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[Star Weaver]

Seriously, I have so much trouble with these guys. They have a weak weapon and no weapon-enhancing gear at all. I know they're supposed to be hard to hit, but they seem to have an absurdly easy time hitting me.

In a bad encounter, I seem to lose 1d3 pieces of equipment to these guys per my turn. It feels like they get to shoot more often instead of just move more often too, but that's probably cause I'm usually using 3-4 weapon volleys and they're not? I understand they're probably supposed to be a significant threat to slow, heavy bots but I have a pretty hard time when running fast and light too.

Pretty much the only reliable solution seems to be grenades, if you can get them at distance. Hell, even if you cant it's better than your other options.

Anyway: Argh!

[Kyzrati]

You can see their chance to hit (and that of any other robot) via the Calc window (F8) when set to at least Default detail or above. They don't have any particular bonus to accuracy. Their weapon, the Lgt. Assault Rifle, does have a 10% speed boost over the average weapon (Delay -20 if you look at the stats), but it is also the weakest weapon in the game!

Just don't fight them in the open and they're not much of a threat. It's called the Swarmer class for a reason--that's what they do best

[Star Weaver]

Hmm, I'll have to take a look at that next time I play; Pests just so often seem like the hydrochloric-acid-spraying nozzles in a mobile component-removing shower ... maybe that's just because their icon looks rather nozzly.

On the other hand, I did just spend this evening playing Ziggurat (procedurally generated first person magical murder simulator), where all the enemies are perfectly accurate (unless spread applies), but most of the projectiles are really slow.

Hmm, on that note, have you considered any slow moving projectiles? Here i'm thinking of the big BFG ball of doom that wibble-wobbles forward a few tiles per turn and thus is avoidable, but wrecks the hell out of anything in the path and/or explosion point. (Bonus points if you can shoot it with an energy beam to cause an explosion like in unreal tournament...)

I should probably get to bed before random asides do me in.

[Kyzrati]

Just don't let them swarm you and they are reduced to basically being "just pests" . That said, as a slow-mover you do have to pay close attention to where you're moving, to minimize the chance of getting caught in a bad spot.

Slow projectiles work better in real-time games. There have been some attempts at integrating them into roguelikes, but it really needs to be part of the core mechanic to work well.

In terms of other types of projectiles more suitable for turn-based play, Cogmind has multi-projectile weapons and waypoint-based guided projectiles.

[Star Weaver]

Yeah, I do tend towards the medium-slow end of things, though it never occurs to me to add more than one inventory expander. And I have seen one of your gifs of the blaster launcher waypoint torpedo thing :> and at least used some flak cannons myself.

[Kyzrati]

Weren't you going to bed?

You can get through most of the game as a heavy without any more than a single Storage Unit. Some Cogminds just have the packrat gene--if they can carry it, they will. To be fair, it does increase your chances of survival in tight spots, though at the beginning of the game this is much less of an issue--storage is pretty optional there.

[Star Weaver]

Ok, about pests again, this is my first enconter of the game and this guy's consistantly getting withing 5 of 80% chance to hit me. I understand it's small and my chance to hit it is reduced, but, where is this constant 80% coming from?

https://i.imgur.com/zZxvfy2.png

[Kyzrati]

Check out the accuracy breakdown.

If you're sitting stationary right in his face, he gets a pretty big bonus right there.