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This entity allows you to spawn monsters (or items/weapons).
Attributes
Name (targetname) - Property used to identify entities.
Target on release (target) - Event to trigger when a monster is spawned.
Monster Type (monstertype) - The entity name of the monsters to be spawned (e.g. monster_headcrab).
Number of monsters (monstercount) - The maximum number of entities to spawn. -1 is infinite.
Frequency (delay) - Delay, in seconds, between each monster being spawned. If -1, a new monster will only be spawned after the previous has been killed.
Max live children (m_imaxlivechildren) - Maximum number of live children allowed at one time. Spawnings will be suspended until a monster dies. A value of -1 means infinite.
Childrens' Name (netname)
Flags
Start On (1)
Cyclic (4) - If this is enabled, the entity will activate then deactivate (used to spawn a single monster) instead of toggling it on or off when triggered.
Monsterclip (8) - If this is enabled, spawned monsters will not be able to pass through func_monsterclip brushes.
Notes
The Flags mechanism for this entity is doped:
If targetname is blank, it will always spawn monster, no matter if "Start On" is enabled or not.
If targetname is named and "Start On" is enabled, monster will not spawn as soon as the game starts. However, the best way to manage this entity is to give it a "target name" and set a trigger to activate it (once if Start On is disabled, twice if enabled). Doing so, its mechanics will normalize.
Monstermakers can be a bit of buggy, some of the monsters produced will not fade after death, and there are issues with the AI behavior of monsters spawned with a monstermaker.
The Childrens' Name (netname) basically assigns a name to the monster spawned, that way you can target the monster with a scripted_sequence, or sentence.
AI problems seem to be natural with grunts for some reason, and the only solution I have found is to transport them into the map from somewhere else. That way they retain their AI.
Spawning will be interrupted if you place a monstermaker too close to another so that both their monster's hitboxes can collide in game. Tip: you can use a cycler to render a model on Hammer Editor or insert a monster's typical entity and see its bounding box.
monstermaker
to spawn hornets, as part of a trap. really cool.