Factorio Forums

Normally I make long wall sections and then space out turrets, so the entire length of the wall has coverage. Everyone has done this and it’s a completely brain-dead strategy when you consider how the biter AI works. What I am trying to do is set up a "hill fort" defense line, a series of unconnected by walls radar and turret/flamer emplacements. I was betting on the biter AI seeking out military structures, seeing the fort and rushing it. I must of overestimated how far biters will aggro as about a third of the time they slip through the chain of encampments and attack past this line of defense.

TL;DR How many tiles do biters see military assets and attack it with certainty? Is it certain? Will the AI sometimes skip a military asset and seek out pollution?

They tend to ignore things until they reach what they think is the source of the pollution, unless something attacks them.

I think they are sensitive to the noise or radiation that Radar puts out, and that’s why they go after those. Other than that, there are no attractants that can distract them from their mission to stop the polluting, other than the things that take pot shots at them.

astroshak wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 18, 2020 9:48 am

They tend to ignore things until they reach what they think is the source of the pollution, unless something attacks them.

I think they are sensitive to the noise or radiation that Radar puts out, and that’s why they go after those. Other than that, there are no attractants that can distract them from their mission to stop the polluting, other than the things that take pot shots at them.

I appreciate the response. That makes this strategy less of a resource saver then I was hoping.

They'll path around walls, Right? So just put up walls everywhere but your super kill base.

Hey kill boxes work in Rimworld...

5thHorseman wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 18, 2020 11:11 am

They'll path around walls, Right? So just put up walls everywhere but your super kill base.

Hey kill boxes work in Rimworld...

What I think I am going to do is making a wall "funnel" that dumps into a section of walled forts, this will increase the amount of walls used, but should drastically decrease the amount of turret/flamer/ammo used.

PintOfBass wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 18, 2020 10:22 am

That makes this strategy less of a resource saver then I was hoping.

this strategy can be a big ressource saver early game, when the pollution cloud is manageable and only triggers attacks from one or few directions.

To avoid this moment when you want to wall off everything, but it feels too early, your production is still slow and biters not so numerous.

Some strategic fort placed using cliffs,water, forest to intercept the waves can borrow a lot of time, especially in choke point with flame turret.

Later in game when there are too many attacks to try and anticipate your forts need to aggro the biters for the system to work. This means you can't spread them apart too much if that leaves a gap in turret covered area big enough for a group of biters to go unarmed.

Depending on your settings, biters could either be trying to find a source of pollution ( and need be intercepted before you find out which one). Or they could also be migrating, as in creating a new nest. In this case they won't event seek a source of pollution, they could go through a breach in the defense and silently re-occupy their land if not blocked or attacked on their way.

I, too, learned that if you don't have walls, even tiny gaps in turret coverage will cause enemies to slip through. I swear a gap as wide as just 5 tiles had enemies slip through... (for reference, this was with gun turrets.)