How do I use the "thing spawn" action in UDMF format?

[hardcore_gamer]

I am trying to make use of the thing spawn action while mapping for UDMF format but I am a bit confused. How do I make the monsters spawn where I want them to, exactly?

Also, can I put monsters on the map and then simply make them appear when a linedef is crossed?

[Gez]

hardcore_gamer said:

I am trying to make use of the thing spawn action while mapping for UDMF format but I am a bit confused. How do I make the monsters spawn where I want them to, exactly?

Also, can I put monsters on the map and then simply make them appear when a linedef is crossed?

Most spawn functions -- Thing_Spawn, SpawnSpot, and variants -- take the TID of a map spot where the monster will appear. (PROTIP: if there are several map spots with that TID, then several monsters will appear.) If it also possible to use Spawn with coordinates. Of course this only allows to spawn one monster per instruction.

If you want to move monsters (rather than spawn them) from one point to another, you can use SetActorPosition to force them to move to any arbitrary position, or TeleportOther, TeleportInSector, Thing_Move, and many other action specials or ACS functions.

[hardcore_gamer]

Gez said:

Most spawn functions -- Thing_Spawn, SpawnSpot, and variants -- take the TID of a map spot where the monster will appear. (PROTIP: if there are several map spots with that TID, then several monsters will appear.) If it also possible to use Spawn with coordinates. Of course this only allows to spawn one monster per instruction.

If you want to move monsters (rather than spawn them) from one point to another, you can use SetActorPosition to force them to move to any arbitrary position, or TeleportOther, TeleportInSector, Thing_Move, and many other action specials or ACS functions.

Thanks that was useful :)

[hardcore_gamer]

hardcore_gamer said:

Thanks that was useful :)

I hate having to bump this thread a bit (well it isn't THAT old, but still), but I am actually having some problems. I have figured out how to spawn monsters, but I still haven't figured out how to make actual monster entities which are already placed on the map spawn.

For example, let's say that I put 2 monsters on the map, monster A and monster B. Then let's say that I want monster A to not appear on the map until I kill monster B which causes monster A to spawn. I remember doing something like this in Zdoom/hexen format, but I haven't figured out how to do this in UDMF format.

[Gez]

hardcore_gamer said:

I remember doing something like this in Zdoom/hexen format, but I haven't figured out how to do this in UDMF format.

In the same way.

[hardcore_gamer]

Gez said:

In the same way.

I guess my memory must be fooling me then. How do I do this again?

Simply giving a monster a thing activate and a tag while then giving another monster that same tag doesn't appear to work, since the later monster will just appear on the map right away instead of spawning when the former monster is killed.

[Gez]

I don't know how you did it before, but I bet it involved using special 80: ACS_Execute, and then running a script that spawns whatever you want to spawn.


Thing_Activate on monsters only works if the monster is dormant. Then it wakes up. Note that a dormant monster is visible and invulnerable.