So, I have a 30 x 80 mob trap I designed rougly based of various videos I seen on youtube. However, I seem to have a problem with getting much items. Originally, I attributed this to being to close to the floor. I was originally exactly 24 blocks away. So, I extended the collector to be about 64 - 69 back(roughly). However, I did not notice an increase. So, I went about and started digging around and found a few caves that were probably competing with my kill floor. I lit them up and killed the natives like any good caver would do. However, I still am having trouble with items. I am roughly pulling in anywhere from 50 to 100 items an hour. Not sure what I am doing wrong either. But for the time spent on the construction it has been not worth the payoff thus far.
One thing I did notice, also, is people claiming mob towers work better. Mine is underground and occupies layers 19 thru 24 with the spawn floor being centered on layer 22 - 24 with exactly a 2 high space for them to spawn.
Soooooooooo... any advice on how to improve upon this? I was thinking about incorporating another 30 x 80 floor directly above the original and have a hole feed into canal near the lava trap. Oh, thats another thing... I'm also fairly certain its not the lava... I sat for a while and listened to see if any items burned and I didn't hear any yet.
Eliminate the possibility of mobs spawning elsewhere.
Light up caves, light up the ground above. (That's why people build under the sea.)
The area to do this is 75 blocks in all directions from your collection point. From top to bottom.
Building a large spawn room is only 50% of the work done.
I'm under an ocean already so that is done. However, I'm fairly close to the shore. I already set out tons of torches along the coast as well. The only thing that I can think of is more caves. *SIGH*....
EDIT: Honestly, i'm about to just give up on this trap and consider it a wash. I'm already thinking about building a tower above my huge diamond mine. At least there I know for certain there are no flipping caves underneath....
Try using Cartographer to find caves you've missed.
Won't work i'm afraid. I'm playing on an SMP server that a coworker runs. HE may be able to though. the only thing I can think of doing is mine out in all directions.
Don't give up on it. You can get it working better. Can you post some pics of what your kill zone looks like? Also I'm assuming since it is only 30 wide that you have one long central channel with many side channels? Did you base it on Kiershars PVP trap design?
One thing I always try to do is make sure my collection area is 24 blocks below the trap, near the center, but not too far from the grinder.
Usually if a trap is not producing well there are 3 main issues:
1)Mobs are spawning elsewhere outside your trap. Make sure any caves or surface area within 144 blocks of your collection point are lit up.
2)Spiders are building up and plugging up the works. Perhaps you have a choke point in your design that spiders can't enter and they are blocking all other mobs from passing. Place redstone torches (they give of light but not enough to stop spawning) near any likely choke points and make an observation port to look in to see if this is happening.
3)Your collection point or spawn point are within 24 block radius of your spawning floor. Mobs cannot spawn within 24 blocks of you or your spawn point. If these reach radius reach into your spawning area it can reduce their effectiveness.
*edit* I just saw you post that your on an SMP server. I've heard that items disapear much faster on SMP. Try to locate your collection area much closer to the mob grinder. This may cut into your spawning floor being that close, but you will likely see an increase in production anyway. If that does help then you can just make the spawning room a little wider to help increase spawning area.
1 player on server = 100% mob spawn near you.
2 players on server = 50% (depend where other player is, near cave, night, near you)
3 players on server = 33% (depend where other player is, near cave, night, near you)
Also by the way your speaking i can guess you are using this model?
Before going out and clearing ALL the cave near the spawner you should do THIS step.
1. Lit the entire spawn room, since you get so little drop this will be fairly easy.
2. Reset or at less check ALL water flow to be sure there's NO dead spot.
3. Check for thing that prevent spawning. (glass, haftstep, random torch)
4. Assure the good collection of item near the mob killer. Most of the time this is where the problem is at, monster get kill at a place, but item stay there because the entrance is 2 wide, so you NEED an extra drop in order to get water flow.
5. Assure that lava or any other way you are killing mob is: Killing them and NOT burning too much drop.
6. Remove all torch, don't forget ANY!
7. Make collection area at 25 blocks from the nearest block of the spawner, if you make it too far, monster won't spawn in the back of your dark room. Don't forget monster only spawn 80 block max away from you.
8. Don't go fancy with the water flow like in the video above. I use a simple drop off of water every 6 block and gat the job done.
9. Test, if result are still the same, it's because there too many people on the server :wink.gif:
Don't give up on it. You can get it working better. Can you post some pics of what your kill zone looks like? Also I'm assuming since it is only 30 wide that you have one long central channel with many side channels? Did you base it on Kiershars PVP trap design?
One thing I always try to do is make sure my collection area is 24 blocks below the trap, near the center, but not too far from the grinder.
Usually if a trap is not producing well there are 3 main issues:
1)Mobs are spawning elsewhere outside your trap. Make sure any caves or surface area within 144 blocks of your collection point are lit up.
2)Spiders are building up and plugging up the works. Perhaps you have a choke point in your design that spiders can't enter and they are blocking all other mobs from passing. Place redstone torches (they give of light but not enough to stop spawning) near any likely choke points and make an observation port to look in to see if this is happening.
3)Your collection point or spawn point are within 24 block radius of your spawning floor. Mobs cannot spawn within 24 blocks of you or your spawn point. If these reach radius reach into your spawning area it can reduce their effectiveness.
Yes, this trap is based off Keirshar's design. I'm going to see if I can get an x-ray pack that another poster so kindly mentioned. That should help a LOT with finding what I need. Using the F key thing I already located a zombie dungeon a bit off and dealt with it. Too bad it wasn't above the floor or I would have incorporated it into the trap somehow. I may try and see if I can build another trap around it though and have a second collector feed into the same spot lol... 2 traps might be better than one :biggrin.gif:
I have thought about the spiders already. I am not noticing a large amount of string. In fact I mostly get feathers and sulpher. For every 50 of them I get probably 2 string. So it may be possible. But everything is 2 x 2 so they should be able to fit into the blade. Only using 1 lava though for the blade...
My collection point is now roughly 64 - 69 away from the grinder. I left the original tunnel in case I want to move it back closer though.
Right now I think i'm going to finish lighting up the surface and get that xray texture pack and see if I can finish off my caving. Not much else I can think of lol...
1 player on server = 100% mob spawn near you.
2 players on server = 50% (depend where other player is, near cave, night, near you)
3 players on server = 33% (depend where other player is, near cave, night, near you)
Also by the way your speaking i can guess you are using this model?
Before going out and clearing ALL the cave near the spawner you should do THIS step.
1. Lit the entire spawn room, since you get so little drop this will be fairly easy.
2. Reset or at less check ALL water flow to be sure there's NO dead spot.
3. Check for thing that prevent spawning. (glass, haftstep, random torch)
4. Assure the good collection of item near the mob killer. Most of the time this is where the problem is at, monster get kill at a place, but item stay there because the entrance is 2 wide, so you NEED an extra drop in order to get water flow.
5. Assure that lava or any other way you are killing mob is: Killing them and NOT burning too much drop.
6. Remove all torch, don't forget ANY!
7. Make collection area at 25 blocks from the nearest block of the spawner, if you make it too far, monster won't spawn in the back of your dark room. Don't forget monster only spawn 80 block max away from you.
8. Don't go fancy with the water flow like in the video above. I use a simple drop off of water every 6 block and gat the job done.
9. Test, if result are still the same, it's because there too many people on the server :wink.gif:
That video shows the exact trap I based mine off of. I already know about the SMP server with the mobs. There are only 2 of us that play on this server at the moment. Most of the time I am alone as well online or he is. He has the same issue with the trap when alone online as well. Also, we have both sat at the trap multiple times as well. I even went and built a redstone circuit to alert us when items were at the collection point when in the storage room(which is even farther from spawn floor).
That video shows the exact trap I based mine off of. I already know about the SMP server with the mobs. There are only 2 of us that play on this server at the moment. Most of the time I am alone as well online or he is. He has the same issue with the trap when alone online as well. Also, we have both sat at the trap multiple times as well. I even went and built a redstone circuit to alert us when items were at the collection point when in the storage room(which is even farther from spawn floor).
have you try fixing it? I did the same trap 4 days ago and i was getting the same ammount of trap as you.
A few fix to some water flow and i was in buisness.
The biggest problem i had was the water near the lava.
to put it simple right under the lava, if you don't drop water in the 2 block wide tunnel under lava, item get stuck there.
[]
Be sure it's like that
[]
[]
if not water get item stuck.
Now post some picture and i will try helping you in 1 day and a haft :S (sorry gat thing to do)
That video shows the exact trap I based mine off of. I already know about the SMP server with the mobs. There are only 2 of us that play on this server at the moment. Most of the time I am alone as well online or he is. He has the same issue with the trap when alone online as well. Also, we have both sat at the trap multiple times as well. I even went and built a redstone circuit to alert us when items were at the collection point when in the storage room(which is even farther from spawn floor).
have you try fixing it? I did the same trap 4 days ago and i was getting the same ammount of trap as you.
A few fix to some water flow and i was in buisness.
The biggest problem i had was the water near the lava.
to put it simple right under the lava, if you don't drop water in the 2 block wide tunnel under lava, item get stuck there.
[]
Be sure it's like that
[]
[]
if not water get item stuck.
Now post some picture and i will try helping you in 1 day and a haft :S (sorry gat thing to do)
Are you using 1 or two lava blades? I'm only using 1. I also have a 1 block drop right beneath the lava blade with water flowing out to the collection lanes. I just checked also and noticed that they are sometimes getting stuck right near the collection area. I may change collection methods now. Thanks!
I will post pics if I can later. Not sure I want to open the wall up and head in without getting my coworker to set the map to peaceful first though.
EDIT: Yup just confirmed that some items are getting hung up at the first "bend" of this flat collector design. I will see if changing this up helps at all. I may just go old fashioned and do a drop every 7 blocks.
Also, yeah I hear spiders near the trap... but none are dying. They may be clogging up the system. The enterance to the trap is a 2 x 2 with 1 block drop below the single lava blade. Not sure how I could improve the system to kill spiders more. But they are not dying very often it seems for sure.
EDIT: Problem appears to be twofold. Items are getting clogged at the first bend and not flowing downstream. Also, spiders do not appear to die often. I will need to tweak. Any ideas on how to get the spiders more? Based of Keirshars practical SMP trap if anyone needs to know what my trap looks like. That I copied 100%. Would changing the direction of the lava blade to face towards the incoming water and have 2 blades with a roof work better than a single sideways blade?
UPDATE: Downloaded Wireframe texture pack and it has instantly helped tons. I can see that a big part of the reason spiders are not dying in the trap are because they seem to be able to see through walls now and are trying to go through the walls to get me and not falling into the collector. Also they are climbing out of the canals to do this.
Second, I can see that I DO have a collection issue on the first bend for certain.
Thirdly, there is a fairly complex network of caverns to the south west of the trap. Does not seem to be getting most of them, but is stealing some of them. So I will hunt down that cave fairly soon. Otherwise I picked a good spot it seems. But that cave network is going to suck. Looks like a bunch of small little rooms.
Outcome: Going to fix my canal system and get rid of the flat surface collector using signs as many items(estimated 2/3rds) are getting hung up there. Also, going to experiment with the lava trap. Perhaps going to face it outwards and include 2 blades and use ladders and not signs.
My many thanks to everyone that has assisted me thus far! Any further ideas would be wonderful as well of course :smile.gif:
Ok... so this trap officially sucks for trapping spiders...
Texture pack i'm using is Wireframe... lets me see into the trap without having to endanger myself. I can't decide how to fix this. This trap is based of the design mentioned above. Would an extra canal along that wall pushing them into the spiders into the lava get the job done you guys think?
Ive made a very simple drowning trap that is 4x3 on the bottom and at least 5 blocks tall it works by making a glass wall in the middle row starting 1 block up from the bottom of the trap so you will have a hole for the drops to go through.
on the other side you want to have the ground from where the mobs come in 2 blocks up from the base then you put water at the top of the wall (side view)
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make sure the top of the trap looks something like this
[] []
[] []
and there you go
let me know if this was to hard to understand the way I typed this btw Im up at 4 in the morning with nothing else to do sooooo..... yeah
One thing I did notice, also, is people claiming mob towers work better. Mine is underground and occupies layers 19 thru 24 with the spawn floor being centered on layer 22 - 24 with exactly a 2 high space for them to spawn.
Soooooooooo... any advice on how to improve upon this? I was thinking about incorporating another 30 x 80 floor directly above the original and have a hole feed into canal near the lava trap. Oh, thats another thing... I'm also fairly certain its not the lava... I sat for a while and listened to see if any items burned and I didn't hear any yet.
Thanks in advance for any ideas!
Light up caves, light up the ground above. (That's why people build under the sea.)
The area to do this is 75 blocks in all directions from your collection point. From top to bottom.
Building a large spawn room is only 50% of the work done.
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I'm under an ocean already so that is done. However, I'm fairly close to the shore. I already set out tons of torches along the coast as well. The only thing that I can think of is more caves. *SIGH*....
EDIT: Honestly, i'm about to just give up on this trap and consider it a wash. I'm already thinking about building a tower above my huge diamond mine. At least there I know for certain there are no flipping caves underneath....
Won't work i'm afraid. I'm playing on an SMP server that a coworker runs. HE may be able to though. the only thing I can think of doing is mine out in all directions.
Hmm... never heard of an X-Ray texture pack. I will have to google this. Thanks :smile.gif:
One thing I always try to do is make sure my collection area is 24 blocks below the trap, near the center, but not too far from the grinder.
Usually if a trap is not producing well there are 3 main issues:
1)Mobs are spawning elsewhere outside your trap. Make sure any caves or surface area within 144 blocks of your collection point are lit up.
2)Spiders are building up and plugging up the works. Perhaps you have a choke point in your design that spiders can't enter and they are blocking all other mobs from passing. Place redstone torches (they give of light but not enough to stop spawning) near any likely choke points and make an observation port to look in to see if this is happening.
3)Your collection point or spawn point are within 24 block radius of your spawning floor. Mobs cannot spawn within 24 blocks of you or your spawn point. If these reach radius reach into your spawning area it can reduce their effectiveness.
*edit* I just saw you post that your on an SMP server. I've heard that items disapear much faster on SMP. Try to locate your collection area much closer to the mob grinder. This may cut into your spawning floor being that close, but you will likely see an increase in production anyway. If that does help then you can just make the spawning room a little wider to help increase spawning area.
by c0yote
I tried it with terrible results. I gave my wife my glasses for a second, a creeper showed up and now my wife is pregnant.
Stupid 3D..
1 player on server = 100% mob spawn near you.
2 players on server = 50% (depend where other player is, near cave, night, near you)
3 players on server = 33% (depend where other player is, near cave, night, near you)
Also by the way your speaking i can guess you are using this model?
Before going out and clearing ALL the cave near the spawner you should do THIS step.
1. Lit the entire spawn room, since you get so little drop this will be fairly easy.
2. Reset or at less check ALL water flow to be sure there's NO dead spot.
3. Check for thing that prevent spawning. (glass, haftstep, random torch)
4. Assure the good collection of item near the mob killer. Most of the time this is where the problem is at, monster get kill at a place, but item stay there because the entrance is 2 wide, so you NEED an extra drop in order to get water flow.
5. Assure that lava or any other way you are killing mob is: Killing them and NOT burning too much drop.
6. Remove all torch, don't forget ANY!
7. Make collection area at 25 blocks from the nearest block of the spawner, if you make it too far, monster won't spawn in the back of your dark room. Don't forget monster only spawn 80 block max away from you.
8. Don't go fancy with the water flow like in the video above. I use a simple drop off of water every 6 block and gat the job done.
9. Test, if result are still the same, it's because there too many people on the server :wink.gif:
Yes, this trap is based off Keirshar's design. I'm going to see if I can get an x-ray pack that another poster so kindly mentioned. That should help a LOT with finding what I need. Using the F key thing I already located a zombie dungeon a bit off and dealt with it. Too bad it wasn't above the floor or I would have incorporated it into the trap somehow. I may try and see if I can build another trap around it though and have a second collector feed into the same spot lol... 2 traps might be better than one :biggrin.gif:
I have thought about the spiders already. I am not noticing a large amount of string. In fact I mostly get feathers and sulpher. For every 50 of them I get probably 2 string. So it may be possible. But everything is 2 x 2 so they should be able to fit into the blade. Only using 1 lava though for the blade...
My collection point is now roughly 64 - 69 away from the grinder. I left the original tunnel in case I want to move it back closer though.
Right now I think i'm going to finish lighting up the surface and get that xray texture pack and see if I can finish off my caving. Not much else I can think of lol...
That video shows the exact trap I based mine off of. I already know about the SMP server with the mobs. There are only 2 of us that play on this server at the moment. Most of the time I am alone as well online or he is. He has the same issue with the trap when alone online as well. Also, we have both sat at the trap multiple times as well. I even went and built a redstone circuit to alert us when items were at the collection point when in the storage room(which is even farther from spawn floor).
have you try fixing it? I did the same trap 4 days ago and i was getting the same ammount of trap as you.
A few fix to some water flow and i was in buisness.
The biggest problem i had was the water near the lava.
to put it simple right under the lava, if you don't drop water in the 2 block wide tunnel under lava, item get stuck there.
[]
Be sure it's like that
[]
[]
if not water get item stuck.
Now post some picture and i will try helping you in 1 day and a haft :S (sorry gat thing to do)
Are you using 1 or two lava blades? I'm only using 1. I also have a 1 block drop right beneath the lava blade with water flowing out to the collection lanes. I just checked also and noticed that they are sometimes getting stuck right near the collection area. I may change collection methods now. Thanks!
I will post pics if I can later. Not sure I want to open the wall up and head in without getting my coworker to set the map to peaceful first though.
EDIT: Yup just confirmed that some items are getting hung up at the first "bend" of this flat collector design. I will see if changing this up helps at all. I may just go old fashioned and do a drop every 7 blocks.
EDIT: Problem appears to be twofold. Items are getting clogged at the first bend and not flowing downstream. Also, spiders do not appear to die often. I will need to tweak. Any ideas on how to get the spiders more? Based of Keirshars practical SMP trap if anyone needs to know what my trap looks like. That I copied 100%. Would changing the direction of the lava blade to face towards the incoming water and have 2 blades with a roof work better than a single sideways blade?
Second, I can see that I DO have a collection issue on the first bend for certain.
Thirdly, there is a fairly complex network of caverns to the south west of the trap. Does not seem to be getting most of them, but is stealing some of them. So I will hunt down that cave fairly soon. Otherwise I picked a good spot it seems. But that cave network is going to suck. Looks like a bunch of small little rooms.
Outcome: Going to fix my canal system and get rid of the flat surface collector using signs as many items(estimated 2/3rds) are getting hung up there. Also, going to experiment with the lava trap. Perhaps going to face it outwards and include 2 blades and use ladders and not signs.
My many thanks to everyone that has assisted me thus far! Any further ideas would be wonderful as well of course :smile.gif:
Texture pack i'm using is Wireframe... lets me see into the trap without having to endanger myself. I can't decide how to fix this. This trap is based of the design mentioned above. Would an extra canal along that wall pushing them into the spiders into the lava get the job done you guys think?
They would just suicide themselves it looks like. Since when have spiders been able to see through walls btw?
Also, this trap is still not optimal. Only producing about 300 - 450 items an hour. I still have caves to light up that may be stealing the mobs.
on the other side you want to have the ground from where the mobs come in 2 blocks up from the base then you put water at the top of the wall (side view)
[]
]" title="-<->" />
make sure the top of the trap looks something like this
[] []
[] []
and there you go
let me know if this was to hard to understand the way I typed this btw Im up at 4 in the morning with nothing else to do sooooo..... yeah