Aggressive bugs hurting the game

[Drej_X_Army]

With over 100 hours playing, the one thing that continues to hurt his game and why I cannot promote, is the aggressive bugs. While I see the possible purpose is to keep us supplied with bug meat, its really not need and needs to be rethought. Animals in general do not randomly show up, sit around, and then randomly come at you. Plus, you do not see different species working together.
If you need some sort of edge in this game, then add in random bug patrols that will come through and destroy things on the map, not just at the base. Give me a reason to go after them and stop them. Setup different nests that I need to go attack to stop the patrols. Allow them to get distracted by other animals. The player should never be the only focus.
One of my best play-through is now unplayable due a large, 300 - 400 bug spawn, when I only have 5 people. Use to be 7, but I was able to get 2 rescued. No matter how much I try to move the spawn, redo defenses, or kite the bugs through traps, in the end they all die.

[Bloodcup]

+1 I agree. i'm all for dangerous bugs and all...but i really have a problem with them being so focused on us.

This whole issue is the reason i rate combat at "bad" every time that feedback thing pops up. (and it's the reason i don't turn the feedback thing off...because i want to keep marking it as bad)

EDIT: right after this post, i had a group of "hungry pests" come. That is the kind of thing i think SHOULD happen. I'm ok with hungry critters seeking my foodstuffs...that actually makes some sense.

It's the "tower defense" attacks that i don't like.

[Ambient King]

I would rather all animals be for the most part docile, and the ones you hunt the most become more aggressive towards you when in proximity. Or make it so some animals are territorial, and migrate to where you are. Now you have a turf war with a bird... or something.

[mansman]

I think there should be two stages to the game. In the first stage, the bugs show up out in the map. They are aggressive to anything in their area, so they still attack any of the animals present and your survivors if they come in range. This would cause denial of resources that are out in the map area unless dealt with. It would also make gathering meat more difficult as those animals would become scarce if the player doesn't keep on top of the bugs.

Stage 2 would act like the attacks do today and would be triggered by activating the radio dish. I think this would allow the greatest freedom in the game. Give a little more room for the player to actually have fun with the base building aspect and a little more control over how their game progresses.

[nidion-leidbringer]

i have seen the aggressive bugs killing animals next to them, so this point is fulfilled i guess ..
from my point of few and playing a map 28 years, the food ( maybe also the count of survivor, don't know had 9 on that map and the time on a map) is a messure for how many aggressive bugs are showing up.
if i had less then 10k food, only 400-500 spawned, if i had around 11k food around 500-600 spawned ..
building a pallisade and a killzone with plenty of traps and flamethrower + some machinegun turrets was the key not to be over run.

[mansman]

I guess my biggest problem with the last patch is it shifted the focus of the game to tower defense and all the other aspects are now secondary. Before the patch, my primary goal was to prepare for the first winter by getting those key technologies and stockpiling resources/food. With the latest patch, a lot of that has to be put on hold until you get your fuel production chain up and at least flamers.

The new bugs have way too many hitpoints. The base skars take two hits from a bow to go down and are one-shot by pretty much everything else (pulse rifles would kill the first guy and stun those behind them). The splodies require 2 hits from snipers, 3 from pulse, 4 from pistols, and 6 from bows. The armored skars take an additional hit above that. Not to mention the number of bugs, even in the first year, seem to have grown by at least 50%.

It's absolutely necessary to now engage the bugs as soon as they show up to allow enough time to try to whittle their numbers down before they attack as a group. You used to be able to at least finish sleeping or deal with the group if you were lucky to scavenge more than just the starting pistol.

It really detracts from the other aspects of the game that are fun in their own right.

[Drej_X_Army]

I am reading more about the flame thrower, which I am now testing. What most people do not realize is the fuel isnt free and not always scavenged, plus its not always researched either. I did do a play through that did not have anything in my research that taught my people how to make fuel and I have had play throughs that didnt have Electronic 3D printing, so I had to rely on my people to craft them, which took forever.

The game isnt well balanced to provide a nice play through each time. Some people get lucky, others don't. so the kill zones have to be really thought out and even then, it may not work.

[Ambient King]

The thing that concerns me with kill zone style gameplay, is that it pretty much makes it so everyone has to play the same general 1 or 2 ways. Makes individuality foreign. Either funnel the bugs into a created death path, or have pulse rifle users in front, while the rest hang back and just pluck them off one by one. Or possibly a mixture of the two.

[mansman]

I tried the pulse rifle strat with 3 pulses and 1 snipe and 2 pistols. The numbers of bugs increases to the point you can't maintain. Especially now if you have a bunch of fliers mixed in or ranged guys. Once you have even a single bug get close to your pulses and they pull out their spears you get overrun :(