I wish biters were justa bit more cunning

[Panzerknacker]

I know factorio aint no RTS but I kinda miss that you really can be defeated in this game. Like if biters would patrol ssometimes, looking for enemies, just stuff that happens independent of the polution cloud.

What do u guys think?

[sparr]

https://mods.factorio.com/mod/RampantFixed?from=search makes the biters a lot smarter. There are a few other mods that greatly enhance biter behavior as well, and add new types of biters (swimming, flying, tunneling, etc).

[Panzerknacker]

I know that rampant exists but what I mean is more that biters act like in a RTS game, e.g. send out patrols, continue trying to kill your base after they found it, even if it stopped producing pollution.

[meganothing]

Maybe adding some slowly increasing base pollution to the game would mean they will never stop expanding and harassing you even if you stopped your pollution production

A modder should be able to make such a mod in a few minutes, unlike revamping the AI

[sparr]

Good idea. I agree that just having a script produce some pollution would accomplish OP's stated goals.

[jguy1987]

I know that rampant exists but what I mean is more that biters act like in a RTS game, e.g. send out patrols, continue trying to kill your base after they found it, even if it stopped producing pollution.

This is something that makes sense to me in the base game. Adds just a bit more challenge without being too challenging. Just a small group of scouts to randomly roam the map and potentially interrupt your logistics or test your outpost defenses.

As it is, if you terminate all the nests without your pollution cloud you'll never see a single attack.

[NineNine]

I know that rampant exists but what I mean is more that biters act like in a RTS game, e.g. send out patrols, continue trying to kill your base after they found it, even if it stopped producing pollution.

This is something that makes sense to me in the base game. Adds just a bit more challenge without being too challenging. Just a small group of scouts to randomly roam the map and potentially interrupt your logistics or test your outpost defenses.

As it is, if you terminate all the nests without your pollution cloud you'll never see a single attack.

I agree. Biters (and the critters on Gleba in Space Age) are a completely solved problem fairly early in the game. I'm megabasing, and I'd like to have to still think about dealing with critters.

[Panzerknacker]

After thinking a bit more, maybe it would be cool and easier to implement if biters could simply expand anywhere, even inside or next to your base. This would also fix the expand block cheesing which I already figured out in my very first Factorio game by just dropping pipe segments everywhere around my important mines.

[1WheelDude]

Biters need more attack tactics, not "spawnability" in my opinion. If biters just spawn inside your base, then the meta would just be, spam defenses everywhere. Maybe new kinds of biters, like a brawler and smashes walls. Flying things that move fast, etc.

[mmmPI]

like a brawler and smashes walls. Flying things that move fast, etc.

There are mods for this !

I can recommend :

https://mods.factorio.com/mod/ArmouredBiters
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Explosive_biters

They can be rampant too, but that's already quite hard if you have them on every planet

There are colds and Fulgoran's enemy too , some of them are even flying : https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Electric_flying_enemies

[jguy1987]

I think biters expansion is point on.

Today I had a nest expand right next to some defense walls and flamethrower turrets blueprints, which I didn't notice until I started to get near and have the bots build the BP's.

The main part of my base has been largely undefended. I only got attacked by a nest that expanded into an empty space within my pollution. It was 1 single big biter. Otherwise I've just been clearing pollution.

Give me a group of biters to just randomly roam and tear down a power pole if you don't have a box setup around your entire area.

[spro123]

now I like this but the problem I have with biters is that they get very annoying and whenever one random medium biter starts eating something I have to walk my butt there to unload 3 bullets into that thing so this would get very annoying very quickly. I don't like perimeter walls because it takes all the fun out from biters attacking you so I think a way to fix this is to have like combat drones that can attack biters with the robot network but I would have to command them I think this would need balancing like turrets are much more reliable but these drones make it so you don't have to deal with one biter that decided to eat my area

[jodokus31]

After thinking a bit more, maybe it would be cool and easier to implement if biters could simply expand anywhere, even inside or next to your base. This would also fix the expand block cheesing which I already figured out in my very first Factorio game by just dropping pipe segments everywhere around my important mines.

You could also experiment with enemy expansion settings. More distance, bigger groups, more often. When biters have less room to expand, they will choose closer locations to players structures, i'd think

[Eketek]

Smarter biters would learn not to bother attempting an open assault on a wall of turrets. Instead, they should practice stealth, sneak through (or tunnel), quietly tamper with the machines inside (take items and insert them somewhere random, rotate belts, change settings, disconnect or otherwise rewire combinators, etc.), and escape without getting noticed -- then wait for the factory to come to a grinding halt or lose power before initiating the attack.

[Hurkyl]

now I like this but the problem I have with biters is that they get very annoying and whenever one random medium biter starts eating something I have to walk my butt there to unload 3 bullets into that thing so this would get very annoying very quickly. I don't like perimeter walls because it takes all the fun out from biters attacking you so I think a way to fix this is to have like combat drones that can attack biters with the robot network but I would have to command them I think this would need balancing like turrets are much more reliable but these drones make it so you don't have to deal with one biter that decided to eat my area

I've seen people use land mines to attack biters with the robot network. I usually wind up dropping emergency laser turrets.

For something remote and player directed, you can actually drive a tank remotely and use that to attack biters, assuming you have radar coverage. Later on, there's the spidertron (which provides its own radar coverage). Maybe you could even use the car for super simple stuff like that? I've never tried it remotely, but I assume it works too.