Modular Encounters Systems

As Meridius_IX has retired from modding, development of MES is being continued by CptArthur and enenra.

What is Modular Encounters Systems?

This mod was designed to be a flexible framework that will handle nearly all spawning of NPC grids in your game world. It also includes a behavior system that NPCs can use to engage with players and the environment in unique ways. The mod was built to be compatible with existing NPC mods, while also providing new and powerful options to add extra variety and control to how NPC grids appear in the game.

Simply run this mod with any other mod(s) that add NPC grid encounter content (Eg: Reddit Custom Encounters, Air Traffic, Surface Occupation, Etc). This mod will identify the spawn groups included in those mods, regardless of whether or not they were setup to use the advanced features of this mod.

Because this mod is a framework, it does not add any NPC encounters to your world if you load it by itself.

Why Was This Mod Created?

Previously, this mod was two separate framework mods called Modular Encounters Spawner and RivalAI. Previous to those mods, there were two older framework mods that controlled spawning for Planetary Cargo Ships and Planetary Installations.

All of these framework mods were difficult to manage as separate mods, so a decision was made to merge them all into a single framework. Not only does this make it incredibly easier to maintain the project, but it also makes it a lot easier to create new features for use in future NPC encounter mods.

This new single framework was designed to be backwards compatible with all existing NPC encounter mods that were using the older frameworks. Because this framework replaces the limited functionality of some in-game spawning systems, the following world options will be Automatically Turned Off when using this framework:

• Cargo Ships
• Random Encounters
• Enable Wolves (If Planet Creature Spawner Option or Addon is used)
• Enable Spiders (If Planet Creature Spawner Option or Addon is used)

What Does This Mod Handle?

This mod will take care of the spawning and despawning of several types of NPC grids.

• Space Cargo Ships - These encounters are one of the oldest types of NPC Grid Encounters. They appear near player proximity every so often and travel in a fixed path for a while before despawning.
• Lunar Cargo Ships - This is a new type of encounter. These encounters are essentially the same as Space Cargo Ships, however they will only appear near players that are within a shallow gravity field (Eg: Moons).
• Planetary Cargo Ships - These encounters are similar to Lunar Cargo Ships, only they will appear close to the surface of larger planets.
• Gravity Cargo Ships - These encounters are similar to Planetary Cargo Ships, however they will only appear in the zone where a larger planet's gravity begins to diminish.
• Random Encounters - These encounters are discovered as players explore the game world. One change that has been made to these encounters is that they're no longer tied to the world seed in regards to how they appear, but now use the player travel distance and a timer (similar to Planetary Installations).
• Planetary Installations - These encounters appear on the surface of planets as static grids / stations. They appear as players travel and explore the surface of the planet.
• Boss Encounters - This is a new type of encounter. When this spawn is triggered, a GPS marker is created near the player. Once the player approaches the GPS marker, a difficult NPC encounter will appear.
• Static Encounters - These encounters will only spawn once in the world, and will always spawn at a specific set of coordinates in the world. These are useful for scenario builders.
• Creatures and Bots - These encounters are Character based NPCs that will often spawn and attack the player from the planet surface. Wolves and Spiders fall into this category.

The new encounters (factorium) use new vanilla spawning systems that are not managed by MES. So whether or not these new encounters appear or not will be entirely controlled through your regular game settings.

Other Compatibilities

The framework also adds several APIs from other popular mods so that encounter mods can take advantage of their added functionality. This includes (but isn't limited to) the following:

• CoreSystems (Previously WeaponCore)
• Defense Shields
• AiEnabled
• Water Mod
• Nebula Mod

Configuration and Modding

This framework contains several configurations and tools for administrators and modders. The majority of the details can be found at the Modular Encounters Systems Wiki, located Here

Restrictions Regarding Republishing This Mod:

Please refrain from republishing this mod on the workshop or anywhere else. Because this mod is used as a dependency by many other mods, it will likely auto-load this mod with any cloned instance - which will cause unstable behavior as a result of 2 instances of the spawner running. If this is not respected, I will exercise my right as the original creator and file DMCA notices against infringing copies at my discretion.

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