Destroyer capsules

[Mecejide]

I think that distractor capsules and destroyer capsules should spawn an extra robot each for two reasons: one, because I feel they are a bit underused at the moment, and two, because if you combine 4 capsules that spawn one robot each it makes more sense to get a capsule that spawns 4*1=4 robots. The same goes for the destroyer capsule except each destroyer could be thought of as two distractors attached together.

[Mecejide]

Huh. I thought destroyer capsules needed 3 distracter capsules each but I just checked and they need 4, so maybe the destroyer capsules should spawn 8 destroyers.

[MEOWMI]

I kinda like this idea. It makes the recipies more sensible and boosts what I think are far underpowered weapons.

Destroyers and distractors seem underpowered to me and I've yet to find a situation where I would want to use them. About the only thing I can think of is if you have one massive "do or die" battle somehow. Any other time, power armor with lasers, tank with machinegun, or turret creep is more resource efficient, and if you need time efficiency, nukes and artillery exist. Heck, tier 1 capsules feel like they far outperform their higher tier counterparts every time I try to use them (I guess behemoth biters may be the only exception to that?).

[gGeorg]

I think that distractor capsules and destroyer capsules should spawn an extra robot each for two reasons: one, because I feel they are a bit underused at the moment, and two, because if you combine 4 capsules that spawn one robot each it makes more sense to get a capsule that spawns 4*1=4 robots.

The number of nex generation bot are off. It is true for 2nd and 3rd lvl bots.
I would rather keep system :
3(previous lvl)+added_mats >> 3 better bots
Its easyer for remember. Also it means you start up with a base then improve and add on top. Also the resulting capsule could be a bit cheaper.

2nd lvl bot need an HP buff as he is the standing beacon, his lifetime in the (current) battle is one digit of seconds. Total waste of material and time in the combat zone.
Proposal : Set HP to 200HP , acid resistance 90%, explosion resistance 90%, range of shooting 10 + add long lasting stun effect on hit (3seconds) (same animation as landmines), set his target priorities to shoot at closest non-stuned targets first, then choose from stuned by the sorted countdown of stun effect. So he can a "perma stun" low amount of biters and slowly chew them. Also set Distraction bot agrro above the character, to promote this let bot make a sound and/or emite light. So its clear to player its a honey trap. That way the bot draw attention, last longer, and defend himself mostly as delaying danger so player is encouraged to follow up grenades/explosive rocket on disabled biters.

3rd lvl of bot is quite expensive. Compare to Atomic bomb. Atomic bomb is cheaper. Robot should last much much longer, to give back his value. Like 240s.

[Koub]

A very related discussion here : viewtopic.php?f=16&t=68384

[Honktown]

Maybe it'd be worth rebalancing the research/cost to match more similar tech tree stuff. A firearm-magazine defender available after Electronics and military 1. Only red-green for either a better firearm mag bot and/or a basic piercing mag bot. Military science could be included more cheaply, to match how other things like armor and military research itself don't cost very much. Crafting better versions of the same-tier bots should be the only time combat bots feed into the next recipe. Follower count bonus and follower lifetime bonus (currently not exposed, but it does work) could always cost military research, and are tiered to match the bots and maybe follow amounts like other upgrades. +1 bot and 10% lifetime research (just one would make sense), +1 and 10% red-green, +2 and 20% red-green, etc.

Bots could go something like:
basic ammo/thing + 3-5x tier chip = basic bot, only suitable for helping defend against small biter groups at first tier
basic bot + 1-3 next-tier chip = good bot, but not as good as using better material and higher-tier chips

More behavior could be modified: basic tier 1 bot is slow only suitable for defense or as weak portable turret, second can keep up with base speed, third can keep up with base speed and pursues a single enemy near the player, fourth can keep up with 60% speed and hunts enemies within limited range of player, "final" tier(s) could hunt enemies by itself (player can leave and it will maybe stay around where it was spawned), or follow a 100% faster player if no enemies are around. A variant could have a very very long lifetime but either doesn't move or moves slowly, like a portable turret but also useful as defense. The bots also need to have ranges that match spitters, at least. If there were a rocket-enabled combat bot, possibly a stationary pseudo-artillery, that'd make turret creeping less attractive, and people might start making strategies for best taking out a base: set up turrets/defenses and use some light artillery? Rush in with a mob of one bot? Multiple kinds? I've noticed biters like to get behind me. Fast weak bots that have some dodging while player throws grenades/uses flamethrower, vs high-damage expensive tanky bots that go straight in while the player has their gun fully loaded? Stuff like that. I see distractors have only acid resistance and no speed, which kinda sucks as defense, because it's always biters that get targeted first and soak all the damage while one gets spat on to death.