Spawn mechanics

[Estaar]

I have some of my characters in very busy cities and some in very small communities. All are places where English is spoken, in some of them there are also Spanish groups.

I have noticed that new people keep spawning in the large cities, while hardly anybody spawns in the small ones, even though they are those that need people most urgently. Can someone please give me an explanation for this difference in spawn rate or point me to the right thread for this?

[Nalaris]

It certainly makes sense that a place with a higher population would have a higher birthrate.

[the_antisocial_hermit]

The higher the population, the higher the spawn rate.

[Oasis]

I'm sure there's a reason for this, or was way back when we had a decent overall population, but I'm not so sure it's a very practical system now. As Estaar said, the towns with low populations are the ones that need them most. And it is rather ridiculous that towns keep all their sleepers outside, just so that they will increase their spawnrate. Some may say this isn't true, but I know it is in many places, and that most players know this is the reason. Maybe it's time to change that, so these small towns stop dying out so easily.

[the_antisocial_hermit]

I do agree, there needs to be more spawning in smaller communities.

[Doug R.]

The first two characters on a new player's account have increased odds of spawning in a large town. The reason for this is because there's more characters there to welcome and help the new player. After the first two characters, it's simple population dynamics - bigger towns have larger spawn-rates.

For years now, I've been pushing for a Desire-Based Spawn System, where towns can actively attract newspawns through various methods. It's never taken off, but makes complete sense to me, and would greatly improve the game imo.

[Oasis]

I can understand the first two characters for new players, that does make sense. After that, it should no longer be based on largest population. I remember reading some of the ideas, likely yours Doug. Maybe they were too complicated or difficult to program? I don't know, but perhaps in the meantime, we could just switch the parameters so that third and subsequent characters spawn randomly regardless of population, maybe even with more possibility of spawning where there is less population.

[Estaar]

My very first and english speaking character (I understand it's different for characters from small language groups) spawned in the middle of a forest where two people just happened to be to make wood. Not clear how this fits with what was just explained to me, but maybe it was a fluke.

The principle of 'higher populations - higher spawn rates' makes sense from a realism point of view (which the two first people who answered this post were quick to point out), but there are enough things in the game that are not realistic, so why do spawn mechanics need to be? Also: is it correct to just use pure 'number of people in a place' as a basis (instead of number of people actually active - might be tough to measure, I agree)? I know at least one city that is full of sleepers, and more potential ones get added every day by spawning there based on this principle.

But I should have a look at what Doug has to say on this in his thread, and use my arguments over there. This was really just to have someone explain to me how it works at the moment.

[nateflory]

Interesting to read this post, as I remember looong long ago I probably had the luck to pretty much always spawn in a populated town. I created a bunch of characters recently, and only a few of them was in what I would consider "populated".
Two, which had very interesting thoguhts in mind when I spawned them, were in essentially empty towns. (two people in one case, three sleepers that have not moved in 5 days and all starving in the other)
One other literally spawned minutes before a boat took off, and was then alone.
The others are in towns with active people.

That was quite a change, so I am either getting very un/lucky or the Random chance is much more distributed than I remember it being. I'll keep an eye here for more thoughts, but I think it's working fine currently.

[EchoMan]

My very first and english speaking character (I understand it's different for characters from small language groups) spawned in the middle of a forest where two people just happened to be to make wood. Not clear how this fits with what was just explained to me, but maybe it was a fluke.

There is a higher chance that your first two chars end up in larger towns. It is not always so.

[Nalaris]

For years now, I've been pushing for a Desire-Based Spawn System, where towns can actively attract newspawns through various methods. It's never taken off, but makes complete sense to me, and would greatly improve the game imo.

This sounds cool, can you elaborate?

[nateflory]

This sounds cool, can you elaborate?

Handy Link! viewtopic.php?f=90&t=24328

[Money]

has anyone ever brought up a spawn rate based on number of active people? Maybe calculating based on everyone who has been active within a week so that sleepers aren't rewarded but those who can't sit by there computers aren't punished unnecessarily.