Keeping mimics from respawning in already cleared areas?

[LordStuff]

Hey there.

14 hours into the game and I really like it. Playing on hard without having any real struggles.

The only thing I find annoying is that mimics respawn whenever I return to areas (by loading screen doors) I already cleared. Is there a way to avoid that?

I've read that people gathered all the corpses to piles and put some turrets around that? Does that really help?

It sure as hell would end up boring if you could clear out all mimics and then you're not facing any threats anymore, but I'd sure as hell prefer some areas like the Lobby to stay clear. I'm taking so much time to check every corner and clear an area before I move on just to lose everything when I leave it? I actually don't like travelling because I always imagine that I forgot something, turn around right after the loading screen and suddenly have 3 phantoms jumping to my face..

[Smithy]

Enemies will spawn as you make progress. They might also respawn on a timer, but I don't think they do in the lobby.

Don't invest too much into turrets. They are very weak against later enemies and are also known to randomly break between loading screens.

[LordStuff]

I thought it might be connected to objective progress.. It happened a few times now that mimics spawned after I finished certain quests. I still think there should be some areas that should stay clear once you cleared them. Especially your office... There was a turret in front of it and I killed about 3 mimics there, after I went to do some quests and returned later on, The turret was broken, it's location changed, and there were 2 mimics by the stairs and one right in front of the office door. There should be something like safe rooms, I think that would contribute to a game like this.

Maybe just protector machines that constantly emit nullwaves in order to drive them away.. Something like the UV light posts in Dying Light

[Gin-chan]

Well it would be kinda a waste of the mimics abilities if they didnt respawn them in already cleared areas. I really liked the fact that i had to try and remember if there was that item in front of the hallway the last time i passed through the area lol or if it was another mimic waiting there having respawn. Not a lot of games made me second guess misc item positions like this one XD and managed to surprise me quite a number of times lol.

But yeah i can understand that it could get annoying to some people who just want safe areas to come back and resupply to.

[matthew]

like the lobby, one area at least that should be monster free once you cleared it. other areas I don;t mind, but its annoying to move around that when there are many enemies there. and they respawn as you progress the story which is even more annoying.

[LordStuff]

Originally posted by Eleventh Doctor:

Well it would be kinda a waste of the mimics abilities if they didnt respawn them in already cleared areas. I really liked the fact that i had to try and remember if there was that item in front of the hallway the last time i passed through the area lol or if it was another mimic waiting there having respawn. Not a lot of games made me second guess misc item positions like this one XD and managed to surprise me quite a number of times lol.

But yeah i can understand that it could get annoying to some people who just want safe areas to come back and resupply to.

Yeah, I kind of think the same about the game, but as matthew just said, there should be at least one area you can roam without having to check every single item. It certainly is a great mechanic, but it does take a lot of time, and sometimes I just want to sprint into my office and put some stuff into my safe..

[Darkfiro]

There is the sticky note area anything that doesn't have a sticky note on it is a Mimic.

[BOT]

Enemies usually respawn when progress is made or if you haven't returned to an area for a certain amount of time and there is no way to stop it, the only instance that enemies do not respawn is the Talos 1 Lobby, and Arboretum, where enemies will only spawn in those locations after performing certain tasks.

[LordStuff]

Just now I cleared the Crew Quarters and returned to the Arboretum afterwards.. I guess it is somehow story related too, as there were these glowing clouds everywhere, which was not the case when I left the Arboretum... Still, right after I went in, there were several corrupted robots, 2 Voltaic and one Etheric Phantom as well as several Greater and normal Mimics...

Again, it took soo long to clear all that, and it ate up huge bits of my ammo savings... All that although I cleared the whole place of them... Not one of my favourites in the game I gues..

[Morgian]

There is no point in clearing areas, since as the story progresses the typhons slowly take over the station. That is represented by them spawning in "cleared" areas. I could leave and return to the Arboretum without new spawns there, until I made quest progress.

In this case I went back to the Lobby after freeing the lift, taking care of minor tasks there, getting the satellite signal in Hardware Labs (btw, I am disappointed it has charges, and only four at that). Then I went back, cleared the Bridge and explored Alex' office. Then I went back to the G.U.T.S. (looking for you-know-who) before starting to the Crew Quarters. While the Lobby was populated with new typhons, the Arboretum was not. Entering the Arboretum was probably the trigger for that.

I think some mobs are static respawns, though. There is a phantom in the Hardware Labs in the room with the crafting station, and some corrupted operators in the hall before the labs. Those seem to respawn whenever you zone back into the labs, be it from a spacewalk or the Lobby. So the respawn is probably a mix out of progress related typhons and renewing static spawns.

Nightmares can spawn anytime and are a pain, if you got several typhon powers. I had one spawn when I bought my third. And afterwards it happened a couple of times when I bought more. Some nightmares might be static...the one in the Arboretum when you get to the unpowered door must be triggered by you getting there. And the one in the Hardware Labs near the antigrav lift who cannot move through the door seems also to be pre-set.

The upside of the respawns is that you can scan the required typhons for some powers more easily.

[LordStuff]

I haven't learned any Typhon powers thus far.. I might go for the human only playthrough..
I already killed one Nightmare with ease, it spawned in the Arboretum when I came from the tunnels where it couldn't go.. it got stuck in the doorway and I just Q-beamed it.. I kind of dislike, that there's going to be more of those..

I just think it's a bit odd that only when you freshly enter an area it's stressful to progress and when you've been there for a bit, you can sprint through without even paying attention most of the time. The fact that this just repeats every time you progress the story and reenter the area makes it even more odd...

Also normal Phantoms, Mimics and Greater Mimics don't even pose a threat anymore.. they're just wasting my time and keeping me from taking care of side quests etc..

[Smithy]

Originally posted by LordStuff:

Also normal Phantoms, Mimics and Greater Mimics don't even pose a threat anymore.. they're just wasting my time and keeping me from taking care of side quests etc..

I just see them as free loot most of the time. The only annoying enemy is the voltaic phantom since it's immune to the stun gun.

[matthew]

I think the design decision to make the lobby different, and doesn't have a buffer zone, like the Arboretum, (I assume this will be the same for life support?) but what I mean is, when you get off the lift in Arboretum, your in a small area that as yet isn't populated by anything, until you enter through the door to the main area.

Now why they didn't do this for the the lobby, is unclear? as for me, exiting and entering the lift, while you can be seen, or with enemies around you that can react to you been there.

IF the lobby lift had a buffer zone, it wouldn't be as bad, (still annoying but not as bad) but I still question some of the design decisions in this game. especailly later on, when the lobby does get populated quite heavy.

but consdering that the lobby is one area you backtrack the most, you needed to exit and enter that lift without issues, and so far, its proving to be a problem, unless you reclear that area everytime. But still, you can exit the lift in full view of enemies, and has a choice of getting your behind handed to you on a silver platter. (and you can't attack or crouch in the lift which just makes matters a lot worse.

I think whoever designed the lobby area needs to try harder, and get a few months pay cut. as this design decision just makes things frustrating in that area.

[nakedsunoo7]

HAHA i battled a nightmare in Morgans office :'DDDD.

[matthew]

Originally posted by nakedSunOo:

HAHA i battled a nightmare in Morgans office :'DDDD.

ouch, I nearly had one in the office, but it didn't follow me all the way there. but I really don't like the naightmares full stop, as they don't really add anything to the game.

[Sebastian Nielsen]

Originally posted by matthew:

buffer zone

The buffer zone is there for a reason, and that is mapping. Arboterium and Life support is too large to be implemented into the Talos 1 Lobby map. And making the lift a own map would get quite irritating. Then you would have to pass through 4 maps (Arboterium, Lift, Lobby, Shuttle) to get from arboterium to Shuttle, instead of 3 maps (Arboterium, Lobby, Shuttle).

So the whole lift, and the buffer zones at Arboterium and Life support, is part of the Lobby map.

IMHO a better idea would be dynamic map loading, where each room is a own map and the game will always load everything that is adjacent to your current location, in the background, so you wouldn't notice any load screens.

They could also do it so the lift itself is a map and no buffer zones at all, but then you would get a load screen for enter the lift and one load screen to exit the lift.

The reason Lobby was selected to not have a buffer zone is simple: Since the lift is broken at the start of the game, if it would have a buffer zone (and lift being its own map), it would become a loading screen, then stumbling upon the broken elevator, and then having to return through the loading screen again.