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ContentDesigner:SpawnScripts - Calling Quests

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A content designer's task involve spawning signs, objects, widgets, ground spawns, and NPCs in that order. This is achieved by using a combination of the web database editor, commonly known as DB Editor, and the client itself. Below is information to help turn a unpopulated zone into one filled with everything from harvest nodes to monsters.

assign quest to a local variable

The very first thing that has to be done is to assign the quest ID to a local variable. This will be inserted just below the comments section. For this guide I am using Verex N'Za spawnscript so everyone can refer to that script if needed.

Comments Section with quest variable --[[ Script Name : <script-name> Script Purpose : <purpose> Script Author : <author-name> Script Date : 9/7/2015 Script Notes : <special-instructions> --]] local ASolidifiedFront = 120

A breakdown of the new line local ASolidifiedFront = 120.

Starting off we use the word local to let the script know that this variable is to be used in this script only, and no where else.

Next I gave the variable the name ASolidifiedFront. This can be anything you want, but to make the script easier to understand later it is our requirement to name the variable after the quest. As you can see here it is easy to tell that the quest here is A Solidified Front.

The variable ASolidifiedFront has to be assigned to the quest ID. This way when the function sees the variabl ASolidifiedFront in the code it will know what quest to look for. Here it is set to 120 and is the quest ID of A Solidified Front.

To get the quest ID you can log on to the web database editor and find it under the quest section. If you are working on a local, or private, server you will need to look in your database.

Objects

Objects are things like Statues, Rocks, Fences, generally objects in the zone that are not interacted with. Along with verifying most of the same information as with NPCs regarding placement and appearance:

Developer Task Verify position, size, heading of all Zone objects Delete duplicates of static Objects, like tents, sign posts, statues, etc. When object placement/correction is done, disable name, attack, targeting, level, etc.

Widgets

Widgets are interactive objects in the world, such as Doors or clickable objects for quests/triggers, etc. The biggest issue with doors is the open/close coordinates are off, or backwards. Due to a math flaw in the parser/population routines, 50% of our doors are wrong and must be fixed.

Developer Task Verify open and close heading of doors. Elevators/Lifts are not parsed properly, and must be setup. Verify coordinates (x,y,z), location and heading settings of all doors/clickables Build functionality of levers and switches

Groundspawns

Ground spawns are harvestable items usually picked up by Gathering. These items are made up of things like harvest nodes, ? or shiny, ! or pages, and quest items on the ground.

Developer Task Observe Live - Observe the same area in EQ2Live's version of this zone and identify the Ground Spawn placements Pop Raw Data and observe areas to clean up First Node - decide where you want your "main" node to spawn Combine Nodes - Combine all nodes in the surrounding area to build an estimated spawn percentage value Remove excess nodes Offsets - Create valid Offsets for spawn location placements to emulate seemingly random spawn locations Pop/Depop - Determine depop/repop rates for a node. Groundspawn Items - Build the Ground Spawn Items lists Advanced Groundspawns - Advanced Groundspawn "grouping" options

NPC

NPCs are the humanoid, interactive spawns in a zone that players communicate, accept quests from, and engage in combat with.

Developer Task Verify Spawn Locations - spawns are in their proper positions (static spawns, x,y,z,heading) Verify Spawn Appearances - that their colors/equipment are reasonable to what is in EQ2 Live Wandering Dupes - starting point and paths, plus remove duplicates Consolidate Spawns - that have level, size, or appearance differences only (see note) Linked Spawn Groups - (multi-spawn parties) of 2-6 NPCs and/or Boss encounters Entity Commands - the right-click menus for each spawn Special Setups - special Equipment, Skills and Spells so they behave accordingly Spawn Scripts - Design, develop and assign spawn scripts

Links

Verify & Observe