spawner/spawning problem

[zeltak]

What I'm trying to do is have a set number of skeleton patrols patrolling an area almost constantly and I figured out I could use Shroom's little script for checking things in an area. I couldn't figure out how to check how many things are in the given area so I thought I would make a 3 new specific monster for the task and check each one of them individually. So I cloned 3 skeleton patrols.
eg.

Code: Select all

cloneObject{
	name = "Patrol_1",
	baseObject = "skeleton_patrol",
	}

and so on.

Then I added connector from a hidden plate to the lua script.

Shroom's script was this:

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    function checkPatrol1()
       if checkForThings("Patrol_1",12,21,1,16) then
          spawn("Patrol_1", party.level, 13, 15, 1)
       end
    end

    function checkForThings(thing,xMin,xMax,yMin,yMax)
       for x = xMin,xMax do
          for y = yMin,yMax do
             for object in entitiesAt(1,x,y) do
                if object.name == thing then
                   return false
                end
             end
          end
       end
       return true
    end

Problem is that it won't spawn any new Patrol_1's after the initially placed Patrol_1 is dead. In this way or tied to a spawner (eg. I replaced the "spawn" -line with spawner_1:activate() -command). Is there something wrong with the "spawn" -line? When replaced with the spawner activation it doesn't allow me to spawn my new creature type or if I try to spawn a new skeleton_patrol with the name "Patrol_1" it doesn't do that either.

[Shroom]

Your logic is wrong - you are checking for the existance of something and if it exists, your trying to spawn another with the same name - which wont happen.

add == false after the checkThings() call

ie

Code: Select all

    function checkPatrol1()
       if checkForThings("Patrol_1",12,21,1,16) == false then
          --spawn("Patrol_1", party.level, 13, 15, 1)
          spawner1:activate()
       end
    end

I havent tried this, but i would thing this is a better way of doing it - create the spawner, and activate it if there are no patrols left (you could have multiple - and you could even add in a counter to always have more than x for example)

[zeltak]

Thanks for a quick reply, but adding == false didn't fix the problem. Yeah, I gather there are more easy solutions for making this work, but I haven't figured them out yet. I don't have any scripting experience, I just try to figure out things from examples and copying scripts. I should propably sit down and have a patience to read proper Lua -documentations..

[Shroom]

forgive me - i was talking rubbish - In the example you gave it returns false if it is found, true if it is not.

take out the == false bit - you had that bit right. I will put it in the editor and give you the right code back

[Shroom]

Right - my apologies for my earlier lapse - this works. I created a small room 4 wide by 3 high starting at 20,14 and ending 22,17. I put a single crab in it.

Code: Select all

    function checkPatrol1()
       if checkForThings("crab",20,22,14,17) then
          spawn("crab", party.level, 22, 15, 1)
       end
    end

    function checkForThings(thing,xMin,xMax,yMin,yMax)
       for x = xMin,xMax do
          for y = yMin,yMax do
             for object in entitiesAt(1,x,y) do
                if object.name == thing then
                   return false
                end
             end
          end
       end
       return true
    end

I am using the default crab here as you can see. One thing I did notice, depending on when you check, it seems to not see it in the small frame of time it is moving from one square to another as I ended up with 2 crabs after spamming the check

Could this be a problem with your monster rather than your lua?

[zeltak]

Thank you! Good to know it's not the script then at least. But yes, that was part of the original question, is there something preventing the spawning of custom monsters? When I place the custom monster on the map, it behaves normally as it should. I just can't spawn it. It doesn't even try to give me a choice to choose it in a spawner or spawn it if I try to do it through a script.

edit: Hold on! Even if I try to use it with normal monster it doesn't work for me O.o Now I'm confused..

[zeltak]

Ok, it seems there's something preventing the spawning of skeleton patrol. I tested it with crab and it does work fine, but when I change it to skeleton_patrol it doesn't work anymore..

edit: further testing proves the same thing for skeleton_archer_patrol.
edit2: I tested it without any script in the between, just the pressure plate and spawner. It doesn't spawn patrols of any kind (neither skeleton or beast -kind).

[Shroom]

Ok, it seems there's something preventing the spawning of skeleton patrol. I tested it with crab and it does work fine, but when I change it to skeleton_patrol it doesn't work anymore..

edit: further testing proves the same thing for skeleton_archer_patrol.
edit2: I tested it without any script in the between, just the pressure plate and spawner. It doesn't spawn patrols of any kind (neither skeleton or beast -kind).

Could that be because thats not a monster - but a number of skeleton_warrior or skeleton_archer? Try searching for that

[Shroom]

It works with warrior, but I cant get a patrol to spawn at all - and if I get 2 warriors to spawn in the same place, LoG crashes!

[Shroom]

It works with warrior, but I cant get a patrol to spawn at all - and if I get 2 warriors to spawn in the same place, LoG crashes!

ok it crashed once - now it manages to spawn 2 in one place - further spawns give an error on the display - but i still have 2 spawns in 1 place

Edit: Actually looks like i had more than 2, butnot sure how many