Friday Facts #424 - Gleba Pentapod Enemies

[FactorioBot]

Here it is! (beep boop)

https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-424

[Panzerknacker]

Why would you spoil this in the first place. Even tho I didn't read it I already saw the picture now on Factorio.com

[Gergely]

Took a peek at the first video, man those are some true boss fight vibes at the end there. I wonder if there is more.

[The Phoenixian]

Just one look and I immediately find myself thinking "hunh, are these things inspiration for Spidertron and the rocket turret in the expansion?"

If communicating that the spidertron is moving to Gleba was an intended part of their design, it works.

The pollution and aggression changes also sound neat. It makes sense that enemies that evolved on different worlds would react to different stiumi. Not sure if you'll have enemies on other worlds with their own reactions, but if you do, I look forward to seeing what you came up with.

[Necronium]

Those looks great. Now just wait for release.

For future features that could be implemented "tribe" mechanic could be something like scenario only one and other is to make spoil mechanic available to entities so that it would be possible to make enemies transform as "spoil" is only for items now

[Criperum]

So peaceful is not an option again like it was when you needed alien items for science?

[doktorstick]

Nice! I'm glad to see new enemies as I'm a military-is-logistics-challenge type player.

I saw that there's some final touches to add to the creatures yet. I'd suggest for the big boy, give its steps some weight with puffs of dirt? spores? when it steps.

If you get the eggs off Gleba and they hatch, will they create their spawners on other planets? Can they survive those atmospheres?

[ledow]

Farms full of eggs, surrounded by defences, it is then.

[mikiqex]

Stompers look like they would sometimes accidentally squash Wrigglers Those leg animations in a 2D game must have been a nightmare...

[malecord]

So... my reaction to the video was literally "WTF". Is that really the default welcome party once you land on Gleba? Or was it made more dramatic for trailer reasons?

For the rest I like everything about enemy behavior and attack patterns. I understand that each planet will have a unique threat that will require a different defense layout. And this is both cool and fun. Thanks!

For Gleba I especially like the complementary nature of enemies you designed:
- the small guys invite for walls and area damage or multiple turrets packed together, aoe/fast damage.
- the long range siege enemy makes walls useless and requires dedicated layout so that turrets can cover for each other, with high damage "sniper" shots, not necessarily fast.
- the heavy assault enemy makes clusters of turrets undesiderables and invites for isolated but high dps turrets instead.

So there are conflicting requirements/tradeoff when it comes to decide how to defend an area.

I... still believe that in the end a continous row of turrets will probably be one solution that works for any kind of problems... but that is endgame, to arrive there one has to work with limited resources so this will be interesting.

Cool!

[Terrahertz]

Are there also any bio-themed weapons on Gleba? Those things make me want to nuke them, but shipping over the required uranium might not be a long term solution.

Anyway, cudos to the designers, those things are as disgusting as I would expect on a planet like this

[MeduSalem]

The new creatures look interesting. ^^

So peaceful is not an option again like it was when you needed alien items for science?

Agreed. I thought a considerable amount of people disliked the alien artifact aspect of having to manually farm that stuff just be able to progress further and that the devs eventually removed them because of how it could not be automated.

Seems like the pentapod eggs do exactly the same yet again.

[BlacKcuD]

These guys look fucking fantastic. Insane art team!

[Oshida]

noted

i aint going there until i get nukes

[Criperum]

The new creatures look interesting. ^^

So peaceful is not an option again like it was when you needed alien items for science?

Agreed. I thought a considerable amount of people disliked the alien artifact aspect of having to manually farm that stuff just be able to progress further and that the devs eventually removed them because of how it could not be automated.

Seems like the pentapod eggs do exactly the same yet again.

I usually play with biters off. I like my factorio slow and meditative. Must I bother with aliens?

[gnutrino]

I guess for the enemies disabled option you could just have the egg sack thingies without enemies spawning from them? So they just litter the landscape like rocks on Nauvis waiting for you to break them open and nick the eggs which would presumably just spoil normally rather than generating wigglers.

[MeduSalem]

I usually play with biters off. I like my factorio slow and meditative. Must I bother with aliens?

I understand your feeling about that. I assume there will be an option to turn the Pentapods off as well or at least that a good deal of people will ask for exactly such an option and that they will be annoyed if there is not.

But that said if you can turn it off, it would bring the issue back that the eggs are needed for the mentioned Biochambers. So why need the eggs in the first place. ^^

[The Phoenixian]

The new creatures look interesting. ^^

So peaceful is not an option again like it was when you needed alien items for science?

Agreed. I thought a considerable amount of people disliked the alien artifact aspect of having to manually farm that stuff just be able to progress further and that the devs eventually removed them because of how it could not be automated.

Seems like the pentapod eggs do exactly the same yet again.

From the writeup, it sounds like this time there should be ways to sustainably farm the aliens in a single area this time with a mix of intentionally letting eggs spoil/hatch and what I'd assume are deconstruction orders via roboport or spidertron instead of the expansionist looting for alien-artifact-era biters on Nauvis.

So in that sense we've moved from the ignore/exterminate dichotomy to... colonial exploitation? (We continue to be The Worst, and the way that typically prosocial mechanics and ideas like green technology and sustainability are used to fuel that excess is a fascinating approach to character building through mechanics alone.)

[Ymiymi]

Agreed. I thought a considerable amount of people disliked the alien artifact aspect of having to manually farm that stuff just be able to progress further and that the devs eventually removed them because of how it could not be automated.

Seems like the pentapod eggs do exactly the same yet again.

Well they can be automated after a while though as they already stated in the FFF post. Probably can just get them "for free" from the egg rafts too with enemies off as gnutrino said.

What I am curious about, was the thing about no fur and spins and not too alien for all planets or just this one? Also I'd love to see one of the early concept arts considered too alien.

[fly]

I usually play with biters off. I like my factorio slow and meditative. Must I bother with aliens?

I share this concern. I've had a couple of playthroughs with biters, but I realized that they don't add to the fun for me. So, in the rest of my games, I either turned them off or kept them very restricted (no expansion, low evolution, etc.)