Am using the global settings:
Squad Hunt Radius = 300
Hunting Squad Size = 50
Retreat Size = 35

Is there a way to have the robots guard the area around a point on the map that I pick? For example, if there are any enemies 300 distance from a drone assembler/guard station/patrol point then attack, but otherwise return?

I have set "Squad Hunt Radius" but it seems like this is based on the group's current location rather than the assembler they gathered at, they find one enemy base, then find another one close to the first, then find another one close to the second... before I know it they are 600+ distance away from the original drone assemblers and wiped out...

Also, how is the group retreat suppose to work? They seem to fight to the death.

The new "hybrid targeting" method sets a 500 tile defend radius where the distance is calculated from the squad's home assembler. The squad hunt radius is checked after the 'guard' radius is considered clear (no enemies found during the check). Squad hunt radius is from the squad's current position, so yes they will just keep fighting until they die basically - UNLESS the assembler radius starts having more enemies in it, they will attempt to come back to the assembler radius to try to clear it again.

in the mod's config folder, in config.lua, you will see a line called:
"Default_keep_radius_clear" = 500. This is the 500 tiles I refer to around the assembler.

If you want to change this to 300, and set squad hunt radius to 50 or some other very low number, they will do what you want.

I gave it a try, set hunting distance to 50-100. Didnt modify the config, left clear distance on 500. All of my Droid Assemblers are next to each other in the same area, 1 mixed group of robots gathering in front of them.

Was playing for hours while the aliens expanded, the closest base was about 150 distance away. But, the robots were only willing to attack after I raised the hunting range and/or moved them into hunting range with the command tool...

hm.. were the squads at the right size? if global_targeting_method is == 3 in the config, then it should be doing the "keep radius clear" method I talked about.

the targeting methods only come into play if the squad has transitioned into hunting mode, meaning their number is high enough and they aren't being forced to retreat (if the retreat value is set to something that makes sense)

I will have to try and repeat this situation to work out what's going wrong, another thing is if you changed out the mod between saves and all the data was cleared, then the assemblers might need to be picked up and put down again.. to add them back into the list.. possibly that is what is happening??

I can see global_targeting_method set in the zip, squad size confirmed with command tool. Just tried picking up all the assemblers & robots and redeploying them, no effect.

i think what is happening is the enemies are not close enough to trigger the hunting code, because of the short hunt radius.. I'll do some testing and see if i can work out the correct combination or find the bug in the code and get back to you on this. Do you have a factorio forum username I can private message when I have an answer for you?

created an account last week - same username. Cant send PMs due to new account forum rules, though I assume I can receive them.

I just sent you a PM with more contact info, or maybe it will allow you to reply to me on there.

In the recent github files for Unstable branch, the behaviours now work exactly as you have requested (and was intended to work like that..). Set the hunt radius to something low, and let the squad just react to the 500 tile "keep clear" radius around their nearest assembler.