I've been looking around these forums for a bit, and finally decided to contribute.
With the new update, lava is much weaker, and mobs can climb it somewhat, usually ending up with them burning their loot.
So, what now?
We go back to the drowning trap! Guaranteed drops, guaranteed kills, and people switched to lava traps because it merely kills faster. Here's a design that kills everything, every time, except for chickens (however, seeing that zombies gives feathers already, the chickens are better off floating in your trap and laying eggs).
Here is a cross section of the trap:
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= Water source = Strong downwards flowing water = Normal water = Glass = Not glass = Sign = You
For it to work best, a short drop into the trap is needed, hence the 3 block gap. Glass causes water to have a stronger flow downwards, so that is used for another 3 blocks. The last 3 blocks is something other than glass, so that mobs keep swimming up in the weaker current, instead of falling into your collection area and berating you. The signs are there to hold up the water, and they work better than ladders, as items can get stuck on top of ladders.
So the main benefits of this trap are:
- 100% of loot is collected
- It kills spiders without killing string
- It does not spit out pigs like other drowners
Signs do not hold the mobs, it just holds water. The mobs are held there by the normal water, in which they just keep jumping, hence never falling out the bottom.
Thanks :smile.gif: I've tried the drowning portion, the mob holding portion I've tried, but not thoroughly. Hostile mobs might try chasing you if you're at the bottom, but you could just have a canal taking the items elsewhere.
Argh, my save with it in it crashed a while back. I hoped no one would ask for screens. This is what I get for wishful thinking. Dumb of me.
Anyways, let me try to explain. This is the cross section of the trap, a slice of it. This trap could work as a moat, you just keep piling this section on top of itself, coming out of the screen. When it is wide enough, you wall off the sides.
So, looking at the trap in another direction like this:
The cross section is a vertical column of this, like:
Hmm... will try. Non-glass drowning no longer works, as things swim better, and I have tried gravity, but hit bedrock while only making the mobs really weak.
Yes, those are very effective for spawners. If you are willing to dig out the pit for them, it's fine. Other traps are more space efficient than gravity traps, though space isn't usually a problem. Also, when collecting loot, you have the chance of a spider dive bombing you. Again, it's not a problem, but it would scare the crap out of me :smile.gif:
Water traps still work very well for spawners as well, and work extremely well for above ground use. It doesn't take much space, doesn't require much construction time, and has safe collection points. It works in many more places than just spawners, and you can safely drop out the bottom of it, instead of falling to bedrock.
Solutions to cons:
Mobs attacking: Simply create a zig-zag of blocks and water current for the items to fall on. Being properly paranoid I set this up so that no monster can fit through, even though I haven't seen any get below the water. If you want to look up at the drowning mobs as you collect you can use glass blocks.
Or you can just as easily have currents conveyor the items away.
Eggs: If you really, really don't want to collect any eggs, make an initial 'swimming trap' (the glass part of this trap only), have that dump mobs in a room, which has the actual drowning trap. Eggs will land in the room. Not much point really since you'll still have chickens floating at the top of the first trap and not dying to keep the spawn rates higher, and you can always fill your inventory with the stackable items you desire before sitting at your collection point.
Another option I haven't actually tested is have a bit of mob dunking/conveyor-ing lead to the drowning trap and have cacti for the chickens to bump into. I expect this can be set up so that spiders can fit through but I'm not certain.
The conventional drowning trap works with just a few modifications.
To accommodate spiders, use a drowning pit that's 2x2 or more.
Make 3 layers at the top from glass.
Place water source blocks just below the top of the pit (in the pit works fine).
After 2 non-glass pit layers, make a bottom and allow water to flow out to the sides one block in any direction it needs to flow.
under that, attach signs to the floor to stop the water.
Run fresh water under that to pick up all the drops and deliver them to a single point, or just collect them there.
With that 1-block bump a spider can't get out even if it were to decide not to swim. If the spawning floor is about 30 layers above, they'll keep coming while you're there. I did it with a zombie spawner, where you actually need to be within the radius for them to spawn.
Do traps like this work in a random area away from a spawner?
I know the loot would only be a fraction of that of spawn trap...
But would it, in principal, manage to let a mob or two wander in?
The lava trap replaced the drowning trap for two reasons:
1. Speed. Lava was pretty much an instant kill, the mobs would seemingly pop when they touched it.
2. Streamlining. Water traps needed separate mechanisms for dealing with differently-shaped mobs.
With lava nerfed and mobs trying to swim up where the sides aren't glass, both of these reasons are gone. The adapted swim-drown pit can be plugged in where the lava knife used to be, possibly costing you an extra layer of tower trap for the depth required.
I build this trap in a real game and left it idling overnight. This morning I found something like twenty chickens floating on the surface bumping into each other.
I'll have to tear the whole bloody thing apart to make room for a section that kills chickens to prelude the real trap, and it's hooked up to my canal system. Don't make the same mistake unless you want eggs instead of leather!
Having this at the end of your conveyor system before the real trap should do it
(I'll be damned if I'm going to actually build it now).
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= water source = water current = water going down = cactus
(Top view).
On the other hand, my hastily thrown in cacti at the top of the drowning trap seem to do the trick! =P
Because it seems like killing mobs is directly linked to making more of them spawn, as though there's a cap.
If that's true, having 20 chickens floating around means no (or very few) normal animals are spawning.
thanks very much, i am now using this for my animal farm.
does anyone have a video or screenie of a working variation that disposes of chickens as well? RIght now I am happy to just collect eggs, but later I may want to get rid of them
thanks very much, i am now using this for my animal farm.
does anyone have a video or screenie of a working variation that disposes of chickens as well? RIght now I am happy to just collect eggs, but later I may want to get rid of them
No problem. I haven't tried getting rid of chickens, but TyrannosaurusHax says that putting cacti at the top of the trap kills them off if they accumulate. Since that only the chickens will die of the cacti, the drops from other mobs will still come through without getting destroyed.
And yeah, lava traps are still very viable, they just sometimes burn drops. I posted my water trap for people who don't care about killing time and are greedy with drops.
With the new update, lava is much weaker, and mobs can climb it somewhat, usually ending up with them burning their loot.
So, what now?
We go back to the drowning trap! Guaranteed drops, guaranteed kills, and people switched to lava traps because it merely kills faster. Here's a design that kills everything, every time, except for chickens (however, seeing that zombies gives feathers already, the chickens are better off floating in your trap and laying eggs).
Here is a cross section of the trap:
For it to work best, a short drop into the trap is needed, hence the 3 block gap. Glass causes water to have a stronger flow downwards, so that is used for another 3 blocks. The last 3 blocks is something other than glass, so that mobs keep swimming up in the weaker current, instead of falling into your collection area and berating you. The signs are there to hold up the water, and they work better than ladders, as items can get stuck on top of ladders.
So the main benefits of this trap are:
- 100% of loot is collected
- It kills spiders without killing string
- It does not spit out pigs like other drowners
Thoughts? Comments?
The New Boat Elevator
Simple Drowning Trap
Complex Drowning Trap
Note Blocks - The Blue Danube
Minecart Rider Detection System
Thanks :smile.gif: I've tried the drowning portion, the mob holding portion I've tried, but not thoroughly. Hostile mobs might try chasing you if you're at the bottom, but you could just have a canal taking the items elsewhere.
The New Boat Elevator
Simple Drowning Trap
Complex Drowning Trap
Note Blocks - The Blue Danube
Minecart Rider Detection System
You stand directly below the trap, so mobs are literally drowning directly above you. Its a side slice.
Anyways, let me try to explain. This is the cross section of the trap, a slice of it. This trap could work as a moat, you just keep piling this section on top of itself, coming out of the screen. When it is wide enough, you wall off the sides.
So, looking at the trap in another direction like this:
The cross section is a vertical column of this, like:
Hope that is better :smile.gif:
The New Boat Elevator
Simple Drowning Trap
Complex Drowning Trap
Note Blocks - The Blue Danube
Minecart Rider Detection System
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The water pushes the monsters down a huge pit, mine goes down to the bedrock from near the surface, and i can collect my loot there.
Water traps still work very well for spawners as well, and work extremely well for above ground use. It doesn't take much space, doesn't require much construction time, and has safe collection points. It works in many more places than just spawners, and you can safely drop out the bottom of it, instead of falling to bedrock.
The New Boat Elevator
Simple Drowning Trap
Complex Drowning Trap
Note Blocks - The Blue Danube
Minecart Rider Detection System
Pros: collects everything. Kills everything except chickens.
Cons: mobs attacking, eggs.
Solutions to cons:
Mobs attacking: Simply create a zig-zag of blocks and water current for the items to fall on. Being properly paranoid I set this up so that no monster can fit through, even though I haven't seen any get below the water. If you want to look up at the drowning mobs as you collect you can use glass blocks.
Or you can just as easily have currents conveyor the items away.
Eggs: If you really, really don't want to collect any eggs, make an initial 'swimming trap' (the glass part of this trap only), have that dump mobs in a room, which has the actual drowning trap. Eggs will land in the room. Not much point really since you'll still have chickens floating at the top of the first trap and not dying to keep the spawn rates higher, and you can always fill your inventory with the stackable items you desire before sitting at your collection point.
Another option I haven't actually tested is have a bit of mob dunking/conveyor-ing lead to the drowning trap and have cacti for the chickens to bump into. I expect this can be set up so that spiders can fit through but I'm not certain.
Have a video =]
To accommodate spiders, use a drowning pit that's 2x2 or more.
Make 3 layers at the top from glass.
Place water source blocks just below the top of the pit (in the pit works fine).
After 2 non-glass pit layers, make a bottom and allow water to flow out to the sides one block in any direction it needs to flow.
under that, attach signs to the floor to stop the water.
Run fresh water under that to pick up all the drops and deliver them to a single point, or just collect them there.
With that 1-block bump a spider can't get out even if it were to decide not to swim. If the spawning floor is about 30 layers above, they'll keep coming while you're there. I did it with a zombie spawner, where you actually need to be within the radius for them to spawn.
I know the loot would only be a fraction of that of spawn trap...
But would it, in principal, manage to let a mob or two wander in?
The lava trap replaced the drowning trap for two reasons:
1. Speed. Lava was pretty much an instant kill, the mobs would seemingly pop when they touched it.
2. Streamlining. Water traps needed separate mechanisms for dealing with differently-shaped mobs.
With lava nerfed and mobs trying to swim up where the sides aren't glass, both of these reasons are gone. The adapted swim-drown pit can be plugged in where the lava knife used to be, possibly costing you an extra layer of tower trap for the depth required.
I build this trap in a real game and left it idling overnight. This morning I found something like twenty chickens floating on the surface bumping into each other.
I'll have to tear the whole bloody thing apart to make room for a section that kills chickens to prelude the real trap, and it's hooked up to my canal system. Don't make the same mistake unless you want eggs instead of leather!
Having this at the end of your conveyor system before the real trap should do it
(I'll be damned if I'm going to actually build it now).
[]
(Top view).
On the other hand, my hastily thrown in cacti at the top of the drowning trap seem to do the trick! =P
The New Boat Elevator
Simple Drowning Trap
Complex Drowning Trap
Note Blocks - The Blue Danube
Minecart Rider Detection System
If that's true, having 20 chickens floating around means no (or very few) normal animals are spawning.
P.S. I came up with this: http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=83117 thanks to your drowning trap! Cheers! =D
does anyone have a video or screenie of a working variation that disposes of chickens as well? RIght now I am happy to just collect eggs, but later I may want to get rid of them
No problem. I haven't tried getting rid of chickens, but TyrannosaurusHax says that putting cacti at the top of the trap kills them off if they accumulate. Since that only the chickens will die of the cacti, the drops from other mobs will still come through without getting destroyed.
And yeah, lava traps are still very viable, they just sometimes burn drops. I posted my water trap for people who don't care about killing time and are greedy with drops.
The New Boat Elevator
Simple Drowning Trap
Complex Drowning Trap
Note Blocks - The Blue Danube
Minecart Rider Detection System