One thing I have found is that once you have a decent battery, ion storms cease to be a threat. It is easy to outrun the bots and get out... making them more of a nuisance than anything else. (this is the same problem the pirates have).

Ways to spice this up...

1) equip some bots with any of the weapons we discussed in the previous thread about pirates.

2) a new type of bot... The "3M Tarbaby". This bot is small, fast (top speed like 210-250, but it accelerates slowly), and poorly armored. All it does is chase you and when it catches up it attaches itself to your hull. Once it does that, it adds about 500-1000 kg of mass, reduces your thrust by 5%, your top speed by 5-10%, and drains your battery by 1%/sec (or some combination of the above, exact numbers would need to be tweaked). In many ways it is like a seeker bot except that it doesn't explode.

One of these isn't that big a deal, they are easy to kill if you hit them. You are in real trouble if a swarm of them get on your tail. Suddenly that Centurion handles like a Centaur...

Warping out of the system will dislodge them from your hull. They can also be shot off by incoming fire, but then they do explode (but not much damage).

They won't always show up, there may be only a couple, or there may be 10. To keep the n00bs from getting fried, you can make them less common in monitored space.

One thing is for sure, you won't ignore the bots in an ion storm anymore. It even gives the traders a reason to carry guns (well aside from defending against pirates).

**like brainblobs, from the planet blob, you should try one u too, they are lovely creatures, but mine starved to death**

i think there should be an option to purchase a hull shocker device then. This way if your at a lower level, at least you have somewhat of a chance to live to the next level.

What I would suggest is keeping them to a minimum in monitored space and having them fall off when you jump.

The goal with these guys is to make it a bit harder to zoom through a bot infested sector without paying attention to what is going on around you. If you see them coming you should be able to kill them easily before they attach. Even when they are attached, it shouldn't be impossible for you to escape, just harder.

It may also be necessary to limit the number of 'leechbots' that attach based on the size of your ship. Only one or two might be able to attach to a bus, while you might get 10 on a centaur.

Reminds me of those mini-goomba's on SMB3. Anyway, latching bots? Sounds like a good idea when all the bots plan to destroy all humans. Well, human descendants.

I would like to see bots gank WHs in grey space. Maybe make them Corvus bots. I could see them being fun in CtC as not only could be attacking players but also the convoys.

>>It even gives the traders a reason to carry guns (well aside from defending against pirates). <<

when was the last time you saw a lone atlas trader with guns, beat a Pirate with swarms?

anyway, like the idea alot, but they should be more like bee's, they don't stay in one space and they are ALWAYS everywhere, in grey spavce and in moniterd space, including sector space, they should jup in and move About. the station gards will have these in a high priority, and will attack them first, and when they come on radar.

i can also see another mission including these "Parasite Reprieve" Kill x Parasites. get 25 c per perisite +1 combat, and 5 SMall/Large weopon they.

they should be like:

Parasite:
Hp 300
Thrust 50
Max speed 70
max thrust 250
TWT (time with thrust) 10 sec
Damage upon explode 250

Tick:
Hp 700
Thrust 55
Max speed 65
Max thrust 230
TWT 13 seconds
Damage upon explode 550