Recently, I've been discussing the use of mob grinders, or any other automated item collection setup. I'm just wondering what everyone's opinions are on these. I know that the people who use them love them, and use to them to great effect, but I fall on the side of the subject with others that don't like them very much. I'm just looking to discuss this with other people. So just comment if you support automated farming/grinding, and why. Inversely, let me know if you don't support and why.
I'll use an example here, suppose you have an experience grinder. I'm not a fan of these because I think that there ought to be a give-take system. I prefer to fight outside at night. This goes through swords, arrows and iron faster, but with the result of additional mobs drops and experience. Granted, these farms can take a large chunk of time and resources, but without any risk of death or adventure, I think that this takes way from the game.
The main reason is that I'm a bit sick of the grind. I've been playing video games for the better part of the last 3 decades. I was a huge fan of early JRPGs, and as any fan can tell you those are grind-y games. Over the years I've gotten burned out on the repetition of killing thousands of creatures just to get to that next level.
Concerning Minecraft specifically, the XP/enchant/repair system is a bit skewed against the player; It's too punishing, especially factoring in the randomness of enchants (if you are also one of those players that doesn't use the "Save w/o Exit" exploit --- full disclosure: I do). The 1.8 enchanting system feels much more balanced. I know some will disagree, but ironically, having an XP farm makes it a moot point.
The other reason (as someone pointed out in another thread) is that many farms are not simple setups. It often requires many resources, sometimes in large quantities (nether quartz comes to mind - for comparators). I gain a sense of accomplishment simply getting the farm up-and-running.
A third reason is I love Redstone. I often see if I can build a RS machine to automate otherwise mundane tasks. Recently, I built an automatic chicken farmer. Chickens are held in a small pen, kept near the center by Water streams. In the center are four hoppers configured in a loop (e.g. hopper 1 feeds into hopper 2, 2 feeds into 3, 3 feeds into 4, 4 feeds into 1). Beneath these are three item-sorters. When a chicken lays an egg, it's sorted, fed into a dispenser, and fired back up into the pen, sometimes hatching a chick. When the pen gets too crowded the chickens push each other away from the center, where I have cacti growing. The water carries the dead chicken remains back to the center and into the hopper-loop. Feathers are placed in a chest; raw chicken goes into a furnace, which I either cook it manually or remove it to use in Trading.
Time I don't spend grinding is time I can spend building. Now if there were only a way to bottle Experience Points.....
I'm neither for nor against farming. I am for the individual playing however they see fit. I use some farms, mostly an automatic sugarcane farm, and I generally don't use xp farms (though I have from time to time).
I would also like a way to bottle experience points. Enchanting a book is probably the best way to deal with excess experience.
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Recently, I've been discussing the use of mob grinders, or any other automated item collection setup. I'm just wondering what everyone's opinions are on these. I know that the people who use them love them, and use to them to great effect, but I fall on the side of the subject with others that don't like them very much. I'm just looking to discuss this with other people. So just comment if you support automated farming/grinding, and why. Inversely, let me know if you don't support and why.
I'll use an example here, suppose you have an experience grinder. I'm not a fan of these because I think that there ought to be a give-take system. I prefer to fight outside at night. This goes through swords, arrows and iron faster, but with the result of additional mobs drops and experience. Granted, these farms can take a large chunk of time and resources, but without any risk of death or adventure, I think that this takes way from the game.
I automate everything !!!
The main reason is that I'm a bit sick of the grind. I've been playing video games for the better part of the last 3 decades. I was a huge fan of early JRPGs, and as any fan can tell you those are grind-y games. Over the years I've gotten burned out on the repetition of killing thousands of creatures just to get to that next level.
Concerning Minecraft specifically, the XP/enchant/repair system is a bit skewed against the player; It's too punishing, especially factoring in the randomness of enchants (if you are also one of those players that doesn't use the "Save w/o Exit" exploit --- full disclosure: I do). The 1.8 enchanting system feels much more balanced. I know some will disagree, but ironically, having an XP farm makes it a moot point.
The other reason (as someone pointed out in another thread) is that many farms are not simple setups. It often requires many resources, sometimes in large quantities (nether quartz comes to mind - for comparators). I gain a sense of accomplishment simply getting the farm up-and-running.
A third reason is I love Redstone. I often see if I can build a RS machine to automate otherwise mundane tasks. Recently, I built an automatic chicken farmer. Chickens are held in a small pen, kept near the center by Water streams. In the center are four hoppers configured in a loop (e.g. hopper 1 feeds into hopper 2, 2 feeds into 3, 3 feeds into 4, 4 feeds into 1). Beneath these are three item-sorters. When a chicken lays an egg, it's sorted, fed into a dispenser, and fired back up into the pen, sometimes hatching a chick. When the pen gets too crowded the chickens push each other away from the center, where I have cacti growing. The water carries the dead chicken remains back to the center and into the hopper-loop. Feathers are placed in a chest; raw chicken goes into a furnace, which I either cook it manually or remove it to use in Trading.
Time I don't spend grinding is time I can spend building. Now if there were only a way to bottle Experience Points.....
I'm neither for nor against farming. I am for the individual playing however they see fit. I use some farms, mostly an automatic sugarcane farm, and I generally don't use xp farms (though I have from time to time).
I would also like a way to bottle experience points. Enchanting a book is probably the best way to deal with excess experience.