Encounter problem

population_additive = True

I’ve never worked out what this does but seeing as the encounters don’t use this line (that i’m aware of) either delete it or set to FALSE.

You’re using custom encounters so difficult to say as i don’t know what’s in them. The size of the encounter is quite large at over 75k, not sure if that’s a factor

look at the top of your system ini file. Do you have an [EncounterParameters] for all of those encounters?
example….
[EncounterParameters]
nickname = area_defend_custom2
filename = missions\encounters\area_defend_custom2.ini

Shouldn’t:
faction_weight = fc_f_grp, 1
faction_weight = li_n_grp, 1
faction_weight = fc_rob_grp, 1
faction_weight = fc_ap_grp, 1

be:

faction_weight = fc_f_grp, 0.250000
faction_weight = li_n_grp, 0.250000
faction_weight = fc_rob_grp, 0.250000
faction_weight = fc_ap_grp, 0.250000

@Tunicle:

… only the fc_rob_grp now appears …

If you remove those from your encounter, do the other faction appear?
If still no, maybe check the loadouts and modify the encounters / check if factions can use the encounters.

@Mindhunter:

Shouldn’t:
faction_weight = fc_f_grp, 1
faction_weight = li_n_grp, 1
faction_weight = fc_rob_grp, 1
faction_weight = fc_ap_grp, 1

be:

faction_weight = fc_f_grp, 0.250000
faction_weight = li_n_grp, 0.250000
faction_weight = fc_rob_grp, 0.250000
faction_weight = fc_ap_grp, 0.250000

Never known anything else used except whole numbers for this. If you look at any of the original encounters then only whole numbers are used. Later in the script the numbers should equal 1, so what you’re saying is right, just not in that section

faction_weight = fc_f_grp, 1
faction_weight = li_n_grp, 1
faction_weight = fc_rob_grp, 1
faction_weight = fc_ap_grp, 1

This is basically saying that only 1 of each will spawn (althought the contents of your encounter ini files can override this, a dozen could spawn if you have it written that way).

encounter = area_defend_custom2, 19, 0.350000
faction = li_n_grp, 0.250000
faction = fc_f_grp, 0.250000
faction = fc_rob_grp, 0.250000

This needs to be edited so the 3 groups total 1.000000

i.e.

encounter = area_defend_custom2, 19, 0.350000
faction = li_n_grp, 0.340000
faction = fc_f_grp, 0.330000
faction = fc_rob_grp, 0.330000

encounter = battleship_robots, 19, 0.010000
faction = fc_f_grp, 1.000000

The odds of this one appearing are 1%. You could probably spawn it 100-300 times before seeing it. Set it to the vanilla high average 0.350000 for testing purposes. Once it works you can lower it again.

Then you need to say what this zone is spawning around. Is it a dockable object or deep in space? The answer to that is crucial to how you defined these lines in the encounter:

pilot_job = defend_leader_job
make_class = wanderer

This works for me, so if it doesnt work for you your problem lies in the factions or the encounter params.

Try this:

MAKE SURE - your encounter params are all listed for the encounters as well.If these are wrong or incorrect you will have and get nothing in terms of encounters.

[Zone]
nickname = Zone_BR07_pop_ambient_12
pos = 0, 0, 631
rotate = 0, 0, 0
shape = SPHERE
size = 75422
comment = Rogue Robot Pop
sort = 1
toughness = 19
density = 9
repop_time = 25
max_battle_size = 15
pop_type = Background
relief_time = 35
population_additive = false
faction_weight = fc_f_grp, 10
faction_weight = li_n_grp, 10
faction_weight = fc_rob_grp, 10
faction_weight = fc_ap_grp, 10
encounter = area_defend_custom2, 19, 0.350000
faction = li_n_grp, 0.250000
faction = fc_f_grp, 0.250000
faction = fc_rob_grp, 0.250000
encounter = area_heavy_patrol, 19, 0.150000
faction = li_n_grp, 1.000000
encounter = area_horde, 19, 0.350000
faction = fc_f_grp, 1.000000
encounter = battleship_robots, 19, 0.010000
faction = fc_f_grp, 1.000000
encounter = area_evac_monkey, 19, 0.140000
faction = fc_ap_grp, 1.000000

population_additive = This determines wether NPCs from overlapping zones will spawn and interact with the other zone, yes this does mean you could be getting shot at from NPCs from 2 different zones at the same time.
Iirc “True” is very bad if one of the zones is a roid/neb, and “Background” pop_types should always be “False” as FL concideres them to be the dross of the zone types, and are only there to fill in the spaces between the other zones, and because of this you don’t want them interacting with other zones.

faction_weight = goes from 1 to 20, think of it as a measure of how badly they want to spawn first, with 1 being the cowards letting everybody else go first, and 20 being the nutjob with no common sense that dives in without looking. Set them all to “1” and they will still spawn, just so long as there’s nobody else around to “scare” them.:P

@DwnUndr:

This needs to be edited so the 3 groups total 1.000000

FL is quite happy if you have less than 1.000000, exceding it is what FL doesn’t like, it will fire a syntax error into your CPU and move the decimal point one place to the left, giving you even less chance of spawning than you thought.

@ Tunicle, problems with the loadout usually means (99 times out of 100) a CTD, check the faction_prop to make sure they actually have the pilots & ships of the correct class to appear in the encounter, this is a classic mistake as far as FLE users are concerned, as FLE will let you use any faction in any encounter, even if they don’t have ships.

My first suggestion would be to make sure your encounters called aren’t using “behavior = patrol_path” in the encounter file. Unless you use patrol_path explicitly in path-type zones, this will be an instant server crash. Considering I see an “area_heavy_patrol” in there, I’d check that first. =P

My second suggestion would be to watch the "sort = " value. Depending on how this value is set, it can either make the zone work perfectly or crash your server. It is the value FLServer uses to determine the priority of overlapping zones; for instance, patrol paths, which should always have the highest priority, increment from 99 downwards - the first path will have 99 sort, a path that intersects it will have 98 sort, a third path that intersects the first two would have 97 sort, etc. This is also used by FLServer to determine the priority of which zone spawns first - a high-sort zone will be considered before a low-sort zone. Thus, if this is a big “ambient” populator that covers the whole system, you should probably have sort in the lower 10s, or maybe even just set to “0”

Aside from those two things, not sure what the problem could be. On a side note, I don’t think faction_weight or pop_type actually has any effect - it’s not called from any bit of hard-code, and removing those lines entirely from every zone makes no change.

Tunicle…

A lot of shooting in the dark here, because you haven’t laid out all your ini’s for us to see, and a lot of things affect encounters…

faction_weight doesn’t matter, I haven’t seen any noticeable effect from changing or removing them completely either, but it should be set to integer values (1, 5, 20 usually if I remember?) but definitely not fractions. You can remove them all for testing purposes anyway.

Your zone toughness = 19 and your encounter difficulties are all set to 19, this is fine…

But only your robots spawn?

A brief alert… If your encounter spawns enough ships of the first faction to satisfy the density = 9, then no more will spawn until you kill some, and the first faction may spawn again before other factions, so this may mask the problem. So set density = 30 and max_battle_size = 30 temporarily to find out.

If this doesn’t improve matters…

What happens if you disable the robots temporarily and try each faction alone?

If they don’t spawn then…

In npc_ships do you have npc_class = (legality, ship class, d1, d2, … d19 for all factions and ships involved?

Also check for spelling mistakes in your encounter names, faction_prop.ini npcship = lines, and npcships.ini for ship archetype and ship loadout spelling, this is the most common problem in my case

If those are all OK, then…
Do all of your other factions than the robots have d19 ships defined, with the correct ship archetype and loadout?? (faction_prop.ini gives npcship, npcships.ini gives ship type & loadout, pilot level & ship_class should match ship class (fighter/gunboat/cruiser/battleship) and also gives encounter difficulty. Also double-check loadouts.ini / loadouts_special.ini

Failing this then feel free to attach your faction_prop.ini, npcships.ini, loadouts.ini, loadouts_special.ini

I think I repeated myself here but I’m tired and can’t see clearly enough to correct myself, it’s 04:50!

G’night!

u sure those custom encounters work properly?

try out with originals, just to check

Any luck fixing the crash? =P

Tunicle, did you ever get this resolved?