An introduction and installtion guide for the Controlled Difficulty mod for KF2

**EDIT: I screwed some formatting up and it's too late at night for me to fix it. I'll tinker with it later and remove this message once I've done so.** Were you excited for KF3 and subsequently disappointed by the live service UE5 slop we received? Have you gotten bored with what the base game has to offer and want to try something new? Have you wondered what the gameplay looks like at the highest level? Then this guide may pique your interest. I've been a dedicated member of the CD(Controlled Difficulty) community for nearly 8 years and my playtime is approaching 3,000 hours. This mod is home to some of the deepest mechanical and strategic skill of any co-op shooter I've ever played. It's also home to a small but close-knit community of people who take their gameplay incredibly serious while remaining friendly and laidback. I've provided a TLDR at the bottom of this guide for those who have had their attention span fried with brainrot and ADHD as much as me. I wrote this guide to serve 3 purposes 1. Explain what Controlled Difficulty *is* and why we use it 2. Explain the installation process as well as configuration tweaks to reduce crashing and other QoL fixes. I will also detail basic terminology and lingo to get acquainted with the language of the mod 3. Provide a basic guideline for the existing culture and "etiquette" in the CD community. **So, what is Controlled Difficulty?** Controlled Difficulty(which will be abbreviated as CD going forward) is a mod for KF2 that provides much stricter control over the spawning process than the vanilla game. The vanilla game spawns zeds randomly from a selection of "squads", which are pre-defined groups of zeds. It does this at the whims of a game director which adjusts certain values such as how fast spawns happen, how large the groups are, etc. based on player performance and random elements. CD hands control over these variables to the player in an extensive fashion. This allows for a much more controlled experience, hence the name. The most significant changes brought about in CD comes from what are called "spawncycles". These spawncycles forgo randomly chosen squads in favor of scripted spawns that are adhered to strictly. This means that in a game of CD, a chosen spawncycle spawns zeds in the *exact* same order, *every* time. This gives runs a high level of comparability, while still feeling surprisingly novel due to how dynamic the spawning system itself behaves. Community members have meticulously crafted dozens of spawncycles mostly by hand. While each cycle can differ significantly in both flow and overall difficulty, the common theme among them is to make the game harder than the vanilla Hell on Earth experience. Much *much* harder. FPs and scrakes are spawned in such large numbers that it makes teamwork and careful class composition a necessity. While the *breadth* of "viable" choices grows much slimmer, the capacity for skill expression and strategy expand wildly under these circumstances, and that is what created such a passionate community. So, if this sounds like something worth dipping your toes into, let me explain the basic installation and setup to get your game CD ready. **How to install CD** There are many builds of CD that have been published by various developers. The majority of which are severely outdated and likely don't work at all. It is rather confusing to a newcomer so I'm going to breakdown the contemporary options. 1. CD Chokepoints Edition - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2052571175&searchtext=controlled Chokepoints is by far the most widely used version at this time. It contains some baked in balance adjustments and perk restrictions. It is a rather heavy-handed edition built for the players at the very top. This is driven further by the closed source nature of the mod, which contains obfuscated code. We don't know for sure *all* the changes that Chokepoints makes, but many of the top players prefer this experience regardless. Chokepoints is no longer under active development. 2. CD Combined Edition - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2862691598&searchtext=controlled CD Combined Edition is a product of the Japanese CD community who prefer not to play with some of the baked in changes from Chokepoints. It is open source to my knowledge, under active development, and contains many QoL features that have been developed since Chokepoints was discontinued. My own experience with this edition is limited, but it is a worthy contender with Chokepoints and several popular servers run this edition. Installing these mods is as simple as subscribing to the item on the workshop. They can be easily run in a local game and there are even features to support practicing via solo play. However, before starting a game itself running the mod, there are some important adjustments to make within the game's config files. While there exists .ini config files within the games installation folder, the files that actually determine in-game settings are located within the "My Games" folder within your Documents. The path we'll be navigating to will look something like: ```C:\Users\YOUR USERNAME\Documents\My Games\KillingFloor2\KFGame\Config``` Now that we're in the correct folder, the most important change is within the ```KFEngine.ini``` file. Search for ```MaxObjectsNotConsideredByGC``` and replace whatever value is there with 33476. This prevents frequent crashing caused by the default garbage collection not being prepared to handle the density of spawns in CD Next, we'll open ```KFInput.ini``` and adjust the following lines located at the top of the file ```LookRightScale=0``` ```LookUpScale=-0``` ```MouseSensitivity=```(This allows precise values in lieu of the in-game slider) ```bEnableMouseSmoothing=false``` The final change will be made within ```KFGame.ini``` Search for the line ```MaxDeadBodies``` and change the value to 4. This limits the number of corpses that can exist simultaneously. Corpses *can* and *will* block your shots, so this is a vital QoL change. The game will need to be restarted if open for the changes to take effect. We're now ready to launch the game with CD. To load into a map with CD enabled, we'll open the console with ` and append the following strings after our `open` command. ```?Game=Controlled_Difficulty.CD_Survival``` if you're running Chokepoints ```?Game=CombinedCD2.CD_Survival``` if you're running Combined Edition for example, starting a match on the map "Nuked" with Chokepoints enabled would be done with this console command ```open KF-Nuked?Game=Controlled_Difficulty.CD_Survival``` Once the map has loaded, you can begin to edit CD parameters. Most adjustments are made within the in-game chatbox, though some are done via console. The important adjustable values are as follows: MaxMonsters| This value determines the maximum number of zeds that can be alive simultaneously. Commonly abbreviated as "mm" WaveSizeFakes | This value determines the total number of zeds that a wave contains, commonly abbreviated as "wsf". The size of a wave is scaled by the number of active players, and the value of wsf corresponds with player count. A wsf of 6 would contain a number of zeds equal to a full lobby, even if there are less real players. Standard CD games play with 12 wsf which extends wave length. SpawnCycle | This value determines, of course, the spawncycle. Even if I provided a list of all available cycles, you would have no context on how they behave. As a beginner player I'd recommend basic_heavy as a cycle that is designed to play similarly to the vanilla game, and asl_v3 as the cycle that kicks up the heat considerably while being relatively easy in the overall landscape. It is commonly abbreviated as "sc" While there are many, many more variables that are adjusted by advanced players, these are the cores of the gameplay experience. If you're truly interested in giving the mod a shot, you'll need to find a game with other players for an authentic experience. **CD Etiquette** This part of the guide is perhaps the most important for involving yourself in the CD scene. There are unspoken rules and expectations that are not apparent to many casual players. Ignoring the principles of the game as played in CD and being unresponsive to feedback will likely result in you getting the boot. Don't let a lack of experience discourage you from trying. Being open to constructive feedback and putting forth your personal best effort is ultimately the most important factor to being accepted by the CD community. The most significant difference from your average pub game is that "chaos" perks consisting of firebug, demolitionist and survivalist are discouraged or outright removed. Weapons from any class that cause a significant amount of disruption are also frowned upon. Contrary to what you might believe, the main reason for this is not because we look down upon chaos perks or that they are weak. It is actually their extremely high output with very little mechanical investment that makes them too strong to be considered for CD. The spirit of CD is very much rooted in playing the game in a way that encourages skill expression and keeping said skills relevant. That means banning certain outliers to encourage a deeper experience. This is primarily pursued through precision perks that require high headshot accuracy and careful management of zed movements in order to facilitate that goal. While there is some leniency for SWAT and Support, most CD games strictly consist of gunslingers, sharpshooters, a single commando, and a medic. Another vital component of CD etiquette is leaving small "trash" zeds alive during Zed Time if they're in view of the commando. Commando relies on getting kills with strict timing to extend Zed Time which greatly increases the output of the team for it's duration. Stealing these kills from the commando can quickly cause the team to be overwhelmed and this is one of the cardinal sins that can get you kicked from servers. **Supplementary Resources** Here are some extra tools and suggestions to improve your experience with the mod https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1208883070&searchtext=corridor The most popular map for solo practice. It's a single straight lane with plenty of room to retreat. Try typing solomode in console after you spawn in to enable features like automatic extension of zed time, simulating a real commando. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2790622755&searchtext=htc https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2744475104 The most expansive and impressive map for testing and practicing the game. Longtime community member HazardousMonkey designed the map brilliantly and many of it's features are explained in a simple and obvious way. After subscribing to both of the above links, the map can be opened with ```open KF-htc?game=utm.utestmode``` This launches the map with an extensive suite of extra tweaks available via Ultimate Test Mode. You can open the menu to adjust these settings by pressing Tab. **TLDR:** 1. **What is CD?** CD is a mod that gives players significant control over the spawning system, with a focus on making the game much more difficult. 2. **How do I install it?** > Subscribe to https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2052571175&searchtext=controlled >Navigate to `C:\Users\YOUR USERNAME\Documents\My Games\KillingFloor2\KFGame\Config` > Open `KFEngine.ini` > Search for `MaxObjectsNotConsideredByGC` > Change the value to 33476 > This avoids frequent crashing when playing with the mod. > Open a game using the mod with `open KF-MAPNAME?Game=Controlled_Difficulty.CD_Survival` in console View the full section for extra details on setting up a game 3. Basic CD Etiquette I strongly encourage you to read this whole section if you intend on playing with other people, but to break it down to basics > No demolitionist, Firebug, or Survivalist > Avoid weapons that cause significant CC or disruption > Be open to feedback from experienced players > Don't kill trash if you're near the Commando Don't be surprised if you're kicked when adamantly not following the above principles **Thanks for reading my guide!** I haven't included any information on where to play or how to join the community. I didn't want to go to the effort of doing so if there was no interest. So please, let me know in the comments what you thought of the guide, and please don't hesitate to FR/DM me on discord with username "topwolf" if you're seriously interested in learning the game on a deeper level.