Summary

Adds laser-resistant aliens, who counter laser turrets. Also adds fire-resistant aliens, who counter flame turrets. They will put some pressure on your base defense.

Motivation

Currently (at the time of 0.16.51), laser turrets (plus flamethrower turrets for swarms) are too overpowered in mid to late game. After building enough laser turrets, the base is safe from aliens almost forever! Just placing laser turrets and connecting poles is easy enough, making the military aspect of the game quite boring...
This mod will not do much like an overhaul enemy mod, but will put some pressure on your base defense, forcing players to have well-thought base defense having turrets of more types.

Biological Background

Players know to pick the more powerful turrets and weapons, it would be natural for aliens to do something similar.
Biology studies indicates that Earth creatures had lots of mutation to adapt to changing climate and environmental conditions in the past, in order to survive better.
So why can't the aliens adapt too? The cockroach-like biters and spitters are likely to mutate and/or evolve to their benefits, at least much better than any kind of mammals.
Laser (and fire) became the main threat to them. Now some of the aliens are mutated to adapt to these threats! (Such mutations can happen, although it would have to be accelerated a lot for the in-game aliens to acquire such immunity like in this mod.)

Disclaimer: The author is not a professional biologist. The above statements may or may not be true from the viewpoint of real biologists. Treat this as a sci-fi story to make the settings of this mod understandable. Please don't sue me if you use my statements in exam and get zero score. :-P

Introduction

In response to human laser turrets overwhelming aliens, the aliens now have a mutated variant of biters, code name "Mirror". Mirror aliens are completely immune to laser and electric (configurable in options). They would pose a high threat to your base, if your base defense has nothing more than laser turrets! You will need something extra to deal with them, like gun turrets.

If your defense already consists of diverse types of turrets, this mod probably pose little threat to you.

Mutation

There are two mutation types: "Mirror" and "Ceramics". Both mutations only happen to big and behemoth aliens, so only affect mid to late game. Small and medium aliens do not have such mutations.

Codename: Mirror

Mirror is the codename for those aliens who have grown with laser and electric resistances. They will draw away fire from your laser turrets, covering the trailing aliens to close in.

By default, the resistance values are both 10 / 100%, meaning they are completely immune to laser shots from laser turrets. The chances of mirror mutation are 20% (0.2) for big aliens, 30% (0.3) for behemoth aliens. All these values are fully configurable in options, under "Options" → "Mod settings" → "Startup" tab.

These aliens are weaker (lower health, about 90%), however, than their ordinary variants. So they will die quicker if dealt with alternate turrets.

Codename: Ceramics

Ceramics is the codename for those aliens who have grown with fire resistance. They will draw away fire from your flamethrower turrets, covering the trailing aliens to close in.

By default, the resistance value is 10 / 100%, meaning they are completely immune to fire shots from flamethrower turrets. The chances of ceramics mutation is 5% (0.05) for big aliens, 10% (0.1) for behemoth aliens. All these values are fully configurable in options, under "Options" → "Mod settings" → "Startup" tab.

These aliens are weaker (lower health, about 90%), however, than their ordinary variants. So they will die quicker if dealt with alternate turrets.

Defense Strategy

Dealing with mirror aliens needs a bit of consideration, than just simply a wall of laser turrets.
Gun turrets have their dedicated damage upgrade, dealing insane damage even with just piercing rounds magazine (red ammo). They also outrange behemoth mirror spitters a bit (18 vs 16), so they are they probably the most effective in stopping mirror aliens.
If you play in death world (or with some mods) that have a very large group invading, flamethrower turrets will be very effective in weakening them.

Dealing with ceramics aliens is lesser problem though. Flamethrower turrets may get distracted by them, but a few laser turrets and/or gun turrets should deal with them quickly.

Offense Strategy

Dealing with mirror aliens would be a big problem, since many players are currently relying on the vastly overpowered personal laser defense in their equipment grid. Now you will need to use your main gun actively to kill them.
If you want kind-of automatic fire to stop mirror aliens from getting close to you, a recommendation is to have ammo-consuming defense equipment installed on your equipment grid, which is provided by my mods Schall Tank Platoon and Schall Gun Pod. Such type of equipment is called "gun pods", which are excellent in close defense (and offense).

Dealing with ceramics aliens should not be a problem, since most weapons are not of fire type, and actually kills them slightly faster than their ordinary type.

Uninstallation

This mod do not modify the existing content in the save game. This mod should be safe to be disabled/uninstalled at any time.

Mods Compatibility

If there is another mod removing the vanilla biter spawner and spitter spawner, this mod will simply do nothing (and should not crash). If there is another mod removing the vanilla big/behemoth biter/spitter, this mod will still add the mirror/ceramics biter/spitter. If there is any unintended behaviour, please report in Discussion section.

Locale Supported

• English (en)
• German / Deutsch (de)
• Traditional Chinese / 正體中文 (zh-TW)
• Simplified Chinese / 简体中文 (zh-CN)
• Russian / Русский (ru) by John_TheCF, Dragonling
• Brazilian Portuguese / Português Brasileiro (pt-BR) by NickFury23
• Spanish / Español (es-ES) by NickFury23

Non-English locale are provided by Schall Language Pack.
If you like this mod, and would like to provide other translations, please do not hesitate to send me a message. (Corrections on spelling and grammatical mistakes are welcomed as well.)

My Other Mods

• Schall Language Pack Non-Game-Changing
• Schall Transport Group Helper Mods
• Schall Circuit Group Helper Mods
• Schall Minor Tweaks General / Balancing
• Schall Starting Inventory Cheats (Start)
• Schall Starting Tech Cheats (Start)
• Schall Radar Alignment Helper Mods
• Schall Map Tag Helper Mods
• Schall Ore Conversion Mining
• Schall Factorio Gear Manufacture / Non-Game-Changing
• Schall Belt Configuration Logistics
• Schall Belt Configuration × Krastorio Logistics
• Schall Belt Configuration × Bob's Logistics Logistics
• Schall Inserters Logistics
• Schall Autolinked Chest Logistics
• Schall Railway Controller Trains / Info
• Schall Overseas Railway Trains
• Schall Entity Inspector Info / Manufacture
• Schall Machine Scaling Manufacture / Power Production
• Schall Pipe Scaling Logistics / Power Production
• Schall Recipe Scaling Manufacture
• Schall Modules Manufacture / Balancing
• Schall Module Placement Helper Mods / Manufacture
• Schall Satellite Controller Info / Manufacture
• Schall Oil Fuel Oil / Power Production
• Schall Perpetual Machine Power Production
• Schall Uncraft Manufacture
• Schall Uranium Processing Manufacture / Power Production
• Schall Radioactive Waste Storage / Environment / Weapons
• Schall Virtual Signal Circuit Network / Blueprints
• Schall Lamp Contrast Circuit Network
• Schall Circuit Scaling Circuit Network
• Schall Primary Battery Armour
• Schall Suit Armour
• Schall Tank Platoon Weapons (Vehicles)
• Schall Arachnid Platoon Weapons (Vehicles)
• Schall Ammo Turrets Defense
• Schall Gun Pod Weapons (Equipment)
• Schall Recharging Weapon Weapons (Guns)
• Schall Land Mine Weapons (Mines)
• Schall Combat Robotics Weapons (Robots)
• Schall Armoured Train Trains / Weapons
• Schall Armoured Train: Nostalgia Trains / Non-Game-Changing
• Schall Alien Tech Weapons / Big Mods
• Schall Artillery Weapons (Artillery)
• Schall Missile Command Weapons (Missiles)
• Schall Geowarfare Weapons (Missiles)
• Schall Geowarfare: Nokia Phone Weapons (Grenades)
• Schall Tank Woodcutting Mining (Vehicles)
• Schall Alien Mutation Enemies / Balancing
• Schall Endgame Evolution Enemies / Info
• Schall Alien Loot Enemies / Mining / Manufacture
• Schall Remains & Pickup Enemies / Helper Mods
• Schall Pickup Tower Logistics / Helper Mods