Spawning and Map

[yahn]

I'm looking more for ideas on how to do this than code on how to do this.

what would you do for spawning monsters in a game? Would you see how many mobs are in a certain distance from the spawn object and then if their arn't so many it sets an alarm and spawns one? are there any other ways to do this? I also thought of using an array. You would set a variable in the create event called max, and that would be the max amount of objects it can spawn then you would use a for loop i = 0; i < max; i += 1 then array = 0 then in the step event check to see if array = 0 if it does set an alarm then change array = instance_create(x,y,mob) then when an instance is destroyed it will check to see what spawned it and check to see the array that = its id and then set that back to 0. I think this would be a lot simpler with a ds_map or list or something else. suggest anything you think would work.

Also what would you do to tell you what part of the map your in? would you create a huge object that is the shape you want it and then use that to tell you where you are or would you do some kind of collision checking with a shape because I don't want it to be just in a circle or a square. I want it to be like actual boundaries. Would you make an object that lines the boundry and then swith the variable when you cross it? I read somewhere that you can use a ds_map to do this, but i don't see how you would. suggest anything you think would work for this also.

[Nailog]

One way you can do spawning might be like this ...

Create one spawn object and place this everywhere a single monster should spawn. You'll store the monster's ID on the spawn object that spawned it. When a monster is killed, wait a while, and then spawn the monster again.

This keeps it simple. No counting, no arrays, and no data structures needed, and you can add or remove spawn points as you need them. You don't even need to alter the monster's code. Use the spawn point's Step event to check if the monster instance still exists.


For the map thing, you might want to explain more about what you want in the end. Do you not want to use rooms as each area? Are you going for one large world in a single room?

[yahn]

I like your idea for the spawning, but wouldn't that be just as easy if you did it with 3 or 5 mobs as it is with just one? I mean wouldn't it just be like
for (i = 0;i < max;i += 1){
array = instance_create(x,y,mob);
}
then in the step event just check to make sure those instances exist and if not then spawn one? that way you wouldn't need to change the mobs at all either. The only problem is there will be hundreads of these objects, if not thousands. And you won't be able to disable them so won't this cause the game to run really slow?

For the map I want it to be one huge room. I can't really think of a good way to check the borders without doing some kind of collision checking. Are there any other ways to do this? Like I said before, I read that ds_map works great for this, but I don't really see how.

[Nailog]

Spawning:

Well, I was trying to keep it simple. The spawning object could easily only detect it's spawned monster every 40 steps or so. This would keep the object as a very small drag on the CPU. Also, if you wanted to disable or enable spawn points, you can just destroy or create them.

Creating a more involved system isn't exactly harder, but it is more involved. Why create a spawn object where you have to tell it what monsters to make (possibly multiple types), and how many? Why not just have one object where you just tell it what monster to make, and then place as many as you want?

I don't know. I'm just offering ideas.

Map:

I advise against making one huge room. One of my RPG rooms was around 3000X3000, filled with tiles of 24X18. It ran fine on my computer, but almost everyone else I asked had very low frames per second. I then lowered that to 1700X1400. Frame rate improved, but many people still couldn't reach full framerate.

Try to think of a good way to split the areas up into multiple rooms. If you have monsters chase the player when fighting, you can even work up a system where the monster crosses the area transition.

[yahn]

well the only problem i have with your spawning system is that there would be so many spawn objects. and these objects couldn't be disabled ? (i don't think so) I mean I guess they could, but it would kind of defeat the purpose. Anyways with the amount of these wouldn't it slow the game down?

Your map idea I don't really understand. I want to do this all in one room, more then one room is out of the question (for expansion purposes.. its hard to explain) I think the best way so far is with collision checking, but I think that would be kind of slow. Maybe something else would work, but I can't really think of it. I really don't want to make more then one room unless I absolutly have to and even if i do then I will probably just scrap the project into an example =(.