Monster-free mode

[Kronk]

I'm hesitating to buy the game, even if it seems really nice. What I'd like is a game mode without any kind of opposition, that lets you focus on expansion without the risks of being wiped out by random enemies. Is there such a thing? If not, then are the monsters really a bother when you play, or is it easily manageable?

[joek0]

If you go through the tutorial campaign, you will have to fight the monsters. When you play the Freeplay mode, you can turn on Peaceful mode which will make monsters not attack you unless you fight them first. You will need to fight monsters eventually for use in the final science pack. As always, try the demo.

[EChondo]

There's a "Peaceful Mode" where I believe monsters spawn, but they do not attack you unless you attack them.

Idiotech goes over "New Game" options in his first impressions video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH-ujQix45I

[Hecter94]

Unfortunately, without mods, it's not possible to have a mode that is completely free of monsters as end-game research requires items obtained from them.

However, there is a peaceful mode in the game that will prevent any aliens from attacking you until you've attacked them first. So you're free to build in peace until you've reached the endgame and prepared for them.
With that said, even in 'normal' mode, the bugs are rarely a threat. A single gun turret which is craftable by hand at almost no cost is capable of repelling a nearly infinite number of the waves you will encounter in the early game and your character himself is also quite capable of taking on even multiple waves of bugs by himself without too much difficulty.

Finally, once you get into the mid to late-game, you're able to create turrets that are more damaging than gun turrets, fire further and use no ammunition so at that point the threat the bugs pose is almost nil.

To sum up my points, I don't believe you'll be bothered by the bugs at all, and if you are, peaceful mode provides many hours of gameplay without you ever having to even see a single bug.

[Kryos]

there are mods where you can make the science packs without alien materials, so you can disable them completly. mods are really easy to install too.

[Kronk]

Great, thanks for the replies. Also, I didn't notice the demo before you mentioned it, I'll give it a try.

[Hecter94]

Originally posted by Silver (blaustein):

Great, thanks for the replies. Also, I didn't notice the demo before you mentioned it, I'll give it a try.

One thing I believe that I should note about the demo, is that, from what I recall the bug attacks in the tutorial/campaign always seemed to be considerably more frequent and more aggressive than the ones I've encountered in freeplay.

[Toybox]

Originally posted by Silver (blaustein):

I'm hesitating to buy the game, even if it seems really nice. What I'd like is a game mode without any kind of opposition, that lets you focus on expansion without the risks of being wiped out by random enemies. Is there such a thing? If not, then are the monsters really a bother when you play, or is it easily manageable?

They are incrediblly easy to manage as long as you keep an eye on what they are doing. I have turrets interspersed around the walls of my base and they can handle most things. I noticed recently that one group has taken a special interest in trying to destroy my iron operation, but I just dropped 3 turrets, filled them with AP ammo and made a small system to deliver them ammo when they are low, then created a bot docking port and left about 5 construction bots there to fix any damage that is done since I don't have time to manage that section manually, and quite frankly I haven't had an issue since. They handle everything just fine and my construction bots keep them in good repair. Don't even have to think about it much.

[8964]

Originally posted by Silver (blaustein):

Great, thanks for the replies. Also, I didn't notice the demo before you mentioned it, I'll give it a try.

Its a great game hope you enjoy as much as I have had. Nevertheless I find the game would be less of a challenge without the natives attacking.. ;)

[Kronk]

Thanks a lot for the replies, glad to see that the community seems alive and friendly ^^

[Toybox]

Originally posted by Phoenix:

Originally posted by Silver (blaustein):

Great, thanks for the replies. Also, I didn't notice the demo before you mentioned it, I'll give it a try.

Its a great game hope you enjoy as much as I have had. Nevertheless I find the game would be less of a challenge without the natives attacking.. ;)

The biters are mostly there to deter players from just expanding without thought, not really to be a 'threat'. It is incredibly easy to fortify against even the stronger biter waves. But here's where they really come into play: Say you need oil and there is a good spot with a lot of oil not far from your main base, but too far to incorporate it into your base. Now, without biters you would just wander your merry engineer butt out, throw up some oil rigs and pipe all the way home. Then promptly forget about them.

But you can't do that. Because the biters are there and they will eventually come to destroy your pipeline and oil rigs. So you have to defend them. Then you have to make tactical choices. How to get the oil back? Pipe is more efficient but very vulnerable to biter attacks. Or you can barrel it and send it by train, which is much safer and more stable, bit less efficient.

If you go for pipes, how will you defend your line? Where will you get power? Use solar which is expensive or try to risk running ANOTHER pipe to use steam?

These are all logistical questions you have to answer because the biter threat is there. They don't pose a very huge threat of completely wiping you out, but they can cut off essential lifelines to your factory unless you plan ahead, and that is where the real joy comes from, in my opinion. They are less 'enemies' and more puzzles that need to be solved.

[zytukin]

Monsters wont attack if you turn on peaceful mode, unless you attack them first, afterwhich, any in range of the one you attacked will attack you.

There is a method to eliminate enemies around you that doesn't require mods.
If you hit the ~ key, it will bring up a chat menu that you can enter commands

/c game.speed = #
Sets the games speed. 1 is default speed, 2 is double speed, 3 is triple, etc
Can set the speed fast, like to 5 or 10, then run all around outside your base to have a bit of the map explored

then type

/c local surface = game.local_player.surface
for c in surface.get_chunks() do
for key, entity in pairs(surface.find_entities_filtered({area={{c.x * 32, c.y * 32}, {c.x * 32 + 32, c.y * 32 + 32}}, force= "enemy"})) do
entity.destroy()
end
end
This will remove all enemies and their spawns in all the rendered area of the map. Note that the rendered area is always a little bigger then the area you have already explored and have visible on the game map. The game may lag for a bit depending on how much of the map has been rendered. After doing it, enemies will still exist, but you'll have to travel into unexplored areas of the map. This command also wont stop them from expanding back into the explored area over time.

Quite useful for just clearing out a large area to expand your base.


Also don't need a mod to get the Alien Artifacts without killing enemy nests.
Just use this command:
/c game.local_player.insert{name="alien-artifact", count=100}
you will get 100 of them. can change the number and item to whatever you want.

[AxeFan1]

You need monsters for the late game unfortunatly and they arnt a huge deal honenstly build some walls and some lazer turrets or even normal ones they are fine till late game then you either need to double up or make lazer ones buy the game man its fun