New Base Attack

Yep, time to go back to my old way of building a base... under a mountain. I may be biased but playing the tutorial and having 2 rocket drones and 2 machine gun drones suddenly show up on the third morning and blowing my base and me to dust bunnies may be a tad excessive. At least under a mountain they have to work at it for a while giving me a chance to fight back.

 

I do like the new base attacks, though I've had some oddness regarding triggering them - but that's detailed in another thread.

One of the things I don't like so much about them is how the attack wave just spawns a few hundred metres away from the target base. They don't appear to approach from the Drone Base any more, which makes predicting the direction they'll arrive from impossible. Indeed, for me, Base attacks have spawned to the East of my base, and the following time to the South of my base. I like that the direction isn't predictable in theory, however, foes just popping in a few hundred metres away isn't so good. Rather they should ideally launch from the Drone Base - giving the player an advantage if they've already found it, as they can assume direction - but then circle around for example, to approach from a "weaker" side, it one exists.

Currently for me, I get the attack warning, check the map instantly, and the attackers are already visible. Seconds later any Rocket Drones in the Group are already firing.

Note: my very first attack - triggered in an odd way, see my bug report - included a Troop Transport, while the second attack did not.

Note 2: Interestingly, when that first Troop Transport landed, it dug out a large amount of terrain - perhaps trying to get to me slightly buried core? I say the Transport did this, as the only two troops deployed were quite visibly walking towards my base - no drilling done by them.

I want to play with Base Attacks more, but equally want to trigger them legitimately to test properly. This does add a good, fun extra challenge but still needs tweaks I think.

I assume the attacks are supposed to ramp up in difficulty over time?

Scoob.

 

I am not certain of this anymore, but back in A8 and A9 I tunneled my way into a mountain and set up DEEP inside it. I had defenses on the tunnel entrance, and assumed they wood have to blast their way down. Instead they seemed to be able to ignore the mountain and blasted my core and some other equipment from outside. I no longer consider digging in to be a good defense. Now I go with Flak and cannons! The new shield helps a ton.

 

I do have a question: I have withstood several attacks now. They always have a troop transport and about 4 drones. I make a point of never letting the troops disembark. I want to see just how smart the system is.

Do the attacks get stronger as the system detects that they are not even close?

 

Sorry if this is an out of bounds request but: could we get a sense for the features and functionalities as they presently stand? I've been around for along time, but took a long hiatus from about v8 something until just recently. In my current ongoing (though starting to get boring) singleplayer I killed enough critters in Zirax territory to get Friendly with them (which is part of why it is getting boring).

I'd be happy to archive this set of saves and start a new play with the intent to go hardcore on the Zirax from early on with my preferred playstyle (Slow player progression, hard NPCs/drones, mass, volume and limits turned on, but everything else pretty much default). However, I don't really know what features or 'parameters' exist at present nor what Eleon would like to see 'tested.'

For example: I see some people saying the range on the hacking is 70m, but in some other posts by youze guys I thought I saw 'infinite.' I see some players saying that the proximity of the player's base to a Zirax territory has an influence on the frequency of attacks, but not sure how true it is given I see other players saying that even after they've cleansed a whole planet they are getting Zirax attacks. I generally have always built underground because by limiting exposure of the BA to and limiting access points I have almost always found this to be more defensible. But now with the (possibly?) 'infnite' range hacking I'm not sure if this is a good choice or not. Maybe building it on top of a mountain where it has great visibility and weapon range is better?

In fact, I'm happy to try a test run with whatever settings you guys would benefit from most (and then give feedback on my observations and save files if desired), but I have no idea what that might be. Maybe you want us to try to poke holes in your current design? (e.g., find exploits or loopholes or ways to defeat your computer opponents algorithms?); or maybe you just want us to see if everything is WAI?

 

I am definitely going for the open fields of fire system this time, and it's working great. Pretty much as soon as they appear my base sends out a sheet of mixed weapons fire and flaming Zirax fall from the sky.

 

Any chance you will at least increase the distance they spawn in? Say to 1000m instead of less than 400m away?

They are spawning so close most of the time that they are already within my turrets firing range, making my max range all but useless since they are closer than that already. On top of that, since turrets still take up to 2 minutes to acquire a target sometimes means I have drones directly above by base before my turrets decide to fire in a lot of cases.

Increasing the range they spawn in to at least 1000m gives bases a better chance that turrets will actually see them as they approach.

Other than that, the range they are allowed to remotely "hack" a core is just a little bit cheaty feeling. Zero line of sight is needed. There can be 70m of solid blocks and somehow they can penetrate all of it and magically destroy the core. It feels terrible.

 

A bit more range would be nice. Even 600 m, or a range beyond the maximum range of the bast guns.

 

So it IS "70m" range not "infinite?"

 

I have no knowledge of that. 70m is for sure possible though from my tests.

 

Didn't realise the Drone Base wasn't the controlling factor any more - so, how do we halt attacks, take out ALL Zirax structures on a planet? There needs to be a way to secure a playfield entirely I feel, at least with respawning POI's disabled.

I think making it look like they've actually flown from somewhere rather than just popping in is important. Them suddenly popping in only barely out of visual range is too close. Make it a kilometre+ at least, then have them path from there.

Oh, I was surprised to read that my report wasn't considered a bug. So, me standing on one Base (Captured POI) of mine triggering an attack against another (built from scratch) base of my is deliberate? Also, ALL player bases sharing the exact same attack chance percent, regardless? I.e. I have an old captured POI that's just a handful of steel blocks now - zero devices remaining - that has the same chance to be attacked as my large, fortified bunker?

In my view, each individual structure should have it's own attack probability percent, so a small outpost in neutral territory is far less likely to be attacked than the Fortress spawned in Zirax territory. Currently, they are exactly the same, if both exist.

I just find it odd that I can build up a base for hours and get zero attacks, I then set foot on an old claimed (and torn down) POI and get an insta-attack vs. that POI, then another attack when I return to my main base. I'm guessing some "player at base, role the dice" check is happening once I arrive at any base of mine. As percent attack chance is shared that's why a base consisting of a handful of blocks only (no devices) can trigger a sudden attack.

Finally, what's with the digging then? What made those tunnels? Remember, I saw a Troop Transport land, saw the two troops deployed head for my Base - then for me - and the Troop Transport finally take off - leaving a HUGE hole in the landscape that looked like it'd be carved out with a drill.

Scoob.

 

One other thing I'm noticing, just to confirm an earlier remark, is that I appear to be able to trigger base attacks, to a degree now vs. my main base.

Firstly, for clarity, I'll describe my current game...

Quite early-game, I found one of the Crashed CV POI's. So, I decided to set up my proper, built from a starter block, Base right next to it. Basically, I have a base of operations while I salvage anything worth-while from the Wrecked CV. It's worked well. This is to explain why I have two "bases" right next to each other, one is a taken-over POI, the other a scratch-built Base.

So, I've had a base attack - triggered moments after returning to the base from orbit - which I've repulsed just fine. I've then pottered around on my base, processing Ore from my excursion into orbit, building more defences etc. No more base attacks for a couple of nights at least. I then go and stand on the Crashed CV POI (which still has a player Core) and a Drone attack is triggered. Nice.

I've been able to repeat this a few times, but I need to leave it a couple of days between doing this, else an attack isn't triggered. So, like in my original bug report, setting foot on any player Base - even if just a handful of blocks - every few game days, is triggering an attack for me.

Of course, this is sorta cool, but I think that equally it's a little too quirky for an "official" gameplay mechanic. To be clear, while the attack was triggered while I was at my "Wrecked CV" base, the actual attack appears to be targetted at my Main base. Though I acknowledge that the two bases proximity might make things a little unclear here. All I can say is any Drones appear to shoot at my main Base, rather than the wreck...but that may be targets of opportunity (turrets) are present.

Edit: Pardon me, I double-checked the last attack time for each base, and it was the captured POI base that was the target of the prior attack. I might try settings up several other mini bases (from starter blocks) nearby, to see if wandering between each can trigger more frequent attacks

Scoob.

 

@Hummel-o-War had the best solution to this problem. Change your base to public and it doesn't get attacked. I've been trying this concept out and you know what it works! I have been slowly building my base up, haven't attacked anyone yet. So you can have a peaceful start and as soon as I'm ready. I will go private and see how my base handles itself.

 

As to the OP there should be a point where the base attacks will stop. Because right now the game if out of balance. You can't win the game now. There is no longer clearing of planets and claiming them. We now have BORG everywhere. They pop in right next to your base, drop the foot drones and they quickly run up hack your base and assimilate you. Boom Game Over you been had by the BORG

 

A new problem presents itself in that as soon as you build a new base at a later stage in the game, it will immediately trigger a base attack.
This is extremely detrimental as this new base generally has no power, no ammo and no materials to make ammo. It needs a grace period of around an hour before triggering base attacks.
This also applies to POIs that have been cored, since sticking your own core in will trigger a base attack. Even if the POI wasn't zirax to begin with and has no power supply (e.g. crashed capital ships, wrecked shelter, etc...)

 

I second that.. spawn them a little more out from base.. engagement happens so fast I barely have time to come up to the surface of my multi level base to help defend. I'd like 5 or 10 more seconds before engagement