View source for ContentDesigner:NPCs

'''Designing NPCs''' is probably one of the most important tasks in the Content project. Getting the zones to look awesome is most of the battle. This article describes the many tasks behind getting your zone to look "just right".


== Entering the Zone ==
I wanted to point out one very important hint; before entering a Raw zone for the first time, I advise you to drop your client's Graphics settings to '''Very High Performance''' (the lowest gfx setting possible). Reason being, most of these zones might have thousands of spawns within eyesite of your client, and you will most definitely run out of resources, memory, and crash your client. Or, movement will be near to impossible.


Trust me on this. Now, let's log in.



== Verify Locations ==
Players familiar with Everquest II will expect to find their NPCs in the right place in our database because it is meant to mimick Live. Verifying an NPC is in the right place is a simple task, because 90% of the time, Collector found a static spawn standing where they belong. Most of the rest we have wanderers (NPCs that walk around), dead NPCs that got collected before they depopped, or situations where an NPC was chasing someone as you ran by with your collector going.

There is a very small percentage of spawns that are simply facing the wrong way due to a math glitch in the PacketParser being unable to determine heading.


For these cases, we need to verify spawn locations. Below are two examples:

[[File:VerifyLocation1.jpg|500px]]

In this example, I moved a spawn completely to the wrong place just to show you that a Formidable Sparring Partner should not be standing by the tent. Since that guy is in the wrong place, you'll need to move him. Execute the command
 /spawn move
while you have the NPC targeted, and move to where you think he should go (by the other sparring partners in this case). Using the mouse-wheel, you can spin his heading too, just like placing furniture in your house!


[[File:VerifyLocation2.jpg|500px]]

The more common case are heading issues. NPCs, and other spawn types, can be facing the wrong way a bad parsing of data. The simple fix would be to grab the spawn, twirl it around and set it in the right place. But because we would like to be precise, it would be better to simply edit the spawns Heading parameter in the DB Editor->Spawns menu.

[[File:VerifyLocation3.jpg|800px]]

Since you know the spawn is facing the wrong way, and you see his Heading is currently 0 (zero), simply type in 180 (for 180 degrees, 1/2 a circle) and save the row, then execute the
 /reload spawns
command in-game and you'll see your sparring partner is now facing the right direction!


== Verify Appearance ==
Recent changes to our Parsing process have resulted in much more dynamic Appearance options for our NPCs. Utilizing the EQ2Emulator's powerful ''randomize'' feature, we can spawn NPCs of many shapes and sizes '''and''' appearances (hair, beards, color of skin, shape of face/body, etc) all from a single spawn ID. 

Check out the WIKI article on [[Database:Spawn#Randomize|Randomize]] for more information about this option. For the purpose of this discussion, we will assume all NPCs are spawned properly and their randomize options are '''not set'''.


[[File:VerifyAppearance1.jpg|500px]]

Take our poor naked Sparring Partner for example. In EQ2 Live, he is definitely dressed in armor! If you check his '''npc_appearance_equip''' page in the DBEditor->Spawns menu, you'll see he has no entries, when he should. You can either dress him yourself, or return to the raw data to see what went wrong.


A more familiar Appearance problem would be bald heads, mis-shapen faces, incorrect races (evil races in good city areas), or missing skin (ewww!)

By missing skin, of course I just mean the color is lost. Spawns without skin_color settings are given 0,0,0 - or Black. They are pretty obvious to see, because no spawn should be 0,0,0 color - that is just too dark to even make out features. 


Fixing these is important to the player's experience and the accuracy of our database.


== Wanderers ==
Wanderers are those NPCs that spawn at a certain x,y,z and move down a certain path towards another location. While they are moving through the zone, various Collectors might have caught that same spawn in 20 different locations. You might think this is bad (oh no, dupes!!!) but these are actually the good kind of dupes!

Seeing visually in the data what an NPC's wandering path is can greatly assist you in developing the MovementLoops necessary to mimick that activity in our zone. It is recommended that, if you know an NPC is apt to wander, you should spawn ALL of their placements ([[DBEditor:MigrateZone#Spawn_These|'''Spawn THESE''']])! The reason is clear by looking at the following two screen shots;


Screenshot 1 - detecting patterns:

[[File:Wanderers1.jpg|500px]]

If you stare at raw data for as long as I have, you start noticing patterns in the spawn process. Note in this screenshot above, the spawns literally form a grid along the X/Z axis in the zone. This tells me (a seasons Content guru) that the "tainted sapswill invader" NPC is set to spawn in a specific location, with a slight offset to both X and Z.

Not only do I know this spawn has a slight offset, but I also know (from playing EQ2) that this particular spawn - just a few, not all - wander from their starting point up to the Defenders who engage them in battle.

Screenshot 2 - seeing pathing: 

[[File:Wanderers2.jpg|500px]]

The arrows in the 2nd screenshot are definitely not "fact", but just to give you an example that you can see where a spawn might pop into the zone, then note the clusters of itself, or directions it is facing, as it moves it's way towards our stalwart Defenders. 


Once you begin to see these patterns, creating MovementLoops becomes a no-brainer, and determining which of these 1600 sapswill spawns are really dupes, and can be permanently deleted.


== Consolidation ==
As of DB Milestone 2 (Jan 2012), manually consolidating NPCs is no longer necessary. The Parser takes care of that on the raw data side. The only time you should have to manually consolidate any NPC is if you feel the parser made a mistake, and you want to see a different min/max level or size, or alter the types of Randomize features for a static spawn.


== Linked Spawn Groups ==
As of DB Milestone 2 (Jan 2012), Parser now uses the SOE-provided flags on NPCs as to whether or not they belong to a '''linked spawn group'''. A Linked Spawn Group are those groups of NPCs, 2 or more, that when you engage one, they all come out fighting. 


=== Simple Spawn Groups ===
If there is ever a case where you see two spawns standing near each other, and you know for certain they are supposed to be linked but are not, you can build your own spawn group to correct that problem. Here's how:

Target the first spawn you wish to group and type
 /spawn group create PriestSapswill (or whatever name fits what you are creating)
The client will return a message that is '''very important right now'''! 
 Successfully created new spawn group with id: 27823
''This ID happens to be the next spawn_location_group.id in our database.''

Now target the second spawn and type
 /spawn group add 27823
and you should see
 Successfully added 'a tainted Sapswill fighter' to group id: 27823

Test it out! Type
 /reload spawns
and target either one of the NPCs in that spawn group. They should both "light up".

To verify for sure, target both and type
 /spawn details
and verify they both belong to spawn group ID 27823.



=== Missing Spawns ===
Parser can only work with the data it was given from Collector though, so I'd give these a 50/50 chance of being accurate. Meaning, sometimes you'll find a spawn area that you know is supposed to have 2 or more spawns linked in a group, but there is only one. In these cases, Collector probably ran by after the entire group was killed, except for one who survived (and you can laugh quietly to yourself that the player and their party was probably wiped out ;)


In this case, you'll need to build your own Linked Spawn Groups.

[[File:LSG1.jpg|500px]]

In the above example, we know that each of the 4 spawn "locations" in this encounter have at least 2 spawns linked in a group. The priest on the right is linked to the sapswill on the left, and the two in the tent are linked together (meaning, they both target when you target one or the other).

However, see how there is '''not''' a sapswill associated with the targeted defiled priest? That's because likely the sapswill was dead when this packet got collected. We can fix that by simply spawning another sapswill at the right-side priests location, then building them into a group. Here's how:


Target the defiled priest who stands alone, and type
 /goto
You are now standing on his spawn location, facing his direction. Perfect.

Now target the sapswill out front standing with the other defiled priest and type 
 /spawn details
Note his SpawnID, then wherever you are standing, type
 /spawn 2530019 (that is the number of the spawn we're creating)
A new sapswill spawn should appear at your feet. Finally, type
 /spawn add new Sapswill
to save it to the database. Reload your spawns with
 /reload spawns
and verify your new spawn is now in place.


Now that you have the spawns you need, build the spawn group the same as you did above in [[ContentDesigner:NPCs#Simple_Spawn_Groups|Simple Spawn Groups]].

Your new spawn + spawn grouping should look similar to this:

[[File:LSG2.jpg|500px]]



=== Spawn Group Associations ===



=== Spawn Group Chances ===



== Entity Commands ==



== Spawn Customization ==



== Spawn Scripts ==


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