AI Wave Survival Mod Information

New Option:

Hold to Win Torp Bombers:
-No more cheese wins by hiding ACU's and SACU's under water till Hold Time runs out! Spawns powerful Torp Bombers that will eliminate anything hiding underwater. Bombers only spawn if game time is past the activation time and ACU/SACU are detected in water. Activation time can be set in options.

New Defense Options under HQ and 2nd Spawn Defenses:
-Added an alternative SMD to the Guardian SMD, called the Advanced SMD. Builds 1 anti-nuke every 3 minutes, spawns with 1 loaded, and holds up to 11. Possible to overwhelm with a Yolona, which Guardian SMD were not.

Renamed some Wave Styles to make their effects more clear. "Continuous Waves" renamed to "Even Attack Waves" and "Aggressive Air/Navy/Land" renamed to "Dynamic Attack Waves"

Nomanders Nerf (again):
-Lowered health to 18k
-DPS lowered, and weapon rate of fire adjusted so Damage Amplification not so strong
-Lowered size of default waves about 12%.
-ASF weight lowered more. Can build more ASF without triggering more NOMANDERS.

Added various messages to alert players of things. Air/Navy wave start warning. Nuke warnings 5 and 10 minutes before 1st strike. Warning if Yolona triggers a Guardian SMD to spawn.

A friend and I have been playing with this mod for the past few weeks. We love the onslaught. But there is a problem. We have yet to be able to finish a game because we keep getting game freezes after about 30 minutes of play. It's something we've never seen before this Survival Mod. By freeze I mean the game simulation just stops but the UI still functions.

I've been thinking it might be related to other mods and unit count. So I dropped unit count down, removed AI allies, and we have just one enemy AI. No help.

For mods we usually run:
NoShake
AI-Uveso
Jaggeds Infrastructure Pack v2
No Air Crash Damage
Nuclear Repulsor Shields
Reclaim Turret
SupCom T4 Edition - Resource Generators
Total Mayhem

I tried removing Jagged's, used M27 instead of Uveso, and removed the Resource Generators mod. Still freezes up eventually.

The survival mod is running mostly default settings aside from disabling Naval unit spawning (they were appearing in ponds heh). I also cranked the hit points of the enemy base up to 25 million. Though we have yet to really be able to reach it before a freeze.

@swaaye

Can you check your game log for any errors? Also, have you hit F11 to check if it is a network issue?

I haven't tested the mod with all of the mods you listed, so it may also be a mod conflict.

Mods I Haven't Tried or Tested With:
Jaggeds Infrastructure Pack v2
Nuclear Repulsor Shields
Reclaim Turret
SupCom T4 Edition - Resource Generators

I usually test with the following mods:
ACU Boost 1.5x
AI-Uveso
50% Air Crash Damage (and the alternatives 25%, 75%, 150%)
All Faction Quantum Gate
BlackOps FAF: ACUs
BlackOps FAF: Unleashed
AntiNuke 50% Cost
Hive Engy Stations for All
Wreck Reclaim 50% (and the alternatives 33%, 67%)

You could try hosting with the above mod list and see if the issue persist. But best would be to check the log for possible errors causing the game to stall. I'll try a run with the mods you used and see if I get any issues.

Added a new option under Special Wave Responses

ACU Hunters:
-Spawns modified BRICKS that aggressively seek out ACUs and SACUs. They are fast, have a high rate of fire (so Damage Amplification makes them even more dangerous), explosive death, and are effective on land and water. Their numbers increase as teams build more SACU. Their weapon range is limited, so they have to get in close. Great option on Hold to Win games or Team ACU Elimination games. When they begin to appear can be set in options.

A few bug fixes. When disabling Arty/Nukes/Sat, it should now stay disabled instead of enabling at endgame. Nuke warnings won't show if nukes disabled.

Hunters are good, they're not overwhelming and having a few endlessly spawning after the waves were over was fun
What's the sACU/Hunter ratio ? Will you add an option to increase/decrease it ?

btw the Colossus can grab them, effectively killing them instantly, I'm not sure if it's intended or if it's even possible to change that. I don't mind, though.

@retributer

Ratio is 1 Hunter to every 5 SACU, increasing to every 4 SACU post EndGame. Also has a base spawn of 1.5 hunters for each player, with an additional hunter for each ACU still alive post EndGame. I should be able to add an option to adjust spawn rate. I haven't had a chance to really balance test them yet. The idea is they aren't supposed to be a threat if your defenses are intact, but will start to hunt down your ACU/SACU's if you can't stop them.

Good point on Colossus. That is an easy fix.

@rama said in AI Wave Survival Mod Information:

@swaaye

Can you check your game log for any errors? Also, have you hit F11 to check if it is a network issue?

I haven't tested the mod with all of the mods you listed, so it may also be a mod conflict.

Mods I Haven't Tried or Tested With:
Jaggeds Infrastructure Pack v2
Nuclear Repulsor Shields
Reclaim Turret
SupCom T4 Edition - Resource Generators

I usually test with the following mods:
ACU Boost 1.5x
AI-Uveso
50% Air Crash Damage (and the alternatives 25%, 75%, 150%)
All Faction Quantum Gate
BlackOps FAF: ACUs
BlackOps FAF: Unleashed
AntiNuke 50% Cost
Hive Engy Stations for All
Wreck Reclaim 50% (and the alternatives 33%, 67%)

You could try hosting with the above mod list and see if the issue persist. But best would be to check the log for possible errors causing the game to stall. I'll try a run with the mods you used and see if I get any issues.

We decided to wipe all our FA & FAF data files (programdata, appdata, mydocs) and redownload everything. We tried a few games with your mods and some games with a mix of yours/our usual mods. We haven't had another freeze yet. Maybe it was some kind of file corruption or version mismatch.

I played a game just now to try some stuff and I noticed you added the Doom waves, I love it
I only got the Colossus, Megalith and Ythotha for now, gonna try later and see what you did with the others, but that's a great idea, also the fact that you can damage the HQ by killing these bosses will be a lot of fun!

New Endgame Feature:
Doom waves are an alternative EndGame option, using extremely powerful T5 units. Destroying a wave will damage the HQ by whatever percentage set by the player. Doom Waves will respawn after 1 minute, and waves will continue until HQ or players are destroyed. There are multiple settings, so players may fine-tune the final difficulty.

4a: DOOM EndGame Wave:
-Sets the size of the initial Doom Wave. Setting to "Off" will disable the waves completely.
4b: DOOM HQ Damage:
-Sets the % health the HQ will lose every time a Doom Wave is defeated. Can be set anywhere between zero and 100%.
4c: DOOM Wave +/-:
-Causes waves to increase or decrease in size when respawning. Start with a large Doom Wave, and then have it grow weaker as the HQ is damaged. Or have it grow stronger!
4d: DOOM Health Boost:
If the Dooms just aren't tough enough for you, feel free to boost their base health by up to 1000%. Dooms also receive health, damage, and speed boosts from the standard BOOST settings.
4e: DOOM Crawlers On/Off:
-Enable/Disable Doom Megas and Doom Fatboys from spawning in Doom Waves.
4f: DOOM Walkers On/Off:
-Enable/Disable Doom Colossus and Doom Ythotha from spawning in Doom Waves.

Also added a new setting for ACU Hunters, per a request. And made them immune to Colossus claws.

ACU Hunters Wave Multi:
-Adjust the amount of hunters that will spawn, if you like your SACUs to die. Can also reduce wave size.

@Retributer
Yeah, I've been planning out the Doom Waves for a while. Felt there needed to be an alternative way to win other than spamming arty or Hold to Win. Now feels like a proper EndGame. I still need to balance, so feedback is appreciated. Also added in the ACU Hunter Wave Muti, since you liked fighting those guys.

@swaaye
Good to hear you haven't had any more issues after redownloading mods. The situation you described, with the game frozen and the UI still functional, usually happens when the script gets caught in an infinite loop. Sometimes an error can trigger that.

We went through a game with Doom Waves on but we set the whole difficulty too low so we just spawnkilled them. Next time we'll try setting 5 waves with +1 Doom each wave, that should be a good start.
What worries me is that each Doom unit is basically a walking HP pool with long range, maybe you should give each of them their own gimmick (Colossus pulling units fast with its arms, Fatboy periodically spawning group of enemies, (if that's even possible) for example). Also, as usual, an option to set their respawn time (or remove it completely) could be nice !

We haven't tried with endless waves and bosses either so maybe they work best with these on ! In any case I like the idea and this will make the endgame much more fun

Some bug fixes and changes:
-Nuke and YoloBoss attack scripts redone. Nukes are still random, but will be much more likely to target game enders. Also will target naval units and coms if bases are destroyed. YoloBosses will attempt to reach game-ender threats.
-Fixed error in attack scripts, causing units to not aggressively pursue player's few remaining units.
-T4 EMP Tacs are now cheaper and faster to build.
-Dooms will deploy platoons of units on their destruction.

New Options:
Doom Minimum Wave Size:
-Restrict Dooms smallest wave size.
Doom Storm Spawns:
-Will spawn electrical storms randomly all over the map. There is a 50% chance storms will form every time a Doom wave is defeated. Number of storms can be set with the multiplier. Default is 15 storms on 20+ km maps, 8 on 10km, and 5 on 5km.
Salvation Player:
Sets what player is salvation player. If salvation player loses/suicides ACU, entire wave will be destroyed. Salvation can be set to kill everything, spare Dooms, or spare Dooms and T4 units.

@retributer
I usually play with bosses and endless waves on, so the Dooms are certainly harder to deal with than on their own. I have, however, improved them a little. They now deploy a platoon of units on destruction (not really a threat unless defenses have been breached). And there is an option for random storms across the map whenever a wave is defeated (very much a threat, set it to 5x and prepare to party!). Doom walkers will also behave a bit different than the crawlers.

Thanks for all the feedback!

Nice ! Gonna try this tonight and I'll let you know how it went, that sounds fun !
We actually disabled endless waves because reaching the HQ with groups of T4 spawning around it was a pain, but I think I'll try turning it back on with the Doom waves.

@retributer

There is an option under Endless, that adds spawn time to the waves once past Hold Time. So if you have waves set to 2 mins, and want to have waves less frequently during Endgame, you could set Endless Delay to 3 mins, which would cause waves every 5 minutes.

There is also the option under Wave Multiplier to make Endless Waves smaller. The final number is the multiplier applied to the endgame wave. I believe I added some that go:
2 > 2 > 2 > 1.5 > 1

So if you had wave size set to 10 units, it would spawn 20 units most of the game, then drop down to 10 units for endgame.

Added those two options for players who wanted to be able to ground assault the HQ. Though, maybe I should add a defensive wave, only triggered by units near HQ after Endgame begins. Hmmmmmm...

Edit:
There is also a third option. Set everything to spawn from 2nd Spawn, with no HQ recovery. Destroying 2nd spawn would then eliminate all regular waves. Or set HQ recovery to 25% or less, which will keep units spawning, but in greatly reduced numbers.

oooh I never thought about making everything spawn at the second base

ok so we've gone through a game with endless and Doom on, that was really fun! However, there might be an error regarding the number of Dooms per wave ; we set it at initial 1, with +1 each wave and 20% HQ damage, and the waves went 1 > 2 > 5 > 7 > 11 (not sure about the 5, I lost count at some point because there are two Fatboys that I'm not sure I counted when they spawned).
Also, the sACUs that spawn when Dooms die just stood there, I though at first they were set to attack move the player and ended up reclaiming, but watching the replay I think they received no order at all

The endgame defensive wave is a good idea. The nukes work fine, but sometimes they hit the HQ, so if the player set its HP to something not too high, it can self-destruct this way.

Added an AI for use with the mod, AI_WaveSurvival. The new AI actually does nothing, won't base build or give orders. Also means it won't interfere with the attack scripts or run in the background, slowing down SIM. Other AIs sometimes redirect units or horde the early waves instead of attacking. Best used when Base Building is off.

Re-did artillery targeting. Artillery should now prioritize targeting team's paragons and artillery, instead of just picking a random player and blasting their base while ignoring game enders.

Gave Dooms the Commander icon to make spotting on map much easier.

@retributer

The Rambo SACU have an attack script to give them orders. It was working in testing, up until the last FAF Patch. No idea why they aren't being detected and given orders, as there are no errors in the log. Might just change them out to something else.

I'll see if I made a mistake on the Doom Count. And I set the nuke launcher that spawns for the HQ to not damage friendlies (unless the flag isn't working), but may have forgot to change the launcher for the defensive script. Thanks for letting me know.

No problem ! Maybe give the SACU a move order, as they are enough of a threat to be able to just walk into enemy defenses.
Speaking of SACUs, do you think you could add them in late-game waves ? Maybe somewhere after the first T4s start spawning, their HP pool could help other units get close to the defenders' bases. Like, give them a small chance to spawn instead of a T3 so there are a few coming with each wave. Maybe even give them better loadouts as tech level increases, so you start with vanilla SACUs and end up with mostly Rambos and Combattants.

As usual, I can't wait for the next update ! Thanks for your work !

Small Update:
-Endgame Air Boss health nerfed.
-ACU Hunter Health nerfed, torpedo range reduced.
-Bug Fix: Salvation Player warning text won't show if configured correctly.
-BrewLAN walls restricted.
-Added support for Commander Survival Kit (won't spawn Fire Support units in waves).

Redid the experimental spawn rates, greatly reducing them, and changing progression a little. Should be able to host larger waves with few T4's spawning now. The T4 Spawn Rates can always be increased under the Experimental/Boss Frequency settings.

Added 4 new T4 defense units for players. They are in need of play testing and balancing.
UEF - An artillery unit that fire napalm canisters, doing damage over a large area for a period of time. Dooms suffer 1.5x damage to the Napalm canisters. No energy draw.
Cybran - A powerful stun cannon, capable of even stunning T4's and Dooms (though Dooms must get close). Energy hungry.
Aeon - Oblivion cannon, direct fight, high damage and long range. Very power hungry.
Seraphim - A T4 tac launcher, deploying two energy beings on impact that attack everything in range for 20 seconds, including air. Reduced damage against Dooms (1/3rd damage).

I am having a little problem with a victory condition occurring when the first Doom wave is destroyed. At least, that seems to be what causes the end. Disabling Doom wave keeps the game going. I have endless normal and boss waves enabled, and Doom HQ damage set to 0. 3-4 Dooms per wave.

By the way we have had some additional problems with the game going into that freeze condition with the UI and chat still responsive. I think it might be related to waves spawning in. It seems like if fewer units are in play, it doesn't happen.

And also, there has been an appearance of a strange bug seemingly related to pathfinding. Air units will fly like 20x higher than usual and take minutes to come down to attack. There will also be an invisible vertical map barrier that land units can not cross. Very strange. And a game restart usually fixes it even with identical settings. Maybe it's related to the recent FAF patches.