Without knowing what is going on behind the curtain, but what i’ve observed: I think there is fixed number of machines coded in the game. E.g 500 or so, that is spawned in the game when you Continue your game. And these are the random roam spawns, excluding fixed spawns and mission specific spawns.
Before, it used to be where each region had more-or-less the same amount of machines in them. E.g 100 per region or so.
November '20 update (Reaper) skewed the machine spawn system, by putting bulk of the machine amount in the Farmlands. Due to this, there aren’t many left for other regions, which we see now. Currently, it’s like so where there are e.g 400 in Farmlands and 10 in other regions, per region.
Though, i’m not sure if devs can increase the “fixed number of machines”, without making the game unplayable on weaker hardware (consoles).
Lately I find that machines are spawning right where I am, which is to say I see them spawn. Which I never had before, other than the Harvester calls for help spawns. For instance: When I sneak into Ängsnäs Manor stables to loot the Dumping stations unseen, and inadvertently trip the alarm, Hunters spawn right out of thin air in front of me. I think, it would be nicer if the game would check where the player is, and spawn out of their view.
That is scripted into the game. That’s why machines magically appear in that specific loc.
There are other such scripted locs;
One that comes 1st to my mind is The Bridge main mission (Marshlands). Once you reach the edge of a bridge, several runners and hunters are spawned in behind you, at the start of the bridge (to imitate you walking into ambush).
Another one is at the end of New Cycles main mission (South Coast). EBBA v.2.0 is spawned in once the artillery goes “boom”.
When thinking about it, yet another came to my mind: In the Fighting For Future side mission (South Coast), Austin is spawned in once you take out 2nd data center.
And there are even more. No point for me to list them all here.
Though, i haven’t seen random roam machines magically spawn in the game but i’ve seen once how harv and it’s hunters despawned well before they were out of my vision range. All three were alive and walking away from me.
Machine spawns were switched around with the December update, to prevent them from clustering certain areas. So now they cluster other areas instead
I can recommend the windmills in the North Coast region, everytime I go there I walk into huge battles.
The two Tanks that used to spawn there are back, usually with some backup.
I deliberately never finished the Windmills mission, and the two tanks respawn every time I log on. I still won’t complete it just in case. If you can arrange to be spotted by a Seeker on your way from the Safe House to the farmhouse, machines come from all directions and you have a joyous half-hour battle every time. I’ve had four tanks, two harvesters, twenty hunters and ten or so runners before now. My favourite battle.
Three times I have been to this location in my last 10-15 hours. It’s always crowded with Military Hunters.
Yesterday there were 24 of them in one big group!
