#How do I deal with biters?

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

fair bane
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I'm starting my first world, and in the process of automating military science. Biters worry me, in the tutorial I "lost" multiple times when my base was overrun with them. My evolution is at 0.19 (40% time, 32% nest destruction), and I worry I won't be able to deal with medium biters when they arrive. I thought I could keep things in check by proactively destroying nests before any pollution gets to them, but now I know that with expansion and evolution even that won't be enough to keep me safe. I'm considering just entirely disabling biters, or finding cheaty ways to make them less worrisome to deal with. How can I make them less of a threat without that?

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grand heron
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you could defend your cloud instead of defend the base.
expand your defenses out to find bottlenecks outside your cloud and clear out everything within that area.
that way any time biters try to expand toward your cloud they die and expansion wont bother you beyond reloading your turrets, which is easily automated with trains

fair bane
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hm. I see what you're saying

buoyant slate
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Also starting in the desert can be tough for a first playthrough. If you want to start again I'd recommend a map with more trees

orchid apex
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@fair bane one other thing
don't spam that many radars

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it just is increasing your power consumtion therefore polution production for no gain

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also building a turret nest is preffered

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automating turrets and ammo are other things you should do

fair bane
orchid apex
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it also doesn't help that much to scout with them, it helps a little but you can also always get a car

fair bane
orchid apex
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your choice
but you DID ask how to deal with them

fair bane
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yeah, and then i realized that it was stressing me out and making me reluctant to expand and play the game

stark spade
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There's a mod called "Biters Begone" that I used. When enabled is kills all biters and nests on the map, but you can still get achievements. You can turn the mod off later, and it won't bring the biters back, but when you discover new chunks they might generate there

orchid apex
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what?

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that's just a lie

fair bane
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what makes you say that?

orchid apex
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you can't get achievemtns if you use mods at all

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the game has a seperate modded achievement list

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that is allowed for achievements

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but steam ones no you can't

orchid apex
stark spade
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I mean it's not, I still got achievements when it was enabled

image.png
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Not sure where to show my achivements but i still got them

orchid apex
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you didn't really get them

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again

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it's a seperate MODDED list

fair bane
stark spade
orchid apex
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the game stores modded achievements seperately

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meaning if you have mods on you don't get the real achievements just a modded list for them

fair bane
orchid apex
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the modded list isn't 'real' and doesn't count towards steam

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people who tend to hunt achievements want them on steam

stark spade
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Oh idc my game isn't even linked to steam

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dont really care about achievements, I'm just saying I still had them pop up with the mod

orchid apex
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YOU don't care
does that mean everyone does?

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because it's your modded list not your legit list

stark spade
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I am allowed to share my opinion

orchid apex
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you didn't share your opinion

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you lied

stark spade
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I misunderstood the precise parameters of the question as this is a casual conversation and not a legal filing

fierce dock
# orchid apex you didn't *really* get them

Afaik you can simply disable the mod to reenable vanilla achievements. (Yes, that means you can BS any vanilla achievement if you want). I was planning to use Delete Chunk Tool one time in my vanilla megabase save, but I guess Biters Begone would also work 😄

tulip leaf
fierce dock
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(OP) if you don't want to use cheats:

  • Stop researching things that don't help with enemies like concrete (that actually absorbs 0 pollution; even sand absorbs a tiny bit). In fact you don't have to research anything; you might have other priorities that compete for pollution costs.
  • Get grenades. They are probably the single most overpowered thing you can get before oil. Gun turrets lack aoe and waste iron horrifically, especially if you use the even more wasteful piercing magazines. Even the biggest waves can be defended with a few grenades. With heavy armor + fish (to heal) you can even let biters to surround you and grenade yourself for maximum efficiency! The car is squishier but it can run circles around tougher nests, fall back, and repeat as long as you have spare repair packs + grenades.
  • Replace the radar farm with more iron drills and bigger pillboxes (2-4 turrets). Radars cost pollution indirectly all the time and don't actually stop enemies. Turrets only cost extra pollution (beyond the upfront costs of building and first-time loading them) when nests escape your attention, and cover your back when you're far away.
  • Look for oil. Everything good after grenades/car needs oil (bots to automate building and repairs, flamethrower turrets or landmines for walls, eff1 to reduce pollution, tank for bigger nests, etc.).
errant shoal
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I felt the exact same way my first playthrough; they were very overwhelming and stressful to the point where it was effecting my enjoyment when it came to the logistical side of the game

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I find that the combat isn't deep enough to where you're missing out on too much by disabling them. The only thing that's really cool that, in my opinion, you'd be missing out on is watching artillery automate the destruction of them

forest pebble
fierce dock
unreal totem
fair bane
fair bane
# orchid apex you lied

Jesus's christ dude, just because you, personally, have a completely different definition of "disabling achievements" from what the game does doesn't mean anyone who doesn't use your definition is a liar. When the game warns me it's going to disable achievements, that's when achievements are disabled, not when you make up an arbitrary line for what a "real" achievement is.

And even if your definition was correct, that's still no excuse to be so hostile to someone just trying to help out. Their suggestion was helpful, and if I hadn't already used lua scripts I would've used it.

fair bane
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Thanks for the oil tip

fierce dock
# fair bane I found grenades had too small of a range and were too expensive, but I suspect ...

Np; I usually start with at least 4 grenade assemblers in deathworlds (8 coal drills and 1/8 belt iron) but you could probably get by with only 2-3 in vanilla. Even 1 machine is ok for pure defense but I like to stockpile 50+ grenades at a time before attacking depending on nest size. The short range is partially worked around by the heavy armor trick since that's basically melee range xD

fair bane
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I'm still getting used to the entire concept of automating things I use commonly like weapons and belts. I really like that sciences basically force you to do so

fierce dock
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Yeah, and it's a short step from grabbing belts and inserters from green science to making a separate mall for them and other things, which is a gamechanger if you're used to handcrafting. Even the gears in red science are a hint for faster handcrafting.

fair bane
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a mall sounds fun, i was going to wait until personal logistics to make something like that

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my previous solution was just having scattered chests filled from wherever is convenient that i go to

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but putting it all in one place seems like a good idea