So I was clearing out some Biter nests around my factory, (well being chased by a horde of Biters after killing the last spawner) and as I was leading them back to an area filled with turrets I see another large-ish group(about 20 it total, all sizes) running across my path ahead of me. Now being the sane and rational person I am I do what any person would do, I run right at them shooting and trying to get them to follow me into my well laid trap. Nothing, they keep running, so I follow them. I want to know where the buggy bastards are going in such a hurry now. So I follow them, and they just STOP, and I mean they STOP they don't move an inch, not even shift a little.
So as I am still being chased by a horde of Biters, I fire off a missile into the group that has frozen in place and run off to spring my trap. One quick mini-genocide later I return to the spot where the the Biters froze in place, and they are STILL there! They haven't moved at all (I did however blow up a little one with my hastily launched missile so sad) so I have at this point assumed that this group of Biters was just a buggy bit of code and I walk up to them to put the poor things out of their glitched misery. So I go about murdering them, the little ones die quick but it is taking me a little to kill the big/medium ones. Then a big Biter just vanishes, (POOF just gone, I didn't even shoot it once) and a big worm is now in the middle of the group, shooting it's acid spit at me.
I back off, the worm is my target now, (it is actually fighting back unlike the baby seal Biters I was clubbing) then I see a few more disappear, more worms, another big one and a medium one. I bust out the missile launcher and carpet-bomb the rest of them. End of encounter and I realize what I just saw, and the implications. Biters can BECOME Worms, maybe if I had not killed so many it may have even become a nest with a spawner.
If I am right, this means areas that have be cleared out can become repopulated with Biters or at least little pockets of Worm-traps.
Biters ARE Worms
Re: Biters ARE Worms
Known issue that biters get stuck if too many are on the map simultaneously. Once numbers get lower (or you get close to them) they should get unstuck.
Re: Biters ARE Worms
I can assure you they were not stuck, I shot at them, point blank.
Re: Biters ARE Worms
When there's too many biters they just stop moving, i.e. get stuck.ShaiTan wrote:I can assure you they were not stuck, I shot at them, point blank.
Re: Biters ARE Worms
Well, biters do repopulate areas and create new nests. They form a group of runners and go to some random place, running straight through your base sometimes...
Re: Biters ARE Worms
yesShaiTan wrote: If I am right, this means areas that have be cleared out can become repopulated with Biters or at least little pockets of Worm-traps.
The problems I have with how they do this is that they are not distracted by the player/damage, which A) makes it 'easy' to kill them, B) unrealistic, and C) prone to people thinking it's a coding bug, especially with the fact that biter AI can freeze
The other (slight) issue I have is that I'd prefer if there was a 'queen' biter that actually turned into the spawner...but that's personal preference more than anything else
Re: Biters ARE Worms
That seems to fit with what I saw, what surprised me was the Biters changing into Worms, and the idea that they can recreate spawners.muzzy wrote:Well, biters do repopulate areas and create new nests. They form a group of runners and go to some random place, running straight through your base sometimes...
Re: Biters ARE Worms
That sounds really cool, plus it is a bit more realistic as they do seem to mimic insects. Plus that would make it easy to spot a runner group and differentiate it from a group your machines have aggro'ed.FreeER wrote: The other (slight) issue I have is that I'd prefer if there was a 'queen' biter that actually turned into the spawner...but that's personal preference more than anything else
Re: Biters ARE Worms
Animation for the biters settling bases is on the to do list. I don't know if they are planning on tweaking the settling behavior.