New enemy suggestion: Stalker

[Am0rphus]

Hello, as I've said in my other posts, I'm new and I'm not yet familiar with all the game mechanics, I'm getting there though.

Anyway, my idea is for a new type of bug, the stalker. These bugs would only spawn at night and would despawn during the day. They are very sensitive to light since they see well in the dark, so they will stay away from light sources, making lamps the perfect defense against them. They are also very good at pathfinding around defenses to get to their target, making single block openings in walls that aren't covered by turrets in order to slip through without alerting the player. These could start to spawn in the middle stages of biter evolution. When these start spawning, one could assume that the biters have come to recognize the player as the ultimate threat. The stalker finds it's ideal spot, borrows into the ground, and is virtually undetectable, but radars should be able to detect and highlight them. while burrowed, bullets cannot damage them, but explosions can. They are too illusive for artillery to target them, and they should spawn from random locations at night, not from nests, making them a constant threat even when no nests are in the pollution zone. A player with no exoskeletons equipped should be able to outpace them, but their attack should instantly kill an unarmored player and severely damage an armored player. Energy shields and personal defense lasers could be used as an effective protection later in the game

They are solitary hunters, and unlike the other bugs. Their sole objective is to hunt the player. Instead of heading straight for the pollution source to attack it, the stalker will "stalk" the player but observing their routine. Where does the player normally go, how long do they stay there, where is the best place to infiltrate from, are there any lights, mines, and turrets to avoid. When one stalker learns something about the player, any other stalkers that spawn will know the same thing, so they start to form a record of the player's routine and how to infiltrate and kill the player.

The best defense against this creature is to keep your base well lit, always afk in a well lit, well defended, sealed off area. light the pathways between the areas that you normally visit, and fully cover your base with radars so that you can see every square inch of it clearly from the minimap. make sure every inch of wall has a turret covering it, and as a last resort, energy shield and personal laser defense modules don't hurt.

All in all, the main goal when thinking of this creature was to think of something that would suggest a new element to factorio aside from the normal "defend your pollution sources or kick them out of your pollution cloud" game we always play with the biters. Instead of players getting to where they have a cushy base with artillery and nukes to handle everything without a care in the world, this element would keep them on their toes without causing any danger to their creations. It would also teach them to properly fortify and light their base, even when they have their cushy base that fends off all other kinds of bugs.

[Pi-C]

These bugs would only spawn at night and would despawn during the day. They are very sensitive to light since they see well in the dark, so they will stay away from light sources, making lamps the perfect defense against them. […] they should spawn from random locations at night, not from nests, making them a constant threat even when no nests are in the pollution zone. A player with no exoskeletons equipped should be able to outpace them, but their attack should instantly kill an unarmored player and severely damage an armored player.

The best defense against this creature is to keep your base well lit, always afk in a well lit, well defended, sealed off area. light the pathways between the areas that you normally visit, and fully cover your base with radars so that you can see every square inch of it clearly from the minimap. make sure every inch of wall has a turret covering it, and as a last resort, energy shield and personal laser defense modules don't hurt.

That sounds a lot like Will-o-the-wisps. Wisps spawn at night, if you mine trees or rocks at night, they might spawn wisps that are potentially aggressive. UV light can be used to keep wisps at bay, but wisps are there right from the start while UV ligths are locked behind the solar energy. Also, UV lights consume way more energy than normal lamps, so you can use wisp detectors (locked behind lasers and blue science) to only switch them on if wisps are near.

They are solitary hunters, and unlike the other bugs. Their sole objective is to hunt the player. Instead of heading straight for the pollution source to attack it, the stalker will "stalk" the player but observing their routine. Where does the player normally go, how long do they stay there, where is the best place to infiltrate from, are there any lights, mines, and turrets to avoid. When one stalker learns something about the player, any other stalkers that spawn will know the same thing, so they start to form a record of the player's routine and how to infiltrate and kill the player.

That's going way beyond the wisps mod -- but it seems very interesting!

[Yandersen]

A lot of detailed specifications, from which I extract the basic idea: new type of bugs that afraid of light and that burrow to become invulnerable once lit. Nice new mechanic, so it is good - putting lamps around the base for protection seems like an interesting addition to the scarce alien biome.
That much would make me strongly vote for it.

[Koub]

I think this would be best addressed via a mod than via additionto vanilla, at least to start with. If the mod gets massive approbation the devs **might** conseder adding it to vanilla (although I think that it's very unlikely, being that close to the release).

[Yandersen]

(although I think that it's very unlikely, being that close to the release).

You make it sound like release means the end of development. Nah, I must be just paranoid as always...

[Koub]

We don't know what the devs will do after they deem Factorio out of early access. I'm not sure they know themselves.

[Impatient]

We don't know what the devs will do after they deem Factorio out of early access. I'm not sure they know themselves.

Personally I hope they release an upgrade where they implement a lot of the suggestion the players made OR they work on factorio 2 OR work on factorio 3D. ;-D