Factorio Forums

Will Aliens attack a completely solar base? so what im doing so you know what it is.
So im making a solar radar station and it uses nothing but a roboport with construction bots, solar panels, accumulators, and radars. Currently it has enough power production to support about 200 laser turrets always, would i even need this turrets? thus i can make it smaller?

If biters or spitters path near it, they will be attracted by the radar because it is a military building. Radar will be destroyed but everything else will be left.

Thanks Fish, so i guess i will add the turrets then

FishSandwich wrote:If biters or spitters path near it, they will be attracted by the radar because it is a military building. Radar will be destroyed but everything else will be left.

I highly doubt that they would only destroy the radar, because aliens will usually also attack transport belts, inserters, power poles, ...
Also, the radar doesn't actually create pollution / attract biters, see the wiki: Radar

daniel34 wrote:I highly doubt that they would only destroy the radar, because aliens will usually also attack transport belts, inserters, power poles, ...

Different situation(see this post linked from the wiki page you linked). I have radar outposts(a single radar powered by a solar panel) getting attacked sometimes. When I go to check only the radar was destroyed.

daniel34 wrote:Also, the radar doesn't actually create pollution / attract biters, see the wiki: Radar

What I said is it will attract biters that path near it(again, see this post linked from the wiki page you linked). That's completely different to what you think I said.

Enemies will only attack non-military buildings that don't generate pollution if a) their AI perceives the building to be an unavoidable obstacle in reaching their target or b) it's within a certain (variable) proximity to a pollution-generating building. (Fun fact: trees and rocks aren't exempt. In some cases, they will literally beat a path through a forest instead of, or even in the process of, going to your walls.)

For this reason I build out my solar arrays well away from my main base, outside the walls with plenty of room to path around them. This often results in the hilarious scenario where they'll march past several miles of solar arrays, attacking nothing, to get to my main base.

Military buildings will aggro by proximity and therefore distract attackers that were already on their way, but will not attract attacks themselves. Radars ARE considered a military building and have exactly the same effect on enemy AI as would a turret.

As such, it definitely should be a viable strategy to bury the radar deep within your solar arrays, unreachable, or on a dead-end path that leads nowhere else. If they don't "see" it on their way to wreck your mines, they'll completely ignore it.