Mobs attacking walls instead of pathing to open entrance?

[shadowknight57]

Something I've noticed today, and I assume it's related to the recent patch, just looking for someone else to confirm if mobs behaviour has changed recently?

Until recently, if you had a perimeter fence/wall and it was sealed all the way round (no open entrance) then mobs would attack the walls to get in.

If you had a perimeter fence/wall and left an open gap, mobs would leave the walls alone and head for the gap (meaning you could set up traps/turrets etc to defend that one area.

Today however, i built myself a nice perimeter with an open gap into my compound, and put out turrets etc, but only about half the mobs went for the gap. The rest went straight for a solid fortification wall and chewed their way through.

Am i doing it wrong, or is this a recent change?

Thanks very much

[Kadera]

It's a recent change. Part of the update. Mobs still favor the open gate and our carefully crafted kill-boxes, but not always anymore. They now have an option for "that's too far, Imma gonna just chew through this wall."

One way I found to deal with that, short of creating multiple kill-boxes all over my walls, is to send someone out as bait to try to drag the mobs away from the walls and around to the inviting death trap. It's tricky though.

[LordGaviscon]

Originally posted by Kadera:

send someone out as bait to try to drag the mobs away from the walls and around to the inviting death trap. It's tricky though.

It's tricky, but please do not forget the good ol' pulse rifle, as a mean of crowd control ;-)

[Elgar]

Yes, animals AI is much smarter, and that's a welcome improvement.

[Ant Ra]

No, it isn't. If you now have to build and repair even more technology with the few stranded to be able to exist to some extent against the endless and growing hordes, the game is soon over. At some point you can't keep up with resources and repair.

Give us 20 stranded (going medieval beckons you) and we can hold out without getting aggressive. Or keep pushing the pointless number of making it more and more an expert game, and sell 1000 copies later and look forward to a handful of illustrious players who prefer destructive games without emotional rewards of success because they are so great.

As it is and as it seems to go on, takes me myself more and more from a great, fantastically good game to one of the usual try harder, work harder game.... I don't like games that you have to work unintuitively. For which you have to consult tables.

If I want a destructive challenge in a game, I play a game of chess against a strong human opponent... I'm starting to get annoyed with the direction of the game, and the non-existent possibility of the customer to change something with appropriate game modes. I'm afraid that my 30 money went out the window if this continues... Rant end

[gizmo6023]

Since the patch the critters are more destructive just for the sake of being destructive and a wide open path into your base is only 60% successful. I started a new map today and discovered the stalkers are immune to traps and move too fast for a flame thrower to trigger so my survivors are screwed. Too early in the game for turrets to be constructed as CPUs don't seem to exist in any quantity in the wreckage. seed is Calm-Tune

[Dyeshan]

I was seeing this problem also and making sure my kill tunnels are 3 or 4 tiles wide solved it. If the bugs get bottlenecked they start bashing ♥♥♥♥, even if the bottleneck is just too many critters in your tunnel to let them through so you will see better results with wide enough tunnels so they dont get bunched up on each other too much. its not a problem if they get bunched up part way through the kill tunnnel but if they get bunched up at the entrance they will spill around the sides and start breaking walls you maybe cannnot easily see from your towers etc

[Ceredh]

In my opinion the "kill tunnel + trap" system is unimmersive nonsense if it is at the core of the defense strategy. It has a part but that should be limited to very early stages.

For me the biggest problem is the restricted effectiveness of weapons. It should be easier to kill the critters, at least with the advanced weapons, then the need to build kill boxes with traps is diminished. Instead there should be means to slow the approach (barbwire or similar).

Generally I don't like the idea of the game, sending masses of critters on the one hand, and giving the few stranded settlers access to advanced weapons on the other hand. The only weapons of such kind should be the ones found in the ship remains. It's ridiculous that they can craft laser and machine guns or rockets. A more primitive approach (also concerning the other goods, like clothing) would have been better.

[Furball]

For this type of game, with ineffective weapons against a horde... the killzone strategy is the most effective. Even the Spartans did it... unsuccessfully.. :P

The auto turrets make life easier, on both sides.. but when the power is out... I'm not sending my 6 survivors against 500+ aggressive bugs without some cover/traps/fortifications...

If *only* we could discover pesticide.... maybe those gassy bugs can lead to it one day... as they seem to have evolved that sort of defense.. gas grenades/missiles/arrows anyone?

[Falonious]

In late game with the huge amount of attacks 300 + including poison slinging creatures you cannot defend, you are dead! If you miraculously survived the repairing just kills the game. I have a great set up but the poison creatures are hard to defend against even in the kill box. Outside of that, as I say, you are dead.

[Boothy]

One thing I've noticed is that aggressive bug marching on your base, will get distracted if a survivor is close by. They will then beeline towards the survivor, including through the fences. This happens even if those survivors are out of sight, indoors, with no windows.

I have a basic base layout of:

At one end, a main entrance (kill box, traps, turrets)
Then a main base building (beds, crafting, storage etc)
Then power gen
Then at the back, farming

The farming area only has a basic fence, and a few towers from early in the game.

If I get attacked from that side, and all survivors are near the front of the base, the bugs just path around the farming area, ignoring the fence.

But if anyone is planting/harvesting/cutting, and I don't draft them and move them out of the way, then some bugs will go for the fences instead of pathing around.

I noticed the same with night attacks, where my bedrooms were all down one side of the main building, which was only a few squares away from the outer fence. If people were in the bedrooms asleep, as the bugs went past that section of fence, they attack the fence instead of pathing round to the front.

[Mini]

Yes , just becaus of that , i had to make2 entrance . If you have a kinda big base, well then no animal wanna walk around to just enter. Make sure you have 2 entrance at north/south or west/east . ANd nothing gonna attack your wall anymore.

[neral612]

I had the same problem you did right after the patch, I would leave my people working in the base if I knew the kill box could deal with the problem with out my people there as back up. This got caused them to chew through the fence, I learned that if I make everyone run to near the gate they will all act like they used to and march to the gates of death like they used to.

[Werx]

move your ppl to the killbox, than the insects run around to the opening in the wall, if the ppl are in my house, the monster search for the direct way.

[DaimonNinja]

Only started playing a week ago, and while ruffles my turkey is the fact that the tutorial hasnt been updated since this patch. So it teaches you to build up your base and walls in the way described above to crate kill boxes, and then as soon as you get into an actual game that all goes out the window...

[Kelreena]

Have an outer and inner wall, ideally placed at least four spaces away from the inner wall. They might break the outer wall, but once they path inside, they'll re-assess their pathing and realize that it's faster for them to just go back out and take the long way around. I've seen it myself and have watched videos where this happens.