the difference between bots and bugs is simple

[Nexus]

and theres a reason why most prefer bugs to bots.

versatility.

the bugs are pretty easy to read, yeah they have some specialists but nothing thats to difficult to handle once you get the gyst of it. not to mention their entire roster consists of things that either need to get right up infront of you or pretty darn close. the only real threat is the shriekers and stalkers which are specific units of which can be delt with if you simply snipe the shriekers hive from afar with a rocket launcher before they spawn and/or just look in the direction of where the stalkers are coming from to find their not-so-far away hideout.

simply put, the majority of specialist bugs are more temporary roadblocks of which you can get rid of permanently. where as bots, tanks, hulks, rocket troopers, all that is permanent and something you just have to deal with constantly. there is no specific spot to wipe out all tanks or hulks or whatnot.

aside from that all bugs just kinda feel like a tankier version of their smaller variants. excluding the bile titan and charger which are the only real hazards (aside from bile spewers but those can just be one shot with a nade if need be)

you're best bet is that you generally wanna avoid conflict wherever possible, take it slow, stay hidden. this can't be done on blitz missions so those are even more irritating then on the bug front. and when it comes to defending planets from bot attacks? well if you get a civilian escort mission on anything higher then difficulty 5, you might as well shoot those civi's yourself cause they aint getting out of that warzone in anything but a box.

tl:dr, bots have more ways to screw you over, and range is a big part of that. not to mention while a lot of bugs can kill you pretty quickly, bots can pretty much do it instantly if they got a rocket trooper or shield. yeah you can try cover but thats kinda hard when said bots have a tendency to surround you pretty easily (if not outright nade you/rpg the position), especially in smaller more compact maps like mantes.

i feel like if bot outposts did more to weaken the bots while playing (like taking out a large one disables the tanks or hulks from spawning or something) then more might be willing to put up with it.

[SneeZ]

Idk I enjoy bot missions more than bug ones, they give actual war or SPEC OPS vibes and force you to focus on objectives instead of fighting untill you kill every enemy. Rocket one shots are the only downside.

[Nexus]

Originally posted by SneeZ:

Idk I enjoy bot missions more than bug ones, they give actual war or SPEC OPS vibes and force you to focus on objectives instead of fighting untill you kill every enemy. Rocket one shots are the only downside.

still. the amount of things that can one shot you is insane. if even the basic grunts can do so then there is a pretty big problem.

then theres the sheer number of tankey enemies that require specificly placed shots to kill them all while dealing with the aim disruption of getting hit, and overall if i wanted to ragdoll this much id play Gmod.

[Mez]

Their laser aim bots and rockets, They spot you behind cover, their weak points are mostly in their backs and it's very hard circling behind them because they swarm you so fast and in many directions..

They are frustrating and stressful .. Stealth is next to impossible against them

We play only lvl 9's btw...

[SimpleSiren]

Originally posted by Nexus:

and theres a reason why most prefer bugs to bots.

versatility.

the bugs are pretty easy to read, yeah they have some specialists but nothing thats to difficult to handle once you get the gyst of it. not to mention their entire roster consists of things that either need to get right up infront of you or pretty darn close. the only real threat is the shriekers and stalkers which are specific units of which can be delt with if you simply snipe the shriekers hive from afar with a rocket launcher before they spawn and/or just look in the direction of where the stalkers are coming from to find their not-so-far away hideout.

simply put, the majority of specialist bugs are more temporary roadblocks of which you can get rid of permanently. where as bots, tanks, hulks, rocket troopers, all that is permanent and something you just have to deal with constantly. there is no specific spot to wipe out all tanks or hulks or whatnot.

aside from that all bugs just kinda feel like a tankier version of their smaller variants. excluding the bile titan and charger which are the only real hazards (aside from bile spewers but those can just be one shot with a nade if need be)

you're best bet is that you generally wanna avoid conflict wherever possible, take it slow, stay hidden. this can't be done on blitz missions so those are even more irritating then on the bug front. and when it comes to defending planets from bot attacks? well if you get a civilian escort mission on anything higher then difficulty 5, you might as well shoot those civi's yourself cause they aint getting out of that warzone in anything but a box.

tl:dr, bots have more ways to screw you over, and range is a big part of that. not to mention while a lot of bugs can kill you pretty quickly, bots can pretty much do it instantly if they got a rocket trooper or shield. yeah you can try cover but thats kinda hard when said bots have a tendency to surround you pretty easily (if not outright nade you/rpg the position), especially in smaller more compact maps like mantes.

i feel like if bot outposts did more to weaken the bots while playing (like taking out a large one disables the tanks or hulks from spawning or something) then more might be willing to put up with it.

Problem with bots to me is once you get trapped its death after death after death to where bugs you can out run use rocks to cut them off. Bots need more storm trooper in them running into a pack is like running up the beach in France with MGs mowing you down.. And that damn laser Cannon just sucks lol.

[Khloros]

Bots are miles easier to fight then bugs though.

Bots are easier to coral and control, bugs are constantly pushing against you and your always playing on a back foot. Bots you are able to prevent them from doing damage to you for a time because if you block LoS they cant hit you, so you can reload, call in, supply, what ever.

On top of taht, there are stratagems that completely cripple bots. Smoke cirpples their ability to apply damage to you.

Bugs dont have that, bugs are constnatly pushing on you and spawning and rushing you. Also bugs call in more bugs a lot faster then bots do. Bug you have i would say probably less then half a second to kill the one calling them in, bot you got well over a second to stop a call in.

The reason why most people dont fight bots is because its 1 a self fulfilling prophecy, people think they are hard so they avoid them, and everyone parrots that they are harder so its thought they are harder. 2 we have not had any major orders for them until now.

[Supertriperniver]

For me the problem with the Bots is that most of them do insta kill, the ones that go with rocket launchers, Devastator or Berserker that for a reason that I still don't understand sometimes self-destruct in your face. Tanks are to some extent easy to flank but as soon as a Hulk appears things get too complicated. Not to mention the situations where 3-4 Dropships appear at the same time or several patrols roaming your area, no matter how stealthy you are, someone always sees you.
As they say, most of them have the devil point on their back but they are too agile to be able to flank them, especially when 10-15 robots are chasing you with homicidal desire.

Every time I play on a Bots map it happens that a player (or myself) respawns and as soon as you leave the capsule you are killed by a missile, an explosion, a flamethrower, etc. which makes some moments very frustrating. .

Also, although I think it's my thing, I get the feeling that a single factory generates robots much faster than a colony with several Bug holes.

[C4NNED]

Bots are overrated due to memes and bugs are underrated.

Both factions have their unique challenges and impossible situations and each offers people something different. I play both and focus on major orders and I think the more elitist bot players need to get over themselves. It's getting kind of ridiculous and just doesn't help the campaign efforts at all.

[Guardian_Angel]

People prefer bugs because the bugs are fairer.
Their effective range is MUCH smaller, and only their high-tier enemies can one-shot you.
Bug breaches usually some distance away from you, and can be bombed with impunity.

Bots, on the other hand, are infuriating in every single aspect.

They can shoot as far as 150 metres, and even two heavy devastators have enough fire volume to hit you semi-consistently at that range, and rockets are pin-point accurate, at least one rocket in a salvo is guaranteed to be zeroed in on you.

90% of all automaton enemies have one-hit kill attacks, even the trashiest enemies can randomly one-tap you with a rocket out of nowhere. Them being silent and blending in with their base environment doesn't help.
Attacks that don't one-shot you will send your crosshair into orbit. Heavy Devastators are especially annoying, because they get very accurate overtime, and never stop shooting at you.

Rocket Devastators, the most lethal enemy in the entire game, spams salvos of rockets every few seconds non-stop. Also, if you're not in their sight, they can enter the pre-firing animation and patiently wait for you to show up, at which point they release the salvo without any delay. Since this is a 'medium' enemy, you will constantly be in situations where you have to fight an upward of 15 rocket devastators at once. A single dropship can carry up to 8 of them.

Speaking of dropships.
They are extremely intrusive with where they disembark, and can drop stuff directly on your head.
They can carry a huge amount of enemies, and can themselves spawn in droves. A single dropship holds up to 4 hulks, 8 devastators, or an entire deathsquad of raiders. And they usually come in packs of 4-8. That's nearly 100 enemies dropped back-to-back and all over the place.

Map design.
Most biomes in the game have a lot of open space, with just a few rocks sprinkled here and there. Many biomes have low-visibility modifiers, like sandstorms and mists, which bots completely ignore. Same goes for jungle-style maps - bots see you through all the trees and bushes and foliage. You are frequently attacked from multiple sides by bot drops and random patrols, whilst having very little cover -- which becomes useless once the game decides to spawn in 4 melee hulks and 20 meatsaws.

Weakspots.
Weakspots (lightly armoured segments, not just those that give you bonus damage) on automatons are extremely small compared to bugs, and many of those are located at the rear, which they don't show to you. Hulk doesn't even have a frontal weakspot, and it's very good at keeping its front pointed at you.
Both Devastators have tiny heads, while having good armour and health everywhere else. Even their heat vent takes a lot of punishment.

Overall, the value of an individual enemy is tremendously higher for automatons than the bugs, while the spawnrate is the same. 2 Rocket Devastators pose exponentially more danger than 10 Brood Commanders, even though they are technically within the same tier.
Same goes for melee Hulks and Chargers. A Recoilless Rifle crew can take out 6 chargers in quick succession, even while being attacked by other enemies. In contrast, killing 4 Hulks quickly is quite the challenge, and next to impossible when your aim is being constantly tampered with by 500000 pew-pew lasers being shot at you.

[Obamenau]

Originally posted by Guardian_Angel:

. Hulk doesn't even have a frontal weakspot, and it's very good at keeping its front pointed at you.
.

Quick correction: hulks can be killed with 2 AC or DMR shots straight into their glowing eye.

Very reliable with a clean shot, however when things get stressful it becomes really difficult since these weapons have a lot of sway and recoil.

[Guardian_Angel]

Originally posted by Obamenau:

Quick correction: hulks can be killed with 2 AC or DMR shots straight into their glowing eye.

Very reliable with a clean shot, however when things get stressful it becomes really difficult since these weapons have a lot of sway and recoil.

I was expecting that reply.

No. Hulk's eye is not lightly-armoured. Only AMR and up can deal damage to it; no primary or explosive weapon penetrates, so, unless you've got a loaded AT gun of some sort, or an EMS grenade, the melee Hulk will very likely murder you with a quick sweep of its insta-kill flamethrower attack. Light armours are slightly faster than a Hulk, but medium and especially heavy armours are utterly ♥♥♥♥♥♥ if they get into that situation.

And, to mention heavy armours: the one with 50% explosive resistance is actually fairly good, as it allows you to tank 1-2 direct rocket hits semi-reliably. But you have to run a very specific build for it to work.

... Flowing into yet another problem - the build rigidity. Compared to bugs, Automatons have far less comfortably good loadouts. Most -- if not all -- of them are Auto-Cannon-centred, with other stratagem slots being filled up by random stuff. Running virtually anything else is a pain.
On bug missions, I often see all 4 players using very different loadouts. On bot missions it's either shield+AMR or autocannon+whatever.