Increase spawn rates?

[prince87x]

One of the problems I remembered having in in MM7 is the spawn rates. It seemed like I would kill all of the monsters in the areas of my level and then I would run out of things to kill.

Are you able to sleep for a couple weeks and have them respawn? I remember you can't sleep outside for that long or your characters would go berserk I think. So would you need to sleep in an inn for that long for them to respawn quicker? Is there a mod that has the ability to increase the spawn rates of monsters?

[GreatEmerald]

In MM7, you don't really need to wait for respawns. All the dungeons are placed in an order so you must be able to continue, whatever your level may be. You just need to choose the right dungeon.

[Drakeero]

I would like to support this question as well. It's not an issue with levelling that I'm worried about. It's a case of boredom.

I must have played through MM7 a dozen times by now and I'd like more monsters on the overworld maps just to keep them from being so... boring.


I'm also not sure if this is the thread to ask about this, or not, but I've lurked across some of the modding threads [primarily the one about BDJ's mod]. I see his statement on the massive requirements necessary to mod MM7 but I'm interested in small tweaks.

I'm currently using MM8view because MM7view keeps crashing on me. I'd like to know how to change the monster spawn rates as requested here [I'm not sure how to get the editor to save any changes I make] and change the ratios of the monster difficulties spawned. For example, I'd love to see more Magog's, Marble Gargoyles, and ghosts in the barrows.

Oh, and for the monster spawn times, I've found those under the MAPSTATS.txt, but once again, I don't know how to make the editor save any changes I make.

[prince87x]

It would be nice to not need to know which dungeon I need to go to to level. I can see how it may get annoying if you're trying to travel somewhere and then all of the mobs have respawned making it difficult.

Maybe there is a way to manually respawn them all or just in one zone? That way it wouldn't get in the way of your traveling about. I have no idea about the modding either so maybe someone who reads this thread will be able to help us.

Someone must know how to do this?

[Drakeero]

Hm... the order I use is...

Dragonflies
Temple of the Moon
Kill the Dragon
Castle Harmondale
Goblins in the surrounding area [non-turn based combat ftw]
Shades and Ghosts [but leave those gog thingies alone]
Trogdolytes [sp?]

and that's as far as I've gotten in this particular playthrough. Usually I'd go on and slowly kill the griffons and brute force the red dwarf mines with fire aura, wands, and tons upon tons of rests. This time though, I'm going to try to go back to Harmondale and do the White Cliff Caves. Depending on how things go with the oozes I might either try to handle the gogs and completely clear the Barrows map, or go on to the Red Dwarf Mines. Not sure yet.

[vladimir-maestro]

It is easy to make monsters spawn each 0-999 days.
Just need to edit 1 TXT file and fill the number of days you wish map to be respawned.
do not remember exact name...maybe mapstats.txt or similar to it. There are only about 10-15 txt files in whole game

[GrayFace]

Use mm8leveleditor / MM7View / MM6View to extract MAPSTATS.txt file from events.lod archive. Change it with TxtEdit and either put to DataFiles directory if you have my patch installed or add them back to events.lod with one of the tools I've listed.
"Refill Days" is the thing to change to make areas respawn frequently.
Change "Appear #" for each of 3 monsters to make more monsters on maps.

Drakeero, please give me a link to MM8View. I had no luck seeking it.
I have a program to change damage dealt by monsters to make the game harder.
Modding is much easier now than it was a while ago. I'd encourage anyone willing to do it give it a try.

[prince87x]

Thanks for the help GrayFace, vladimir. I will follow your instructions .

[Drakeero]

http://sourceforge.net/projects/mm8leveleditor/

I believe this is the one I used.

And thanks for telling me about the appear#

I'd still like to know if the variable for the monster variety is editable or if its part of the game .exe

[Macros the Black]

I think this is more a case of difficulty level rather than respawn rates. Usually at all times it's easy to know where to go next, and if it turns out to be too hard you go somewhere else first... But the game never becomes so difficult that you really can't beat it. Just more challenging in some places. So I guess this has more to do with the difficulty of the game, and I do think it's a real shame this game doesn't have difficulty settings.

In any way, the way most people adjust the difficulty is by which party they chose to play the game with. Maybe you're playing a 4 knight party and that's why it's difficult, try a party that has more chance of success and it'll probably be more doable.

[prince87x]

I think this is more a case of difficulty level rather than respawn rates. Usually at all times it's easy to know where to go next, and if it turns out to be too hard you go somewhere else first... But the game never becomes so difficult that you really can't beat it. Just more challenging in some places. So I guess this has more to do with the difficulty of the game, and I do think it's a real shame this game doesn't have difficulty settings.

In any way, the way most people adjust the difficulty is by which party they chose to play the game with. Maybe you're playing a 4 knight party and that's why it's difficult, try a party that has more chance of success and it'll probably be more doable.

That's true. I just remember wiping out most of the enemies in a zone and never seeing them again throughout the game. It would just be nice if they came back at some point instead of those zones being a barren wasteland.

[GreatEmerald]

Hm... the order I use is...

Dragonflies
Temple of the Moon
Kill the Dragon
Castle Harmondale
Goblins in the surrounding area [non-turn based combat ftw]
Shades and Ghosts [but leave those gog thingies alone]
Trogdolytes [sp?]

and that's as far as I've gotten in this particular playthrough. Usually I'd go on and slowly kill the griffons and brute force the red dwarf mines with fire aura, wands, and tons upon tons of rests. This time though, I'm going to try to go back to Harmondale and do the White Cliff Caves. Depending on how things go with the oozes I might either try to handle the gogs and completely clear the Barrows map, or go on to the Red Dwarf Mines. Not sure yet.

I use a different strategy:
1. Let Dragonflies kill everyone on the island
2. Temple of the Moon, one of the most difficult areas TBH
3. Castle Harmondale
4. Overland Harmondale
5. AvLee Hall under the Hill
6. Overland Erathia
7. Bandit caves
8. White Cliff Caves (Harmondale)
9. Overland Barrow Downs -gogs
10. Troglodytes
11. Overland Tularean Forest
12. Tularean Forest caves (halls of gold!)
13. Erathian Sewers
14. Tidewater Caverns (Tatalia)
15. Overland Tatalia (Noble Plate Armour!)
16. Haunted Manor (Barrow Downs)
... then all other dungeons EXCEPT the Red Dwarf Mines! Go there only once you've cleared everything in Harmondale, Erathia and Tularean Forest -islands, and make sure you have wands and everyone who can already knows Stone to Flesh and Cure Paralysis.
By using this scheme, I rarely have to go out of the dungeon without clearing it, not to mention resting, with the exception of the Temple of the Moon. The only harder dungeon then is Pit if you're on Light and Celeste if you're on Dark.

[Drakeero]

Wow, interesting mix. Oh, when it comes to Red Dwarf mines... fire aura ftw. Also, I'd always skip the medusa part when rescuing the dwarves. I'd come back later for the promotion quest.

As for the temple of the moon on Mist, are you using the day of the gods pedastal located near the cannon north of the adventurer party? With that everything on the island except the dragon becomes easy.


And, on another note, is anyone familiar for the triggers for those "gifts from the sky" that rain down on Harmondale and sometimes Erathia? I have a hard time predicting them and I'm worried that changing the monster respawn times will interfere with them.

[prince87x]

Thanks for that list GreatEmerald. I'll try sticking to that when I play. It seems I wasn't so far off where to go, just that I have no idea what dungeons to go to at what level

[GreatEmerald]

As for the temple of the moon on Mist, are you using the day of the gods pedastal located near the cannon north of the adventurer party? With that everything on the island except the dragon becomes easy.


And, on another note, is anyone familiar for the triggers for those "gifts from the sky" that rain down on Harmondale and sometimes Erathia? I have a hard time predicting them and I'm worried that changing the monster respawn times will interfere with them.

Emerald Isle, you mean? Yea, I didn't use that pedestal, never knew it existed until recently.

Gifts from the sky? Never heard of those... I know areas have randomly placed reagents and piles of gold, but nothing else.

[Drakeero]

Yeah, there's a really really long reason why I call it Mist, so thanks for understanding.


Also, I call those reagents and piles of coin gifts from the sky because I've actually transtioned between maps and caught one of their little scatter patterns literally falling from the sky. Some of them even fell over water and disappeared with a splash.

[GreatEmerald]

MM6 Mist, eh?

Yes, I saw falling things as well. It's very obvious if you go from Tatalia to Erathia on foot - you will see NPCs falling, too. I think they are intended to be random. Some are static, like Noble Plate Armour and Meteorite Fragments near a crater in Tatalia, but I think there are random ones as well.

[GrayFace]

I'd still like to know if the variable for the monster variety is editable or if its part of the game .exe

Maybe "Dif 1-5" affects it. Otherwise, there's no way. But I think increasing strength of all monsters would work better.

Also, I call those reagents and piles of coin gifts from the sky because I've actually transtioned between maps and caught one of their little scatter patterns literally falling from the sky. Some of them even fell over water and disappeared with a splash.

I remember such things in MM8. It was probably easier for map makers to place things this way.

[Macros the Black]

The first time I played the game I found Castle Harmondale probably the hardest dungeon in the game. All the enemies can shoot, you can get poisoned and diseased, and you're likely not going to have enough money to cure that at the temple every time you want to go heal up (and resting when diseased doesn't really help).
I was out of gold quick and forced to go through the place one enemy at a time.. Good times

[GreatEmerald]

The first time I played the game I found Castle Harmondale probably the hardest dungeon in the game. All the enemies can shoot, you can get poisoned and diseased, and you're likely not going to have enough money to cure that at the temple every time you want to go heal up (and resting when diseased doesn't really help).
I was out of gold quick and forced to go through the place one enemy at a time.. Good times

I guess that knowing that trash piles disease you and that there is a Stone Skin pedestal in the city would have helped you greatly