# How to Add Monsters?

**URL:** <https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-add-monsters/7972>\
**Category:** The Toolbox\
**Created:** [November 21, 2014, 1:24am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-add-monsters/7972 "2014-11-21T01:24:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 16\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![EkarusRyndren](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/ekarusryndren/32/80_2.png) [@EkarusRyndren](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/EkarusRyndren)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 1:24am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-add-monsters/7972/1 "2014-11-21T01:24:45Z")

</div>

I’m currently setting up a mod that’ll add a handful of monsters that should spawn anywhere, but really, really, really rarely.

How do I go about doing that?

…also I can’t seem to get the mod listing for testing… Not sure what I did wrong.

Okay, I don’t know what I’m doing wrong and if I can’t get this thing to list there’s no point in doing it so I’m running the surprise: I’m trying to make the Survivor Monsters that were discussed in a [different thread](http://smf.cataclysmdda.com/index.php?topic=8390.15) but I’ve hit a wall and don’t know what I’m doing wrong, here are the files so far.

Bare in mind, there’s zero intention for balance in this mod at the moment, just trying to see what I can do with it.

Folder Name: sur\_monsters

modinfo.JSON

` {
        "type": "MOD_INFO",
        "mod-type": "SUPPLEMENTAL",
        "ident": "survivor_monsters",
        "name": "Survivor Monsters",
        "description": "Adds a handful of monsters based off of well-known forum members.",
        "author": "Ekarus Ryndren",
    "path": ""
    }`

sur\_survivors.json

`[
    {
    "type" : "MONSTER",
    "id" : "sur_mon_Ekarus",
    "name": "Ekarus",
    "species":"MUTANT",
    "symbol":"S",
    "color":"red",
    "size":"LARGE",
    "material":"flesh",
    "diff":100,
    "aggression":15,
    "morale":20,
    "speed":30,
    "melee_skill":8,
    "melee_dice":1,
    "melee_dice_sides":1,
    "melee_cut":1,
    "dodge":1,
    "armor_bash":30,
    "armor_cut":36,
    "luminance":0,
    "hp":180,
    "death_function":"EXPLODE",
    "death_drops": {
        "groups": [
            ["sur_ekarus_stuff", 80],
            ["mut_lab", 50],
            ["cannedfood", 45],
            ["child_items", 30],
            ["home_guns", 16],
            ["home_hw", 15],
            ["chem_lab", 15],
            ["fridge", 12],
            ["soft_drugs", 12],
            ["bionics", 10],
            ["living_room", 8],
            ["chem_lab", 6],
            ["road", 5],
            ["hard_drugs", 4],
            ["allguns", 4]
        ]
    },
    "special_attacks":[["BMG_TUR", 3], ["SMASH", 5], ["PARROT", 45]],
    "special_when_hit":["ZAPBACK", 75],
    "starting_ammo" : {"50bmg":200},
    "description":"A large, snake-like reptilian creature with four arms definitely some kind of Mutant. It's covered head to tail in what appears to be some kind of hand-made armor fit for a long-time, extremely mutated survivor. It's definitely got more than a few bionics installed, you momentarily wonder if it installed them itself. It seems to be wielding a Heavy Machine Gun in a pair of it's arms and looks ready to kill anything in it's way that it finds too threatening. If you're feeling particularly brave the home-made duffel bag on it's back looks overstuffed.",
    "flags":["SEES", "SMELLS", "HEARS", "GOODHEARING", "WARM", "BASHES", "GROUP_BASH", "BLEED", "CBM_OP", "ACIDPROOF", "ATTACKMON", "GRABS", "FAT", "VIS50", "BONES", "LEATHER"],
    "anger_triggers":["HURT", "PLAYER_CLOSE"],
    "fear_triggers":["FIRE"]
    }
]`

sur\_parrot\_stuff.json

`[
    {
        "type" : "speech",
        "speaker" : "npc_mon_generic",
        "sound" : "\"Get out of here!\"",
        "volume" : 30
    },{
        "type" : "speech",
        "speaker" : "npc_mon_generic",
        "sound" : "\"I was here first!\"",
        "volume" : 30
    },{
        "type" : "speech",
        "speaker" : "npc_mon_generic",
        "sound" : "\"Stay back!\"",
        "volume" : 40
    },{
        "type" : "speech",
        "speaker" : "npc_mon_generic",
        "sound" : "\"Fuck off!\"",
        "volume" : 40
    },{
        "type" : "speech",
        "speaker" : "npc_mon_generic",
        "sound" : "\"Go away.\"",
        "volume" : 20
    },{
        "type" : "speech",
        "speaker" : "npc_mon_Ekarus",
        "sound" : "\"Ssstay back, I'm armed!\"",
        "volume" : 40
    },{
        "type" : "speech",
        "speaker" : "npc_mon_Ekarus",
        "sound" : "\"Sssee thisss gun? It'sss loaded.\"",
        "volume" : 30
    },{
        "type" : "speech",
        "speaker" : "npc_mon_Ekarus",
        "sound" : "\"You know, I added some of the recipes in that famousss cookbook. You'd make a deliciousss pizza I think...\"",
        "volume" : 20
    },{
        "type" : "speech",
        "speaker" : "npc_mon_Ekarus",
        "sound" : "\"I've got a bomb, ssstay back!\"",
        "volume" : 40
    },{
        "type" : "speech",
        "speaker" : "npc_mon_Ekarus",
        "sound" : "\"I'm hungry.\"",
        "volume" : 30
    },{
        "type" : "speech",
        "speaker" : "npc_mon_Ekarus",
        "sound" : "\"Jackassss...\"",
        "volume" : 10
    }
]`

sur\_itemgroups.json

`[
  {
    "type" : "item_group",
    "id" : "sur_ekarus_stuff",
    "items":[
      ["m2browning", 95],
      ["mask_gas_xl", 95],
      ["gloves_xlsurvivor", 95],
      ["hood_xlsurvivor", 95],
      ["hsurvivor_suit", 95],
      ["survivor_duffel_bag", 95],
      ["survivor_rucksack", 95],
      ["trenchcoat_survivor", 95],
      ["50bmg", 60],
      ["50bmg", 10],
      ["50bmg", 6],
      ["50bmg", 2]
    ]
  }
]`

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![StopSignal](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/stopsignal/32/1923_2.png) [@StopSignal](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/StopSignal)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 4:03am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-add-monsters/7972/2 "2014-11-21T04:03:44Z")

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I have been playing with that in the Evil Moose mod, i will give joo a hand! 😃

Let me get them more seeable first, though.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![EkarusRyndren](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/ekarusryndren/32/80_2.png) [@EkarusRyndren](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/EkarusRyndren)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 4:43am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-add-monsters/7972/3 "2014-11-21T04:43:03Z")

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Fixed, dunno what the fuck went wrong with the spoiler.

I fixed the spoiler I mean, not the problem. I still have no idea what’s wrong.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![StopSignal](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/stopsignal/32/1923_2.png) [@StopSignal](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/StopSignal)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 4:48am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-add-monsters/7972/4 "2014-11-21T04:48:24Z")

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Clean, usable Jsons.

NOTES:

First: I had to delete some itemgroups because, looks like when you add a modded monster and want it to have the itemgroups already in the game, you need to add those itemgroups to itemgroups.json in your mod. Sorry!

Second: Changed your species from Mutant to Forumer. Because i can.

Third: Looks like you want it to shoot, but you forgot to add the tag for shooting. IRRC that tag is something like this:

```
	"special_attacks":[["SMG", 3]],
	"starting_ammo" : {"9mm":500},

```

Get it?  
For now the only thing it does is to point a red dot to your chest. Wich is badass, but does not shoot!

Fourth: To have some fun, i made it to spawn instead of zombies. So you got like, lots of Ekarus to kill you there…  
If you want it to spawn a better way, i’d suggest to copy the entire FOREST monstergroup and add him there, with low values.

> **[survivor\_monsters.7z](http://www.mediafire.com/file/q16670lk7nb7cvb/survivor_monsters.7z)**
>
> MediaFire is a simple to use free service that lets you put all your photos, documents, music, and video in a single place so you can access them anywhere and share them everywhere.

FIVE: The Speech json had other names, not the one mon\_ekarus had.

Made it a package for joo 🙂

Anyways, the things that went wrong:

-Ident must have the name of the folder the mod is in.  
-No monstergroup, so it could not spawn.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![EkarusRyndren](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/ekarusryndren/32/80_2.png) [@EkarusRyndren](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/EkarusRyndren)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 5:39am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-add-monsters/7972/5 "2014-11-21T05:39:33Z")

</div>

Managed to get them shooting, but they won’t parrot for some reason

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![StopSignal](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/stopsignal/32/1923_2.png) [@StopSignal](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/StopSignal)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 5:40am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-add-monsters/7972/6 "2014-11-21T05:40:47Z")

</div>

Hmm… they parroted for me. Are you using the files i left you?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![EkarusRyndren](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/ekarusryndren/32/80_2.png) [@EkarusRyndren](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/EkarusRyndren)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 5:46am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-add-monsters/7972/7 "2014-11-21T05:46:35Z")

</div>

> [@StopSignal](#):
>
> Hmm… they parroted for me. Are you using the files i left you?

Yeah, it’s just crashing when they try to parrot-- at least I think that’s what they’re trying to do

EDIT: Got the lines when I reverted to the exact version you were using, the the ‘generic’ lines in place of the ones the Ekarus mob was uspposed to be using

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![StopSignal](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/stopsignal/32/1923_2.png) [@StopSignal](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/StopSignal)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 5:55am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-add-monsters/7972/8 "2014-11-21T05:55:07Z")

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Ouh, did not understand very well, but great! Enjoy that swarm of yous!

This is gonna be fun. I am in full support of this project, so if you ever need something, i am here for you, Ek!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![EkarusRyndren](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/ekarusryndren/32/80_2.png) [@EkarusRyndren](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/EkarusRyndren)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 5:58am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-add-monsters/7972/9 "2014-11-21T05:58:53Z")

</div>

[quote=“StopSignal, post:8, topic:7972”]Ouh, did not understand very well, but great! Enjoy that swarm of yous!

This is gonna be fun. I am in full support of this project, so if you ever need something, i am here for you, Ek![/quote]

I’m currently trying to get a grasp on the scaling. I just got thrown six map tiles by an Ekarus.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![StopSignal](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/stopsignal/32/1923_2.png) [@StopSignal](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/StopSignal)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 6:08am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-add-monsters/7972/10 "2014-11-21T06:08:27Z")

</div>

That is so awesome, haha.

Try to scale from weaker to stronger maybe?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![EkarusRyndren](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/ekarusryndren/32/80_2.png) [@EkarusRyndren](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/EkarusRyndren)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 6:12am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-add-monsters/7972/11 "2014-11-21T06:12:29Z")

</div>

[quote=“StopSignal, post:10, topic:7972”]That is so awesome, haha.

Try to scale from weaker to stronger maybe?[/quote]

I’ve managed to fix it for now, though I kept the values for later when I end up having to do a particular person we all remember… XD

trying to get death drops sorted out.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![StopSignal](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/stopsignal/32/1923_2.png) [@StopSignal](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/StopSignal)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 6:14am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-add-monsters/7972/12 "2014-11-21T06:14:59Z")

</div>

[quote=“EkarusRyndren, post:11, topic:7972”][quote=“StopSignal, post:10, topic:7972”]That is so awesome, haha.

Try to scale from weaker to stronger maybe?[/quote]

I’ve managed to fix it for now, though I kept the values for later when I end up having to do a particular person we all remember… XD

trying to get death drops sorted out.[/quote]

Yes, we do!  
And great. You need to copy all the itemgroups and stuff or i was wrong?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![EkarusRyndren](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/ekarusryndren/32/80_2.png) [@EkarusRyndren](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/EkarusRyndren)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 6:24am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-add-monsters/7972/13 "2014-11-21T06:24:43Z")

</div>

[quote=“StopSignal, post:12, topic:7972”][quote=“EkarusRyndren, post:11, topic:7972”][quote=“StopSignal, post:10, topic:7972”]That is so awesome, haha.

Try to scale from weaker to stronger maybe?[/quote]

I’ve managed to fix it for now, though I kept the values for later when I end up having to do a particular person we all remember… XD

trying to get death drops sorted out.[/quote]

Yes, we do!  
And great. You need to copy all the itemgroups and stuff or i was wrong?[/quote]

I don’t think so, it seems to be taking items from the base groups well now, so it should be fine.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![StopSignal](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/stopsignal/32/1923_2.png) [@StopSignal](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/StopSignal)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 6:27am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-add-monsters/7972/14 "2014-11-21T06:27:05Z")

</div>

Hm, strange for me. Anyways, even better. What you will do with the spawn though?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![EkarusRyndren](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/ekarusryndren/32/80_2.png) [@EkarusRyndren](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/EkarusRyndren)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 6:47am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-add-monsters/7972/15 "2014-11-21T06:47:01Z")

</div>

> [@StopSignal](#):
>
> Hm, strange for me. Anyways, even better. What you will do with the spawn though?

If you’re talking about the item groups, it’s so our monsters drop a ‘reward’ when defeated.

If you’re talking about where our monsters will spawn, I’ll probably set them up so they can spawn just about anywhere, but with a REALLY low chance.

I also intend for just about everyone to have one or more easer-egg items that can only be acquired by defeating that monster (…or yourself) so uh, expect a strange yet outstanding christmas hat 😛

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![StopSignal](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/stopsignal/32/1923_2.png) [@StopSignal](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/StopSignal)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 7:04am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-add-monsters/7972/16 "2014-11-21T07:04:01Z")

</div>

I love you.

That will be incredibly awesome! And yeah, i was talking abojt the monstergroups. Hmm, is there a way to do that? I justo used the Zombie spawn for now, i did not know there was a “everywhere” spawn. If not, i guess spawning in normal dirt tiles or forestal tiles should be fine.