This is the Albino Radscorpion, I've taken the liberty to read a wiki quickly, its the second most powerful creature that you can encounter, has highly increased mobility compared to the other 'normal' variant and has an extremely powerful attack too. Like the normal giant radscorp they indeed appeared south and/or southeast I think.I don't recall radscorpions that stood out from the rest but I remembered one encounter from Fallout 3 that could be used to illustrate something.
I think this happened somewhere on southern side of map. There were some ruins I was heading for some reason and stopped to rest some spot in middle of large rocks. So after rest it was night and from the spot I rested earlier I was eyeing ruins from distance, if there's hostiles in there. There was a sound, wondered what it was but kept inspecting those ruins from distance and then I heard it again. I turned around and was staring radscorpio into its eyes, it was like one meter from me. I managed to survive and even kill it by going around some of the largest rocks there radscorpion couldn't pass over, it had to circle that too and I was able to land shots while circling.
That to quickly summarize the FO3 wickedness in enemy type
Yeah I read that post you made about the rifles. It was a good read. As an example, I basically play with the Grad as my weapon go-to weapon, and I carry the Fenrir (iconic saratoga I believe) for those closer-than-comfort type of encounters and the sniper isn't ideal. And then I swap between a Sidewinder or SOR when for my third weapon as either a powerful punch or just an unloading of smart projectiles.What you wrote, intuitive and natural made me think it's like fluid, which practically means versatility. I don't know what terms they use in the industry. But say Reflex/assault build can use pretty realistic tactics and there was discussion in other topic I wrote about how different kind of assault rifles can be used with different kind of tactics. Builds that aren't that focused on assault may still find M221 Saratoga submachine gun quite useful as back up, it's IMO totally underappreciated weapon. Then at the same time we can have this build firing light machine gun from the hip and actually hitting something. It's wrong in so many ways, standing there being a huge target firing cumbersome weapon that role is most often support, in worst possible way if you mean to hit anything, something so utterly absurd that it's hilarious but it's also great fun!
The LMG and HMGs are indeed great fun. I always compare them to how you would behave as if a shocktrooper with a minigun. Preferrably armed, but the bulletspread is mainly for intimidation, which in the game shows itself in that you can actually hit them quite reliably, and in case of the HMG the splash .. ooh boy its like shooting mines
With regards to that netrunner thing, I do feel the highlight of the enemy netrunner becomes available too quickly, and I never opt for it because it feels a bit like cheating. I would also like it if they used short circuit sometimes too, or contagion, or something posion related so that you also had to take into account that enemy netrunners can atttack with QHs that have different effects, I've only ever seen them use overheat but nothing else. I will say though that the enemy ping action (revealing position) is a good way to balance/counter our usage of the QH arsenal.What that means for difficulty, I think it could be about better cybeware for enemy NPC's and also other counters. There was mention in 1.3 patch notes that CDPR had adjusted reaction times of some enemy NPC's but could they also adjust how often and accurately enemy NPC's can throw a grenade, shortening the period of time player can camp in one spot or if player needs to think tactically about going forward/retreat from cover to cover, type of grenade can be a factor too. More than that, how effectively and fast enemy NPC's could perform pincher moves. Say player character build would be some sort of SWAT build, shotgun, stun baton and SMG, depending from location and situations, Assault/SMG could come very handy in some scenarios like that, gotta take down few first before going to close quarters / effective range of shotgun and baton.
For snipers counter would be that enemy netrunners wouldn't be easy to locate and take out. Enemy NPC reveal location quickhack uploading speed and cooldown (player may have Self-Ice) and once found, more aggressive use of offensive quickhacks.
Also, something that I've had to think about once some time ago, I would also like it if certain higher level enemies, or netrunners specifically to have ICE defenses that require you to chain a code as long as 7/8 characters together. because to me I found it always funny how nobody had actually good ICE defences, it was usually just a lot of RAM requirement.
The part in bold made me think, what if you on occasion are prompted an ICE code that reflects your defence: crack the code would dissolve the enemy netrunner attack. (just thinking out loud here)
I agree, this game is elevated by the narrative and backdrop of the world, so when the experience feels like a 'fluid'-film, to use your words paraphrased. (which means the above mention I made regarding the bold part is somewhat counterproductive)Fluidity, so to say between story/exploration and combat should IMO always remain on high priority for this game as that's what IMO this game does best and bullet sponges are not guaranteed not to create additional problems anyway.
It is as I said before, I dont think the balance is off per se, and in addition I already believe the enemies are quite smart already (i've made posts in defense of this game versus the GTA enemies) All you may need is some tweaking and additional variation and uniqueness between certain enemy-types or even according to their gang association. The one thing I miss a little is that a, as exmple, a melee enemy doesn't also use the knife throw ability if he can't really get close. Or that a sniper actually uses the sneak pose to increase his aiming accuracy. I mean, seeing a sniper stand on a roof being the perfect taret for my sniper is a bit silly