impossible stacked Clawbots

[Sethra]

So I went on an assassination mission, 26 days left til the final battle.

I took down one ViperBot but then I found a cluster of FOUR ClawBots next to each other.  All of them healing the other three to full health each turn.

Is this intended?  I don't see how I could possibly kill them unless I stealth-virused at least 3 of them... which would have required at least 144 virus points, which I definitely didn't have on my bots and I'm not sure that I could have even if I equipped every virus item I'd gotten all game so far.  They had 8700 health each and the most I could do to them per round was 2800ish from my Epic Assault bot plasma rifle... which had 5 shots.

I don't think one ClawBot should heal another...

[keith.lamothe]

Fair enough   For next version (1.002) :

* Previously, a ClawBot could not heal itself. Now, a ClawBot is also prevented from healing other ClawBots.

[FrostyThePyro]

I duno, I kinda like clawbot on clawbot action, I had to deal with it on my first assassination mission.  You quickly learn to wistle/attract one at a time to prevent that sort of thing.  EMP bots and floor switch plates also help, terminals like berserk, sets of explosive runes and turrets stacks (to burn though their extreme health quickly), as do the electric floors + other bots (causing the clawbots to heal other hurt targets allowing you to focus down a claw), and some turrets for decoy purposes. 

yeah its possible to run into a situation you cant win, but there are methods in place to deal with it, right down to controlling your agro to pull them apart before they all get jointly alerted.

Maybe just make clawbots unable to heal the same thing multiple times in a row, or doing so becomes less and less effective until the target has had several turns without being healed.

[Teal_Blue]

I duno, I kinda like clawbot on clawbot action, I had to deal with it on my first assassination mission.  You quickly learn to wistle/attract one at a time to prevent that sort of thing.  EMP bots and floor switch plates also help, terminals like berserk, sets of explosive runes and turrets stacks (to burn though their extreme health quickly), as do the electric floors + other bots (causing the clawbots to heal other hurt targets allowing you to focus down a claw), and some turrets for decoy purposes. 

yeah its possible to run into a situation you cant win, but there are methods in place to deal with it, right down to controlling your agro to pull them apart before they all get jointly alerted.

Maybe just make clawbots unable to heal the same thing multiple times in a row, or doing so becomes less and less effective until the target has had several turns without being healed.

I would second Frosty's suggestion, i have gotten into some 'can't get out of it' situations, and they can be frustrating, but perhaps there are several ways this could be looked at?
In addition here are some other suggestions that might help...

1. Perhaps Clawbots can only spawn in a twenty square area where there are no other clawbots? (to limit how close they are to each other) or to limit the number of Clawbots in a level?

2. Perhaps increase the base cover and explosive runes (as was mentioned by Frosty) to compensate for some of the power the Clawbots carry. Or

3. Limit the sensor range of Clawbots where they take longer to see player exo and activate after that? Or

4. Limit the time a Clawbot is 'active'? Say 30 seconds at a time, if no 'contact' (player exo in line of sight) then the Clawbot shuts down again?

Just some ideas, but it may be nice to have other options, other than just heal or not heal?

-Teal

[ScrObot]

I duno, I kinda like clawbot on clawbot action

Join us for a hot eXXXo performance, one night only in Port City!

[sradas]

So I went on an assassination mission, 26 days left til the final battle.

... I'm not sure that I could have even if I equipped every virus item I'd gotten all game so far...

You must have horrible luck.  My Ninja on my last Hard game had two computer items with +120 virus, and one with +150 virus before even 30 days left.  And thats how you do those fights.  Virus all the everything and laugh.

Also one-shotting them with a 20k railgun works.  Or one-shotting with a 9k shadow torpedo could work as well.  Go for your epics before everything else (except maybe factories)

Assassinations and Lions Dens I always leave for the last 10 days because theres no point in doing them sooner.

[PokerChen]

Assassinations and Lions Dens I always leave for the last 10 days because theres no point in doing them sooner.

Not necessarily so for me. The Mark level of your loot depends on the number of days left - concentrating on the good loot missions over the last few days will net you a lot of maximum level gear.