LibGDX - How to spawn objects at a certain distance from each other?

Question

So I'm trying to create a game and it's my first time. My game is a 2D side scroller and is about the player in space avoiding the incoming meteors. I have successfully managed to get the meteors spawning randomly on the x and y axis off screen and re position once it has gone pass the screen.

But the problem I face now is sometimes the spawn of the meteors will clump together which I don't want. How do I get the meteors to spawn at a certain distance from each other so they don't clump together. I couldn't find any good tutorials or if anyone can point me to the right direction. Below are my codes so far.

Meteor Class

public class Meteors {
    private Texture bigMeteor;
    private Vector2 posBigMeteor;
    private Random yrand;

    //Constructor
    public Meteors(float x){
        bigMeteor = new Texture("meteor.png");
        yrand = new Random();

        //Spawn location of meteor
        posBigMeteor = new Vector2(x, yrand.nextInt(AstroDemo.HEIGHT/2 - bigMeteor.getHeight()));
    }

    public Texture getBigMeteor() {
        return bigMeteor;
    }

    public Vector2 getPosBigMeteor() {
        return posBigMeteor;
    }

    //Reposition the meteors
    public void reposition(float x){
        posBigMeteor.set(x, yrand.nextInt(AstroDemo.HEIGHT/2 - bigMeteor.getHeight()));
    }
}

PlayState Class

public class PlayState extends State {
    //Total meteor count on screen
    private static final int METEOR_COUNT = 8;

    private Naught naught;
    private Texture bg;
    private Random xrand;
    private Array <Meteors> meteors;

    public PlayState(GameStateManager gsm) {
        super(gsm);
        //Starting co-ordinates of main character (Naught)
        naught = new Naught(50, 100);

        //Setting viewport of the camera
        cam.setToOrtho(false, AstroDemo.WIDTH/2, AstroDemo.HEIGHT/2);
        bg = new Texture("bg.png");
        xrand = new Random();

        meteors = new Array <Meteors>();

        //Spawn meteors randomly off screen
        for (int i = 1; i <= METEOR_COUNT; i++){
            meteors.add(new Meteors(AstroDemo.WIDTH/2 + (xrand.nextInt(300))));
        }
    }

    @Override
    protected void handleInput() {
        //If screen/mouse is held
        if(Gdx.input.isTouched()){
            //Main Character jumps/flys
            naught.jump();
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void update(float dt) {
        handleInput();
        naught.update(dt);

        //If meteors are left side of the screen, re-position to the right side of the screen
        for(Meteors meteor : meteors){
            if (cam.position.x - (cam.viewportWidth/2) > meteor.getPosBigMeteor().x + meteor.getBigMeteor().getWidth()){
                meteor.reposition(meteor.getPosBigMeteor().x + (AstroDemo.WIDTH/2 + 20 + (xrand.nextInt(300))));
            }
       }
        cam.position.x = naught.getPosition().x + 80;

        cam.update();
    }

    @Override
    public void render(SpriteBatch sb) {
        //Adjust the spritebatch for co-ordinate system in relation to camera
        sb.setProjectionMatrix(cam.combined);
        sb.begin();
        //Draw background where the camera is
        sb.draw(bg, cam.position.x - (cam.viewportWidth/2), 0);
        sb.draw(naught.getTexture(), naught.getPosition().x, naught.getPosition().y);

        for (Meteors meteor : meteors) {
        sb.draw(meteor.getBigMeteor(), meteor.getPosBigMeteor().x, meteor.getPosBigMeteor().y);
        }
        sb.end();
    }

    @Override
    public void dispose() {

    }
}

Answer 1

create a array of predefined value for your y position and then get value randomly from that array.

or

Divide height into sub portion then get random value from that portion so that each random value not collide with other value.