Botnet Golems - shooting your own leg off

[ShdNx]

In one of the latest updates, botnet zombies no longer trigger raid engines, but they still enrage AI ships who come back attacking.

Even worse, you can't even predict where they will come, because they wander from planet to planet in a completely random manner.
Typically I have to withdraw forces from the fronts to be able to protect my planets, since - because of the turret caps - it's impossible to adequately defend all your planets even in a 40 planet galaxy, and 200 Mark IV/V ships just smash the planet if I don't reinforce it.

In this situation, botnet golems are terrible, and are not even worth the energy they consume while in low-powered mode.

Is this intentional? Am I doing something wrong? Am I missing something?
Thank you!

(Note that I didn't start a Mantis suggestion because I'm not sure if this is intentional, or it's just my stupidity.)

[Fleet]

I've seen some strange behavior where instead of the zombies attacking the adjacent planet (which is fair game for enraging), they make a beeline for some unknown planet more hops away then I've scouted. So while I think that enraging 6 planets as they try to make it to some target (the AI homeworld?) is not the desired behavior, any enraging done on an adjacent planet is part of the risk.

Not really supporting or opposing your comments...just seemed related.

[TechSY730]

This "beeline for a distant planet" behavior is not just a problem for zombies, but any ship that is running the "default search and destroy when not under a players control" unit AI. For example, this odd behavior is also present in younglings spawned by roaming enclaves. I wonder if it would be too hard to add a simple piece of logic to ships running this AI: if on a hostile planet, enter FRD mode. This should give intended behavior.

[shugyosha]

In one of the latest updates, botnet zombies no longer trigger raid engines, but they still enrage AI ships who come back attacking.

Even worse, you can't even predict where they will come, because they wander from planet to planet in a completely random manner.
Typically I have to withdraw forces from the fronts to be able to protect my planets, since - because of the turret caps - it's impossible to adequately defend all your planets even in a 40 planet galaxy, and 200 Mark IV/V ships just smash the planet if I don't reinforce it.

In this situation, botnet golems are terrible, and are not even worth the energy they consume while in low-powered mode.

Is this intentional? Am I doing something wrong? Am I missing something?
Thank you!

(Note that I didn't start a Mantis suggestion because I'm not sure if this is intentional, or it's just my stupidity.)

I have the same problem. Zombie ships wander all over the map. The Galaxy map overview blinks like a Christmas tree. But the real problem is that the Zombies are leeched by the AI and then attack me together with angry AI ships. I had quite a sizeable Zombie force Mk. IV attack  at the other end of the galaxy.

Maybe the Zombies either group together until they are enough in numbers or they just wander your planets to protect them as patrol force. Both would make the Botnet Golem useful

[ShdNx]

Thank you for the replies. It confirmed that I'm not the only one with this problem.

Opened a mantis ticket here: http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=1838

Please voice your opinion, give suggestions, and declare your support there!

[Fleet]

Thank you for making and linking to the ticket, support declared.

[Elukka]

This is considerably less harmful to the game, but Dyson gatlings also do the 'beeline for some distant planet' thing, at least when allied with the player. There could be an AI planet next to them, but they instead choose to go some place way far off and die to self-attrition on the way there. I don't really mind having a bunch of gatlings wandering around, though... Hm.

[m_hermann]

I've always loved the botnet Golem. Enraging the worm hole bubble of ships is something that I count on. It helps thin the herd.

[ShdNx]

I've always loved the botnet Golem. Enraging the worm hole bubble of ships is something that I count on. It helps thin the herd.

I don't debate the usefulness of the concept, what I have problems with, is the implementation.
Currently you cannot reliably tell which planets the zombies are going to attack, and which of your planets in turn will be counter-attacked (not to mention the numbers).

[Yuugi]

Dyson gatlings greatly confuse me in general.

In one game where I had the Dyson relatively close (four jumps, I think) to my homeworld, they actually kept piling up in front of a system I was using as a chokepoint, so I constantly had around 20-30 gatlings sit there and eat cross-planet attacks that were coming my way. That was pretty darn useful.

Sometimes they then abandoned that post, only to later return to it.

I'm not really sure what causes that behavior.