This guide will tell you how to properly set up spawn groups in game. This guide assumes two things - your world is populated with spawns and you have several spawns you want to add to a spawn group. OK, lets get started.

This will be divided into two scenarios. Scenario 1 is a simple example that involves grouping 2 or more spawns into a group and doesn't involve any group rotations (groups that are different but spawn at the same location, only 1 at a time). Scenario 2 involves setting a group up with group rotations.

Scenario 1:
1. Select the first spawn that you wish to add to the group and use the command /spawn group create to create the new group.
2. Next, select the next spawn that will be in this group and use the /spawn group add command with the group id that was given in step 1.
3. /repop the zone to complete.

Scenario 2:
1. Remove any duplicate spawns you might have in the area that are spawning where you want your spawn group to be located. If you have 4 spawns at the same location and 2 of them are exactly the same, get rid of the duplicates by either combing them or removing them entirely.
2. Perform steps 1 and 2 (for scenario 1) for each separate group that you want to use the same spawn cycle. Be sure to remember the group IDs for each group.
3. After you have added the groups, you need to associate the groups together so that World knows to only spawn one at a time. Select one of the spawn groups and use the /spawn group associate command and pass it the group IDs (one at a time) of the OTHER group(s) you want to associate to this one.
4. /repop the zone to complete.
5. Optionally you can give each spawn group a different spawn rate with the /spawn group chance command. For a list of all commands just use /spawn group.

This works great! LE and I were just testing some scenarios out, and it seems to be working as intended. I'll get the code on Dev asap so we can learn how to config things up, then I'll push it to TessEQ2 and set up a few sample groups on Outpost of the Overlord that we know are configured this way.

Thank you LE for this super huge addition. One more step towards finishing off the Islands!

What purpose does spawn_location_group.name, the "name" field, serve? Is that just to be friendly, like zonespawngroup was?

What I see it doing is only inserting the name when I first create the group, and anything I add to the existing group does not copy the name to the new record.

Not a biggie, but wondering if we really need "name", and should it be forced at /spawn group create time anyway? Maybe not. Or, how about this... if "name" = "auto", make the world create a name automatically... like, zonename_spawnname combo or something useful like that.

Edited:

nevermind, I think I figured out what my problem is. Not sure if this is a bug, or by design, or what... but what I have done was targeted a Falconer, created group 5 off her. Then I targeted her hawk, and added that spawn to group 5. I then returned to the 2 piles of Protectors and did my /spawn combine on the 2 separate stacks of NPCs.

Then I /repop'd.

Falconer and Hawk are not spawning, but the 2 piles of Protectors now placeholder properly (and are not yet in a spawn group).

If I use /spawn group associate, those groupings are spawning fine. If it's a stand-alone, single grouping, no pop.


Edit2: Just experimenting, I removed spawn group 5 and 6, the two I created BEFORE cleaning up the piles and repopping, and now they spawn fine. So immediately, I am ok. Not sure still if this is a bug with spawning, or by design - to not spawn non-associated spawn groups

Heh, check out this crazy scenario... and it works, brilliantly. Very happy at this late hour!

First, the visual (i know how much you guys love my pictures):

Inventory of Spawns:

• Left side, 3 protectors, a hawk and a bear.
  Right side, , 3 protectors, a hawk and a bear.
  By fire, 2 falconers, 2 bearmasters

The goal:

• Of the 6 protector models (3 models on each side), 2 must spawn together at their location.
  
  If they do not spawn, then a falconer must, along with it's hawk - but, the falconer is always at the fire, the hawk can be either on the left -OR- the right.
  
  Same with the bearmaster. He's always at the fire, his bear can be in either of the 2 locations.

The Solution:
Takes 5 spawn groups to make this work.

• 1 for protectors
  1 for 1 falconer and hawk on left
  1 for 1 falconer and hawk on right
  1 for 1 beastmaster and bear on left
  1 for 1 beastmaster and bear on right

Oh, and did I mention the falconer and beastmaster have 2-3 models that could spawn there as well (male/female/race/appearance)?

In the end, it all worked out fine.

Thanks again, LE. Great job!

John Adams wrote: Edit2: Just experimenting, I removed spawn group 5 and 6, the two I created BEFORE cleaning up the piles and repopping, and now they spawn fine. So immediately, I am ok. Not sure still if this is a bug with spawning, or by design - to not spawn non-associated spawn groups

Nope, definitely a bug if you can't spawn a group that hasnt been associated. I'll look into it.