What to do about Biters Spawning

[Pigeon039]

As said what do you do about Biters spawning near your track lines short of building the Great Wall, which would require a laser defense, which eats into fuel I am low which was the reason for the expansion in the first place. I know I can go out and kill them, but there is the risk that they destroy my power lines powering the defenses for the mining bases before I kill them and I cant keep driving out to chase away biters from spawning a base all the time. Short of a mod preventing biter spawns in an area what do you do against Biter spawning bases too close to a rail line.

Screenshot of them near rail

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[DaveMcW]

there is the risk that they destroy my power lines powering the defenses for the mining bases

Don't use power lines then. Solar panels plus accumulators will give you an independent power supply.

[Pigeon039]

I do have solar power and accumulators but they are never enough, I have about 4.5mj of solar panels but I have to have about 14mj of steam engines to even get the accumulators filled. It also doesn't solve the biters spawning near the tracks and the rail line the spawners were built at are the ones bringing in my coal and oil . The biters are eating the rail not just the power lines, although it is a good idea to make the bases independent in case they get split.

[hoho]

You were supposed to have the solar plants at your remote mines, not in central base with power lines going all over the place

[Rahjital]

You were supposed to have the solar plants at your remote mines, not in central base with power lines going all over the place

And make every outpost huge because of the area needed for significant solar production? Never!

I have never had trouble with biters attacking power lines unless I built them right next to enemy bases. They only attack the poles when they are idle, otherwise they run straight for your polluters (and make a stop for turrets on the way). The danger here may be trains leading the biters away, since biters love attacking train.

You already have power armor so you should be able to take out all three enemy bases there even without a car. All that is needed is a rocket launcher (for the big worms, for the last one it's better to use the flamethrower. Some people use poison capsules too) and a combat shotgun upgraded to level 4, regular shotgun shells are good enough. If you already have a fusion reactor then you can just raze the base, otherwise you might need to destroy a nest and run a few times. I wouldn't use the machinegun, it's pretty much useless until you get it upgraded to max level and even then shotgun is just better.

If you want to prevent biters from spawning too near, you can build a ton of walls (or pipes, whichever is cheaper for you) and put them around the rail at a distance of 32 tiles. This will mark the chunks as unfit for biter colonization. It's cheap, but it's what you have to do when you want to trick one of the game mechanics.

[Pigeon039]

Too bad I don't have rocket launchers, my fuel is running out and coal+oil mining outpost been severed and will be demolished by blue biters, and the power armor has almost no attachments(some solar panels and batteries that barely power the exo skelly), die in 5 seconds to a swarm of red/blue biters. I had to give up that game due to that biter nest spawning nearby. Also it is 10.0 were the shotgun ammo is bugged. When I do try to poison capsule and run around with armor piercing machine gun on that nest the two outpost are being razed and it might be near impossible to rebuild them AND the outposts severed as my turnabout for my copper mine further north. And even if I destroy the nest I usually have to kill the blue biters by making them run into the laser turrets, but without fuel powering them up... It will hopefully be nice to try my hand on a new factory . Thanks for all the help ill try walling the lines instead in my next factory along with more aggressive extermination and I might revisit the old factory in 0.10.2 .

[hoho]

You were supposed to have the solar plants at your remote mines, not in central base with power lines going all over the place

And make every outpost huge because of the area needed for significant solar production? Never!

Well, you could always just have many small outposts instead of few huge ones. Benefit of smaller outposts is also that the pollution they generate can't spread too far and attract biters

[Rahjital]

Too bad I don't have rocket launchers, my fuel is running out and coal+oil mining outpost been severed and will be demolished by blue biters, and the power armor has almost no attachments(some solar panels and batteries that barely power the exo skelly), die in 5 seconds to a swarm of red/blue biters. I had to give up that game due to that biter nest spawning nearby. Also it is 10.0 were the shotgun ammo is bugged. When I do try to poison capsule and run around with armor piercing machine gun on that nest the two outpost are being razed and it might be near impossible to rebuild them AND the outposts severed as my turnabout for my copper mine further north. And even if I destroy the nest I usually have to kill the blue biters by making them run into the laser turrets, but without fuel powering them up... It will hopefully be nice to try my hand on a new factory . Thanks for all the help ill try walling the lines instead in my next factory along with more aggressive extermination and I might revisit the old factory in 0.10.2 .

Well.. to be honest, that sounds like you mismanaged the game a bit; biters not be an immediate threat but they shouldn't be underestimated. The resources spent on your armor would be better used to get a modular armor fully fitted with solars, batteries and mk1 shields. Rocket launcher is the best weapon at destroying enemy bases when you don't have the tech to deal with the stream of enemies attacking you yet. It's a shame you are still playing 0.10.0, as the submachine gun sucks even when upgraded to level 4 (which you appear not to have done yet either). If you are not willing to write off the southern mines and try to stealthily build a fuel outpost heavily defended by gun turrets then yes, the save is essentially lost.

Well, you could always just have many small outposts instead of few huge ones. Benefit of smaller outposts is also that the pollution they generate can't spread too far and attract biters

Most of my outposts are just a small train station with electric mines and some gun turrets (to save on power) and yet they still add a megawatt of consumption each to my power network. That's just 2 additional steam engines but a lot of solars and accumulators. Add laser turrets and a radar which I use in the more important bases and you've got a solar array that easily dwarfs the entire base. The pollution coming from the outpost remains the same, too... thank you, but I think I'll stay with power poles leading to my remote outposts.

[hoho]

Most of my outposts are just a small train station with electric mines and some gun turrets (to save on power) and yet they still add a megawatt of consumption each to my power network. That's just 2 additional steam engines but a lot of solars and accumulators. Add laser turrets and a radar which I use in the more important bases and you've got a solar array that easily dwarfs the entire base. The pollution coming from the outpost remains the same, too... thank you, but I think I'll stay with power poles leading to my remote outposts.

Well, you could just add more outposts, skip on accumulators entirely and fit everything you can with efficiency modules to minimize power use. Yes, you won't be mining anything during the night and it'll be slower than with other modules but I can't see how one couldn't make such minimally-threatening outposts that wouldn't cover huge areas and/or generate tons of pollution.

[Marconos]

bullets --- no power needed and at top level they eat through the large biters ... love em

[Xterminator]

Honestly I would say small gun/laser outposts along the way are the best bet. If you know where the biters are all coming from, you can just build the turret bunkers in those certain areas.
I would assume this isn't an option for you, sense you don't seem to be doing it, but what about turning your oil products into solid fuel? It is more efficient than coal, and easier if you already have oil stuff set up in your base.

[Pigeon039]

I was turning my oil into solid fuel but because I ran out of coal. I was running out of oil and that oil outpost was running low. Also that trackline was connected to the coal and oil and there was a mid between outpost. The only real answer is kill'em all on the map make sure none can pop more nests .