I like the snowy start world, its an interesting new challenge. I am not enjoying the Korat cutter on the snowy start world. I think the cold and lack of food is enough and the Korat is a bad idea. I want a way to switch it off in SP. Why I dont like it, it kills in one shot from outside minimap view range which is OP. It has no audio warning unlike drones. It cannot be detected / ranged using scanner, which is a cheaty implementation like other iterations of this kind of misconceived doom ship on start world mechanic which we have seen before. It is badly balanced and is no fun. I disable base attacks and do not set hard enemies because its not part of the survival experience I am looking for. I would prefer big drones because they can be defeated and are useful. Everything else has the option to make it easier or harder and IMHO the Karot should too.
Tell you something else about the Karot. If you do defeat it then the wreck vanishes in about 5 mins, I think a player defeating a CV deserves more of a reward than that like an opportunity to salvage for about an hour. I had to set up four turrets with ammo to get it down and that was a big chunk out of my resources. IMHO this is also inconsistent with the CV wreck gameplay. Also the Karot wreck does not save in SP survival. If you reload the moment it was destroyed to retry a salvage operation, it is no longer present in the game save which is also obstructive.
Sort of agree with you, but basically because of the AI - it doesn't seem to follow a fixed route , but tracks you down like a demented homicidal puppy -- and even if i do get to a POI - haven't time before it fibds me to sctually do anything (like take it apart) Lost my 1st HV cause i was in the Talon village -- where it spawncamped me for ages Think i could do a base near the poles - since seems only place it doesn't follow you - but no resources and cutter hunts me down as i try to collect them. I am Trying to not Use the Factory -- for initial survival & to not spawn unlocked things - Cause i want to play the survival bit So basically agree - they need to definitely nerf the Following aspect - maybe give it a fixed route otherwise way too difficult for starter planet...
At least you can actually shoot this one unlike previous patrol ships (which was a big reason I stopped playing this game for a long while because I dont like playing buggy games which mess with you). I think it should show on hand scanner pings but it doesn't show on any pings nor the map (some of the time) and that looks bugged because once it comes within close range of the player (firing range), it then shows up on the map and stays visible way outside normal detection range. That doesnt work right imho not credible or fair, as you say it evinces a certain vindictiveness. If you can detect it leaving (on the map) you should be able to detect it arriving and detector pings should always work and preventing that looks like moving the goal posts in an arbitrary and capricious manner which breaks the internal consistency of the game. If its meant to be a stealth mechanic imho that is not consistent with the role of the patrol craft which is a policing / visible projection of power role, not a ninja attack role. It does seem to get into obsessive loops and will camp stuff, at which point I just reload an earlier save and avoid it which is all you can do until you can put up a bunch of turrets and that is untenable if it chasing you around. There appear to be three patrol routes around the mid lattitudes and the equator, I found an underground base between these avoided attacks on the base and if there was no line of sight to the avatar it would move off, but if a vehicle was visible out in the open, even a destroyed vehicle, it would hang around that and wait for me to try to retrieve it, like a cheaty camper.
On Reflection maybe its better to have Two possible snow starts : 1 x Hard -- w/o the Cutter 1 x Very Hard - With the cutter and maybe Blueprints disabled on planet That gives two options - Caveat emptor Also helps deal with the 'too few different starts' in vanilla empyrion issue i feel empyrion has That way you can get the best of both worlds (cutter hasn't tracked me near the poles (yet) --> Yea me)
Would be nice with a starter option to have a Patrol Vessel (easy, medium, hard model) or not. If do a start with PV in Single Player or Coop, then can use console commands right after landing to destroy it, giving the same effect as an starter option PV=none. Adding a PV is more tricky. Tip: a PV should only came after you if line of sight within 500m (roughly), so hiding in a hole or POI should get it to move on. Can sometimes be kited to get stuck. Reloading the game often set another spawn place and route.
Although I find the Korat easy to kill as soon as you have an SV (any SV) with fixed weapons (kill the 4 turrets on it 1-by-1 using optimum angle of attack to reduce return fire) and especially if you have a shield in it ... I do find the way it camps the Talon settlement to be highly frustrating, especially if you arrived by motorcycle and then cannot escape again. My suggestion would be that the Korat patrols passively until the player places a core (base or vehicle) after which it becomes active - to the state it is currently from the outset. Before the player has placed a core, the Korat's guns need to be "off" to give the player (especially first-time players) a chance to progress beyond the "flight suit and survival tool" stage.
Not entirely sure that works -- with standard player progression without the Factory (which i kinda think is a bit of a cheat when you are in the 'survival' stage - as opposed to the got a base and plenty of resources stage) Since you can't get an SV without first having a Base setup (Again using Vanilla progression) Also on snow planet - kind of need HV to survive the cold. Also am very suspicious of Korat - as i have had a buried HV (admiteldy in long tunnel w/o dogleg) and this has been totally obliterated whilst i was doing a quest... -- i mean korat does camp you - but eventually goes away after you have buried yourself after multiple deaths -- And having korat 'puppy following' you at least you get to know where its safe to put up a base (away from korat) to enable you to create an SV (and certainly makes you watch the radar --- no doing POIs, takes too long get spaltted) It does currently for me put the difficulty upto 'Reforged Eden' Levels on the snow planet though in current game i have admin respawned one HV that was unfairly (to me) destroyed when it was underground
To adress that a bit: For the next update, I will deactivate PVs on starter planets. Not maybe forever, but at least to a point where we can sort out WHICH vessels are patrolling on starters a bit better. Already working on that - but might take me a while as there are a few more changes required to accomodate the PV groups change.
Thanks for taking note @Hummel-o-War and doing something. I have to say it is growing on me now I understand better how it operates and how to salvage it (subbing the core did seem to delay despawn but its a very short window to do that). IMHO the biggest play issue for me as a noob was not pinging by detectors which is inconsistent, though it does show on the map after you have targeted it visually at about 500m (which is very dicey on foot) and then stays on the map for that play session, but is gone again the next session. I found it can be driven off or "deactivated" at an early level of base development by investing in a quad projectile turret group and 2000 rounds which is a pricey proposition but worth it if you can salvage successfully. In my current playthough this strat has taken down three of them on the start planet so I was able to experiment with salvage. But as a noob without a base and turrets it is unstoppable, you have to flee or burrow and that includes base building and parking lot underground. Plus the stalking loop it seems to get into if it spots a vehicle in LOS is a bit much as it can completely break the save making it impossible to progress if it hangs around terminating your avatar every chance it gets. As with drones hanging around when sleeping (which they do but shouldn't) IMHO taking a nap in a tent or bunk should allow it to move on or it should core the vehicle so it is no longer a target and move on. It seems to disable a vehicle but then hang around the wreck. And for choices I would prefer its own checkbox not amalgamated with hardness because the last time I tried hard setting that also changed hitpoints for drones etc so they were very hard to bring down with a hand gun to the point it got onerous. I like medium hardness but would like the choice to have or not have Korat on the starter planet. As a noob to the Korat I found it overpowering but I am at the stage now where if the detector ping and stalking could be addressed then it might be a worthwhile challenge, still think it should be a choice though for the starter planet. Maybe it should be present by default on the second snowy planet in the snowy start system, with all the neodymium.
