The Cyber Grind is a lesser priority part of ULTRAKILL's current development compared to 16a's upcoming code rewrites and Fraud/Treachery. But it is still part of the game and I believe there are some major and minor issues with it. I personally hope tweaking it happens in a comfortable position between or after 16a/Fraud development, but here are the major things that I, top players, speedrunners, and multiple others think need changed with this game mode. I personally care about this game mode a great deal and believe these changes would put it in a much better state.
A lot of specific enemy related changes (disregarding radiance) were also debated, but only radiance-related changes and CostIncreasePerSpawn-related changes will be brought up here, since some enemy-related changes will be likely brought up during 16a and onwards.
CORE CG CHANGES
Fix the current Uncommon enemy spawning bug. Currently, the Uncommon enemy buffer that CG uses for spawning Uncommon enemies is likely bugged. More proof and extensive research into this can be found by this feedback link.
Add a cap of maximum Uncommon spawns during a wave. For example, have a maximum of 3 Uncommons spawn during Waves 50-74, a max of 4 Uncommons spawn during 75-99, 5 at 100-124, etc. During Special waves (waves with Insurrectionists, Mindflayers, and Ferrymen), this number can be cut in half (rounded up or down at your discretion).
Decrease the maximum amount of Virtues spawning per wave from 8 to 4-5. Virtues' area denial is extremely deadly, and near the highest achievable waves they can get extremely deadly.
Adjust certain enemy spawn costs for Common enemies. Increasing Swordsmachine spawn cost from 20+1 to 20+6 will make them spawn less but not overshadow other common enemies like Mannequins that feel barely present in CG due to their spawn cost. Speaking of, decreasing Mannequin spawn cost from 25+25 to 19+10 will make them feel more prevalent but also allow for a few to spawn. Additionally, increasing Cerberus spawn cost from 16+2 to 16+5 will accomplish the same with Swordsmachines.
Replace and revise several enemy presets on default patterns. A lot of grievances with patterns are due to enemy placements, particularly Idols. Since they take both melee and projectile enemy prefabs, they can spawn anywhere, typically in inconvenient places like tucked in corners (on patterns like Gravel, Division, Maze, etc). Non-Idoled Stalkers typically spawn close to Swordsmachines, leading to a small to large portion of the enemies instantly becoming sanded with nothing you can do about it unless they spawn close to you. In Patch 14a, Guttertanks spawned in both melee and projectile enemy prefabs, leading them to be stuck on 1-block gaps and immobilizing them, but this was fixed in Patch 14b, as they now only spawn on melee tiles. Reference this feedback post.
Allow multiple spawn and enemy prefabs (not stairs or bounce pads) on a single tile.
Remove the height limit for placing patterns.
Add more advanced stair tile options (direction/height/connections to other tiles).
Add dedicated Idol/Uncommon/Special enemy prefabs similar to Hideous Masses).
RADIANCE
Decrease Radiant Sentry, Virtue, Sisyphean Insurrectionist, and Cerberus speed modifier from 1.5x to 1.25x. All of these enemies pose significant threats on Brutal difficulty simply because of their changes, like Cerb double dashes, Sentries potentially being able to kill you in two seconds with two 50 damage shots, the area denial of Virtues, and the absurd speed of bugged Insurrectionist boulder swings at random. Reference links: InsurrsSentries
MISC
Have consistent CG leaderboard resets during new major patches, and after 1.0 is released, then have the board reset after a set amount of time. CG's leaderboard has not been reset since version 14b (to my knowledge), and resetting the board increases competition between players.
Host another "CG Pattern Democracy." Lots of players have been asking for another community pattern contest, and with the recent revival of #cyber-grind-patterns on UKDS, people have been wanting more and more patterns in base game.
ADDITIONAL THANKS
Thank you to the following people for helping me draft and collect issues to submit to this GitHub:
kekson1a
commented
2 weeks ago
The Cyber Grind is a lesser priority part of ULTRAKILL's current development compared to 16a's upcoming code rewrites and Fraud/Treachery. But it is still part of the game and I believe there are some major and minor issues with it. I personally hope tweaking it happens in a comfortable position between or after 16a/Fraud development, but here are the major things that I, top players, speedrunners, and multiple others think need changed with this game mode. I personally care about this game mode a great deal and believe these changes would put it in a much better state. A lot of specific enemy related changes (disregarding radiance) were also debated, but only radiance-related changes and CostIncreasePerSpawn-related changes will be brought up here, since some enemy-related changes will be likely brought up during 16a and onwards.
CORE CG CHANGES
PITR'S OFFICIAL PATTERN EDITOR
RADIANCE
MISC
ADDITIONAL THANKS
Thank you to the following people for helping me draft and collect issues to submit to this GitHub: