Spawn Point BG2EE

[Machiavélique]

Hello all,

 

I regret that severals days and months after clearing a map no hostile creature comes back => The map is definitely deserted (and it seems strange to me).

I would like to improve my game experience by doing a cyclic reset of Spawn points. But the spawn system doesn't seem very advanced to me, I mean I can't find a way to do what I would like to do.

 

1°) My first objective is to have a spawn system with fixed values.

2°) My second objective is to be able to choose the time between spawn and spawn probability (but choosing the time between spawns seems something very difficult in the BG spawn system).

 

 

And I can't even achieve my first objective, here is a sample :

 

With this configuration, when the spawn occurs, the "Spawn pauses" flag switchs on TRUE. And the "countdown" field is automatically set to 72000 (tenths of a second => 2h in game time) whatever its previous value.

When "countdown" reaches 0 nothing happen cause the compressTime() method has not yet been called. (the compressTime() method is called after 16h in game time and will set the "Spawn pauses" flag to FALSE).

So, after every 16 hours (in game) the spawn point will be reset (a new spawn will occur and the old spawn will diseapear cause Creature duration (second) < Countdown (tenth of second).

If Creature duration is set on "-1" (Infinite duration) and you didn't kill the old creatures, there will be 2 groups of creatures instead of 1 (and 16 hours after 3 groups etc. I tested)

 

So with this configuration, my first objective seems OK but...

If you kill the Creatures linked to the spawn, save the game and reload... The spawn occurs whereas "Spawn pauses" is set on True and "Countdown" field is over 71000 (data from my test save).

It seems the compressTime() method is called just after a reload game (I tested what happend if I don't kill creatures and I reload the game => Nothing change, I have the same game as when I saved and that seems to confirm compressTime() is called after a reload).

 

EDIT :

I wonder if it's possible to edit "Spawn Point" fields in a current game (with a BCS script or other). It seems there are no way to do this.

Edited February 24, 2022 by Machiavélique
other question

[lynx]

Didn't bg2ee automatically gain the iwd/pst ini spawn feature? That's more flexible and more easily tied to scripting than bothering with the ARE spawn entries:

https://gibberlings3.github.io/iesdp/file_formats/ie_formats/ini_spawn.htm

[Machiavélique]

Thanks

I didn't know INI file format: Creature Spawning.

 

My intention wasn't to create new Spawn points. I wanted to use the spawns that already existed and just make them cyclical.

 

Indeed Ini file format seems very flexible but don't work for creatures from spawngrp.2da, game crash if I try to spawn RDundead (I think problem is no CRE, I didn't try to create a RDundead.cre).

How do you get the coordinates of a spawn point with a weidu script ? Do you read the full content of the spawn point value and then sort the string to get the coordinates?

 

EDIT :

Ok... I found how to do it

Edited February 25, 2022 by Machiavélique

[jmerry]

BG2EE already has a number of spawn points that reset, generally spawning monsters of a single type with numbers that theoretically scale with the party BGEE-style.

They're just terribly broken.

First, the "frequency" is usually set to zero. From my observations, they'll be ready to spawn again as soon as you leave to a new "master area" and come back, regardless of how long that is in game. I think that frequency is interpreted as a time interval; the higher it is, the longer you'll have to wait.

Second, the "encounter difficulty" parameter is laughably low, usually 2 instead of the BGEE standard of 200. This affects the number of monsters spawned; the game keeps adding monsters until their total "power level" exceeds a value based on that parameter or reaches the spawn point's cap. I think that value is "Encounter Difficulty" times (sum of party member's levels) divided by 100. Here are some BGEE power levels for reference: XVART 4, BANDIT 6, SPIDHU 14 (Huge Spider) ANKHEG 25, WOLFVA 30 (Vampiric Wolf), DOPPLE 35 (Lesser Doppelganger), DOPPGR 80 (Greater Doppelganger). And yes, all of those appear at spawn points. So then, in BG2EE, you get spawn points like the one on the way to the drawbridge controls - trolls (power 28) or ice trolls (power 15), maximum 3, encounter difficulty 2. You'll only ever see one enemy at a time there.

Third, many of the monsters that appear at these spawn points weren't considered for it properly, and have a "power level" of zero. For example, there's a spawn point for mind flayers near where you first enter the underdark, and a spawn point each for beholders and gauths in the beholder hive down there. All three of those monsters have "power level" zero, so the spawn points will always keep going until you hit the cap - three for the mind flayer and gauth points, two for the beholder point. Or if you meddle ... I made a tweak without properly understanding the systems, and raised those caps to 10. Scary.