AI Wave Survival Mod Information

Great mode, loving it so far !
You seem to work hard on it too, I get an update every few days
Is there a changelog available somewhere, or do you post everything here ? The mini CZARs were a nice surprise, spamming gunships made the game kinda unbalanced so it's not bad to be punished for that
I also feel that the AI behaved differently the last few games I played, like it sent way more nukes and T4 than usual (always using Uveso Easy because the waves alone are more than enough for me). It might be because of the map too, I don't know.

In any case, keep up the good work ! I'm hyped to see what comes next !

Thanks for the feedback! I actually haven't had a chance to play-test and balance the Mini-CZARS. Last game I hosted to do so, I DCed before they spawned. So am looking for feedback on their balance.

They are meant to be played with Air-Crash Damage on, as they don't have any ground attack weapons but have a devastating air crash (small area, but 20k damage air crash). The idea is, Air has two options when they spawn, pull back behind base ground AA and risk an air crash blowing up the front line, or engage the min-CZARs and risk heavy air losses. The min-CZARS have a layered attack, with the most powerful weapons having the shortest range. Currently, a Black-Ops UEF Flying Fortress can 1v1 a mini-CZAR and win with 1/3rd health remaining. Since one bad Air Crash can easily end a game, I do have some mods that adjust Air Crash damage to 25%, 50%, 75%, and 150%. I mean to add it as a built-in mod option at some point.

Nukes and T4 spawns are completely random. There was a bug that was reducing nuke wave sizes, but that has been fixed. Both Nuke Count and T4 spawn rates can be adjusted in the options. I'll probably adjust nukes to be more dynamic in the future. Sometimes, they player with the Paragon only gets a few nukes lobbed at em while some poor player with only 2 SMD gets hit with 20. If you really like nukes, turn on Nuclear Overwhelm, an alternative to dying from Artillery/EndGame Bosses

If you set Base Building Option to OFF, the AI ACU and any engineers/factories will suicide at start of game. This prevents the AI from building any units/structures (which mainly interfere with spawned units pathfinding) and also helps to speed up SIM speeds. This also can be set to apply to the 2nd Spawn Player, which will then suicide on spawn. Note, you don't need to use a 2nd spawn, that is optional, but allows for waves to spawn in from two points.

The Wave Style you choose also has a big impact on how the AI chooses targets. Note the "Human with AI Assist" also works with an AI HQ Player as well. Its original intention was to help Human Players by giving Spawned Units an initial attack order that a Human Player could easily over-ride and then redirect. But it also forces AI Players to attack with waves on spawn instead of hoarding; however the AI can also easily over-ride the orders and use the units as it sees fit. This script also does not interfere/give orders to any units built by Human/AI HQ Player.

I didn't notice crash damage from the mini CZARs, either the shields absorb all of it, or the area is so small it needs to land right on top of a building

The main threat they pose for defenders' bases is that they'll deplete shield generators quickly by trying to shoot down air units under them, so you need to be careful not to hide your air when your base is already threatened. An option to chose how many of them can spawn at a time, and how often, would be nice. As for the unit itself, it seems balanced to me as it does exactly what it's meant to do. I usually kill them with T4 turrets or T3 ground units, I haven't tried ASFs yet so I can't say, but 28k HP doesn't seem overwhelming.

I always disable nukes, except for the defensive ones (I like these) ; the ones I get are those built by the AI itself (they usually target roaming T4s though, not my base). I like the idea of having to defend against more and more nukes, but I'm not that good at survival maps in RTS in general so I prefer focusing on ground and air armies. As for T4, I think it's because most of the time they somehow get stuck in the HQ base, but recently the AI seems to remember how to send them. I don't think they're from the survival waves though, it's more likely the ones it builds once it gets enough eco.

I'm gonna try AI controled waves next, I'm curious to see how it'll behave !

The mini-CZAR crash bug has been fixed. They have also been toned down in DPS and should be vulnerable to ASF packs. They will also no longer rush into player's AA and will try to stay at maximum range.

Added an option to disable/adjust mini-CZARs spawn. Also nerfed them a bit. They won't spawn as frequent or in as big of waves. Weapon range reduced. Air crash damage greatly reduced, but damage area increased.

Yep, they seem to deal a whole lot of damage when they fall (I didn't notice the damage change today because the only one that fell on my base took down a few gens, thus making the splash damage bigger). At least now they can be reclaimed !
I have a problem with them just staying on top of my base when they don't get any more air units to kill, it makes avoiding the fall damage impossible

I didn't notice the spawn option, I'll check it next game ! Thanks for the update !

By the way, do you think it would be possible to make units spawned from the second spawn point the same color as the player on its spot ? This way it'll really feel like we're dealing with two separate armies. Maybe even make it possible to restrict races for each spawn, so you can make one that spawns only UEF and the other Cybran, for instance !

@Rama FYI M28AI should be compatible with the mod but if you use it and come across any major issues let me know - I only tested on a couple of maps on the AI wave survival mod that was released a couple of weeks ago, and the games didn't go into the late game. For example I'm not sure how it would handle the mini-czars referred to above if they're weaponless.

Latest update, small nerf to Nomander's health, fixed Nomander graphics glitch, and a change to script so more Nomander's will not spawn if too many are still alive.

@retributer

I did make some mods that reduce Air Crash Damage. There are 4 mods, which set Air Crash Damage to 25%, 50%, 75%, and 150% damage. I usually play with 50% Air Crash Damage mod on.

While your suggestion is possible, it would basically require completely duplicating the functions of the mod. The mod is already pretty resource intensive when playing with large waves. That and the options list to configure everything is already too large as is.

@maudlin27
Ooh, I am going to have to test out your new AI! I've played the mod with M27, which I usually play with the attack scripts off and let your AI use the spawned units as it sees fit. The new Mini-Czars (named Nomanders) only have AA weapons, as they are meant to clear player Gunship spam. They also have a powerful aircrash to punish players that allow Nomanders to get over their base.

I really like the new options you added for HQ/Secondary defenses
My bro and I are trying to play shorter games and the HQ not having Slayers and Guardian SMDs helps with that, this way we can focus on defense until the timer runs out and counterattack quickly (I know we could set the objective to "survive x minutes" but destroying the HQ is always satisfying). We're still having lots of fun and no two games are identical, replayability is great !

Too bad for the secondary color, but I understand, I had no idea how that would work !

@retributer
Giving more Defense Options was something I meant to do for a while. Does make for more replayability, so good to hear! One fun game style is setting shorter rounds (10 to 15 min Hold Times) with Hold To Win on and set the waves to scale up very fast!

I finally reorganized the Options into something sensible, as hosting and having to change settings was a massive pain. Hopefully people find the new organization easier to navigate. Let me know if I messed up any of the options by accident.

Yep, that's much better ! I used to scroll up and down to find one particular option and somehow missed it, now it's gonna be much easier, thanks for the QoL !

Latest Update:

2nd Spawn:
Added options to set HQ Recovery Rate for Land, Air, and Navy. So, if you want to have 2nd Spawn have 100% of Navy and 50% of Air, but if destroyed, HQ recovers all Air and no Nay, now you can!

Damage Amplification:
Added option under BOOST to turn off or set the damage multiplier higher/lower.

NOMANDERS:

• Greatly reduced ASF weight causing NOMANDERS to spawn. You can build 4x as many ASF before triggering now.
• Slightly reduced weight of T4 Air triggering spawn.
• Increased random respawn time between AntiAir waves by 10 to 30 seconds.
• Add more choices to size of NOMANDER waves in Options.

Hello Rama!
Your mod works on vanilla version???

I was wondering what that damage amplification was about, I couldn't figure what triggered it (maybe it was in your original post but I must have missed it)
I love the new options for second spawn, there's a lot of settings I'd try now !

Can't wait to see what you come up with next !

@Mavr390

Hi Mavr390, do you mean Vanilla Supreme Commander (not using the FAF Client)? I have tried the mod twice in vanilla. I was able to get it to load, but the HQ didn't spawn. Also, there is no way to adjust any of the mod options in Vanilla, via Map Options in the lobby. And vanilla doesn't show Play Slot numbers, which makes it a pain to know what spawn is what player. So I haven't really tried to get it working with vanilla. Don't know if there is a way to make it work with vanilla.

If you mean units, yes, it works fine with no other unit packs. Unit packs like BlackOps are not required.

@Retributer

Damage Amplification is triggered when Mass Production exceeds 250 * Number_of_Players (doesn't include HQ and any HQ Allies). Default damage bonus is 1 point damage per 100 mass production. This means faster firing units would gain more DPS. A unit that fires once per second would get 1 DPS boost, while one that fires twice per second would get 2 DPS boost. Currently does not apply to beams. Boss Units get 4x the bonus.

An Example with the Fatboy, after building a Paragon, triggering 100 Damage Bonus:

• Fatboy Gauss Cannon does 250 damage, 3 shots per second , for 750 DPS.
• Damage Bonus on, 250 + 100 = 350, for 1050 DPS.
• If the Fatboy is a Boss, 250 + 100 * 4 = 650, for 1950 DPS.

@rama, thanks for the answer. In FAF I tried it and I liked it. So I wanted to know if there is an opportunity to run on vanilla.

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.