A note about density = parameter
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Density = is a number of ships present in a zone at a time. Not encounters. Sometimes there can be more ships in a zone than this parameter suggests.
Example: density = 9. When there are 8 ships in the area, one more encounter still can be spawned. This encounter has 4 ships. And we get 12 ships in a zone. After it is spawned no more encounters will appear unless there are 8 or less ships in the area.This is NOT the number of encounters(area zones, didn’t test with patrols).
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So this IS a limiter on the number of ships spawned in a zone. So the only way to exceed this density is as you stated in your example…
density = 9
You have two 4 ship encounters spawned, which leaves room for one. FL can spawn 1 more encounter regardless of size, so in this case you could have the possiblity of 12 total ships if three 4 ship encounters spawned.Am I understanding you correctly? If so I’m glad you cleared up exactly how it works.
I was always under the assumption that it was the number of encounters that could be spawned at one time in one zone.
density = 9
FL has the possiblity of spawning 9 encounters, so if nine 4 ship encounters spawned you could have the possiblity of 36 ships being spawned.I always thought this logic was flawed, I couldn’t understand why FL would be programmed to do this way, furthermore it really didn’t coincide with my observations. Therefore it really bugged me when setting density of the zones because I had no definite number of npc ships possible.
Thanks for clearing it up.
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Yes, this works exactly as you wrote. In Br01 New london has a density of 12 and I’ve never senn more than 16 ships there.
This limit can be exceeded if a zone overlap takes place, but still no more than the highest density parameter of the overlaped zones suggests.
Decided to clear up things with this once and for all 'cos came to decision that I have to limit behavior = wander encounters while working on 10k radar concept.
And a question I have: for example: an area zone, size 4000 in radius, 3-4 players are in range of the zone, zone has only behavior = wander encounters. In this case density of ships will quickly reach it’s maximum and no other ships will be spawned(no patrols, etc) until some players leave. So the question: maybe it’s a good idea to limit the number of behavior = wander ships encounters in such zones? Say, to be density minus 1??
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And a question I have: for example: an area zone, size 4000 in radius, 3-4 players are in range of the zone, zone has only behavior = wander encounters. In this case density of ships will quickly reach it’s maximum and no other ships will be spawned(no patrols, etc) until some players leave. So the question: maybe it’s a good idea to limit the number of behavior = wander ships encounters in such zones? Say, to be density minus 1??
I dont think so, “behavior = wander” are beautiful things. In the FL encounters, “behavior = wander” are the most stable and cover the actions most of your npc pilot population in an area type encounter(such as scouting, assaulting, defending). These will make up a majority of your encounters. Behaviors like “behavior = trade” are more finicky because they require the factions within that encounter to be a [BaseFaction] of the appliciable base in the mbases.ini (much like patrol behaviors). Any screw up on this part will the npcs not to dock at he base, and also cause server instability.
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@Vital: Maybe that could be somehow altered by population_additive = true?
I also wonder… Say you have space for 1 more encounter, would FL automatically pick a one-man encounter if available? That is, would the game always try to get as close to the density limit as possible, or would it just pick a random encounter from its encounter INI files?
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@Vital: Maybe that could be somehow altered by population_additive = true?
I also wonder… Say you have space for 1 more encounter, would FL automatically pick a one-man encounter if available? That is, would the game always try to get as close to the density limit as possible, or would it just pick a random encounter from its encounter INI files?
Seems like random. Made observation with pop_newlondon zone and Cardiff_mine pop zones in Br01 and Br03 accordingly.
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Yeh I can confirm this too, it takes any random mission that is declared for that zone. So if the mission defines 8 ships, 8 will be spawned putting you 7 over the 1 remaining.
Its not an issue normally but I was trying to get a fixed number of ships for a particular engagement.
The other way is to have encounters spawning only 1 ship, that will be repeated up to the density and/or battle size, but they would all be independent ships, all over the place, not in 1 “wing” and not in a formation.
