My idea for Ultrasonic fences

[Timothy001]

Seeing as they nerfed Ultrasonic fences, here is an idea.
Keep them as they are now, except fix the bugs (ie Water aliens and friendly aliens), Change the quest.

A) Aliens will not attack trade routes while Friendly or Neutral. 50% chance to attack when upset c5unhappy:Orange Aliens). 75% chance to attack when angry mad:Red Aliens)

B) Increase protection range to 3, Aliens may not enter this protection area.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

that would work.

 

[Galgus]

The whole concept of the Ultrasonic Fence is flawed, incompatible with making Aliens a threat.

 

[Browd]

Moderator Action: Moved to Ideas & Suggestions.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

What I would do
Fence has 2 effects
1. Non-red aliens won't attack the city
2. -30% str to aliens attacking the city

Quests either
Extend this to 2 tiles from city( Non-Red won't enter, -30% str if they are)
OR
Extend it to your trade units from city (non-red won't attack trade routes, aliens take 30 hp damage if they attack trade units)

 

[LORD ORION]

Was thinking you change it up during the quest
+1 repel range: +0.25 culture per worked tile in the fence (ultrasonic fence repels alien lifeforms allowing earth creature safety. eg: you can have a pet dog)

Trade unit immunity: Can also build Alien Management vehicle (whatever that vehicle is called from starships, too lazy to look it up right now, will edit tomorrow )

 

[Lord Tirian]

Since Firaxis seems to be hellbent on keeping the trade route quest in, I'd combine it with a change to aliens attacking trade routes: while neutral or friendly, aliens will not attack your trade routes.

Then, change the ultrasonic fence base effect to: alien movement within area reduced to 1 tile/turn, the current "discouragement" for neutral and friendly aliens, -10 hp/turn for angry aliens.

Then the quest would become interesting, because then, the trade route protection would only do something if you genuinely anger the aliens... in which case, the 3-tile radius also becomes handy (as the base effect gets weaker without the "discouraging").

Suddenly, the fence turns from "must have" to "how do you want to manage angry aliens?"

 

[Azem.Ocram]

Ultrasonic fences used to be essential and players with mostly coastal cities would benefit most from the extended range.

What I would do
Fence has 2 effects
1. Non-red aliens won't attack the city
2. -30% str to aliens attacking the city

Quests either
Extend this to 2 tiles from city (Non-Red won't enter, -30% str if they are)
OR
Extend it to your trade units from city (non-red won't attack trade routes, aliens take 30 hp damage if they attack trade units)

I would do this similar but have the quest extend to 3 tiles (to prevent blockades and pillaging) as option A and have orange and yellow aliens frequently pillaging trade routes without Ultrasonic protection and green ones "accidentally" pillaging them every once in a while.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

I agree they should be more aggressive, they should also be stronger throughout the game.

I'd have a special Harmony virtue where all aliens got a bonus to strength based on your harmony level. (If multiple players had it aliens would just use the highest level.)
Then have an ability later for Harmony to upgrade the aliens to 'Evolved' forms giving them perks and a base str boost,

 

[Barathor]

I like the idea of them not attacking trade units when neutral or friendly, instead of trade units being immune.

Though, I would then just implement into the base game rules instead of with the Ultrasonic Fence.

Then, for the fence, maybe we can have more balanced, flavorful options:

A) Extend the range of the fence

B) Aliens get a combat penalty within the range

This way, if you're more friendly with the aliens, you would probably just want to pick "A" to keep them further out of the way and to improve the full range of your workable tiles in peace. A combat penalty to aliens wouldn't be very useful because they wouldn't be inside very often.

If you're aggressive with the aliens most of the time, then you would go with "B" since they're going to penetrate the fence range anyway and attack you within it. So, a combat penalty inside the fence would be most useful.

 

[Azem.Ocram]

Here is my refined idea (innovated off that of KrikkitTwo)

Fence has 2 effects
1. Non-Red aliens won't attack the city
2. -30% str to aliens attacking the city

Quests either
Extend this to 3 tiles from city (non-Red won't enter, -30% str if they are)
OR
Extend it to your trade units from city (non-Red won't attack trade routes, aliens take 42 hp damage if they attack trade units)

I would have Orange and Yellow aliens frequently pillaging trade routes without Ultrasonic protection and Green ones "accidentally" pillaging them every once in a while.
Currently, wild aliens have only Blue, Green, Amber, and Red settings but I think Amber should be replaced with Yellow and Orange. Blue aliens will never attack any of your units but these aliens, including Shai-Hulud might accidentally get up to 2 tiles away from your unprotected city (pillaging your outer ring of improvements if tunneling megafauna, like a siege-worm). Green aliens are curious and uncertain how to react to your presence (never seeing us before in the early game or getting mixed signals from us later on). Yellow aliens are defensive and territorial but they tend to leave you alone if you leave them alone. Orange aliens are extremely defensive and territorial to the point of being hostile to you since you have proven yourself not to be trusted. Red aliens are the same as they are now, trying their hardest to remove the "human menace" from their home.

I also think that Harmony should strengthen aliens, with the highest Harmony level of any sponsor on the planet determining the added strength to the aliens (with 0 Harmony corresponding to vanilla default strengths). This can be justified by saying that as Harmony trains aliens (for Xeno Cavalry) and genetically engineers them (for Xeno Titan and Rocktopus) for their own armies, the benefit spreads through the wild aliens (hive mind for training, natural selection for genetic engineering) with the lore explaining it as either intentional or unintentional depending on the mood of the authors.

However, I think that with increased strength from Harmony, aliens should only turn from blue to orange from Transcendence towards Harmonious players. That means that at Harmony level 12 and above, blue aliens will switch to orange when the Mind Flower is constructed but still turn red against everyone else. What that means is that Harmony players need not construct massive armies to defend themselves from the very creatures they wish to join.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Well I think Blue aliens should be able to ignore the fence, but should never pillage or block you (you should be able to bump them).

Of course I also think the 'alien boost' from Harmony should be something the Harmony player chooses (tied into getting benefits from stronger aliens)

However, It would be better as 'all Harmony' players than nothing.