Director with weighted choices

Weights on a Random Selector are graph data, so the designer who wants brutes rarer edits a number.

The problem

Every wave the same. Players learn the pattern and the tension goes. Randomizing it in code means a switch on Random.Range buried in a spawner, and the designer who wants brutes to be rarer has to file a ticket.

The shape

A state machine for the phases, and a Random Selector inside the phase that needs variety.

HordeDirector.bqbehavior holds three states: Build Up, Surge, and Relax, with transitions that read elapsed time and the live enemy count. The Surge state runs a Random Selector named Choose Surge whose three children carry weights.

Figure 1. The editor shows each branch’s raw weight and the share it works out to, so a designer reads the odds without doing arithmetic.

Surge carries a repeat lifetime, so each pass through the state rolls again. The weights are graph data, which means tuning the feel of the game is an edit in a window.

Nodes it uses

• Random Selector for the weighted pick.
• State and Entry State for the three phases.
• Transition with condition groups: Build Up leaves on an All group of elapsed time and enemy count, while Surge leaves on an Any group so either a timeout or a crowd ends it.
• Blackboard values for every threshold, including build_up_duration, surge_duration, and surge_live_enemy_limit.

Reuse it

The director does not spawn anything. Each action asks the game’s own spawner for a flavor of wave, and the game owns budgets, pooling, and placement. That split is what lets you retune pacing without touching spawn code.

Change one thing

Set the Brute weight to 20 and leave the other two alone. The editor recalculates the shares immediately, brutes become the common case, and nothing in C# changed.

Next

• Attack with cooldown: what an individual enemy does once a surge spawns it.
• Horde Survival chapter: the benchmark scene and how to run it.