Spawning the Lord of the Fruit Flies

[Roodmas]

Recently, I just can't do it!

For several in-game years I've had these plots of land full of crops growing and rotting. It is at my base, I often visit it when it has 16+ fully grown crops on two adjacent farm tiles, and the bastard refuses to spawn.

Am I doing something wrong?

EDIT: my farm right now. No idea what the problem is. Maybe it's because of mods?

[1moregame]

I noticed this the last few days too.  Just can't seem to get one where I want it. 

[LinknAllie]

I've been playing on a world with Randoms and on day 98 we still don't have the friendly fruit fly.  We've even had plants rot and he still doesn't show up.

[Mr.Tarunio]

Don't let the crops rot, just pick them after day 35.

[Roodmas]

11 minutes ago, jantonio said:

Don't let the crops rot, just pick them after day 35.

I know I need fully grown ones, but as you can see I have plenty of those, too :\ Maybe there's a bug?

[QuartzBeam]

You need to be there so that the area is loaded when the 15th (or 16th or 17th, etc.) crop reaches the fully grown stage. Otherwise, the game won't check for the Lord's spawning conditions.

[Lokena]

I had something similar, for some reason, when placing two plots of lands 3x3, it didn't spawn. Then I arranged the plants more closely, 4x4 on one plot and a few more around, as close as possible. Then it appeared. As I understand it, the number of "15+" plants is calculated from some specific point, and if they are planted evenly, not all plants fall into this range. Well, maybe. At least it worked for me. If it doesn't arrive even then, then I don't know, or something broke in the game itself with updates, or it's because of mods.

[QuartzBeam]

11 minutes ago, Lokena said:

I had something similar, for some reason, when placing two plots of lands 3x3, it didn't spawn. Then I arranged the plants more closely, 4x4 on one plot and a few more around, as close as possible. Then it appeared. As I understand it, the number of "15+" plants is calculated from some specific point, and if they are planted evenly, not all plants fall into this range. Well, maybe. At least it worked for me. If it doesn't arrive even then, then I don't know, or something broke in the game itself with updates, or it's because of mods.

That "specific point" is the plant itself.

Every time a plant reaches the fully grown stage while it is loaded, it runs a function that counts the number of fully grown plants in a 1.5 tile radius around it. If the game detects 15 or more plants (the plant that runs the functions included) and the Lord Fruit Fly's cooldown timer is 0 and there's no Lord Fruit Fly anywhere else in the shard, then it summons him.

[kiwikenobi]

Sounds like the strategy may be to plant 15 seeds with one empty spot in the middle of them, wait a few minutes, or perhaps even a full in-game day, and then plant one more in the spot in the middle. Assuming they all grow at the same rate, then the last one planted will fully ripen a little after the rest, and it will be within range of all of the others that are fully grown, and that should consistently spawn the lord of the fruit flies, assuming all the other conditions are met. Not sure if that would actually work, but that's what I came up with, seeing the criteria that the fly-summoning has to meet as listed here.

Any reason why that wouldn't work? Maybe some other strategy would work better?

[Roodmas]

Ahaaa I see, I'm not sure the area was loaded at the moment those crops fully grew. Maybe, but not sure. I'll try being there at the last growth stage.

I just find it interesting how I have difficulties with this when I actually want the Lord to spawn, and when he's an annoyance, he never fails to show up.

[Owlrust]

Is this for a weed farm? I've been seeing a lot of those as of late but haven't tried one myself. What's the range on the LotFF anyways?

[Roodmas]

8 minutes ago, Owlrus said:

Is this for a weed farm? I've been seeing a lot of those as of late but haven't tried one myself. What's the range on the LotFF anyways?

No, I just want to grow giant stuff and want the friendly fruit fly's help.

[Cheggf]

1 hour ago, kiwikenobi said:

Sounds like the strategy may be to plant 15 seeds with one empty spot in the middle of them, wait a few minutes, or perhaps even a full in-game day, and then plant one more in the spot in the middle. Assuming they all grow at the same rate, then the last one planted will fully ripen a little after the rest, and it will be within range of all of the others that are fully grown, and that should consistently spawn the lord of the fruit flies, assuming all the other conditions are met. Not sure if that would actually work, but that's what I came up with, seeing the criteria that the fly-summoning has to meet as listed here.

Any reason why that wouldn't work? Maybe some other strategy would work better?

You can just plant a bunch of crops normally and she'll appear if they grow when you're there. No need to go out of your way with some weird planting ritual.

[kiwikenobi]

3 hours ago, Cheggf said:

You can just plant a bunch of crops normally and she'll appear

When I plant crops normally, starting at one corner of my square of four plots and finishing at the other, it seems like the lord of fruit flies almost never appears, and I was thinking it was perhaps because the last crop to fully grow was on a corner, out of range of the required number of crops. So, guaranteeing that the last one to fully grow is in the middle would ensure it was within range. Unless I'm misunderstanding something about how the game summons the lord of the fruit flies.

[1moregame]

7 hours ago, Cheggf said:

she'll appear if they grow when you're there

I didn't realize that this was part of the spawn criteria.  I incorrectly assumed that the Lord would spawn upon nearing the fully grown crops, not that I had to physically be near the crops as they complete their growth.