Friday Facts #429 - Vulcanus Demolisher Enemies

[Criperum]

If they are so territorial will they fight each other if lured in other demolisher's territory?

[The Phoenixian]

Oh, I adore this concept. It sounds like, basically, the entire monstrosity is a giant DPS check scaling with the size of the Demolisher. And instead of the paradigm of something that exists as a response to your factory, it's sounds very much like a paradigm from a certain other factory game where enemies are a check to unlock the resources in an area.

I'm curious how their regen scales with size because, on the face of it, it sounds like a system where you have to prepare a strategy to kill this boss monster, and then keep adding in new elements to tackle the bigger, tougher variants.

I'm also curious whether demolishers will be just plain bigger in a radius and small towards the center, or if there's more of a mix of sizes with large monstrosities sprinkled in to the main radius scaling to push players to expand unevenly/towards certain biomes.

Given these enemies give the player the initiative, it definitely feels like there's more room for a far harder fight. I look forward to it.

Lastly, I really appreciate how each enemy type on different planets so far is a major shift not just in what appears, but also in how you relate to the enemies. It feels like things will be so much more varied.

[GuiltyBystander]

We're considering adjusting the rules for which buildings in a territory provoke an attack because we have some options, such as: all structures (the current rule), active structures, or only mining structures.

I hope you go with active structures. It's be a fun mechanic if you could detect them coming and throw a power switch to shut down operations until it passed.

[Tynaty]

Sigh.. Time to start setting up blueprints for tactical train-"railgun" arrays to launch at these things to claim territories early...

Also, excited that those variants that were considered were shown, really thinking id love to see they show up in some way in a Rampant-esque mod.
Sad about those jellies supposedly getting scrapped though. What a shame, and also a little wishywashy about the lack of evolution as it does bring to question the time-component as the first thing that comes to mind is Vulcanus being an ez-bake uncontested exports source that i wont have to reinvest too heavily in outside of real-estate time due to no border attrition, but hopefully the distance scaling makes up for it appropriately. Fingers crossed with bated breath regarding enemies on Fulgora.

[malecord]

I was looking forward to people encountering Demolishers during the playtesting event so I joined different servers to watch the first encounters.

The sadist side of a developer job.

My comment on the creature... pretty much like for Dune movie, it doesn't make sense for a worm to move like a straight train on the surface. It cannot phisically work like that.
Snakes to move crawl, so they are not straight line but with lateral undulation... the S like thing.
Worms instead extend a part of their body (front or back, they can move both directions) to the direction they want to go, firmly connect to the ground and then move the rest of the body there, sort of like a spring.

One can just youtube and find multiple videos to see those movements. To move like a train the creatue should have legs, which is not the case it seems.

So if I have a critique to be made to the creature is that its movement, by sticking to the visual sci fi tropes, it's non realistic.

Awesome job though!

[N35t0r]

I wonder if you can make it run into itself with some clever running around.

[DeeHants]

The main intention for the cloud can't be disclosed yet, but if Vulcanus is your first planet then the additional effect won't affect you.

Import special weapons from other planets.

Have they listed new weapons yet (other than the rocket turret)?
I wonder if this is a tesla type weapon from Fulgora that the Demolisher's dust cloud defeats?

[Vulcan]

Suggestion for buildings the Demolisher should attack - now there are new pollution types, Vulcanus could have a 'noise' pollution value for each building, with the Demolisher only going after noisy buildings.

This would also mean a player could see from the map when structures are vulnerable to being targeted by Demolishers

[datkensign]

Imagine the demolishers at the map edges because they get larger as go further out.

You just see an absolute titan racing at you

New Doshdoshington video incoming.

[JackTheSpades]

Clearly, there is only one way to deal with this beast.

pic

[valneq]

Wait, which is the frozen planet? Has that been announced?

There have been several mentions that there will be another planet besides (V)ulcanus, (F)ulgora, and (G)leba. That Fourth planet will have another exclusive science pack and will only be reachable once you have all the science backs from Nauvis, as well as V+F+G. They said the fourth planet will be furthest from the sun, and therefore a cold place.

That information is broadly scattered across several FFFs. It starts in FFF 373 with the main structure. In FFF 420 they specified the fourth planet being cold and far from the sun, therefore fusion being more useful there.

[GregoriusT]

Oooooh, Big Centipede Enemy.

An they even mention the Jelly Enemy, wait, awww it's cancelled. But at least the final Planet will have SOME Enemies, right? None? Dangit, what could possibly be the Challenge on that Icey Rock then? Guess we will find out after the Game is released, because the FFFs for that Planet are sure as hecl gonna happen after the release,⁽ᶜᶦᵗᵃᵗᶦᵒⁿ ⁿᵉᵉᵈᵉᵈ⁾ as the Devs likely dont wanna spoil it.⁽ᶜᶦᵗᵃᵗᶦᵒⁿ ⁿᵉᵉᵈᵉᵈ⁾

By the way, the Nauvis Worms really need a better name, they are the only Enemy that does not follow the Factorio naming convention.

[hecktarzuli]

Boy the dust cloud is super-jerky, the whole thing updates at the same time.

[Mithaldu]

demolishers on death just poofing out of existence feels very disappointing. would be much more interesting if they left wreckage behind or could be partially destroyed to slow them down or weaken their healing

[yngndrw]

So when are we getting the armoured trains from the prototype?

Will a Demolisher immediately detect buildings within its territory, or only during a patrol if it gets close enough?

[Cynoid_alpha]

As you're returning to the main factory, placing transport belt to connect this new resource to your base, you feel a trembling from the ground. Big mining drills make a lot of vibrations, but this is on a whole other level. Something else must be going on.

You head back towards the mining site. Across a river of lava you see a truly gargantuan creature snake its way around a volcano. This formidable beast most closely resembles a centipede or millipede but is larger than a train.

As it moves forwards the ground at its face is broken apart leaving a trail of torn up rock and patchy lava. Trees, rocks, even cliffs are torn apart by its passage. Ash is flung into the air making an abrasive cloud that blankets its body and lingers long after it has moved on.

The creature roars and speeds up. As it does so it starts shaking the ground harder. Rhythmic vibrations agitate a wide area around it kicking up a huge cloud of ash and destabilising the terrain.

Usul, we have Wormsign.

[jamaicancastle]

My comment on the creature... pretty much like for Dune movie, it doesn't make sense for a worm to move like a straight train on the surface. It cannot phisically work like that.
Snakes to move crawl, so they are not straight line but with lateral undulation... the S like thing.

Apparently it's on the to-do list:

We're also intending for the Demolishers to have more sinusoidal motion but some other things need to be completed first.

I wonder if this is a tesla type weapon from Fulgora that the Demolisher's dust cloud defeats?

Could be, but they already revealed the tesla turret, and mentioned in that FFF that there was a hand-held version, so it's not really something they can't talk about yet.

[BrainlessTeddy]

Lisan al Gaib!

[Panzerknacker]

Seriously, do you need to spoil both the name AND the looks of the new enemy already in the little announcement on the front page? You don't even give us a chance this way, even those like me who never even loaded up the actual FFF #429 page.

This is pure marketing material leading up to the release, and you don't care about people that don't like spoilers.

[malecord]

Could be, but they already revealed the tesla turret, and mentioned in that FFF that there was a hand-held version, so it's not really something they can't talk about yet.

If I were designing it I would make it so that if you shoot it while in a cloud it will hurt you.

This would a balance thing. If all the segments can absorbe damage but the healthpool is shared, it means that aoe weapon like tesla or flamethrower would be supereffective as they can attack multiple segments. If I understood correctly the worm is fire resistant, so it means that without fixes tesla would remain as a encounter trivializing weapon. But if the cloud make it a self harm weapon it becomes high risk/high reward sort of thing which usually works well.