I'm trying to put together a FAQ for people playing hardcore survival maps like SkyBlock or small "survival island" type maps (see also my sig below). I've read the information on the Wiki with the Spawn page, and from what I can glean from that page, the following rules should apply for spawning passive mobs:
Mob Cap of 15 passive creatures in a 17x17 area (unlimited height... not quite a chunk but slightly larger)
Blocks they spawn on must be grass blocks, with light level 9 or higher (fully open to the sky is fine, or lit with torches/glowstone/jack o'lanterns should work too)
With multiple eligible blocks, the "highest" block in a column of blocks gets preference for spawning
No player can be within 24 blocks of the block
Passive mobs only spawn every 20 seconds (or an attempt happens about every 20 seconds)
Can't be a desert, beach, river, and ocean biomes
Must have at least two air blocks above grass blocks
Be in the overworld (where you start to play vanilla Minecraft)
Ocelots and Wolves have special rules which apply to just them, but the above rules also apply for them to spawn as well.
I'm trying to set up a passive mob spawning area but it seems to me that even if following all of these spawning rules, I'm still having problems getting passive mobs to spawn. Where I'm especially suspect is that the 24 block distance for having passive mobs spawn is something I don't think is happening. While hostile mobs will certainly spawn in a 24+ block distance (meeting their rules for spawning) I think it may be a fair bit further. Having the grass blocks much further away doesn't seem to have an impact either, so I think you must be at some distance between 24 and about 100 blocks away for them to spawn.
I don't know what the specific distance range is for this to happen is at, and digging through the Minecraft source code (through MCP) doesn't seem to help for me either. In these survival type maps, you are limited on how much dirt you have available, so getting the specific distances is a bit important, where you can hang out and do crafting, mining cobblestone with a lava+water generator, or collecting stuff from a hostile mob farm. I know that you can spawn passive mobs in these kind of maps or situations, I'm just trying to nail down what other conditions might be needed for getting these kind of very useful creatures to spawn for players in survival mode.
I've been looking for a way to spawn a cow in Skyblock now ever since 1.3
However, all that I've gotten is that passive mobs only spawn with chunk generation.
I read somewhere that apparently passive mobs have a rare chance of spawning on an already generated chunk, but I doubt that. I'm still waiting for any sort of animal to spawn, and I highly doubt that any animal will spawn. I'm just hanging onto my grass for flowers and such.
If anyone has any way to get passive mobs to spawn in vanilla 1.3 without hacks, please post.
I'm looking for answers here, people.
EDIT:
The only exception is the squid, which still spawns like passive mobs before the Beta 1.8 update.
EDIT 2:
Upon reading the wiki, it appears that there is a very rare chance of passive mobs spawning like hostile mobs on an already generated chunk, assuming all of the requirements are met. The requirements are that the block it spawns on is grass, on a light level of 9 or above.
^Try that and tell me if that works? I'd really like to know. I was doing so well in Skyblock and then this update happened.
I've been looking for a way to spawn a cow in Skyblock now ever since 1.3
I read somewhere that apparently passive mobs have a rare chance of spawning on an already generated chunk, but I doubt that. I'm still waiting for any sort of animal to spawn, and I highly doubt that any animal will spawn. I'm just hanging onto my grass for flowers and such.
If anyone has any way to get passive mobs to spawn in vanilla 1.3 without hacks, please post.
I'm looking for answers here, people.
I've been able to get some animals to spawn in both SSP & SMP in Minecraft 1.2.5. I'm about to try another attempt now with 1.3.2 on a fresh world, but the main thing is simply to be patient.
The odd thing that I've found since I made the above post is that mobs spawn precisely 24 blocks away. In other words, if you have a cobblestone generator (like is typical on SkyBlock) you want the grassy area about 20-30 blocks away from you. Trying to get them to spawn further away doesn't seem to work, and obviously they won't spawn closer up. That isn't 24 blocks along any axis, but rather 24 blocks away in a straight line in any direction along a sphere around you including 24 blocks straight up (if you have an underground workshop or a platform under your grassy area). Passive mobs will even spawn underground, assuming that you haven't hit any other mob limits.
That also seems to be a big issue too, as the number of passive mobs that spawn also seems to be somewhat dependent upon even hostile mob numbers. If a whole bunch of hostile mobs are around (in a mob spawner/grinder building or something like that), it seems to also impact nearby grassy areas.
I can't imagine that the passive mob spawning has been impacted by changes in 1.3, but anything is possible. If 1.3 behaves any different from 1.2.5 SMP, it really is a huge bug that needs to be called out. BTW, I was able to get a couple of chickens and a cow to spawn on just four blocks of grass. It was sort of unexpected (I wasn't really trying at all when it happened) but it can happen and doesn't need to be a newly generated chunk.
Thanks to King Korihor for this post. (like your vid also)
I have had no success spawning passive mobs in Skyblock 1. I read King's post about mob spawners maybe blocking passive spawns and decided to experiment. I opened a copy of my Skyblock world and made multiple passive spawn sites based on distance from mob spawner and distance from Me. Still no success, So I went into peaceful mode and put torches inside the mob spawner to disable it. and Wham, within 5 minutes one of my passive spawners had a sheep and a pig.
I think a dense pack of hostile mobs may really be blocking the passive mobs from spawning. Plus only one of my spawners has given any passive mobs. The distance from your active site seems to be critical in getting a spawn. I haven't yet figured out how the 24 blocks away distance from Me works . Yes, Wiki says 24 blocks, but is that from the edge of your camp, or where you are most of the time, or what. I can't figure that part out as the distance of 24 blocks from my present spawner makes no sense as to where I am.
I don't see how you can play survival maps like Skyblock and be successful at passive mob spawns with out a better explanation from Notch on exactly how passive spawns work. Also why does a hostile mob spawner break passive mobs from spawning correctly.
Cheating in grass blocks to find the exact place to put in your passive spawner takes the fun out of the map. We should know at least approximately where to put the spawner and get successful spawns. I spent about 5 rl days trying to get a spawner working before I read this post.
Hope this helps. I would like to get some answers before I move on to Skyblock 2
I think a dense pack of hostile mobs may really be blocking the passive mobs from spawning. Plus only one of my spawners has given any passive mobs. The distance from your active site seems to be critical in getting a spawn. I haven't yet figured out how the 24 blocks away distance from Me works . Yes, Wiki says 24 blocks, but is that from the edge of your camp, or where you are most of the time, or what. I can't figure that part out as the distance of 24 blocks from my present spawner makes no sense as to where I am.
I don't see how you can play survival maps like Skyblock and be successful at passive mob spawns with out a better explanation from Notch on exactly how passive spawns work. Also why does a hostile mob spawner break passive mobs from spawning correctly.
What you need to do is to use the "F3" key to find the X,Y,Z coordinates of where you will be hanging out at and doing something repetitive, such as farming or mining cobblestone. From there, you need to use this math formula (from the Pythagorean Theorem if you want to know where this comes from):
I hope that makes sense. The X1, Y1, Z1 coordinates are the "base" coordinates and the X2, Y2, Z2 coordinates are where you think the grass blocks will be at. A simple pocket calculator or the calculator program found on most operating systems can help you calculate this out real quick. That is how I made the calculation myself with regards to the video you saw as well.
What I think is happening is that there is an overall "entity" cap of some kind in Minecraft, which includes all kinds of mobs. If that entity cap has been passed (including from something like a whole bunch of cobblestone you haven't picked up... be careful there) the game won't spawn any more creatures of any kind. There might also be an overall mob cap as well. The purpose of the limit is to help make the game actually be playable, as if there are too many mobs the game really starts to slow down to a crawl.
This can become a really serious issue on multiplayer servers if a whole bunch of players have mob spawners/grinders. In that case the mob caps become even more pronounced, as it is a server-wide cap as well. It is fairly common on some multiplayer servers for players to be complaining that their grinder isn't working as mobs simply won't spawn in them.
For those who haven't seen the video, it can be found here:
I show off the animals that actually spawn in this video:
Course, if you wanted more space to move around while you're waiting for animals to spawn on your grass, you could just make a ring around it. Use a paint program to draw a pixelated circle to copy into the minecraft world.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I'm just recording the construction process of my Ultimate, minimum redstone Mob Grinder (And having way too much fun with the video editor!)
I'm trying to put together a FAQ for people playing hardcore survival maps like SkyBlock or small "survival island" type maps (see also my sig below). I've read the information on the Wiki with the Spawn page, and from what I can glean from that page, the following rules should apply for spawning passive mobs:
Mob Cap of 15 passive creatures in a 17x17 area (unlimited height... not quite a chunk but slightly larger)
Are you sure it's only 17 by 17 blocks? From what I read on the wiki, it sounds like 17 by 17 chunks.
Have you been able to spawn additional creatures once you're above 15 in skyblock?
(In regard to a mod that gives realistic animal genetics):
Would you really rather have bees that make diamonds and oil with magical genetic blocks?
... did I really ask that?
I have had a lot of luck with passive mob spawning in skyblock. I got several chickens, sheep, cows, pigs, and even 2 horses!
The one thing you forgot to mention in you FAQ is the height limit. For a passive mob to spawn, it must be between blocks 46, and 62.
I'm trying to set up a passive mob spawning area but it seems to me that even if following all of these spawning rules, I'm still having problems getting passive mobs to spawn. Where I'm especially suspect is that the 24 block distance for having passive mobs spawn is something I don't think is happening. While hostile mobs will certainly spawn in a 24+ block distance (meeting their rules for spawning) I think it may be a fair bit further. Having the grass blocks much further away doesn't seem to have an impact either, so I think you must be at some distance between 24 and about 100 blocks away for them to spawn.
I don't know what the specific distance range is for this to happen is at, and digging through the Minecraft source code (through MCP) doesn't seem to help for me either. In these survival type maps, you are limited on how much dirt you have available, so getting the specific distances is a bit important, where you can hang out and do crafting, mining cobblestone with a lava+water generator, or collecting stuff from a hostile mob farm. I know that you can spawn passive mobs in these kind of maps or situations, I'm just trying to nail down what other conditions might be needed for getting these kind of very useful creatures to spawn for players in survival mode.
Any help to solve this "problem" would be useful.
Version 2.1 now updated for MC 1.6.2
However, all that I've gotten is that passive mobs only spawn with chunk generation.I read somewhere that apparently passive mobs have a rare chance of spawning on an already generated chunk, but I doubt that. I'm still waiting for any sort of animal to spawn, and I highly doubt that any animal will spawn. I'm just hanging onto my grass for flowers and such.
If anyone has any way to get passive mobs to spawn in vanilla 1.3 without hacks, please post.
I'm looking for answers here, people.
EDIT:
The only exception is the squid, which still spawns like passive mobs before the Beta 1.8 update.
EDIT 2:
Upon reading the wiki, it appears that there is a very rare chance of passive mobs spawning like hostile mobs on an already generated chunk, assuming all of the requirements are met. The requirements are that the block it spawns on is grass, on a light level of 9 or above.
^Try that and tell me if that works? I'd really like to know. I was doing so well in Skyblock and then this update happened.
I've been able to get some animals to spawn in both SSP & SMP in Minecraft 1.2.5. I'm about to try another attempt now with 1.3.2 on a fresh world, but the main thing is simply to be patient.
The odd thing that I've found since I made the above post is that mobs spawn precisely 24 blocks away. In other words, if you have a cobblestone generator (like is typical on SkyBlock) you want the grassy area about 20-30 blocks away from you. Trying to get them to spawn further away doesn't seem to work, and obviously they won't spawn closer up. That isn't 24 blocks along any axis, but rather 24 blocks away in a straight line in any direction along a sphere around you including 24 blocks straight up (if you have an underground workshop or a platform under your grassy area). Passive mobs will even spawn underground, assuming that you haven't hit any other mob limits.
That also seems to be a big issue too, as the number of passive mobs that spawn also seems to be somewhat dependent upon even hostile mob numbers. If a whole bunch of hostile mobs are around (in a mob spawner/grinder building or something like that), it seems to also impact nearby grassy areas.
I can't imagine that the passive mob spawning has been impacted by changes in 1.3, but anything is possible. If 1.3 behaves any different from 1.2.5 SMP, it really is a huge bug that needs to be called out. BTW, I was able to get a couple of chickens and a cow to spawn on just four blocks of grass. It was sort of unexpected (I wasn't really trying at all when it happened) but it can happen and doesn't need to be a newly generated chunk.
Version 2.1 now updated for MC 1.6.2
I'm entirely certain that your information is correct, so I don't see what could go wrong other than probability-defying results :\
Good luck, though.
I have had no success spawning passive mobs in Skyblock 1. I read King's post about mob spawners maybe blocking passive spawns and decided to experiment. I opened a copy of my Skyblock world and made multiple passive spawn sites based on distance from mob spawner and distance from Me. Still no success, So I went into peaceful mode and put torches inside the mob spawner to disable it. and Wham, within 5 minutes one of my passive spawners had a sheep and a pig.
I think a dense pack of hostile mobs may really be blocking the passive mobs from spawning. Plus only one of my spawners has given any passive mobs. The distance from your active site seems to be critical in getting a spawn. I haven't yet figured out how the 24 blocks away distance from Me works . Yes, Wiki says 24 blocks, but is that from the edge of your camp, or where you are most of the time, or what. I can't figure that part out as the distance of 24 blocks from my present spawner makes no sense as to where I am.
I don't see how you can play survival maps like Skyblock and be successful at passive mob spawns with out a better explanation from Notch on exactly how passive spawns work. Also why does a hostile mob spawner break passive mobs from spawning correctly.
Cheating in grass blocks to find the exact place to put in your passive spawner takes the fun out of the map. We should know at least approximately where to put the spawner and get successful spawns. I spent about 5 rl days trying to get a spawner working before I read this post.
Hope this helps. I would like to get some answers before I move on to Skyblock 2
What you need to do is to use the "F3" key to find the X,Y,Z coordinates of where you will be hanging out at and doing something repetitive, such as farming or mining cobblestone. From there, you need to use this math formula (from the Pythagorean Theorem if you want to know where this comes from):
Distance = Square_root( (X1 - X2)^2 + (Y1-Y2)^2 + (Z1-Z2)^2)
I hope that makes sense. The X1, Y1, Z1 coordinates are the "base" coordinates and the X2, Y2, Z2 coordinates are where you think the grass blocks will be at. A simple pocket calculator or the calculator program found on most operating systems can help you calculate this out real quick. That is how I made the calculation myself with regards to the video you saw as well.
What I think is happening is that there is an overall "entity" cap of some kind in Minecraft, which includes all kinds of mobs. If that entity cap has been passed (including from something like a whole bunch of cobblestone you haven't picked up... be careful there) the game won't spawn any more creatures of any kind. There might also be an overall mob cap as well. The purpose of the limit is to help make the game actually be playable, as if there are too many mobs the game really starts to slow down to a crawl.
This can become a really serious issue on multiplayer servers if a whole bunch of players have mob spawners/grinders. In that case the mob caps become even more pronounced, as it is a server-wide cap as well. It is fairly common on some multiplayer servers for players to be complaining that their grinder isn't working as mobs simply won't spawn in them.
For those who haven't seen the video, it can be found here:
I show off the animals that actually spawn in this video:
Version 2.1 now updated for MC 1.6.2
I'm just recording the construction process of my Ultimate, minimum redstone Mob Grinder (And having way too much fun with the video editor!)
Click here to watch
Are you sure it's only 17 by 17 blocks? From what I read on the wiki, it sounds like 17 by 17 chunks.
Have you been able to spawn additional creatures once you're above 15 in skyblock?
* Promoting this week: Captive Minecraft 4, Winter Realm. Aka: Vertical Vanilla Viewing. Clicky!
* My channel with Mystcraft, and general Minecraft Let's Plays: http://www.youtube.com/user/Keybounce.
* See all my video series: http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/minecraft-editions/minecraft-editions-show-your/2865421-keybounces-list-of-creation-threads
(In regard to a mod that gives realistic animal genetics):
Would you really rather have bees that make diamonds and oil with magical genetic blocks?
... did I really ask that?
http://youtube.com/user/TheBudderGolem
The one thing you forgot to mention in you FAQ is the height limit. For a passive mob to spawn, it must be between blocks 46, and 62.