*sam* Posted Nov 30, 2010, 11:38 am	This patch has added several new types of mutant creature, as announced yesterday, including some jumping ones and some burrowing ones. Thanks again to Tinker for the great work with the grasshopper! There is also a small change whereby a car with a broken engine cannot escape unless it's in a town 'safety zone' This is probably a good time to clarify the exact rules for escaping that are currently used: Can escape from wilderness combat If no conscious character(s) in car, then escape is not possible Otherwise, if car is in the 'safety zone' of a friendly town, then escape is possible Otherwise, if car's engine is broken, escape is not possible Otherwise, if car is less than 350m from an undemoralised enemy car, escape is not possible Otherwise, if car is moving at less than about 8mph and is within 150m of an undemoralised enemy pedestrian, escape is not possible Otherwise, escape is possible Must escape from wilderness combat If a vehicle is 500m or more from its nearest enemy vehicle/pedestrian, and is moving away from all enemy vehicles/pedestrians, it is forcibly removed from the game. This happens even with a broken engine or dead occupants -- in this case, since the vehicle is so far from the combat, we assume that desert scum who have been watching the combat have snuck in and hidden it, stolen it, etc.
*Dark Tempest* Posted Nov 30, 2010, 1:54 pm	*sam* said: Must escape from wilderness combat If a vehicle is 500m or more from its nearest enemy vehicle/pedestrian, and is moving away from all enemy vehicles/pedestrians, it is forcibly removed from the game. Are you sure? Under 500m I have had vehicles, moving towards confident peds, escape.
SZDaddio Posted Dec 2, 2010, 5:32 am	Just finished scout S282444. At least 18 "slave bugs" showed up at turn 63....just as I was finishing off my first bad guy. Is this normal to have so many show up? I sure hope not. I don't get a lot of time to play and was hoping to get a good BL Scout in.... was the 1st scout I've had in ages where there were decent loot cars (2 Apaches, 1 BPU and a Razorback). I killed about 6-7 and the V-8 Vikings killed a few. 6 jumped the razorback and destroyed him. The other cars fled and I had no hope of catching them. I really don't want to have to start piling armor on the bottom of my cars in case these things show up in such ridiculous numbers.
*Tinker* Posted Dec 2, 2010, 8:13 pm	SZDaddio said: Just finished scout S282444.  At least 18 "slave bugs" showed up at turn 63....just as I was finishing off my first bad guy.  Is this normal to have so many show up?  I sure hope not. I don't get a lot of time to play and was hoping to get a good BL Scout in.... was the 1st scout I've had in ages where there were decent loot cars (2 Apaches, 1 BPU and a Razorback).  I killed about 6-7 and the V-8 Vikings killed a few.  6 jumped the razorback and destroyed him.  The other cars fled and I had no hope of catching them. I really don't want to have to start piling armor on the bottom of my cars in case these things show up in such ridiculous numbers. The amount of critters spawns depends on the state of the aurora and other factors, this might just be that rare case... how much cr did you have ?
*sam* Posted Dec 2, 2010, 10:07 pm	Yep. Do keep reporting any problems though, I'm always willing to tweak stuff. You can be assured I don't want to leave any features in a state where they're not fun..
Fifth Posted Dec 3, 2010, 1:11 am	Just ran into a pair of slave bugs - event # S5705. Outran them easily, since I didn't fancy taking them on with just a shotgun. Here's a suggestion: ( and one I'll cross-post into the suggestions section) Be able to hunt for creatures from the scouting page, with dead critters having a chance to yield up Medicines or Food bulk goods.
*Tinker* Posted Dec 3, 2010, 12:56 pm	282792 (under a bloody red sky) 2 BPUs with cr 399 vs 3 npc 10 slave-bugs spawn at turn 30, that's 30 seconds yikes! and there were no peds in the open, just 1 demoed car i think
*sam* Posted Dec 4, 2010, 10:39 am	Yes, one or two of the newly added creatures consider cars to be just as tasty as peds - hence, unlike other creatures, they can spawn even when there aren't a lot of peds out. Were there too many of them, Tink?
Zephyr Posted Dec 4, 2010, 11:35 am	Yeah I got that this evening too. About a dozen slave-bugs spawning in the midst of a scout. That actually worked pretty well for me, as I was escorting a Lorry from SS to GW and the bugs spawned in between my squad and the pirates who were chasing me. I was hoping to see the bugs eat the pirates, but the pirates wound up "pwning" the bugs pretty hard. But it did distract them long enough for me to get away. I noticed an interesting thing: the bugs, when they moved, seemed so "glide" through the sand, sometimes slipping back below the suface. Sometimes only their antennae would be visible, and sometimes they would not be visible at all for a few turns until popping up near a vehicle; I thought this was a cool feature until I saw a pirate car ram a bug that was underground and it immediately popped up into the air. Is this a bug (so to speak)?
*Tinker* Posted Dec 4, 2010, 2:12 pm	*sam* said: Were there too many of them, Tink? I don't know, how many would there be if this was a big squad? are the numbers that spawn based on cr in the event? What surprised me was how fast they got here, 30 turns is quite fast, unless by coincidence we were fighting over a nest or something. Don't get me wrong this was fun, but in the long term if situations like this happen all the times i can see it being tedious to players. only time will tell
*Bastille* Posted Dec 4, 2010, 3:16 pm	I go looking for em and get diddly squat, ok like once since the change but about 5-10 other wild events and haven't seen anything.. yet bring em on. One in 10 events having some sort of bug event would be fine by me.
iceman Posted Dec 4, 2010, 5:14 pm	SZDaddio said: Just finished scout S282444.  At least 18 "slave bugs" showed up at turn 63....just as I was finishing off my first bad guy.  Is this normal to have so many show up?  I sure hope not. I don't get a lot of time to play and was hoping to get a good BL Scout in.... was the 1st scout I've had in ages where there were decent loot cars (2 Apaches, 1 BPU and a Razorback).  I killed about 6-7 and the V-8 Vikings killed a few.  6 jumped the razorback and destroyed him.  The other cars fled and I had no hope of catching them. I really don't want to have to start piling armor on the bottom of my cars in case these things show up in such ridiculous numbers. thats a wicked recording basically you and the pirates just quit fighting each other to fight the bugs...then just ran away after they ate an apaches and a razorback
iceman Posted Dec 4, 2010, 5:29 pm	*Tinker* said: 282792 (under a bloody red sky) 2 BPUs with cr 399 vs 3 npc 10 slave-bugs spawn at turn 30, that's 30 seconds yikes! and there were no peds in the open, just 1 demoed car i think Is there more than one kind of slave bug - these ones seem weedy?
*Tinker* Posted Dec 4, 2010, 7:26 pm	johnnynever said: *Tinker* said: 282792 (under a bloody red sky) 2 BPUs with cr 399 vs 3 npc 10 slave-bugs spawn at turn 30, that's 30 seconds yikes! and there were no peds in the open, just 1 demoed car i think Is there more than one kind of slave bug - these ones seem weedy? yup just one
Zephyr Posted Dec 4, 2010, 10:03 pm	Yeah, not that I am complaining, but in my encounter the pirates made quick work of the slavebugs. Especially the Scorpions... 2x RL put a slavebug down to 0% activity really fast. Of the twelve or so that spawned, only one actually did any damage to a vehicle. In fact, I think the pirates did more damage to themselves by shooting rockets at the bugs while at pointblank range. I would think if they showed up towards the end of a hard-fought battle, however, things would be different. cars would be damaged and disabled, weapons would be out of ammo, et cetera. These poor bugs spawned basically right in the gunsights of a large, powerful, highly-skilled pirate gang.
Skasi Posted Dec 5, 2010, 12:16 am	I think those slave bugs need to be MUCH smaller. Their hitspere is gigantic and the massive scale just makes them look stupid. Even more so when moving/turning. The size of a lorry should be about the average, I think.
*Tinker* Posted Dec 5, 2010, 1:06 am	Skasi said: I think those slave bugs need to be MUCH smaller. Their hitspere is gigantic and the massive scale just makes them look stupid. Even more so when moving/turning. The size of a lorry should be about the average, I think. you saw some that  were bigger then lorries?
Fifth Posted Dec 5, 2010, 1:11 am	An idea for burrowing critters - explosions that hit the ground near them within 1-2 turns of them burrowing should do them some damage. Some way to assess where they are - a small dust plume would be perfect - would be great too.
*Rev. V* Posted Dec 5, 2010, 2:48 am	"There is wormsign...."
Flether Posted Dec 5, 2010, 10:43 am	Fifth said: Some way to assess where they are - a small dust plume would be perfect - would be great too. Screw Dune, this made me think of the Tremors movies. I'd looove for there to be ass-blasters xD
Skasi Posted Dec 5, 2010, 1:34 pm	*Tinker* said: you saw some that  were bigger then lorries? At least two times as long, yeah. S281106 They have less hitpoints than a buggy though, that's why I don't think this size makes any sense.
*Tinker* Posted Dec 5, 2010, 3:42 pm	Skasi said: *Tinker* said: you saw some that  were bigger then lorries? At least two times as long, yeah. S281106 They have less hitpoints than a buggy though, that's why I don't think this size makes any sense. yeah they are super fragile, the ones we saw were buzzer size and were being taken down by about  2 gg shots
Skasi Posted Dec 5, 2010, 4:53 pm	I don't want to criticise the model and I really don't want them to be as powerful as they look. A little buff would not scare me, I care much more about the size though. Over-scaling creatures just makes them look stupid and ugly at these model- and animation details.
Fifth Posted Dec 5, 2010, 5:46 pm	*Tinker* said: Skasi said: *Tinker* said: you saw some that  were bigger then lorries? At least two times as long, yeah. S281106 They have less hitpoints than a buggy though, that's why I don't think this size makes any sense. yeah they are super fragile, the ones we saw were buzzer size and were being taken down by about  2 gg shots Well, that's KINDA realistic. A lot of bugs have open circulatory systems, so any damage that goes past the superficial can bleed them out quick.
*Rev. V* Posted Dec 5, 2010, 8:17 pm	Plus, they are VERY watery. Hydrostatic shock for the win!
*goat starer* Posted Dec 6, 2010, 5:18 pm	i think they should have hydrogen sacs and explode some of them should float in the sky
*Tinker* Posted Dec 6, 2010, 7:38 pm	goat starer said: some of them should float in the sky Majestic beings called Airwhales that drop caustic dung on you?
*Grograt* gary.r.horder@gmail.com Posted Dec 6, 2010, 7:45 pm	WOW that way >>>
Fifth Posted Dec 6, 2010, 7:52 pm	*Tinker* said: goat starer said: some of them should float in the sky Majestic beings called Airwhales that drop caustic dung on you? this.
*Rev. V* Posted Dec 6, 2010, 8:01 pm	Beware the brown hail....
Zephyr Posted Dec 7, 2010, 3:26 am	goat starer said: some of them should float in the sky One of them did just that!  It got nailed by a Scorp and 2x RL blasts rocketed it straight up what looked like 200 feet in the air, where it hung there for the rest of the fight, bleeding.  I'll try and pull up the recording and get a screenshot.