Scrap Golem Bug .90

from Elemental Forums

I've been playing the .90 version and am really enjoying it so far.  I like the changes that have been made quite a bit.  However, I discovered a group of Scrap Golems with one of those really big Iron Golems I think, very early on in my explorations.  They were in the Quest Zone the Scraplands (I think that was its name) at the very entrance.  So I quickly beat a hasty retreat.  However, they decided to follow me, but I easily outdistanced them as I was using Tarth and ran through woods to get away.  Then after 30 or so turns that same (extremely powerful) stack of creatures shows up in my home territory and begins destroying me.  I didn't have anywhere near the power I would have needed to defend myself and I was the leading power among all the races at this (still early mind you) point in the game.  


I believe the stack had something like 400+ attack and 150+ defense with crazy amounts of hp.

3,088 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

And that is how you learned not to go into a Wildlands until you are ready. They are meant to hunt you down once you enter.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

hmmm.  didn't realize that they are going to hunt you down.  so it's not a bug huh?  well, i'll be avoiding those places like the plague until i'm seriously more powerful.  thanks for the info.  with all the change logs and updates I miss some of the ways things are supposed to work.  In fact, I posted this in the general section and a few other players told me it was a bug.  lol.  seems like we need a beta manual  :D  (i'm kidding of course).

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top


It's a bug. Surely you don't think Stardock intends allowing unkillable stacks of monsters to track you halfway across the map and destroy your empire with nothing you can do about it. I can't think of a faster way to frustrate players and turn them off. I don't think they want folks rage quitting FE the first time they play it.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top


A simple way to deal with this programatically is to set an 'aggression' counter flag value to x for monsters when any unit (either human or AI) comes within a radius of y. The flags could have different values depending on the monster and how persistant (x) and aggressive (y) they are.

Then for each turn after the chase is triggered, reduce the value of x by 1. When it reaches 0, the monster stops chasing and returns to it's lair. That way you can have some monsters that chase you for short distances and others that chase you for longer distances. None of them chase you all the way across the map because the counter acts as an electronic leash (distance timer).

Simple, reliable, does the job. You could even expose x and y in the monster's XML for modders to play with.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting C0LDsteel, reply 3

It's a bug. Surely you don't think Stardock intends allowing unkillable stacks of monsters to track you halfway across the map and destroy your empire with nothing you can do about it. I can't think of a faster way to frustrate players and turn them off. I don't think they want folks rage quitting FE the first time they play it.
End of C0LDsteel's quote

 

All you have to do is NOT go into those areas until you think you are ready. It's not like they are hard to avoid.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

yes that is true (however, if they are not supposed to stalk you then there is no reason not to explore where you can).  If they are supposed to behave in the manner i reported than you are completely correct.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

I'd argue that if intended, it's bad design. Let's say you are a new player early in the game. You think 'let's explore over here' and 'oh no, it's after me'. Fortunately you are faster than the ugly looking pack chasing you so you get away (you think). 30 turns later they show up at your single city and destroy it. Game over.

Now, we have what seems to be one seemingly trivial decision made by the player effectively ending the game. Nothing strategically or tactically they can do about it. There's nothing 'fun' about this. There's no 'interesting decisions' to be made there because nothing you do matters. To boot, exploration is actively discouraged because one wrong step and it's terminal.

So, I can't see how this is possibly intended as part of their design. I think it's far more likely that the AI is just overly aggressive right now or that it isn't releasing targets properly after chasing for a while. If you'll remember, the first beta had a problem very similar to this and they fixed it.