To be more specific: every time a player enters a terrain with no other player in it, then there is a chance of creatures or bandits spawning.
There will be times when the terrain will be empty when you enter. That'll be rare, but it will happen. And creatures will now spawn in their correct terrain types, like Krayt Dragons in the Desert, and Space Slugs in Cave terrain.
Note that any player who's in a ship that's sitting in that terrain will prevent spawning, but one sitting above that terrain in atmo will not prevent spawning.
Just to piggy back on this one... is the only way to get a creature from hatching an egg? And also, do all creatures have a chance to drop an egg? Thanks
Are you sure that is what he said, or merely how you interpreted a vague nonanswer? Initially they weren't planning to tell people specifically that colossals don't drop eggs, but eventually the truth came out!
It would take digging through a years worth of irc logs to find the day the conversation came up, but the conversation went something along the lines of:
1. Zhao posts link to pic of a creature in his party on dev and asks for thoughts
2. Discussion ensues about how scary an army of Krayt dragons would be.
3. Zhao says that the drop rate of creatures is less the larger the creature gets.