Do some attacks need to be revamped?

[DaNewb]

I've grown to love the multiple attempts to keep us on our toes, and try different defensive strategies but after many hours of playing i think some of the attacks need to be revisited.  It is more of a nuisance then forcing us to adapt.  For example, just having a hunter or people out picking up a wreckage drop can get isolated and instantly attacked by raiders that drop on top of them or right on top of your base entrance as they come back.  The simple fact that raiders can instantly drop in an open space of your base or right at the entrance without warning was refreshing to see at first but has slowly turned into a "gamey" mechanic we must work around because we know it can happen.  Again its with no warning whatsoever.  Also the siege attacks also are a great touch but i've noticed they are always surprising underwhelming and non threatening.  The only attacks that can really cause problems are the huge waves of mechanoids.  My suggestion would be to make the AI attacks more tactical and less gimmicky.  Have the raiders enter from the edge of the map and approach the settlement but instead of just full out assault mode or besiege mode, have some tactical assault where they strategically attack with snipers at max range and people with other guns near them to back them up in case you decide to rush the snipers.  I don't know how many times i have just sat there with 4-6 sinpers picking off 1/4 to half the enemies while there snipers are just out of reach as they watch the others die.  Or a full squad of people just rush towards a line of my colonists one or two at a time and get torn to shreds. 

These are just my thoughts and my opinion, feel free to agree, disagree, or anything else.  More importantly i want to hear everyone else's thoughts.

[Goo Poni]

I think hotdrops on top of the base are incredibly gamey. I know why they're there. They curb people building the kill zones with access tunnels by catching you with your pants down. But that was a playstyle that was almost mandatory to adopt at the time because the raids got REALLY big, 4:1 or 5:1 ratios, or worse, were common occurrences and fighting them in anything less than the waffle killboxes where raiders had more than a brief opportunity to fire back, people were gonna die. However raids have been curtailed quite a bit and those hotdrops just feel like "SURPRISE! #REKT! LOL!". Raids in general are already not in your favour from day one, even when it's the unlucky lone sod that comes at first. That one guy only needs one bullet and he could kill someone with a headshot or cripple them for an extended duration. He is replaceable. Easily replaceable. The next big raid will 5-6 more, just like him, that one guy with grenades or a sniper rifle who wants to ruin end your day. This is not a game where you are managing hundreds of colonists. You are handling typically ~10 individually named colonists, but you cannot get attached to them for fear of watching them die to something that's otherwise out of your control. You cannot dictate what raiders get sniper rifles. You cannot dictate when those raiders will randomly headshot someone, or shatter a leg bone. You can't help it at all besides cower in fear in the corner of the map and hope the raiders don't come looking. If everyone, raiders and colonists alike were just generic unnamed plebs, sure, I'd have no problem watching one drop dead. But if someone from the start of the colony or was made to join early on, or even those particular individual who freely join out of the blue, end up dying, I either resort to save scumming or just toss away the save. 90% of the colony saves I have, I can load them up, curiously wondering why I stopped and, oh yeah, 5 dead, two wounded, two alive and standing and a horde of raiders to bury. Bleh.


That about summarises my opinion on big raids with multiple sniper rifle equipped raiders, hell, big raids in general. "Bleh".

[Lost Cause]

I build my colonies with the kill box built around my trade stockpile and this is the only open area in my base. When pirates or mechanisms drop on me it is great fun and a lot of easy kills :p
I think there would need to be a few behavioral variants on the raiders to really shake things up. I did have quite a weird raid not long ago where the attackers just seemed to spontaneously forget where they were going and turn to attack the nearest wall...
That was really, really annoying. It took ages to fix it all again.

[Goo Poni]

I'm sure that's intended. If you click on raiders at the start of their raid, their objectives tend to be torching random parts of the colony or to just go generically punch it or whatever they are implied to do when those pawns smash their face against something in a melee attack. Only a few intend to attack colonists. This rapidly changes once they're actually in range.

I -think- but I can't specifically remember if the raider AI was fiddled with to try and recognize a kill zone and go around it, in which case they would probably start attacking walls and such.

[DaNewb]

I just think the raids need to be revisited.  If the AI could use some "human" tactics like we do to them instead of just rushing.  Also the drop in on top gets old, but instead i suggest maybe raiders come in from the edges of the map and are not announced.  They could be considered to be sneaking with camo or whatever and they only way to know they are coming is to have a colonist physically see them approaching.  That way you could not just hide in a mountain or inside the base all the time until its announced that raiders showed up but instead you could have someone outside the door just keeping watch, that is a lot more realistic then people drop podding into the base.