Substitute player for spawning?

[Adonis0]

I've found a bug with the soul shards spawning, All my other soul shards spawn when I'm at the top of my base (>128 blocks away from the spawners) But my wither skeleton spawner does not.

So I'm wondering does anybody know of something that could be used as a substitute for me standing around the spawner, or shall I have to look into bees for coal?

 

[Epic_Dave]

going to sound a little out there and i dont know if this will work iv never tested it but, my understanding mobs despawn if a player is more then 128 blocks away instantly, now you can use chunkloaders because they do not function as a player, however i did hear that the buildcraft quarry how it loads chunks is simillar to a player, perhaps try using it to load it?
this is not somthing i can say for sure is true but rather what iv heard iv never actually looked into it but its worth a shot.

-Dave

 

[Adonis0]

going to sound a little out there and i dont know if this will work iv never tested it but, my understanding mobs despawn if a player is more then 128 blocks away instantly, now you can use chunkloaders because they do not function as a player, however i did hear that the buildcraft quarry how it loads chunks is simillar to a player, perhaps try using it to load it?
this is not somthing i can say for sure is true but rather what iv heard iv never actually looked into it but its worth a shot.

-Dave

Mobs do despawn when you're that far away, however soul shard mobs are not meant to when they're T5, they've edited the code, proven by the other spawners I have.

But that's interesting for the quarry idea, I'll try boxing in my withers in the quarry area and see what happens.

 

[Zjarek_S]

Maybe you just kill other mobs quicker, before they despawn. I'd suggest moving soul shards spawners to dimension where there are no players, because they despawn when closest player to them is more than 128 blocks away.

 

[Adonis0]

Maybe you just kill other mobs quicker, before they despawn. I'd suggest moving soul shards spawners to dimension where there are no players, because they despawn when closest player to them is more than 128 blocks away.

that is not the case for my spawners, vanilla mobs instantly despawn at 128 blocks away..
I guarantee that I don't kill other mobs faster, yet I still get drops when I'm over 128 blocks away.

But I'm not asking if they despawn or not, because I know my other mobs don't and my wither skeletons do, I'm wondering if there's something that can act as a player standing next to the spawner