Starcallers should just be removed. Every other method of attack made by the enemy has a point, to help them get to your coffer. Starcallers, if you look at them from the specific point of trying to raid a base are actually detrimental to the force they’re working with, far more so then your own forces. AT BEST… they just cause random damage to the base, you have to repair before going on to the next purge. that’s literally the enemies BEST option… if it puts a hole in a wall, it doesn’t matter… cause now instead of that wall they could have destroyed, they’re an indestructible meteor in their way. And god forbid it hits sometimes as simple as a open path that doesn’t even have a door. There’s literally zero reason for them to exists except to self cancel a purge, cause frankly, I’d rather loose a purge due to explosive head golems blowing open a wall and them stealing my treasure, than same lazy sorcerer today goes ‘eh i don’t wanna be here, let me drop a rock on all three paths available, cool i get to go home earlier, screw the player.’
So removing is the easiest options, but we could look at some potential fixes here.
Don’t have the meteors be a permanent thing, have the star metal hit, and then explode, i don’t know anyone that’s over thrilled to mine and the end of a purge and it’s more just a tedious thing, than an extra challenge or anything.
let the attackers path over meteors: This one could be harder cause yeah you do generally need to jump over them, and i can’t remember the last time i’ve seen an NPC jump during pathing to bridge a gap or get over a simple obstacle,… but i have seen them phase through walls on a purage base that was too well defended/maze like.
force the meteors to avoid the path, just make it so the meteors won’t drop on the NPC’s pathing.
They always ALWAYS do not spawn when you initiate a purge, OR, theyre stuck underneath the ground, you need to cast a lightning spell to get a bolt to shock them into existence.
Also Isaachar SHOULD be removed from the cages permanently, and relegated to a contact you can enlist when you rescue a barkeeper. This guy wastes a cage when a thrall could have been put in his place. REMOVE the archers as well, they get fixated on the thralls manning the cauldron, they freeze and create collision problems and pathing meshes to become messed up for purge melee drones.
I’ve run about a thousand of these meteorite purges—sometimes five to ten a day—and here’s my take: If a player lacks the brains to build a base that actually suits the terrain (instead of just copying a reddit template), or fails to properly position thralls, cauldrons, and doors, or can’t organize a solid defense and think things through, that’s no reason to remove meteorites from the game. Especially since they only appear in tier 9 purges. Don’t like the meteor shower? Don’t trigger a tier 9 purge. If you aren’t smart enough to build your base under natural cover—like in ruins, a cave, or under a bridge—then don’t run them at all. I’ve also run meteorite purges in open areas; you just need to build a base with double-wide entryways (two foundation blocks wide) so the meteorites don’t block the attackers’ path, and then make a sortie to kill the summoner. It’s more fun and riskier, but that thought never even crossed your minds.
Starcallers make it almost mandatory to build specialized purge bases for level 9 and 10 purges. Even a single meteor could hit your highly decorated throne room, epic weapon stash or bed.
The Starcaller CAN be killed before he summons a single meteor. It requires luck and a fitting base setup, but it is possible. Even without luck, you should be able to stop him after the first two meteor strikes.
Starcaller purges are the most convenient starmetal source except when you settle near the Siptah tower. Don’t make them take that away from us.
Meteors can hit the coffer, immediately ending the purge. That’s a bug I suppose. It is pretty clear that they’re supposed to hit in a ring around the coffer, but they sometimes still fall onto the coffer itself.
A viable fix might be to not make them destroy everything in their path, but only until they’ve dealt a fixed amount of damage. Currently, they can pierce 10 foundations stacked on top of each other. That’s not how meteors work. If they’d e. g. go through only two pieces, one could build bases accordingly. Also, just make the coffer immune to meteor strikes.
Bases with “environmental” roofs like the Crevice cave or the temples in the jungle trivialize meteor purges. In fact, it’s good to let the Starcaller live when doing purges there - free starmetal, and I think he blocks some other waves.
AFAIK, you can still get all the top loot, but avoid all Starcallers by doing level 8 purges. Levels 5 and 8 are imho the sweet spots for purges, unless you have a very, very well-built purge base, when level 9 might be better. Level 10 purges are very, very long for a moderate increase in the rewards. If one is of that part of that mankind that likes to stretch their legs, get a drink or answer the phone every once in a while, the duration of level 10 purges is a matter to consider.
Random fact: It is possible to get two (or even more?) Starcallers in the same purge. Had that several times. Pretty funny.
The golems can be more annoying imho.
Conclusion: A slight adjustment by limiting the meteors’ damage would be nice imho, but overall, there’re more pressing issue imho.
Theres a chance for the sorceror to spawn on a purge 10, but the problem is they dont spawn as intended, most often, they spawn underneath or they dissappear cause of so many purge enemies spawning at the same time, they fail to render, until you blast the area with a lightning storm
