Spawn
From Neverend
[edit] Spawn conditions
Before a monster spawns, it considers what conditions it is spawnign under. This is a "pre-spawn" phase where a monster is planning to appear. At this phase the monster is invisible, inactive, adn exists as a point. Oncce the conditions are answered, it appears in the game.
- Who: Is the monster appearing for a player, for an NPC, for another monster, for a building, for a terrain type, for a quest or event, from a spell or item, from a trap, or from a flagged event? Does the monster belong to anyone? Does the monster belong to a quest? Is the monster targetable by anyone (public) or is it targetable by a specific player/party or specific class, group, city, or quest/event participant (restricted)?
- What: Is it a monster, animal, or NPC? is it a default monster, or a quest or event specific monster? Does it have variations in appearance or is it a default model? What is it wearing or equipped with? What treasure does it have in inventory or what treasure pool is it using? Is it using default spells and abilities? Is the monster using default stats r does it have difficulty bonuses? What class or job is the monster?
- Where: Is the monster going to exist on its own, or will it exist when the player is within a certain range, within sight, triggers a condition, steps on a spot, enters an area or building, or has flagged a specific condition?
- When: Will the monster appear now, wait until a specific condition, wait until a specific radius or distance from something else, appear at a certain time, or appear when a player has a certain level of skill or a certain number of players are in the area?
- Why: Is the monster a random encounter, an ecology or hive creature, a quest encounter, a challenge, an easy encounter, a tough encounter, or a group/city challenge?
How: How will the monster act and respond to threats? Will it use default behavior, hide, ambush, sneak, track, trap, follow, or use stealth? Will it be performing a specific activity instead of idling (resource gathering, constructing, training, healing, scouting, guarding), will it have a specific role in a party, group, city, hive, outpost, or camp? Will it be agressive, on guard, sneaky, or use dialogue/negotiation?
In a MMO you can have monsters appear near you and attack. This is common for an online game where monsters have to appear somewhere regardless of where the player is. But for a single player game it would be unnacceptable for a monster to just appear in the middle of fighting other monsters, unless there was a good reason such as calling for backup, summoning, cutscene introduction, etc.
I'd like different methods of spawning to be present. Player based spawning takes in to account what players are nearby, and spawns monsters that are a good distance away, so the player never actually sees them spawn. The monsters are spawned appropriate to their area, such as forest creatures in a forest, mountain creatures in a mountain, and cave creatures in a cave. The difficulty of monsters is either associated with the difficulty of the land itself, or by the players so that weaker monsters tend to exist around weaker groups.
The other factor is the amount of monsters, whether it be groups of weak monsters or a couple strong monsters, or one powerful "boss" monster. This can be based on the number of players in the area, with a min and max (a hill has 3-10 orcs based on players in area, etc). Monster population also ties in to difficulty, depending on how many monsters a player is supposed to handle in a fight or in a party (Diablo II/Dungeon Siege vs EQ/AO). WoW tends to go the speedkill route, with multiple monsters that can be slain. If the monsters were more difficult when more players were around, like multiplayer Diablo II, then it would be more balanced.
Player based spawning may also help with server processing and lag. If a monster habitat, cave, nest, or town had a lot of monsters, then they would be inactive when no players are around for 500-1000 feet. When players are around, they become active. This may seem like an artificial limit on the virtual monster population, but all that can be done with math. It's a simulation, and doesn't need visual representation, just cold hard calculations. For example, a monster community is building a castle. A formula takes in to account number of monsters, materials available, time needed, skill and intelligence level, etc.
The monsters are not animated and do not move. But they do have a starting position, a current action, and a current progress (such as castle building: 50%). So when a player does come within 500-1000 ft of the area, the monsters become active, using their starting position, current action, and current progress so that the player happens to see a castle being built, with monsters nearby it, in the middle of building. But when no players are around to see it, it's all computed instead of being shown. Kind of creepy.
Besides player based difficulty, player based population, and player based monster activity, there are other methods of spawning monsters.
Scripted spawning occurs on certain objects. Wolves come out of bushes, bears come out of cave entrances, zombies and skeletons come from graves, giant squid come from lakes or rivers. This is similar to location based spawning, but the monster is created at that moment for the player to face, and deal with immediately.
Location based spawning has the monster appear based on landscape features, such as forests, mountains, desert, lakes, cities, but the monster exists there long before the player arrives.
Monster based spawning takes place with monsters using summoning items, summoning spells, summoning abilities, summoning rituals, robot creation, necromancy, and experiments.
Monsters will also spawn around appropriate skill/class types, such as an animal tamer or druid having pets by their side, a summoner having a summoned monster already, a scientist having a robot servant, etc.
Some monsters exist as spell creatures, such as elementals or magic creatures that last as long as the caster is alive or the spell is in effect. An "animate" spell causes a chair, table, or suit of armor to act as a magic creature until the spell wears off or the monster is killed. A poltergeist or other spirit may possess objects in the same way, causing them to be magical creatures that attack.
Last, players and NPCs who are under the influence of mind control are temporarily "monsters" for the duration of the spell. When the spell wears off, NPCs disregard its previous actions such as attacking others, unless it attacks again on its own.
you could maybe even add that if a certain spawn area is not attacked for a while, it could spawn a few bigger mobs, so less frequented areas tend to get a little more dangerous and maybe thus more interesting again, at least once.
Monster infested areas have a spawn rate that generates monsters based on the affected area size, such as a cave or town. The spawn rate decreases as monsters are killed, and goes bck to its original number when monsters are left alone. When the spawn rate reaches 0, spawning stops in that area. Remaining monsters may still roam the area, but no new ones will spawn.
The strength of monsters in the area is the average power level, based on the average power level of players in the area. This number can be told to adjust upward or downward based on player power level, decrease only, remain static without increase or decrease, increase over time, or decrease over time. It can also specify a survey interval to check for a new average power level, or check only once, or start at a set number without checking.
spawn area: a spawn area is an area that places spawn points. It can have several settings:
spawn at terrain appropiate area spawn at most strategic areas spawn at specific conditions for quest spawn when x distance from x player only spawn when x distance from any player only spawn at x time only
spawn density determines how many monsters should occupy an area, and how many new spawn points should be created. High density should have fewer spawn points or no spawn points. Spawn density can have different patterns of spawn point generation within an area:
Evenly distributed Denser at entrance Denser at center Denser near treasure Denser near rooms Denser near leader Low density but high power High density but low power Medium density medium power Random distribution 1-15 (1 is low, 15 is high. Does not spawn in walls, objects, items, or when monsters are already occupying the same area within 1-3 feet).
