[Known] Ulcaster Dungeon spiders and others fail to spawn

dreamrider

Gate70 said:

Ulcaster Dungeon spawned creatures should remain for longer than 4 hours

1. Load attached save.
2. Go down the nearby stairs.
3. Hide in shadows and pass a couple of spawn points (diagram attached) to confirm creatures are spawned.
4. Move out of sight of these spawns then advance time (4x CTRL/T).
5. Return to the spawn point.

*Observed*
The summoned creatures have gone.

*Expected*
Creatures spawned in should remain present regardless of time passed.

*Note*
2 spiders, 2 dire wolves and 4 dread wolves are spawned in.
Area code is AR3901
It is quite possible that players rest inside this area, or leave to raise dead party members. In this circumstance they may not encounter the summons.
It is possible to stand next to these summons and advance 4 hours. They will continue to attack until they lose sight of party members and will then despawn so a thief hiding round a corner for a backstab will return to find them gone.

There were no spiders in the web room of the Ulcaster dungeon. Free loot.

Mathsorcerer

There aren't any wolves (of any variety) there, either.

dreamrider

I DID encounter the usual plethora of dread/dire wolves in Ulcaster, and the one Vampiric Wolf.

(What level is that thing, anyway? A 5th level Viconia had zip success turning it. Luckily she was also a -6 tank at that point as well.)

Gate70

Hi
I've just had a look at this and found one wolf followed by 2 spiders. Didn't check for any further creatures at this point.

Area code AR3901


Looking at this area there are two types of enemies.

Resident
1 bat, 1 vampiric wolf, 1 ochre jelly and 1 mustard jelly.

Spawned in
2 spiders, 2 dire wolves and 4 dread wolves.

These spawn in if I explore in the usual fashion. If I use EXPLOREAREA and CTRL/J the trigger points don't activate. Please can you confirm whether you are doing anything similar.
Thanks

dreamrider

Just a regular explore. No mods, no cheats.

I believe that my first step into the web room may have been with a "hidden in shadows" scout, if that makes any difference.

I had done for a bunch of wolves in the various "western" rooms before I got to the web room. At least 6.

I think I had skipped the tunnel that leads to the web room, and went back for it after clearing essentially all else in the left half of the map.

Mathsorcerer

I forgot to activate 'spawn points' when I examined the map. I thought the creatures were there by default but no--they are spawned rather than waiting there for you. I haven't been there to test it but exploring the area first shouldn't disable spawn points.

Gate70

OK, I can repro, would appreciate confirmation that this sounds reasonable before logging.
- The wolf spawn can be missed, e.g. with boots of speed but will occur after a couple of to/fro's.
- The spiders can be missed if you trigger the spawn then rest out of their sight.

So basis is that these spawns look to only last a limited time, less than 8 hours?

Assumptions: @dreamrider does appear to have an issue, @Mathsorcerer‌ didn't move around.

dreamrider

I'm not sure where the spawn trigger for the spiders is located.

In the delve in question, I a pretty sure that:
a) I went left at the first turning in the dungeon entry corridor.
b) Worked my way over 180 degrees around the perimeter of the dungeon, encountering a lot of dread wolves.
c) Found the main stash 'from the back side', got the book.
d) Looked back at the map, before I took on the jellies, saw that I had skipped an area nearer the entrance that included the spider room.
e) Went back to deal with the spiders.
f) Found no spiders in the web room, just the loot.

I am pretty sure that I did NOT rest or leave the dungeon during the Ulcaster delve; I think I did it in one pass. I'm working from memory at this point, so I guess it is possible, but I am pretty sure.

I DID spend time going well past the spider room, before seeing the void on the map and returning to it. When I did return to it, I sent in a "hidden in shadows" scout from several corridor turnings away before moving up the whole party.

I may have had a Level Up, including a temp difficulty shift from Core to Normal for the Level Up (mea culpa), during the delve.

Gate70

OK, will try and reproduce those scenarios.
Thanks

Gate70

What doesn't appear to affect the spawns.
- Hiding in shadows.
- Leaving the dungeon.
- Levelling up.
- Switching from core to normal difficulty and back.

What does make them disappear after spawning.
- Game advancing between 3-4 hours (so somewhere between 18-24 minutes real time).

I'm going to raise the last point but appreciate there might be other causes.
Thanks

dreamrider

It is =possible= I had the level running, with some unattended time for family dinner, etc, for an hour or more before looping back to secure the web room.

What triggers the spawn? Just entering the level?

Gate70

No, it looks to be a proximity trigger but I haven't looked to see if this is a fixed value or a variable distance per spawn point. The image on the opening post shows the spawn points as yellow circles if it helps.

dreamrider

If it helps:
I'm sure I didn't get closer to the web room via the front approach corridor until late in the delve. Half way through the large room was the closest early approach from that side.

However, I thoroughly explored all the area south/below the web room before I went back to it, so I probably was passing through that adjacent unconnected corridor on the backside of the web room pretty early.

dreamrider

BTW, what is the distinction of the gray background posters vs. the blue backgrounds? Devs vs moderators?

Gate70

Yep that's about it. Gray being moderator

Edit.
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/19081/who-are-the-moderators-and-how-to-spot-a-team-member

Dee

What's happening is you're walking past the spawn point, which triggers the spider to spawn. Then, a thousand seconds later (as dictated by the area's spawn point), the spider is removed. That all is working correctly.

The piece that isn't working correctly, as far as I can tell, is the frequency of respawn. After a short delay the area is supposed to spawn another spider to take the first one's place, and it looks like that's not happening here.