Space Clouds

Dev Diary – Termite Sieges

Welcome to another Star Sonata Dev Diary! Today we’re talking about termite sieges within Wild Space! There are three main changes that are coming with Universe Reset with Termites.

Termites

  1. Termite mounds are considerably stronger now and are likely unkillable by player ships alone.
  2. Players will be alerted when and where they are going to be attacked so that players can prepare their defenses via a new team chat and galaxy notifications.
  3. Termite mounds spawn a harasser termite that can kill lower tech bases. The Danger Factor of the galaxy determines the strength of the harasser termites, so lower tech bases are somewhat less vulnerable in galaxies with lower Danger Factor.

Clearing Mounds

We wanted to ensure players had to actually prepare base related defenses and tried to move away from the chore of constantly scouting and killing mounds before they even became a threat. Termite mounds are now far more hardy and will not easily die to player weapons now. Termite mounds will appear in any galaxy that has a player asset inside of it, owned or not. However, only one mound per galaxy can appear at a time.

Siege Notification

Upon logging in, a new alert in the team login message will notify any team members of every galaxy that has an active mound within them. You can also see exactly when the mound is going to start its full siege on the galaxy by checking event chat when you warp into the galaxy. A mound will lay siege exactly seven days after it appears in a galaxy.

Termite Waves

Termites will attack in waves instead of coming in one at a time. This will make them a bit more formidable, but there’s also a cap on the size of each wave to prevent a Termite Deathball™  from appearing (no more 50+ termites). Termite range has been reduced by over 50% to ensure they don’t kite excessively or hang out beyond the range of player bases. Mounds will only spawn up to a maximum value of termites to prevent issues. Sieges will last for 3 hours after which the mound and all its termites will despawn.Counter Attack

Survive the Siege

The ultimate goals are to ensure players are committing the proper resources to galaxy defense, providing advance warning for players to plan and reducing the chore of scouting galaxies constantly. Good luck on withstanding these Termites!