[MISSION] Skangus - Sporulation

V5.1 Changelog:

W2:
- Removed damage bonus on big flame pyros, made them Easy skill
- Lowered amount of crit soldiers from 16 -> 14 to reduce the chance of a few straggling

W3:
- Increased engie WaitBetweenSpawns from 6 -> 7. Made them Support Limited. Increased WaitBeforeStarting from 0 -> 15.

W4:
- Lowered amount of ghuntsmen from 8 -> 6, fire rate bonus changed from 0.3 -> 0.6, reload speed bonus removed
- Gave colonels and gbrasses Tag noflank and Tag forcefollowbombpath
- Increased gbrass WaitBeforeStarting from 16 -> 16.5 to stop them stacking with the colonels

W5:
- Reduced engie WaitBetweenSpawns from 8 -> 7. Made them Support Limited. Increased WaitBeforeStarting from 5 -> 15
- Reduced Rocket and Grenade Walls MaxActive from 2 -> 1
- Lowered gdeflector WaitBetweenSpawns from 13 -> 12

W6:
- Changed possible paths to only middle, left path does not play well
- Changed music to only use 1 wavespawn, and use # to be controllable by music volume
- Replaced tomislav heavies with stock minigun heavies
- Replaced gdf pyros with gbison bursts to put more pressure on medic shields

This mission is very deserving of a strike and it's surprising that it got this far without any strikes.

Demo file: https://eu-testing.moonlight.tf:27107/de...28.dem.zip

If an expert mission is defined at the standards that were used for Anniversary Annihilation, then this mission missed the mark very badly. It is a pure two-cities spamfest that is primarily a test of how much [crit] damage the team can shell out above all else. The only redeeming feature of this mission is the engineer getting behind the front lines and dropping a teleporter near the hatch, which at times (depending on the location of the bomb) caused a multi-sided assault (left, right, and behind), which is a worthy feature for expert difficulty. Aside from that, most of the difficulty derives from throwing tons of giant robots (especially a massive overuse of giant scouts, with more than half the waves using giant scouts) and slapping crits onto every other robot. The last wave alone featured 40 giant robots and 4 tanks. The wave with 2 tanks and 6 dragon fury pyros (wave 3?) should not have 1200 HP bowmen on infinite support, which is essentially pseudo-infinite giant support.

This mission would be better suited as a high-cash, spammy advanced mission after dialing the difficulty down in some places but it is not appropriate for expert and should not be admitted to an event in its current state. We have not tested this with a 2 cities meta but we predict that most of the rubbish that is thrown by this mission can be quickly neutralized with a heavy-medic combo, which is likely what the public would use in a live event.

STRIKE 1
Judges present: M1 (Engineer), Package (Scout), PDA (Pyro), Poet (Heavy), Skin King (Demo)
Demo link: https://us-testing.moonlight.tf:27107/de...00.dem.zip

Wave 1:
-The crits absolutely do not belong on this wave.
-The wave felt like sheer shitspam that could be either easily countered with medic or would steamroll you. No in between.

Wave 2:
-Even more crits!
-The all-crit gimmick is only good when there aren't crits on other waves AND when the bots can be dodged. Neither of these apply this wave.
-Probably one of the least objectionable waves, surprisingly.

Wave 3:
-One subwave wave. Structure the wave better so it's not just everything at once.
-The engineers on this wave (and every wave in general) were spammed to a pretty absurd degree--you'd kill them and they'd come back like mosquitoes.

Wave 4:
-By this point there was so much money that we could buyback spam. The waves never got "easier" so to speak, but the wave length was awfully short and therefore anyone with enough brain to spam canteens/buybacks would snooze through this wave and every subsequent wave.
-I suppose giant spam is only one level above common spam in enjoyability...

Wave 5:
-This wave was awfully forgettable and felt like a repeat of wave 4. See above as well.

Wave 6:
-This would have been an easy wave had it not been for the "no crit canteen" restriction on judges. See feedback for waves 4 and 5.

Overall:
-This mission really doesn't have too much going for it. It wasn't enjoyable almost at all, and definitely needs an overhaul.