Problems/imbalances with specific enemy types?

[Misery]

Surprised this sort of topic hasnt appeared yet.   Or at least, I cant find one.

Thought I'd make such a topic then, the point being to discuss/suggest things related to specific types of baddies in the game, be it normal foes or bosses.   These guys are all very important to balance and stuff, so thought a topic like this might be a good idea, to point out problems that players may find with them, and suggestions to fix.


The one I can mainly think of right now is the Urban.... Urban.... tank.... thing.   Urban Crawler?  Is that the name?   Suddenly I just cant remember.

Anyway, these things are pretty darn cool, but right now they're WAY too easy.   It's possible to kill one while simply standing perfectly still in front of it and never moving;  if you're targeting the upper turret AND the main body and switching between the two, the thing will hold perfectly still and never fire a single shot.   It ends up being essentially just a wall with alot of health.

[nanostrike]

Surprised this sort of topic hasnt appeared yet.   Or at least, I cant find one.

Thought I'd make such a topic then, the point being to discuss/suggest things related to specific types of baddies in the game, be it normal foes or bosses.   These guys are all very important to balance and stuff, so thought a topic like this might be a good idea, to point out problems that players may find with them, and suggestions to fix.


The one I can mainly think of right now is the Urban.... Urban.... tank.... thing.   Urban Crawler?  Is that the name?   Suddenly I just cant remember.

Anyway, these things are pretty darn cool, but right now they're WAY too easy.   It's possible to kill one while simply standing perfectly still in front of it and never moving;  if you're targeting the upper turret AND the main body and switching between the two, the thing will hold perfectly still and never fire a single shot.   It ends up being essentially just a wall with alot of health.

When those stupid things start spawning in during Miniboss fights or in cluttered areas, you'll probably change your turn about the Urban Crawlers.  They tend to make themselves known in Wind Shelter missions, where they can single-handedly block off caves.

This is a good topic, though.  I'll throw my two cents in:



Enemies that are too strong:
-Fire Bats.  I dunno what it is with these things, but I've seen them kill 600 HP characters in seconds.  Maybe it's a bug or something, but they need looked at.

-Crashed Landspeeders.  Miasma Balls from clear across the level.  If there are several of these around AND a lot of normal enemies, an area can be nearly impossible to get through.  Bonus points for them if you're in the Skelebot Junkyard, where their Miasma balls can set off explosive barrels and insta-kill you.


Enemies that aren't too strong, but get a special mention for being INCREDIBLY annoying:

-Lightning Espers.  Too damn many of these.  They're EVERYWHERE.  I get so sick of hearing and seeing them...
-Utaraptors.  Annoyingly fast.  Annoyingly aggressive.  Annoyingly jumpy.  Annoying sound.  Just plain annoying.  Being native to one of the harder areas in the game doesn't make them any more likeable.
-Sea Worms.  In multiplayer games, these "Tier 1" enemies will frequently have 2000-3000 HP.  VERY tedious to kill.

[LayZboy]

You can also just crouch when standing at the same level as Urban crawlers, and they will still never hit you, until their ball projectile starts exploding.

[Quaix]

There's definitely *a lot* of room left for balance. There's way too much variation in the damage enemies do. Some barely scratch you, others are a ball of hurt.

Urban Crawlers - Need to do *a lot* more damage. And they need to turn around if you go over them. Going over them instead of killing them has to be a risk, not the standard operating procedure.

Firebats - Melee damage *way* too high. And on top of that they set you on fire.

Wil o wisps - Again, melee damage way higher than everything else (except the firebats). I just got to continent 3 and already died twice because I couldn't see them.
Bats and sonic bats - Have a hard time seeing them on some backgrounds

Skelebot Dwarf - I know these are dwarfs, but they have insanely low HP and their attack is ineffective. I can't seem to recall ever being hit by their ranged attack.
Magma Rhino - Mows down my skelebots in battlegrounds.

Giant Green Amoeba - If you get trapped between it and one of the little ones or a wall, you go 500hp to 0 in a few seconds. Also the spore attack does almost no damage. Overall a fun boss to fight though because you have to decide whether to go for the kill and have it spawn a whole bunch of little ones, or whittle it down slowly.

Green and red fairies - The little fairies fly fast  enough and have so much hp that I can't kill them, and if I try to kite them while shooting, i get more thrown at me. The best (and pretty much the only) strategy I found against these things is to get in their face and kill them as fast as possible. I think monsters behavior, especially for minibosses, should encourage the player to use better tactics. The little green fairies need to be less numerous, have less hp but do more damage.

Utahraptors - I like these, but the perfectionist in me is annoyed that they're almost impossible to dodge inside buildings. To get around them you have to take one or two hits. I had two of them spawn at the same time in a rescue mission in a horizontal corridor. I had to back up while shooting them -- I could outrun them no problem and I threw everything I could at them, but the NPC I'm supposed to rescue lags behind and the 2nd one caught up to the NPC and killed it in a few hits.

Crashed Landspeeder - The problem is they shoot from across the map.

The rest of the enemies - if you hurt them even a little, they will know exactly where you are even from four screens away and will try to snipe you with their projectiles. They don't forgive. They don't forget.

[Misery]

Surprised this sort of topic hasnt appeared yet.   Or at least, I cant find one.

Thought I'd make such a topic then, the point being to discuss/suggest things related to specific types of baddies in the game, be it normal foes or bosses.   These guys are all very important to balance and stuff, so thought a topic like this might be a good idea, to point out problems that players may find with them, and suggestions to fix.


The one I can mainly think of right now is the Urban.... Urban.... tank.... thing.   Urban Crawler?  Is that the name?   Suddenly I just cant remember.

Anyway, these things are pretty darn cool, but right now they're WAY too easy.   It's possible to kill one while simply standing perfectly still in front of it and never moving;  if you're targeting the upper turret AND the main body and switching between the two, the thing will hold perfectly still and never fire a single shot.   It ends up being essentially just a wall with alot of health.

When those stupid things start spawning in during Miniboss fights or in cluttered areas, you'll probably change your turn about the Urban Crawlers.  They tend to make themselves known in Wind Shelter missions, where they can single-handedly block off caves.

This is a good topic, though.  I'll throw my two cents in:



Enemies that are too strong:
-Fire Bats.  I dunno what it is with these things, but I've seen them kill 600 HP characters in seconds.  Maybe it's a bug or something, but they need looked at.

-Crashed Landspeeders.  Miasma Balls from clear across the level.  If there are several of these around AND a lot of normal enemies, an area can be nearly impossible to get through.  Bonus points for them if you're in the Skelebot Junkyard, where their Miasma balls can set off explosive barrels and insta-kill you.


Enemies that aren't too strong, but get a special mention for being INCREDIBLY annoying:

-Lightning Espers.  Too damn many of these.  They're EVERYWHERE.  I get so sick of hearing and seeing them...
-Utaraptors.  Annoyingly fast.  Annoyingly aggressive.  Annoyingly jumpy.  Annoying sound.  Just plain annoying.  Being native to one of the harder areas in the game doesn't make them any more likeable.
-Sea Worms.  In multiplayer games, these "Tier 1" enemies will frequently have 2000-3000 HP.  VERY tedious to kill.

As for the Urban Crawlers, even when they DO show up in shelter missions or other things...... I've still found that they're just no threat.  Simply targeting the head (stops them from firing exploding ball) and smacking them a bunch with my strongest damage attack gets rid of them fast.  Even faster if I'm using a damage-boosting guardian scroll (as I sometimes do with shelter missions).

Also, yes, those freaking raptors are annoying as hell.   Easily the most obnoxious enemy in the game.


I definitely agree with Quaix that the Crawlers should be doing WAY more damage.   It's a freaking TANK.  And it's firing pattern isnt all that complicated (unlike the crashed thingies).   It's also simply too easy to jam their weapons and stop their attacks entirely.  Perhaps it should also get more complicated patterns as the tier level goes up, like some other foes do.


I'm not sure about the fire bats.   Oh, they hurt, sure, but they dont do THAT much damage.   Those bloody raptors and also skelebots seem to smack me a good deal harder than the fire bats.    And considering how little health the fire bats have (unlike the raptors which TAKE A MILLION HITS) it makes more sense that they'd balance that by having a strong attack.   Which is probably exactly why I dont get annoyed by them.



And finally I agree that the Dwarfs currently dont have a POINT.   Every other enemy in the game can be a potential threat.  I've been killed by espers, killed by bots, killed by various bosses, killed by crashed thingies, killed because I sat on an exploding esper when it exploded...... but killed by Skelebot Dwarfs?   hahahaha NO.   Never gonna happen, with them in their current state.

Back in beta these guys USED to be a real threat, because they didn't just randomly fire their fire ring attack;  they fired it when you got in range.   They could smack you around pretty badly.

I actually REALLY think they should go back to that behavior.  I think the reason it got changed is because at that point, they were EXTREMELY annoying...... but this was entirely because they were EXTREMELY numerous (seriously;  they were EVERYWHERE).   They are not very numerous now;  basic white bots and snipers are far more common than the dwarfs.  They could go back to that original AI without it unbalancing things now.