As anyone who has talked to me on IRC will tell you, I've had something of an obsession with gold farming lately. Needing a lot of gold to make powered rails for a minecart bridge across a small ocean (I got tired of having to take a boat to the mesa biome over there) was the first motivation, and the warning that gold will be required for enchanting in the next update cemented it. I need more gold! Hence, the gold farm. And since I spend most of my time in the overworld, running one in the Nether wasn't really an option.
The first version I built was, well, pathetic. It consisted of a 4x4 ring of portals (half of them 2x3, half 3x3, because of a miscalculation in numbers), with a water system similar to the one I use for my mega-village and iron golem farm to deliver them to the crusher. Everything worked fine except for the spawn rate. It was dismal. I could leave the thing running overnight and get maybe a score of gold nuggets.
The first change I made was to put in a second level of portals, using open trapdoors to induce the mobs to step off into the water. This increased the amount of gold I found in my collection chest in the morning, but it didn't double it.
I realized that a disturbing number of pigmen never jumped; they went back through the portal. So, for my next modification, I built a floating bridge of wood slabs one square out from the portal, and two squares down. Pigmen started jumping from the portals to the slab bridge, and either missing and going into the water that took them to the crusher, or wandering around for a while, then jumping off. This greatly increased the kill rate, but it still was pretty inadequate, especially compared to the iron coming out of my iron golem farm in the village.
So I looked at the matter of portal size. With the help of a bunch of fences, I walled off the two sides of my spawning area, and blocked both off from the collector/crusher. Then I enlarged the portals in one half (thanks to my 3x3's, I could make them all 6x3) and not the other, and it's been running for a while. I'll switch over to the other computer again to count ... the side with the more smaller portals has spawned 2 zombie pigmen, the side with the 6x3's has spawned 11.
So definitely, the larger portal size for the same amount of area makes a huge difference. I merged 12 portals (half 2x3, half 3x3) into 6 (all 6x3) and more than quadrupled the spawn rate.
The next thing to figure out is the optimal portal size. 6x3 is better than the sum of its parts, but would 12x3 be better yet?
The best size is always going to be 23x23, no matter what you are going for. And if you put a water stream right under the portal, the AI will be just as willing to walk off. From my experience, pigmen only fall from portals when another one pushes against them.
Spend more time in the nether. Make a house there. Or go in creative and do it.
I have a house in the nether. Two, actually, and a rail line to my blaze farm. But I'm working on projects around my base right now, and I want to have the gold farm running while I'm otherwise busy.
The first version I built was, well, pathetic. It consisted of a 4x4 ring of portals (half of them 2x3, half 3x3, because of a miscalculation in numbers), with a water system similar to the one I use for my mega-village and iron golem farm to deliver them to the crusher. Everything worked fine except for the spawn rate. It was dismal. I could leave the thing running overnight and get maybe a score of gold nuggets.
The first change I made was to put in a second level of portals, using open trapdoors to induce the mobs to step off into the water. This increased the amount of gold I found in my collection chest in the morning, but it didn't double it.
I realized that a disturbing number of pigmen never jumped; they went back through the portal. So, for my next modification, I built a floating bridge of wood slabs one square out from the portal, and two squares down. Pigmen started jumping from the portals to the slab bridge, and either missing and going into the water that took them to the crusher, or wandering around for a while, then jumping off. This greatly increased the kill rate, but it still was pretty inadequate, especially compared to the iron coming out of my iron golem farm in the village.
So I looked at the matter of portal size. With the help of a bunch of fences, I walled off the two sides of my spawning area, and blocked both off from the collector/crusher. Then I enlarged the portals in one half (thanks to my 3x3's, I could make them all 6x3) and not the other, and it's been running for a while. I'll switch over to the other computer again to count ... the side with the more smaller portals has spawned 2 zombie pigmen, the side with the 6x3's has spawned 11.
So definitely, the larger portal size for the same amount of area makes a huge difference. I merged 12 portals (half 2x3, half 3x3) into 6 (all 6x3) and more than quadrupled the spawn rate.
The next thing to figure out is the optimal portal size. 6x3 is better than the sum of its parts, but would 12x3 be better yet?
The golden age: it's not the game, it's you ⋆ Why Minecraft should not be harder ⋆ Spelling hints
I have a house in the nether. Two, actually, and a rail line to my blaze farm. But I'm working on projects around my base right now, and I want to have the gold farm running while I'm otherwise busy.
The golden age: it's not the game, it's you ⋆ Why Minecraft should not be harder ⋆ Spelling hints