Help regarding adding Rhyniogantha to Scorched Earth (and possibly other maps..) via config

[Alucard †]

Originally posted by 🦊 Hermit:

Be happy to give some assistance if you want to make a thread about it in the main discussion board area.

Well i can't say no to that helpful response ^^ thanks in advance.
However be mindful i have no clue how to do it and all these codes and scripts are basically alien langauge to me.

What i would wish to know is how to add the spawner for the creature , how to adjust the spawn chances (if possible) , and location where it would spawn and if it can be done without making the spawns super janky .. well jankier than usual i mean.

[🦊 Hermit]

ConfigAddNPCSpawnEntriesContainer=(NPCSpawnEntriesContainerClassString="<Spawn Entry>",NPCSpawnEntries=((AnEntryName="<Name>",EntryWeight=1.0,NPCsToSpawnStrings=("<Creature ID>"))),NPCSpawnLimits=((NPCClassString="<Creature ID>",MaxPercentageOfDesiredNumToAllow=1.0)))

That's the config you need. It goes into the game.ini file under the heading [/script/shootergame.shootergamemode]. It has to be all on one line, with no spaces or paragraph breaks.

ContainerClassString is the spawn container which the dino will be added to. in other words the location on the map where it will appear. These can be found listed on the wiki (see link below) - there isn't a map showing which spawn entry corresponds to which location, however many of them are clear by their names (for example 'DinoSpawnEntriesMountain_C' on The Island map is for creatures which spawn on mountains), and for those that aren't, looking at what creatures are in that container can generally let you know where the location is.

Link to spawn entries: https://ark.wiki.gg/wiki/Spawn_entries

EntryName is just a reference for the admin who is adjusting the config files, it doesn't have any effect in game. It can be anything you like.

EntryWeight is how often the creature will be chosen to spawn, compared to others which are in the same container. So if you leave it at 1.0, it will spawn about the same as most other creatures. 2.0 will make it doubly common, while 0.5 will make it half as common. For the rhynio you'll probably want to make it something like 0.0001.

NPCsToSpawnStrings is the creature ID of the dino you want to spawn. So for the rhynio I believe it's Rhynio_Character_BP_C, but if you need any other creatures they can also be found on the wiki (Entity ID column): https://ark.wiki.gg/wiki/Creature_IDs

The final two are separated out, and deal with limiting the spawn of the creature so they don't overrun everything else in the area and squeeze all other dinos out.

NPCClassString is just re-referencing the dino you want to adjust, so use the creature ID here the same as you did in NPCsToSpawnStrings above.

The MaxPercentage line puts a hard cap on how many of the creatures in a particular area can be of that type. So if you put 0.5 (50%) on a rhynio with 1.0 EntryWeight, the game will spawn all creatures in the area according to it's spawn weights, until 50% of them are rhynios. At which point it will take rhynios off the list and fill up the rest of the slots with other creatures instead. So if you definitely want at least a few of a particular creature in an area, have a high EntryWeight (so the game will be more likely to pick that creature) but low MaxPercentage (so once the game has spawned a few, it will then stop spawning that creature and do others instead).

There are also some other important points to know if you want to add multiple creatures to a single spawn container, however if you're just adding the rhynio alone those won't apply, so I won't go into them here. If anyone asks I'll mention them later in the topic though.

And finally, an example I used on my own games some time ago adding Abs basilisks to the Ragnarok desert (Rag desert uses a lot of the same spawn containers as Scorched so this would probably work on SE too):

ConfigAddNPCSpawnEntriesContainer=(NPCSpawnEntriesContainerClassString="SE_DinoSpawnEntriesDunes_C",NPCSpawnEntries=((AnEntryName="BasilDesert",EntryWeight=0.02,NPCsToSpawnStrings=("Basilisk_Character_BP_C"))),NPCSpawnLimits=((NPCClassString="Basilisk_Character_BP_C",MaxPercentageOfDesiredNumToAllow=0.02)))

Hope that helps^^

[Alucard †]

Okay thanks a lot.
Hope i won't mess it up and my Rhynia won't spawn in insane quantities under the map or something.

Tho yea i would actually like to know regarding adding multipile creatures in same Spawn Group cause i might experiment with this more if i am succesful.

[Alucard †]

As for the Rhynio i am thinking about adding it as uncommon Dunes spawn in SE.
So i will probably start with this as a sort of "test"

[🦊 Hermit]

It is probably a good idea to back up your saves before making edits like this, just to be on the safe side. It has happened in the past where, when a new creature is released, WC have taken a bit of time updating some maps to recognise those creatures, meaning they did not count towards spawn limits and the game couldn't 'see' them in the location. And because the game couldn't see them, it thought the area was empty and just kept spawning over and over...

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1238879996

Hopefully that won't be the case here though.

One more thing I did forget to mention, although you may already know this: this will only affect new spawns, not ones already on the map. So to make sure it is working, you will probably need to do a dino wipe on entering the world.

And as to adding in multiple creatures to one area -

The game only accepts one reference to a spawn container in the config file, and if it finds two separate config lines for the same container, it will ignore the second one. So if, for example, you wanted to add both the rhynio and the charc to SE and did one line for the rhynio, then another using the same spawn container for the charc, only the rhynio would be implemented.

In order to get multiple creatures added to one container, you have to combine them into one config line, in this manner:

ConfigAddNPCSpawnEntriesContainer
---ContainerClassString
------EntryName1,EntryWeight1,NPCsToSpawn1
------EntryName2,EntryWeight2,NPCsToSpawn2
------EntryName3,EntryWeight3,NPCsToSpawn3
---SpawnLimits
------NPCClassString1,MaxPercentage1
------NPCClassString2,MaxPercentage2
------NPCClassString3,MaxPercentage3

It's a bit of a pain juggling the creature IDs and making sure you close all the parenthesis, however so long as you keep the entries in the same order for the second half of the command as you did for the first half, it should work.

Again for reference, here's an example I used adding two of the glow pets from Abs onto Ragnarok, on the small desert island in the middle-south of the map:

ConfigAddNPCSpawnEntriesContainer=(NPCSpawnEntriesContainerClassString="DinoSpawnEntries_Ragnarok_MonkeyIsland_C",NPCSpawnEntries=((AnEntryName="GlowtailIsland",EntryWeight=0.1,NPCsToSpawnStrings=("LanternLizard_Character_BP_C")),(AnEntryName="FeatherlightIsland",EntryWeight=0.1,NPCsToSpawnStrings=("LanternBird_Character_BP_C"))),NPCSpawnLimits=((NPCClassString="LanternLizard_Character_BP_C",MaxPercentageOfDesiredNumToAllow=0.25),(NPCClassString="LanternBird_Character_BP_C",MaxPercentageOfDesiredNumToAllow=0.25)))

[Alucard †]

Thanks again!
I will save all of this in a text file so i can get back to this tutorial whenever needed.

Anyways here is rough draft of the Rhynio spawn entry for SE:

ConfigAddNPCSpawnEntriesContainer=(NPCSpawnEntriesContainerClassString="SE_DinoSpawnEntriesDunes_C",NPCSpawnEntries=((AnEntryName="RhynioSE",EntryWeight=0.0075,NPCsToSpawnStrings=("Rhynio_Character_BP_C"))),NPCSpawnLimits=((NPCClassString="Rhynio_Character_BP_C",MaxPercentageOfDesiredNumToAllow=0.25)))

Just to double check everything looks good? I've put this at the bottom in the game.ini cause there are other stuff i have in the ini (default scripts that were already in it , stack adjustments that i added and the auto unlock engrams entry) anything i might to fix or adjust?

You covered adding single creatures and multipile creatures.
For completion sake could you also explain here how to replace creatures aswell?

For example Microraptors piss me off and i wan't them replaced with something less annoying.

[🦊 Hermit]

Yeah, that config all looks good as far as I can see You may have to play around with the spawn weights and limits a bit, and do a number of wipes, before you get everything just how you want it. But hopefully that'll work just fine^^

And yeah, it can go anywhere in the game.ini file so long as it is below the header on the first line, no worries if there are other things in there too.

Replacing creatures is actually a lot easier than adding them For that you just need this config line here:

NPCReplacements=(FromClassName="<Creature ID>",ToClassName="<Creature ID>")

Put the creature you want to remove in the first slot. If you want to just stop them spawning altogether you can leave the second one empty, for example this line here to remove gigas:

NPCReplacements=(FromClassName="Gigant_Character_BP_C",ToClassName="")

Or alternatively if you want to replace them with something else, just put a second creature ID in, so for example replacing ichthyornis with dimorphodons:

NPCReplacements=(FromClassName="Ichthyornis_Character_BP_C",ToClassName="Dimorph_Character_BP_C")

There are some creatures which have special spawn conditions and may not work so well as replacements, like thylacos hanging on the sides of trees, or the nameless only appearing in non-charge areas. But most creatures should be able to be swapped in without issue.

[Alucard †]

Awesome! Writting it all down aswell.
I will do some testing in a while if the Rhynio implementation to SE worked.

[Alucard †]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2985017808
It sure does spawn properly in SE and it's almost rare enough as i wanted it to be.

EDIT: Nevermind it does drop Pheromones - you gonna laugh at this.
Meep (my Sinomacrops) was stealing the Pheromones.
For some reason when my Argentavis did the killing blow to the Rhynio the Pheromones went into my Sinomacrop's inventory instead mine or my Argentavis' and the game UI didn't even notify me like it did when my Wyvern killed the Rhyno on The Island .. oh that little rascal pranked me xD

[🦊 Hermit]

Glad that it's working out, well done for getting the configs sorted!

And lol, sinos don't like bugs much do they, so perhaps the little one doesn't want you to get one of your own to ride on where he'll have to be close to it XD

[Alucard †]

Originally posted by 🦊 Hermit:

Glad that it's working out, well done for getting the configs sorted! :PhogsHappy:

And lol, sinos don't like bugs much do they, so perhaps the little one doesn't want you to get one of your own to ride on where he'll have to be close to it XD

I think they love them too much :D
To them Rhynio is probably like a chitin buffet.

[Haakon]

One of the four spawn points I added is:
ConfigAddNPCSpawnEntriesContainer=(NPCSpawnEntriesContainerClassString="DinoSpawnEntriesSwamp_C",NPCSpawnEntries=((AnEntryName="RhynioSwampIsland",EntryWeight=0.005,NPCsToSpawnStrings=("Rhynio_Character_BP_C"))),NPCSpawnLimits=((NPCClassString="Rhynio_Character_BP_C",MaxPercentageOfDesiredNumToAllow=0.1)))

But I don't see them spawning in, did I do something wrong?

[🦊 Hermit]

I think they already spawn by default in the Island's swamps, don't they?

Anyways, I can't see any issues with the config there. Did you do a dino wipe after starting up the game to clear the spawn points and force the game to respawn everything?

[Alucard †]

Now that makes me wonder.
If i add same creature in creature spawn where it's already in by default.

Will it ignore , override or treat it as additional spawn? It could be useful for making some creatures that default certain areas , less rare without having to add them into different areas.

[🦊 Hermit]

Adding it in a second time isn't really necessary for increasing the spawn weights.

DinoSpawnWeightMultipliers=(DinoNameTag=<Tag>,SpawnWeightMultiplier=1.0)

This will do it for you. So for example, to double the spawns of alpha raptors from their defaults:

DinoSpawnWeightMultipliers=(DinoNameTag=Elite Raptor,SpawnWeightMultiplier=2.0)

As to adding them having an effect though - I honestly don't know, never tried it. We do have the setting ConfigOverrideNPCsSpawnEntryContainer, which instead of just adding something new to an existing spawn list it deletes the old one and overrides it entirely. And there are other additional arguments you can add to these configs which can specify groups of creatures rather than just a single one, with individual spawn chances for each. So my guess is it would just act on it like another creature entry and add it to the spawn list with the weight you set, in addition to the vanilla.

[Alucard †]

Originally posted by 🦊 Hermit:

Adding it in a second time isn't really necessary for increasing the spawn weights.

DinoSpawnWeightMultipliers=(DinoNameTag=<Tag>,SpawnWeightMultiplier=1.0)

This will do it for you. So for example, to double the spawns of alpha raptors from their defaults:

DinoSpawnWeightMultipliers=(DinoNameTag=Elite Raptor,SpawnWeightMultiplier=2.0)

As to adding them having an effect though - I honestly don't know, never tried it. We do have the setting ConfigOverrideNPCsSpawnEntryContainer, which instead of just adding something new to an existing spawn list it deletes the old one and overrides it entirely. And there are other additional arguments you can add to these configs which can specify groups of creatures rather than just a single one, with individual spawn chances for each. So my guess is it would just act on it like another creature entry and add it to the spawn list with the weight you set, in addition to the vanilla.

Ah interesting