Rumblestikk
Legacy Supporter 6
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2011
- Location
- The Multiverse
Kainzo dare disturbs Gandalf!
Run! Run!
Run! Run!
Lol, that would be awesome about the mob packs....Mob spawn rate is a lot more complicated than it may seem at first glance, @Cloverhook mentioned a few of the reasons why already.
Mobs spawn in areas depending on the ground type (no spawning on glass for example), light levels, distance to players, etc. So this means the server will naturally tend to put mobs in areas that are best suited for mobs. Underground. Players don't typically encounter or kill mobs underground, so they accumulate, and lower the amount of mobs that spawn at the surface.
Also, since the spawning changes with 1.8 & 1.0, mobs despawn less frequently as well.
It's also worth pointing out that lots of mobs doesn't even make the game that much harder. As a warrior with a knockback sword, I can easily fend off a dozen or more mobs at a time. This is especially easy because mobs do not work together (often, skeletons will friendly fire, and cause battles with other monsters). Mob are really only a threat to the unaware or super-low levels. Imagine how much harder zombies would be if they acted as a single group. Or skeletons if they coordinated to move around you in a circle. But I digress...
I could rewrite the spawning algorithm to be smarter and place more mobs in upper levels, but that isn't going to be a silver bullet. I can't rewrite the mob AI w/o significantly damaging server performance. Monsters use up 40-55% of the CPU on the server at any given time, and are the single most draining resource. If Kainzo turned monsters off completely, he could double the max players. Not that I suggest he do so though.
Edit:
One thing I could experiment with could be smarter but less mobs. Instead of 7000 monsters on the server, only around 600-750 at a time. But make then rove around in "packs", with smarter AI and systematically hunt down players. They would act in packs of 4-8 and fight together (zombies acting as a attack wave, while skeles stay in the rear, creepers moving forward when zombies fall... etc) I could experiment around with this next week, I have finals until thursday. Somehow I imagine I'd get complaints with this system too