Minecraft Forums

Okay, I'll wade into this (ha, see what I did there :-/ oh nevermind).

No, actually I have an on-topic question: why does the map on my new Minecraft SMP server, created on September 21 using snapshot 13w38c, feel like it's 9/10 water (if not more)?

Honestly, the spawn point looks almost like a survivor island, and you can sail around for a long time before you find a reasonable spot at which to start surviving.

From spawn, in every direction for thousands of blocks, you see water -- oh there are some islands, sure, and yes some of the islands are bigger than others (we found a couple that are 500+ hundred blocks across - but they're still islands). I had to look around for hours before I found what I'd call "normal" Minecraft terrain, and even that was up against an ocean.

At any rate this map is absolutely, definitely, nothing like the infinite mass of Pangaea dotted by puddles and maybe a few ponds that some are describing.

Seriously, if Jeb made ocean generation "smaller" it almost looks like the generator got it backwards for this seed? As we started playing on this map I told everyone that I'd read that the oceans will be smaller! Embarrassing.

Check it yourself. Use seed -117946798. I tested this seed on 13w38c, 13w39a, and 13w39b. Then for fun I checked it on 13w36b. Same result every time. For any of you who want big oceans, try that seed - you'll love it.

But what happened? My only guesses are: Jeb/DB deliberately left something in there to allow for big oceans, or it's just a freak seed, or hey thar's bugs in that thar code!

The slime trap has apparently been addressed, so I'll try to answer this one with a novel ... if you don't like to read, please skip to the next post:

What is a good trap that you can build with reasonably easy to get materials?

IMO, your best option involves a skeleton spawner. Now the spawner itself is not a given, they don't grow on trees, and it seems like whenever you need one you can't find one (but once you do they're everywhere).However, assuming you do find a skeleton spawner, IMO you can't do much better than to make a mob grinder/trap for them, using a water elevator to lift them up, drop damage to get them to 1/2 heart, and either one of the following:
Why is this trap so great? Let's treat this like an ad ...
TL;DR, the skeleton spawner mob grinder/trap with splash heals is, IMO, the quickest and easiest way to serious riches in Minecraft ... IMO it practically breaks the game, but unless you want to limit yourself there's no reason not to build one. I'm finished evangelizing for the skeleton spawner mob grinder/trap ... so how would you go about building one?In my experience (I've built more than a dozen of these) there is one version that is hard to beat.Now I know some people on this thread have complained about the terrible YT vids for these kinds of things ... and you're right, I completely agree (especially with Vilborg - dude you made me snort my coffee rofl).But seriously, give this one a chance - Kaspersmc is a Russian old-school Minecraft player, and IMO this guy has made something really special here. Click the link to go to the best Minecraft tutorial I've ever seen on YT, period (not just for mob traps). It's 18 minutes long but you won't regret watching it. Honestly, if only all tutorials were done like this ...

Not proclaiming anything, I have no more status from which to speak than anybody else here. But I'd like to know ... where does this desire to min/max everything in this game come from? I.e., given what we're talking about, who really cares if a horse is faster/slower than a minecart or whatever ... does it have to always be about that? Isn't there something to be said for creativity and role playing within the game, etc?

Maxing out efficiency isn't evil. If you're playing, say, Starcraft, at a professional level (then you're South Korean, but that's beside the point), then yeah, you definitely want to know exactly how long certain things take, what order to do things in so that no time/resources are wasted, etc.

Or if you're bulding a Magic: The Gathering deck, and you're playing in a tournament against good players ... well, you'd better know what you're doing with the mana curve and number of lands and all of that. If not, you'll get your **** handed to you on a paper plate.

But ... if you're playing this game of Minecraft, and it's not competitive play (a UHC tournament, for example), then why would it matter if you decide to eat nothing but fish and wear dyed leather armor, use an axe for a melee weapon and ride around on a pig? Or a horse, to bring this back to the topic at hand? Must the developers ensure that there is only one way to do things ... like, for instance, code for only one food item, or one of anything really ... because some are more inefficient, and therefore nobody in their right mind would use them?The atmosphere of the game, I believe, is important. Which is why I supported the addition of bats in the game. I'm a broken record for not adding things when there are awful bugs needing to be fixed, but if it's easy, why not? Add some birds, too! Yeah, it's not old Minecraft anymore ... but why does it have to be? Bats don't do anything? Sure they do. They provide, for some of us, something that's quite valuable: atmosphere.

Where I myself would draw the line is if they add/remove something that either:

1) Screws with any of the established "mine/build/survive" core of the game (when Endermen were picking up all sorts of blocks, for instance, that really tore into the "build" part of the game ... and you see how long that lasted, too).

2) Is so game-changing that it completely closes off parts of the game that depend upon skill. Something like, say ... if Endermen always died at sunup and left their pearls behind, laying all over the place for us to easily pick up. Or if one flint and feather made 40 arrows. Or if jumping gave you XP points (remember that, when they tested it? What if they'd left that in? Lol), or if Strongholds had those glass towers above them like when they tested that snapshot.

IMHO, some folks are getting confused by what Mojang is doing with all this, adding content to a game that's been out for over a year. I think some are just confused ... someone said something like, "I bet the developers put horses in just because people kept asking for them!"

Um, well ... do I even have to explain why that's silly? If so, nevermind - but the rest of you will know what I mean.

To those of you who've dreamed for them, I say enjoy the horses. They won't hurt the rest of us, not one bit.

All of the following IMHO:

1) The new/improved skellingtons ARE tougher now from a tactical perspective (fast shooting, knocking you back, can't approach them as easily). If you don't think so, start a new 1.5.1 game in hard mode and go after one.

2) I think this is a very good thing, and far overdue. Today's vanilla MC game IMO is far too easy, even on hard mode, and is a cakewalk compared to the Alpha/Beta days (go watch some of that and see guys die dozens and dozens of times, over and over). I can see where some players wouldn't like it but I think it's a good change and we as a community should adjust accordingly.

3) So what's the impact? I believe it boils down to one thing. SOME players, at certain times, will now have to exercise very good judgment, and be cautious and under control (particularly where the skellys are spawning in numbers), and try to be aware of, and on the lookout for, this particular RANGED mob. All of this is far more important than before, and I can immediately think of a least three ways in which the game will be noticably altered:

- Vanilla skeletons in Nether fortresses: not a very good place to be getting knocked about, eh

- Hardcore: as has already been mentioned, hardcore mode has suddenly become more ... well, hardcore :-)

- UHC: and for the same reason, I believe that ULTRA hardcore PvP matches are really going to be impacted by this. Even prior to this change skeletons were arguably the UHC player's most feared "normal" mob (cave spiders can be avoided by avoiding mineshafts, etc). Ranged attacks in MC can be difficult for even the most skillful players to avoid, so one or two of these new guys in the wrong place/time could easily knock a participant out of the running (if not out of the game, entirely) in seconds, especially if the player doesn't have good (or any!) armor yet. This, IMO, is a big deal.

Note: As has already been mentioned, if a skeleton happens to spawn with a bow enchanted with knockback ... yeah, that's a force multiplier, eh? Underline and bold the above three points in that case.

Quote from Hope5

The thread's main purpose isn't how to find my own way back, Its other people's experiences in similar situations.

Well ... you did ask for shared experiences, yes, but before that you asked:

Quote from Hope5

So what do you do?

He answered that question. He told you what he'd do, right? Which is a good answer, IMO; that's about what I'd do.

As for shared experiences ... the only two times something like this happened to me were in my first single player world, and on the first multiplayer server world I played on, which both took place at roughly the same time: Beta 1.7.3, I'd just started playing, had no idea what to do in this mother of all open ended sandbox games, etc. Class: n00b. I was struggling with the game, in part because I was really avoiding spoilers, looking things up in the Wiki, etc. Kinda doing the same thing with FTB right now ... wow, seems like old times.

So in the single player game ... before I'd ever made a bed or slept, I died at least three or four times, each time spawning in this tundra with no civilization in sight (don't guess I realized that it was the same spot every time lol ... "Hmm this looks familiar ... squirrel!") ... and each time I walked around aimlessly for a while then tried and failed to find where I'd lived before, so eventually I just gave up and started a new place. Then I got slaughtered by something. Rinse, repeat.

Finally I ended up sleeping (probably by accident) and somehow I never go around to moving the bed (I definitely didn't realize that was important - I got lucky), so of course I'd spawn there every time, after that.

I abandoned that world before I got much better at the game, so I never did stumble across any of those early hidey holes and whatnot ... looking back on that it's pretty funny. Heck I loaded up Beta 1.7.3 and that world again fairly recently and although my main place was right there, I tried to find those earlier places ... no dice, it's almost like they were eradicated by my epic n00bness.

In multiplayer I'd gotten a little better ... but I inadvertently became living proof of the old saying, "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing." You see, I'd had enough math in my time to know the Cartesian coordinate system and graphing (x/y) taught in schools. In using the F3 debugging screen I'd noticed that the coordinates were displayed there. I could tell something wasn't exactly right ... looked like y and z were swapped? But that's cool, I'll just swap them in my mind and off we go! Or so I thought ... not knowing that Minecraft's coordinates read a little differently ...

So once you combine that incomplete and dubious "knowledge" with the confusing fact that, back in the day, the sun rose in the north ... well, suffice to say that I wasted some serious time writing coordinates down, trekking off in directions that I happily thought were the correct way to go, becoming even more hopelessly lost, not ever able to find my way back ... sleeping in holes in the ground, hiding from mobs, scavenging for food. It should have been an adventure, it should have been a blast - but no, not really, it was just frustrating, mostly because I couldn't for the life of me figure why my "calculations" were incorrect. Never argue with the data!

Eventually I figured the MC coordinates out and all was well ... and even later I learned how to make a compass and use that, too ...

Quote from IronMagus

I did change it up a bit so that all the piston-pushers push with glass blocks instead of stone bricks. Also the top half of the back wall that pushes them forward in the trap. Glass doesn't suffocate like stone bricks can, so this way the blazes never take any damage before the crusher starts crushing them, meaning no XP is wasted by the blaze dying by the crusher before you can poke him to death. I think the supposed reason he used the bricks instead of glass to begin with was that the pistons behind wouldn't block light from entering and so the bricks in front would take care of that, but blazes can spawn in light levels as high as eleven, I think it is, so whatever little bit leaks in through the piston pushers isn't going to make any difference. I'd be more worried about excess light leaking in through the glass viewport up top by the spawner, but even then, as long as you make sure there's no light source right up against the glass, you'll be good to go.

Good thinking, Magus, wish I'd thought of both of those things. I built the exact block-by-block version in the tutorial and it works fine, but anything to improve would be a bonus. Glass blocks in those spots next time, that's for sure. :-)

Also, to the OP, here's another bit of unsolicited advice (I filed this in the "Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me" category) ... I guess it would depend upon the speed of your computer system, etc. But there is a lag beast on the loose when using this trap ...

There are some traps that will allow more, or less, mobs to build up in them, before they start lagging your system, or that will crap out at the killing point because of all the drops and XP going everywhere.

Edit: I use vertical drop traps + splash heal potions to kill skeletons or zombies, and I use timed crushers + splash harm potions to kill cave spiders, so in all of those cases all of the mobs in the killing zone are all dying right at the same time, spraying drops and XP orbs all over the place.

In my experience on my rig (core 2 duo, 4 gig ram, xp ... about to be replaced with a flippin beast of a machine, yeehaw) I could get upwards of 350 skeletons or zombies, or maybe even that many cave spiders, into the killing zone of an xp trap, and everything was still cool, ran okay, more or less (well, the absurd entity count when the skeletons are killed would always jam the system up, but that went away fairly quickly).

But when I tried to get over 100 blazes built up in this blaze spawner trap? My system lagged, lurched to a stop, eventually crashed and burned ... I think from then on I only tried to do around 40 - 50, max?

Not really the trap's fault, IMO. Since it's lag it probably has more to do with the nether than the blazes themselves, but, as my friend Feridor pointed out, the blazes do have all those moving parts, flames, etc., and they're flying, so maybe they aren't helping anything in that department.

Quote from djneked

Thanks OrfulBiggun, I'll have my brother help me with the blaze spawner. It is unfortunately in a very open area. But I'm a veteran of the nether. All mobs bow to me, so I'm not too worried about dealing with it and making it happen. Luckily there's some ground between me and the lava, so falling won't be bad.

All mobs bow to you ... lol I love it. :-) Nice. Very well, hope we can see some screenies of the completed masterpiece! The ground will definitely help you there, yeah ... geez, those lava lakes can be a pain ... and take it from me, a handful of wither skeletons + blazes can ruin your day very, very quickly ...

Quote from djneked

The big one is making a spawn platform for the wither skeletons. I had made one on a bridge according to KaboPC and a few others. But that was before I knew the ACTUAL spawn areas of them. So I have to rebuild on a 4-way bridge crosssing. I'd love to have an actual mob spawner building though for those things.

Dude. If you do that and make it work I definitely want to see everything about it. I worked on one in creative to test it out and didn't get very far with it ... yes, that is the next big thing, I believe: find a way to farm wither skeleton skulls ...

Quote from djneked

That was really helpful.

Cool, glad to help.

Yes, glass is brutalized by ghasts, falls apart like tissue paper - a big wall of glass around a blaze xp farm or whatever might seem cool, cuz without line of sight (glass being a transparent block, the game treats it the same as ice, leaves, glowstone, vines, iron bars, etc) the ghasts won't even know you're there. Yet you can see thru it! What's not to like, eh? Well if they ever shoot at you while you're walking around outside the structure ... ... a certain Vech's map springs to mind ... hmm ...

Quote from djneked

I typically make everything out of cobblestone, stone, stone brick, or nether brick in the nether as those blocks won't be destroyed.

That's the way to go, yes. For a block to shrug off a ghast fireball it wants a blast resistance >= 20.17, and all of those you mentioned have 30. Other options with 30 are iron bars, nether brick fence, stone slabs or cobblestone stairs, stone brick slabs or stairs, regular red bricks/slabs/stairs, and even the new cobblestone walls. End stone has a BR = 45. Interestingly, the spawner itself won't be destroyed by a ghast. Numbers are in the Wiki for anyone interested in further details.

One last thing I'd like to emphasize so as to maybe help you avoid wasted time (I've made this mistake); Etho talks about finding a blaze spawner area that is enclosed (kind of in a room, surrounded by nether brick, netherrack, etc., the room has a roof, etc), and turning that kind of spawner into the XP farm, rather than trying to work with one of those open-air blaze spawners, way out in the middle of an big open area. You know, the kind you can see from 75+ blocks away, sitting there, not spinning.

He is not kidding with his recommendation to pick one that's enclosed, not open, and there are actually several reasons behind that advice (naturally avoiding ghast fireballs being only one of them). One of them that I worked on was more-or-less open in all directions, you know, because the spawner was on one of those tower/walkway things high above a giant lava lake, 70+ blocks down. I tried to make it work, and gave up in defeat after getting the spawner disabled (8x8x3). Just too much trouble, way too easy to end up taking a dirt nap in a horrifying variety of ways. Like trying to play the guitar standing on a tightrope or something ...

If you're in an enclosed area, however, block up any ways into that area and the only problems left will be the Blazes from the spawner - which can be largely nullified via fire resist potions (if you have them), good armor, etc. The chance of falling to your death won't be much, if any. No ghasts messing with you. Win, win, win.

One other thing that could make a lot of difference is a friend helping you out, there, watching your back, etc. Plus it's always more fun to play with a bud.

Good luck!

Quote from djneked

That's actually really awesome! I think I can actually make something to work with that, as there's a blaze spawner very close to my nether gate.
If put cobblestone in every place within the 8x3x8 spawn area except for one spot, then they'll only spawn there, right?? And the maximum amount will spawn there as well? 3 per tick? I can make a solid room, and leave a 2x3 size area for killing.

8 x 3 x 8 will stop the spawning, yes, and except for the one spot, yes; not sure on the max in one spot. My advice: if you're really going to do this, a single tutorial watched up front and referred to during construction will give you all the answers you'd possibly need, IMO. Classic yet accessible Minecraft builds start, stop, and revolve around Etho anyway, but his Blaze XP farm is exceptional, as is his tutorial:

What up, PurpleFlyingSpaceCow, why you no update? 11 days with no communication, not a sign anywhere ... he's gone rogue, guys ...

Maybe this has something to do with that crying chicken ... unthinkable, but ... oh no, could it have been ... a spy ...?

PurpleFlyingSpaceCow ... where are yoooouuuu?

Um, hey, I know - need some more Notches?



There you go! =)

Okay, he started the server in Alpha but I assume he must have updated it regularly if you're talking about Wither farming. So the server is on 1.4.2 or 1.4.5 or whatever, right? Also, is it the same map? Or has he started new maps periodically (this definitely matters)?

Quote from djneked

Basically, all the materials have to be gathered/required in the standard version. I've looked at tons and tons of youtube vids and I can't find one that I can realistically build on this server.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding - are you saying that getting the resources is keeping you from building a legit xp farm? Resources might be hard to come by, but given enough time and determination you can get them, even on a crowded server (assuming no odd rules about movement, property lines, or harvesting). Plenty of people build legit Ender Enders (see Panda4994, Docm77, or Etho), one of the most resource-dependent (and resource rewarding) "traps" there is. Some build legit Witch farms (again, see Docm77), and therefore get XP, redstone, glowstone, gunpowder, sugar, bottles, spider eyes, and even sticks.

Or is it something else that I'm missing?

Personally my two favorite types of relatively easy-to-build XP farms, that also give you other resources, are skeleton spawner drop traps (zombies are just as good for the XP but you won't get arrows and bones) and cave spider traps (very good for XP, also get string and spider eyes). IMO see KasperMC for the skeleton trap, and xisumavoid for the cave spiders trap.

You have abandoned mineshafts on the map, right? Any close enough to tackle that haven't already been "plundered"? With luck, you might find a skeleton or zombie spawner near enough to a cave spider spawner (or two) and be able to stand in a spot where they are both activated (I did this with two cave spider spawners and one zombie spawner, it was ruthlessly effective, looked like a friggin Steampunk factory lol).

DANG DANG DANG DANG DANG DANG

What? Oh yeah, I was going to do this. =)

Seriously, I was ... you beat me to it! I was going to do YouTube vids (didn't EVER consider doing screen shots ... CRAP!) ... I'm not making this up, I just bought hardware to upgrade my system so I CAN run all the video stuff correctly and smoothly, haven't got everything built and installed yet but it's only a matter of days, and I swear to Notch that one of the things I considered doing was starting a series with a world WAY back there in the Alpha days, and slowly updating, to show the changes! A guy on our server and I also considered doing a multiplayer series like that! I did think about the border/biome problems, but didn't give that too much thought, wasn't really important until I got it rolling ...

Sigh. Day late and a dollar short ...

CRAP!

Life sucks and then a creeper explodes your house ...

All of that said =) ... dude this is a great idea if I say so myself! Lol ... seriously you're doing very well, it's awesome! Actually better you than me anyway, I've downgraded to Alpha and played, to see what it was like, but I didn't actually start playing until the game was in Beta 1.7.3, so compared to you Alpha guys I'm a certified n00bling. =)

Watching the thread, keep on going! Best of luck with the biome/border terrain issues and such ... honestly if you can swing a way to go all the way to the present, I would sure do it. You know how we Minecraft players can be, gotta finish the job, right?

Maybe I can still do the multiplayer series ... hmm ...

P.S. Yanno I had a thought (scary, I know) about the terrain issues ... maybe you could like mark off the perimeter of where you are living, you know, into a square shape, and "stay local" more or less? Then when you're going to update the jar to something that will cause problems with terrain, could you SPC/WorldEdit or MCEdit or Voxelsniper your square "block" into a saved schematic, which after the update you would then paste into a newer world (done with the newer generators)? Something like that? I know how to use WorldEdit some, and have used MCEdit a few times, so of course I know nothing ... maybe someone with actual skillz can help out here (plz? lol ... this is too cool to not go all the way!) ...

Quote from PurpleFlyingSpaceCow

Day - 7 Deaths - 1 Difficulty - HARD


The chicken is scared and alone! He got lost and is crying

What should I do! I feel really bad for him!

ROTFL ... you are a trip. :-)

What should you do?

Um ... give "him" back his egg, perhaps?

Quote from TigerStarFireStar

...
Did anyone actually read the 4th post?

Yeah, I think a few did. It's just that your question doesn't lend itself to a nice, neat (short) answer that doesn't assume anything else (more than one way to skin this cat). Like a lot of things in Minecraft, anvil mechanics are complicated.

http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/User:Mental_Mouse/Anvil_mechanics

And this post is long. I don't have any kind of tl;dr summary, read on if you wish.

That Wiki page (currently a proposed rewrite) is what I consider to be the current Bible of anvil mechanics ... I didn't write that nor do I know Mental Mouse or Opaquer. It is most assuredly not "Baby-Tone" ... but it is thorough.

Quote from TigerStarFireStar

No, I mean like starting with just a diamond sword. My friend, using his xp grinder, went from a ton of diamond swords to a Sharp V sword.

I'm decidedly not an expert at this, but since there seems to still be some confusion, I'll try (note: for anyone expecting practiality, forget it - we were asked a question, and I'm going to try to answer it, regardless of the implications lol).

First, some ground rules and notes:

1) I'm not going to get into min/maxing the enchantment table, that's a whole 'nother complex subject (for more: http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Enchantment_Mechanics) ... not really going to get into min/maxing the anvil in this post, either, but I'll do the best I can within a limited space.

2) As has already been acknowledged here by one ElephantBroham (lol nice handle, Bro!), Sharpness V requires combining a Sharpness IV with another Sharpness IV in the anvil (combining Sharpness IV with any other Sharpness level won't do it - maybe it used to in a snapshot or something). Likewise, Sharp III + Sharp III = Sharp IV, and so on.

3) Using the anvil to name weapons that you will want to combine or repair later is smart; on a renamed item you won't incur incremental anvil costs (which will grow out of reach).

4) Using the anvil to name a given weapon, for the first time, which has never been used, is even smarter: it costs less to name it, and you'll never incur the incremental cost. Jeb said it's a good investment, and I agree. For these purposes, you could even name it when you combine it (if the cost isn't prohibitive).


5) Sharpness, Smite, and Bane all conflict with each other - you can use this to your advantage if you get an unwanted Smite or Bane (if? lol). Put the Sharp x in the first (left) slot to override, say, the Smite on a Fire II Smite IV.

6) It is possible to get a Sharpness IV, Fire Aspect II sword in one single enchantment. 30 XP levels gives you the best chance for it. If you do manage to snag one of those, you're just one Sharpness IV sword away from your goal.

7) An alternate route, involving less luck, more XP, and more diamonds ... would be to combine several swords multiple times. I.e., (Sharp III + Sharp III) + (Sharp III Fire I + Sharp III Fire I), for instance.



No matter how you proceed, setting out to obtain a Sword +5 of I Win in legit survival using roll-of-the-dice enchants and one or two anvil namings / combinations is the equivalent of going to a casino with a cash inflow that only depends on you staying there (in the mob grinder lol). You may have some awesome luck early on, or you may be at it for a while, or your luck may be so bad you end up with half a chest full of crap diamond swords (Bane II Knockback I, etc). Like your friend, you will have an XP grinder to go along with all those diamonds, right? :-)

Finally ... it is possible (I think, I only tested this in creative) ... for one to go the totally absurd route. Personally I'd rather save the diamonds until I get level 30 and take multiple shots at those swords, but it is entertaining in theory, IMHO. You'll need:

1. Enough diamonds to enchant several swords to lower level Sharpness (II, III - not Sharp I, that would take 16 swords! In theory, you could enchant 16 swords to level 1, then combine them all up from there, to get the Sharp V, but geez, why ...)
2. Enough iron to pay for the anvil(s) required to combine/name the swords used in the process
3. A buttload (and then some) of XP - this is why we make grinders, I suppose; if mobs ever become an endangered species we're all doomed

Good luck.

Quote from Winter_Mage

Okay thanks!

You got an answer (not really definitive, tho), and I'm sorta necroposting this a bit (not too bad, tho, less than a week lol), but if I had questions about the anvil I'd go look at this:

http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/User:Mental_Mouse/Anvil_mechanics

Quote from Boundegar

I just played 1.4.2 for an hour before I remembered I downgraded - and I can't think of a reason to go back to 1.4.5. It has that crazy torch glitch, LAN is broken... why did they release 1.4.5 exactly?

You got me. I went to 1.4.3 pre, tried that and enjoyed the can't swim bug and Mexican jumping torch bugs, then tried 1.4.4 when it was pushed out, saw the stupid firefly lights thing, went then back to 1.4.2 ... then tried the 1.4.5 prerelease, same crap, so I'm back to 1.4.2. Now I'm playing in a LAN game, as well, and we're both on 1.4.2. It works.

I'm just staying at 1.4.2. Heck I may not even get "current" for a while yet, at this rate.

I know this much: every time I see someone complain about NEW bugs, less than ten seconds elapse before the hordes of crusading Mojang defenders are cresting the hill, screaming bloody murder. "It's a snapsh0t, n00bs! It's for TESTING OMG LOLLOLO!!11"

Well, 1.4.4 was a pushed release. Not a snapshot, not for testing. It doesn't really matter, nor should it, what they list in the change log as "fixed" ... if in doing so they broke some other things that make the "upgrade" unacceptable. I'm with the OP, why the hell would I want to play the newest version if it's demonstrably, objectively worse? Now if they really fixed 500 or 1000 bugs but mistakenly introduced these new bugs, then updated again with another quick patch (1.4.6 or whatever), to fix the newly introduced ones, then sure. I don't think we'd be having this conversation ...

Quote from audiomarty

I usually build up my houses/compounds around mob spawners whenever possible. There are plenty of YouTube tutorials on how to build the grinder, and the basic design is very open to tweaking and customization. I don't think I've built two that are exactly the same yet. The basic design I use is based on this one in this video, and it works very well <snip>

Yeah, that about sums it up. :-) Correct and succinct, thank you audiomarty.

Skeleton and zombie spawners are both fine for XP, but skeletons are better for the arrows and bones.

Concerning the method in the video ... it is similar in some ways to Kasper's design (also 9 x 9), but Kasper uses only two water blocks in the back of the spawner room, and a dropoff to keep the water from those two blocks flowing down toward the exit, rather than putting the channel in the middle and the two groups of source blocks on each side. I'm not sure which method is faster, I really need to test that ...

I tried to draw/use icons for what I'm talking about and it was an utter fail, so anyway if you want to see Kasper's design check out the link in my post above.

I would say this about harvesting the mobs: using a bow is very slow ... if they only need one hit, your fist is plenty good enough, and as far as food you'll have all the bone meal in the world for growing bread (or wheat for cattle, pigs, etc).

But, honestly, even your fist is slow ...

If you have access to brewing / potions (blaze rod, nether wart, melon seeds are the three necessary and most difficult items to come by, for this purpose), however, your worries are over. :-)

Build this thing, sit at the killing zone and go AFK for 15 mins or half hour (make sure you're absolutely safe first!), come back and toss a splash heal at them ... it'll kill every single one, all at once, and the XP from all of them will flood in (you dealt the killing blow).

In fact, you should be careful not to let too many pile up in there before dispatching them; if you do this with a slower computer the 1000+ entity count can lag you so badly the game will crash.

Speaking of that, I think roughly 180 mobs will get you from no levels up to level 30, so there's really no need to put four or five hundred in there, even if your PC / server could handle it ...

And there you have it: the quickest way to break the game wide open ... if you build one of these and are able to splash healing potions, you'll be practically unstoppable.