So, I had this run where I landed on -4 with a couple of good hacking utilities (Exp and Adv hacking suites) and an alert level which was hovering somewhere around 2. Luckily, I found this level 1 terminal around the entrance and executed alert(purge) about 6 times and got the message "no threat on record" and thought "Great!!". I also managed to hack the exit location.
Except, I walked out and faced resistance which I usually associate with higher alert levels. The programmer dispatch messages started showing up almost as soon as I explored 4~5 rooms. Though, that could be because I was on treads and the clock was ticking faster than I was moving. I ran into waves and waves of reddish grunts and sentries. The assault carriers followed pretty soon and I got whittled down. It was almost as if I didn't purge threats.
So, question about enemy spawns:
i) When a level is generated, does the alert level play a significant factor in the amount of enemies that are spawned in that level or does it only control the rate at which they show up afterwards?
ii) When I purge threat, do enemies actually exit the level in order to reflect the new alert level?
It could be that I was just facing the nominal resistance hanging out in -4 and being a baby about it
. But, I am curious about how the alert level mechanic ties to enemy spawns. I was pretty salty losing that run
after I hacked the exit location and purged a loooot of threat.
