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[Greiger]

Maybe I'm missing something but every time I've encountered a tank drone I got plenty of warning that SOMETHING I shouldn't be fucking with was near because of all the sounds of the tank drone going all One Robot army against the hordes of zombies.

And being sniped from the edge of the active zone should not be possible as the thing can only see 50 tiles*.  Granted that's 10 more than most zombies, and about the same as the player, but the active zone is much bigger than that.  Really I think the most dangerous bot is the chicken walker.  Yea it has less hp.  But it has more ammo in it's 'ruin your day' gun, still has enough armor to deflect anything but a dedicated AA round, and unlike the tankbot it can actually see you at night.

Though yea I agree, making tankbots bigger would indeed help solve many of their perceived issues.  Again it depends on someone willing to code an entirely new pathfinding AI literally from scratch.  I don't think there is a multi tile equivalent to A* out there for anyone to freely use.

[pisskop]

I think that turning tank drones into a 2x2 or 3x3 enemy vehicle that suffers from collision and maneuvering, as opposed to a tiny object that somehow mounts a 120mm gun and can squirm effortlessly through windowsills, would go a long way into making them more tolerable and respectable as threats.
As it is currently, the tank drone mounts a massive gun and can fit through your front door.
Heck, making it 3x3 would still make it smaller than most cars in the game.
Another problem though is that it's awfully difficult to use partial cover in this game, you're either visible or completely obstructed.

using the 'X' peek function as partial ranged cover would be a helpful start ...

[zaimoni]

I don't think there is a multi tile equivalent to A* out there for anyone to freely use.

it's the same as single-tile A*.  The implementing programmer just has to make a coordinate choice for the reference origin is for a multi-tile actor, then pass an appropriately different cost-of-movement function for evaluating what/how expensive legal moves are.  If there's a problem with heuristic costs, just degenerate to Dijkstra search which uses 100% accurate move costs.

I don't have the seniority to do the above refactoring for C/DDA, obviously.  If the above sketch isn't enough, any interested C/DDA dev can ping me to get the relevant class in Rogue Survivor Revived (FloodfillPathfinder is a Dijkstra search) relicensed as Creative Commons so it can be used a model for porting to C++ without causing GPLv3 issues.

[Jilladilla]

Really I think the most dangerous bot is the chicken walker.  Yea it has less hp.  But it has more ammo in it's 'ruin your day' gun, still has enough armor to deflect anything but a dedicated AA round, and unlike the tankbot it can actually see you at night.

I agree with this, saw one being swarmed by zombies so I figured I could loot the Mil Surplus nearby, zombies didn't last as long as I thought... And my plans of waiting in the back until night went out the window when the walker came through it...

Would've been the end of that character if I didn't have a sledge hammer and a bit of luck with the back wall...

[pisskop]

chicken walkers are pushovers in melee, but idk what their min range is for gun.

[Random_Dragon]

Maybe I'm missing something but every time I've encountered a tank drone I got plenty of warning that SOMETHING I shouldn't be fucking with was near because of all the sounds of the tank drone going all One Robot army against the hordes of zombies.

Exactly this. Hell, the only time I recall being caught off-guard with a tank drone was when one spawned right outside the shelter. That time, the starter NPC calmy walked outside and took it apart with a shotgun.

[scriver]

Chicken walkers is the bigger hassle in my opinion as well  (they move around more), but both are horrible. I avoid them whenever I can.

[Random_Dragon]

I wish I could find that screenshot of the time when I killed a tank drone by letting it burst in through a window, and basically stabbed it to death with an incorruptible sword. :V

[Greiger]

Admittedly I have never killed either a tankbot or a chickenwalker without heavy artillery. I killed one chickenwalker with a passenger seat full of rocket launchers, and the only time I 'killed' a tankbot it was with a goddamn missile silo.  (even then I didn't go back to check)

[Sheb]

I killed one with a .50 sniper rifle.

[Random_Dragon]

I've killed a tank drone with a LAW before. This was back before the days when the effectiveness of explosives started wildly flucuating.

I'm still proud of the one damn time I killed one in melee, because chances are that was as much of a one-in-a-million thing as that one time I vorpol'd a giant fiery pain in the ass. :V

[Metalsoul212]

The first game I played I started close to a small town, raided it the first night with my npc friend from the shelter. It was a terrifying night, heard all kinds of explosions and gun fire and the night sky was lit by fires and lightning. My follower ran into the dark and was never seen again I only heard his screams of agony and gun shots. Ran back the the shelter with almost no supplies. In the morning I rose early due to finding sleep difficult and decided to return to the town to see the cause of all the chaos. Turned out there was a tank drone I could see it on the horizon just beyond it's sight range since I was still cloaked in the shadows of early morning. Deciding something must be done I recalled seeing a helicopter wreck not far away. Crafting a crude shovel and picking through the wreck produced a single packed LAW with one missile! I knew it was my only chance... Breaking through the back window of a house I crept my way close to where I last known the tank drone to be. It spotted me and I ducked back just as the bullets began flying. I run back out of the house and take cover in a bush as the drone makes it's way through the building. Soon as it emerged through the window I launch my missile. And despite having no skill what so ever I land a direct shot and it turned into scrap. And that's the story of my first Tank Drone!!! That character lasted an entire year and a half until I drove into a triffid Grove in the middle of the night. Not even my deathmobile survived the horrors....

[Jilladilla]

That character lasted an entire year and a half until I drove into a triffid Grove in the middle of the night. Not even my deathmobile survived the horrors....

*Salutes the fallen deathmobile*

In all seriousness, excellent story, I wouldn't have the guts to take a tank drone on like that unless forced to; no, I would wait until I got a proper Landcruiser prepared, with redundant armor plates rated to withstand a few hits until a hull breach, a fallback cockpit for when said hull breach is imminent, and many guns to kill the damn thing if a full speed ram isn't possible...

Anyway hats off to you Metalsoul212, you certainly have my respect.

[Metalsoul212]

I never encountered or even heard of a tank drone prior to that play! Had no idea of the deadliness of them! I played a few runs that only lasted a few days till I started to learn the mechanics of everything! To be fair I save scummed a few times with that guy! Usually because of dumbshit that could not have been a glorious death. The Triffid Grove was an extended battle. I had a fusion cannon mounted on my huge armored battleship with wheels( started off as a hippie van and just kept adding and replacing shit till it was the size of a tank. Took many months gathering materials and bringing them back to my cozy ranch!! I'll never live up to the glory of that guy he set the bar pretty high haha

[TheBronzePickle]

I feel like how Intelligence works is... strange. I mean, I'm kinda okay with high intelligence making you capable of learning ridiculously fast by reading. It can get silly pretty quickly, but it isn't really that immersion-breaking.

The thing that irks me is that it has no effect on learning-by-doing, so what you end up with is that the idea of actually practicing is the worst thing you could possibly do unless you have absolutely no choice in the matter.

I feel like practice should always be a choice at least on-par with book learning's speed because you're almost always expending resources to practice, sometimes not even getting anything in return. I don't think it will significantly diminish the value of books, since training still has caps that force you to move to more complicated actions that, themselves, usually have harder-to-acquire resources.