Zone-level global_npc file?
 

Is there a reason why there isn't a zone-level general npc quest file (for handling zone specific npc spawn, death, etc, etc events)?

Maybe a zone controller mechanism? (yes I'm aware of the work-arounds and I've used them before, but they are just that... a work-around)

Also, is there a list of file names anywhere for quest files that are NOT npc names?

Any and all help would be appreciated.

Can use default for non specified npcs:

https://docs.eqemu.io/quest-api/quest-loading/

Sorry for the late reply. Just wanted to say thank you for the help!

Hmm, maybe the fact there is no ‘general NPC quest file’ at the zone level is because all those individual events are more difficult to control if they are together in one file. It would rather complicate the process, provided that you’re dealing with multiple NPCs, each exhibiting a different behavioral pattern. A zone controller could work, but as you mentioned it is a bit of an odd solution to the problem.

Yet there is one at the global (effecting all npcs game-wide) level. And there are many event handlers that are zone-wide for npcs (such as handle_death_zone, etc). Maybe I'm not understanding your comment.

Simple use case: zone-wide loot handling that is beyond the scope of loottable/drop/entries or globalloot... or npc scaling based on easy/normal/hard missions. Currently it requires the use of a zone_controller npc and the handle_death_zone or handle_spawn_zone events which could be simplified just having a zone-level npc quest file.

I can think of many other cases where it would be useful and it was obviously considered useful game-wide.