Drop Spawns

Drop Spawning is the process of spawning an object floating in the air so that it falls down and begins its respawn timer right away, thus providing a consistent and predictable spawn timer. It is most commonly seen on power weapons in MLG Gametypes because MLG requires it, but it works equally well on vehicles and other movable objects.

How to set up a Drop Spawn
Note: because the beginning of the game displays the loadout camera for 10 seconds before the game begins, weapons spawn 10 seconds ahead of the game's clock. A weapon drop spawned on a 58 second timer will respawn every time the game clock displays X:10 for example.
 * 1) Set the respawn timer for the object to the time you want it to consistently fall on minus two seconds. For example, MLG typically uses rockets on a 3 minute timer, so they are set to 178 seconds.
 * 2) Raise the run time maximum to some number higher than the quantity on the map.
 * 3) Place the object where you want it to land and allow it to settle for a few seconds.
 * 4) Turn the object to fixed physics.
 * 5) With rotation snap turned off, grab the object and elevate it ~1.1 forge units. This does not have to be exact, it just needs to be high enough to count as having moved after it falls to the ground.
 * 6) Release the object.
 * 7) Without grabbing the object, press X while targetting it and set physics back to normal. It will not fall to the ground right away, this is normal.
 * 8) Start a new round. Check if the object fell into place correctly. If something went wrong, repeat steps 3 through 8.

Why it Works
Halo: Reach does not start the timer to respawn an object until it has been moved from its origin. In default Bungie maps, weapons do not normally move until a player picks them up, so their respawn clocks are known only to players who observed them being picked up.

The increase to the run time maximum is done to allow more than one copy of the object on the map at a time. If this is not done, a player still holding an old copy of a weapon can prevent a newer copy from spawning. This is also observed on default Bungie maps.