Rival Video Rough Draft

Below is the rough draft script for the first two Rival videos I plan on doing. Im going to spend October getting through this right before season 3 begins.

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Ahhh our Rivals… Nothing like a little industry competition right? Well, Management does not agree since we’ve been given the go ahead to dismantle any piece of equipment we see or steal any data we can from our industrious new friends on Hoxxes IV this last year. And you guys have been busy! The amount of data cells and data racks you’ve been sending in has a been, honestly kind of overwhelming to be honest! At this point we’ve deciphered enough of the info inside to develop some solid strategies against and gain a bit more insight on the Rivals technology. Ill be briefing you with what we know here today. Get yourself a cold brew because things are heating up. Lets go.

Ok, lets get a brief overview of the different parts of the Rivals forces. According to snippets from pilfered data racks, the Rivals are as far as we know, a fully autonomous collective force sent from an unknown origin somewhere outside of Hoxxes stars orbit. They blinked in sometime early spring [FAKE DATE HERE] and refused all hails for communication from Rig 17. Long range scanners detected what looked like space debris floating towards the planet, which actually turned out to be a massive swarm of construction drones and raw materials. Mining operations went on without a hitch until we ran into some unwelcome guests squatting in our caves. I’m sure you know the story from there right? 

How did they show up and proliferate so suddenly without large scale planetary boring? The answer seems to be that they have constructed themselves out of found materials, extracting them from the sediment itself in small amounts with diligent and hive like behavior. The parts we detected entering the planet seem to have been the materials for building a single Caretaker unit, the source of the incursion and a thorn in DRGs side. But, before we get into that, lets cover the smaller units or the Rivals. Well be going over basic information and combat strategies for each unit. Lets get you sabotage ready.

Well start with the smallest of the rivals combat ready units, the Shredder. Individually weak, these units are often found in groups exceeding five or so, making up for their fragility in some truly nasty melee damage. Their purpose outside of reducing you to ribbons is clearing debris and tunneling for cables, as well as discouraging wildlife from meddling with equipment. In combat they will attempt to get close, buzzing around your head and dealing surprising damage if enough of them manage to get into range. They’re small and therefore hard to hit with most firearms. Its still preferable to kill them at range if you’re a good enough shot but a reliable alternative to this and a great way to save ammo is to use your pickaxe. They go down in a single hit so if you hit them before they have a change to hit you, its and easy way to deal with them. One observation Ive made is that as attacking you, they will move erratically, but, will tend to return to the spot they were just before. If one manages to get a hit in on you, remain calm and focus on where it was to deliver the death blow. It should go without saying but AoE damage, especially damage fields and explosions are fantastic at dealing with these things. Engineers should be sure to have their sentries up when they show up too. Drillers arm drills are also fantastic at killing shredders when they get close and swarm you. A word of warning, don’t underestimate shredders in all the chaos of a fight. They want to go unnoticed until its too late to deal with them so be sure to not give them the chance.

Next we have the trio of turret installments the rivals use to defend their so-called territory in our caves. I’m lumping these together since they are almost always found together when encountered. We got burst turrets for sustained suppressive fire, repulsion turrets for blocking weapons fire and keeping you back and Sniper turrets for dealing kill shots on anyone out of cover. All three of these installments are fairly sturdy, being able to withstand some punishment before going down. They do have weakpoints where most of their sensors are located, Ill show those on screen here… One thing that they share along with almost all of the rival tech units is a weakness to high temperatures. 

For one reason or another, it seems to be a major design flaw and exploitable weakness in the Rivals internal structure. Conjecture on my and the science teams part leans towards this being a sign that most of these units are meant for operations in the vacuum of space, where high temperatures are not as much of an issue. They also seem to be designed to deter unarmed meddlers, not heavily armed dwarves with questionably legal firearm modifications. They’re also not protected very well due to them being mass produced units, forgoing the insulation in favor of being light weight, modular and easy to produce. The metal alloy theyre made of is actually very interesting, being custom forged by unknown processes. It consists of a nano-weave structure that resembles bronze but is structured on a molecular level to withstand much more kinetic force than a sheet of metal like that normally would. This doesn’t protect them from heat though, meaning that you can fry the internal components and disable the magnetic fields that keep their parts held together quite easily. 

Oh, the turrets come with another weakness too. Since theyre rooted to the ground, destroying the terrain beneath them with destroy them along with it, be it with tunnels or explosives. Now, youll find these things all over the place around a Caretaker control nexus, those turrets being directly connected with the Caretaker as defense and surveillance measures. On missions with confirmed rivals presence, they will be located around a localized Turret Controller. These are hackable, and doing so will instantly destroy all turrets in the area. They are heavily guarded but very worth it if you can slip past the defenses and use your PDA. I’d say you should be sure to remove repulsers first since they can stop your hack with their force fields when theyre close to the controller. As for the controller, well get back to those soon, for now we’re moving on.

Our next subject is the ever present Patrol Bot, the primary fighting force for the Rivals. These things are no joke, boasting high durability, speed and firepower enough to take on one of you dwarves toe to toe. I consider them to be a duelist of sorts, an enemy to be considered a real threat in any situation and of the highest priority. They can snipe at long range with deadly accuracy, fire suppressive bursts, tackle you directly and even fire homing missiles. Their purpose as a unit is as obvious as it sounds, to patrol and eliminate threats, and thats just what they do. They can be found in roving groups of two to three, often accompanied by shredders, phased into caverns by the same phase technology Caretakers use for their phase bombs. This means they can show up pretty much anywhere when Rival equipment or territory is under attack, so stay vigilant and  listen for that tell tale  [bwoooowwwwm] sound they make when nearby. As for weaknesses, they have several. Their head is particularly vulnerable, containing all of the patrol bots critical components. Shooting that part should be an obvious choice. They also share the high heat weakness, being one of the primary reasons you will want to have some source of ignition on your when expecting to deal with them. They also have quite a problem with melee damage, meaning that well timed power attacks are a great way to chunk them. 

Fighting patrol bots is all about taking advantage of their movement. They are erratic and fast, but they do have to slow down to fire at you, which is also your chance to hit back harder. They will noticeably slow down when aiming sniper fire and when getting ready to fire missiles, meaning you will want to exploit these windows while also being ready to strafe or find cover if they get the shot off. They also get close to you when rolling on the ground, which is also a great time to try and land a power attack as you sidestep their path. No matter when, remember, these things can and will chase you anywhere in the cave. Anything you have in your disposal to destroy them right away should be used without hesitation. If they want to duel, show them that a dwarf never backs down, especially to a damn machine.

A good thing to mention while the Patrol Bots are fresh in our minds is the Rival Prospector. I’m sure you’ve seen a few of these things wandering about the caves. They’re actually not a combat unit but are still a high priority regardless, due to the valuable data cells they carry within. Prospectors seems to be units tasked with collecting dirt and mineral samples, likely getting survey data on Hoxxes IV geological compositions. The scary part is that this seems to be the Rivals current objective in Hoxxes orbit right now, survey data collection. This means that we are likely encountering a scouting and research focused force and they have already brought this much firepower with them. That’s why we need to try and stop them from getting that data off world, because I really dont want to see what their main operations will look like when they find out how much good stuff is on Hoxxes IV. Plus then Ill have to write even more reports on the stuff, and I’m overworked as it is. Uhh, where was I? Oh! Prospectors. So they collect data, load up their cells and deposit the hard data into the Data deposits found about the caves, which have equipment that apparently attaches directly with the Prospectors underside. These serve as upload stations that transmit data to the Caretaker nexus to be stored on the final copy in the Data Vault beneath the big pyramid. Your job here is easy, shoot the hell out of them and rip the data cell out. Its not that easy though, since Prospectors will send out distress calls to the Caretaker Nexus for support to be phased into the cave in the form of Patrol Bots and shredders. Make sure you choose a good time to pick a fight with these things or things will get much more difficult for you, especially since youre likely not to have a bot killer build equipped. Its a good idea destroy these things in the gaps between swarms or before major operation milestones like Ommoran Heartstone extraction or Refinery pump sequences but its your call really.

Finally, in the current roster of the Rivals units, we have the nastiest of the bunch, the Rival Nemesis. These units started popping up after the Rivals and DRG had been clashing in the caves for a few months, seemingly as a response to us “discouraging” them from building more caretakers. They are best described as hunter-killers with the express purpose of searching for our mining teams and eliminating them. They are heavily armored and are equipped with shield generators which differ from those of the turret emplacements barriers. The Rivals shield tech needs a lot of power to operate and it can be assumed that the power source for each unit has to be carefully managed in order to maintain these barriers. Caretakers need two external generators for a reason. Turrets drop their shields for another reason too, they cannot fire projectiles through them unlike our DRG shield projectors. The hard light they use is impervious and can cause damage to anything they come into contact with, which they use to good effect. Rather than being purely a defensive measure, the Nemesis uses these hard light barriers to disintegrate and pack terrain, giving it the ability to dig when needed. They can also protect a short lived hard light barrier in the direction of a source of damage, allowing it to approach steadily without taking too much damage. This is good for them, since they aren’t equipped with any ranged weaponry, curiously. A speculative reason for this is that their on board barrier generator needs all the power it can get to charge so they have forgone laser weaponry and left that job to the patrol bot units. What it lacks in range it more than makes up for in sheer deadly crushing power. If a caretaker catches you in its grasp youre as good as dead. Those telescopic arms are no joke and once they lock on, the only real way to escape is breaking line of sight with terrain or having Heightened Senses equipped. Keep your distance.

The Nemesis is equipped with ablative armor plating around its body, meaning that armor breaking ammunition will be useful. Once you’ve dealt enough damage to it to knock them off you can hit the important stuff and take them down with enough sustained firepower or, if you come prepared, actual fire to ignite and overload it just like its smaller cohorts. The question is, why are Nemesis units so large and cumbersome? Dont get me wrong, theyre scary and effective enough at killing DRG employees that they still deserve the upmost caution but still, its an interesting though. One theory of mine is that the Nemesis is not simply a hunter killer unit, but a mobile control unit capable of defending itself. Take a look at turret controllers in this context and it seems pretty obvious. Once a Nemesis find and determines an area is suitable and clear of threats, it seems that they plant themselves in the ground and begin converting their extra parts into a construction operation, like a scaled down version of a proper Caretaker Control Nexus. I would assume this is the Rivals way of trying to reclaim parts of the caves from our meddling without having to spend the time to create full command centers with the resource cost of a Caretaker. This has a few interesting implications. One, the rivals resources are not plentiful enough and our efforts have forced them to adapt and make compromises in their efforts. Two, they can adapt on the fly. A bit of good and bad really. 

The fact that the Nemesis seems to have been made-to-order as a special gift for us here on Hoxxes means that the Rivals are flexible and are trying new things now that were firmly a thorn in their side. The biggest evidence for this is definitely not lost on you guys, you’ve heard it yourselves I’m sure. That eerie call the Nemesis uses to lure in unsuspecting miners with what sounds like the calls for help from a fellow comrade. While it may have worked the first few times, I would assume that it doesnt fool a majority of those who hear it, often serving as a warning call for the approach of a Nemesis. I’m not sure I like the implication here, because what if the call is not intended as a lure so much as a form of physiological attack? The reason I believe this is due to what other phrases the Nemesis can utter when its in trouble or defeated. While shutting down, it uses the same Dwarven voice to speak phrases clearly not meant to lure or intimidate. Here’s a few field recordings: [insert lines here] “I HAVE SEEN BET-C GLEAM IN THE DARK” 

“Aw It likes me! I like it too!”

NOBODY ASKED YOU BET-C! *ahem* anyway.

Does that sound like a recording to you? I dont think so. That and the fact that it talks about murdering us when in close proximity for no other purpose than to intimidate so I think its safe to say that this is a vocal synthesizer being used by a form of Artificial Intelligence specifically crafted to profile and antagonize dwarves, even to the point of being programmed with an almost personal grudge against them… I really dont want to think about it more than I need to, and you shouldn’t either. Just make sure you focus fire, back peddle and keep track of the thing when you encounter one and you’ll probably be ok. Even if you aren’t, try to get some good shots of the thing with your suit cameras, were still researching the things. Oh, and watch out for the phase bombardment that it calls in as it shuts down. The explosives are loosely targeted and easy to avoid but try not to be in an enclosed space when you drop a Nemesis.

Alright, that about covers all of the Rival units we’ve encountered on Hoxxes so far. I hope some of this info is useful for you, or at very least interesting. If any of you tinkering types wants to mess with your gear a bit to develop some new Overclocks or mods, feel free, and be sure to report it to R&D if you do. Dont worry, Ill get you a free pass for equipment tampering violations on this, I doubt management would care anyway given the monetary damage the Rivals have been causing these last few quarters. We only have one unit left, the Caretaker itself which demands a full briefing on its own. See you there! Rock and Stone team!

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Caretakers, the nexus of all activity for the Rivals in the caves of Hoxxes IV. Serving as both construction and operations coordinator, they oversee the individual actions of a large majority of Rival units in a particular region. Each Caretaker is constructed on top of a massive data vault containing the aggregate data from all units under it, presumably waiting for an opportunity to hand off this data at a later date in some as of yet unknown way. Curiously, they dont use wireless means to transmit this data off planet, preferring to contain it in a data rack, a singular physical copy that they defend viciously. Well thanks to you guys, we’ve collected enough of these to figure out some details on the rivals operations as well as some combat tips for dealing with these geometric assholes. 

A standard Industrial Sabotage will involve hacking and taking down the shields Caretakers use to deter would be thieves, you all know that much I assume. The first half of these missions involves defending a hacking pod twice at each shield generator, blah blah you know this stuff. Be sure to clear the area around your hacking pods before you start them though, a bad spot can lead to disaster if your team is overrun. An important thing to remember throughout this part of the mission is to never lose sight of the final goal, the Caretaker. Preserve nitra as much as possible and move quickly, collecting every bit you can along the way to ensure youll have enough. A rule of thumb is to try and use at minimum, one supply per hacking pod and possibly one extra for the relocating and turret removal in between. The rest of your nitra should be reserved for fighting the Caretaker. If anything ruins your chances at finishing a sabotage mission, its running out of ammo with a multi-armed inverted pyramid with lasers baring down on you. Also, remember that you do not need to be close to Hack-C in order to complete a hacking phase. You have complete freedom of movement, you simply have to keep him running. This means that if things get especially bad, you can always back off away from the swarm to get your bearings before heading back into the fray. Just prioritize restarting the drone at all costs, the swarm and bots will never stop until you do and every second you spend shooting drains you of more ammunition. Once Hack-C finishes rerouting the power back into the generators to cook them from the inside out, the real hard part comes when you have to take on the behemoth hiding behind the shield.

Now, lets assume you’ve made it back to the Caretaker atrium with at least 3 or 4 resupply pods stocked up. You should now look at the room you plan to fight in and asses what needs to be changed to make the fight easier for you. Caretakers are deadly when allowed to harass you and your team out in the open. Between the barrage of lasers, stabbing arms, swarms of flying drone, phase bombs, and sniper turrets, youll be hard pressed to find any time to breathe unless you take the steps to give yourself a place to do so, or at least give yourself a way to flee from danger. The set up for a sabotage should involve making sure you have the ability to keep moving above all else. You should clear a path clockwise and counterclockwise around the Caretaker, ensuring youll be able to sprint unimpeded. This means setting up convenient zip lines and platforms, drilling tunnels to make ramps and clearing environmental obstacles that make movement difficult. Each biome will have its own challenges so adjust accordingly. Next, you’ll want to consider supply placement. Putting supplies out in the open right next to the Caretaker can make them extremely difficult to use without a shield or sheer luck, so youll want to place them in places it will be difficult for it to reach you without effort. This means behind natural cover, around corners in tunnels, inside small safe rooms made by a driller or even behind stacks of platforms high and wide enough to protect you while you grab supplies. Call you supplies in these safe areas and remember where they are, maybe even mark them with the permanent waypoint you can place with your laser pointer. Just remember that the arms can burrow to your location no matter where you are so dont get too comfortable. Its a good idea to combine these two features as one, making sure your running track around the Caretaker will connect with supply safe zones to make things easier for everyone. Every atrium rooms ideal set up will look different depending on the cave, the biome and the team so be flexible and move quickly to get things as ideal as possible before you pull out the power cells.

Each Caretaker comes with plethora of defense systems, the primary of those being 4 independently moving appendages that will be present throughout the fight. Each of these is capable of firing burst lasers and becoming ridged in order to stab at nearby miners. What you may not have known is that with a few tweaks, your pickaxes can make short work of these things. The Serrated Edge mod in tier 3 of the picks upgrades will give it just enough of a punch to take an appendage down in a single hit, even on hazard 5. This means that dodging the stabbing attack to the side and power attacking is a simple and effective way of getting them out of the way. Or going on the offensive when your power attack is off cooldown, its what Karl would want.

The first, second and third phases of the fight will all be preceded by a period where your team will need to damage Intake vents on the corners of the pyramid. This phase can prove difficult between the normal threats as well as the occasional repulser shields the Caretaker uses, but there are some ways to speed up the process. Driller have a huge upper hand in the form of a highly volatile 3 1 2 2 Satchel Charge, capable of halfing the hp of the Intakes in a single well placed explosion. The satchel should be placed directly on top of the Caretaker so as to hit every intake vent at the same time. This can be accomplished by a long tunnel leading to the ceiling right above it, a series of platforms doing the same or even a well placed zip line. Get your team to help you out with this in the set up phase if youre the Driller in question. Just be careful, you only have two Satchels with this set up and they can explode from damage so dont stick around if the Caretaker notices you. Other types of high damage projectiles will do wonders here, Hyper Propellant and Fat Boy nukes being some honorable mentions. 

With each new wave of threats the Caretaker sends at you, the core principals of the fight still apply. Keep moving, keep shooting and at all costs do NOT go down out in the open. Getting downed in a bad spot can make it extremely difficult for your team to recover and getting into a revive chain during this fight can prove disastrous. Stay close to cover and keep yourself topped off with ammo and health as often as need. Being at less than half heath is risky so the extra supplies you have will be extremely useful to prevent you from being a single hit away from death. 

The last thing I will say about this type of operation and possibly the most important thing of all is to always keep your eye on the prize. Dont let the Caretaker draw your attention away from it and towards the variety of other targets in the room. You need to get as many hits in on the intake vents and eye as you can, only diverting your attention other threats when they become too dangerous to avoid. Priority targets besides the Caretaker itself include sniper turrets, shredders, patrol bots and the appendages, in that order. Only fire directly at the arms when you absolutely must, save your power attacks for that remember? Every other shot you can spare should be spent on the pyramids weakpoints. Only with direct damage on its critical systems will you inch your team ever closer to ending the fight once and for all, so dont lose sight of that.

Once a Caretaker sustains enough damage, they’ll drop just like anything else. Oh, do mind the explosion after by the way. You should have yourself a fresh data rack when the Data Vault opens up due to the oddly convenient behavior of opening up for collection when a Caretaker ceases to function. I dunno, I dont question it. Just goes to show that they really didnt expect any resistance at all when they came here, they dont even bother to destroy the data when its all by compromised. Its almost adorable how naive they seem. As another upside to there being no more control nexus in the area, the bots in the surrounding area will cease coordinated efforts, losing  connection with the local network as well as each other. They do seem to have some rudimentary combat directives built in so if there are any left they will still come after you all the same but you shouldn’t have coordinated groups getting phased in at you anymore. Data Rack in hand, its the same song and dance as always. Get to the escape pod, get the Abyss bar and get drinking to a job well done!