I feel we have talked a lot about the new AI behaviour and how hard even the easiest level of difficulty is nowadays (especially for beginners), it’s one of the busiest threads on here as of late.
But there are only limited comments about the frequency and location of machine SPAWNS, which I feel is a big part of why many feel that the game is this hard.
The game spawns especially runner+hunter packs in a very unfortunate combination with the “improved” long range player-detection.
I recorded a near 30 minute playsession in which the game continuously spawned runners+hunters, with a frequency that I haven’t seen before in the game. By the end of it, I had killed nearly 50 enemies - crazy!
(the video is only 19 mins long since I fast-forwarded a bit through the looting sections, and the in-video kill counter is off by a few enemies that I missed to count, raising the total I show at the end of the video)
I you watch the video, you’ll notice how there keeps on coming new runners + hunters into my area, even apocalypse class even though I am in Klinte (relatively south on the main island).
Had an insane one yesterday. Was just leaving one of the bunkers (spawned there due to it being the closet spawn to where I needed to go) and was spotted by a Hunter. So destroyed it and then three more came along. Destroyed them and was spotted again, God knows from where, but about six more appeared. Then as I was fighting them a load of Runners appeared with a few more Hunter in tow. The gas attacks were crazy as was getting sniped through scenery and few of the Hunters actually phased through a small door into a room they couldn’t fit in and just appeared behind me.
33 Hunters and 18 Runners later I managed to get away, no ammo left mind you.
Note for the devs., as a solo player this is not fun.
That i find hard to believe.
By your description, you battled with military hunters. Those drop 7.62mm and HE rockets. And runners, most likely either military or FNIX, drop either 9mm Klaucke or SMG ammo. Haven’t seen anyone who would kill machines for the sport only, without looting any of them.
While I personally also never had a situation where I would run out of ammo, it’s possible it can happen at times. Being pinned down by many enemies in a building, it might be really hard to step outside and start looting without getting peppered with bullets.
Military hunters can spawn quite south on the map where you still might only (in the early game) have a few weaker weapons at your disposal. So the combo of being new to the game + weaker weapons (meaning you tend to waste more bullets per kill) + not wanting to blow your cover for loot, might result in low-ammo situations?
I’m not the one @Aesyle wrote to and this is not an answer to that, it’s just a reflection on a possible consequence of some of the spawns we have seen recently.
Here’s where the issue is. Klinte is nowhere near “relatively” South of the main island. Instead, it’s in the North-West tip of the Mountains region and you happened to be near one of the hotspots. If we’d talk about relatively South of main island then you’d be looking South Coast and Farmlands border.
Also, the notion of South part of the map, except Archipelago, but mainly South Coast region, being easy is quite the opposite. South Coast region is one of the harder ones since past Minken, towards South, you’d be seeing only FNIX and apo machines.
Difficulty wise, region order is as follows: Archipelago -> Farmlands -> Forest -> South Coast -> Mountains -> Marshlands -> North Coast -> Himfjäll.
As far as machine spawn amount goes, i haven’t noticed much of a difference. Some areas are completely empty, some areas have patrol or two while hotspots have machine armada at them.
I think what NX-7… mentioned about not getting ammo is him escaping. I’ve had those moments, where I fought on my max lvl character and ended up not picking up the ammo after waves of machines lying around. The waves never stopped, I just had to die and never come back… Then switch to a different set of weapons in my storage box that still had some ammo left. Even before that, I’d cheese the area by having a bunker near by and radio down, so I respawn and go back in the fight… Did that a couple of times, until I got very tired of this.
After that whole ‘event’ I went to Archipelago and never wanted to leave it as a solo. Was the perfect spot for me, but soon I will move out of it… Unless the fix plops down before I reach mainlands on a new character, I don’t see myself enjoying what’s ahead.
Then maybe you haven’t run into a “real” battle yet. If you only have a green gun, like a sh**tty Kvm59 taking off the machine gun an launcher of a lower level rival can take up some hundreds of 7.62 rounds. Also: yes, certain hunters give away certain kind of ammo, but there are battles too where you laid out 2 dozen hunters and all they carry is a handful of shotgun rounds (or adhesive; I can glue Hoover-dam with all the Adhesive poppin up in the game recently).
Again: GZ plays out very differently for different players. That is the ultimate downside when you put your money on randomized spawns. Whatever you “find hard to believe” stems only from the fact, that you haven’t run into a specific situation. In other words: your game-experience has nothing to do with mine or anybody else’s, and just to be on par: I find that hard to believe that you loot enough ammo. There, much better, right?
Perhaps but i’ve invested very early into Salvage skill by maxxing it out and due to that, i’ll find 100% more ammo than without it. Another tactic that helps to preserve ammo is good aim + single shots, or semi-auto fire. 3rd tip is knowing good looting spots for ammo: any command bunker, sea cans, cars, garages, barns.
And for a good sport, screenshot of my Plundra and ammo reserves as well:
I’m reviving this thread to show an INSANE spawn of hunters, as per the latest April update.
Can you count how many there are? https://youtu.be/RsWXxVZrvns
I counted 4 - 5 patrols which is unusual but nothing close to insane levels.
Since East part of the North Coast is open (like Farmlands are), it’s easy to see far and spot several patrols at once.
Though, North Coast usually spawns FNIX runner patrols, FNIX harv, FNIX tank and Apo tank as well but i guess you catched the rare time when game spawned only FNIX hunter patrols, making hunters amount a bit excessive.
I should have continued the video. What was fantastic here is that all of these patrols were all alerted together and simultaneously when I approached, so the subsequent launch on my character was… ehem “interesting”
in an multiplayer session whit no max lvld char today we hade 14 tanks and 4 harvester and probably 25 hunters and so many dogs i cold not even count them spawning and you cold not even loot them as they wher so piled up and on adventure mode as we killed of one tank they started marching in was fun but i recon its not intended to be this way one in the party did get an experimental from it the pg90 so it was wort it =D and it was in farmlands region
i have goten drops of experimentals this weekend AG4 and klacke the only weapon that is not droping any more is the KVM59 experiemental what i know of i have got mine on advanture from lvl 4 rivals tanks the ones that droped this weekend
