1 - Beginner Object spawners and spawn points

[moonsense715]

Author: General Havoc

Skill level: 1

 

 

Getting Started

 

This tutorial will guide you through making powerup spawners and adding spawn points to spawners so they can spawn at multiple places across the map as Westwood ones do. After you have read this tutorial you should be able to add spawners and spawn points on your own maps.

 

 

1) Setting Up The Spawners

 

First thing is to load up your terrain into the Level Editor. After you have loaded it up you need to browse to Objects > Spawner on the preset tree. Next click "add temp" which should bring up a screen like below.

 

Fill in the "Name" box with a name for your spawner then click the "Settings" tab, which should bring up something similar to below.

 

You will see a lot of settings now, you can leave them as they are or change them. The main things you would want to change are the "SpawnDelay" which is the length of time in between spawns and the "SpawnDelayVariation" which is the added variation that is added to the time. For example if the "SpawnDelay" was set to 10 seconds and the "SpawnDelayVariation" was set to 15 seconds then the maximum time between spawns is 25 and the minimum is 10. It is selected randomly each spawn unless the value of "SpawnDelayVariation" is 0. After you have played around with the settings click the "Pick Presets..." button. It should bring up a window like below.

 

This window is where you pick what the spawn actually spawns. You can see I have already added a few weapons, you can find them in the panel on the right side under PowerUp > Soldier Powerups > Weapon Powerups add as many as you wish, to add an item, double click it on the right panel, to remove an item, double click it on the left panel. It is a good idea to add many different weapons as when you add spawn points later you may want variation as these don`t act like individual spawners. The more times the same item appears in the list on the left, the more chance it has of spawning. After you have finished click on "ok" then "ok" again on the settings window. You should be returned to the map view with your new temp preset in the preset list.

 

Click on your newly made spawner and click the "make" button to make it on your map. To align it to the ground, press "Ctrl + D" and then drag it around to get it into position on the terrain. You can see my spawner that i have just made on the map below.

 

After your happy with it`s position press "Ctrl + P" to add a new spawn point. It should be linked by a pink line. Drag this copy around until your happy with it`s position. Repeat this process until you have as many as you want. Here is my may below. Don`t worry about the weapon that you see when placing them as it is just a random one selected from the list you made, in game it will be randomly selected.

 

The thing you just did was add a "point" which is a place for the spawner you made to spawn at. It will behave like the Westwood spawners in game meaning that only one weapon will spawn at one of those points at any one time. This is a good way of reducing the amount of spawners on a map and prevent players camping the spawner for a specific weapon as the weapons that spawn change and also the places.

 

 

2) Testing

 

Congratulations, you have managed to make a new spawner and spawn points. You can test this in game and see how it works. If it doesn`t work as you expected then read the tutorial again and check you did everything correctly.

 

 

3) Hints & Tips

 

Here are some hints and tips that may help you when making the spawners and spawn points:

• Don`t add too many spawn points especially in harder to reach areas as there could be an object spawned at that location for a long time if no one can reach it easily. This will prevent any more objects spawning at other points until the one was collected.
• Play around with the spawn times to find out what works best. A lower time may be more appropriate.
• Spawners and spawn points don`t just spawn weapons, you can spawn many more things including vehicles, bots and crates, experiment with different things.
• Remember to add multiple objects to spawners if you want to have the spawner spawning different objects.

4) Credits

 

This tutorial was written by General Havoc (Robert Hunt)

 

Thank Westwood Studios for the excellent series of C&C Games.

 

 

Let Westwood Live on!