New enemy system suggestion

[Trucario]

In fact, the current enemies are bugs, What if we replace the current spawners for a "Queen" that spawn "eggs" and that eggs after a short time grew up and here we have the biter.

if we mimic the nature we can make a enemy hierarchy system that has a queen, worker biters, soldiers, young queens that are be able to colonize new sites, and etc.

And then we can make "species" that for example; tribe of flying biters , tribe of speedy biters , etc.

So, I think that could make the game more interesting and hard, because your weapon full upgraded wont be the "panacea" of all enemies and every enemy will require an special answer.

[slay_mithos]

That's good for experienced players, but also a great way to have the early game possibly way harder for new players.

I mean, flyers or ranged would mean that wall+ turret would get way less effective, for example, and if it's related to what tribes are near your base, it can really screw you big time if you don't plan ahead by scouting early.

[Molay]

I do really like that hive-behavior idea. Similar to different ant colonies. Possibly they are attracted to mineral deposits to place new hives there (by that I mean a hive split - a new queen taking this area and slowly establishing herself).
Different traits sounds really nice as well, and would makes for some nice variation in playstyle required.

But I don't believe the current enemies are final anyways, so I'll be interested to see what comes. What you suggested sounds great, and I like the idea that they expand most of all.

[Trucario]

I do really like that hive-behavior idea. Similar to different ant colonies. Possibly they are attracted to mineral deposits to place new hives there (by that I mean a hive split - a new queen taking this area and slowly establishing herself).
Different traits sounds really nice as well, and would makes for some nice variation in playstyle required.

But I don't believe the current enemies are final anyways, so I'll be interested to see what comes. What you suggested sounds great, and I like the idea that they expand most of all.

Exact, I think that Factorio need a better enemy system that equals the power of our factory, Now the enemy system are alike Starship troopers, Waves and waves and waves and waves of the same thing. We are playing a Tower defense or an Advanced RTS? Factorio is capable of offer a enemy smart, with variety y adaptable in front of you.
Maybe not in the begining but in the course of the time...

[bwser20]

The idea of tribes is a great idea but taking it one step further and adding interbreeding and cross species. That would be interesting, the possibilities.

[Reiker]

I think a lack of enemy variety is one of the main things Factorio is missing right now.

I had a pretty simple idea earlier while playing that probably doesn't deserve its own thread, so hopefully I can piggyback here.

So, I had a defensive point with a cluster of laser turrets surrounded by 3 thick walls. The biters would always throw themselves against the wall, trying to get to the turrets but of course they died before they could make any sort of progress.

So my idea is to add a "Smart Biter" in addition to Small Biters, Large Biters, etc. Smart Biters would simply have better AI. In this situation, they would know that all they have to do is take out the single electrical pole and the turrets would stop functioning. Essentially Smart Biters would have better attack prioritization to keep the player on their toes and to make simple defensive structures less effective as the game progresses.

[Coolthulhu]

Clever pathfinding could allow biters to avoid heavy turreted and walled areas while being very easy to implement.