Topic: RIP Hammerbot (Read 3419 times)

Joshua · « **on:** March 24, 2018, 08:32:30 AM »

I thought I would try an impact weapons melee run, because the idea of a rogue Cogmind coming after other bots with 6 hammers is funny.

Before starting, I wondered how all the challenges with hammers would work out: high delay, highly variable damage (even a Variable Charge Gun doesn't vary by so wide a range), the likelihood of missing on any given swing, the need for fast propulsion for positioning and a number of combat utilities and processors to be effective. Force Boosters may be powerful but it's rare that I even see them on a run. Melee Analysis and Micro/nanoactuators are easier to come by.

I thought (for some reason) that impact damage caused corruption directly, like EM, but the manual and context help only mention it happening when a component is crushed. And that would seem to explain why some bots (green bots) were easily corrupted, while others with more durable components stood up against many swings.

Starting off I did the usual combat start, with treads actually (unusual for me) until I found a cache of hover units in Factory. I upgraded to three weapon slots at -9 because I knew I would want them eventually and the extra weapon increases survivability by so much. I also took an extra power slot pretty early on -- I got in a bad habit of taking only 1 from seeing MTF's combat hacker win very early when I started playing Cogmind, but at least two is really helpful for anything besides a pure stealth build.

On -6 I found a cache of Shock Mauls and decided to go for it. They worked pretty well on -6 and -5 for a still mostly-stealth run (I had an Adv. Sensor Array and Transmission Jammer most of the time and used them to avoid aggroing large groups of enemies, until I didn't) but became less and less effective as I progressed. When they started to break all I found to replace them was a set of Powered Hammers.

I had upgraded to 4 weapon slots at some point but I'm not sure it was worth it since the chance of followup attacks is so low without utilities to improve it.

Hammerbot met its end on -2, after getting mobbed by 3-4 patrols (a group of grunts, programmers and terminators) in a busy hallway. It held out in a nearby room when it probably should have rammed through and tried to escape before losing all the hammers.

Final thoughts: to do this I need to figure out a more reliable way to destroy combat bots. A Core Analyzer, Armor Integrity Analyzer and a couple Melee Analysis Suites don't seem to be enough. Sentries seemed to drop very little armor when I did engage them, and there doesn't seem to be any way to increase salvage potential with a given melee weapon (unlike with guns where you can use a salvage targeting computer). I considered alternating between a plasma cutter and hammers when fighting a robot I'd like to salvage but went for pure melee once I found the shock mauls.

Force Boosters and Actuator Arrays seem to be quite rare as far as random caches. Maybe hacking and fabrication would work to get them more reliably, but that pushes a build more towards the stealth-hacking side which I find fairly easy to win at now -- the point was to use melee for a more combat oriented bot.

Of course being willing and able to adapt in Cogmind instead of sticking with a set build increases the chances of winning considerably

Tips for a better melee build are welcome.

Scoresheet:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Kyzrati · « **Reply #1 on:** March 24, 2018, 06:43:17 PM »

That's a pretty decent performance, one that might befall any number of builds, really (being in the wrong place--a busy intersection, and overcome by patrols). I've heard some players saying impact weapons are "probably OP" with the corruption changes, but perhaps it isn't so. This is the first time anyone seems to have tried to focus on it!

Force Boosters and Actuator Arrays are definitely on the rare side compared to other items, so you can't rely on finding them... I don't have any good suggestions myself, but maybe some of the players who've experimented with melee builds do.

Laida · « **Reply #2 on:** March 27, 2018, 12:18:25 AM »

I tried to play with impact weapons, too... the most noticeable problem was that my Cogmind killed some type of enemies very slowly. For example, programmers... So, they managed to corrupt me a lot (30-40% corruption at the late Factory). I even didn't reach Research in this run.
I think you totally need some item which cuts your chance to be corrupted by EM damage in this kind of build.

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Author Topic: RIP Hammerbot (Read 3419 times)

Joshua

RIP Hammerbot

Kyzrati

Re: RIP Hammerbot

Laida

Re: RIP Hammerbot