal with them without kiting them into death pits and exploiting the sub-par AI. Why are dozens of raiders/tribals willingly running into this hell-hole? Shouldn't they get the hint after the first raid against the death-box ended poorly?

Guns also factor into this as they loose most of their power once you stop getting smaller groups and start getting the larger militias. You can't throw enough lead down-range to reasonably thin the horde, which becomes even worse when you realize any form of suppression doesn't exist in the game, so they willingly run into the bullets in mass. Melee raiders with personal shields are probably the only people who can reasonably be this aggressive since they have actual defense against bullets, while everyone else should be looking to counter-suppress your own defenses or seeking ways around your main defense. 

TL;DR: sub-par AI leads to unrealistically large late-game hordes to increase difficulty and most guns inability to deal with clusters of enemies efficiently turns colonies into tower defense games with a side of resource management.

[A Friend]

I'd like more sapper-like events and vehicles.

- An armored humvee or bus that's meant to ram through thin and weak walls and pour out raiders inside your base.
- A slow rusty tank that's used for shooting holes and blowing up turrets. Mostly bulletproof with an exception of a very small weak spot behind it. The tank and the weak spot would have separate targeting.

[Headshotkill]

A large revision of the raiding system could solve this.
Rather than splitting up in types of raids (normal, siege, sapper), it should play out more dynamic where these three types are combined and used together in a single or multiple assaults.
Personally after having enemies get butchered in a death corridor, it should become useless for defence as either the enemy should now use sappers or bomb the danger area to rubble first.

Secondly during sieges the enemy should make some forward posts and always bring sniper rifles so you can't exploit it.

[Anomaly]

So true.  I want raiders to be smarter both in the way they attack and in taking a hint after a volley of rockets wipes out half their team.

[Goldenpotatoes]

I'd like more sapper-like events and vehicles.

- An armored humvee or bus that's meant to ram through thin and weak walls and pour out raiders inside your base.
- A slow rusty tank that's used for shooting holes and blowing up turrets. Mostly bulletproof with an exception of a very small weak spot behind it. The tank and the weak spot would have separate targeting.

Mad-Max style jury-rigged vehicles for raiding/transport would be an amazing addition in general along with the caravan system. It'd certainly help replace the human swarm of late-game with more interesting tactics at least.

[XeoNovaDan]

Hell yeah, makeshift buggies!
Carry up to 4 people regardless of mass and an additional 60kg of mass, move at 6.4 c/s or something, consume 1 chemfuel per in-game hour with a capacity of 100 for just over 4 days worth of travelling

Edit: Okay, maybe not 4 days, that's a bit much for a makeshift vehicle

[Sinosauropteryx]

My favourite raids are the ones that drop right inside your base. Even sappers can be handled in the "usual" way (snipers, bubble shield decoys, mortars etc) but the drop-ins always force a scramble and some unconventional close-quarters tactics. They've never proven to be that difficult, due to the relatively few raiders that drop, but they are the most exciting and provide an "oh shit" moment. Especially when they bring molotovs to your most valuable resource stores.

[SurvivoroftheNoobs]

I just avoid those strategies  all together. Sandbags and slag chunks if that can't stop them retreat and shoot. Its only tower defense or the hall of death if you make it. If its not challenging enough take away some of your defenses. Late game Cassandra Extreme with no turrets or halls of death is the true test for a colony in my opinion.

[Grishnerf]

I just avoid those strategies  all together. Sandbags and slag chunks if that can't stop them retreat and shoot. Its only tower defense or the hall of death if you make it. If its not challenging enough take away some of your defenses. Late game Cassandra Extreme with no turrets or halls of death is the true test for a colony in my opinion.

exactly this.
after my first 3-4 uber-bases with killbox/turret abuse, i stopped using them.
much more fun with urban combat and that injuries on pawns will happen.

[Goldenpotatoes]

I just avoid those strategies  all together. Sandbags and slag chunks if that can't stop them retreat and shoot. Its only tower defense or the hall of death if you make it. If its not challenging enough take away some of your defenses. Late game Cassandra Extreme with no turrets or halls of death is the true test for a colony in my opinion.

exactly this.
after my first 3-4 uber-bases with killbox/turret abuse, i stopped using them.
much more fun with urban combat and that injuries on pawns will happen.

Urban combat where you're forced to think on your feet and be tactical with positioning is probably where combat shines brightest. I just hate how this becomes so much less effective late-game because the current method of raid difficulty is just throwing a shit-ton more people at you, instead of making them smarter/capable of countering your defenses.

Things like EMP sieges to disable your electronic defenses turrets before charging in, bringing heavy explosives to drop external walls, or more extensive use of drop-pod raids would be a refreshing change.

[Nomsayinbrah]

I'd like more sapper-like events and vehicles.

- An armored humvee or bus that's meant to ram through thin and weak walls and pour out raiders inside your base.
- A slow rusty tank that's used for shooting holes and blowing up turrets. Mostly bulletproof with an exception of a very small weak spot behind it. The tank and the weak spot would have separate targeting.

Damn, this is an insanely good idea! That would work really well in later game. You're making me drool again

[magicbush]

I'd like more sapper-like events and vehicles.

- An armored humvee or bus that's meant to ram through thin and weak walls and pour out raiders inside your base.
- A slow rusty tank that's used for shooting holes and blowing up turrets. Mostly bulletproof with an exception of a very small weak spot behind it. The tank and the weak spot would have separate targeting.

Yes this would be awesome and add a lot of fun to the game.  I pictured vehicles being in a long time ago, but sadly they have not been added. It would give another use for chemfuel as well since tynan said he wants to add more use for it soon.

[Grishnerf]

I just avoid those strategies  all together. Sandbags and slag chunks if that can't stop them retreat and shoot. Its only tower defense or the hall of death if you make it. If its not challenging enough take away some of your defenses. Late game Cassandra Extreme with no turrets or halls of death is the true test for a colony in my opinion.

exactly this.
after my first 3-4 uber-bases with killbox/turret abuse, i stopped using them.
much more fun with urban combat and that injuries on pawns will happen.

Urban combat where you're forced to think on your feet and be tactical with positioning is probably where combat shines brightest. I just hate how this becomes so much less effective late-game because the current method of raid difficulty is just throwing a shit-ton more people at you, instead of making them smarter/capable of countering your defenses.

Things like EMP sieges to disable your electronic defenses turrets before charging in, bringing heavy explosives to drop external walls, or more extensive use of drop-pod raids would be a refreshing change.

ye i feel you, when the 50-60 tribals knock on your door and you have no turrets at all.

the only Thing i do nowadays is to build some front defensive posititons (walls+sandbags) ,
where i can retreat fast and easily through 2-3 autodoors to the next defensive position.
the enemies have to go around a little bit.
while that happens few of my pawns can poke through doors and give some shots and force the enemy to split up Forces.
after this second def Position, i have one last one, and after that a big wide open space(entrance area) to kite the last enemies to death.
kiting + stutterstepping like in starcraft with marines works also here. not that fast ofcourse ^^
but you gain an Advantage doing this against melees/animals.

and i like that i can also lose some pawns if i dont pay Attention.
with a killbox this is kinda nonexistent.

"oh a raid with 50 tribals" , turn on powerswitch with 30 turrets, go on Desktop read some Forums, go back in game and micro some more valuable stuff to loot than a spear and longbow .
thats literally the combat with killboxes in a sarcastic nutshell.