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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, and it changes the shape of a crowd more than any other single toggle in the profile.

Target on the ring all tangent, pure circling past the tolerance all radial, it stops circling and just corrects back in Orbit Style Distance (4) Distance Tolerance (1) the shaded band
The blend between circling and correcting is a straight ratio, not a mode switch. Exactly on the ring the steering is all tangent. At the edge of Distance Tolerance it is all radial, and it stays that way however far out the agent is, which is what the warning above is describing: at long range the pass is pulling inward the whole time.

It steers at every range, not only near the target

The inspector files Orbit Style under Circling & Strafing, which reads like a close-range group. The pass has no arrival check and no distance gate: every awake agent that has a target steers by it, from the moment it spawns. Past Orbit Style Distance the radial term pulls agents inward, so switching this on also changes the long approach, not just the last few units.

Parameter Reference

Advanced Parameters

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

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. It also registers as a goal-facing source, but the last one in the chain: Retreat, surface flow, Predictive Catch-Up and Approach & Press are all asked first, so with Approach & Press on (the default) orbit never gets to set facing.

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 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: Orbiting feels rigid and mechanical.
  • Decrease when: The orbit radius is too sloppy and agents drift off the band.
  • Pitfalls: Very low values can create harsh snapping.
  • Technical effect: Controls how much radius error is allowed before radial correction dominates over tangential motion.

Orbit Direction

  • Visible effect: Which way round the target agents travel, seen from above.
  • Gameplay effect: Lets a unit type read as a consistent circling pattern rather than a scramble.
  • Increase when: Not a scale. Pick Clockwise or Counter-clockwise.
  • Decrease when: Same.
  • Pitfalls: Every agent on the profile circles the same way, so a ring of six looks like a carousel rather than a brawl. Two directions means two archetypes with two profiles.
  • Technical effect: Flips the sign of the tangent term. Nothing else about the behavior changes.

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 & Press 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 pairing it with high Approach & Press weight, because the two pull agents in opposite directions near the target. 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. Orbit Direction is a two-way choice with nothing to tune, so set it once and leave it.