A few questions on vents and stealth

[Arginine]

I have a few question on how these work:
1. Can the little swarm aliens travel through one vent to an other?
2. Can they spawn from there?
3. What if the status of the ship tells me, that there is only 1 type of infestation, I discovered one, am I then safe from vents spawning swarms?
4. There was a game, where I stealthed into a separate room, to check if it is safe. There was a drone in it, so I had to reverse, so he wont bump into me when he went into the other room. Not sure if we touched each other, I think I managed to doge him. I backed into the corner, while the drone stood 1/2 a drone length away from me. After 2-3 seconds, he started firing at me, even while my stealth was activated, and we stood motionless across each other. Can someone tell me what happened here? I did manage to survive, so in the end everything went OK. But I'd like to not have such an expirience next time. There was a similar thing, but that was with the swarm, and I did bump into them. So then they found me, while I was reverseing, and destroyed my drone.

[Arginine]

Oh, and what happens if I activate stealth after something attacked my drone, or saw it?

[Toyota_Merv_73]

1. yes swarms travel though vents
2. I think so but not 100%
3. yes but not if the 1 type was a swarm !!
4. Stealth is good but don't get to close. Half a length is to close Arginine. And swarms are a bugger .. don't stealth into a narrow room against swarms ..
... hope this helps ...

[Stiljoz]

Okay... lots of questions here... I'll try to explain best I can.

Ther'es a lot of mystery regarding in exactly how vents work with swarms, but you don't need to know the exact internal mechanics to know how they function. Regardless of whether swarms can travel through them or just spawn from them, all you need to know is that vents are a place swarms can come from unexpectedly. And, yes, a swarm in a room with a vent can enter the vent and no longer be in the room, giving bad readings to motion sensors. They can hide in the vents too, rather than instantly travelling from one to another, so even if there is only one vent in a ship, swarms can still come from it. Also, I'm pretty sure there is a set number of swarms, so it is possible to kill them all and have vents be safe.

The infestation types stat refers to how many types of enemies there are (1-4) not how many enemies total. So if all types are accounted for and non-swarm enemies, you now know vents are perfectly safe.

As for stealth... All enemies have a certain level of detection that varies quite a bit. It seems like security droids have some of the best detection, although they are slow. If you are too close to them for too long, they will detect and shoot at you. It seems like making physical contact helps them detect you much faster, but it isn't necessary. Securty droids are unique in that you can see their field of vision as well. Stay out of it and you should be fine. Keep in mind that you flash in and out of stealth as the percent gets low and that taking any damage whatsoever will instantly turn stealth off.

Now... as for activating stealth post-attack:

Security droids will stop attacking you, but they may detect you again very quickly.

Leapers are stunned for a decently long time after attacking. Honestly, if you survive the attack, you can likely just leave the room without stealthing, although putting on a stealth is effective if you want to stay in the room for whatever reason.

Swarms are dumb. You can literally drive a drone right through them if you are stealthed and they may not attack you. I say "may" because it does happen occationally. If you are just sitting in a swarm, eventually one will just happen to attack you. It does next to no damage, but it does disactivate your steath, so the whole swarm will attack you. You can stealth and the swarm will instantly lose track of you. You can even stealth while they are in the process of attacking you and they will stop. Just be aware that you need to get out of the swarm quickly to avoid getting attacked accidentally and deactivating your stealth once again.

[Arginine]

Wow, awesome guys! Thanks a lot! :D

[darkdisciple1313]

Also, don't get lazy when moving between rooms and just type something like "nav 4 r5", because that's a sure-fire way to run into something that doesn't show up on sensor/scan/motion, like the slime festies. I learned that the hard way when I first started, and I was moving along at a healthy pace during that playthrough. So many ways to kill your drones in this game, it ain't even funny.

[VexTea]

whare dose it say th batery life that your drone has?

[vindicar]

Originally posted by DJ {dip} moneybaglets {dip}:

whare dose it say th batery life that your drone has?

As far as I know, your drones don't have any battery time and can operate until destroyed.
Upgrades with limited charges show the current and total charge right next to their names, for example: Motion (28/50).

[Arginine]

But their video sending capabilities can deteriorate, that is when you get the black screen. You can repair that one under modifications

[darkdisciple1313]

Yes, there's nothing more irritating to lose both your busiest drone's camera and the main video feed at the same time. I have a drone on standby as a "seeing-eye dog" just in case, but oy vey, does that burn my bacon when they both go down at once. Part of the challenge, though, so eh.

[Arginine]

I try to remmeber a safe way out to type "end" quickly, before the green goo gets me

[vindicar]

"end" is an alias to "navigate 1 2 3 4 r1". However, your drones might navigate right through the slime/radiation, so you better keep an eye on them, and always keep dangerous rooms closed off.
I also use a custom alias - "run", which expands to "navigate 1 3 4 r1". This leaves the generator drone in place, allowing you to try and close the doors as the drones evacuate. might cut off your enemy if you're lucky. But it might as well lead to your genny drone being eaten. =(
Another good panic command is "close all". It seals all doors, useful if you left them open as you explored. Also good if you hear the pipe bursting or meteor warning.

[JuryRigged]

To clarify on a point or two, swarm do not travel between vents (from one vent to another), this was an intended 'feature' but never made it into the game. Vents act as spawn points for swarms, and swarms can enter them, then spawn out later. Vents can also spawn additional swarms. So, it's possible for a swarm to be in a room with a vent, and the vent spawn an additional swarm... then even possibly another after that. The short answer is: If Swarm is an enemy type, a room with a vent is NEVER safe. At least that's my rule. If there is 1 infestation type and it is Sentries, then a vent will never spawn a swarm.

Regarding your 4th point, if you bump into an enemy (or travel through a swarm) while stealth, they will stop their travel and 'investigate' the area. Swarm and Leapers (or Brutes) will turn and move forward in the direction they think you are. If they detect you again, they will attack. Sentries will turn toward you, and have a camera/light that presumably lets them see through your stealth. As always with Sentries, there is a relatively long delay before they start firing, so with any of those three types, if they do detect you, move out of the way immediately. If a Sentry keeps tracking you, get out of the room before it opens fire.

As for going into stealth after you've been detected, it typically doesn't work. Swarm and Sentries are not fooled, and it's easy enough to evade a Leaper (though at that point you've already taken a 90 point hit.)

Regarding Stiljoz' comments, I will say I'm fairly certain that slime damage does not deactivate stealth (though it's been a while since I've had an 'opportunity' to test that.) Also, his own experience with swarm and stealth seem to vary from my own. Otherwise he has some good data (and I may have wasted some time typing the above paragraphs. ;)

[Arginine]

Thank you! (:

[Stiljoz]

Originally posted by JuryRigged:

Regarding Stiljoz' comments, his own experience with swarm and stealth seem to vary from my own. Otherwise he has some good data (and I may have wasted some time typing the above paragraphs. ;)

Obviously we can only rely on our own experiences, but there is no doubt in my mind that swarms and stealth interact with each other in the way I've described above. I've used "stealth" as a panic input when a swarm is tearing my drone apart, then been able to flee the room and save the droid. This is all secondhand to you, so you'll have to see for yourself. Maybe test it out once you know a run is lost, but you still have a droid or two to play with.

[Stiljoz]

Actually, scratch that. I just realized that I have a video of stealthing while a swarm is attacking me. See for yourself:
https://youtu.be/styyt2GHHeo

At the very beginning, you can see that I activate it and manage to get away slightly. Then the swarm manages to hit me with a random strike, deactivating my stealth (oddly, it seems to have done no damage?)

So I reapply stealth and try again. At ~20 seconds you can see that I stealth, and the swarm starts moving really slowly until I leave its proximity. This will also happen if the swarm is bigger. I safely manage to leave the swarm without taking a hit.