Actually, yes, I noticed this last night while working on some pathing related code. Some zones, like soldungb, were hugely problematic as now (unless I manually remove the spawnlist) force a disconnect on me.
I'm just guessing that there is a connection between having a large number of mobs in one place and causing lag. I'd have to wager that it has to be one of the LL iteration loops in the code, but I"m just wagering -- I don't know for sure.
I have noticed too that if you attempt to load the zone config file from the zone files themselves and not the config files that ship that it resolves a form of the disconnect problem. My bets here, too, are that when you don't have the config files that it lumps all the mobs into one place, and then just reinforces the problem some more. But, I haven't checked what actually loads with the config file. For all I know, it just loads the zone name and whether to serve a latte or a mocha.
Maybe a check that 'warped' NPCs away from one another (say by rand()%10 and in a circle?) if they all occupy the same x,y coordinates in the zone, might at least enough to spread them out. Or perhaps even depop the mob, as a way to test out whether the problem is there.
I plan on taking a peak at it later tonight (here in about 8 or so hours), but maybe someone has a quick and dirty answer for us? :)
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