Expand AI behavior is weird. It's not consistently predictable when just looking at the map. The hope is that this tool will mimic as closely as possible the underlying logic used for enemy pathing so we don't have to stare at a bunch of JSON like neanderthals.
Just download the thing and open the index.html file in your browser. No internet required. No fancy installation tools. Just browser. Or use this online version. Whatever floats your boat.
- Left-click a node to change its faction ownership.
- Ctrl + left-click a node to mark it as being affected by an EMP.
- Right-click a node to mark it as being occupied by a mob. One click gives it a normal mob (small dot) and a second click gives it a deathstack (large dot).
- Ctrl + right-click a node to mark it as being occupied by an ally. One click gives it an NPC (small dot) and a second click gives it a deployed echelon (large dot).
- The
Turn: Xbutton allows you to select the current turn you're on. Setting this to the correct number will ensure that the closed helipad spawns mobs on applicable turns while not spawning when it shouldn't. Left-clicking will add 1 to the turn and right-clicking will remove 1 (don't worry, it wraps around either way). - Once you have your map in the desired state, just click the big orange button. This will show the expected enemy turn movements, including from any new spawns. Clicking elsewhere will revert back to the pre-calculation view.
- Want to take the calculated moves and automatically make your current map state reflect them? Just hit the commit turn button. Less clicking needed.
- Importing and exporting of the map state can now be done via standard copy and paste shortcuts. Simply use Ctrl+C to copy the map state and Ctrl+V to restore from a map state currently stored in your clipboard.
- Tried to experiment with some changes and don't like them? Forgot to save the map state beforehand? Ctrl+Z is now a thing. Screwed up by hitting Ctrl+Z out of habit? Ctrl+Y can reverse that, too. Remember to save your map state next time, you fucking brainlet.
- Want a clickable link to a map state? Just add
?state={your state here}(without the curly braces!) to the end of the sim tool's URL and enjoy having fewer keys to press.
- A number of players have used this tool, including myself, and found it to be largely accurate. The pathing calculated is based on assumptions derived from experiments, however, and not on any actual reverse-engineering or dev-verified information. Discrepancies may exist. Use at your own risk.
- Enemies on "alert" AI (i.e. ELID smashers) will most likely show incorrect pathing information. Do not rely on this tool for the ELID zone. If you do, then adjust your planning according to the knowledge that discrepancies will exist.
Want to help improve this? Write some code and make a pull request. If it's a valuable update, I'll probably approve it. Just try to keep the no-internet thing working.