I'd first like to say that I'm almost certain this is a pretty controversial topic. Iron Farms: No, or Yes, or Maybe? I'm going to try to do my best to list some of the upsides and downsides of Iron Farms, and to explain each of the options offered in this poll. However, I'm sure to miss out on various aspects of this issue, and would appreciate feedback, in which case I'll try and update the Original Post.
1 ~ NO; Remove Iron Farms
For many people, Iron Farms seem a bit odd. While you can technically obtain iron from zombies and skeletons, the most efficient way of automating iron production is to exploit the mechanics that allow Iron Golems to spawn, and then kill them in order to obtain iron. Optimal solutions for this tend to involve shoving villagers in boats, trapping them in cages, and emulating the conditions of a village enough that iron golems will spawn nearby- more recently, you have to deal with cats that also generate in these conditions ruining your farm. And if that isn't an exploit, then what is?
The point being that it seems pretty easy to infer this wasn't intended- and even if it was unintended, players abuse this mechanic so much that it unbalances the game. Iron wasn't meant to be obtainable automatically, and iron golems should no longer drop iron. If players really need this mechanic so badly, they can
2 ~ YES; Keep Iron Farms
It doesn't matter whether or not Iron Farms are an exploit or not- they've been part of the game for so long that to take them away at this point would be ridiculous. And if a purely practical reason to keep Iron Farms- that is, not invalidating countless player's existing builds- isn't enough, there's a more emotional reason too.
One of the key design principles of Minecraft is the spirit of conquering- Minecraft isn't meant to be a realistic survival game- it isn't about keeping yourself alive, at least, not for very long. It's about seeing how far you can go- whether that means coming to dominate the landscape, building something epic, defeating a difficult challenge, etc. Iron Farming is another example of how players find creative solutions to dominate the mechanics of the game.
3 ~ MAYBE; Change Iron Farms (Personal Favorite)
This option sort of sums up my personal view towards Iron Farms, which is more or less as follows: Yes Iron Farms are an important part of the game, and shouldn't just be removed. However, they are also the result of an exploit. Since Iron Farms should not, (and indeed, cannot) be removed at this point, perhaps a better solution is to change how they function.
Regardless of whether you're for or against Iron farms, I think players can agree that the systems involved in setting up an iron form seem a bit odd, to say the least- and there are a few ways that this could be changed. The existing systems wouldn't have to be invalidated, while players could also be offered new ways of obtaining iron that don't involve exploiting villagers in such an unusual fashion.
-Iron Golems drop iron nuggets instead of ingots.This would at least add an extra step in designing iron farms, but doesn't really solve the main issue. (That is, Iron Golems would be a less efficient source of iron, and iron farms would require player input to craft ingots.)
-Emerald Blocks could be used to lead villagers around, if one really wants to keep the existing villager breeding mechanics.
EDIT: -Iron Golems only drop iron when killed by players, forcing designs to become only semi automatic.
-New structures with Iron Golem spawners could generate- factories or ruins of some sort, in order to promote more natural designs for Iron farms, or something along these lines- some sort of more efficent alternative to the existing system.
My own solution to iron farms (implemented in my own mod) was to make them only drop iron when killed by a player, and not only that, they must be directly killed with a melee attack, not just having recently been hit by a player, which effectively removes entirely automated iron farms (you can still collect iron golems in a holding chamber but you'll have to kill them yourself and are limited by the number that can be collected without lag; to this end, a general mob cap that applies to iron golems (in addition to the per-village cap) would prevent too many from existing at once, with the limit being generous enough to accommodate the highest reasonable number of "real" villages within the currently loaded chunks).
Notably, Mojang actually implemented a similar mechanic, minus the direct kill requirement, in a snapshot for 1.8 but the community was so enraged that they reverted it, along with a similar nerf to zombie pigmen (which is even more exploitative due to a bug in 1.8+ where they drop rare drops, even XP, when simply angered):
Iron golems
Now only drops iron ingots when killed by the player, either through combat or potions, or player-activated mechanisms such as manually lit TNT. If killed without player intervention, only drops poppies.
Zombie Pigmen
Now only drops gold nuggets and rare drops when killed by the player, either through combat or potions, or player-activated mechanisms such as manually lit TNT. If killed without player intervention, only drops rotten flesh.
Obviously, I am highly biased by my playstyle but I've never had any issues acquiring enough iron, eventually accumulating hundreds of times more iron than I've needed at an average rate of around 200 per hour spent caving; the rate may not be as high when I branch-mine for resources during the early-game (the only time collecting resources is my motive for mining) but I'm not primarily looking for iron once I've made my first iron pickaxe and I collect plenty while looking for rarer resources like diamond; past the early-game my main uses of iron are anvils and shears, which would not be not needed in newer versions due to Mending (which IMO should be changed, along with how repair costs are calculated, to instead keep the penalty down, as renaming did before 1.8. Yes, this would mean you'd need resources to maintain your gear and for replacement anvils but most players do not use iron for gear by the late-game, which only needs the iron from 1-2 iron golems per repair, otherwise other materials need about one every 3 repairs for the anvil itself).
I'm also not opposed to increasing the amount of ores obtainable by mining, and especially caving, including the ability for Fortune to work on iron and gold (via a separate drop); even with the changes in 1.17 I feel that most players will still primarily farm/trade for resources/items and only go caving/mining for resources/resources for items that can't be farmed or traded, which isn't that much (e.g. individual diamonds are only necessary for enchantment tables, jukeboxes, firework trail effects, and diamond blocks). Likewise, additional mobs that drop iron could be added, as long as they are rare drops (not necessarily requiring a direct kill).
As TMC said which I think is quite reasonable, is to have iron golems only drop iron ingots if killed directly by players
I'm not opposed to resources being renewable or even recyclable in some cases, but they definitely should not be AFK because this is overpowered and is unbalanced. I must admit I'm not as bothered about iron golem farms as I was about AFK fishing, because unlike fishing, it is not possible to get enchantments just by killing iron golems, but this doesn't necessarily mean automated iron golem farms are a good thing to have in the game.
Players would still have a good reason to spawn iron golems in their maps even if the ability to AFK their drops was removed entirely
1) having the necessary villager setup causing iron golems to spawn would mean you get a free security force, which was intentional,
because iron golems primarily were designed to defend villages with villagers in them.
2) players would still be rewarded renewable iron if they took the risk by killing the golems directly,
3) Mob drops should never be removed completely because some of the resources they provide are the only way to stop natural underground resources being completely wasted when players break the items using them, items without mending do not last forever, so renewable resources have a purpose.
I like the way iron farms work. Yes the developers might didn‘t intend it that way but I think that is what is so special about Minecraft. That you can use game mechanics to make farms for yourself etc. If they changed it the ppl would find another way to make iron farms I think. And if somebody doesn‘t like the idea to get unlimited iron this easy he can just not make an iron farm I guess. Thats just my opinion ^^
As usual, this can be solved very easily. Don't like iron farms? Don't build one. Simple. Don't try to tell other people how to play their game that has no impact on you.
If you play on a server have a server rule that prohibits iron farms and reprimand or kick anyone who builds one. The effort you have to put into making one means that you can't just build one accidentally, you have to plan it out and put in the time to build it. So there's no excuse if someone builds one when they weren't supposed to.
It's not exploiting a bug in the game code, so that's no reason to eliminate them.
Making them only have drops on player kills is also only a minor inconvenience because auto clickers exist.
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D_B
To tell them how to live is to prevent them living.
As usual, this can be solved very easily. Don't like iron farms? Don't build one. Simple. Don't try to tell other people how to play their game that has no impact on you.
If you play on a server have a server rule that prohibits iron farms and reprimand or kick anyone who builds one. The effort you have to put into making one means that you can't just build one accidentally, you have to plan it out and put in the time to build it. So there's no excuse if someone builds one when they weren't supposed to.
It's not exploiting a bug in the game code, so that's no reason to eliminate them.
Making them only have drops on player kills is also only a minor inconvenience because auto clickers exist.
Disabling them entirely would cause annoyances for the industrial type of players who actually need these things for their projects, so I don't agree with their complete removal. However I like TMC's suggestion to rework iron golems so you would only get the iron ingots if you killed them in combat.
Adding to this in my opinion the iron golems should be required to chase the player for their iron ingot prizes to be available, not just be stuck in one place/block the moment they began taking damage, to reduce the amount of cheesing for their loot.
The big problem with resource farms at the moment and that goes for general mob spawners too, is the mobs can be caged in unable to fight back, this is where the exploit is breaking the game mostly, because the player doesn't receive any damage and so there is no risk for the reward given.
You shouldn't be able to attack mobs through a half slab hole either, iron golem or not.
I've seen friends design mob grinders this way but I don't agree with it.
With my mob spawners I intend to do a lot more interesting designs with them, including arenas,
as well as having the iron golems patrol my neighborhoods.
Being able to attack mobs through a small opening is a technique going back to the early history of the game. It's a standard method of fighting mobs in caves, if they are coming at you, build a wall quick with a small opening and attack them through it. Losing that just to eliminate it's use in a mob farm is a little over the top.
My first point still stands, if you don't like that type of mob farm, don't build one and have a server rule against it if you play on a server. Good luck getting anyone else to play on a server like that though as mob farms of this type are part of the game now and trying to put the genie back in the bottle is a pointless waste of time.
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My opinions are rather mixed. While I'm in favor of a reliable renewable source of iron beyond bartering (Which is only reliable if you have a gold farm, and can also be automated), I consider the current ones to be excessively powerful and counterintuitive to build (Unlike, say, mob grinders which either use a spawner or just use darkness and fool mobs into water channels).
Personally, I'm in favor of a new source being added to the Nether, such as a plant that somehow can produce iron, or a mob that drops iron (Why the Nether? Because it has no natural sources apart from structures, yet Piglins not only have enough that they prefer using it to make crossbows over just bows, and happily give iron nuggets for gold, which can imply they have plenty of it), while also making Village-spawned Iron Golems not drop iron at all (Softening them so you can 1-hit them is still possible in solutions involving making them drop iron only if killed by players), or, to make things more awkward, only if killed by mobs (Not players or the environment).
That way, there's a "saner and more balanced" iron source (One that could involve the underused Iron Nuggets, too) while also closing down the traditional infamously unbalanced ones for good (Then again, they can still be useful at making free golems).
My opinions are rather mixed. While I'm in favor of a reliable renewable source of iron beyond bartering (Which is only reliable if you have a gold farm, and can also be automated), I consider the current ones to be excessively powerful and counterintuitive to build (Unlike, say, mob grinders which either use a spawner or just use darkness and fool mobs into water channels).
Personally, I'm in favor of a new source being added to the Nether, such as a plant that somehow can produce iron, or a mob that drops iron (Why the Nether? Because it has no natural sources apart from structures, yet Piglins not only have enough that they prefer using it to make crossbows over just bows, and happily give iron nuggets for gold, which can imply they have plenty of it), while also making Village-spawned Iron Golems not drop iron at all (Softening them so you can 1-hit them is still possible in solutions involving making them drop iron only if killed by players), or, to make things more awkward, only if killed by mobs (Not players or the environment).
That way, there's a "saner and more balanced" iron source (One that could involve the underused Iron Nuggets, too) while also closing down the traditional infamously unbalanced ones for good (Then again, they can still be useful at making free golems).
But you can still get iron off zombies using mob spawners, albeit with a much lower efficiency because the iron ingot drops are not guaranteed per hit, they're a low probability. What would you say if this too were removed? then you would lose the only remaining renewable source of iron ingots.
If iron were to be made non renewable that can cause significant problems, especially with players who use legacy console world types which is still technically possible on Java edition with world borders.
I don't know about everybody else here, but I personally wouldn't want to play on a Minecraft world if I knew some time down the line resources were going to run out, as this would defeat the entire point of the infinite respawning mechanic on difficulties below hardcore, which is to remain on the same world with your friends no matter the length of time, for as long as you were alive and in enough good health to play, you could continue to do so on the same Minecraft world continuously earning new resources, encountering more landscape and building more structures.
I don't know about everybody else here, but I personally wouldn't want to play on a Minecraft world if I knew some time down the line resources were going to run out,
As I've tried to explain countless times before, at least in the case of iron this is not an issue at all - there are literally millions of iron ore in left my first world, despite having mined over 2/3 of a million iron ore from caves alone, which only expose around 6-7% of all the iron that exists. At least in my case, I'd run out of caves to explore long before anything else, effectively ending the playability of a world as I'd then have nothing to do, no matter how large or small it was (a legacy console world has close to a third of a million iron - are you seriously telling me that anybody has ever used that much? I've used around 1% of all the iron I've ever mined, with a lot of that used for anvils since Mending doesn't exist in 1.6.4 so I have to use them to repair my gear).
Either way, I think it is extreme overkill to completely remove all mob drops; I'm satisfied with just removing completely automated systems that give unlimited resources for zero additional player effort and that is as far as I've gone in my own mod:
1. Removed spawn chunks, except during initial world creation (just to pregenerate the chunks before the world loads in as otherwise you'd spawn in a void until chunks are generated. This area also varies with render distance so worlds will generate faster at lower distances). This was mainly done for optimization purposes (faster world loading and less memory/CPU usage). [this does however mean that traditional spawn chunk-based farms are no longer possible; Mojang recently added a /forceload command that can keep chunks loaded but it requires enabling cheats]
2. Iron golems only drop iron if directly (melee attacks only) killed by a player and other "mineral" mob drops (gold, redstone, coal, etc) require a player kill and Looting only works if on a melee weapon (fixing MC-3304, so this is not intended behavior in vanilla), with the exception of ghast fireballs (based on the item used to deflect them, not the item held at the time the fireball deals damage).
3. Optimized mob spawning algorithm, significantly reducing the time it takes; note that part of this was done by alternating between four sets of chunks to spawn mobs in so they spawn 1/4 as quickly in any given chunk (this quarters mob farm efficiency but has no noticeable effect otherwise; even when flying around it was able to maintain the mob cap. Passive mobs also spawn twice as often (half as often per chunk)).
4. Mobs will never spawn above the Nether ceiling, which also deals void damage to players in Survival (not that you can even break bedrock as I added a check that prevents that at the lowest level of chunk data access, and that aside, it doesn't look like 1.6.4 had much in the way of bedrock-breaking).
8. Endermen spawned from spawners become hostile to players within 8 blocks if they have a line of sight (they behave normally further away) and only teleport up to 8 blocks away (1/4 the normal distance), both to make Enderman dungeons a real threat as otherwise their neutral behavior makes them too easy. Endermen also only drop ender pearls if killed by a player and Endermen spawned from spawners and in the End have 1/5 the drop rate to make it harder to farm them for ender pearls (even Looting III gives less than the normal drop rate without Looting).
Indeed, I'm even adding mobs with additional mineral/resource drops, but within the limitations mentioned above; the fact that they could still be exploited doesn't bother me, even the diamond drop from Giants since diamonds aren't very valuable given that you only need them for enchantment tables, jukeboxes, and fireworks and they don't make the best gear (the difference between diamond and my amethyst gear is larger than 1.16's diamond and netherite. I've also left in diamond gear trades but made it cost twice as much as iron in the next update, similar to how I previously made Mending cost twice as much, as Mojang also did):
7. Added husks ... the Nether has pink husks, which are also immune to fire and can apply Slowness in addition to Hunger (not both in the same hit). They also have gold ingots, Nether brick items, and glowstone dust as rare drops in place of the normal zombie drops.
8. Giants now have a husk variant with the same spawn conditions as normal husks, and it applies Hunger for twice as long. They also drop sand corresponding to their color (yellow, quartz, red), 1-2 + level of Looting, when killed by a player. [I also previously added a Looting * 33% chance of dropping a diamond, making them renewable]
36. Added glow squid, which have the same behavior as normal squid but drop glow ink sacs and glowstone dust (both 0-2 + 0-1 per level of Looting and only when killed by a player).
As I've tried to explain countless times before, at least in the case of iron this is not an issue at all - there are literally millions of iron ore in left my first world, despite having mined over 2/3 of a million iron ore from caves alone, which only expose around 6-7% of all the iron that exists. At least in my case, I'd run out of caves to explore long before anything else, effectively ending the playability of a world as I'd then have nothing to do, no matter how large or small it was (a legacy console world has close to a third of a million iron - are you seriously telling me that anybody has ever used that much? I've used around 1% of all the iron I've ever mined, with a lot of that used for anvils since Mending doesn't exist in 1.6.4 so I have to use them to repair my gear).
Either way, I think it is extreme overkill to completely remove all mob drops; I'm satisfied with just removing completely automated systems that give unlimited resources for zero additional player effort and that is as far as I've gone in my own mod:
Indeed, I'm even adding mobs with additional mineral/resource drops, but within the limitations mentioned above; the fact that they could still be exploited doesn't bother me, even the diamond drop from Giants since diamonds aren't very valuable given that you only need them for enchantment tables, jukeboxes, and fireworks and they don't make the best gear (the difference between diamond and my amethyst gear is larger than 1.16's diamond and netherite. I've also left in diamond gear trades but made it cost twice as much as iron in the next update, similar to how I previously made Mending cost twice as much, as Mojang also did):
I think it should be a world option, if people want to completely remove mob drops.
But I agree with your point otherwise, the games resource system would be fixed enough if automated drops were to be removed as standard on all difficulty modes.
I'm okay with building semi automated grinders if that's what it takes to keep replacing anvils without wasting iron ore.
But you can still get iron off zombies using mob spawners, albeit with a much lower efficiency because the iron ingot drops are not guaranteed per hit, they're a low probability. What would you say if this too were removed? then you would lose the only remaining renewable source of iron ingots.
If iron were to be made non renewable that can cause significant problems, especially with players who use legacy console world types which is still technically possible on Java edition with world borders.
I don't know about everybody else here, but I personally wouldn't want to play on a Minecraft world if I knew some time down the line resources were going to run out, as this would defeat the entire point of the infinite respawning mechanic on difficulties below hardcore, which is to remain on the same world with your friends no matter the length of time, for as long as you were alive and in enough good health to play, you could continue to do so on the same Minecraft world continuously earning new resources, encountering more landscape and building more structures.
Zombie ingot drops fall into the other end of the scale: They're too rare to be worth considering as a serious iron source. The only less feasible source is to buy iron gear from blacksmiths to smelt it into nuggets, and even that one at least can be automated, not to mention you can partially cut down on iron use by directly using said gear.
The only current reliable sources of renewable iron that can be used in some way a s amain source are iron farms (which are OP) and piglin bartering (Which is reasonably balanced, but pretty much requires automation).
I'd first like to say that I'm almost certain this is a pretty controversial topic. Iron Farms: No, or Yes, or Maybe? I'm going to try to do my best to list some of the upsides and downsides of Iron Farms, and to explain each of the options offered in this poll. However, I'm sure to miss out on various aspects of this issue, and would appreciate feedback, in which case I'll try and update the Original Post.
1 ~ NO; Remove Iron Farms
For many people, Iron Farms seem a bit odd. While you can technically obtain iron from zombies and skeletons, the most efficient way of automating iron production is to exploit the mechanics that allow Iron Golems to spawn, and then kill them in order to obtain iron. Optimal solutions for this tend to involve shoving villagers in boats, trapping them in cages, and emulating the conditions of a village enough that iron golems will spawn nearby- more recently, you have to deal with cats that also generate in these conditions ruining your farm. And if that isn't an exploit, then what is?
The point being that it seems pretty easy to infer this wasn't intended- and even if it was unintended, players abuse this mechanic so much that it unbalances the game. Iron wasn't meant to be obtainable automatically, and iron golems should no longer drop iron. If players really need this mechanic so badly, they can
2 ~ YES; Keep Iron Farms
It doesn't matter whether or not Iron Farms are an exploit or not- they've been part of the game for so long that to take them away at this point would be ridiculous. And if a purely practical reason to keep Iron Farms- that is, not invalidating countless player's existing builds- isn't enough, there's a more emotional reason too.
One of the key design principles of Minecraft is the spirit of conquering- Minecraft isn't meant to be a realistic survival game- it isn't about keeping yourself alive, at least, not for very long. It's about seeing how far you can go- whether that means coming to dominate the landscape, building something epic, defeating a difficult challenge, etc. Iron Farming is another example of how players find creative solutions to dominate the mechanics of the game.
3 ~ MAYBE; Change Iron Farms (Personal Favorite)
This option sort of sums up my personal view towards Iron Farms, which is more or less as follows: Yes Iron Farms are an important part of the game, and shouldn't just be removed. However, they are also the result of an exploit. Since Iron Farms should not, (and indeed, cannot) be removed at this point, perhaps a better solution is to change how they function.
Regardless of whether you're for or against Iron farms, I think players can agree that the systems involved in setting up an iron form seem a bit odd, to say the least- and there are a few ways that this could be changed. The existing systems wouldn't have to be invalidated, while players could also be offered new ways of obtaining iron that don't involve exploiting villagers in such an unusual fashion.
-Iron Golems drop iron nuggets instead of ingots.This would at least add an extra step in designing iron farms, but doesn't really solve the main issue. (That is, Iron Golems would be a less efficient source of iron, and iron farms would require player input to craft ingots.)
-Emerald Blocks could be used to lead villagers around, if one really wants to keep the existing villager breeding mechanics.
EDIT: -Iron Golems only drop iron when killed by players, forcing designs to become only semi automatic.
-New structures with Iron Golem spawners could generate- factories or ruins of some sort, in order to promote more natural designs for Iron farms, or something along these lines- some sort of more efficent alternative to the existing system.
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My own solution to iron farms (implemented in my own mod) was to make them only drop iron when killed by a player, and not only that, they must be directly killed with a melee attack, not just having recently been hit by a player, which effectively removes entirely automated iron farms (you can still collect iron golems in a holding chamber but you'll have to kill them yourself and are limited by the number that can be collected without lag; to this end, a general mob cap that applies to iron golems (in addition to the per-village cap) would prevent too many from existing at once, with the limit being generous enough to accommodate the highest reasonable number of "real" villages within the currently loaded chunks).
Notably, Mojang actually implemented a similar mechanic, minus the direct kill requirement, in a snapshot for 1.8 but the community was so enraged that they reverted it, along with a similar nerf to zombie pigmen (which is even more exploitative due to a bug in 1.8+ where they drop rare drops, even XP, when simply angered):
Obviously, I am highly biased by my playstyle but I've never had any issues acquiring enough iron, eventually accumulating hundreds of times more iron than I've needed at an average rate of around 200 per hour spent caving; the rate may not be as high when I branch-mine for resources during the early-game (the only time collecting resources is my motive for mining) but I'm not primarily looking for iron once I've made my first iron pickaxe and I collect plenty while looking for rarer resources like diamond; past the early-game my main uses of iron are anvils and shears, which would not be not needed in newer versions due to Mending (which IMO should be changed, along with how repair costs are calculated, to instead keep the penalty down, as renaming did before 1.8. Yes, this would mean you'd need resources to maintain your gear and for replacement anvils but most players do not use iron for gear by the late-game, which only needs the iron from 1-2 iron golems per repair, otherwise other materials need about one every 3 repairs for the anvil itself).
I'm also not opposed to increasing the amount of ores obtainable by mining, and especially caving, including the ability for Fortune to work on iron and gold (via a separate drop); even with the changes in 1.17 I feel that most players will still primarily farm/trade for resources/items and only go caving/mining for resources/resources for items that can't be farmed or traded, which isn't that much (e.g. individual diamonds are only necessary for enchantment tables, jukeboxes, firework trail effects, and diamond blocks). Likewise, additional mobs that drop iron could be added, as long as they are rare drops (not necessarily requiring a direct kill).
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
As TMC said which I think is quite reasonable, is to have iron golems only drop iron ingots if killed directly by players
I'm not opposed to resources being renewable or even recyclable in some cases, but they definitely should not be AFK because this is overpowered and is unbalanced. I must admit I'm not as bothered about iron golem farms as I was about AFK fishing, because unlike fishing, it is not possible to get enchantments just by killing iron golems, but this doesn't necessarily mean automated iron golem farms are a good thing to have in the game.
Players would still have a good reason to spawn iron golems in their maps even if the ability to AFK their drops was removed entirely
1) having the necessary villager setup causing iron golems to spawn would mean you get a free security force, which was intentional,
because iron golems primarily were designed to defend villages with villagers in them.
2) players would still be rewarded renewable iron if they took the risk by killing the golems directly,
3) Mob drops should never be removed completely because some of the resources they provide are the only way to stop natural underground resources being completely wasted when players break the items using them, items without mending do not last forever, so renewable resources have a purpose.
I like the way iron farms work. Yes the developers might didn‘t intend it that way but I think that is what is so special about Minecraft. That you can use game mechanics to make farms for yourself etc. If they changed it the ppl would find another way to make iron farms I think. And if somebody doesn‘t like the idea to get unlimited iron this easy he can just not make an iron farm I guess. Thats just my opinion ^^
As usual, this can be solved very easily. Don't like iron farms? Don't build one. Simple. Don't try to tell other people how to play their game that has no impact on you.
If you play on a server have a server rule that prohibits iron farms and reprimand or kick anyone who builds one. The effort you have to put into making one means that you can't just build one accidentally, you have to plan it out and put in the time to build it. So there's no excuse if someone builds one when they weren't supposed to.
It's not exploiting a bug in the game code, so that's no reason to eliminate them.
Making them only have drops on player kills is also only a minor inconvenience because auto clickers exist.
D_B
To tell them how to live is to prevent them living.
Disabling them entirely would cause annoyances for the industrial type of players who actually need these things for their projects, so I don't agree with their complete removal. However I like TMC's suggestion to rework iron golems so you would only get the iron ingots if you killed them in combat.
Adding to this in my opinion the iron golems should be required to chase the player for their iron ingot prizes to be available, not just be stuck in one place/block the moment they began taking damage, to reduce the amount of cheesing for their loot.
The big problem with resource farms at the moment and that goes for general mob spawners too, is the mobs can be caged in unable to fight back, this is where the exploit is breaking the game mostly, because the player doesn't receive any damage and so there is no risk for the reward given.
You shouldn't be able to attack mobs through a half slab hole either, iron golem or not.
I've seen friends design mob grinders this way but I don't agree with it.
With my mob spawners I intend to do a lot more interesting designs with them, including arenas,
as well as having the iron golems patrol my neighborhoods.
Being able to attack mobs through a small opening is a technique going back to the early history of the game. It's a standard method of fighting mobs in caves, if they are coming at you, build a wall quick with a small opening and attack them through it. Losing that just to eliminate it's use in a mob farm is a little over the top.
My first point still stands, if you don't like that type of mob farm, don't build one and have a server rule against it if you play on a server. Good luck getting anyone else to play on a server like that though as mob farms of this type are part of the game now and trying to put the genie back in the bottle is a pointless waste of time.
D_B
To tell them how to live is to prevent them living.
My opinions are rather mixed. While I'm in favor of a reliable renewable source of iron beyond bartering (Which is only reliable if you have a gold farm, and can also be automated), I consider the current ones to be excessively powerful and counterintuitive to build (Unlike, say, mob grinders which either use a spawner or just use darkness and fool mobs into water channels).
Personally, I'm in favor of a new source being added to the Nether, such as a plant that somehow can produce iron, or a mob that drops iron (Why the Nether? Because it has no natural sources apart from structures, yet Piglins not only have enough that they prefer using it to make crossbows over just bows, and happily give iron nuggets for gold, which can imply they have plenty of it), while also making Village-spawned Iron Golems not drop iron at all (Softening them so you can 1-hit them is still possible in solutions involving making them drop iron only if killed by players), or, to make things more awkward, only if killed by mobs (Not players or the environment).
That way, there's a "saner and more balanced" iron source (One that could involve the underused Iron Nuggets, too) while also closing down the traditional infamously unbalanced ones for good (Then again, they can still be useful at making free golems).
Suggestions:
New Death Animations. "Mr Amppl50, I don't feel so good" -fishg
Lead Ore
Wind revamp and hot air balloons.
https://discord.gg/puB98hd
https://discord.gg/4dkbfrf
But you can still get iron off zombies using mob spawners, albeit with a much lower efficiency because the iron ingot drops are not guaranteed per hit, they're a low probability. What would you say if this too were removed? then you would lose the only remaining renewable source of iron ingots.
If iron were to be made non renewable that can cause significant problems, especially with players who use legacy console world types which is still technically possible on Java edition with world borders.
I don't know about everybody else here, but I personally wouldn't want to play on a Minecraft world if I knew some time down the line resources were going to run out, as this would defeat the entire point of the infinite respawning mechanic on difficulties below hardcore, which is to remain on the same world with your friends no matter the length of time, for as long as you were alive and in enough good health to play, you could continue to do so on the same Minecraft world continuously earning new resources, encountering more landscape and building more structures.
As I've tried to explain countless times before, at least in the case of iron this is not an issue at all - there are literally millions of iron ore in left my first world, despite having mined over 2/3 of a million iron ore from caves alone, which only expose around 6-7% of all the iron that exists. At least in my case, I'd run out of caves to explore long before anything else, effectively ending the playability of a world as I'd then have nothing to do, no matter how large or small it was (a legacy console world has close to a third of a million iron - are you seriously telling me that anybody has ever used that much? I've used around 1% of all the iron I've ever mined, with a lot of that used for anvils since Mending doesn't exist in 1.6.4 so I have to use them to repair my gear).
Either way, I think it is extreme overkill to completely remove all mob drops; I'm satisfied with just removing completely automated systems that give unlimited resources for zero additional player effort and that is as far as I've gone in my own mod:
Indeed, I'm even adding mobs with additional mineral/resource drops, but within the limitations mentioned above; the fact that they could still be exploited doesn't bother me, even the diamond drop from Giants since diamonds aren't very valuable given that you only need them for enchantment tables, jukeboxes, and fireworks and they don't make the best gear (the difference between diamond and my amethyst gear is larger than 1.16's diamond and netherite. I've also left in diamond gear trades but made it cost twice as much as iron in the next update, similar to how I previously made Mending cost twice as much, as Mojang also did):
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
It is up to the player in my opinion. If someone doesn't like using iron farms then they don't have to
I think it should be a world option, if people want to completely remove mob drops.
But I agree with your point otherwise, the games resource system would be fixed enough if automated drops were to be removed as standard on all difficulty modes.
I'm okay with building semi automated grinders if that's what it takes to keep replacing anvils without wasting iron ore.
Zombie ingot drops fall into the other end of the scale: They're too rare to be worth considering as a serious iron source. The only less feasible source is to buy iron gear from blacksmiths to smelt it into nuggets, and even that one at least can be automated, not to mention you can partially cut down on iron use by directly using said gear.
The only current reliable sources of renewable iron that can be used in some way a s amain source are iron farms (which are OP) and piglin bartering (Which is reasonably balanced, but pretty much requires automation).
Suggestions:
New Death Animations. "Mr Amppl50, I don't feel so good" -fishg
Lead Ore
Wind revamp and hot air balloons.
https://discord.gg/puB98hd
https://discord.gg/4dkbfrf