How the **** are you supposed to deal with infestations?

[MrGowdy]

I'm even "save scumming" on this bullsh*t.

I tried with 4 military grade (from mod) turrets, and a bunch of mud to slow them down.... nope, didn't even knock one enemy down on the way to my line.

Reloaded. Built 8 turrets, all 8 colonists behind them.... again, didn't even knock one spider down on the way to my line.

Reloaded. Built more mud, tried attacking from another angle to split them up... nope, entire warm went for my line of 8 military turrets and 8 colonists... just swams them and kills everyone and blows turrets up.

Seriously how the hell are you supposed to do this? You can't pull them in small groups, entire hive attacks. I can't cheese it by dealing them in and burning them out with heat (there is a river the spawned on so it's open).

I seriously don't know how this is possible?

[qhostymarionette]

assault rifles. as long as there's not 40 of each (like i had) it should do the trick. also dont worry, i save scummed on that ♥♥♥♥ too.

[MrGowdy]

Also, no way to forbid chunks of rock, so my colonists just keep trying to run into the spider hive picking up rocks over and over.... why is it you can forbid everything in this game almost but not rocks?

[ButterStuffed]

You have to exploit their simple AI. Have a one tile funnel with some traps and some strong melee at the end of the tunnel or war animals and have everyone else shooting over their shoulder.

Expect casualties even this way. Insects are very hard.

[MrGowdy]

Don't have anyone who is worth a damn at melee and no melee weapons. Been playing "ranged only" basically.

I tried melee but in almost every situation when someone is in melee combat they always get messed up... vs ranged where as long as I'm prepared, I usually come out pretty well.

[MrGowdy]

12 mega spiders
9 Spelopede

I built 12 military turrets (all that I can afford)
I built a 2x wide barricade to hopefully slow them down a bit when they get close.
I increased the moat to basically be the entire field (almost max range of turrets they have 25% move movement speed.

And I equipped everyone with explode stuff (since rifles don't see to matter)

And still get rolled.

Looks like this playthrough is completely gone because of this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥? Seriously how/why is this a thing....

[Xilo The Odd]

with fire. lots and lots of fire.

[Flotch]

Learn the power of choke points with melee blocking. Just make a 3x3 indoor area behind a 1-wide entrance (a doorway). Put 1-3 melee users in the front row to block the attacks. Put your ranged users (ideally using chain shotgun, heavy smg, etc) in 2 rows behind those. Just have them hold position and mow down the bugs as they come in...the bugs can only attack one at a time as long as you block the entrance to the room with your melee users.

This is the easiest way to defeat dumb, meatshield-type attacks like infestations and manhunter packs. If you have zero melee weapons AT ALL then you just put the highest melee skill person in the front and they'll still block attacks and hold the bugs from hurting anyone else.

[Astasia]

Originally posted by MrGowdy:

Also, no way to forbid chunks of rock, so my colonists just keep trying to run into the spider hive picking up rocks over and over.... why is it you can forbid everything in this game almost but not rocks?

Because chunks have to be manually flagged to be hauled and are otherwise by default in a semi forbidden state, unless you do something silly like leave your stonecutting bill range on unlimited with an infestation on the map.

[Ant Ra]

In principle 2-3 melee fighters are enough, who are well equipped and rotate constantly, and if they are pulled back they are quickly treated and then go forward again into the rotation. Always one well-equipped melee fighter in front, all others shoot what they can.

Projectile Turrets are not so good at this, but narrow corridors with a strong uranium door and embrasures (mod) on the left and right side (1 tile) of each part can be enough.

Fire helps more than grenades. DoT against dps. DoT wins.

But you have to have a base that is designed for insects or attack formations like these. . Narrow perimeters, well placed niches (embrasure tile) and a lot of assault rifles. Assault rifles have low scores, but will make your opponent fall down pretty quickly with their pinprick damage. Not deadly but out of action. That's all you need with the masses that are always present in insect attacks.

Fighting infestation insects in open fields or large spaces is suicide.

[MrGowdy]

Can't design a base when it spawns random, outside of your base, but "behind" all of your defenses. I didn't build inside a mountain because I know this could happen... but I did build near one... because there is nowhere else to build.

The spawned in an underground river area.... started eating their way out... had to figure out a way to do something.

I watched quite a few videos on YouTube, not one of them was dealing with a random infestation problem... every single video shows how to deal with it if you know where it is, you have days/weeks to prepare, and can do it perfectly.

If you don't have those perfect situations then it's just game over it would seem....

[Flotch]

Basically all you need is a door with at least a 3x3 space behind it (any room in your base, pretty much).

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by MrGowdy:

Can't design a base when it spawns random, outside of your base, but "behind" all of your defenses. I didn't build inside a mountain because I know this could happen... but I did build near one... because there is nowhere else to build.

Things you should know:
Pay attention to the terrain details when choosing your map.
You chose a mountainous terrain tile to start in and these will always have caves...
and if there are caves, then not only will that map almost always have a hive system from the start, they will definitely be prone to future infestations.

Critters will turn into manhunter mode if their hives are damaged and hives can suffer damage from cold. So, when starting on a map that you know has caves, you should make it a priority to not only locate them, but prepare for a potential attack from the whole hive before the first winter.

The best way to defend against the hive when it comes, is as described by others above and also with a combination of turrets and steel deadfall traps laid in a staggered formation in the two cell wide funnel entrance to your kill box.

Once you have killed the swarm, you can then focus on their hives before they spawn more...

The best way to deal with hives is to burn them out with either molotovs or incendiary launchers. Once they have been destroyed, if you cannot seal them in due to the presence of that underground river, you can still lace the area with incendiary IED's to burn them the moment the spawn again.

[gimmethegepgun]

All you have to do is get them in a choke point and have a few halfway decent melee fighters with armor block their path, or use a bunch of tamed animals, while everyone else just guns them down.
The key is to limit their ability to swarm you. If they can't do that then they're not that dangerous and you can just shoot them until they eventually die.

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

The best way to deal with hives is to burn them out with either molotovs or incendiary launchers.

Burning out the hives means you'll incinerate the royal jelly, which is a decent payday.

[levoweal]

When dealing with melee enemies, you just have to have your own melee fighters. There is simply no other way to win anything ever. Unless you outgun and outnumber them like 20 to 1 or someshit, and even still might not work. No matter what that is, animals, insects, tribals, if they have melee, you should have melee. Period.
The thing is not to defeat them in melee combat, but rather just hold them off, while your other guys shoot. There are plenty of good suggestions already, I'll just say, get yourself some melee guys, even if nobody is good at it, even if you don't even have a decent melee weapons, even if you don't have any melee weapons at all, you still can pick up a log, or make a knife fairly quick. Even the worst melee weapon, you can find, would be better, than any ranged weapon in melee.

btw, there are mods for everything. not to cheat, but to make things better.
Better Infestations, Combat Extended, Simple Sidearms, various weapon and/or turret packs.

[flintfakeer]

Originally posted by levoweal:

When dealing with melee enemies, you just have to have your own melee fighters. There is simply no other way to win anything ever. Unless you outgun and outnumber them like 20 to 1 or someshit, and even still might not work. No matter what that is, animals, insects, tribals, if they have melee, you should have melee. Period.
The thing is not to defeat them in melee combat, but rather just hold them off, while your other guys shoot. There are plenty of good suggestions already, I'll just say, get yourself some melee guys, even if nobody is good at it, even if you don't even have a decent melee weapons, even if you don't have any melee weapons at all, you still can pick up a log, or make a knife fairly quick. Even the worst melee weapon, you can find, would be better, than any ranged weapon in melee.

btw, there are mods for everything. not to cheat, but to make things better.
Better Infestations, Combat Extended, Simple Sidearms, various weapon and/or turret packs.

You can also use attack animals for this.