8 réponses à ce sujet

[Youkai]

 So I have been working on this persistent world project for awhile when time and interest permits. Right now it runs, and is playable, but I am trying to polish up the areas both visually and performance-wise.
Right now I use a standard area cleanup script that deletes all hostiles, corpses, etc... once the player leaves an area. I have been using legends spawn system, but I also use encounters for some areas. I kind of like using encounters because they require little external content and seem to work fine overall.
So as for my questions... Do any PWs use encounters instead of spawning scripts or systems? Is it feasible to use these? Is there any way to add a script to them or a variable so they only respawn once everything created by them is dead?
Any input on these things would be nice.

Here is a list of my playable areas in case anyone is curious:
Waterdeep: 
Trades Ward (Riven Shield Shop, Inn of Dripping Dagger)
Sea Ward (Various enterable or forced-entry estates, Gounar's Tavern, Maaril's Tower)
Castle Ward (Yawing Portal Inn, Castle Waterdeep)
Docks Ward (The Soaring Pegasus, Uwori's House, Warehouse)
South Ward (Telethar's Leathers)
City of the Dead: Hall of Sages, House of the Homeless, Lords' Respite, Merchant's Rest
Umberlee's Cache, Undermountain - Level 1, Sewers (Docks, Trades, South)
Luskan: South of River Mirabar areas, Ruins of Illusk, Host Tower - Level 1, 2, The Cutlass
Trade Way Areas: 3 Outdoor areas, Goblin Cave
High Forest: West, Tall Trees, Old Way, Worg Den, Shadow Druid Enclave, Grandfather Tree
Ardeep Forest: Bandit Camp
Plains: 1 Near Waterdeep, Gnoll Fort
Nether Mountains: Outdoors, Tomb of Deckon Thar
Dragonspear Castle: Outdoors, 5 Levels, third level is a labyrinth taken from a sourcebook filled with traps and a mixture of monsters.
Amphail Village: Stone Stallion, Pond Cave, Stag-Horned Flagon, Dalrosz Kothont's Cellar, Ulvinhand Smithy
Old Ruined Graveyard: Ruined Crypt - 2 Levels
Mt. Hotenow: Fire Giant Cave
Sword Mountains: Broken Tusk Clan Cave (Orcs)
Underdark: Upperdark, Middledark, Umber Hulk Cave, Ruined Temple, Kuo Toa Cave/Temple

[luna_hawke]

I've played on PW's that uses encounters.
It seems to work.
There might be some potential for lag spikes if you spawn to many creatures in one encounter.

[Youkai]

Thanks for the reply Luna. Yes, that is one issue I hear of on encounters.

[MasterChanger]

I've built a PW using encounters. You will get lag spikes when they spawn but it's not usually a huge deal. You definitely have to set up your triggers carefully to make sure the creatures don't pop up right in front of the players' faces.

The encounter won't respawn until all members are dead. However, encounter creatures can easily be dragged to an exit if they chase a player and then jump a new player as they re-enter. I used on-area-enter scripts to jump them back to the spawn point, but this is less elegant than complete spawn systems like NESS. With NESS, most of the work is done during loading screens, which could possibly make loading screens take longer, but the player likely won't notice.

[Dragonsbane777_]

We use encounters with great success. To cover the small issues, we:

1) make sure the encounter trigger is large enough to spawn things without people seeing them, and so that this happens no matter if they are entering the area or leaving it in reverse, for when people leave a hunt zone
2) make sure the spawn points are placed far as well, so with #1 you never see them spawn
3) we have a cleaning script that is set for 1 second less that the encounter timers, so just before they reset, the previous encounters are cleared.

We also use them in stores, but the cleaning script removes them 60 seconds after a person leaves the area and then resets the encounter.

They work great. I can understand why some might not use them, but I have found they work great with the above precautions.

[Youkai]

Dragonsbane777_ wrote...
1) make sure the encounter trigger is large enough to spawn things without people seeing them, and so that this happens no matter if they are entering the area or leaving it in reverse, for when people leave a hunt zone
2) make sure the spawn points are placed far as well, so with #1 you never see them spawn

Thanks for the replies everyone, I appreciate the input!
What exactly do you mean about making them large enough so people will not see them? I recently ditched a spawning system I was using and did not like. Most of my spawn points are one or two rooms away from the entry areas so they do not spawn and attack entering players. I also have an area cleanup script that runs every time the area is empty of players.

[Youkai]

MasterChanger wrote...
The encounter won't respawn until all members are dead.

So that is an automatic feature? I was unaware of that. I have mine all set with reactivation delays as well, so I guess that means that it will only respawn if the creatures are all dead AND the timer has finished?

[Dragonsbane777_]

Large enough so that they do not see them wink into existence. If you are in an outdoor area, far enough so its over a hill or around a corner, or something similar.

[Youkai]

Dragonsbane777_ wrote...

Large enough so that they do not see them wink into existence. If you are in an outdoor area, far enough so its over a hill or around a corner, or something similar.

Ah, that makes sense. My placement of the encounters and thier spawn points are pretty much already arranged like that.