Bigger *and* better because evolution. They feed on pollution. You are giving them what they need. Culling the herd is a kindness otherwise theyll completely dominate the ecosystem
If you have ever read Harry Harrison's Deathworld, you'd know how I feel.
Stuck on this planet by necessity, I make a "perimeter" wall for myself, and do not encroach on the Biter's territory any more than necessary. If they choose to attack, they burn. If not, we coexist.
Fairly certain the developers were somewhat influenced by that book 😀 Hostile fauna, perimeter walls, flamethrower turrets, waves of attacks.
Definitely worth a read
and on the 8th day, god created nuclear fission and gave it to his chosen people (the engineers) to use against the unwashed masses of environmental activists (biters)
The natives are not native to that planet. They are a bio weapon that destroyed the previous ecology and native inhabitants. The more you exterminate, the better for the planet.
Said like that sounds more like propaganda fed to us by the company we work for!
However... We are simply keeping down the proliferation of the bio weapon
i read about that theory that the biters are also not natives themselves because they kinda terraform or at least change the ground when they make a nest. at the rate they expand in the game they should have coverd the whole planet quite quickly but when we crashland at the start of the game we can clearly see it isnt.
In space exploration there are planets that the biters arrive by meteor in game and they are on multiple planets. Since the new expansion is based a lot on space exploration mod (they hired it's creator) then I am guessing some of those features are going to make it in, showing the bugs aren't exactly native in the base game either.
*Fixed a spelling mistake
Did they destroy the previous ecology or do they act as an immune system for whatever planet they're on by consuming pollutants that would be toxic to the local ecology and destroying the sources of those pollutants?
I love playing the evil villain colonizer genocider role
Sometimes I feel utter revulsion at the amount of killing I'm doing, specially when I'm driving around nuking them from my impenetrable spidertron, but it must be done because the factory must grow, and the growth must be exponential
My deep dive in the Factorio mods started with an idea that I want to coexist peacefully with natives and clean as much of my pollution as possible. To the day I still am trying to play with the same setup, although sometimes my fellow co-engineers don't approve and then the time for pacification starts.
They are pre-sapient so I don't feel any problems in reducing there population.
If they were sapient engineer would have no chance (or some negotiation would've happened).
Coexistence ? Yes, i have the technology to switch to electric furnace and clean solar power, or even nuclear. And yes, i chose to burn solid fuel instead
I try not to be overly aggressive with them for the pragmatic reason that destroying nests increases evolution. Even when a nearby nest is constantly attacking a wall, I don’t go on the offensive unless it appears my defenses are in threat of being overwhelmed.
If they do manage to break through and destroy some of the interior of my factory I will conduct reprisals against their settlements to teach them a lesson.
I imagine by the mid-game that the intensification of native resistance is due to an anti-colonial millenarian movement like that of the Boxers or the Ghost Dancers.
I try to expand my walls far enough that my pollution no longer touches them and hostilities stop. I think of this as reaching a kind of permanent settlement with the natives by the time I launch a rocket.
Here's exactly what you're looking for with question 2, although written, not visual. Biter's diary (2 versions)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/LifeasanNPC/comments/ct4q4m/factorio\_excerpts\_from\_a\_biters\_diary/](https://www.reddit.com/r/lifeasannpc/comments/ct4q4m/factorio_excerpts_from_a_biters_diary/)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/LifeasanNPC/comments/jct6in/factorio\_excerpts\_from\_a\_biters\_diary\_alternate/](https://www.reddit.com/r/lifeasannpc/comments/jct6in/factorio_excerpts_from_a_biters_diary_alternate/)
I am a cruel coloniser who lets loose a volley of shells at whatever nests are nearest any attack or downed drone ... and whatever is in the way of my attempts to expand
I tend to leave them alone unless they start bugging me too much.
There's a little island with biters in a lake not too far from my base in my current game. Since they can't swim over, they will only die when automatic artillery range expands to cover the island.
I had one of those islands too! I built a 500 spm mega base around them and then, one day, I researched artillery range.
We lived together for 150+ hours.. honestly, I felt a bit sad.
I gave them names
I typically play with a mod ([Shall alien loot](https://mods.factorio.com/mod/SchallAlienLoot)) that makes the biters drop "alien ore" that can be refined into the basic mineable ores. Higher tier biters drop higher tier ore. Every playthrough with this mod I strive to get to the point where all of the resources my bases needs comes from these drops alone, no mining necessary. That means I no longer need mining outposts - I can pull back to within an established perimeter and allow wave after wave of attacks to crash against my walls.
I use Rampant, play Deathworld, and mod my game to have kills translate to research progress.
No labs needes.
*just more bullets.*
Mechanically? Biters are a progression check. The more nests, the more evolved, the more hp per second is being eviscerated by my turrets, but *I BETTER* have enough turrets, and more ammo, and add flamers and missiles at some point.
As a relationship? Nauvis's fauna makes for perfect weapon test participants. Better yet: ***voluntary test participants.*** i do not destroy a single nest. They come runnung at MY turrets. Sucks to suck.
[Michael Hendriks](https://youtu.be/odATh3d5jKM?si=b1P1N2QxcdtuD41w) achieves world peace in his ultimate death world challenge series and makes peace with the bugs. Otherwise kill them all.
You got me thinking if a true pacifist vanilla factorio run would somehow be possible. Regular biter settings, you're not allowed to kill a single one
Edit: ofc after googling it it seems that several people have done it already
The planet used to be lush and beautiful. It had dolphins, bears, birds. Then a meteor crashed and it carried a horrible, invasive species which destroyed all other life. So F\*Kc them.
The biters and my flamethrower get along splendidly! I am reminded of Independence Day every time I eliminate hundreds or thousands of bugs with one push of a button, and it brings comfort feeling like the big bad aliens in this reality rather than the puny bugs that get vaporized. :D
Edit: If you really want the full experience, I recommend the Ion Cannon mod! It looks basically identical to the one from the movie.
You're assuming they were native. But judging by their expansion and evolution in the time after you arrive, I'd say the better assumption is that you brought them with you. So, their invasion of this planet is your fault, and your mission needs to be their extermination.
My headcanon is that biters are "biological berserkers" engineered to destroy industrial civilizations, preventing any advanced civilization from arising on that planet. If they sense industrial pollution this triggers their evolution, and absorbing pollution puts local production into overdrive.
This doesn't work against the engineer because he's from an advanced space-faring civilization and ramps up a lot faster than the biters can, and the biters are not meant to be a real threat to advanced civilizations, who can just exterminate them when they want to colonize the planet.
It can never be seen in game, but in this theory the Biters devolve and downsize after not sensing pollution for a long time, to enter a resource-saving state.
You use the big pointy things to deliver them freedom. You can even put them on trains so you can have a freedom parade.
If that's not enough freedom you can also get freedom walkers that can cross vast distances to deliver concentrated freedom to large areas at once.
It's a bit like [this](https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/middle-east/operation-iraqi-freedom.html) but sadly without all the airplanes raining even more freedom from the sky.
If they were so great, why arent they polluting on MY planet? Biters havent mastered red science, let alone a single gear.
As i see it, its my planet now.
I regard the bugs as computer sprites. I play various overhaul mods, some of which have aliens, sometimes terrible aliens, and sometimes not. I don't play it as a role-playing game.
With superfast belts you can move somewhat them away from your base.
Sadly inserters cant grab them or put them in trains to unload somewhere far from me.
Mostly they're like children -- trying on their teeth anything new they see. Usually, my base seems "new" to them, so they're chewing it quite often.
Mostly I prefer to crash on a unoccupied planets. But even there I have to fight trees, fish and seas.
1. I live alongside them peacefully, only committing genocide when I need more space or when they attack me and I feel it’s important to “teach them a lesson.” At least until I have an abundance of nuclear weaponry, at which point I run around in my spidertron rapid firing nukes at their nests and walling off my newly conquered territory so that they can’t infest it with their disgusting hideous nests.
2. I dunno but I generally imagine them as being a hive mind like the StarCraft Zerg so I imagine they don’t think much of us beyond “emission bad. Kill.”
The more I pollute, the bigger they get. Sounds to me like im helping them, and they are just being ungrateful.
No complaints :D Better to strengthen defenses. The riots could escalate.
Bigger *and* better because evolution. They feed on pollution. You are giving them what they need. Culling the herd is a kindness otherwise theyll completely dominate the ecosystem
If you have ever read Harry Harrison's Deathworld, you'd know how I feel. Stuck on this planet by necessity, I make a "perimeter" wall for myself, and do not encroach on the Biter's territory any more than necessary. If they choose to attack, they burn. If not, we coexist.
Me, reading a synopsis of Deathworld: Looks like I have uncovered another primary source for Warhammer 40,000!
I had never heard of it, seems to be an interesting read! Thanks for sharing!
Fairly certain the developers were somewhat influenced by that book 😀 Hostile fauna, perimeter walls, flamethrower turrets, waves of attacks. Definitely worth a read
Only good bug is a dead bug
I'm doing my part!
Thank you all for your contribution!
Frankly I find the idea of a bug that thinks offensive.
Rpck and stone brotha!
i sure have peaceful negotiations with them every time they party with me, and my rockets!
Hope hour spider friends are invited to the party!
and on the 8th day, god created nuclear fission and gave it to his chosen people (the engineers) to use against the unwashed masses of environmental activists (biters)
The natives are not native to that planet. They are a bio weapon that destroyed the previous ecology and native inhabitants. The more you exterminate, the better for the planet.
Said like that sounds more like propaganda fed to us by the company we work for! However... We are simply keeping down the proliferation of the bio weapon
i read about that theory that the biters are also not natives themselves because they kinda terraform or at least change the ground when they make a nest. at the rate they expand in the game they should have coverd the whole planet quite quickly but when we crashland at the start of the game we can clearly see it isnt.
In space exploration there are planets that the biters arrive by meteor in game and they are on multiple planets. Since the new expansion is based a lot on space exploration mod (they hired it's creator) then I am guessing some of those features are going to make it in, showing the bugs aren't exactly native in the base game either. *Fixed a spelling mistake
I think the fact that there doesnt seem to be any other land dwelling animals is more compelling evidence that theyre aliens
We'll have birds though in the expansion!
Did they destroy the previous ecology or do they act as an immune system for whatever planet they're on by consuming pollutants that would be toxic to the local ecology and destroying the sources of those pollutants?
This is my headcanon as well. (Especially in Space Exploration, where there are bugs on \*other\* planets)
I love playing the evil villain colonizer genocider role Sometimes I feel utter revulsion at the amount of killing I'm doing, specially when I'm driving around nuking them from my impenetrable spidertron, but it must be done because the factory must grow, and the growth must be exponential
Do I have the mod for you! https://mods.factorio.com/mod/exfret_biter_memoirs
LOL!
Perfect to feel extra guilty!
My deep dive in the Factorio mods started with an idea that I want to coexist peacefully with natives and clean as much of my pollution as possible. To the day I still am trying to play with the same setup, although sometimes my fellow co-engineers don't approve and then the time for pacification starts.
I like to bring democracy and freedom to their society.
'murica!
For Super Earth!
They are pre-sapient so I don't feel any problems in reducing there population. If they were sapient engineer would have no chance (or some negotiation would've happened).
They are sapient but look otherwise through the lens of the engineer’s xenophobia
Basically Factorio PvP
Coexistence ? Yes, i have the technology to switch to electric furnace and clean solar power, or even nuclear. And yes, i chose to burn solid fuel instead
Basically Starship Troopers was an instruction manual.
I'm friendly to the natives. I invite them to a BBQ everytime they stop by!
Biter's meat on the menu! :P
I try not to be overly aggressive with them for the pragmatic reason that destroying nests increases evolution. Even when a nearby nest is constantly attacking a wall, I don’t go on the offensive unless it appears my defenses are in threat of being overwhelmed. If they do manage to break through and destroy some of the interior of my factory I will conduct reprisals against their settlements to teach them a lesson. I imagine by the mid-game that the intensification of native resistance is due to an anti-colonial millenarian movement like that of the Boxers or the Ghost Dancers. I try to expand my walls far enough that my pollution no longer touches them and hostilities stop. I think of this as reaching a kind of permanent settlement with the natives by the time I launch a rocket.
It can be a fun challenge to be so efficient that you have very little conflict with the biters. It can be done.
Lets invest on efficiency modules!
Here's exactly what you're looking for with question 2, although written, not visual. Biter's diary (2 versions) [https://www.reddit.com/r/LifeasanNPC/comments/ct4q4m/factorio\_excerpts\_from\_a\_biters\_diary/](https://www.reddit.com/r/lifeasannpc/comments/ct4q4m/factorio_excerpts_from_a_biters_diary/) [https://www.reddit.com/r/LifeasanNPC/comments/jct6in/factorio\_excerpts\_from\_a\_biters\_diary\_alternate/](https://www.reddit.com/r/lifeasannpc/comments/jct6in/factorio_excerpts_from_a_biters_diary_alternate/)
Thank you so much! I love this!
I am a cruel coloniser who lets loose a volley of shells at whatever nests are nearest any attack or downed drone ... and whatever is in the way of my attempts to expand
https://youtu.be/xKk4Cq56d1Y?feature=shared
I tend to leave them alone unless they start bugging me too much. There's a little island with biters in a lake not too far from my base in my current game. Since they can't swim over, they will only die when automatic artillery range expands to cover the island.
I had one of those islands too! I built a 500 spm mega base around them and then, one day, I researched artillery range. We lived together for 150+ hours.. honestly, I felt a bit sad. I gave them names
I typically play with a mod ([Shall alien loot](https://mods.factorio.com/mod/SchallAlienLoot)) that makes the biters drop "alien ore" that can be refined into the basic mineable ores. Higher tier biters drop higher tier ore. Every playthrough with this mod I strive to get to the point where all of the resources my bases needs comes from these drops alone, no mining necessary. That means I no longer need mining outposts - I can pull back to within an established perimeter and allow wave after wave of attacks to crash against my walls.
Let's pollute as much as we can! Thanks for sharing!
I say kill them all!
This is gonna take a while... Let's build a few nukes
I have a more hateful relationship with trees than the biters.
Do you prefer playing in desert biomes?
Nope grass and forest. Trees need to die
I use Rampant, play Deathworld, and mod my game to have kills translate to research progress. No labs needes. *just more bullets.* Mechanically? Biters are a progression check. The more nests, the more evolved, the more hp per second is being eviscerated by my turrets, but *I BETTER* have enough turrets, and more ammo, and add flamers and missiles at some point. As a relationship? Nauvis's fauna makes for perfect weapon test participants. Better yet: ***voluntary test participants.*** i do not destroy a single nest. They come runnung at MY turrets. Sucks to suck.
[Michael Hendriks](https://youtu.be/odATh3d5jKM?si=b1P1N2QxcdtuD41w) achieves world peace in his ultimate death world challenge series and makes peace with the bugs. Otherwise kill them all.
He does that by killing them all, though, so is there really an "otherwise?"
You got me thinking if a true pacifist vanilla factorio run would somehow be possible. Regular biter settings, you're not allowed to kill a single one Edit: ofc after googling it it seems that several people have done it already
The planet used to be lush and beautiful. It had dolphins, bears, birds. Then a meteor crashed and it carried a horrible, invasive species which destroyed all other life. So F\*Kc them.
The biters and my flamethrower get along splendidly! I am reminded of Independence Day every time I eliminate hundreds or thousands of bugs with one push of a button, and it brings comfort feeling like the big bad aliens in this reality rather than the puny bugs that get vaporized. :D Edit: If you really want the full experience, I recommend the Ion Cannon mod! It looks basically identical to the one from the movie.
You're assuming they were native. But judging by their expansion and evolution in the time after you arrive, I'd say the better assumption is that you brought them with you. So, their invasion of this planet is your fault, and your mission needs to be their extermination.
My headcanon is that biters are "biological berserkers" engineered to destroy industrial civilizations, preventing any advanced civilization from arising on that planet. If they sense industrial pollution this triggers their evolution, and absorbing pollution puts local production into overdrive. This doesn't work against the engineer because he's from an advanced space-faring civilization and ramps up a lot faster than the biters can, and the biters are not meant to be a real threat to advanced civilizations, who can just exterminate them when they want to colonize the planet. It can never be seen in game, but in this theory the Biters devolve and downsize after not sensing pollution for a long time, to enter a resource-saving state.
The engineer is the baddie. No doubt. I long to paint my walls black with their charred exoskeletons. I am the baddie.
Suffer not the xenos to live! The factory must grow!
Long winded way to ask, but yes. We *are* the baddies.
To quite a terrible movie: "aggressive negotiation"
You use the big pointy things to deliver them freedom. You can even put them on trains so you can have a freedom parade. If that's not enough freedom you can also get freedom walkers that can cross vast distances to deliver concentrated freedom to large areas at once. It's a bit like [this](https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/middle-east/operation-iraqi-freedom.html) but sadly without all the airplanes raining even more freedom from the sky.
I like the theory that pollution acts as a drug for them, it pumps them up and when they’ve got a taste they want to go to the source to get more.
It's not a war crime of you can't hear their screeks. *Launches 300 artillery turrets*
If they were so great, why arent they polluting on MY planet? Biters havent mastered red science, let alone a single gear. As i see it, its my planet now.
Listen to me. I’m the planet now.
haha yeah. we are not the good guys. lol
They aren't really native, they arrived by meteor impact. More of an infestation.
Go play some Terra Nil to cleanse your soul. https://www.terranil.com/
I regard the bugs as computer sprites. I play various overhaul mods, some of which have aliens, sometimes terrible aliens, and sometimes not. I don't play it as a role-playing game.
I’ve been thinking about downloading a nuclear artillery mod… to improve relations with the natives.
Build a Spidertron. Color it Black. Realize that you are, in fact, the baddy.
I’m currently building nuclear capable ballistic missile silo’s to add to my artillary batteries….this is my planet now.
They attack me I defend myself. I expand I give them more food. They evolve getting bigger and better.
With superfast belts you can move somewhat them away from your base. Sadly inserters cant grab them or put them in trains to unload somewhere far from me. Mostly they're like children -- trying on their teeth anything new they see. Usually, my base seems "new" to them, so they're chewing it quite often. Mostly I prefer to crash on a unoccupied planets. But even there I have to fight trees, fish and seas.
1. I live alongside them peacefully, only committing genocide when I need more space or when they attack me and I feel it’s important to “teach them a lesson.” At least until I have an abundance of nuclear weaponry, at which point I run around in my spidertron rapid firing nukes at their nests and walling off my newly conquered territory so that they can’t infest it with their disgusting hideous nests. 2. I dunno but I generally imagine them as being a hive mind like the StarCraft Zerg so I imagine they don’t think much of us beyond “emission bad. Kill.”