What is the Point of Sentinels?

[AbsynthMinded]

They literally rise up from the solid ground, follow me everywhere and respawn endlessly, in increasing numbers. The game does not offer any wisdom regarding mitigating their presence. I am fairly good at survival and following tutorial instructions, I feel like there's a stupid blind spot here.

If the tutorial leads me to a planet with them, as a new player it ought to give me a friggin clue what to do about them. Running doesn't work for long, fighting is a death sentence.

[it's a gabe]

They're part of the [scattered] lore. And it's actually super easy to avoid them. Unless you're on a planet where they're aggressive, in which case you should leave if you can't avoid them.

Basically, if they're not aggressive as soon as they see you, you're fine as long as you don't do anything to disturb them (attacking facilities their guarding or mining too much when they're nearby, for example). If you trigger them, run for your ship, board it, take off, and wait until the timer runs out.

That's... basically it. But if you want to fight them, get a multitool fit for fighting and upgrade it.

[Vyrtualis]

They're just an antagonist.

You can mostly avoid getting their attention by mining from a distance and/or using line of sight to stay out of view.

You can also escape them by heading into a building and waiting out the timer, or hopping in your ship and flying around until the times out. Just don't go into orbit, because you'll get sentinel starships chasing you.

[it's a gabe]

Oh, and while on that: have an escape plan when grabbing gravitino balls. If you plan on grabbing more then one, plan your route beforehand.

[redbeard]

word of caution .... if you leave the planet's atmosphere with agro sentinels (wanted star level), be prepared for an endless amount of sentinel ships (a death's death sentence)

[Anndy578]

nanite farming mostly

[Ggd07]

They are there to make you open useless threads in the Steam Forums.

[AbsynthMinded]

3 runs. The planet I land on has none in sight. I try to grab some resources and they literally spawn beneath my feet and follow me around endlessly, attacking endlessly. Its survival tutorial so I can not launch again.. Its become quite annoying.

Is it just an RNG thing? Keep reloading till it's a more peaceful planet?

[MikoWilson]

Originally posted by Ggd07:

They are there to make you open useless threads in the Steam Forums.

Don't be a turd. It's a good question.

From a design point of view, they make a lot of sense. Sentinels aggravate the Player loop of mining, gathering carbon, and mining some more. Without Sentinels, some Players may mine forever, inadvertently destroying the point of the game -- to explore.
Sentinel attacks provide an essential break point from mining, and aggravate the Player enough to force them to at LEAST retreat or fight.
I think the entire Sentinel design could be more interesting, but their function certainly make sense.

In terms of lore? *shrugs* Who knows, lol.

[Rhaaxerus]

The story actually explains the existence of the sentinels. If you are able to get through all of it, you get a glimpse into the "reality" that is behind the universe's existence.
A peek behind the wizard's curtain if you will.
Seems that most players aren't willing to go all the way down the rabbit-hole of the story to get the answers they're looking for. You've got to follow the white rabbit if you want to learn the truth.

[O Lobo Miau]

Also, you can just dig a hole with the terrain manipulator, just dig until you see a countdown to the end of aggro mode. The more wanted level you have, the longer is the countdown. And like it has been said, you can just enter your ship and dust-off (don't go outside the atmosphere with a wanted level), or enter a nearby building to avoid them. The game now has more "hand-holding" than ever before, but this is the type of game that you have to play to learn it's "tricks" and I, personally, like it that way. If you really don't want to lose time learning by yourself, just watch youtube guides, they are more informative than coming to these forums(nothing wrong with coming here, asking for help, just trying to give you more efficient advice).

[Pul Myfinger]

just shoot them. They don't mind ... much

[AbsynthMinded]

I just want to process a tutorial in peace till I get a grasp of all the elements. Id much prefer organic threats that are more random.. The AI Kill Bots are just overkill. In my opinion. Im loosing interest in playing because of this one element.

As stated they follow everywhere, underground-overground, and if I attack they just spawn more and more.

[Pul Myfinger]

Originally posted by AbsynthMinded:

I just want to process a tutorial in peace till I get a grasp of all the elements. Id much prefer organic threats that are more random.. The AI Kill Bots are just overkill. In my opinion. Im loosing interest in playing because of this one element.

Start in Creative Mode until you learn the ropes.

[Serath]

They, unfortunately, serve as the combat gameplay when on a planet's surface. Predators and or creatures you upset are stupidly easy, and those things that only come out when you steal their eggs are rare and only appear in that circumstance, never just at random like creatures or sentinels.

Sentinels can range from easy to reasonably hard, but the problem IMO is that the sentinels operate as a GTA-like police style mechanic, not just a regular hostile encounter. They're everywhere, but in most cases pose no threat to you and you generally do not benefit from fighting them on purpose unless you have a mission to do so. (Now more so than before, I remember them giving goodies before, now it's only pugneum or whatever and ammo.)

And if you do engage them you are essentially punished for doing so, as the fight will never end and you HAVE to run away at some point. Running away doesn't feel very victorious to me. At least Saint's Row 4 had you fight a big mini-boss at the end of the highest alert tier as an alternative to get rid of your wanted status.

Like I've been saying since release, this game needs either beefed up predators, (or at least have them appear more often) or bandits. We have bandits in space, why not on the surface? Even GTA with police, had gangsters or mobsters you could attack freely without getting wanted providing no cops were around.

I know a lot of people say this game is more about exploration, but then why is the game still advertised having three styles of gameplay: Exploration, Combat, and Trade. There's 3 guilds based on those activities. Why is Combat only getting half the deal? (Space.)

[Tizferatu]

Originally posted by AbsynthMinded:

3 runs. The planet I land on has none in sight. I try to grab some resources and they literally spawn beneath my feet and follow me around endlessly, attacking endlessly. Its survival tutorial so I can not launch again.. Its become quite annoying.

Is it just an RNG thing? Keep reloading till it's a more peaceful planet?

Did you grab gravitino balls or albumen pearls? Cause those cause them to spawn in as insta-hostile if you take them.