Changes to poison / psychic ships triggering?

[mndfreeze]

I tend to come and go from Rimworld a lot.  I thikn I bought it way back in like A13?  Anyway, until the A18, last time I played quite a bit was in A16.  I used to be able to lay IED traps around ship events when they landed and then explode them with a sniper.  It was super useful when I'm still early into a colony. I tend to play with few colonists on harder biomes, extremes, etc. 

Now every time I try to set up a trap near a ship, and not even RIGHT next to it or anything, the bastards spawn.  But I had pawns literally go run up and lay down to cloud watch directly next to it with no spawning at all.

Anyone know if they changed this on purpose? I couldn't find any specific info on when searching, only older posts from A16 and such when people were discussing how to do it.

[lancar]

It's been that way for a couple of alphas. I'm fairly sure it was changed to disrupt cheesy strategies like this one (which I used extensively, I might add).
They're still scaled to your colony's wealth, however, so building a few spots for defense (sandbag-wall-sandbag) and just duking it out with the mechanoids at close-to-medium range is still a valid strategy, even if all you have are dudes with bows.

[Shurp]

And if you have batteries and turrets it's even easier.  Put your fully charged battery behind your wall, put the turrets in front, have a few pawns with them to keep them company, and let'er'rip.

[mndfreeze]

Yeah this is what I've been doing, it's just not always a possible option early on.   

[sadpickle]

There's very little you can do. Thankfully one or two Scythers is not totally insurmountable, even as tribals. Walls and sandbag with a roof and you can actually kill 2 without anyone losing their head. Zoning expendable animals nearby can buy you time. You can also zone boomalopes directly around the ship, which is quite effective. They won't prematurely trigger the defense either.

If you spawn a Centipede though, well. I really hope you have guns. Lots of guns.

[lancar]

If you spawn a Centipede though, well. I really hope you have guns. Lots of guns.

Greatbows are surprisingly effective against them, I've noticed.

[cyberian]

agree @lancar... also Recurve
I had one early into my Tribal start but managed without any cheese. Just built a few wall pillars for cover. You have to seperate the Scythers from the Centipedes which is usually possible. Swarmed the Scythers in melee, then retreated to the cover and killed the Centipede with Recurve bows.
Isn't IED quite late anyway you can have snipers and armor and such easily doing it regularly by that point right?

[silenced]

That's why going turrets and mortars is quite a bit important. Those EMP shells are life savers.

It's always a challenge early on. But manageable, except you're unlucky and the centipedes come with rockets.

[TheMeInTeam]

If you spawn a Centipede though, well. I really hope you have guns. Lots of guns.

Greatbows are surprisingly effective against them, I've noticed.

Too slow, if you want to hit them and not get hit.

You really want stuff with 80 warm-up ticks or less if possible so that you can shoot them from doors without them shooting back.

[GridLink]

Or just something with long range really, Centipedes are slow, and typically have medium range weaponry allowing you to easily outrange them and kite them around. I had a pair of guys with bolt-action rifles take out a Centipede by firing and running for a day or so, letting the other kite it while they had food and got rest then popping out a different door to kite it back again.

[lancar]

If you spawn a Centipede though, well. I really hope you have guns. Lots of guns.

Greatbows are surprisingly effective against them, I've noticed.

Too slow, if you want to hit them and not get hit.

You really want stuff with 80 warm-up ticks or less if possible so that you can shoot them from doors without them shooting back.

I can understand that if you want to be avoid getting shot at at all costs, but wall plus sandbags on the sides provide a very strong defense even against scyther shots. Against the rapid fire weapons of the centipedes its even better!

And I say this knowing full well that RNG can seriously screw you over regardless. My best builder and miner died yesterday from a single scyther shot through the brain, overcoming walls, sandbags AND a power armor helmet providing over 50% damage reduction. No previous scars or HP loss. One shot.. and dead.