My intent is to keep this brief and easy to read, so please don't take any of these abrupt statements as criticisms
- Past a certain point, Your Outpost is nigh-invulnerable
- Threats are limited to waves of NPCs dashing themselves against your gates while turrets blow them to smithereens
- Balancing the reward of securing some small amount of safe space to rest up and prepare for the next expedition vs. "nothing in Kenshi is TOO safe..."
I see some unused attributes that might be worked into some interesting game mechanics.
- Attackers currently have a few goals: steal food and get out, kick players out and take over, or neither and just go away after a while.
Maybe expand the AI/Assault goals to a more varied list? In addition to the current "Hungry" (get in, grab any unsecured food, get out), "Retribution" (current system of down everyone but leave after a while) and "Occupy" (down everyone, throw out, i live here now):
- Ransackers: once the defenders are down, attack buildings and resource objects directly. Different levels of attacker would have different targets of causing X, Y, or Z in damage before withdrawing.
- Brutes: will attempt to batter down any door within their Strength level to closed/lockled buildings. They cannot pick locks. Once inside, steal X cats-worth of items from any available container. Withdraw when target is met.
- Thieves: will attempt to pick the locks of any door or container within their skill level. They cannot break down doors. Once inside, steal X cats-worth of items from any available container. Withdraw when target is met.
And when you've really honked someone off....
- Destroyers: this assault force's goal is to raze the outpost to the ground. They have no cap on damage caused. They will withdraw if they succeed in wrecking literally everything or, as a safety measure, X time passes.
- Conquerors: like Vanilla Occupiers, this group seeks to move in and take over the outpost... but rather than throwing all player squads out, they enslave them.
But how to stop the player from just ignoring the base when all attackers become red stains in the turret gauntlet?
- Sappers: this small assault force, or perhaps advance force, targets and attacks a section of wall directly. Not very quickly, but greater than, say, 4-5 engineers could keep up with in repairs (maybe cap how many engineers can repair something at once?). The idea is to force the player to sortie outside the gates to deal with them.
- Infiltrator: many players have made fortunes robbing the established factions. Well, now the player looks like an established faction and looks like a target to the ambitious and less fortunate.... this lone unit scales the wall at a random entry point, will attempt to make for locked valuables within its skill level, and will return to its entry point to escape once it nabs something in its target value range (with higher-level Infiltrators having high lockpicking, and seeking higher-value loot). Not sure if the game would support an NPC using stealth, but this lends to 1) having a well-lit base, 2) keeping valuable items in locked storages which currently are just decorative, inside 3) advanced buildings with higher-lock-level doors.
And as a bonus, if the Infiltrator gets to use a grappling hook or something - why not the player? Of course, any town guard spotting someone using a grappling hook is likely to take a dim view of the situation....
I'd hate to see the Outpost game diminished, because crafting / researching / building stuff is a huge part of the draw for me. But I think there's room to make it less a guaranteed, impenetrable turtle that requires some attention without adding tedious busy-work and keeping the player on their toes and engaged.