Automaton spawns/spawn rates

[Cloud Roller]

Anyone think that the Automaton spawns on higher difficulties, especially 7-9 are complete BS? I always play Automaton worlds on high difficulties, unless it's a MO to go to Terminid worlds, but there are moments where it's just relentless amounts of patrols and/or dropships just dumping bot after bot and it's getting ridiculous. I remember it not being this insane and annoying in the past. Of course, I tend to ignore fights if necessary, but when I usually go down a flanking route, lo and behold, there's another big patrol with devastators and hulks. Only route to go is back, but sometimes, another patrol is within view. What is up with these spawns?

[Hand's Hermit Permit]

Yes, but there are a few scenarios that come into mind specifically that have varying causes and points of blame in my opinion.

First of all, the constant bot waves you're describing remind me strongly of a detector tower, which at higher levels especially will just dump abuse on top of you non-stop and you're going to start losing reinforcements fast if this ♥♥♥♥ goes on. It's meant to be impossible to deal with imo. The biggest fault I feel lies with the fact that players, even months into the game and at the highest levels still don't understand they need to avoid the detector beam to avoid reinforcements. 9 times out of ten if the whole group is moving in on it instead of just me or otherwise a 1-player stealth saboteur, it gets tripped and we're drowning in bots instantly and from all directions. AVOID ITS GAZE, PEOPLE. Get close enough to the outpost and it can't see you anymore. Hellbomb it, but direct heavy orbital strikes also work on it quickly. If you're skilled you can just chuck the orbital precision at it from outside the outpost and instantly destroy it. But I also believe 380 works if you're lucky and a well placed 500KG will as well.

I also think evacuate priority asset is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. It drops heavies non-stop. If you get 2-3 factory striders it can be over unless the people you're with are exceptionally well-armed or skilled. Even if you seemingly do everything right, you're still liable to be hopelessly besieged with every stratagem cooling down. It also doesn't help that factory strider cannons can shoot right over walls into the generators or that on one of the two map layouts, the game can decide that behind all the walls right next to the generators is a valid place to drop in bots.

Otherwise I do find in certain parts of large maps, especially when the main objective is completed that the automaton patrols are endless and heavy. I've been stuck in a corner of the map with patrols so often coming through that it's impossible to wait for them to pass. there's an infinite parade of hulks escorted by devastators. I got through eventually that one time, especially after my teammates called for extract and that made the patrols turn around, but there was no way I was getting out of that part of the map solo otherwise.

[burn1none]

yep it's been completely borked since they "reverted spawn rates"