About Enemy Spawn/Spread Rate

[Entropy]

Hello factorio lovers,

It is my first map and i have been playing it like over 20 hours. The problem is even i have stopped creating anything that creates pollution Enemies tend to get stronger and their spread rate is becoming ridicilious. So my questions are;

-Regardless of anything i do, do they get stronger over time ?
-Do enemies go through any change that is outside of my pollution red zone?
-Their spread rate is ridicilious now. With my tank, i managed to clear a big area in 30 minutes ,which i have no object in.. but still they managed to create colonies in a short span of time. So What are spread mechanics?

Can you explain to me what affects Enemy Spawn/Spread Rate?

Thanks

[Astasia]

The game uses something called evolution to control enemy strength. Evolution increases based on several factors including general polution, time played, and nests destroyed. So yes even if you do nothing and create no polution, enemies still get stronger over time, very slowly. What increases evolution very quickly is clearing out nests, so when you went and cleared a big area you spiked your evolution quite a bit. There is a cap on evolution, so eventually they will stop getting harder.

Spread is a different mechanic. On default settings enemies will create a new nest every 6-60 minutes IIRC. It's not effected by anything you do, unless you manage to find and kill the group of aliens that are making the new nest which will stop that one from being created.

You can see the default values for all these mechanics on the game setup screen.

[BOYCOTT]

dunno how easy it is to adjust with just vanilla but sounds like you should maybe lower the evolution starting number a little bit until you can keep up, just give yourself some extra leeway to start with as the cap and all that will stay the same i believe.

[The Undead Watcher]

You can also disable Enemy Expansion. The Railworld Preset has that on by default, so Biters won't create new bases.

I also would recommend, for learning the game, to turn down Biters( either by lowering the Evolution on startup/commands(?) or reducing the overall Enemy Bases on startup).

A year ago(?) they changed biters to not drop Items anymore, wich where used to produce the last Science Pack in the game(wich now got replaced by the Space Science Pack), since then i feel like they became just a annoyance while playing. Especially if you wanna learn how the Game Works.

[BOYCOTT]

Originally posted by The Undead Watcher:

You can also disable Enemy Expansion. The Railworld Preset has that on by default, so Biters won't create new bases.

I also would recommend, for learning the game, to turn down Biters( either by lowering the Evolution on startup/commands(?) or reducing the overall Enemy Bases on startup).

A year ago(?) they changed biters to not drop Items anymore, wich where used to produce the last Science Pack in the game(wich now got replaced by the Space Science Pack), since then i feel like they became just a annoyance while playing. Especially if you wanna learn how the Game Works.

i dunno how to do it in vanilla but it's under mod options for me with mods, on the biters that's why i play with mods setup so you have to farm biters for science packs again at some point, it's just too easy otherwise and that's before you get an orbital cannon thrumming and ready.

[Entropy]

For defending i have zero problems. They can't even drop single turret. Problem is clearing even with explosive cannon equipped tank. I have too much hours in the map

Thanks for answers.

[Astasia]

Check out artillery, build a few of those and you can keep a massive area around them clear of nests.

[stevej018]

if youre using RSO theres a biters begone mod which wipes them from generated chunks. to bring back biters just disable mod and explore a new area