pteravors need to get nerfed

[Aury]

Especially the death revenge thing; a dead station shouldn't keep sending out hordes of enemies.

Some anti-pteravore equipment (preferably armor pastes or 0-slot devices or invokable items) would be much appreciated as well.

[F50]

Really? They only appear in the last two systems, all you have to do is be very careful. Give the pteravores some respect and they'll die just fine.

[Atarlost]

The problem is that they don't stop attacking you after they die.

[Aury]

The problem is that they don't stop attacking you after they die.

This is that problem: they get even worse after they die!

[speedofsquid]

they get even worse after they die!

So, don't kill them.

[Song]

they get even worse after they die!

So, don't kill them.

Which means either condemning the Exlplorer to be destroyed, or suiciding yourself to try and save it. No thnaks.

The only decent way I've found to deal with the death swarms is to get an IFC first, and blast unil nothing moves....and even then, they sometimes come round the side....

[Aury]

'Once something is dead, it should stay dead. Especially annoying things.'
-Atarlost on ideas for the luminous

Applies here, rather ironically, probably all the more fittingly.

[Alex_]

It is possible to simply blast the station and hide behind one of the iocrym manipulators. All the pteravores will get destroyed when they touch the manipulator.
Also, isn't the longreach anti pteravore equipment? It'll kill most of them, and picking the rest of is easy with most weapons.

[void]

Also, isn't the longreach anti pteravore equipment? It'll kill most of them, and picking the rest of is easy with most weapons.

In RC5, my longreach didn't target the pteravores at all... then when I blew up their nest, flew in to loot it, I flew straight into about 5 of them and died. Literally had no idea what to do. Should've invoked a domina power to see if at least that worked, but I was too surprised to make my fingers do the dance in time...

Not a fan of pteravores at all, especially when the longreach didn't seem to pick them off, which I think it should.

[Blitz]

It is possible to simply blast the station and hide behind one of the iocrym manipulators. All the pteravores will get destroyed when they touch the manipulator.
Also, isn't the longreach anti pteravore equipment? It'll kill most of them, and picking the rest of is easy with most weapons.

I agree with Alex. I don't think Pteravores need to get nerfed in any way. On my last game, I had two longreach auto cannons and an Im90 in heretic on my freighter. I got into a good position, sat there, pressed Ctrl and then blasted away in autopilot. The IM90 got the majority of them and the few that got through from the sides were taken out by the autocannons. Too easy. I'm sure it'd work with lesser equipment if you were careful about it. Area effect missiles would work fine too.

I think they're are plenty of ways to get rid of them. Altho, it maybe be a little challenging to have access to the eq - but then, it's the last level of the game and it's meant to be difficult...

[Aury]

I just think that the death-revenge thing is rather ridiculous. I mean, one or two streams might make sense... but when on average when you get 13-14 streams of 12 each... O_o

[Psycholis]

it's not just the revenge thing. after you kill them and they've had their revenge and spouted all their revenge pods and are dead - and i mean, you've flown by twice dead - it's not enough. in heretic, i killed them all beforehand with the im90 (something i always do for this mission) and blasted away until all the revenge things died. i then flew around the circle TWICE just to make sure. then i accepted the mission and while i was going, lo and behold - pteravores attacked my ship and i died almost instantly. this was with a kaidun (doesn't matter, they ignore shields) and 4 plates of ion-enhanced heavy ithalium (imo, the best armor set in the game). i also had 300 something hadron fuel rods (not even pteracnium). it would have been fine if it wasn't for that last minute surprise attack from a station that for all i knew, was dead. i guess on one of the spectrum it's okay because that's the first time i've ever died in the game. i only had 1 insurance claim. even the command ship was easier to defeat than the pteravores (albeit a very long battle).

[Blitz]

it's not just the revenge thing. after you kill them and they've had their revenge and spouted all their revenge pods and are dead - and i mean, you've flown by twice dead - it's not enough. in heretic, i killed them all beforehand with the im90 (something i always do for this mission) and blasted away until all the revenge things died. i then flew around the circle TWICE just to make sure. then i accepted the mission and while i was going, lo and behold - pteravores attacked my ship and i died almost instantly. this was with a kaidun (doesn't matter, they ignore shields) and 4 plates of ion-enhanced heavy ithalium (imo, the best armor set in the game). i also had 300 something hadron fuel rods (not even pteracnium). it would have been fine if it wasn't for that last minute surprise attack from a station that for all i knew, was dead. i guess on one of the spectrum it's okay because that's the first time i've ever died in the game. i only had 1 insurance claim. even the command ship was easier to defeat than the pteravores (albeit a very long battle).

Actually, what I did was to kill the pteravores, then accept the mission from the slavbard explorer, and let it fly around while I did the other missions. The slavbard explorer did not die however... Maybe you moved a little to early from one of the nests?

[Psycholis]

i might have missed one in the flybys somehow but i did wait after killing each base and checked them. i think it might be a feature (?) so that when you check on the base again to loot it, you get a surprise.

[Blitz]

Code: Select all

		<Events>
			<OnDestroy>
				(if (and aOrderGiver
						(objCanAttack aOrderGiver)
						)
					(block Nil
						; Remember who killed us
						(objSetObjRefData gSource "destroyer" aOrderGiver)

						; Start a timer
						(sysAddObjRecurringTimerEvent 17 gSource "OnRevenge")
						)
					)
			</OnDestroy>

			<OnRevenge>
				(block (theDestroyer)
					(switch
						; If the destroyer was destroyed, then we're done
						(not (setq theDestroyer (objGetObjRefData gSource "destroyer")))
							(sysCancelTimerEvent gSource "OnRevenge")

						; If the destroyer is far away, then wait
						(gr (objGetDistance gSource theDestroyer) 30)
							Nil

						; Otherwise, send out streams of pteravores at the destroyer
						(block Nil
							(for i 1 (random 2 4)
								(sysCreateWeaponFire
									&vtPteravoreSporeLauncher;
									gSource
									(objGetPos gSource)
									(random 0 359)
									12
									theDestroyer
									)
								)

							; Chance that we stop
							(if (leq (random 1 100) 5)
								(sysCancelTimerEvent gSource "OnRevenge")
								)
							)
						)
					)
			</OnRevenge>
		</Events>

This is how I understand the code. I could be very very wrong though...am not vrey good with code...
When you destroy a nest, the OnDestroy code is run, which marks you as the destroyer and sets the game to run the "OnRevenge" code every 17 ticks (approximately 3.53 times per second or every 0.28 seconds, i think)
The OnRevenge code is what sends out streams of Pteravores at you. Each time it is run, it sends out 2 to 4 Pteravore at you.
If you are too far away, i.e. more than 30 light secs, it begins to wait and is not run till you are back in range.
Everytime it is run, there is a 5 percent chance that it will stop. Meaning it could possibly go on for a very long time or a very short time.

Here's what I think happened. You probably moved out too far from the nest and the game was seeing if you'd come back into range - but you probably rechecked the nest from beyond 30 light seconds and thought it was dead while infact it was just waiting and when you went too close on your mission, this caught you by surprise.

This is what I think anyway. Could an someone better with the code validate/correct/thrash my reasoning?