Spawning with a timer problem

carlblanchet

Hey all!

So I'm using a Timer-Every.Random(.8, 2.5) Seconds/Spawn actor, then it chooses a location from a table. The issue is that it spawns like crazy instead of doing what it is told to do... Is there a better, more accurate to small numbers, way of spawning actors with randomized timing?

Thanks!

tatiang

If you use a random expression inside of a timer, it chooses a random value ONCE and uses that for the timer (e.g. every 0.8 seconds). It does NOT reset the random value for each iteration of the timer.

tatiang

I think you could do something like this:
change attribute self.startTime to self.Time
change attribute self.endTime to random(0.8,2.5)
When self.Time >= self.startTime+self.endTime --> Spawn actor; change attribute self.startTime to self.Time; change attribute self.endTime to random(0.8,2.5)

(edited)

tatiang

I updated the rules a couple times and I'm working on a quick demo right now.

tatiang

I got it to work but only with larger random values. As soon as I drop it down to (0.8,2.5), it doesn't work consistently. But here's the demo if it's of use to you.

tatiang

Okay, I thought this might be the problem. The random function only returns integer values. So random(0.8,2.5) returns values from 0 to 2. If you want real values, you'll need to pick a random integer and then divide it or add/subtract to get a decimal value. Otherwise, it works pretty well with random(1,3).

Also, there's no need for self.startTime. It's a little cleaner to just do change attribute self.endTime (I actually called it self.spawnTime this time around) to self.Time+random(1,3) and then check when self.Time>=self.endTime.

KiwiLee

What about using some maths ie random(8,25)/10

carlblanchet

I came up with the idea of making a Timer-Every.Random(.8, 2.5) Seconds/Change an integer attribute to +1. Then, When Attribute = Attribute +1/Spawn actor at a random location from a table.

Any thought about this?

carlblanchet

@tatiang Oh really! Thanks for the info, I was unaware. Is there a way to make a spawner spawn with a new random timing every time?

carlblanchet

@tatiang Awesome! Thank you so much!

carlblanchet

@tatiang Thank you very much for your help! I will look through the demo and learn your ways

carlblanchet

@tatiang This works pretty nicely! Thanks!

carlblanchet

@KiwiLee Awesome!! This resolves the issue of the random feature rounding off to full numbers. Thanks!