Hi there,

I recently tried to place "Spawn Critters" in my level. But even though I know that they're meant to spawn creatures such as rabbits, butterflies and bees in certain intervals, I can't figure out how to make them work. I coced to my cell but it doesn't matter how I change the properties of the spawn script or how long I wait, I never see any bees. Does anyone know a good website which explains how they work?

Thank you,

Nick

make sure your properties allow for leash bounds that are not too big or else your critters may spawn inside geometry and you wont be able to see them. you can test the size of leash bounds by double clicking on your spawner and in the 3d data tab type in a number value for test radius, it will render a blue sphere around your spawner to let you know exactly how big the radius will be.

secondly, remember, it is a activator object. and if you have ever messed with mannequins or weapon racks you may know that all non-3d activators have some bizarre quirk where they dont work properly if set at square angles. try rotating the spawner on its z axis at an offset with a random decimal value. (i usually keep all my activators at a z angle of 94.15 degrees)

last, check to see if your critter is nocturnal or whatever and make sure you are visiting your cell with the spawner at the correct time of day.



other things to remember

fill out the properties properly. make sure the formlist is the right one for the spawner type. a "bee spawner" will not automatically spawn bees on its own, you may have to select the formlist manually to select your spawner to spit out bees

Hi there,

First of all: Thanks for the quick reply!

I couldn't exactly figure out what you mean by the leash bounds. When I type a value in the test radius in the 3D Data-Tab, no blue radius appears. What is a leash bound, anyway? Unfortunately I haven't quite grasped yet what the different properties stand for?

I think he's talking about under the Scripts tab.

Double click both and ensure the right kind of critters will spawn. (It's titled "CritterTypes" when you double click the scripts).

You can also set other variables, such as the number of critters it spawns etc.

Alright. I adjusted the Critter Properties, but they still don't spawn anything. Here's a screenshot of the current settings:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/824/spawncritter.png/

Uploaded with http://imageshack.us

One thing I've noticed with my critter set ups is that they don't usually show up immediately.

Try going to another cell, like an interior, then go back to your critter spawn.

That usually does the trick for me.

Okay, thanks for your tip, but it somehow doesn't work. Any other suggestions?

Did you try not changing the script at all? I just threw in some CritterFew and CritterMany spawn points into my world and they're there. No setup required.

Hi there,

I tried not changing it, too.
I figured out, however, that the insects actually do appear, they just disappear after a few seconds. Any idea why that happens?

Did you ever solve the issue where the critters only spawned for a few seconds? I might be having similar issues.

I had this issue as well. I agree with your desire for a genuine critter spawner tutorial. I copied a spawner from somewhere I knew one worked - in my case I used the one from the cell SnaplegCave.