Ammunition (arrows) has always been a rather expensive item in minecraft, but with the 1.8 update, it just got even harder to get. Chickens are now the only source of feathers, but with the change in Animal-Spawning, they do not appear as frequently as they used to. You'll have some in the beginning, but later on? Not so many. Skeletons drop ready-made arrows, but this is just a small handful and only enough to dispatch the occasional Creeper. At least it only takes 2 arrows per monster now.
However, If you want to go on an adventure where you'll be fighting a bunch of monsters, how would you go about getting enough arrows? I've thought about trying to trap chickens to make an egg-farm so that I can have chickens (and feathers) on demand. Building a mob-grinder to collect skeleton loot is a little bit beyond the scope of what I intend to do, but I will if I have to.
Any suggestions on how to get a plentiful supply of ammunition so that I can take pot-shots at monsters that loiter near my citadel without worrying about wasting a valuable resource?
Hans Lemurson's Thread of Links:http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/371610-hans-lemursons-thread-of-links/
Look here to find links to my inventions, creations, and my Youtube channel featuring Amazing Creations of Mine (Redstone engineering FTW!!!) and charming Music-Videos about clones. I also made "Minecraft in Minecraft" (2D platformer/building game). I'm currently trying to make a computer.
Chicken farming (not killing chickens, taking the eggs, throwing them inside a fence to spawn chickens, since eggs have a 1/8 chance of spawning a chicken) is the usual way of getting feathers. If you're having trouble finding chickens at all, try looking in the large grassy biomes.
Gather eggs, make chickens... All the feathers you'll need once you get it rolling.
But, the better way to do things is to learn how to fight and dodge without relying on a bow to do damage or keep creepers back. If you only rarely use arrows, such as when you have skeletons shooting you from unreachable places, then you can usually get enough of them.
i plan on eventually making a chicken farm on the smp I play on, but that isn't how I get them now.
Unless something has changed with the workings of current spawner traps, I will continue to use my skeleton trap to gather stacks and stacks of bones and arrows.
Trying to get games written for windows to work on a Linux machine is like trying to put a diaper on an incontinent buffalo. Sure, you might get it all done, but you'll certainly be left with a huge mess, and it's very time consuming.
Chicken farming (not killing chickens, taking the eggs, throwing them inside a fence to spawn chickens, since eggs have a 1/8 chance of spawning a chicken) is the usual way of getting feathers. If you're having trouble finding chickens at all, try looking in the large grassy biomes.
I have a number of eggs collected and will be starting work on a chicken-farm prototype. Well, an egg-farm, really. When I need feathers I'll take all the eggs my farm produces, throw them against the wall of my "slaughter room" and then proceed to kill all the chickens that are created.
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Hans Lemurson's Thread of Links:http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/371610-hans-lemursons-thread-of-links/
Look here to find links to my inventions, creations, and my Youtube channel featuring Amazing Creations of Mine (Redstone engineering FTW!!!) and charming Music-Videos about clones. I also made "Minecraft in Minecraft" (2D platformer/building game). I'm currently trying to make a computer.
I'm also having a severe arrow shortage. In the past I've made traps out of any skeleton spawners I found, but this is not an easy solution as they are so rare.
If you follow peoples suggestions and go chicken stalking and then farming, I'd love to see what sort of automatic redstone powered chicken slaughterer you come up with Hans.
One more thing, that is quite off topic but hopefully won't be minded: Hans what sort of wheat farm are you currently using or prefering the design of? I just made a new one and would like something well-made to compare it to. I remember that a while ago you designed the spiral farm that I loved, but I think Minecraft technology has moved on a bit since then.
EDIT: Just saw your post above mine, and was a bit dissapointed. Surely you could store your eggs in dispencers, so rather than throwing them you could just stand on a pressure plate and watch chickens be chucked into a room where they are squished by pistons? Cmon, that does sound more fun than running around trying to hit the waddling bastards.
I started a new world for 1.8 and so don't have enough redstone for a properly automated design, but come to think of it, I shouldn't need all THAT much. A dispenser that shoots eggs into the maw of a drowning-trap or lava blade (or whatever works best for killing chickens) should be eminently do-able. This is a secondary concern right now, since first I need to boost my egg production.
Squishing with pistons will require slime balls for sticky-pistons, since the extended piston-head is a breathable block.
(As for wheat farming, the best manual-harvest design is still "Shelf Farms" of the kind that my spiral-farm is. I've found that it's a little bit more efficient to have it composed simply of long parallel rows than a curving spiral, but doesn't make too much difference. You can also achieve some compression this way by being able to eliminate some of the water channels due to the range of irrigation. However, I think that flood-harvested farms are probably the way of the future. I have studied some good designs, and the main issue is quick re-planting.)
Hans Lemurson's Thread of Links:http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/371610-hans-lemursons-thread-of-links/
Look here to find links to my inventions, creations, and my Youtube channel featuring Amazing Creations of Mine (Redstone engineering FTW!!!) and charming Music-Videos about clones. I also made "Minecraft in Minecraft" (2D platformer/building game). I'm currently trying to make a computer.
I found a skeleton spawner and rigged it up to a trap. It only takes a bout 10-20 minutes to get a bunch of arrows.
Yeah, a skeleton-spawner is a real "Mill of Plenty", a money-mill that can provide you with infinite wealth (non-mineral wealth, at least).
However, they are very rare to find and so you can't depend on finding one.
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Hans Lemurson's Thread of Links:http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/371610-hans-lemursons-thread-of-links/
Look here to find links to my inventions, creations, and my Youtube channel featuring Amazing Creations of Mine (Redstone engineering FTW!!!) and charming Music-Videos about clones. I also made "Minecraft in Minecraft" (2D platformer/building game). I'm currently trying to make a computer.
I have begun work on chicken-farming devices, and am meeting with success. I am currently working on ensuring that the "Egg Re-Investment Device" (a dispenser that shoots eggs to make chickens) doesn't accidentally cause the "Self-Mobile Egg Production Units" to spawn outside of the containment area. The containment area consists of a layer of water held up by signs upon which they are condemned to float for eternity. Solid walls prevent their escape, and freedom is constantly within sight but just out of reach since they are unable to overcome their overpowering urge to swim. Their eggs though...they can fall through the confining blue. They lay eggs in the vain hope their offspring might be able to make it to freedom, to the end of the water-shaft that leads to who knows where? But they are deceived; there is no freedom to be had. Their eggs are captured and their offspring are returned to them, to join them in their hopeless struggle.
That is one machine. In its current prototype state it is made largely of glass, so that I can see the forlorn expression in their eyes of nihilistic surrender to the prison that is impenetrable to their nature. In the final version, I intend to make it solid, cutting them off from their view of the world, and cutting the world off from them. For I intend this to be a mysterious creation: Eggs go in, and Eggs come out. The more eggs you put in, the more you get out. It's a simple matter of compound interest and a return on your investment.
The other machine will be the "Egg Conversion Unit", the only true freedom for the fruit of the SMEPUs. Eggs go in, and out come the greatly sought-after Feathers, the "Mother of Arrows". Also emerging will be a substance I label "Edible SMEPU Conversion Byproduct" which cooked in a furnace can sustain a man for a day.
Both machines will be solid constructs with an Input and an Output, both clearly labelled and with a lever for operation. Wealth flows out of them mysteriously, and their function is hidden. Strange...sounds emerge from within, as if to protest the acts of "Reinvestment" and "Conversion", the very PURPOSE of the machine! But pay them no heed. Operate the controls and reap your reward. Ignore the mournful clucking of the damned.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Hans Lemurson's Thread of Links:http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/371610-hans-lemursons-thread-of-links/
Look here to find links to my inventions, creations, and my Youtube channel featuring Amazing Creations of Mine (Redstone engineering FTW!!!) and charming Music-Videos about clones. I also made "Minecraft in Minecraft" (2D platformer/building game). I'm currently trying to make a computer.
I have begun work on chicken-farming devices, and am meeting with success. I am currently working on ensuring that the "Egg Re-Investment Device" (a dispenser that shoots eggs to make chickens) doesn't accidentally cause the "Self-Mobile Egg Production Units" to spawn outside of the containment area. The containment area consists of a layer of water held up by signs upon which they are condemned to float for eternity. Solid walls prevent their escape, and freedom is constantly within sight but just out of reach since they are unable to overcome their overpowering urge to swim. Their eggs though...they can fall through the confining blue. They lay eggs in the vain hope their offspring might be able to make it to freedom, to the end of the water-shaft that leads to who knows where? But they are deceived; there is no freedom to be had. Their eggs are captured and their offspring are returned to them, to join them in their hopeless struggle.
That is one machine. In its current prototype state it is made largely of glass, so that I can see the forlorn expression in their eyes of nihilistic surrender to the prison that is impenetrable to their nature. In the final version, I intend to make it solid, cutting them off from their view of the world, and cutting the world off from them. For I intend this to be a mysterious creation: Eggs go in, and Eggs come out. The more eggs you put in, the more you get out. It's a simple matter of compound interest and a return on your investment.
The other machine will be the "Egg Conversion Unit", the only true freedom for the fruit of the SMEPUs. Eggs go in, and out come the greatly sought-after Feathers, the "Mother of Arrows". Also emerging will be a substance I label "Edible SMEPU Conversion Byproduct" which cooked in a furnace can sustain a man for a day.
Both machines will be solid constructs with an Input and an Output, both clearly labelled and with a lever for operation. Wealth flows out of them mysteriously, and their function is hidden. Strange...sounds emerge from within, as if to protest the acts of "Reinvestment" and "Conversion", the very PURPOSE of the machine! But pay them no heed. Operate the controls and reap your reward. Ignore the mournful clucking of the damned.
Well, skeleton spawners aren't uber-rare. But I believe I read that you're most likely to find a zombie spawner, with spider spawners the second most common, with skeleton spawners being the rarest. In other words, you can't count on the first dungeon you find having a skeleton spawner.
The fact that I found three skeleton spawners within 50 blocks of each other back in 1.7 does not prove me wrong. Nor the fact that in 1.8, we just found conjoined skeleton/spider dungeons within sight of our new base.
However, If you want to go on an adventure where you'll be fighting a bunch of monsters, how would you go about getting enough arrows? I've thought about trying to trap chickens to make an egg-farm so that I can have chickens (and feathers) on demand. Building a mob-grinder to collect skeleton loot is a little bit beyond the scope of what I intend to do, but I will if I have to.
Any suggestions on how to get a plentiful supply of ammunition so that I can take pot-shots at monsters that loiter near my citadel without worrying about wasting a valuable resource?
Look here to find links to my inventions, creations, and my Youtube channel featuring Amazing Creations of Mine (Redstone engineering FTW!!!) and charming Music-Videos about clones. I also made "Minecraft in Minecraft" (2D platformer/building game). I'm currently trying to make a computer.
But, the better way to do things is to learn how to fight and dodge without relying on a bow to do damage or keep creepers back. If you only rarely use arrows, such as when you have skeletons shooting you from unreachable places, then you can usually get enough of them.
Unless something has changed with the workings of current spawner traps, I will continue to use my skeleton trap to gather stacks and stacks of bones and arrows.
I have a number of eggs collected and will be starting work on a chicken-farm prototype. Well, an egg-farm, really. When I need feathers I'll take all the eggs my farm produces, throw them against the wall of my "slaughter room" and then proceed to kill all the chickens that are created.
Look here to find links to my inventions, creations, and my Youtube channel featuring Amazing Creations of Mine (Redstone engineering FTW!!!) and charming Music-Videos about clones. I also made "Minecraft in Minecraft" (2D platformer/building game). I'm currently trying to make a computer.
I started a new world for 1.8 and so don't have enough redstone for a properly automated design, but come to think of it, I shouldn't need all THAT much. A dispenser that shoots eggs into the maw of a drowning-trap or lava blade (or whatever works best for killing chickens) should be eminently do-able. This is a secondary concern right now, since first I need to boost my egg production.
Squishing with pistons will require slime balls for sticky-pistons, since the extended piston-head is a breathable block.
(As for wheat farming, the best manual-harvest design is still "Shelf Farms" of the kind that my spiral-farm is. I've found that it's a little bit more efficient to have it composed simply of long parallel rows than a curving spiral, but doesn't make too much difference. You can also achieve some compression this way by being able to eliminate some of the water channels due to the range of irrigation. However, I think that flood-harvested farms are probably the way of the future. I have studied some good designs, and the main issue is quick re-planting.)
Look here to find links to my inventions, creations, and my Youtube channel featuring Amazing Creations of Mine (Redstone engineering FTW!!!) and charming Music-Videos about clones. I also made "Minecraft in Minecraft" (2D platformer/building game). I'm currently trying to make a computer.
Yeah, a skeleton-spawner is a real "Mill of Plenty", a money-mill that can provide you with infinite wealth (non-mineral wealth, at least).
However, they are very rare to find and so you can't depend on finding one.
Look here to find links to my inventions, creations, and my Youtube channel featuring Amazing Creations of Mine (Redstone engineering FTW!!!) and charming Music-Videos about clones. I also made "Minecraft in Minecraft" (2D platformer/building game). I'm currently trying to make a computer.
That is one machine. In its current prototype state it is made largely of glass, so that I can see the forlorn expression in their eyes of nihilistic surrender to the prison that is impenetrable to their nature. In the final version, I intend to make it solid, cutting them off from their view of the world, and cutting the world off from them. For I intend this to be a mysterious creation: Eggs go in, and Eggs come out. The more eggs you put in, the more you get out. It's a simple matter of compound interest and a return on your investment.
The other machine will be the "Egg Conversion Unit", the only true freedom for the fruit of the SMEPUs. Eggs go in, and out come the greatly sought-after Feathers, the "Mother of Arrows". Also emerging will be a substance I label "Edible SMEPU Conversion Byproduct" which cooked in a furnace can sustain a man for a day.
Both machines will be solid constructs with an Input and an Output, both clearly labelled and with a lever for operation. Wealth flows out of them mysteriously, and their function is hidden. Strange...sounds emerge from within, as if to protest the acts of "Reinvestment" and "Conversion", the very PURPOSE of the machine! But pay them no heed. Operate the controls and reap your reward. Ignore the mournful clucking of the damned.
Look here to find links to my inventions, creations, and my Youtube channel featuring Amazing Creations of Mine (Redstone engineering FTW!!!) and charming Music-Videos about clones. I also made "Minecraft in Minecraft" (2D platformer/building game). I'm currently trying to make a computer.
you have just verbally made love to me
They are not that rare? :unsure.gif:
Well, skeleton spawners aren't uber-rare. But I believe I read that you're most likely to find a zombie spawner, with spider spawners the second most common, with skeleton spawners being the rarest. In other words, you can't count on the first dungeon you find having a skeleton spawner.
The fact that I found three skeleton spawners within 50 blocks of each other back in 1.7 does not prove me wrong. Nor the fact that in 1.8, we just found conjoined skeleton/spider dungeons within sight of our new base.