Biter Attack Patterns

[AndrewGeil]

Biters attack in a straight line. This makes defending your base very simple. All you have to do is plop down a few turrets in the biters path and your whole base is defended. I propose a change to biter attacks to make it more "random" where the attacks come from.

Biters, when aggravated into attacking by pollution, should start running in a circle with their target (pollution source) as the center and the base they spawned from as a point on the circle. Bear with me, as they circle around the base, they have a percent chance each tile to break from the circling behavior and run straight towards the target. This will make attacks by a base inside your pollution cloud appear random in direction and much more difficult to defend against because they are no longer crazy predictable.

[ssilk]

I like this running in circles, cause it reminds me to Western films.

[ThaPear]

I like the idea, but it also means that attack are more spread out. This makes more turrets able to fire, resulting in easier defense in the later game.
This idea would make it harder to set up a single defense point, but make it easier to defend once the entire base is encircled.

[FishSandwich]

Yeah if you've ever played a hard mode map you'd know this kind of behaviour isn't that much harder. :p

[AndrewGeil]

I like the idea, but it also means that attack are more spread out. This makes more turrets able to fire, resulting in easier defense in the later game.
This idea would make it harder to set up a single defense point, but make it easier to defend once the entire base is encircled.

I don't think I conveyed this correctly to you. When the biters attack, the move as a group in a straight line. I would have them move as a group in a circle and then straight to their target, preserving their swarm attack.

[AndrewGeil]

Yeah if you've ever played a hard mode map you'd know this kind of behaviour isn't that much harder. :p

If you can't draw a straight line from a biter base to yours, how is that not more difficult? I understand when you change your setting to murder-town, completely encircled by massive biter bases, that being attacked from every direction is already happening. Do the majority of players use such biter rich maps? My guess/opinion is no. I don't think this is a time intensive change for the overall improvement to most players game experience.

[Zenith]

How about having a biter that can tunnel under your defense. This may lead to a new type of defensive weapon to help protect against it.

[FishSandwich]

Yeah if you've ever played a hard mode map you'd know this kind of behaviour isn't that much harder. :p

If you can't draw a straight line from a biter base to yours, how is that not more difficult?

Well it's not more difficult, it just means you have to completely surround your base with turrets/walls sooner than usual. If anything it's more time consuming than difficult.

Having said that, I wasn't saying it's a bad suggestion and shouldn't be implemented(I actually like the idea). I would actually like to see this behaviour implemented(along with many other ideas to change biter behaviour), because anything that forces the player to think more strategically is beneficial to the game.

[AndrewGeil]

How about having a biter that can tunnel under your defense. This may lead to a new type of defensive weapon to help protect against it.

Or make radar necessary for base defense?