How would I go about making a realistic spawning system for an RPG? I want the units spawn out of the players sight range then JYD so you don't see units appear out of nothingness. But I don't want set spawning locations because players can then just camp out the spawning points. If I am not specific enough, please say so.

Burrowed units, place them around where it should spawn, and just run a location the size of the player's vision through them, if no players are nearby, you can spawn there.

Alternatively, you could always just have a sexy spawn, like creating them under an arbiter, so they cloak, then moving them there so they uncloak to appear, or having an explosion while they're created.

I was going to have a system with JYD observers. Then a location the size of the player's vision. If the player brings no units to that location then it makes a spawn. It's more dynamic than lings.

You could try JYD a bunch of observers and have them roam around as random spawn locations.

To select the observers just outside the players' sight you'd center a location over your player that is the size of their vis area, give all the observers to another player, then center a location a little bigger than the previous location and then spawn units from the observers that were not just given.

I'm just throwing the idea out there. I've never done it.

EDIT: Heh, zany posted almost the exact same thing as I did.

What's a JYD?

I could have posted it much earlier, but I wasn't sure if it was a worthwhile idea anyway and when I finally decided to post it I saw that you had just posted one as well. Oh well, mine's more detailed :P

EDIT:Junkyard Dog AI script. It makes units roam randomly.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 31 2009, 1:45 am by NudeRaider. Reason: merged posts

My system is a little different as it spawns anywhere, but yours spawns close to the player. It depends on what is wanted.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 31 2009, 1:44 am by NudeRaider. Reason: removed provocation

I beleive that the burrowed units with a location to detect sight range is your best bet here. It's convenient, and you don't see those blurs everywhere.

If it's an issue, you could also use mobile grids to get a random spawn location, and then check if a player is there, if they are, get another random location, if not, spawn there.

If the objective here is simply to not have the player see the unit appear, you could just place static spawns in really obscure places that players aren't likely to sit, then randomize between 3 or 4 of them so that a player can't camp.

Or along the lines of what falkoner said, use some randomization + mobile grids to move a location starting from the hero, and radially away from him, then spawn. However, what if there are 2 or3 players in the game? Then you'd need to account for their sight range too.

Or just blind all the heroes

Well, I figure if you make a location large enough, like, just a bit larger than their vision, it should work fine.