Questions about minor factions

[Ovalcircle]

1. When playing Maze-A. if I enable the Devourer Golem, it does a 6-7 planet patrol, back and forth between planets it already went through. Is that normal?

2. Is the "Have the AI home-world spawn as far as possible away from the Human Home-world" logic in effect? Because I can't seem to make the Nanocaust spawn past the AI home-world, further away from me. Closest I got was a 2 leg Octopus and it was 3 worlds away from the AI Home-world, but still on my side the AI home-world. Adding on to this, I believe there will be multiple AI home-worlds now? Like in AIWC? If so, how would that affect the minor factions that control a planet to start the game if I were to use the Spiral map? Would the Nanocaust spawn past a minimum distance away from any homeworlds? Would it spawn close the the middle between the AI home-worlds? Spawn close to the middle between me and the 1st homeworld? or pick between a set of locations, ex all of the above?

3. Also a Nanocaust question: What is the spawning logic for the Nanocaust? I've had it spawn 3 away from the AI as above, but I've also had it spawn 3 away from me, but on the opposite side of the AI (sandwiched between them).I'm not asking for some sort of coding thing, just the conditions (Ex. Must spawn x distance away from home-worlds).

4. Yet another question about Minor faction spawns: Let's say I use a ten planet spiral map. The Dyson doesn't spawn on a map with less than 30 planets. Is the Nanocaust also constrained by that rule? Where would it spawn?

[BadgerBadger]

The Devourer is constrained to avoid the AI King and human King, but otherwise it shouldn't have the behaviour you describe. That sounds weird.

All minor factions that spawn units at the beginning of the game calls a "Seed Unit on Map" function in the Core code and I don't know how that works. I suspect it tries to say "Put this on the map not too close to anything else". The Human and AI King unit placement is part of that area of code as well I think.

There will be suitable planet-number limits for minor factions, but currently that's not done because there's no ability for a player to choose the number of planets in their starting map.

[Ovalcircle]

One more question for you: Do Marauders attack AI planets?

[BadgerBadger]

At the moment just human planets like in AIWC. Would a "hostile to all" marauders faction be more interesting to your mind?

[Ovalcircle]

Aren't they hostile to all when they initially spawn? (Just kidding, I know what you mean.)

I have thought about this and I do want it to be a spawn wherever faction (within reason of course. No spawning when there's a million strength on an AI planet.) I'll list some reasons why I think it should be this way and reasons it should be the original way.

NEW WAY
1. It introduces strategy. You can neuter an AI planet 2 or 3 hops away from you and gamble that they spawn there, providing you with some sort of buffer between you and any warden/hunter fleet ships attempting to destroy you.

2. I think it makes more sense. Why limit themselves to Human planets? These aren't AIWC marauders. These guys actually build bases to create a beachhead into the galaxy. I guess the Humans are easy targets, but they'll eventually have to fight the AI anyway. They could take over a lightly defended AI world and start from there.

3. Another cog in the "Galaxy is alive" machine. It makes them feel more alive rather than some group that is there and destroys stuff. The Dark Spire and Devourer kinda fit that criterion already.

AS IT IS NOW
1. It provides a "Detriment to humans only" faction. Every other faction in the game right now is either against everybody or can be subverted to your cause. Devourer: Against everybody. Nanocaust: Hacked. AI risk analyzers: Taken over. Dyson sphere: made friendly. Zenith trader: Helps everyone. Dark Spire: everything dies. And with the Neinzul Preservation Wardens and Rocketry Corps having been put in the trunk and left in the garage in the meantime, Marauders give players who want to be punished that option of being punished.

2. You could argue that having the Marauders attack human planets only is because if they attack the AI, it'll be kinda pissed they took a planet from it. If they attack the fledgling and broken remnants of the Human Resistance (not the minor faction, just another way I'm describing the player and their "army"), they'll have an easier time taking it and doing whatever it is they do when they capture a planet (mine for resources? collect scrap? more of a lore thing.) Of course, this falls into "They have to face the AI anyway, so why are they attacking the player if their army of misfits is the best chance of ridding the galaxy of the AI?" Maybe they don't think that far ahead? Or maybe their motivation is that they raid AI installations and stuff when they're not on the map and they don't want the AI to redeploy more forces into this galaxy, so they attack you to try to stop you from gaining the AI's attention.

[BadgerBadger]

Sounds convincing to me. Next release will have hostile-to-all marauders.