Large Demolishers

[Auron]

Best way to deal with these?

Seems like they have too much hp and regen for a normal "Turret Array" strategy to kill. I build some artillery, but it seems that the damage values of the artillery shells aren't nearly high enough to actually do anything to large demolishers. (I havent actually shot artillery at them yet, I'm just judging this off the written damage values)

Do I just need to nuke the hell out of them?

[Defektiv]

Originally posted by GAMING_Alligator:

Ship a few stacks of U-235 to Vulcanus and nuke 'em?

You could, but Uranium and its byproducts have incredibly small rocket stack sizes. It's already been a time consuming pain to ship fuel cells over for power until I could scale the factory on Gleba up to sustain its own temps for consistent power on a 879 MW grid. I feel like that's intentional as having easy access to Uranium on the new planets would trivialize most of their progression, but I also don't think setting off nukes on enemies that already get inside the base before they are dead is a good strategy if I'm looking to get away from rebuilding and repairing. Stompers just need to start respecting walls. Big Demolishers I'm not sure even the a bomb would make a difference

[Quillithe]

Originally posted by Hurkyl:

And I think Artillery is unusually effective at dealing with the stomper threat.

You might think "Sure, I kill the base, but then I provoke an attack and get stomped all over".

When I watched one of these retaliatory attacks... the stompers did not just blitz my defenses. They got close, started inching their way towards the rocket turrets, and only started charging in after they got hit with the first volley.

So, my rocket turrets were getting a massive first strike advantage against them.

(and the artillery outposts are placed a ways away from the base, so even if they got run over, the attack would stop there, and they'd eventually go away)

I suspect there's a massive AI difference between "go after the source of spores" and "respond to an unprovoked attack" that makes the latter much easier to deal with.

(although, admittedly, I don't think I've caught a spore-provoked attack in action, so maybe they always behave that way)

Basically my solution too. The artillery is heavily defended since it gets the counterattack so you don't need a super heavy perimeter wall, and bots will rebuild any losses after.

Add some power line redundancy when using tesla and they do very well in groups even without rockets since they chain stun.

[Defektiv]

Here is some video proof. I set up a line of rocket turrets around my previous defensive lines. The first clip is 4 medium stompers, which got taken out pretty quickly. Then I kited in a big stomper by itself and it immediately destroyed the power poles and inserters, along with several turrets.
https://steamusercontent-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2909772312924462/FC6683775B437774347DDA071B38AECCE7FF6512/

https://steamusercontent-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2909772312941863/AF0E5BDCFEFBD445F7A2AE51B496904E5AA72D4E/

[Quillithe]

Originally posted by Defektiv:

Here is some video proof. I set up a line of rocket turrets around my previous defensive lines. The first clip is 4 medium stompers, which got taken out pretty quickly. Then I kited in a big stomper by itself and it immediately destroyed the power poles and inserters, along with several turrets.
https://steamusercontent-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2909772312924462/FC6683775B437774347DDA071B38AECCE7FF6512/

https://steamusercontent-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2909772312941863/AF0E5BDCFEFBD445F7A2AE51B496904E5AA72D4E/

Sure, but it did die. Bots will fix things up.


I'd suggest putting more tesla and putting them in front since they have shorter range. You notice they basically didn't fire.

I'd probably just drop the walls entirely, all they do is waste bot repair time.

[Defektiv]

Originally posted by Quillithe:

Originally posted by Defektiv:

Here is some video proof. I set up a line of rocket turrets around my previous defensive lines. The first clip is 4 medium stompers, which got taken out pretty quickly. Then I kited in a big stomper by itself and it immediately destroyed the power poles and inserters, along with several turrets.
https://steamusercontent-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2909772312924462/FC6683775B437774347DDA071B38AECCE7FF6512/

https://steamusercontent-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2909772312941863/AF0E5BDCFEFBD445F7A2AE51B496904E5AA72D4E/

Sure, but it did die. Bots will fix things up.


I'd suggest putting more tesla and putting them in front since they have shorter range. You notice they basically didn't fire.

I'd probably just drop the walls entirely, all they do is waste bot repair time.

True for the big guys, but the small wriggly guys tend to get distracted by wall chunks left over and reduce the destruction while I panic rush back to save the day. Bots do try to recover but they get destroyed trying. When I get a group pollution aggro that includes a mix including a big stomper I tend to lose 50 or so construction bots at a minimum per attack. The big stomper cuts a hole and everything else just pours in and melts everything. Teslas in front just means they get destroyed first, and they are harder to replace because they need imported.

[Quillithe]

I'd probably bring in artillery then. Just keep the nests clear so attacks are smaller.

Also at some point I set up an automated supply of each planets export to each other planet (logistic groups with like, 1 stack of each on the ship cruising around and each planet requests some) so I'm kinda spoiled on tesla usage. And artillery.

It definitely feels bad how Gleba can't really handle it's own defense very well though besides just expanding a wall beyond your spore cloud or an absurd amount of turrets and expecting a bunch of losses though.

[Defektiv]

Originally posted by Quillithe:

I'd probably bring in artillery then. Just keep the nests clear so attacks are smaller.

Also at some point I set up an automated supply of each planets export to each other planet (logistic groups with like, 1 stack of each on the ship cruising around and each planet requests some) so I'm kinda spoiled on tesla usage.

Funny enough I've been trying to stabilize Gleba defense so I can finish building my base on Fulgora so I can do just that. I have a pretty good base on Fulgora but to keep it running I recycle everything not being used, which wastes a ton of scrap. As soon as I finish the quality upcycler on the output I don't think importing Teslas will be that much of an issue. Artillery is a different situation though. The turrets are not bad but I wish you didn't have to use Tungsten for the ammo as well, that makes it a lot harder to use artillery off planet of Vulcanus.

[Lumpous]

Spidertron with personal roboport, a couple turrets and uranium ammunition,
small blueprint with 4 turrets and pre-loaded ammunition.
Drop a few of those on the tail of the demolisher and see it die very quickly.

[Quillithe]

Originally posted by Defektiv:

Originally posted by Quillithe:

I'd probably bring in artillery then. Just keep the nests clear so attacks are smaller.

Also at some point I set up an automated supply of each planets export to each other planet (logistic groups with like, 1 stack of each on the ship cruising around and each planet requests some) so I'm kinda spoiled on tesla usage.

Funny enough I've been trying to stabilize Gleba defense so I can finish building my base on Fulgora so I can do just that. I have a pretty good base on Fulgora but to keep it running I recycle everything not being used, which wastes a ton of scrap. As soon as I finish the quality upcycler on the output I don't think importing Teslas will be that much of an issue. Artillery is a different situation though. The turrets are not bad but I wish you didn't have to use Tungsten for the ammo as well, that makes it a lot harder to use artillery off planet of Vulcanus.

I'd suggest clearing a bunch of nests yourself (gleba actually made me use combat robots for once) to save on ammo usage at first.

Once you're just in maintenance mode it really doesn't take much ammo so the tungsten isn't bad at all. Heck, even just importing the ammo is reasonable if you have cargo room.

[Defektiv]

That's what I am currently doing. My mech suit is rare with quality shields, legs and pdt up to epic, and it makes clearing nests pretty easy for everything except the big stompers. I would just like to move on from Gleba and finish Fulgora so I can move on to Aquilo and unlock railguns to do this proper. It's too bad too, other than the big stompers I quite like Gleba. Once you have a solid production base online its basically unlimited resources without the need to expand for more ore.

[Das Trojanische Pferd]

Originally posted by Defektiv:

Originally posted by Das Trojanische Pferd:

well big stompers die easy to tesla you dont need railguns on gleba.....
also artillery that clears the pollen area is esential so you dont get the massiv attacks that just straight up stomp your defences....
this is what i have and its enough around my base on gleba and 1 artillery base close to the planting zones. https://imgur.com/a/defence-on-gleba-kObbN9D

I experimented with them quite a bit after I get owned the first time. Tesla's are great at slowing big stompers but not at all at doing damage to them, even though it hits it multiple times in the legs. They certainly do not do enough damage to kill them before they close the short range distance on the normal quality turrets and destroy them. Railguns although the best damage I found, still take 2-3 hits from one gun to take down a single big stomper. Their large health pool combined with large aoe and ability to walk over anything creates a situation where they can overcome just about anything except large scale dps spam. And even then you get multiple big ones and its a roll of the dice.

well the problem is you probably let big attacks acummulate i have placed artillery in close proximity to every farm i have and it covers the spore area every time something new spawns then at most 1-2 big ones come and they get destroyed by the defence so precaution is by far the best you can do on gleba...

[Deathspore]

Gleba defense has same basic premise as Nauvis; protect the pollution cloud, not your base proper. I do outposts on the pollution cloud perimeter with chest, couple of rocket turrets and couple of regular turrets and couple of solar for inserter power. Those will prevent Gleba creatures from expanding into the pollution cloud. And remember, build them outside of the pollution cloud or just on the border.

For Nauvis I recommend full wall off as Biters are much more sneaky when expanding.

[Defektiv]

I just opted for an early warning system instead. Radars are cheap and do not agro and detecting them well outside the cloud gives me plenty of time to get back and clear any big buildups more safely.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3369031236

[Ext3h]

Since Tesla Turrets keep being mentioned: Quality counts for those, and it does a lot. Unlike other turrets, quality increases not only range but also damage output.

A normal quality Tesla Turret deals on average 14 hits, a rare quality turret already 24 hits and a legendary one a whopping 56 hits per shot.

[Lambas]

Artillery does have devastating effect vs. the big guys, but with a method that is perhaps not immediately intuitive. First: you need either a lot of guns (>115 to be safe) or a bunch of damage research/quality shells and still a lot but not quite so many guns. The guns should be clustered as tightly as possible. The research/quality isn't necessary with sufficient volume of guns on the field. Second: rebind 'Use item' in the 'Basic interaction' subsection of controls to something like 'Shift + Mouse wheel down' or 'Ctrl + Mouse wheel up' .. this will dramatically elevate your fire rate ceiling, and fire rate is key. Then, guesstimate the shell flight time to gauge the amount of target lead you need. Then, anticipate the retaliatory pathing of the demolisher (it will accelerate once hit and rotate heading to bee-line at the offending gun that scored the first hit). Your firing pattern will be a tight cluster at the engagement coordinate and a slow moving line along the anticipated retaliation path, all while scrolling the mouse wheel at a brisk and unbroken pace, sustained for roughly 25 seconds (testing and practice will improve burst precision and therefore ammunition efficiency).