Duplicates: How to identify a dupe spawn
Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 5:11 pm
(edit: These posts were moved from Content to Tutorials to give you a general idea how we're cleaning things up - and are based on the results of EQ2PacketCollector data and PacketParser.exe results)
First, a definition:
An example of one complete spawn would be
1 record in the "spawn" table - ID 1.
1 record in the "spawn_npcs" table, referencing spawn_id 1.
1 record in the "zonespawngroup" table, naming the spawn point in the zone named "antonica_rats1" (example)
1 record (at least) in the "zonespawnentry" table, linking the zonespawngroup to individual spawn_id's
1 record (at least) in the "zonespawns" table coordinating the location where the spawn appears.
Don't forget your two npc_appearance* tables, if you want your NPCs to look a certain way. This topic will be discussed later. For now, we will adjust as needed the collected data (which should be mostly accurate)
Finally, onto Dupes! A "duplicate spawn" has two actual meanings:
1) The more troublesome issue is that we somehow inserted two identical objects into the "spawn*" tables.
Example:
You take 3 logs collected from various sources and run each one through the parser and -populate your DB separately (not the best process, but ok). Chances are, all 3 collected logs will have at least SOME of the same spawns in them. Take Dockmaster Wilson for example. He is in all 3 logs, and now you have a Wilson of spawn_id 120000, 121000 and 122000.
There can be only one. Maybe they should duel? Anyway... if you identify THIS kind of duplicate, you should probably report it to the DB Team to get it cleaned up and re-indexed (until there are tools available for you to do it yourself). Reason being, you will need to re-assign EVERY referring spawn_id that used to point to the old one, to the new one. No small task.
2) The lesser issue is that we simply captured/parsed too many of the same spawn_id in an area of a given zone. Here's an example that anyone who has ever logged into TessEQ2 has seen:
If you see a sapwill gobby with 10 "copies" of himself standing around, it is likely 9 of them are re-captures of that 1 gobby wandering around. Everyone remembers this great little quest on the Isle, where you have to help defend the outpost while hordes of these gobbies wander up. Each time the collecter sees a new NPC, it collects it. Thus, now we have 20 of the same NPC wandering from their spawn point to the outpost, when in fact maybe there are 3. Using sound judgement, and your expertise in your selected zone, eliminate the dupes by using the in-game command:
/spawn remove 1 (the 1 removes it from view immediately)
VERY IMPORTANT: Not all duplicates are duplicates! Just thought I would really confuse what might have been a simple task. One word: Placeholders
Sometimes you run passed an NPC collecting data and "an average sparring partner" is standing there. But the next time, or from another log you parsed, you wind up seeing 2 or more standing in the same x,y,z coords: If you look REAL close, you can almost see they are not the same exact models. The only way to really know is to almost peel them apart to see. Well what do you know, they are not dupes! So what this means is that sometimes the first model spawns, sometimes the second, but never at the same time. Voila! Placeholders.Unfortunately, PH's do not currently work so we'll skip those for now (update: 01/01/2009 - Placeholders have been working for some time 
). But eventually we'll need to set their "spawn_percentage" chance in the DB so they do not spawn together anymore.
So please, watch what you delete. It might be valid data!
More to come once this nonsense is absorbed.
First, a definition:
Currently, there are spawn_npcs, spawn_objects, spawn_widgets, spawn_signs, and spawn_loot. All these tables tie back to "spawn" - the root."spawn" - the common definition of an object/npc that can be spawned in a zone.
Currently, we have zonespawngroup, zonespawnentry, and zonespawns, which zonespawnentry is the intersection between a zonespawngroup and a "spawn" id."zonespawns" - the instance of said object/npc that appears in the zone
An example of one complete spawn would be
1 record in the "spawn" table - ID 1.
1 record in the "spawn_npcs" table, referencing spawn_id 1.
1 record in the "zonespawngroup" table, naming the spawn point in the zone named "antonica_rats1" (example)
1 record (at least) in the "zonespawnentry" table, linking the zonespawngroup to individual spawn_id's
1 record (at least) in the "zonespawns" table coordinating the location where the spawn appears.
Don't forget your two npc_appearance* tables, if you want your NPCs to look a certain way. This topic will be discussed later. For now, we will adjust as needed the collected data (which should be mostly accurate)
Finally, onto Dupes! A "duplicate spawn" has two actual meanings:
1) The more troublesome issue is that we somehow inserted two identical objects into the "spawn*" tables.
Example:
You take 3 logs collected from various sources and run each one through the parser and -populate your DB separately (not the best process, but ok). Chances are, all 3 collected logs will have at least SOME of the same spawns in them. Take Dockmaster Wilson for example. He is in all 3 logs, and now you have a Wilson of spawn_id 120000, 121000 and 122000.
There can be only one. Maybe they should duel? Anyway... if you identify THIS kind of duplicate, you should probably report it to the DB Team to get it cleaned up and re-indexed (until there are tools available for you to do it yourself). Reason being, you will need to re-assign EVERY referring spawn_id that used to point to the old one, to the new one. No small task.
2) The lesser issue is that we simply captured/parsed too many of the same spawn_id in an area of a given zone. Here's an example that anyone who has ever logged into TessEQ2 has seen:
If you see a sapwill gobby with 10 "copies" of himself standing around, it is likely 9 of them are re-captures of that 1 gobby wandering around. Everyone remembers this great little quest on the Isle, where you have to help defend the outpost while hordes of these gobbies wander up. Each time the collecter sees a new NPC, it collects it. Thus, now we have 20 of the same NPC wandering from their spawn point to the outpost, when in fact maybe there are 3. Using sound judgement, and your expertise in your selected zone, eliminate the dupes by using the in-game command:
/spawn remove 1 (the 1 removes it from view immediately)
VERY IMPORTANT: Not all duplicates are duplicates! Just thought I would really confuse what might have been a simple task. One word: Placeholders
Sometimes you run passed an NPC collecting data and "an average sparring partner" is standing there. But the next time, or from another log you parsed, you wind up seeing 2 or more standing in the same x,y,z coords: If you look REAL close, you can almost see they are not the same exact models. The only way to really know is to almost peel them apart to see. Well what do you know, they are not dupes! So what this means is that sometimes the first model spawns, sometimes the second, but never at the same time. Voila! Placeholders.
). But eventually we'll need to set their "spawn_percentage" chance in the DB so they do not spawn together anymore.So please, watch what you delete. It might be valid data!
More to come once this nonsense is absorbed.
