Too much combat.

[felter]

Been a little bit since I played and I'm surprised when I came back to find a combat game in place of a the factory building game. I wasn't expecting all those extra mobs, not to mention way too many spiders in the swamps, just how are you meant to survive when you are being attacked by half a dozen large spiders all at the same time. I honestly didn't think this was going to become a first person combat game, I seem to have a vague memory of being told in a video that it was never going to be survival game, that it was always going to be pretty much a laid back game. So what happened?

[Wasur]

The new Ammo, I use the Black one I think it's called homing ammo (just point shoot reload) very effective. You have to use the MAM to unlock it.

[DrNewcenstein]

Vocal minority who wanted moar kombats are ruining the game, that's what happened.

[Shurenai]

It's still pretty laid back, though? Enemies are pretty rare, few and far between, all considered... All of them are centered around points of interest and easily slain.

By the time you're in areas with large spiders, you should pretty definitely have the rifle which makes fighting even easier. If you dont have a rifle, why are you trying to push into dangerous areas? If the resource node or whatever you're after is in a scary area, check one of the other areas that has the same one- There's at least one of each that don't have groups of giant spiders guarding them.

And really, you can jump like 4-6m high with blade runners, and practically build in thin air. Place a 4m foundation, jump on it, jump up and place a second below you, and now you can kill pretty much anything without being in any danger.

[The Big Brzezinski]

Do a pacifist run. It turns animals into interesting puzzles to solve instead of one-off crappy combat non-challenges. Toss your zapper into a box until you can turn it into a zipline tool. Use nonlethal means off neutralizing threats.

[XistenZ]

Mobs guard nodes, slugs and other POIs.

If it's a node you want, kill the whopping 1-3 basically passive enemies, while you place the extractor and even just a sliver of a production line down your HP is now full again due to 100% regeneration, which they added in this update, and mobs won't spawn there again.

If it's a slug, either kite the whopping 1-3 basically passive enemies and grab it never to return again. Or slay them, grab the loot never to return again.

If it's a sphere or a sloop, well those are just placeholders so if you choose combat in this instance that's on you.

The game is not even close to switching focus to combat. They added more fun ways to kill mobs, that's it. I still only use the basher tho, the extremely rare few occassions I need to kill an enemy it's just faster that way.

[The Big Brzezinski]

Saying the game is "focused on" combat is probably using the wrong phrase. More precise to say the game is "annoyingly interrupted and often brought to a screeching halt by" combat.

[Shurenai]

Originally posted by The Big Brzezinski:

Saying the game is "focused on" combat is probably using the wrong phrase. More precise to say the game is "annoyingly interrupted and often brought to a screeching halt by" combat.

How do you figure? Takes all of like 5 seconds to deal with most enemies, even with the weakest weapon in the game. 30 seconds to clear a resource node and then back to business as usual. The better weapons you have, the faster it goes, even.

Moreover, The majority of combat takes place while you're out and about exploring/locating resource nodes/slugs/harddrives. You're never attacked while you're factory building. Combat is a very small side part of exploration that just makes sure you're vaguely paying attention to your surroundings...and I say vaguely because the game tells you when you've attracted an enemy.

So how...exactly do you get "Brought to a screeching halt" by that?

[Kage Goomba]

As a new player I can say that the only time you encounter anything nasty is when you leave your starting area (granted a subjective statement/area) - but when you approach goodies - they are guarded.

You should prepared to face such things - if you can't handle it - your not ready for it.

Ok - I did get annoyed about being swarmed by half a dozen hogs - but it WAS a hard drive...AND an artifact.

Honestly this isn't a combat game - I'd say its more akin to an adventure/exploration game with a factory component.
It's certainly vastly easier than Factorio in "Full mode" (metaphor)

My main "work area" is rarely visited by a stinger or a hog - def. keeps you on your toes.

[Eternal Darkness]

They push that now but Satisfactory just isn't made for that imo. Isn't Factorio where you have to protect your base from Mother Nature. Whatever I will build this weapon factory as I am supposed to do now, nuke the wildlife and then be done with it. Hopefully.

[Luna Wildpawe]

Originally posted by Kage Goomba:

You should prepared to face such things - if you can't handle it - your not ready for it

Pretty much this.

And if all else fails its a simple matter of running away far enough to lose aggro. Then you can either try again or come back later when you are better prepared.

IMO the wildlife only poses a serious threat very early on while you are still establishing a foothold and unlocking stuff. As soon as you get some decent weapons/gear the combat becomes a minor annoyance more than anything.

Also the AI is very simple to cheese by staying out of their reach or killing them from distance. Only the big spiders pose any challenge due to their fast, erratic movement and inherent psychological trauma to those with arachnophobia. (And yes I know there is an option for that but personally I found using it arguably worse than leaving it off)

Getting the wildlife to kill each other for you is also nice if you can kite them.

[TyresTyco]

The big spiders have such a high jumpscare potential. It's not even funny. I almost broke my monitors because I literally jumped out of my chair against the table. I don't expect instantly spawned spiders when I leave the explorer.

[Shahadem]

Originally posted by DrNewcenstein:

Vocal minority who wanted moar kombats are ruining the game, that's what happened.

100% this.

The balance before was far better. Now the mobs are just way too annoying. Especially the fing endlessly respawning flies.

AND YES BEFORE SOME DUMBASS COMES HERE TO SAY JUST KILL THE EGG YOLK I ALREADY KNOW CAUSE I'M NOT A MORON.

Knowing how to do something doesn't mean it isn't overly and unnecessarily annoying.

[Aven]

The enemy updates are needed. Before 6, there was an entire segment of gameplay largely unused by the player base. Veteran players could easily defeat any enemy in the game using just the zapper, never needing to actually build weapons, although most at least opted to upgrade to the basher. More varied and difficult enemies provide more gameplay. Yes, it’s harder, but anything that encourages the player to build more is a good thing.

If combat just isn’t your thing, you can always build elevated roadways, zip lines, tracks, and factories, never interacting with any of the creatures populating the world.

[LuckyDog]

Originally posted by DrNewcenstein:

Vocal minority who wanted moar kombats are ruining the game, that's what happened.

Sum is up perfectly
I've been here from the start, and came for the production chain manufacturing aspect of Satisfactory (and really enjoy that part) - but the constant harassment by creatures is a complete nuisance IMHO, and pushed me to Mod the game to disable the annoying mobs.
And agree completely with OP, after Upd 6, the mobs are more frequent and much more obnoxious than ever before.
A small, loud nursery of same-type needy, whiny gamers want CSGO level conflict in every game, whilst (usually) also demanding multi-player because they can't entertain themselves with what is a very fine solo game experience.
I do wish the Devs could tune out the noise and build what they alone intended from the start. Not every game has to have combat. Not every game has to have MP. Plenty of that to choose from already. Cheers

[Trubbles]

Wow there is a lot of hate for people here who want to see the survival and combat elements enhanced! If you read these angsty comments, you would conclude that we can't even spell.

First, I'm fairly sure that the game will eventually have a peaceful mode. Most games of this type do. Right now we are all willing, paying beta testers, and they want us to test mobs and the new ammo types. Not a big ask -- I thought the new combat was too hard, then equipped some new stunning ammo in my 1-shot nail gun (what's it called again?) and now combat is easy as anything - shoot mob to stun it, kill it with 2-4 swings of my sword.

Second, the world is not just a big empty void - it's a WORLD. It has beautiful and sometimes scary looking biomes. It is begging to be filled with "CONTENT" but without mobs, content is limited to ... scenery? and resource veins that little to do with the biome?

Personally, I would love to see a further development of PVE objectives - it could even make for a far more interesting set of game goals. You know - something better than "make 2500 of these and 500 of these and 500 of these because Ficsit demands it... then you win the game!"

Originally posted by "LuckyDog":

"A small, loud nursery of same-type needy, whiny gamers want CSGO level conflict in every game, whilst (usually) also demanding multi-player because they can't entertain themselves with what is a very fine solo game experience."

The irony of whining so loud while calling others whiners. Can't we all just treat each other as human beings?