Warpers immortal

[Aethuviel]

So my #1 fear so far has been warpers. Reapers and ghost leviathans are intimidating and dangerous, yes, but warpers disturbed me to my fudging core from the very first time I saw one.

Now I decided to face my fears by actually fighting one on purpose (and not by one jumpscaring me from behind), and was so glad when I saw they only have 100 health. I stun one with the stasis rifle, and chop away at it with the thermoblade. Four strikes before it warps away. I do it again, most likely with the same one. Nothing.
I go and find another one, same thing.

And people are now saying that warpers (unless spawned in by you) are immortal?
Okay, that sucks and is a bit anti-immersive. There's tons of them, and they always have the defense of warping. Making them invulnerable just seems like too much.

Is that true?
And does anyone know if there is a set number of warpers (like there is with leviathans), and what that is?

[Ignis]

Escrito originalmente por admiral1018:

The Warpers definitely do not heal every time at teleport, as you can see the damage carry over when using the PDS or when launching projectiles.

This is a bit surprising. Are you sure? ^.^

[dreamrider]

Oh My God! An EPIC Disagreement.

[admiral1018]

Escrito originalmente por Ignis:

Escrito originalmente por admiral1018:

The Warpers definitely do not heal every time at teleport, as you can see the damage carry over when using the PDS or when launching projectiles.

This is a bit surprising. Are you sure? ^.^

Well they definitely and consistently "die" after several rounds of either of those attacks, but usually not on the first attack. Is there another way this is working that we're missing? Do they partially heal or something more along those lines?

EDIT: I suppose it could be the case the PDS or launched projectiles are capable of dealing over 100 HP in single attacks under the right conditions, but maybe not consistently. I don't know how the damage calculations for either of those attacks at different ranges and such, but there is some variability. But that would also make sense and would explain why the Warpers appear to be healing after teleport with lower damage attacks.

[Ignis]

The reason why the warper have a different behavior when spawned is because you have the spawner and the warper itself. Which are two separate entities.

When you use "spawn warper" or "spawn 2549", you spawn the creature itself.

If you use "spawn warperspawner" or "spawn 2557", you'll spawn exactly what the game is spawning when you load the areas.

To answer OP initial question, some WarperSpawner are always at the same location but mostly they're also part of the RNG. So the exact number in your game might vary.

Now here is how it works. When the spawner doesn't have any associated warper, it will spawn one.

When one is spawned, it is not immortal. It has health like all creatures. However, it will spawn out when you reach a treshold of damage or after inspecting the player. Now here is the trick, when it spawns out, the prefab is destroyed. Meaning when they spawn in they're not the same initial warper and that's where what you said is a bit surprising to me.

When the spawner is spawning a creature, it creates a new warper which is destroyed when they spawn out, and so on. The same creature as with the command "spawn warper".

And here is the dark side of their coding. They die each time they teleport. :þ

[admiral1018]

Wow, thank you! That's a great description of how this works.

Just to clarify one thing, is the spawn out behavior you mentioned separate from just a normal teleport? Because there do seem to be two similar but distinct behaviors:

1. After enough time has passed or if the Warper take superficial damage, it will immediately teleport out and then return at its spawn location about 20 seconds later

2. If the Warper sustains fatal damage, it will spawn out and then never respawn at that spawn point so long as you are in the area (I left the game running for hours of real-time to see if they returned). Traveling about 150 meters away or reloading the save will cause the Warper to appear again.

Everything else makes total sense, and I really appreciate the explanation.

[Ignis]

When they take a certain amount of damage they'll teleport.

Teleporting means triggering their warp-out and destroying the creature.

If they die the same behavior will happen. And I am not sure if this is a bug. It would make sense to check if the creature is alive before triggering their "warp-out".

Now when you kill the creature yourself, its spawner is also disabled. Remember that the warp-in is always triggered by the spawner and not by the creature itself. The creature is destroyed each time it warps out.

If the spawner is disabled, it won't create new warper. Until it is enabled again by unloading / loading the area where it is. That's why when the creature is killed by you the spawner won't spawn a new warper.

And here again I wonder if this behavior is intended. I should probably ask Igor (the main A.I. developper), to know if the spawner should be completely removed from the cells when the creature is dead.
Ie: if the spawner should be destroyed entirely and not just until you reload the area.

[dreamrider]

I think I understood about 2/3 of that discussion.

[admiral1018]

Haha, this has actually been one of the more interesting topics I've ever seen on this board. Kudos to the OP for making it. And I am curious to hear if the spawn point behavior above is a bug or intentional feature.

Since we've mentioned just about everything else. one more tidbit on Warpers. I'm not exactly sure how the physics calculations in this game work, but Warpers seem to be programmed to have very little mass. As a result, you can launch them farther with the Repulsion Cannon than you can just about any other object or creature.

If a launched Warper travels far enough away from you (I think somewhere around 150-200 meters), it will despawn from the game world, which counts as a "kill." The Warper will then follow the same patterns posted above where it won't reappear unless you force the area to reload.

This can be a little tricky to pull off underwater, since the Warper will slow down if it hits anything. However, in the Mountains biome, where the Warpers will spawn close to the surface, you can launch them into the sky and despawn them pretty easily if you swim directly below and shoot them upwards with the Repulsion Cannon.

The image below shows a launched Warper high in the sky, about a split second before it disappears.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2802928347

[QueenPixxa]

Escrito originalmente por dreamrider:

I think I understood about 2/3 of that discussion.

Yes, I feel my brain leaking out slowly. Very interesting for what I understand, but the spawner and the warper bing 2 different entities I don't get. The spawner intended as the mechanism that spawns the warper? If it's not, I might have understood nothing at all.

[Dirak2012]

The spawner exist to make sure there is always a warper in place.

[admiral1018]

The spawner is the spawn point itself that generates the Warpers. It's a fixed, invisible spot that will spawn endless Warpers based on the rules above. The Warper is just the creature that is generated by the spawner. You can use console codes to generate either, and both were mentioned above. A spawned Warper on its own will disappear permanently if killed.

[RCMidas]

Escrito originalmente por Ignis:

And here is the dark side of their coding. They die each time they teleport. :þ

So what I'm hearing is that Subnautica's code models the philosophical conundrum of quantum immortality through entanglement?

[dreamrider]

Right. Yup. That's it. Stick with that. ;-)

[Aethuviel]

Thanks everyone. :D
I did notice that once I give them 3-4 slashes, they go belly up just before they warp away, so technically they "die" (with only 100 health) but just respawn. I do have my cyclops but and I've managed to stay away from the creepy shoulder-squid, but now I'm down in the inactive lava zone without a vehicle, and just got warped for the first time. XD
Stasis rifle + seaglide is my go-to for now.

[QueenPixxa]

Escrito originalmente por admiral1018:

The spawner is the spawn point itself that generates the Warpers. It's a fixed, invisible spot that will spawn endless Warpers based on the rules above. The Warper is just the creature that is generated by the spawner. You can use console codes to generate either, and both were mentioned above. A spawned Warper on its own will disappear permanently if killed.

So, if I spawn a spawner let's say in the shallows: will a warper appear there? Or the game will not allow for that?
Not that I'm eager to create even more spawners or warpers, just curiosity.