Underwater creature spawns

[Powerferret]

On a number of planets i've explored, I cant find the last 2 underwater/common/always active creatures. Shouldn't they be something that spawns all over if they are common? Do some underwater creatures only spawn in underwater caves? I've never seen anything spawn in an underwater cave so far....

[Bowi]

Opprinnelig skrevet av powerferret:

I'm glad they fixed the crab issue, i just wish they'd fix the no-spawn aquatics issue.

Same. 😅

[Xenomorph]

I remember water spawns at launch, where sometimes fish would spawn at ankle level puddles and existed with their heads only underwater 😂 I do miss, however, when big sharky monstrous fish would lurk by the shore, and quite a lot of those were character eating predators.
Time passed, and water crabs became multidimensional, flicking in and out of existence just a very short distance away.

Now we have invisible fish 😒

It's true that the spawn mechanics seem to have gotten better, allowing for more varied and surprising mix and match of spawns (more different creatures across same type of planet), but unfortunately, they don't seem to dedicate enough time to it, or even test it proper, which is sad. It would be as simple as swimming around in deep waters for half hour and see what happens. Or aimlessly going through empty caves and realize that cave biomes might be broken because surface elements, along with surface creatures, spawn on them. I mean, realistically, and no matter how passionate for 100% every planet, who wants to spend 1 hour swimming or spelunking to find that last stupid fish or blob, when the other 90% of creatures may have already taken 2-3 hours?

There's the possibility that the other factor i mentioned which seems to actually control the rarity (besides the obvious tables) is also controlling the region where the spawns happen (north or south or whatever), but that information is not being passed to the creature info, so it's also possible that some of them spawn only somewhere else. Much has been said about creature spawn habits, such as "some will only spawn with bait" or "some only spawn near certain resources they eat as food" even "some only spawn at sea level or high altitude", i've never seen anything that corroborated any of that, those were nothing but myths, and easily debunked by simply plugging some numbers on spawn distances. Day\night and biomes (maybe storms) were the only factors in play, rest was just luck and frustration leading to misconceptions.

I recall this one planet where i spent an absurd amount of time walking around on, just because it was really gorgeous. May have been in 2019 or so. When i decided it was time to leave, i noticed one creature was missing, so i started looking for it. 2 hours later, patience ran out and i decided to leave, but would make a pit stop at the North pole first. Just where North turns into South and vice versa, just for the heck of it. Guess what was the first thing i saw when i got out of the ship? Yeh, that last stupid bugger was RIGHT THERE, and despawned JUST as i finished the scan. Yeh. It just vanished with me standing right next to it. That used to be a thing.

Mostly, normal spawn distance was always 1, which is roughly 100 units. Some may have had a bit more, but not by much. Nowadays we have creatures with ~0.2, such as those tentacle things that come off the ground. Think it was mid last year, i saw some really funny results with setting spawn distances up to 5. Upon jumping off the ship, the scanner was almost immediately cluttered with red blips. But some of those blips were inside the terrain mesh, spawns that would always keep at the same distance, some would even spawn way underground at sea level. Had to glitch the scanner camera through the ground to spot them way down there, but couldn't scan. 4 was still sketchy (except for birds), with 3 being ideal.

In this build, one of those water spawns (some huge shark thing i'm guessing, small prey fish would not be set to spawn that far out) had a spawn distance of 5. Unless they changed something else, that will lead to pretty awkward results. Unfortunately, plugging that number down doesn't fix anything.

I kinda just posted this for those who believe in those old misconceptions as being a thing. The only things that affect spawns are day\night, north\south, land\cave\water, maybe storms and probably water depth. The big fish have only been spawning in deep waters for a few years (that's why we haven't see sharks in lakes or by the shore, no fish at all by the shore actually), but that condition is hidden somewhere else, probably something similar to what controls the height at which birds spawn. The rule used to be more or less big fish spawn where the things with the hadal cores also spawned (forget the name, urgh). Apparently, not anymore.

[WhiteCrow]

Well, continuing the trend of necro'ing this thread as the bug still exists.

Same exact creature type, common/underwater/always active. Last one on the planet and it refuses to spawn. Been flying all over it dipping in and out of oceans, lakes, rivers. Really wish they would actually fix this.

Would like to hear from Xenomorph again if he's learned anything else regarding spawns.

[Guyver8]

I've had some success with caves and underwater by putting down a save beacon/point (in the cave/water) making a manual save then reloading and sometimes the RNGods spawn in the very critters i'm looking for

[dragons_666]

It is a bug that I reported month ago where multiple instances of common underwater are listed and although rare underwater is found along with moth of the common. One of the common just does not spawn.

[Bowi]

I'm glad I'm still not the only one. At least caves are more beautiful now.

... back to Mass Effect Legendary Edition! ;) (First playthrough)

Opprinnelig skrevet av Guyver8:

I've had some success with caves and underwater by putting down a save beacon/point (in the cave/water) making a manual save then reloading and sometimes the RNGods spawn in the very critters i'm looking for

About that... I think it says a lot about how unoptimized the spawn system is... I'm convinced that it should be tweaked so that rarer underground and underwater creatures have more "weight" than other creatures whenever the player is actively looking for them (basically, whenever we are swimming or exploring caves). Currently, even when you are underground or close to the surface, aerial and ground creatures will keep spawning, often in herds, which is dumb, considering the game is most certainly allocating a "bugdet" for creatures... 🤷‍♂️

[Valitaur]

Yup, still happening, last common underwater creature won't spawn, tons of rays, but no jellyfish.

[Mr. Bufferlow]

FYI, look at the planet stats for how easy/hard it will be to find critters. Occasional (for example) means they are going to be harder to find. Abundant would be a very good sign.

The critter ratings have more to do with how much you will get for scanning them. Common are not going to give many credits. Rare is going to give you a lot of credits. Those designations have nothing to do with how easy or hard it will be to find them.

All that said, I think sometimes the critters fall through the mesh of the planet. They technically exist, but are below the level where you can find them. I usually move on if my normal tricks don't work.

[Knottypine]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Mr. Bufferlow:

Those designations have nothing to do with how easy or hard it will be to find them.

Second time I read that. Do you have anything to back that up? From my 1000+ hours it seems there is definitely a relationship.

That rare flying creature is usually the last flying creature that spawns for me. That rare land creature or rare underground creature is also generally the last one that eventually spawns in for me. Seems to me that rare creatures spawn in far less frequent than common.

[Mr. Bufferlow]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Knottypine:

Opprinnelig skrevet av Mr. Bufferlow:

Those designations have nothing to do with how easy or hard it will be to find them.

Second time I read that. Do you have anything to back that up? From my 1000+ hours it seems there is definitely a relationship.

That rare flying creature is usually the last flying creature that spawns for me. That rare land creature or rare underground creature is also generally the last one that eventually spawns in for me. Seems to me that rare creatures spawn in far less frequent than common.

Basic observation after 3400 hours. Why would they tell you about the abundance or lack there of at the planet level and then modify that at the critter level. I have found all critters on my first exit from my ship on abundant or similarly noted planets. (common and rare critters)

Does not take a rocket scientist to figure out the value for scan is directly related to the status of a critter (common to rare). If rare was a sub qualification for how easy they were to find, I would not be able to find them so easily on an "abundant" level planet. It would be the rare critters that no one could find....but it is almost always a common critter.

The ones that generally can never be found are either common underwater or underground. Most likely crab like critters that fall through the mesh when spawning in. It is a bug, but the critters exist...just not available for scanning...stuck in the permanent ground.

[Knottypine]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Mr. Bufferlow:

Basic observation after 3400 hours. Why would they tell you about the abundance or lack there of at the planet level and then modify that at the critter level. I have found all critters on my first exit from my ship on abundant or similarly noted planets. (common and rare critters)

Does not take a rocket scientist to figure out the value for scan is directly related to the status of a critter (common to rare). If rare was a sub qualification for how easy they were to find, I would not be able to find them so easily on an "abundant" level planet. It would be the rare critters that no one could find....but it is almost always a common critter.

The ones that generally can never be found are either common underwater or underground. Most likely crab like critters that fall through the mesh when spawning in. It is a bug, but the critters exist...just not available for scanning...stuck in the permanent ground.

My understanding is the abundance of fauna on a planet, is just that. Nothing more. Which means that you will observe an amount of fauna based on that designation (no specifics here) while on the planet. Nothing to do with spawn rates of individual creatures. But from what I gather, we're both using personal data from our own gameplay experiences and coming up with different results.

Of course it doesn't take a rocket scientist. There is a relationship with rarity and scan value. And my findings show there is also a relationship between rarity and spawn rate, not to be confused with the general amount of fauna that roam the planet. A rare creature is of course worth more, and generally it takes longer to spawn and there are fewer of them in a group, sometimes only one. This is from my experience, yours may differ as it is RNG after all. Having them spawn in regularly as common is not what I experience in-game, which again comes down to RNG.

I've never experienced issues with finding underground creatures, no matter the rarity. Common are much easier to come across, while rare underground creatures take a while to locate and usually requires scanning for a period of time before they finally spawn in. Sometimes it requires a lot of patience. I've been on many different planets, and have a problem where I feel the need to find all the fauna. Even on a fauna abundant planet, there is definitely a difference between locating common fauna vs rare fauna.

Everyone's mileage will vary.

[NikePowa]

Hello games, fix this

[Bowi]

NikePowa meant to say "Hello games, fix this, please". :P

[GRiMtox]

Still an issue. \o/

[Yxklyx]

Same here, issue is with planets with more than one Common/Underwater/Always Active fauna.

Underground is a different issue. Seems like you need a large cave area for these to have any chance to spawn and on some planets (those that are flatter) finding such an area can be extremely (not saying impossible) difficult to find.