Temporal Storm Strategies

[Thorfinn]

Personally, I usually just hide next to a vertical coffin until I see what kind of storm it is. I think only things with at least some drifters are worth bothering with. If so, I go into my "arena" which is mostly just a bunch of almost randomly-placed fenceposts to disrupt movement, and floating packed earth to block missiles, then keep on the move. But just had a wild idea.

What if the arena were more regularized, fencing diagonals that had internal dimensions of, say, 5 or 7 across? Wherever they spawn, they would be contained within that pen. All you have to do then is make sure to keep any pens with bowtorn from having lines of fire at you, and you focus on those pens you want to deal with -- doubleheadeds and whatever that shiver is. Kill the others as you have time/inclination, but IMO, you are probably better off despawning them if possible. Which would require at least 2 such arenas at least 50 apart.

Note: I have not yet tried this. Just thinking out loud at the moment.

Anyone have other ideas to make storms a bit more manageable? Particularly since well over half of what's on the field one shots on Wilderness.

[Thorfinn]

Another thought -- a bit cheesy (ok, a lot cheesy), but you could make a mob sorter out of hallways. The corridor to your hidey-hole starts out 2-wide, then drops to 1 wide. Something like (top view):

X PXXXXXXXXXX
XPP PP    D X
XP  PP    DYX
XXXXXXXXXXXDX
          X X
          XXX

X=WALL
P=PIT
D=DOOR
Y=YOU

The idea is that this is too close for bowtorn to approach, which is fine, they have crappy loot anyway. The first pit  should catch all walker drifters and most of the crawlers but allow the shivers to walk over it, where they get caught in the 2x2 pit.  Might have to fool them with that trapdoor trick. That pit will need overhangs or fences or something to keep them from climbing out.Then it's just a matter of setting up a shooting gallery in that lower level, and knapping a brazilian spears.

I have not tried this out yet, no, again, just brainstorming. 

Edited February 1, 2025 by Thorfinn

[idiomcritter]

was just playing with a sorting thing, the pit is 3 deep, cause shivers can climb out of 2 deep.  in the pit, take out every other block 2 high to capture the drifters only,  then drop 2 blocks further down to prevent escaping.... wanted to use water to help push things, but the water mechanic doesn't have enough force...  not sure on a killing chamber, cept that a chisled poke hole where i could stab or maybe shoot an arrow idk.  a glass safe room above the pit to sit and lure... needs testing  lol

 

Edited February 1, 2025 by idiomcritter

[idiomcritter]

whats good about the sorting pit is the ability to construct early game with dirt/packed dirt...

[Thorfinn]

That's very cool! An added benefit over mine is that drifters won't all be in the same pen, so won't be killing each other.

Love the corridor. A single gate at their level would allow you to use missiles safely, and if you had time between waves, go harvesting and retrieve missiles. Have another idea I think I'll try. Did you just go into creative and spawn those guys? Wish I had thought of that...

[EDIT]

Oh, and did the bowtorn approach that closely or did you spawn him there? I thought for sure he would keep his distance. If not, I'll have to rethink things.

 

Edited February 1, 2025 by Thorfinn

[Zippy Wonderdust]

I like your ideas @Thorfinn

My "tried and true" defense for temporal storms in 1.19 has been a 5x5x5 packed earth bunker surrounded by a 2 wide x 2 deep moat.  The bunker has a number of stick-fence "windows" and at least one 2 block deep murder hole capped by a piece of fence so there's a half-slab size hole you can stick a spear through. Like this:

TOP VIEW      FRONT VIEW
front
XXXXXXXXXXX      XXXXX
X   moat  X      FFFFF
X  XX*XX  X      XXPXX
X  X P X  X   X  XX XX  X
X  X   X  X   X  XX*XX  X
X  X   X  X   XXXXXXXXXXX
X  XXXXX  X
X  moat   X
XXXXXXXXXXX
back

X=PACKED DIRT
F=FENCE
P=PLAYER
*=KILLZONE

It's always worked a treat against drifters.  They jump in and all cluster in the kill zone trying to strike upwards at me. I can't fall down because there's a piece of fence in the way, and they can't get in because the 1-block high entrance it out of reach! It looks, however, like I need to give it a major overhaul to cope with the two new guys.  I'm thinking of maybe replacing the moat with a single long straight trench leading directly away from the killzone that they need to approach along that starts only 2 deep but becomes 3 deep at the bunker so that shivers can't climb out. Also leave a half-slab size gap overlooking the trench that I can shoot arrows through to deal with any bowtorns that hang back.

I too am simply musing out loud at this point.

Edit to add: Will shivers jump down a 3-block high "fall" or does their pathing AI avoid falls of that height?

Edited February 1, 2025 by Zippy Wonderdust

[Thorfinn]

Yeah, @Zippy Wonderdust things like that worked before. The fly in the ointment is that all shivers and now double-headed drifters are double-wide. I don't know yet if 2-H get filtered out by a 2x2 passageway or not. They look pretty tall, but I spend very little time in-range.

40 minutes ago, Zippy Wonderdust said:

Will shivers jump down a 3-block high "fall" or does their pathing AI avoid falls of that height?

I don't believe they will. Have not yet seen it, but that's purely observation in a game, and I didn't stick around too long to check. So far as I can tell, they won't, unless there is a valid path to the player. I do not know if you could "invite" them in via double doors that you then slam in their faces or not. I also have not spent any time with the trap doors that they would path over before, even if they were opened. Do they still? Dunno.

[idiomcritter]

the mobs have 2 ai pathings that are trappable.  pursue, and wander off.  in testing what i'm seeing in a fenced in area (20x20), the shivers will wander into the corners against the fencing.  digging pits 3x3x3 will trap them.  bowtorns will evade to the fence perimeter and 1x1x3 can trap them.  Drifters that wander off, will also fall into the perimeter pits and would need further filtering

the 20x20 fence perimeter was just an arbitrary size for quick testing.  not sure what the best area fenced in will work.  and still haven't addressed harvesting the trapped... (not noticing the mobs climbing over the fence)

[Zippy Wonderdust]

11 minutes ago, idiomcritter said:

digging pits 3x3x3 will trap them.  bowtorns will evade to the fence perimeter and 1x1x3 can trap them. 

But how do you get them into those traps? Does their pathing AI make them choose to jump in as a way to get to you? Or are you tricking them in somehow with something like open trap doors?

[idiomcritter]

 

1 hour ago, Zippy Wonderdust said:

But how do you get them into those traps?

 

the bowtorns will walk into the 3 block deep trench as you walk towards them.  the shivers when they are in wander off mode, will also walk into the trench.

(25 blocks from center in each direction test space 50x50)

[Deidora]

I've been experimenting with a 2 chambers pit (inspired by a recent QPTech video, link in the spoiler below)

Spoiler

 

One chamber is for the mobs, a 3 deep, 2 wide trench dug from the surface (with flowing water to push mob/corpse/items toward the player area).

The water flow system is optional.
it is a simple 1 wide, 3 deep trench that extend 1 more tile on each side than the lenght of the pit (so that the water can flow everywhere).
Put the water on 1st block dug from the surface and cover with a slab to prevent mob from falling in.
The blocks at the pit floor level are removed to allow the water to flow and fences are put at the botom layer to prevent mob from trying to flee in the water way).

 

the player chamber is 2 high, 2 wide with floor tiles occupied by your favorite antispawn item (camp fire, branch layer, ... whatever works for you).

• the interface between player and mob chamber has a bottom row of fence gate (choose your style).
  the second row is alternating a single fence (attached to the ceiling) and vertical slabs (which the fence post does not attach to).
  
  NB: the spawn prevention look like firepits because of the instant firepit mod, dry grass should be enough (easy enough to include a safe room in the design just in case).

in there you're protected from projectiles (stone or bowtorn javelins) though if you stay too close to the fence gate, you're vulnerable to melee (hence the 2 wide player area) and can reach around the fence post to attack or loot corpses.

if you hug the fence gate, shivers and drifters will be attracted to you and jump in the pit.
I did not see bowtorn fall in during the only temporal storm I had to work with. (wandering or getting in position to shoot you should make them fall in eventually).

I would recommand to close the entrance with a block rather than a door or fence gate to prevent mob from camping the entry/exit.

The design is modular, you can extend it with as many segment of slab/fence/slab as needed (bigger = better mob spread, less chance they'll kill each other).

it's pretty fast to dig one if you have the materials at hand (6 stones, 2 clay, 14 sticks).

Edited February 4, 2025 by Deidora

[idiomcritter]

16 minutes ago, Deidora said:

One chamber is for the mobs, a 3 deep, 2 wide trench dug from the surface (with flowing water to push mob/corpse/items toward the player area).

nice, I like the design.  the part that needs water, could be difficult early game without a bucket, hmm...

[Deidora]

16 hours ago, idiomcritter said:

the part that needs water, could be difficult early game without a bucket, hmm...

optional as I said,
with a width of 2, you can reach the second block with a spear (or falx if it's a big mob).

Without water to push item/corpse toward you, you might need to replace a fence by a fence gate on the separation in order to access the mob chamber.

The major pain will be bowtorns if you have a large mob chamber since they'll constantly try to get away from you pretty fast without the water to hinder their move speed.

Edited February 4, 2025 by Deidora

[Thorfinn]

Crawlers can still spawn mid-air in the player chamber, because there are lots of empty adjacent blocks at head height. It's not likely. Of the couple thousand blocks they could choose outside the player chamber, there are only 20 inside. But I've seen it happen with longer odds.

If you place ladders on the back wall, you can cut the chances in half. If I'm seeing that right, those slabs have their empty half facing foes, right? Ladders on that face should spawn-proof the player chamber.

14 hours ago, idiomcritter said:

the part that needs water, could be difficult early game without a bucket, hmm...

You just need a stretch of shoreline as long as the pit you want.

[EDIT[

If we are assuming moveable source blocks, you could probably make the player chamber at least a 3x3, and turn the mob pit into a moat around the player chamber so it traps baddies from whatever direction they are coming. 

Edited February 4, 2025 by Thorfinn