Hulk Surge mod 1.1

Changes the units the game spawns in Automaton missions. Out of the box every bot drop, patrol and outpost spawn becomes a Hulk Scorcher or Hulk Bruiser, ships come in full, and basic troopers stay in patrols and on the emplaced guns so the Automatons can still call for reinforcements. You can change the main settings in the game, on the MODS tab of the escape menu, and they apply on the ship with no restart.


What it does by default:

• Bot drops, patrols and reinforcements are Scorchers and Bruisers in an even mix.
• Outposts, fortresses and points of interest use the same two Hulks, except basic troopers and Commissars, which stay as the game made them.
• Every bot drop ship carries at least 6 units.
• The spawn cost of the drop rows is 10 instead of about 130, so a drop brings far more Hulks. This is intense, and one slider makes it milder.
• Every patrol gets two or three basic troopers, so patrols can still call drops.
• Emplaced gun crews stay crewed.
• Spawners, the spawner jammer and gunships are left alone.

Requirements:

• Bingus Shared Loader v15 or newer (tested with v18), with the highest priority.
• Optional: the Mod Options Menu addon, for the in game settings. It is an option in the Vanilla Plus Megapack and a standalone download. Without it everything still works with the defaults or the config file.
• Tested on Helldivers 2 version 1.8.46015.0, Automaton missions, difficulty 10.

Install:

1. Import the zip in Arsenal or another manager that reads Bingus addons.
2. Enable it with Bingus Shared Loader, loader last.
3. Purge, then Deploy.
4. Fully quit and restart the game.
5. Host a new Automaton mission.

Settings in the game: with the Mod Options Menu addon, the escape menu has a MODS tab with an ALL AUTOMATONS REPLACED category:

• Enabled: switches the mod off or on.
• Drop units: Scorcher and Bruiser (default), Scorcher only, or Bruiser only.
• Drop cost: 0 to 130 in steps of 10, default 10. 0 leaves the game's own cost, about 130 for a Hulk. Lower means more Hulks per drop.
• Minimum units per ship: 1 to 6, default 6. A Hulk takes 2 of a ship's 12 slots, so 6 is a full ship.
• Troopers added to patrols: 2 and 3 alternating (default), off, 1, 2, 3, 4 or 6.

A change applies on the ship, within a few seconds, with no restart. A change made during a mission waits until you are back on the ship. The menu remembers your choices, so if a wave looks smaller than you expect, check the menu_overrides= line in the status file.


Choosing units: the default mix gives the biggest waves. One Hulk type alone reaches a per unit type limit in the game sooner. At a flag raise the mix gave 8 full ships, Scorcher only gave about 6 or 7 and Bruiser only about 4 or 5, and with a single type units disappeared in front of me as new ones dropped. The Bruiser has fewer rows in the game's data than the Scorcher, 3 against 4, which may be related. I haven't confirmed where the limit lives.


The config file: optional, for everything the menu doesn't have. Create AllAutomatonReplace_config.txt in %LOCALAPPDATA%\CowboyBingus\Helldivers2\Logs. The zip has AllAutomatonReplace_config.example.txt with every default listed. A setting you leave out keeps its default. Windows often hides file extensions and saves the file as AllAutomatonReplace_config.txt.txt, which is ignored. Turn on File name extensions in File Explorer to check. A saved edit also applies on the ship without a restart.


Settings people change in the config:

• patrol_groups= and drop_fill_groups= to choose which template groups count as patrols and ship loads.
• targets= and drop_units= to pick other units, for example cha_soldier_rpg,cha_soldier_mg for Rocket and Heavy Devastators.
• trooper_extra= to keep more unit types as the game made them.

Unit names: cha_lieutenant_assault is the Hulk Scorcher, cha_lieutenant_suppressor is the Hulk Bruiser, cha_berserker is the Berserker, cha_soldier_mg is the Heavy Devastator and cha_soldier_rpg is the Rocket Devastator. The README lists the others. The mod cannot add models, so pick units that appear in the mission's own roster. Units that only exist in the game's file list are not loaded and crash the game on landing.


Checking it works: open AllAutomatonReplace_STATUS.txt in the same Logs folder. The first line should start with OK.


Known limits:

• Tested while hosting. Spawns are decided by the host, so the host needs the mod. Joining another player's mission is untested.
• Units already on the map when the mission starts are not converted.
• Waves are capped by the game: flag raise waves topped out at roughly 36 to 42 Hulks whatever the drop cost was, and one drop called by a trooper brought 48.
• Large drops create many enemies at once. If you get stutter or crashes, raise the drop cost.
• Using the War Strider (cyborg_assault_walker) or the Factory Strider (cyborg_spawner, probably) for drops crashed the game. On difficulty 10 the game's own table also turns the three tanks into War Striders.
• Rocket and Heavy Devastators as drop targets work, but they produced small drops, fewer units than a normal drop. The mod is tuned for Hulks.
• Subfaction missions keep the game's own replacements on top of the Hulk drops. In an Incineration Corps mission the Bruisers arrived as Firebombers and the Scorchers as the recolored version. I haven't seen a Jet Brigade mission yet.
• Not tested with other spawn mods.
• A game update can stop the mod from finding its data. It then writes nothing and says why in the status file.

How it works: the mod finds the game's Automaton spawn tables in memory by their content and rewrites which unit each row spawns. It does not patch code or change game files, and it writes nothing unless the tables look exactly as expected. The readable source is in the zip.


Support: if something breaks, post AllAutomatonReplace_STATUS.txt and AllAutomatonReplace_log.txt from the Logs folder, and tell me what you saw.


Credits:

• Location engine: All Alpha Commander and All Behemoth by taffy. Used with permission from taffy.
• Bingus Shared Loader and Mod Options Menu by CowboyBingus.
• Unit names from the Filediver community name list.

Use at your own risk. Arrowhead does not support mods.