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Orbit Style

Overview

Orbit Style is a dedicated circling behavior. Agents try to maintain a preferred radius around the target while blending sideways tangential movement with inward or outward radius correction.

In motion, this creates strafing or circling enemies that do not simply rush the center. It is useful for harassers, dancers, ritual units, ranged skirmishers, and enemies that should threaten from the side.

This is a specialized behavior that changes the close-range silhouette more than anything else in the section.

Parameter Reference

Advanced Parameters

All parameters here are advanced — leave at defaults unless you have a reason

Use Orbit Style

  • Visible effect — Agents circle the target instead of only pushing inward.
  • Gameplay effect — Creates harassment and flanking feel.
  • Increase when — Special circling archetypes or ranged pressure enemies.
  • Decrease when — Normal zombies or straight melee swarms.
  • Pitfalls — On basic hordes this often weakens the crowd fantasy.
  • Technical effect — Adds the orbit pass and changes goal facing to prioritize target-facing orbit when active.

Orbit Style Weight

  • Visible effect — Higher values commit more strongly to circling.
  • Gameplay effect — Stronger side pressure and less direct chase.
  • Increase when — Circling is too subtle.
  • Decrease when — Agents stop behaving like attackers and just strafe forever.
  • Pitfalls — Weight 0 still leaves the pass enabled and can still mark the agent as target-aware.
  • Technical effect — Scales the final orbit steering direction.

Orbit Style Distance

  • Visible effect — Sets how tight or wide the circle is.
  • Gameplay effect — Controls whether enemies feel invasive or cautious.
  • Increase when — Enemies should keep a ranged or harassment band.
  • Decrease when — Enemies should threaten from closer in.
  • Pitfalls — Too small looks like failed melee crowding; too large looks detached.
  • Technical effect — Desired target radius for orbiting, adjusted by Agent Spacing Radius Scale.

Distance Tolerance

  • Visible effect — Low values create stricter circles; high values allow wobblier orbits.
  • Gameplay effect — Tighter tactical feel versus looser drift.
  • Increase when — The orbit radius is too sloppy.
  • Decrease when — Orbiting feels rigid and mechanical.
  • Pitfalls — Very low values can create harsh snapping.
  • Technical effect — Controls how much radius error is allowed before radial correction dominates over tangential motion.

Clockwise Bias

  • Visible effect — Determines circle direction only.
  • Gameplay effect — Lets designers pick a preferred orbit direction.
  • Increase when — You need consistent side preference for a unit type.
  • Decrease when — Neutrality across the cast is better.
  • Pitfalls — The name implies blend strength, but the runtime only uses the sign, not the magnitude. 0.1 and 1 behave the same directionally.
  • Technical effect — Chooses tangent direction sign: nonnegative favors clockwise, negative favors counter-clockwise. Magnitude does not change strength.

Practical Usage Guidance

Use Orbit Style for side-strafing melee units, ranged harassment enemies, ritual casters circling the player, or creatures that should pressure from angles instead of raw body crush.

It works best with reduced Approach And Surround weight or larger Combat Standoff, so the enemy is allowed to keep its orbit band. It can also pair with light Predictive Catch-Up for mobile flankers that both intercept and circle.

Avoid using it heavily with Close-Range Pressure unless you want competing close-range logic. Usually one behavior should define the archetype's near-target feel.

Gameplay Interpretation

This behavior shifts enemies toward lateral pressure. It can make kiting less predictable because enemies attack from angles rather than from directly behind. Units feel lighter and less committed than a straight horde chaser.

Quickstart — tune in this order

Tune Orbit Style Distance first, then Orbit Style Weight, then Distance Tolerance. Treat Clockwise Bias mostly as a direction switch. Unless you specifically need clockwise versus counter-clockwise flavor, leave it near zero or a mild positive default.