Drfiter spawning rules from the Drifters Trap point of view

[DrEngine]

I'd like to build Drifters Trap. What about drifter spawning rules from this point of view ? 

- should I fill spaces (caves, etc.) around trap to avoid drifter spawning there (and probably lowering spawn amount in the trap) ?

- what's max spawning distance of drifters to the player ?

- will dead drifter has an effect of spawning new one (i.e. lowering of a number of live drifters raise probability of spawning new one)?

- other thoughs / tips-tricks ?

[Maelstrom]

Hmmmm....

There's three spawning conditions that come to mind - rift activity, caves and temporal storms.  Obviously, the last overrides the prior two.  In my experience, the first two have some interaction.  In cases where I've settled close to open caves, I've had drifters wander out of the nearby cave during the night which seems more common when rift activity is higher (medium and above).  I've also heard drifters in the cave from the previous night when going about chores near the cave as well.  

Lastly, there does seem to be a cap on drifter population.  From my experience spending a night indoors on a medium rift activity night will create a larger mob of morning moaners than on a night of low rift activity, but it isn't a huge mob either.  The mob doesn't seem to get appreciably larger with higher rift activity either.  It seems to top out around 8 or 10 drifters.

[Thorfinn]

Kind of depends on what you want to do. Is this just something for nighttime rift activity or temporal storms. The two have quite different rules. 

 

1. Yes

3. Rift or storm? I think the storms are scripted, in that if you kill them or they run off, they don't respawn until the next wave. Rifts, like @Maelstrom  I think there is some kind of a cap, but it does not appear to be a hard cap. It is more consistent with a reduced percent chance of spawn based on number of drifters currently in range of that rift.

If you are using it for something other than storms, you definitely want to base it in or near caverns that are easy walk-ups to the surface so you can get the "better" drifters. Pathing is not great, so a wide-open cave is better than a windy winding passage.

You can use falling damage to help take out drifters, but you probably don't want to go nuts, either. By the time you are deep enough for a fall to kill a tainted drifter, you will be losing stability fast enough that you need those kills. Back when I did this kind of thing, I'd find a vertical cave and place myself at or near the bottom, maybe 20 or so deep, probably less, I don't remember. You are too deep if they go splat. Most drifters would be just one or two spear stabs from dead, and you get back all that sweet, sweet stability.

Edited August 29, 2023 by Thorfinn

[Snakeshoes]

It takes some resources (I'm not at this point in my game yet) but this looks like a great 'grinder' for drifters to use as a model:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qn37vEkby9Y&list=PLfPHRe7NN33dPBoOnVyVr9O_Cl0CIEzWU&index=3

Basically, dig deep down, dig out a spawning platform around a central station with a moat around it, use water in the moat to push drifters into the center, use ladder mechanics such that when you kill them the corpses are pushed up to easy harvesting range away from their live friends, stock with food weapons and storage, shut out the lights on the spawning platform and go to town.  From the video, it appears depth in the world impacts spawn rate and types too.

[DrEngine]

@Thorfinn  The rift is unstable and it can appear and disappear. So it's near impossible to position my trap to be placed near the rift. Thats why I'll build my trap for use during storm or during normal play without storm. I want to maximize traps yield so I'll probably build the trap underground for spawning higher tier drifters. I'll use falling trap construction to filter lower tiers drifters (35 blocks tall fall kills all but two heads/corrupt/nightmare ones). This determines spawning platform at high about 40-50. 
Construction example see link below...

I only wonder how to filter live drifters from dead ones at the bottom of the pit... Maybe I can stand near falling point and lure live ones to me.

My advantage is we're playing two players together (my wife ! yes they are such marvelous wiwes) so we can operate some complicated processes together (one player can stand by spawning platform to generate drifters; and second player can kill them at the bottom of the pit).

@Snakeshoes : Interesting construction. However I'll go a way of falling trap: