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victim913

Make spawn "centers" or realistic vehicle spawn points

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This is mostly about vehicles ( i saw an alice thread, this is different).But it can work with civilians too.

I never use Ambient Civilian Traffic in Arma2 because I will get a tractor or bus spawned in a base. Or Cars spawning on a hill, or in the middle of an intersection or just really retarded areas. Alot of the times civilians don't spawn in the best places IF it even works. And some islands don't support it.

So my idea is this: Have some type of a "Spawn Location" that is placeable in the editor like an object or trigger.

1- a spawn location that will spawn 1 person every set amount of time

2-a spawn location for a vehicle that only spawns 1 vehicle, but will not spawn another in that spot unless the first vehicle moves

3- a "group spawn" that you can change the size (like a trigger) and that will be used for group centers like the markets etc. Where the amount of civilians spawned depends on the size of the area.

4- a manned vehcile spawn location.

Or you can modify the Ambient civilian stuff so that if youplace the module in the editor, markers show up on the map where they will spawn (ex 10 civilain spawns, 4 vehicles) then you can move the markers around. So they can be random and/or specific.

I think that will put the civilian spawns like Alice etc. out of the hands of island makers who may not have a clue, and it will allow mission maker to take control of civilians. That way it will always work according to mission. Especially when BI releases a map that does not support ALice ( I think Shapur doesn't).

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Mmmmm... Realistic spawning :)

I was once driving across the UK, idly considering how I would randomly spawn items that I could see in a realistic way without anything obviously improbable happening.

With that, I drove past a ploughed field, and right in the middle of the ploughed field was a Hillman Imp next to a sleeping duck. I knew then that any placement algorithm would be outclassed by reality.

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Mmmmm... Realistic spawning :)

I was once driving across the UK, idly considering how I would randomly spawn items that I could see in a realistic way without anything obviously improbable happening.

With that, I drove past a ploughed field, and right in the middle of the ploughed field was a Hillman Imp next to a sleeping duck. I knew then that any placement algorithm would be outclassed by reality.

you sir, won the internet :yay:

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With that, I drove past a ploughed field, and right in the middle of the ploughed field was a Hillman Imp next to a sleeping duck. I knew then that any placement algorithm would be outclassed by reality.

Seems reasonable, the duck was obviously aware of the dangers of driving while fatigued, so had pulled over for a nap. Other than that he was pissed as a newt and thought that he was home. :)

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This is mostly about vehicles ( i saw an alice thread, this is different).But it can work with civilians too.

I never use Ambient Civilian Traffic in Arma2 because I will get a tractor or bus spawned in a base. Or Cars spawning on a hill, or in the middle of an intersection or just really retarded areas. Alot of the times civilians don't spawn in the best places IF it even works. And some islands don't support it.

So my idea is this: Have some type of a "Spawn Location" that is placeable in the editor like an object or trigger.

1- a spawn location that will spawn 1 person every set amount of time

2-a spawn location for a vehicle that only spawns 1 vehicle, but will not spawn another in that spot unless the first vehicle moves

3- a "group spawn" that you can change the size (like a trigger) and that will be used for group centers like the markets etc. Where the amount of civilians spawned depends on the size of the area.

4- a manned vehcile spawn location.

Or you can modify the Ambient civilian stuff so that if youplace the module in the editor, markers show up on the map where they will spawn (ex 10 civilain spawns, 4 vehicles) then you can move the markers around. So they can be random and/or specific.

I think that will put the civilian spawns like Alice etc. out of the hands of island makers who may not have a clue, and it will allow mission maker to take control of civilians. That way it will always work according to mission. Especially when BI releases a map that does not support ALice ( I think Shapur doesn't).

I think the civie one makes sense. If you're going to go about placing ones for individual vehicles though you might as well place individual vehicles. I once had a car spawn on the balcony of one of those under construction buildings (theres one in Cherno, near Orvolets/Polana, and in Zargabad)

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So my idea is this: Have some type of a "Spawn Location" that is placeable in the editor like an object or trigger.

1- a spawn location that will spawn 1 person every set amount of time

2-a spawn location for a vehicle that only spawns 1 vehicle, but will not spawn another in that spot unless the first vehicle moves

3- a "group spawn" that you can change the size (like a trigger) and that will be used for group centers like the markets etc. Where the amount of civilians spawned depends on the size of the area.

4- a manned vehcile spawn location.

Good ideas.

Things you are missing: (imo)

- a person should not spawn every set amount of time, but whenever a player is near enough to the area. Whenever that person has left the spawn spot (after the behaviour script kicks in) the spot is free again to spawn more persons.

- all spawn spots need to be centralized to some sort of main area. that way you could manage the maximum number of spawns near it to prevent massive fps drops / server lockups.

- masses of civilians don't need to be spawned as a mass. something i did in the past was to give spawned civilians a behaviour that would make them go to certain markers, in your case it would be easy to make them search for the nearest 'market' marker and simulate talking / walking behaviour there.

- spawn spots could be easily marked as 'person' or 'vehicle' or 'vehicle_empty' spawns.

I made something like this in the past (ArmA1), but without the spawning part. Basically i gave every person a role, that role had defined behaviour scripts and these scripts made the person go to specific markers and show some specific behaviour. Worked pretty good, but was never finished / used in a mission.

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More information regarding realistic spawning can be seen here and here.

Edited by Laqueesha

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Mmmmm... Realistic spawning :)

I was once driving across the UK, idly considering how I would randomly spawn items that I could see in a realistic way without anything obviously improbable happening.

With that, I drove past a ploughed field, and right in the middle of the ploughed field was a Hillman Imp next to a sleeping duck. I knew then that any placement algorithm would be outclassed by reality.

You are making that shit up, everyone knows ducks only drive Riley Elfs.

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You are making that shit up, everyone knows ducks only drive Riley Elfs.

My car recognition is not that great I'll concede. Then again, it could have been a curlew.

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