CD has accumulated many configuration settings over its development. Some of these settings partially or fully supersede older ones, even though the old ones are retained for backwards-compatibility and to support reproducible challenges.
This page highlights the most important CD options and which options to change when increasing or decreasing difficulty, whether solo or in a group.
This section assumes you're either using one of the following SpawnCycles. Any of these is a good choice for getting started. Here they are listed in very loosely ascending difficulty order.
- SpawnCycle=basic_moderate
- SpawnCycle=unmodded
- SpawnCycle=basic_heavy
- SpawnCycle=nam_pro_v3
The following configuration snippets omit options that have safe defaults. That is, if the best starting value is the the automatic default, then it's not listed.
Here's a good starting point configuration. This configuration
attempts to approximate the intensity and rate of spawning in
HOE in the unmodded game. This configuration is listed in the
form of a KFGame.ini snippet that could be copy-pasted, but you
could also configure these settings through parameters to the
open command used to start CD, or through chat commands.
This config is not exactly the same as vanilla HOE; this config is probably somewhat more difficult. Such a comparison is somewhat subjective, and there are a lot of variables left undefined here (for instance, there's a big difference between SpawnCycle basic_moderate and nam_pro_v3). Also, vanilla KF2 has a lot of variability in difficulty -- a map-specific spawnrate modifier, an early wave modifier, a sine wave modifier -- and all of those things are constants in CD. So think of the difficulty comparison as very loose and approximate.
[ControlledDifficulty.CD_Survival]
; You can use any SpawnCycle, but these tips were written
; with SpawnCycle=unmodded, SpawnCycle=nam_pro_v3,
; SpawnCycle=basic_moderate, or SpawnCycle=basic_heavy in mind
SpawnCycle=nam_pro_v3 ; change if desired
; Leave SpawnMod=0 and tune the other settings below
SpawnMod=0 ; Leave this alone
;
; HOE STARTING-POINT SAMPLE SETTINGS
;
; Play with the following settings. The values below approximate
; vanilla HOE. Adjust as you play and see how it feels.
;
; SpawnPoll controls how often the game spawns new zeds (seconds)
; smaller=more intensity, bigger=less intensity
SpawnPoll=1.25
; CohortSize controls how many zeds spawn every SpawnPoll seconds
; smaller=less intensity, bigger=more intensity
CohortSize=4
; MaxMonsters is the hardcap on live zeds. Once MaxMonsters zeds
; are alive, no more can spawn until at least one dies.
MaxMonsters=32 ; 32 is TWI's standard multiplayer cap
; ...or...
MaxMonsters=16 ; 16 is TWI's standard solo cap
Assuming the map's spawn areas are big enough to keep zeds flowing, under this configuration, zeds enter the map at a rate of approximately:
(CohortSize / SpawnPoll) zeds/sec = 4/1.25 = 3.2 zeds/sec
CD retains TWI's hardcoded 4 to 5 second delay between when the wave starts and when the zeds begin spawning. So there's always a slight lull in those first five seconds or so. But then the spawnrate equation above starts reflecting reality. This lull is reported in the automatic post-wave recap stats. It is called "pre" time in that recap.
That equation is an upper bound. Once the MaxMonsters cap is reached, spawning is suspended until some zeds die. Also, on extremely cramped maps with extremely liberal CD settings, it's possible to spawn zeds so quickly that every spawnpoint on the map becomes congested with zeds, and no more zeds can physically spawn until some move out of at least one of the spawn areas.
Here's a configuration that's substantiall more intense than vanilla HOE, but still plausibly beatable with a 6-man team.
[ControlledDifficulty.CD_Survival]
; You can use any SpawnCycle, but these tips were written
; with SpawnCycle=unmodded, SpawnCycle=nam_pro_v3,
; SpawnCycle=basic_moderate, or SpawnCycle=basic_heavy in mind
SpawnCycle=nam_pro_v3 ; change if desired
; Leave SpawnMod=0 and tune the other settings below
SpawnMod=0 ; Leave this alone
;
; HIGH-INTENSITY 6-MAN SAMPLE SETTINGS
;
; Play with the following settings. The values below approximate
; vanilla HOE. Adjust as you play and see how it feels.
;
; SpawnPoll controls how often the game spawns new zeds (seconds)
; smaller=more intensity, bigger=less intensity
SpawnPoll=1.0 ; spawn new zeds as equally often as in the unmodded game
; CohortSize controls how many zeds spawn every SpawnPoll seconds
; smaller=less intensity, bigger=more intensity
CohortSize=10 ; roughly 2x the size of unmodded game's squads
; MaxMonsters is the hardcap on live zeds. Once MaxMonsters zeds
; are alive, no more can spawn until at least one dies.
MaxMonsters=64 ; 2x TWI's default multiplayer cap of 32
Here's a comically extreme hypothetical configuration. This would be incredibly difficult for a 6-man team, perhaps impossible. This config would try to spawn 20 zeds every half-second. It would keep spawning until 96 zeds were alive. This is capable of filling a large map (e.g. Outpost) with 96 zeds in 2.5 seconds. This is just a theoretical exercise -- not recommended for ordinary 6-man team play.
[ControlledDifficulty.CD_Survival]
; You can use any SpawnCycle, but these tips were written
; with SpawnCycle=unmodded, SpawnCycle=nam_pro_v3,
; SpawnCycle=basic_moderate, or SpawnCycle=basic_heavy in mind
SpawnCycle=nam_pro_v3 ; change if desired
; Leave SpawnMod=0 and tune the other settings below
SpawnMod=0 ; Leave this alone
;
; ABSURD INTENSITY -- JUST FOR DEMONSTRATION, DO NOT DO THIS
;
; Play with the following settings. The values below approximate
; vanilla HOE. Adjust as you play and see how it feels.
;
; SpawnPoll controls how often the game spawns new zeds (seconds)
; smaller=more intensity, bigger=less intensity
SpawnPoll=0.500 ; spawn new zeds twice as often as unmodded game
; CohortSize controls how many zeds spawn every SpawnPoll seconds
; smaller=less intensity, bigger=more intensity
CohortSize=20 ; roughly 5x the size of unmodded game's squads
; MaxMonsters is the hardcap on live zeds. Once MaxMonsters zeds
; are alive, no more can spawn until at least one dies.
MaxMonsters=96 ; 3x TWI's default multiplayer cap of 32, hard to kite
Now let's move towards the easier end of the difficulty spectrum. Here's a rather relaxed solo-oriented configuration. Assuming the SpawnCycle isn't something crazy (like all fleshpounds), a competent solo player can probably handle this without kiting (e.g. on hillside). It's comparable to vanilla HOE, and probably even a bit easier than that.
[ControlledDifficulty.CD_Survival]
; Use whatever SpawnCycle suits you
SpawnCycle=basic_moderate ; change if desired
; Leave SpawnMod=0 and tune the other settings below
SpawnMod=0 ; Leave this alone
;
; RELAXED SOLO SAMPLE SETTINGS
;
; Play with the following settings. The values below approximate
; vanilla HOE. Adjust as you play and see how it feels.
;
; SpawnPoll controls how often the game spawns new zeds (seconds)
; smaller=more intensity, bigger=less intensity
SpawnPoll=2.0
; CohortSize controls how many zeds spawn every SpawnPoll seconds
; smaller=less intensity, bigger=more intensity
CohortSize=4
; MaxMonsters is the hardcap on live zeds. Once MaxMonsters zeds
; are alive, no more can spawn until some die.
MaxMonsters=16
WaveSizeFakes only affects the number of zeds in a wave. Basically, when it is time for the game to calculate the size of a wave, it pretends that WaveSizeFakes additional players were present.
This option was called FakePlayers from CD's inception up until July 2017. It was renamed around that time to WaveSizeFakes in an attempt to distinguish its role from other recently-introduced options that are also denominated in fake players, but which have other functions, such as FleshpoundHPFakes.
This setting is mostly a matter of taste, but it has a substantial impact on difficulty, particularly in solo.
Wave size scales nonlinearly for net player (fake + real) count less than or equal to 6. Simple Cat's spreadsheet has a table of values showing the exact multipliers for each value in 1..6. They are handpicked values that don't conform to a specific function.
At values of 7 and greater, wave size begins to scale linearly with net player count.
Larger waves tend to revert the player or team's kill rate to mean for a variety of reasons: fatigue, grenades, weapon swaps, long reloads, etc. Both large and small waves can be difficult depending on the settings, but all else equal, a longer wave tends to be harder than an a smaller one.
WaveSizeFakes is affected by another option called FakesMode. This controls whether WaveSizeFakes overrides or is added to the human player count when sizing waves. FakesMode also applies to the HP scaling options described in the next section.
The default FakesMode value add_with_humans sums fakes
with the human player count. The other FakesMode value
ignore_humans pretends as though only fakes were present.
If there are zero fakes and ignore_humans is in effect,
then CD instead behaves as though a single fake was present.
BossHPFakes, FleshpoundHPFakes, ScrakeHPFakes, and TrashHPFakes affect zed body and head health. They do not affect the number of these types of zeds that spawn. That's affected only by the SpawnCycle, WaveSizeFakes, and the number of human players present. These options with "HP" in the name only affect monster health.
This is a matter of taste. The discussion about spawn intensity at the top of this document assumed all of these parameters were set to 0 (that is, zed health scales only with real human players, just like in the unmodded game).
The FleshpoundHPFakes and ScrakeHPFakes options are particularly useful to solo players who want to practice decapitation techniques on zeds with 6-player head and body health. However, increasing these options is going to make waves that contain SC/FP more dangerous (all else equal), so other settings may have to be made easier to keep the configuration neutral.
Recommended:
[ControlledDifficulty.CD_Survival]
WeaponTimeout=max ; weapons dropped on the ground won't disappear
ZedsTeleportCloser=false ; zeds don't teleport closer to players
WeaponTimeout controls how long weapons can sit on the ground
before they disappear. It takes a value in seconds, or the special
value max.
ZedsTeleportCloser is the most controversial one in this section.
It controls whether zeds can teleport around the map in an attempt
to get closer to human players. In vanilla KF2, zeds can teleport
to get closer to human players, and this option's default matches
that behavior (i.e. it defaults to true). False prevents zeds from
teleporting to try to get closer to human players.
However, even when this is false, it does not remove the impression of zeds hiding around corners and behind doors, since the spawnpoint selection algorithm for brand new zeds sometimes places those zeds where others might have teleported.
This option has no effect on whether zeds can teleport when they think they've become stuck. That's always allowed.
TraderTime is configurable in CD. In solo on a small challenge
map, 15 tends to be more than enough, and there's always !cdpt
to pause trader time if more is needed. The HOE default of 60 is
probably good for teamplay though.
Don't like a certain albino zed? You can disable it, even if it is part of a SpawnCycle. Any instances of that albino zed that would have spawned will be replaced by its non-albino equivalent. Related options:
- AlbinoAlphas
- AlbinoCrawlers
- AlbinoGorefasts (double-blade)