Tone down centipedes?

Started by muffins, July 26, 2014, 06:08:41 AM

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Rahjital

Quote from: Cyst on July 27, 2014, 01:56:14 PM
Say that after you encountered so many no firepower was enough to stop them "meat shields". ^^

A ship part crashed right next to my granary just a while ago (and set it on fire :/ ). I thought I was dead when it released fourty scythers and fifty-something centis, it turned out rather fine because the scythers rushed ahead, got killed and then it became a slapstick comedy as the centipedes chased around my colonists around but never caught them (I had to split them into two shifts, one working day and the other working night, just to prevent them from going insane).

I should also note that I have recently beat away a 293-strong tribal raid with 17 colonists. One got killed and another was kidnapped, but I really thought I was dead when the red message came and my computer suddenly lagged to hell...

Somz

Quote from: Rahjital on July 27, 2014, 02:08:49 PM
Quote from: Cyst on July 27, 2014, 01:56:14 PM
Say that after you encountered so many no firepower was enough to stop them "meat shields". ^^

A ship part crashed right next to my granary just a while ago (and set it on fire :/ ). I thought I was dead when it released fourty scythers and fifty-something centis, it turned out rather fine because the scythers rushed ahead, got killed and then it became a slapstick comedy as the centipedes chased around my colonists around but never caught them (I had to split them into two shifts, one working day and the other working night, just to prevent them from going insane).

I should also note that I have recently beat away a 293-strong tribal raid with 17 colonists. One got killed and another was kidnapped, but I really thought I was dead when the red message came and my computer suddenly lagged to hell...

Haha, then you're doing something better than I do. The rain of arrows destroyed everything before I could order my pawns to fall back, the turrets didn't couldn't handle them either, killed off about half of them before the second wave of arrowrain was released, the crumbling shields finally collapsed, it destroyed the covers and killed off my pawns in one shot.
To beer or not to beer.
That is a laughable question.

ApexPredator

Quote from: Fruit loops on July 27, 2014, 02:05:12 PM

personally the sythers are the easy one there is no reasoning for it they just seem easier to me

They have their place and if you have some folks far from base doing some hauling or cutting when they show up on map they will probably kill those colonists before they get home. With how accurate they are I think their HP is balanced.

Rahjital

Well, turrets are mostly pointless because they raise the strength of enemy raids, so unless you plan on using them as impromptu blasting charges, avoid them. Get all your colonists' shooting skill at least to level 10, the computer doesn't care about what skill your colonists are when computing the raid strength. Micromanage your pawns during battles, move them around, make use of the fact that you are a thinking human against (relatively) dumb AI algorithms - this means that you have to use friendly fire to your advantage, the tribals are especially vulnerable to slaughtering their own.

However, the most important advice is: When you see you can't handle the fight, RUN. The raiders will eventually get bored of gutting your colony and leave. This will mean a lot of rebuilding, but you can always rebuild. Replacing dead colonists is worse, especially when they are godlike cooks or something to that effect.

ApexPredator

Quote from: Rahjital on July 27, 2014, 05:45:38 PM
Well, turrets are mostly pointless because they raise the strength of enemy raids, so unless you plan on using them as impromptu blasting charges, avoid them. Get all your colonists' shooting skill at least to level 10, the computer doesn't care about what skill your colonists are when computing the raid strength. Micromanage your pawns during battles, move them around, make use of the fact that you are a thinking human against (relatively) dumb AI algorithms - this means that you have to use friendly fire to your advantage, the tribals are especially vulnerable to slaughtering their own.

However, the most important advice is: When you see you can't handle the fight, RUN. The raiders will eventually get bored of gutting your colony and leave. This will mean a lot of rebuilding, but you can always rebuild. Replacing dead colonists is worse, especially when they are godlike cooks or something to that effect.

If you do not use turrets are you getting attacked by 50+ size groups?

Somz

Quote from: Rahjital on July 27, 2014, 05:45:38 PM
Well, turrets are mostly pointless because they raise the strength of enemy raids, so unless you plan on using them as impromptu blasting charges, avoid them. Get all your colonists' shooting skill at least to level 10, the computer doesn't care about what skill your colonists are when computing the raid strength. Micromanage your pawns during battles, move them around, make use of the fact that you are a thinking human against (relatively) dumb AI algorithms - this means that you have to use friendly fire to your advantage, the tribals are especially vulnerable to slaughtering their own.

Yeah I am aware of that, though. Even without turrets, raid strength depends on wealth, is it not? That means everything you have in your stockpiles, every single building, the walls, everything. So even without turrets, if one has a base size of the moon then the raid will be as big accordingly, or am I mistaken?
To beer or not to beer.
That is a laughable question.

ApexPredator

That is what I thought as well, that attack size is based on “wealth” and buildings and items all add up. I am at the point on my current game that 150+ raiders are showing up at a time and these forces are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too big. I have gotten lucky on my last 2 raids that some friendly groups of 100+ showed up at the same time to do 90% of the work. There is no way my 12 colonists and 20 turrets can stop a raid of that size and its getting a little out of hand.

Shinzy

Quote from: ApexPredator on July 28, 2014, 12:19:29 AM
That is what I thought as well, that attack size is based on �wealth� and buildings and items all add up. I am at the point on my current game that 150+ raiders are showing up at a time and these forces are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too big. I have gotten lucky on my last 2 raids that some friendly groups of 100+ showed up at the same time to do 90% of the work. There is no way my 12 colonists and 20 turrets can stop a raid of that size and its getting a little out of hand.

around 40 turrets around single entrance with all cover denied by sandbags
would be well enough
if you have your colonists help, and have some designated repair personnel keeping the turrets alive as long as possible
and if you call for aid and with any luck the really small band of aidee's will draw
half of the attacking force to them and you have to deal with much smaller numbers at a time

and there are some other bit more exploitey ways of using turrets =P

Rahjital

Quote from: ApexPredator on July 27, 2014, 06:27:26 PMIf you do not use turrets are you getting attacked by 50+ size groups?

50+? I have more that 300 tribesmen coming, or 200+ in case of pirates. =p

It's survivable so far, but soon I'll reach the point where no matter how many enemies I kill, they just won't give up and force me to run away instead.

Quote from: Cyst on July 27, 2014, 09:44:30 PM
Yeah I am aware of that, though. Even without turrets, raid strength depends on wealth, is it not? That means everything you have in your stockpiles, every single building, the walls, everything. So even without turrets, if one has a base size of the moon then the raid will be as big accordingly, or am I mistaken?

Yes, raid strength depends on wealth as well as your strength. Each colonist generates 26 threat points and each 1000 points of wealth generates 29 threat points. That is rather significant, my colony has 21 colonists right now and 150k wealth... which means I get 546 threat points from colonists and roughly 4350(!) from wealth, adding up to 4896 threat points total. That alone makes for a strong raid.

The most important thing determining raid strength seems to be time, though. There are two variables, shortTermFactor and longTermFactor. Both of these begin at 1 and are multiplied together to determine raid strength force. shortTermFactor starts increasing after 50 days of play and doubles every 80 days, longTermFactor begins after 120 days and doubles every 150 days. This becomes very significant for older colonies. Using my own 330 day old colony as an example again, the shortTermFactor is 4.5 and longTermFactor is 2.4, making the raids coming at me more than 10 times stronger (ie using 48960+ threat points!)

If you want to live just a little while longer, keep your wealth down (this is where wood walls come useful I guess). It won't save you for long, though.

Quote from: ApexPredator on July 28, 2014, 12:19:29 AM
I have gotten lucky on my last 2 raids that some friendly groups of 100+ showed up at the same time to do 90% of the work.

I had no idea this is even possible. The best I got was a group of 5 villagers coming to help with a siege of 200 raiders and they waited in the centre of my village instead of actually trying to help.

muffins

Quote from: Rahjital on July 28, 2014, 03:33:58 AM
Quote from: ApexPredator on July 28, 2014, 12:19:29 AM
I have gotten lucky on my last 2 raids that some friendly groups of 100+ showed up at the same time to do 90% of the work.

I had no idea this is even possible. The best I got was a group of 5 villagers coming to help with a siege of 200 raiders and they waited in the centre of my village instead of actually trying to help.

Happened twice to me as well, though the first time I had walled off the friendly visitors in the hope that they would go mad and kill each other off, leaving me with all their juicy loot. Instead pirates came so I released my involuntary guests as the pirates approached my entrance. All I had to do was mop up afterwards.

On a serious note, the Cannons and Turrets mod is a must have with large humanoid raids. They're like the mortars ... except they can hit stuff!

ApexPredator

The friendly and raider groups are so big my game freezes for about 15 seconds then I hear the sound of an envelope coming then it unfreezes 15 seconds after that to a ball of people twice the area of a base 30 days in. My current wealth is 115k and sorry we seemed to have jacked the thread so let me bring it back, I would love a mech attack over these raider attacks that take 2 weeks with 8 haulers to clean up.

Zeta Omega

I HIGHLY DOUBT they will make centipedes weaker..Its basically their role in the game to be a major threat...their counterparts are weak, fast, and ranged. centipedes sort of balance them out.

ApexPredator

Quote from: Rimworldfan9381 on July 31, 2014, 10:20:12 PM
I HIGHLY DOUBT they will make centipedes weaker..Its basically their role in the game to be a major threat...their counterparts are weak, fast, and ranged. centipedes sort of balance them out.

My most recent loss came at the hands of 63 syphers. They would pop two sentries per volley and destroy the wall my colonist was using as cover and kill him per volley. Short of hiding in a wall and waiting for a friendly tribe to come by I have no idea how you can combat a force like this. There were 40-50 peeds on their way too.

Somz

Quote from: ApexPredator on July 31, 2014, 10:33:57 PM

My most recent loss came at the hands of 63 syphers. They would pop two sentries per volley and destroy the wall my colonist was using as cover and kill him per volley. Short of hiding in a wall and waiting for a friendly tribe to come by I have no idea how you can combat a force like this. There were 40-50 peeds on their way too.

Yeah, yet again I think simply increasing the attacking force is not funny on the long run. =|
For me a 300+ raid means a approximately 0.3 game speed, IF it doesn't freeze before. 250 is about the limit for me, any more any my PC starts choking... x)
To beer or not to beer.
That is a laughable question.

Bog

Quote from: Rahjital on July 28, 2014, 03:33:58 AM
I had no idea this is even possible. The best I got was a group of 5 villagers coming to help with a siege of 200 raiders and they waited in the centre of my village instead of actually trying to help.
Yeah, when you have silver coming out of your ears (sounds like you do with 150k wealth, or at least you have a lot of stuff you could sell to get silver. Berries are my favorite cash maker) you get on the comm system and start bribing factions. It usually costs something like 300 silver for +10 disposition, so a hostile faction at -50 will cost you 1500 just to get them neutral, and maybe 4500 to get them maxed out.

But the good news is that then they'll often show up to help you when you're under attack, and you can even call them to help you at will with the cost of -25 disposition (about 750 silver's worth) And when they help you late-game it usually pays for itself. 300 pirates fighting 200 of your allies usually results in, say, 400 guns. Even if they're just pistols that's like 20000 silver. ;D

Ideally you want to max out the disposition on everyone you can. It'll cut down your wealth alot (actually a good thing ::)) in exchange for actually making you harder to kill.
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