Military Upgrade?

[Nerdatope]

When I first started playing the game, I thought hatches and dreckos would bite my dupes. This meant that as I was exploring for the first few times, I genuinely was scared of the world around my base. Instantly trying to kill the creatures I came into contact with, I may have doomed my chances of making coal or ranching plastic, but I was thrilled nonetheless of the supposedly hostile environment my dupes had to overcome. Once I figured out creatures don't pose a threat, the things that scare me in the game were different in the sense that issues like disease, slow moving heat, and even the more pressing occasional food shortages are terrifying in a relaxed, slower kind of way. I feel like I'm playing a different game now.

Please don't misunderstand, I absolutely love Oni and have realized that it's definitely one of the greatest games I've ever played despite being in pre-release, but I'd love to feel that threat again. Would it be possible to add a sort of military upgrade, where the combat stats of your dupes actually mattered? It would be awesome to have monsters to fight or (in some limited form) invasive creatures as the game progressed. Not at all as complicated as games like Dwarf Fortress have, but a soldier job would be pretty neat. Just something to scare me from entering a long enough cave such that I can't see the end.

"Is there a dangerous ore creature at the end of this chlorine-filled area? Perhaps I need my soldiers to run in first."

"I need coal so bad but there's a monster in the way. I'll risk it. For the colony!"

Stuff like that. : )

[ImpalerWrG]

I would certainly like to see more critter combat.  And I would like to see 'Fighting' be a skill of it's own rather then just being slaved to mining.

In addition to Critter combat though I would balance the 'outside' dangers with an internal use of the fighting skill with similar risks of injury.

Firefighting, fire spreads and needs to be extinguished and can burn and injury your dupes, this makes the fighting skill useful long term even after all the wild creatures have been tamed or eaten.

[Yunru]

Likewise, I first expected Wild creatures to act... like wild creatures.

 

Of course the biggest drawback to this request is it means more advanced AI, including pathfinding. And we all know what that means...

[irOninfernO]

You would think giant forms of different type of critter will appear at the colony sooner or later. I mean there is already a setup of a medical bay, guns that can do everything ranging from building, mining, wrangling, harvesting and combating.

[Sasza22]

I`d love to see Meep in a general`s hat.

There was a point in the game where hatches would bite if you unburrowed them but it was removed. Mybe it will combe back eventually. As for other wild creatures i don`t think we need to modify their behaviour too much. Like wild shinebugs could just move away if a dupe gets within 2 tiles of them, same for slicksters. Hatches don`t have eyes so they might just ignore dupes walking by is not unburrowed by them.

[Alfons100]

Perhaps there are burrowing enemies, which invisibly burrow around in groundtiles, jumping out to attack Duplicants sometimes. They got nests which they spawn from and then jump into the ground to pursue Dupes. You could kill the nests if you'd like, but they may respawn later. Sometimes they don't attack, they just scare them which gives the Dupe a Stress increase (Darkest Dungeon much?).

I can imagine the combat being a little RPG like, where if an enemy approaches, closeby Duplicants will group up to team up against the foe. 

Again, such a mechanic is finnicky and could be too 'Random' and interrupts the games peaceful flow. Critters usually stay where they stay, not like they change cave-systems or anything. Also contradicts the theme of the game, Duplicants got this type of "Wouldnt hurt a soul" attitude. But it would be cool to see them bring out their a tad bit violent side to protect their friends.

[goboking]

34 minutes ago, Alfons100 said:

Also contradicts the theme of the game, Duplicants got this type of "Wouldnt hurt a soul" attitude. But it would be cool to see them bring out their a tad bit violent side to protect their friends.

The game prioritizes Combat above any other task.

[NGMZero]

On 8/11/2018 at 9:31 AM, ImpalerWrG said:

...

Firefighting, fire spreads and needs to be extinguished and can burn and injury your dupes, this makes the fighting skill useful long term even after all the wild creatures have been tamed or eaten.

+ for indoor hazards specially with low skilled dupes, i prefer a dupe who can TRY to do any thing with risk of screwing up and wasting every one else time in trying to fix the problem over a dupe who need a hat to do it right (keep an eye on those priorities).