Brainstorm help (monster spawn)

[kelly1111]

I want to create a system which will respawn monsters after a certain time (or amount) when some monsters are killed in a level (or area)
what is the best way to set this up?

It needs to be in a way so that is not directly exploitable, say for instance ... kill a monster, respawn, kill, respawn... to farm exp
But adds to the dynamics and atmosphere of the level.. in other words I don't want the level to be empty / dead when all monsters are killen
(I use this level as a connection between levels and the party will have to travel through it often)

Any tips on how to set this up ?

[AndakRainor]

I use this in my project:

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Code: Select all

defineObject{
  name = "spawner_script",
  components = {
    {
      class = "Timer",
      timerInterval = 10,
      triggerOnStart = false,
      currentLevelOnly = true,
      onActivate = function(self)
        local ent,dis = self.go.data:get("entity"),self.go.data:get("distance") or 6
        if ent then
          if party.level == self.go.level then
            local dx, dy, dz = party.x-self.go.x, party.y-self.go.y, party.elevation-self.go.elevation
            if dx*dx + dy*dy + dz*dz < dis*dis then return end
          end
          local num,old,new = self.go.data:get("number") or 3,self.go.data:get("children") or {}, {}
          for _,id in ipairs(old) do if findEntity(id) then new[#new+1] = id end end
          if #new<num then
            local e = self.go:spawn(ent)
            if e.monstergroup then
              e.monstergroup:spawnNow()
              for m in self.go.map:entitiesAt(self.go.x, self.go.y) do
                if m.elevation == self.go.elevation and m.monster then
                  new[#new+1] = m.id
                end
              end
            else
              new[#new+1] = e.id
            end
          end
          self.go.data:set("children", new)
        end
      end,
    },
    {
      class = "Script",
      name = "data",
      source = [[
        data = {entity="green_slime",number=3,distance=6}
        function get(self,name) return self.data[name] end
        function set(self,name,value) self.data[name] = value end
      ]],      
    },
  },
  placement = "floor",
  tags = { "scripting" },
  editorIcon = 80,
}

Every 10 seconds, if inside the current level, if the party is at least <distance> tiles away (euclidian), if it has not already spawned <number> entities (still "alive"), this object will spawn a new <entity>.

Also, I don't really get how you will make a respawn system useless for experience farming, unless you spawn monsters granting 0 exp of course.

[kelly1111]

Marvelous !!!
This was what I was looking for , many thanks

[AndakRainor]

Note that this object works to spawn monsters groups too... But in this case, each individual monster counts as one entity when checking if the object should continue spawning.
Also, you can spawn non monsters objects with it, like periodic (and limited in number) fireballs to set up a trap for example.