Alien aggression in factorio

[tpicoo]

I was booting up factorio when i thought about peaceful mode. if you dont know, peaceful mode is when aliens do not attack you first. olny when you attack them. but i was thinking, should there be more options? i remembered when on my first map, i wanted to defend against the aliens. but it took so long for them to show up and after that, they never attacked me. i dont know why. i was not on peaceful mode. i made sure by going to the exchange map string. it was all default. so i thought. maybe there should be options for the aliens aggression and evolution. as with the recorces you can set big lots little and other things, so why not do that with aliens. you could have the aliens with
Agression: Very aggressive, Extra Aggessive, Default, Little Aggression, and not aggressive, and none just like the recorces
and with evolution rates,
Evolution: High, extra,default, lower, very low, and none

Please tell me if you think this would be a good idea

[golfmiketango]

I was booting up factorio when i thought about peaceful mode. if you dont know, peaceful mode is when aliens do not attack you first. olny when you attack them. but i was thinking, should there be more options? i remembered when on my first map, i wanted to defend against the aliens. but it took so long for them to show up and after that, they never attacked me. i dont know why. i was not on peaceful mode. i made sure by going to the exchange map string. it was all default. so i thought. maybe there should be options for the aliens aggression and evolution. as with the recorces you can set big lots little and other things, so why not do that with aliens. you could have the aliens with
Agression: Very aggressive, Extra Aggessive, Default, Little Aggression, and not aggressive, and none just like the recorces
and with evolution rates,
Evolution: High, extra,default, lower, very low, and none

Please tell me if you think this would be a good idea

Hello & welcome to the factorio forums! Although technically you're making a suggestion, I kind of like that you've posted this here in General Discussion as it allows a broader on-topic dialogue about this.

One thing that sometimes takes quite a while for even very experienced players to figure out is that in (vanilla) factorio, biters do not just "spawn" into existence on the map, as enemies often do in other video games*.

Instead, they have a very particular reproductive lifecycle through which they are born, sort-of like earth organisms**, and must migrate (over land) to expand their habitat.

Therefore, it is sometimes possible to place even a very large and dirty factory on an island or (less reliably) somewhere accessible only by passing through a very large and dense forest, or through a hailstorm of bullets and lasers, so that, even though biters may really, really want to get to come and get you, they simply can't do it and never show up. When this happens, large packs of frustrated biters will tend to cluster at point of obstruction, but as far as I know, they never sprout wings or teleport or anything like that. This may have been what happened in your campaign.

* Conventional textbook definitions of "life" typically require reproduction definitionally. So, technically, I guess, anything that can just "rez" into existence from nowhere is not alive -- although I suspect that's really because whether to classify "rezzed" entities as life-forms is, thus far, a purely theoretical question for irl humans.

** In particular, biters have an asexual, pseudo-eusocial approach to reproduction and geographical expansion. They hang around causing trouble until they "decide" they want to expand somewhere. Then, they then form into migratory packs, which attempt to populate their target destination. Upon arrival some (all?) of the migrants will undergo a polyphenism, becoming either spawners (purely-reproductive blobs of goo) or worms (purely-defensive combat specialists). The spawners asexually give birth to fully-grown "baby" biters to complete the reproductive cycle.

[mophydeen]

You can play with alien settings:

frequency, size, richness

and starting area

Also a map with smaller lakes

only by retry less trees, more dessert

[Deadly-Bagel]

Ugh, after Christmas I don't know how much more dessert I can take ._.

[tpicoo]

Hello & welcome to the factorio forums! Although technically you're making a suggestion, I kind of like that you've posted this here in General Discussion as it allows a broader on-topic dialogue about this.

One thing that sometimes takes quite a while for even very experienced players to figure out is that in (vanilla) factorio, biters do not just "spawn" into existence on the map, as enemies often do in other video games*.

Instead, they have a very particular reproductive lifecycle through which they are born, sort-of like earth organisms**, and must migrate (over land) to expand their habitat.

Therefore, it is sometimes possible to place even a very large and dirty factory on an island or (less reliably) somewhere accessible only by passing through a very large and dense forest, or through a hailstorm of bullets and lasers, so that, even though biters may really, really want to get to come and get you, they simply can't do it and never show up. When this happens, large packs of frustrated biters will tend to cluster at point of obstruction, but as far as I know, they never sprout wings or teleport or anything like that. This may have been what happened in your campaign.

* Conventional textbook definitions of "life" typically require reproduction definitionally. So, technically, I guess, anything that can just "rez" into existence from nowhere is not alive -- although I suspect that's really because whether to classify "rezzed" entities as life-forms is, thus far, a purely theoretical question for irl humans.

** In particular, biters have an asexual, pseudo-eusocial approach to reproduction and geographical expansion. They hang around causing trouble until they "decide" they want to expand somewhere. Then, they then form into migratory packs, which attempt to populate their target destination. Upon arrival some (all?) of the migrants will undergo a polyphenism, becoming either spawners (purely-reproductive blobs of goo) or worms (purely-defensive combat specialists). The spawners asexually give birth to fully-grown "baby" biters to complete the reproductive cycle.

Thank you for responding to my post. but i was not talking about the aliens expansion in nests. it is a great thing how the aliens work. and while reading this i learned something new about this great game! but i was thinking about basically a difficulty changer for the game, so players could fight aliens more or less depending on there prefrences for example, players really good at the game might want more of a challange. such as, behemoth aliens as soon as they get to the pollution that would cause medium aliens. doing that would also give new players something to experiment with in order to see evolution faster.

[tpicoo]

Ugh, after Christmas I don't know how much more dessert I can take ._.

\

i like the desert. less trees that constantly get in the way

[Lee_newsum]

Have a look at https://wiki.factorio.com/Enemies

go down to Evolution

From there
The game evolution factor is a global variable that determines what kind of biters will be spawned
Methods of increasing
The passage of time very slightly increases the evolution factor.
The global Pollution Production increases the evolution factor.
Destroying the enemy spawners significantly increases the evolution factor.

[AcolyteOfRocket]

I personally don't see variable strength of biters as something worthwhile for the devs to work on as we already have it in many respects. If you want no biters then set your start area to large. If you want them in your face right off the bat, then set your start area to small.

They get stronger over the course of the game anyway, thanks to evolution.

I like them at the start of the game, because I like the threat they pose, but they get boring later on as clearing them out is grindy and I wish we could automate clearing them, although destroyer drones are the next best thing.

I suspect I will miss their presence on the tech path in 0.15, I'll just have to go and kill them for funsies

[Vexos]

This is an interesting idea. I think you mean a way to modify bitters attack rate in response to pollution. A way to adjust the amount of pollution needed to get yourself attacked will be nice for a different playstyle, more focused on weaponry.

Being attacked more frequently have nothing to do with the evoluction factor because it only will set the type of bitters that will attack you.

If your pollution dont reach them you will not get attacked, doesnt matter if their base are big or near yours. (unless right next)