I saw your Steam A10 Announcement - and I just want to say - if it isn't planned for it already please allow base attacks to be toggled off in difficulty options through custom settings. There's no need to make it default on anything but what i had in mind was changing the "Drones Attack Base" Option to Read: "Bases are attacked by Aliens" - which would control both the former drone attacks and the possibility and intensity of the upcoming Base Attacks by NPC Factions. The reason I want it to be optional is simple: I like my bases - I don't them destroyed - atleast in some of my saves I want some sort of permanence while I work on build up. I don't pretend to think people will find the lack of this boring - however I find the presence of NPCs Attacking Player Bases unruly even if it's "mild". An Option for "none" - even if not default but had to be set in custom settings would be much apprieciated. Thanks for taking the time to hear me out. P.S. I noticed you dramatically reduced the amount of spiders on the Arid Planet after the last patch to A9 - I want to thank you for that - it means that you are listening to our requests to make the game fun for everyone and not just a select group.
You need a fifth option in your poll: "Dynamic - Controlled by reputation." This solves your issue with not wanting to be attacked by eliminating attacks if you don't do anything to provoke said attacks. Don't want the Big Bad Alien Empire to level your base with a fleet of CVs? Then don't raid their bases and steal their resources. This would allow players to choose a pacifist style of game play if they so desire. That said, there really is an issue currently with base repairs being...inconvenient. I firmly believe that activating the new base attacks without solving this problem as well a issues with turret targeting first would be a mistake.
That's where your wrong you see - Generally Rep Starts out negative with NPC Factions if they do that - which means they will attack by default until you figure out how to get them neutral or better. I prefer a difficulty setting personally - but dynamic intensity based on Reputation (as opposed to Dynamic Chance of Attack) would be a nice touch - since you could get really pissed off aliens sending a whole army after your small loot outpost Imagine the police knocking on your door demanding their stuff back - that would the Zirax or the Talon
I just played the test base attack scenario i really enjoyed it. There were a lot of exceptions popping up and the Zirax got my core fast but defending what you built (i didn't build this base) would be a real test to your building skills. There was a tug of war for a bit as to who owned the base with cores getting slapped down. somehow there has to be some planets safer than others maybe? maybe the starter only has light drone attacks but if you move to a resource rich planet and put in a base the locals will attack it. Also will we have space bases attacked? this is a great addition to the game and hopefully the level of attack is measured by planet difficulty somehow?
Then that's a problem that would need to be addressed BEFORE activating the new base attacks. Unless there is a compelling story reason for faction rep to start in the negative then is should always start as neutral. Its important to allow the player to choose how they want to play without them having to actively make a conscious decision. If that makes any sense. Im not saying there shouldn't be a difficulty setting; just that there is no real reason for base attack strength or chance to be static. Because that would be boring. I was thinking more along the lines of having dynamic chance of attack based on multiple factors; including rep and then having dynamic attack intensity based primarily on rep. Neutral and up = no attacks. Attack chance and intensity ramp up as rep falls. Hated rep = "We want to erase you from existence! Send in the fleet!" That's the idea - encourage player choice and let the consequences of those choices play out in believable ways when possible. Emergent gameplay is the best gameplay.
I can agree with all those points - but working with several prealpha, alpha, and beta Early Access Products in the past I can tell ou that there is likely to be a "compelling" story reason for them to start hostile - and that is that the players tend to leave crap alone if they know it'll get them in trouble (not always - you do have the occasional game where some idiot brings in his friends and they make a mess of the town (Diablo anybody? )) So the devs will have to give a "push" to the conflict - it wouldn't take much - a single-attack to set things in motion - which would almost assuredly set the standard for retaliation.
I like the idea of huge attacks that require my attention as a player. Historically, base attacks can be completely solved just by dropping a few basic turrets. The bomber drones have mixed that up since they're fast enough to get in and do damage before being destroyed. More difficulty levels are needed though. There's really only like 3 base attack difficulty levels because the other half are the same but with infinite waves. If base attacks are going to get a lot stronger then there needs to be more fine tuning of it so they can properly scale with planet difficulty. Definitely need this if base attacks will be a real threat to the player. I think this is a big reason a lot of people don't like base attacks. It's annoying and tedious to have to manually repair all your base blocks especially if you have to rebuild them.
We know there is allot to solve when this goes public. We're discussing it aswell what needs to be done Currently the drones dont hurt much with a propper defence. But we see very well the damage a full scale attack can cause
Please tell me you mean BEFORE Current Turret A I is so slow that with 4 Cannon my base still gets damaged by the basic Drones on the starter. Have a series of subsystem updates. Turret AI, Base Repair, Sentry AI etc. THEN drop the hammer. You will at least have my respect, I can't speak for everyone.
I hope that they realize repair-to-template for bases is basically a requirement. If they don't, and the base attacks are potent, they'll get a lot of frustrated people. If the Zirax conquer your base, you should be able to retake the base and repair it back. Repair-to-template needs to be changed for both bases and CV to be a module that you install, that initiates repair of the structure it is installed in (you still need to repair SV & HV from a base or CV). Instead of blocking you from accessing the structure, it should be functional, but you can't add or change blocks while repair is in progress. If the base or CV takes damage, repair is auto-cancelled, and can't be re-initiated for a few minutes.
I want to see it escalating on the starter world, up to about your "Medium" option. On more advanced worlds, it should get higher. Much higher. Give me a reason to build a fortress and try and hold it. If you make a faction angry enough, they should attack your bases, auto-miners, unattended vessels, and so on. The strength of their attack might also depend on the size of what they're attacking (they should not send out a wave of 20 drones against a single HV.) I'd love it if we had to build a walled base with reasonable defenses just to protect a single auto-miner on top of an Erestrum deposit.
As the others, this brings up a number of questions: - Attack severity based on reputation, I like. A LOT. But obviously something needs to address gamestart Rep scores, or none of us will last long enough to grab some corndogs, let alone build a base with defenses. - There may need to be some other variables affecting severity and frequency, particularly at early game starts, such as player level, base size, etc. A few days grace period may not be enough, some game starts make it a challenge to scavenge up basic resources, let alone enough to create a defend-able home. - Assuming the player has more than one base, which will be attacked? All of them at same time? A random one? Or the one closest to the player? Such a system, although adding a very welcome aspect to Survival mode, should be progressively challenging (based on controllable variables), but needs to be defend-able. Otherwise, you're going to have a problem with new players raging out (bad PR), or even returning players logging into an older (large) build and finding an enemy fleet welcome committee (and thus raging out and creating more bad PR). I also agree with the others that some further aspects of NPC combat should be improved (weapon lag, npc hitboxes, continued armor resistance issues, etc.). Particularly if we're going to be facing more Zirax rocket launchers and One-shot shotguns. And if we piss off the POL, let them get in on the fun. Send some of those sleek base security guards and creepy bounty hunters after us.
Drone attacks in general need their trigger reviewed. It can depend on reputation, with perhaps some grace period for low levels (or in game time). But they need to fix the fact drones never attack a base if you didn't place the starter block. There are so many abandoned bases, and POI's you can take over, that making these converted bases immune to attacks is a cheat. Drones should be flying around, just looking for you. There should perhaps be a "scout" drone that doesn't even have a weapon, it just flies around the planet looking. When it sees you hanging around somewhere, it signals to the drone base to send backup, and a couple drones come out to wherever you are, whether that's a base, or you're mining. The scout drones follow you at a distance until the backup arrives. If you shoot it down, and leave, the other drones won't find you. The size of the fleet sent should be related to the number of POI's they control. The enemy faction needs to have a foothold on the planet, and wiping out their POI should reduce their strength. (Or just wiping out their attack bases, like drone bases, spaceport, etc.) So tough planets may have several large military installations making it hard to clear out the planet. As for which base gets attacked, perhaps based on the "value" or "threat level" of the base, sort of like this: Unpowered base (like landing pads) are 0, they don't care about them. Various key devices add "value" to the base, such as generators, capacitors, constructors, turrets, etc. Stuff in cargo boxes adds to the "value" of a base, according to its credit value (so a stack of gold bars is desirable, stone dust is not) Autominers have a value, and will be attacked if undefended - if there's a nearby base, they add to the value of that base Base is unknown and has no value until a scout drone sees it, and its current value is updated only when a scout drone gets near
I agree that there is still some more work to be done with Drone mechanics. IIRC, the current trigger is placing a turret on a BA structure created by the player using a BA starter block. I would recommend that this be modified slightly to a turret placed on - A structure that was created by Player using a BA Starter block |OR| - A BA structure claimed with a player-placed Core. This should trigger the Drone Event, even for those that forego building a base for taking one over. As I do occasionally if I happen to land near a Titan section. Granted, many times there is a Guard Drone for these POI's, which when killed, gets replaced soon enough, whether you have a turret up or not. And I like that aspect. As for Base determination and Scouts, I think your suggestion (specifically a Scout element) might be a bit complicated to code from a Developer standpoint, considering the lower priority of the Drone and NPC attack system. In the case of multiple player bases, choosing the largest BA class (size class rating) would be the easier method, as it is probably a check-function more easily adapted. Obviously, the better option, from a Player's perspective, is that they choose to attack the BA closest to where the player is. At least now the player has a chance to get to and defend that base. Disregarding math errors due to the Meridian issue, of course, not sure if they are able to handle that, being Flat Earthers and all. ;] It would suck if they went for the base 16k away on the opposite side of the planet, and not the one 1k away because it's on the other side of the meridian seam. As it is, there seems to be a considerable delay now with Drone actions, at least I find when I approach a POI guard drone. They do not recognize threat for a few seconds, even when fired upon. Easy to kill, except there is a delay before they explode, and they might actually shoot back at zero HP. Zombie drone. In the end, drones are not very bright, nor have a complicated behavior AI. It WOULD be nice if they were more involved in Seek&Destroy operations, but I think this new NPC Base Attack system can be a big step to improving that already. Quantity over quality, so to speak. Currently, random firing of my BA turrets is just background noise. I rarely bother to even look to see if the drones are dead, I know it is over after a few shots. With this new Base Attack system, I'll be considerably more on my toes. At least until I build 20 rocket turrets pointed in their approach vector, put in some earplugs, and sleep like a baby. Assuming the triggers, timing, and target issues are worked out by the Devs, this should be a nice upgrade to the NPC's. Let's see how it is implemented, and go from there.
A proper sensor system would pretty much solve the problem, as it would allow the generation of a list of targets sorted by sensor signature. So, if you built a small base mostly underground and didn't consume much power, for example, your sensor signature should be quite small, and possibly not distinguishable from noise (particularly on planets with ambient radiation or other noise sources).
Yes, I didn't like when this change was made. It used to be that you didn't have to place a turret, they'd just come attack you, so you were in a race against time to build a turret. Now, you can build as big of a base as you want, and no one attacks it. No reason to put defenses, the defenses just attract attacks. It seems like that's changing soon, so I won't complain further until I see what they do in Alpha 10. Also, need drone attacks in space. There are drone bases but I have never had drones attack my base in space. Similarly, drones should try to attack CV's. These are sort of like flying bases anyway. Why not send a welcome wagon for you?
