Estimated time to build one of these from a new map? I'd say quite a long time haha, but amazing trap, that is a lot of items. Hmm what to do with them all? :ohmy.gif:
Hmm, not sure. The one I built on my main save was done over a 3 day period and I still need to go back and make changes to it so it's like the MCEdit version I made (the one in the save in the OP). Quick estimate is that the tower uses around 18000 blocks and each floor built into the ground requires removing 2500 blocks. This is, of course, assuming you are OCD and want everything looking uniform so you don't use the natural walls (i.e. digg out a 25x25 spot and build walls instead of just digging a 23x23 hole).
I've started wondering that myself. With the ability to get that many items in such a short period of time you can fill an enormous number of double chests in just a couple of days. I am planning on making a massive storage building so I can hopefully just store tons of them, mostly the gunpowder for tons of TNT :tongue.gif:
My storage floor, thanks to you i might actually be able to fill some of these^^
Bucyruss, could you test what kind of drop rates you get with the new version, not over chunk (0,0)?
I have built one of these, and it does produce drops, but nothing near what you have. Perhaps 1/8th of the first version. A few items a minute.
Wouldn't it be more beneficial to, say, take out half of the floors? (every other one) Less chance of the spawn to fail because it hit a block, and it will just spawn on the floor that's there? I haven't tried it, but I would think it could squeeze another percent or two efficiency from it.
(of course you still need to keep a good number of floors, because you can't hold 200 mobs on one 16x16 floor... Ok, you -might- -theoretically- be able to, but I imagine it would have some problems.. :tongue.gif:)
Hmm, possibly. I'll try that out later today. I just rechecked the spawning algorithm and you may be right that removing some floors may help with the success rate.
If I remove half the floors that will still leave 14 floors at 17x17 each or 4046 square meters. Should be more than enough space.
I downloaded the map just to see the giant flow of items but I'm only getting about an item a minute from it.
Do you know what's wrong?
I think it's the fact that your difficulty might not be right... I'm guessing the OP's difficulty is on the highest it can be, and was yours?
I tried easy and normal both to no avail.
I didn't think it would matter though, seeing as all difficulties have an equal number of mobs
Difficulty shouldn't matter since spawn rate and the maximum number of mobs is unaffected by it. Only mob health (and the damage they deal) changes with difficulty. Since most of the mobs are killed by lava (not sure if the fall damage effect changes with difficulty) then they will die at the same speed regardless.
Quick question: Which of the schematics posted belong in a loop for each floor, and which are at the very end?
The first four level-by-level schematics represent what each floor should look like. The fifth schematic (with the edit note above it) replaces the fourth schematic (bottom most layer of a floor) for the last (bottom) floor. Spiders still seem to get stuck though so I'm not sure if the fifth schematic is of any use.
The thing I find wierd and a little bit creepy is that it is a Mob "Concentration" camp that kills them when they arrive, and their stuff is sent to the middle of a swastika to be collected...
I don't know if this was intended or what.
It was an unintentional result of the design (moving from the four corners of a square to a center point). I made sure to make it a left facing swastika instead of a right facing one to try ans stave off any Nazi comments. Seems that I failed at that :tongue.gif:
Why do you need water on every spawn floor? Can you not just have it be a blank floor with gaps on all 4 side and let the mobs fall to the collection floor? You could then make more spawn floors by only needing 1 level of blocks then 2 of empty space = 3 levels compaired to 4.
Well, the tower method is definitely the way to go for traps. Now it just comes down to optimizing the floor design. I plan on testing it, but having as many floors as possible may not be optimal. Too few floors or too many floors may both result in reduced mob spawns. There's then the issue of maximizing the speed at which a mob moves from it's spawning location to the trap.
I definitely encourage people to play with the basic concept here and see if they can improve upon it.
Is it absolutely necessary to build the structure in chunk 0, or will it still work elsewhere?
It is not necessary to build it over chunk 0. As mentioned above, chunk 0 just has the highest chance for spawning mobs the fastest since the algorithm will always check it first.
Bucyruss, could you test what kind of drop rates you get with the new version, not over chunk (0,0)?
I have built one of these, and it does produce drops, but nothing near what you have. Perhaps 1/8th of the first version. A few items a minute.
I really think the location is important.
I'll certainly test it at another location and let you know what kind of results I get.
This might be a stupid question but how does the loot not get destroyed by lava?
At the lava/water location there is this sequence of blocks (from the side):
[]
[]
The glass prevents anything from ending up on top of the lava (such as a mob hopping onto the lava). A mob will hit the lava and immediately fall over and into the water where they will disappear and drop an item (into the water).
I wouldn't go with no water on the floors. I assume you are at the max amount of mobs alot, removing the water would reduce the speed at which you kill them and let you sit at the 200 max for longer.
I do have another theory to reduce the space your canals will take up.
Say you make the entire platform the same height and then instead of digging a canal, you you make a path with dirt where you would want your water to flow. Add the water spring blocks where you would in your old design (only a level higher) and when removing the dirt, the water should not change direction. This way you can have "canals" without actually having to dig down in your layer, therefor making them only 3 blocks per layer.
This may not working because of the water not actually dropping, I'm not sure I haven't tested it with your design.
I'll give that a try. I have another option for reducing the floors to 3 blocks that may work if this doesn't.
Minor update in the OP. A couple of minor changes to the design (most notably being that the spider issue seems to be solved), but nothing that increased the item rate unfortunately (at least not in my short tests).
Hmm, not sure. The one I built on my main save was done over a 3 day period and I still need to go back and make changes to it so it's like the MCEdit version I made (the one in the save in the OP). Quick estimate is that the tower uses around 18000 blocks and each floor built into the ground requires removing 2500 blocks. This is, of course, assuming you are OCD and want everything looking uniform so you don't use the natural walls (i.e. digg out a 25x25 spot and build walls instead of just digging a 23x23 hole).
I've started wondering that myself. With the ability to get that many items in such a short period of time you can fill an enormous number of double chests in just a couple of days. I am planning on making a massive storage building so I can hopefully just store tons of them, mostly the gunpowder for tons of TNT :tongue.gif:
Bucyruss, could you test what kind of drop rates you get with the new version, not over chunk (0,0)?
I have built one of these, and it does produce drops, but nothing near what you have. Perhaps 1/8th of the first version. A few items a minute.
I really think the location is important.
Hmm, possibly. I'll try that out later today. I just rechecked the spawning algorithm and you may be right that removing some floors may help with the success rate.
If I remove half the floors that will still leave 14 floors at 17x17 each or 4046 square meters. Should be more than enough space.
I'm using the JohnSmith Texture Pack with the HD Texture Fix. Check out those threads and following the instructions.
This is true. I'll look into adding one later this morning and uploading the save again.
Difficulty shouldn't matter since spawn rate and the maximum number of mobs is unaffected by it. Only mob health (and the damage they deal) changes with difficulty. Since most of the mobs are killed by lava (not sure if the fall damage effect changes with difficulty) then they will die at the same speed regardless.
Just to note, though, my tests are ran on easy.
The first four level-by-level schematics represent what each floor should look like. The fifth schematic (with the edit note above it) replaces the fourth schematic (bottom most layer of a floor) for the last (bottom) floor. Spiders still seem to get stuck though so I'm not sure if the fifth schematic is of any use.
It was an unintentional result of the design (moving from the four corners of a square to a center point). I made sure to make it a left facing swastika instead of a right facing one to try ans stave off any Nazi comments. Seems that I failed at that :tongue.gif:
I'll give that a try and see what happens.
Well, the tower method is definitely the way to go for traps. Now it just comes down to optimizing the floor design. I plan on testing it, but having as many floors as possible may not be optimal. Too few floors or too many floors may both result in reduced mob spawns. There's then the issue of maximizing the speed at which a mob moves from it's spawning location to the trap.
I definitely encourage people to play with the basic concept here and see if they can improve upon it.
Haha, thanks :smile.gif:
Big thanks to you though for your work on the mob algorithm. I helped out a lot in the design for this thing.
It is not necessary to build it over chunk 0. As mentioned above, chunk 0 just has the highest chance for spawning mobs the fastest since the algorithm will always check it first.
I'll certainly test it at another location and let you know what kind of results I get.
My
Gawd.
Its a Mobocaust!
At the lava/water location there is this sequence of blocks (from the side):
[]
[]
The glass prevents anything from ending up on top of the lava (such as a mob hopping onto the lava). A mob will hit the lava and immediately fall over and into the water where they will disappear and drop an item (into the water).
I'll give that a try. I have another option for reducing the floors to 3 blocks that may work if this doesn't.