Dealing with constant swamp raptor attacks?

[Socrates Johnson]

I finally built a farm so I can start growing my own food and now I'm getting constantly attacked by swamp raptors. They break down the gates in seconds and destroy my farm, constantly.

Turrets aren't doing the trick as my guys don't fire on them until they're already at the gate, and then they climb up the ramps. They're not hostile until they attack and that's one of the problems.

I'm thinking of building a watch tower near the farm with turrets but if I can't get my guys to fire on them the moment they come in range I don't know how to deal with them.

I'm also thinking of building a sort of maze of walls with an open gate at the end that they have to walk through while under attack. I don't know how the AI deals with that in this game but I can't really think of a way to keep my farms protected. I haven't been able to harvest once yet.

[Hatsune Neko Gaming]

train up your people better.
if you cant defend against animals, you got no hope when raids start.

[☁ Marble ☁]

there's a box in the Ai tab that will allow your turrets to fire on the raptors before they become hostile near your gate it's labeled 'shoot first ask question later'

they will fire on any potential hostile units that stray to close

[Excellion]

On the games AI tab, make sure to enable the "Shoot first, Ask Later" setting which is disabled by default. Without that setting your turret gunners won't start firing on bandits and animals unless they take a hostile action (Such as attacking a gate, at which time you're already way too late).

Alternatively It is possible to select a turret gunner and instruct them to attack the raptor (Eg: Attack unprovoked target or something along these lines). That will turn them hostile for the other gunners as well. This can be a bit more precise as it prevents those "Oh, now i got two groups of bandits sieging" situations that can stem from the AI setting. On the other hand its a LOT more manual management so i favor the AI setting plus having so many turrets nothing even reaches the walls.

[☁ Marble ☁]

If you don't have strong fighters yet you can also recruit some mercs to help out. They can do the trick and often tank enough foes for your weaker guys to get good combat xp

[Socrates Johnson]

Originally posted by HaTsUnE_NeKo:

train up your people better.
if you cant defend against animals, you got no hope when raids start.

I've been dealing with raids. They're not as difficult actually (well the black ninjas are no cakewalk). And I'm recruiting mercs to help out when I think I need it.

It's not about combat vs the raptors, it's about having to constantly micromanage my squad to deal with them because my wall defenses are ignoring them until it's too late.

Didn't know about the "Shoot first, Ask later" setting. It might be exactly what I need. I'll experiment with it.

BTW, gates in general seem extremely weak. I'd love an option to install boiling oil or something above them. Seems an obvious defense option, I mean we already have fuel.

[Hatsune Neko Gaming]

yea there is that shoot first ask questions later tab. i use it myself.
but i got no issues harvesting my crops either. in fact those buggers tend to clog up my raw meat and skins storage barrels. so many die in my compound.

[Socrates Johnson]

They don't drop raw meat for me, just rotten.

I think I'm gonna build a watchtower near the farm so they're hit from two sides as they break through the gate, which they always do. I gotta plan my defenses out better and lucky for me that's one of my favorite things to do. Just like real life castles I like to build according to the terrain and I like to build "kill zones" and squeeze assailants between walls where they get caught in a crossfire.

[wordwaster]

I always thought of raptors as free combat exp for my townies. (Before I switched to cannibals). And good money in selling skins/leather.

The problem with the raptors is that eventually you’ll kill off all the local nests and need an import to get more.

Cannibals are the gift that keeps giving.

[Wraith]

you know with 100 of cannibal limbs on my front door you would think they just pick up the limbs and go have a feast instead of always trying to raid me lol

[Caveman Smash]

have been trying to use the shoot first option and my people will not shoot at the raptors i need to click each one and tell turrets to only shoot at one , there is no turret option to attack all either ?????

[bunny de fluff]

Is your passive mode turned on?

[Caveman Smash]

no ranged attack is turned on and passive is turned off

also have tried shoot on sight ,, the swamp raptors are the only thing i am having trouble with so far my guys seem to attack everything else with little problems ?

[Mokona]

Turrets are just bad. Contently get locked into targeting something that isnt even in rendering distance anymore and because of this my guys wont go feed themselves and starve. Not to mention the friendly fire no mater how good a shot they are. Just dont use them, place down training dummies outside the front gate and get a warrior to shift click on one each. As soon as something happens they are right there to start fighting automatically. If you want to keep the gate open you can just move the dummies to the farm location that keeps getting attacked and the same thing will solve it.

[Caveman Smash]

would training some troops to use poll arms be a good option ?