DM Q&A: Module: Missing NPCs?

[teransouras]

Just wondering as i have walked into the inn and shops etc not to have any NPC's be there? Is it a trigger with a % chance of spawning them or something?

Then when i come back 5min later they are there *shrugs*

[Aodhan the Unusual]

They are on a spawn/despawn timer.

[ManyAsOne]

Yup. In these cases, leave the area, wait a few minutes, and come back. I usually shrug it off IC as "Kale's out in the outhouse loosing a few pounds" or something.

[teransouras]

Yeah same, was just wondering if it was broken or meant to be like that. Thanks for that.

[Theramin]

In the past couple of days this seems to have happened, literally, around 80% I've wanted an NPC to be around. In one case causing a disease to go through its incubation time. What does the timer achieve? is it supposed to stop lag?

[DM Justicar - Creator of FRC]

xzamuel said:

In the past couple of days this seems to have happened, literally, around 80% I've wanted an NPC to be around. In one case causing a disease to go through its incubation time. What does the timer achieve? is it supposed to stop lag?

Nothing can stop lag from building on the server as time progresses. The spawn timer does limit lag in that it reduces the number of objects the server has to track. We have several hundred NPC's. If they weren't on spawn timers lag would be chronically intolerable (even greater than the worst it is now).

The spawn timers are staying and FRC is far to venerable to start a new system. Please consider this case closed and learn to live with the very minor inconvenience. Thanks.

PS. Your incubation period wasn't because of the NPC's, it was because you were ill equiped to deal with it. In the real world the scroll in question wouldn't neccessarily be readily available either...

[Gordy101st]

Doesn't make sense to start a new thread so I'll ask here. Are monsters etc meant to DEspawn as well? A guy I know got chased out of the thoraztil manor this morning and about an hour ago we went in and they were all still there, stood about.

If they don't despawn then everytime someone goes on any road anywhere and sees a monster in their periphery they'll be causing uncurable lag won't they? Have you guys thought about/tried a despawn script or does it cause more lag than leaving them? I don't know anything about the technical side of NWN.

edit: The time in question up there ^ I was with theramin and he'd been waiting for about 10 minutes because he didn't know he had to leave and re-enter the area. If this is uncurable it might be an idea to stick it somewhere in the rule book or the starting OOC area just as a known bug. If this has already been done and I missed it then *faceslap* I suppose

And did I forget to mention that the DM team is the greatest in the entire world? Cause they are.

[Theramin]

Normally it is just a minor inconvenience, but it really started to annoy me tonight when the sequence of events went as follows - No caravan operator spawning in Suzail, so I went back to Redmist on foot to explore instead of waiting. That's fine. Then I did a dungeon with someone and, as sometimes happens - got very unlucky and completely ran out of healing. I needed one healing kit to cure the disease and the NPC in the temple wasn't there. Again it didn't bother me that much because playing a cleric means it's generally not hard to get myself back up to scratch. I did wait around, though. Then finally after all that, going to the Inn with a couple of other guys for a rest and gentle drinking/RP session and the barman didn't spawn.

This was perhaps an exceptional chain of bad luck - the three NPCs I required all not being there, but that's why it really got on my nerves. Plus surely it's a bit unfair to blame me not buying one extra healing kit for the disease incubating, surely? I wasn't blaming the way the server is scripted, rather using that example to illustrate the frustration it caused me. The sort of frustration that gets in the way of roleplaying when it goes from 'Ah, it must be lunch-break' to 'Well. Everyone in the damn city appears to have gone on holiday!'.

If it keeps lag down, I'm all for it. I was just inquiring why I seem to be cursed with it recently.

I like tea and crumpets.

[Quadhund/Greenhouse]

First, this is the DM Q&A. Please refrain from posting gripes here. Especially under another players thread. Griping can be taken care of in either PMs or another forum thread

Second, there is a despawner for monsters. I have not looked at the script, but I can tell you it does work. I know it will not despawn monsters if there is another live PC in the area. It may have just been bad luck that someone ventured through there recently to cause it not to fire.

Third, the spawn triggers can be frustrating. Most of them are less than 5 minutes long. One thing to note, if you are standing in one place, you will not retrigger the NPC to spawn. As stupid as it may look, you may cross over the trigger repeatedly till the NPC respawns. The spawn triggers are vital though to the mostly lag free environment we now enjoy. Justicar put in an tremendous effort to put all the NPCs on spawn triggers and we will not be rescinding that.

And on that note, I have some modding to do.

[DM Justicar - Creator of FRC]

gordy101st said:

Doesn't make sense to start a new thread so I'll ask here. Are monsters etc meant to DEspawn as well? A guy I know got chased out of the thoraztil manor this morning and about an hour ago we went in and they were all still there, stood about.

If they don't despawn then everytime someone goes on any road anywhere and sees a monster in their periphery they'll be causing uncurable lag won't they? Have you guys thought about/tried a despawn script or does it cause more lag than leaving them? I don't know anything about the technical side of NWN.

edit: The time in question up there ^ I was with theramin and he'd been waiting for about 10 minutes because he didn't know he had to leave and re-enter the area. If this is uncurable it might be an idea to stick it somewhere in the rule book or the starting OOC area just as a known bug. If this has already been done and I missed it then *faceslap* I suppose

And did I forget to mention that the DM team is the greatest in the entire world? Cause they are.

Most monsters respawn. There are some that have special scripts that don't allow them to respawn which is why we ask players who create monster chains to inform a DM for removal.

[Munroe]

NPC despawning... Another example of me causing Justicar a lot of work.

[Gordy101st]

quadhund said:

First, this is the DM Q&A. Please refrain from posting gripes here. Especially under another players thread. Griping can be taken care of in either PMs or another forum thread

Second, there is a despawner for monsters. I have not looked at the script, but I can tell you it does work. I know it will not despawn monsters if there is another live PC in the area. It may have just been bad luck that someone ventured through there recently to cause it not to fire.

Third, the spawn triggers can be frustrating. Most of them are less than 5 minutes long. One thing to note, if you are standing in one place, you will not retrigger the NPC to spawn. As stupid as it may look, you may cross over the trigger repeatedly till the NPC respawns. The spawn triggers are vital though to the mostly lag free environment we now enjoy. Justicar put in an tremendous effort to put all the NPCs on spawn triggers and we will not be rescinding that.

And on that note, I have some modding to do.

I didn't mean the post to come off as a gripe at all Obviously me and Theramin remember how top notch the DMs are otherwise we'd have gone back to another server instead of coming straight back here after the sebatical without trying any others. It shouldn't need saying really.