Tip: Forced Spawning

[Ankylosaur]

Mollymauk was asking how to spawn Thorn Vines, and I thought I would share this obscure bit of knowledge I worked out.

 

There are some mobs that I think are marked as "Don't Auto Spawn" in their group - just like you can do your custom mobs with a right-click on a character (a related obscure feature).  You can't identify them in the UI - they aren't grayed out like in your custom mob. The tell tale sign of course is that if you use the core mob in a map, the "Don't Auto Spawn" mobs will never appear.

 

Usually "Don't Auto Spawn" is used on unique bosses or on mobs that only appear in certain locations.

 

There might actually be two labels like this as I think some might spawn if you use them in a custom group with other characters, but at least with Coralax Warders, the only way to force them to spawn is to put them in a custom group where there are only "Do Not Spawn" characters so the engine is forced to spawn them.  

 

Examples of non-unique characters that will not spawn on their own with their core mob:

• Vines - CoT
• Coralax Warders - Coralax
• Lichen - DE
• Cobra Hatchling? (minion and boss) - Snakes 
• Psychic Clockwork Lord? - Psychic Clockwork
• EB Shivan - Shivans
• Possessed Scientist - CoT

 

Anyone find any others?

Edited December 10, 2023 by Ankylosaur

[Ankylosaur]

Oh and related are the Underling mob type. In my experience these will never spawn on their own except when placed into their own group.

[Ankylosaur]

And - on the theme of forced spawning - the game will also "tend" to force spawn a mob at one rank lower if it is the only mob and it is trying to put it in a map/ 

 

So, if you only have bosses in a custom mob, they will spawn as a single LT if someone is soloing at +0/+0.

 

I have found a single weird quirk where you can get them to spawn at their rank though. If the mob has all ranks (min through boss)- might be a fairly unique circumstance though.

 

The rule seems to be: If you have all ranks available, but only one rank is available at the level of the mission, then it keeps them at their rank. I discovered this by accident with a custom Shivan mob (all are level 15 - 25), but it has the added quirk of the EB Shivan really being available at all levels even though it's not listed that way (because the EB is the pet from Bloody Bay). By putting my custom Shivan mob in a level 50 mission, only the EBs spawned, and they filled the map with 2 EBs in each spawn point. Impractically tough!
 

Edited November 13, 2023 by Ankylosaur

[Ankylosaur]

updated with Possessed Scientists