Enemy Spawns

[Veltimere]

I like going thru a story on a game but mostly im here for Cannibal and Mutant relations .... How many ways can i kill them ? Traps and small defense areas are fun ! Just a very small house enough to keep off cold and all around it every possible way to kill cannibals with death inventions .... What would make it fun is Campfires that burn cannibals when they step on them like the old game ... The WORSE thing about the game so far is how hardly any cannibals attack where i do these things . in the old forrest they would come in wave after wave with a very short break inbetween now a few show up dead and wait hours ..... i dont get it . I even tried making these death camps right next to cannibal camps ......

[NickTwist]

I agree, I spent a lot of time making a really cool defensive camp but hardly get any raids. The first game, I would also get night raids with dozens of cannibals and the 3 big mutants. I would like to see an option in the setting for cannibal and mutant on-world numbers. I miss those raids.

[Baraho]

I don't know about you but I get constantly raided. Not a day passes without at least one cannibal raid and one mutant invasion. Sometimes cannibals pay me a visit twice a day.

Maybe these will make a difference:

1- Enemies love attacking you when you're busy, especially while doing activities that make a lot of noise or spectacle, like cutting down trees or building. I swear it's like the game insta-spawns a whole tribe a few feet near me every time I spend any longer than 5 seconds with my inventory open.

2- Make head totems. Grab a stick, look down, right click to change from campfire to vertical stick, put it down, and then place a decapitated cannibal head on it. Surround your camp with those. My first assumption when doing this was that it is meant to deter them, but on the contrary, more started showing up.

3- Survive more days. Attacks become more frequent.

4- Harass them. Taunt them. Go out of your way to massacre them in their homes. They usually show in large numbers up a day or two later for vengeance. Also, they may show up far in the distance just to curiously look at your base. When this happens, don't just wait for them to come. Head out, kill one or two, and go back inside. This often forces them to chase you and fall into your traps.

5- Own more things? I'm not sure about this one, but having large stocks of food and supplies seems to attract them.

6- Don't move around a lot. If a raid spawns near you while you're exploring miles away, they probably won't chase you all the way home. This is especially the case if you use a network of ziplines to navigate the vast expanse of the island in a very short time. They sadly can't keep up and usually give up the chase too quickly.

7- When an injured or grieving cannibal flees, let them go. Someone needs to spread the word.

8- You probably already do this, but play on the hardest possible difficulty.

Things I assumed about enemy spawns but turned out to be wrong, or was disappointed to find out:

* Base size doesn't affect raids. I don't believe that cannibals or mutants attack more often or show up in larger numbers if your base is bigger or more spacious. The main factor is how long you've survived.

* Cannibal camps stay unpopulated for a long time after being cleared. Living near them doesn't really provide much benefit aside from the respawning resources near their tents.

* Unfortunately, while raids get more frequent the longer you survive, they don't grow larger in numbers. Near day 100 here and I still sometimes get attacks no larger than 1-2 guys in leaf armor or a solo tall cannibal.

I wish I had better or more concrete advice. The devs deliberately avoid disclosing how their enemy AI works, so all we have right now is our personal experiences.

[NickTwist]

I am on day 193, get maybe 3 or 4 cannys visting me - an occasional worm-mutant. The other mutants I spot wondering around sometimes but they never actually attack my bases. It really isn't like the first game when you really got 12+ cannys and waves of them along with the big-3 mutants.

[Baraho]

I do get big raids, like nearly a dozen people including reds, talls, and regulars. These are very rare, though. The majority are closer to what Nick said, 3-4.

You're right. The first game was far more merciless in this regard. Maybe this is something they're currently working on, who knows?

[Morleond the Mystic]

yeah i am not having a lack of enemies experience at all. I can't find a place to build in peace anywhere. anything that looks like a good build location is basically the highway for cannibals. instead of every once in a while a pack comes through, its once in a while i am left alone. Fortunately they seem to be passive if i don't attack them (at least the upright ones anyways)

[Baraho]

Originally posted by Morleond the Mystic:

yeah i am not having a lack of enemies experience at all. I can't find a place to build in peace anywhere. anything that looks like a good build location is basically the highway for cannibals. instead of every once in a while a pack comes through, its once in a while i am left alone. Fortunately they seem to be passive if i don't attack them (at least the upright ones anyways)

The last part is intentional on the devs' part. In both this game and its predecessor, cannibals don't immediately attack you during the first few days after you crash land on their island. They exhibit curious behavior, content with simply watching you. The quadrupedal ones may also throw stones at you for fun. If you want to build in peace, don't be aggressive. Walk backwards while blocking to communicate that you don't want to fight. Keep doing this and they will eventually get bored and walk away.

At some point, however, they will become permanently hostile. They might not attack on sight every time, but the passive approach won't work anymore. This point is around the 5-7 day mark, I think. You can also end the grace period prematurely by immediately attacking them on sight on day 1.