Set a maximum biter count per wave/group. Once this limit has been reached, instead of spawning more biters increase the groups total HP by the amount of HP that would have been added to the group by the next spawned biter.
eg, if the cap is 10 biters. Instead of adding an 11th behemoth, add 500 HP to all the biters in the group, increasing the HP of the group by 5000. It could also be percentage based if small biters become massively OP with too much health.
Why?
Late game waves tend to trip up on themselves. They come in over a large area and two rows of lasers quickly dispose of them because they spread themselves out. Reducing the number of biters - but leaving the group strength at a similar level - could prevent that issue.
It also means there is less pathfinding, so less CPU ops.
Maximum biter count per attack group
Re: Maximum biter count per attack group
It also means there will always be a point where biters will become too tough for almost any defense. Imagine Behemoth and Behemoth spitters with hundreds of thousands of HP. how many defenses will ne necessary to kill them ?
Koub - Please consider English is not my native language.
Re: Maximum biter count per attack group
That might not be a desired outcome, but if that really does become an issue then set a maximum HP for each unit, or once a group reaches some maximum HP amount send the wave. It's not a difficult issue to find a solution to.
Personally I think that ever increasing HP's on biters would give an incentive for the player to keep the number of bases in the pollution cloud to a minimum, either by having to clear out the bases or to keep the pollution down. Anything that is more involved than just walls & lasers.
Personally I think that ever increasing HP's on biters would give an incentive for the player to keep the number of bases in the pollution cloud to a minimum, either by having to clear out the bases or to keep the pollution down. Anything that is more involved than just walls & lasers.