Dynamic Pressure

Dynamic Pressure

You started an arms race.

Now the enemies are joining it too.

Dynamic Pressure adds extra enemy pressure on top of the original game without replacing or reducing vanilla spawns. The mod watches the current combat state in real time and only adds enemies when the surrounding pressure is considered too low.

What It Does

Dynamic Pressure monitors the current level and calculates a pressure value based on nearby hostile NPCs, engaged enemies, enemies targeting the player, and enemies that know the player position.

When the pressure is below the configured target, the mod can spawn additional enemies using the current level's existing enemy pool. Vanilla enemy spawning is not reduced or replaced.

The goal is not to turn every room into an endless monster flood. The goal is to reduce low-pressure gaps and make the run feel more aggressive.

Current Balance Status

Balance is still experimental.

The pressure calculation itself appears to be working, but the default balance is not fully tuned yet. In particular, the current Nightmare style may not feel as nightmarish as expected under the default settings.

You can enable the debug overlay to see the real-time pressure value, spawn decisions, block reasons, and current mod impact. Use those values to tune the difficulty to your preference.

Pressure Styles

The mod has three configurable pressure styles:

Style 1 - Light

A small pressure increase.

Intended to fill low-pressure gaps without changing the overall feel too much.

Style 2 - Heavy

A stronger pressure increase.

Low-pressure rooms should feel more active, and combat downtime should be reduced.

Style 3 - Nightmare

The highest pressure setting.

This is intended to create a more oppressive experience, but the current default values may still be too conservative. Increase the recommended values below if you want a harsher version.

Important Config

EnableMod = true

EnableAutoSpawn = true

PressureStyle = 1EnableAutoSpawn must be true for the mod to spawn enemies automatically.

If it is false, the mod will still load and show debug information, but it will not actively spawn enemies except through manual debug testing.

Debug Overlay

The debug overlay is strongly recommended while tuning the mod.

It shows information such as:

• []Current pressure[/]

  []Target pressure[/]

  []Pressure deficit[/]

  []Original hostile count[/]

  []Mod-spawned hostile count[/]

  []Spawn decision[/]

  []Block reason[/]

  []Last spawned enemy[/]

  []Whether mod-spawned enemies are targeting the player[/]

Useful block reasons include:

PressureAlreadyHigh

NoEngagedOriginalHostiles

NoValidNpcSpawnPoint

RecentDamage

MaxModSpawnedAlive

NoOriginalKillProgress

SpawnBudgetPerOriginalExceededIf the mod is not spawning, check the overlay first. It usually explains why.

Recommended Settings

The following settings are recommended as a better starting point than the early debug defaults.

Light

TargetPressure = 6

SpawnCooldown = 16

MaxSpawnPerWave = 1

MaxModSpawnedAlive = 2

MaxModSpawnedPerRoom = 3

MaxModSpawnedPerLevel = 8Heavy

TargetPressure = 9

SpawnCooldown = 10

MaxSpawnPerWave = 1

MaxModSpawnedAlive = 4

MaxModSpawnedPerRoom = 5

MaxModSpawnedPerLevel = 16Nightmare

TargetPressure = 13

SpawnCooldown = 7

MaxSpawnPerWave = 2

MaxModSpawnedAlive = 6

MaxModSpawnedPerRoom = 8

MaxModSpawnedPerLevel = 28If Nightmare still feels too mild, try:

TargetPressure = 16

SpawnCooldown = 5

MaxSpawnPerWave = 2

MaxModSpawnedAlive = 8

MaxModSpawnedPerRoom = 10

MaxModSpawnedPerLevel = 36For a more extreme test: