Oh no! This exo-wave's got an artillery golem!

[atomjack]

It's going to take out a hard-won botnet or armoured golems! I'd better do someth-... Oh, it just overkilled an MLRS turrent instead. And then another one. And another. Then I killed it.

What's the target selection algorithm for these? I'm playing an all-out head-to-head LoTS slugfest at the moment, and artillery golems in exo waves are basically a big fat yawn, because (a) they shoot turrets first if any are around, and (b) if not, they'll shoot at Spirecraft, but at a different one every time. It takes out the shield module, but that's all, so I don't care.

These *ought* to be scary, especially given how effective they are in player's hands. It would be nice to have a special target priority list for them: kill the most expensive ship you have. Every shot should be >250K resources down the drain, to give the desired "KILL IT! KILL IT NOW!" response.

[TechSY730]

It's going to take out a hard-won botnet or armoured golems! I'd better do someth-... Oh, it just overkilled an MLRS turrent instead. And then another one. And another. Then I killed it.

What's the target selection algorithm for these? I'm playing an all-out head-to-head LoTS slugfest at the moment, and artillery golems in exo waves are basically a big fat yawn, because (a) they shoot turrets first if any are around, and (b) if not, they'll shoot at Spirecraft, but at a different one every time. It takes out the shield module, but that's all, so I don't care.

These *ought* to be scary, especially given how effective they are in player's hands. It would be nice to have a special target priority list for them: kill the most expensive ship you have. Every shot should be >250K resources down the drain, to give the desired "KILL IT! KILL IT NOW!" response.

Yea I've seen this suboptimal targeting selection as well.

IMO, they should be using an even more extreme version of the plasma seige starship's targetting algorithm. Able to hit large stuff, but with a preference for huge stuff, like forcefields, fortresses, other golems, stuff like that.

[Wingflier]

One game I had it target my Homeworld Orbital Command Station - then again, there were no defenses, Spirecraft, or Golems on the planet so I guess it had nothing to distract itself with ;p

[TechSY730]

Do you mind posting this as an idea in Mantis? That way this great suggestion doesn't get lost to the "mists of the forum archive".

[chemical_art]

I, for one, am glad the enemy artillary golem doesn't always kill valuable stuff. Otherwise I'd have to start save scumming to ensure exo waves don't have them, because it would be so aggravating because there is little defense other then randomness.

[barryvm]

I, for one, am glad the enemy artillary golem doesn't always kill valuable stuff. Otherwise I'd have to start save scumming to ensure exo waves don't have them, because it would be so aggravating because there is little defense other then randomness.

Perhaps if the attack damage of AI artillery golems would be lowered and their targeting routines made more optimal ?
This would still make them dangerous to (relatively) undefended targets but with sufficient wormhole defenders you would be able to kill it before it destroys really valuable assets.

[keith.lamothe]

The main defense against an Artillery Golem is to kill it before it gets on a planet with stuff you care about

[barryvm]

The main defense against an Artillery Golem is to kill it before it gets on a planet with stuff you care about

or you could have your own artillery golem standing by ...

[keith.lamothe]

The main defense against an Artillery Golem is to kill it before it gets on a planet with stuff you care about

or you could have your own artillery golem standing by ...

Once its on your planet, it's probably too late   A decent Spire-Capital-Ship fleet could probably alpha-strike one in a single frame with all those insta-fire beams, but even that's not a given.

[TechSY730]

Perhaps if the attack damage of AI artillery golems would be lowered and their targeting routines made more optimal ?
This would still make them dangerous to (relatively) undefended targets but with sufficient wormhole defenders you would be able to kill it before it destroys really valuable assets.

Actually, I think this should be done for Artillery golems in general, now that they have a 6 (or was it 8?) second reload time. What would be good? 5M? 10M? Something like that? That would still give it insane DPS at crazy good range, but actually give enemies a chance to react to it.