Topic on Talk:Demonic Spiders
This page shows the changes between two versions of a post by Magic9mushroom in the topic "Regarding this trope's status as YMMV and editing entries" on Talk:Demonic Spiders.
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I think the entry got in there because Bio-Drones are basically a rehash of Cyberdiscs from the original (UFO: Enemy Unknown), which most certainly qualify for Demonic Spider status. There are a couple of problems with the analogy, though: 1) Cyberdiscs are mostly scary because they show up really early on (potentially as early as the first month), while Bio-Drones only show up from month 4 onward, 2) TFTD is harder than UFO - ''much'' harder - and I feel that raises the bar. |
I think the entry got in there because Bio-Drones are basically a rehash of Cyberdiscs from the original (UFO: Enemy Unknown), which most certainly qualify for Demonic Spider status. There are a couple of problems with the analogy, though: 1) Cyberdiscs are mostly scary because they show up really early on (potentially as early as the first month), while Bio-Drones only show up from month 4 onward, 2) TFTD is harder than UFO - ''much'' harder - and I feel that raises the bar. |
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Bio-Drones are not really a weak enemy - they've got a ton of health and they do have a gun - but they don't have armour/damage resistance combinations that render whole swathes of weapons useless (Lobster Men, Triscenes and Xarquid all do), they don't have psionics to take over your soldiers from anywhere on the map (Tasoths and Aquatoids do), and they don't have the instant-kill-and-spawn-a-copy attack of Tentaculats. They also only show up alongside either Lobster Men or Tasoths - which both also have a ton of health and guns of roughly equal power, in addition to the nasty attributes mentioned above. The only unique attribute of Bio-Drones is that they explode when killed, which would be really nasty if they showed up early - but armour totally negates the damage (armour is damage reduction in old X-Com), and you probably have armour by the time they show up. |
Bio-Drones are not really a weak enemy - they've got a ton of health and they do have a gun - but they don't have armour/damage resistance combinations that render whole swathes of weapons useless (Lobster Men, Triscenes and Xarquid all do), they don't have psionics to take over your soldiers from anywhere on the map (Tasoths and Aquatoids do), and they don't have the instant-kill-and-spawn-a-copy attack of Tentaculats. They also only show up alongside either Lobster Men or Tasoths - which both also have a ton of health and guns of roughly equal power, in addition to the nasty attributes mentioned above. The only unique attribute of Bio-Drones is that they explode when killed, which would be really nasty if they showed up early - but armour totally negates the damage (armour is damage reduction in old X-Com), and you probably have armour by the time they show up (they also don't explode if killed in melee, which is the big place you'd worry about them exploding anyway). |
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(Also, the entry on the X-COM/YMMV page consists solely of them allegedly having high reactions and perfect Accuracy. They do have perfect accuracy on the highest difficulty (although Triscenes do as well, and lots of other aliens come very close), but Bio-Drones' reactions are in fact the worst of any alien in all of TFTD.) |
(Also, the entry on the X-COM/YMMV page consists solely of them allegedly having high reactions and perfect Accuracy. They do have perfect accuracy on the highest difficulty (although Triscenes do as well, and lots of other aliens come very close), but Bio-Drones' reactions are in fact the worst of any alien in all of TFTD.) |
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