Coilhead Rework?

[PaperAqueous]

Now, I know that Forest Giants are largely believed to be the most unbalanced monster, and for good reason. They see you from super far away and are faster than you, with very little you can do for a counterplay, especially early on. I might be in the minority, but I actually much prefer Forest Giants to the Coilheads. The reason being, Coilheads are boring at best, and run enders at worst. If you're playing in a group, one person has to sit on "watch duty" the entire time, which is not fun gameplay for that player. If you're playing solo, you effectively can no longer find more loot the moment it spawns and must promptly leave the facility. Also not fun gameplay. While Giants are incredibly hard, I always find myself enjoying the thrill of the chase, as it were. I can still have fun exploring the facility, and it's tense trying to get back to the ship when they're chasing you.

Coilhead pros:
+ Very scary when you don't know they're there

Coilhead cons:
- Dealing with them in groups is boring, not fun or scary
- Dealing with them in solo ruins facility exploration completely

Here is my rework idea: Give them about a 5 second delay between when they freeze and when they begin chasing players again after being stared at.

This could make it so that they are still a looming threat, with the best counterplay still being to have someone watch them, but it cuts out all of their very boring and frustrating problems that feel like they detract from the game more than they add to it. I'd be totally interested in hearing other people's thoughts, or further ideas on how they could be rebalanced to still maintain the scares they're good for, while also making them less boring to deal with. :]

[Dorf]

You basically already have that rework in place if you happen to have a door to close on them. Normal doors slow them down for 10 or so seconds and obviously if you have a ship guy (or have someone go back to the ship) you can find a blast door to lock them in with a little coordination.

[Kenn_Ethic]

Originally posted by Derp:

You basically already have that rework in place if you happen to have a door to close on them. Normal doors slow them down for 10 or so seconds and obviously if you have a ship guy (or have someone go back to the ship) you can find a blast door to lock them in with a little coordination.

That strat works only when the stars are aligned which I mean meeting specific checklist,

0. Play multiplayer
1. Needs to be in a facility interior. If it is a Manor/Mansion interior then no blast door.
2. Find a blast door with a dead-end to lock the coilhead in.
3. A ship teammate,
4. The time waste to perform the strat, If it's already late in the day then not worth doing the strat.
5. Hope you don't get another 2nd or 3rd coilhead during the run.
6. Not die to other monsters while performing the strat.

[Dorf]

Sure, it has problems, and I'm not trying to say the OP is bad at the game or whatever or necessarily disagreeing. Given that the game is designed for four players (at least that's the default), they're generally pretty prohibitive to interact with and basically impossible solo unless you carry around flashbangs.
Though I will say the regular (not blast) door strats are decently effective in comparison for the effort required, it's just annoying because you need to have a part of the facility with doors you've already been through so it's not zoning you out of actually looking for stuff.

[Magnate]

In a multiplayer setting I think they're perfectly fine as they are.
One person looking at them is able to completely negate them, alternatively you can use doors to delay them to make a run for it as if out of sight and far enough they go back to patroling.

However, them having an alternative way in singleplayer is ideal, I mean things like Bracken and Snare fleas get completely changed with Bracken only attacking if you literally corner him and keep trying to touch him, and Snare fleas let go after a certain point, plus can still be whacked off IF you have a shovel and can find it... Which is made harder because you can't look directly down. I don't know if there's anymore alternative changes for single player, but I do know those two are the main ones that change.

What if Coilheads still stop when looking, BUT when you look away they start moving slowly and will gradually build up speed whiles you do not look at them until they reach their fast (base) speed.
The speed is reset if they have to open doors though so if you close a door behind and one is catching up near to it's original speed, it has to completely regain it's speed AFTER opening the next door, so you can keep slowing it down to possibly escape.
In otherwords their movement is kind of like Thumper in how he gradually builds up speed upto a cap with it resetting when bonking.


Coil heads are an absolute threat, so whiles I don't think they need a nerf in what they do, the amount that can spawn or power they have could be increased. Since if I recall they have a power level of 1 and 5 max can spawn.
Which is sad to me when one of the strongest monsters in the game not only is able to spawn more than other 'higher power' monsters, but is unkillable whereas if you know what you're doing the Bunker Spider and Thumper can be EASILY dealt with, especially if you abuse stairs if you aren't able to run backwards for the spider.