Hostile Robots Frequently Overheating

[Adraius]

I just posted the story of how my combat Cogmind reached the surface.  While it was an awesome run, I think at least part of the reason this run was so successful was the (quite high) rate of enemy robots slagging themselves by overheating.  I wasn't paying close attention, but in any extended firefights, it seemed like I could almost count on one of the enemy bots to take care of itself for me.  This phenomenon happened with several robot types - the only type I'm sure I never saw melt down was the Swarmer, probably on account of them using kinetic weapons exclusively.

I'm not sure if this should go in the bug section, but I highly suggest you take a look at how you set up the meltdown mechanic and the heat thresholds you set.  Is it possible they cease fire at the redline,  but then fire another full volley the moment they dip back under the redline and risk slagging themselves, for example?

[Kyzrati]

I wouldn't call it a bug, but I was hoping that someone would bring this up for discussion and let me know how it turned out for them so I could collect more data.

I intentionally set the threshold on the low side, and even made it such that high-heat robots in sustained confrontations have a chance to push themselves over the meltdown threshold even before they stop firing (so they'll sometimes kill themselves when battles go on too long, which to an extent I think is fine).

It was tough to balance since I was trying to keep the formula as simple as possible, but I probably made it too easy. (This feature was on the "more thoroughly playtest" list before release, but I said screw it I'll let you all play with it as is for now ) It should theoretically be most common with Grunts and Sentries; of those I'm aware.

Some questions:
* Were you using thermal weapons?
* Was it often the robot you were in direct combat with that melted, or another robot shooting from the sidelines?

I'll likely be tweaking this for Alpha 3c Tournament Edition

[Adraius]

It definitely seemed most common among Grunts, yep - probably because Sentries I usually found alone and tended to kill in 1-2 volleys.

I used Thermal weapons, but didn't focus on them.  My usual loadout was a pair of Kinetic weapons and a pair of energy-heavy weapons - EM or Thermal made very little difference to me.  I've experimented a little bit with Kinetic-heavy or EM/Thermal-heavy loadouts in Alpha 3, btw, and while they kinda work, I'm still finding the 50-50 split loadout to be best for me. (when I get a 5th slot it's just whatever my heat dissipation will allow and what I have more available of)

I was playing a lot of the run well past my bedtime, and therefore had much of my attention on keeping my play tight and not making stupid mistakes due to tiredness, but both situations were occurring.  Sometimes it was the guy I'd be having a multi-volley shootout with, but I remember at least a few times when it was a bot in the back that I hadn't touched.

I'd tweak the thresholds to make meltdowns less common.  In fact, in my opinion, you might consider making it impossible or near-impossible unless you a) transfer excessive amounts of heat via Thermal weapons, b) shoot off enemy heat dissipation utilities, or c) the robot's core is brought below 50%, at which point it disengages the safeties.  Frankly, seeing the opposition fall apart for no clear reason was welcome but a tad anti-climactic, and made them appear shoddily made, which doesn't fit with how I envision the facility and its robot guards.

[Kyzrati]

Those suggestions describe more or less how I originally wanted it, but overheating seemed too rare under normal circumstances, since you'd end up killing them first anyway. I did want it to be something that occasionally gives you a nice sudden relief, but not quite that frequently

I'll test it more thoroughly soon, thanks.

[Happylisk]

This thread makes me wonder if there's any room for a utility that decreases the meltdown threshold for enemies within a certain radius

~feature creep~

[Kyzrati]

Haha, maybe...

Actually, there's an as-yet unreleased robot that does essentially that.

If you were to hack this robot...