Creating Communities

This guide describes what communities are, what they are used for, and how to set them up using Object Spawner

Usage

• Communities are used to spawn almost all NPCs that aren't crowd NPCs

• As the name suggests, communities can be used to add large amounts of NPCs to the world while retaining a lot of control over:

  • What NPCs to spawn

  • Where those NPCs should be, what workspots they should use

  • What they should do during what time of day

Requirements

Tools

• Object Spawner (v.0.91 or newer)

• ArchiveXL

• Codeware (1.15.0 or newer)

• WolvenKit (With latest version of Object Spawner import script)

Knowledge

• You need to have a basic understanding of:

  • Working with WolvenKit

  • Using Object Spawner (Spawning things and importing into WolvenKit)

  • Know how to place AISpot's, see the corresponding page

General Setup

• Each community can serve a large area

  • How many NPCs and how much of an area you serve with a single community is up to you, but it is generally recommended to have one community per location

• Start by spawning a community, found under AI -> Community

  • The community should be placed in the rough area of where the AISpots that you want to use are

Make sure to assign a unique NodeRef to the community (Is the same as the Community ID)

• In general, a community consists of the following hierarchical data:

  • Entries:

    • Each entry corresponds to one NPC template, e.g. Judy or some generic NPC

    • Phases:

      • Phases are used by quests, to switch between different setups

      • They are not of interest if you just want to place some NPCs without quests involved

      • Periods:

        • Periods define how many NPCs should be placed where, per time period

To delete an entry, phase or period, simply right click its header

Setting up an entry

• Let's start by making our community spawn a NPC, do this by adding a new entry under the Entries header

Example of a community with a single entry

• Here you can define a name for the entry, make sure it is unique

• Here you can also define what NPC template should be used

• Initial Phase Name and Active On Start are only of interest for quest modding, so ignore those for now

Setting up a phase

• For our example, we will only need one phase, named default

• As before, use the + [Phase] button to create a new phase for our entry

Example of an entry with a single default phase

• Here you can also define what appearances the NPCs of that entry should use

  • Do this by adding more names under the appearances header

  • This is totally optional, and the default will do

Setting up periods

• This defines how many of the specified NPC should be spawned, where they should be spawned, and when they should be spawned

• As before, use the + [Period] button to create a new period for our phase

• For this example, let's create two periods

Example phase with two time periods

• Each period has the following options:

  • Hour: This controls when the period is active

    • E.g. If you have two periods, 8:00 PM and Day, then from 8:00 PM until 9:00 AM (That's the start of Day), the 8:00 PM period will be active, from 9:00 AM until 8:00 PM, the Dayperiod will be active

  • Is Sequence: Only relevant if the AISpots are not set to be infinite. If checked, the NPCs will cycle through the specified spots in the same order as they are listed

  • Quantity: How many of the specified NPC should be spawned

  • Markings and Spot NodeRefs: This is where you actually define what AISpot's should be used, will be explained in the following section

  

  The properties of a time period

Markings and Spot NodeRef's

Spot NodeRef's

• This list defines what AISpot's the NPCs from that time period can use

• Make sure that you have enough spots for the amount of NPCs

• Simply add the NodeRefs of the AISpots that you want to be used during this time period

Example of making the NPC of the "Day" period use one of the two defined AISpots

Markings

• Markings allow you to simply tell the NPCs "Use any of the AISpots that have this marking"

  • You can think of a marking as a Tag that you assign to AISpots

• This makes it very easy to assign many NPCs to a large amount of AISpots, randomly

• E.g.

  • Assign the marking test_marking to all AISpots that you want to be used

  • Add that same test_marking name to the list of markings of the period

  

  Example of making a time period use all AISpots with the marking "test_marking"

  

  Example of marking an AISpot, should be done to a group of multiple spots

  Full example with SpotNodeRef's

• This is a full example of having either one or two Judy's spawn in specified spots, depending on the time

Full example using markings

• Using markings is especially worth it for larger amounts of NPCs and spots