I don't think people enjoy fighting vs the Automatons

[dayofmone]

Understandable, I hate them as well.
150k players vs Terminids on Veldt, 25k defending Mantes despite high priority broadcasts constantly happening.
Please rebalance Automatons.

[ImHelping]

The main mission of rescue scientists being overtuned as ♥♥♥♥ and also trash side progress rewards even if you win probably did not help opinions on the bots.

But in regular missions, bots can be more forgiving in a cluster ♥♥♥♥ than bugs because more weapons work on them (Like the AMR not being a waste of space), and their more legitimate reinforcements (ONLY small bots can drop flares. Dropships drop everything at once so you can wipe em out with one call instead of staggered spawns to be immune to damage until after the strike is over) mean they are more manageable in a fighting retreat.

While back in bug land, if you have 3 titans and change on top of an objective because you just ran from all your problems, you might be too busy blaming everyone else to do anything about it.

Bugs just reward sloppy players thinking "If I run away from everything I am META! ps railgun OP" ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ makes you good, and not a disaster creating three times as enemies on the map with all the ♥♥♥♥ you are starting even though you are wearing light scout armor. But people are running away from bugs actually because they are more beefy than the terminators without anti-tank explosives.

Seriously, airburst will erase everything smaller than a tank from an entire zipcode while a bug breach will still ♥♥♥♥ out guards and have hunters leap out of the way between salvos. The soft target bad vs armor orbital is amazing vs bots instead of squishy butt bugs what even the ♥♥♥♥-

[Jonny Sparta]

They probably just haven't given it muchh of a try yet. People always leaned towards the bugs more than the cyborgs in hd1 as well. Probably because they are a bit simpler to fight.

Im finding thhe autos really fun

[nazerick]

I enjoy the automans but I really hate the defense mission to save the scientists. It quickly just becomes impossible to keep up with the incoming waves if your team doesn't have a certain level of skill and ability to communicate and plan before the match starts. Most other missions you can just drop into and figure out without being completely overwhelmed.

[Fluffle Puff]

Killing robots is boring, but insects explode so fun. I always choose missions with insects.

[adobo]

There's a major order against the bugs right now and they have more sectors and are closer to Super Earth. Also they're back in Veld again and could threaten Angel's Venture.

It'll probably shift back to the Automatons again when Erata Prime is the last one left in Umlaut sector because screw that sand blasted bughole.

[bluetrazyn]

No.

The automatons are harder and that's okay. The scientist evac missions are a pain, I agree with that. However, with that one exception, automatons are extremely fun to fight. They feel far more your equal instead of a horde of mindless bugs. I cut my teeth on Draupnir for the first 20 hours of my time in HD2 and it was a blast.

You have to be conservative, use cover, prioritize both light and heavy targets. Fabricators are far easier to destroy than bug holes, and it's way easier to open distance and lose pursuing atomatons if you are losing a fight and you need to get out.

Automatons are well designed, intimidating and highly dynamic. Your approach to fighting them has to constantly change (push forward, fall back, change positions, monitor where drop ships are coming in and what enemies are aboard). By contrast, the bug-fighting strategy is "kite until you can get a clear shot or a statagem comes off cooldown".

[Marmarmar34]

I play vs robots almost exclusively because fights against them feel more intense and less hectic than the bugs.

[MartyrSaint]

I'd rather it stay as is, personally.

[Karl]

If they actually released a balance/hotfix patch already that takes care of the defense missions of bots and lets people have the proper armor I guarantee you that there would be more people willing to play bot side

Personally I enjoy them quite a bit, but those defense missions don't help. Completely unbalanced on higher difficulties with a relentless spam of dropships dropping the heaviest armor.

[deimos]

i actually much prefer fighting the bots, they are harder but not as annoying as the bugs if that makes sense, im just fighting bugs right now because good solders follow orders

[pi73r]

Actually fighting vs bots is much more fun. All recent major orders were for bugs though.

[ImHelping]

Originally posted by Karl:

If they actually released a balance/hotfix patch already that takes care of the defense missions of bots and lets people have the proper armor I guarantee you that there would be more people willing to play bot side

Personally I enjoy them quite a bit, but those defense missions don't help. Completely unbalanced on higher difficulties with a relentless spam of dropships dropping the heaviest armor.

Don't worry, they listened to their community where it counts!... patching "fixed top three difficulties being to easy"

The playerbase is already playing with a universal handicap because the devs screwed up a core gameplay element. Better punish them more for dealing with it instead of refunding.

[Charlie]

I don't play for long, I only play against bugs on lower difficulties, I do not wish to optimize the fun out of the game just yet

[Lucky Cat]

For me, its the absurdity of how they are potentially capable of OHK from many things compared to the Terminids. You have the measly robot with a rocket launcher that can often accurately nail you down. Then you have the Rocket Devastator that makes it more panic inducing to avoid. Now you have Hulks which one of their variants also comes with them, then...cannons, both the turret and the tanks themselves. That's the worst offender of why they're far more difficult for me. However, it isn't the only reason.

The Automatons also have this problem where dealing with them compared to the Terminids is not straightforward and even not as soloable and requires additional player to ensure you can tackle the Automatons effectively at any engagement. Up until you begin facing Hulks, it becomes a major difficulty spike as you may need to get behind them but the problem is, you can't just run, dodge, and dive around them like a Charger or Brood Commander to avoid imminent death. Hulks have this unusually fast turning speed for something their size and you cannot get behind to blow their vents up, and this is almost similar to the Tank as well but most notably the Flak version of the Tank. If you came equipped with a Autocannon, you may as well die and sneak away if you're solo because there's no chance without a teammate or if you're out of strategems currently.

[lockwoodx]

I like fighting the robots more because they're much easier to see in the dark.