Did you build you cannal system on the north side? Looking at your map I believe you did. This water flowing method doesn't work flowing north, for some odd reason.
EDIT: I'm not sure about the three high ceiling. I would guess it would help (mine is 3 high).
I'm a hoarder, I truely am. In my SP world I have 148 diamonds (2 stacks+20). The only thing I use diamonds for is mining obsidian for my vast portal network (120 Mb save file). I know they diamonds are meant to be used, "but I might need it later" syndrome is locked in.
SMP is a compleatly different story. I spent a VERY long amount of time constructing a huge mob trap, hidden very very far from everything. As a result, I sell mob drops by the inventory full at the least. Consiquently, I have a few hundred diamonds (nearing 1,000), a large chest full of iron, and an entire storage room full of coal. I actually use diamond tools in SMP, but only because I'm getting several diamonds a week without any mining. Yay for trading!
Out of curiosity, do you do the majority of your rock mining with stone or iron tools? Just wondering if Iron tools are sustainable without any spelunking.
In SP? I use stone tools for all my stripmines and diamond tunneling, while carrying along an iron pick for redstone/diamond. However, based on the number of iron I am averaging, yes, mining with iron tools is sustainable (even more so with the increase in tool duribility).
There's no way to make water in the nether, it evaporates instantly. If you hack part of the nether into your regular world map, though, water can be made just fine. So, it isn't a restriction on the block types, just a restriction on the nether itself. I think that's done so that people can't just go down there, build a cobblestone base so ghasts can't mess with them and then make water on the giant lava lakes and get unlimited obsidian.
That doesn't stop anyone from getting infinite obsidian. I have a cobblestone hut around my portal, along with a large cobble extension over the lava lake part of the Nether. An inventory of buckets works just fine.
Hmm, Well I did check the water flow and I made sure that no items would be caught on any of the spots. I have to have some giant cave either above or below my trap to be causing such a small amount of items. I did another quick test to see how many items i get and I sat at the collection spot for 15 min. and got 93 items. I guess I'm just gonna dig around a bit and hope I find some cave that is stealing all my mobs.
Remember to look not only above/below the spawning room, but everywhere within 72 (pillar, not sphere) blocks of your collection point.
Apologies for the double post, but I believe this warrents a post. In the first water cannal (with the water flow from under the grinder) items tend to not drift over enough to make their way through the gap, so they end up sitting in the gap with the sign:
You can solve this by placing a block (I haven't tried with a sign) directly next to the sign, making the water flow more sharply towards the sign:
I created this spawner on my single player map and was curious what the items/hr was. I had to go to work for 3 hours and left it running the whole time i was away. After being away for 3 hours I ended up having 713 items, and dividing that by 3, I ended up with only 237 items/hr.
This seems like a very small number and I did it just like how instructed in the video. I don't know if this is because of recent patches or whatever. I built the trap on layer 22 of my world, had difficulty set to medium (not sure if that matters), and am not using any outside patches or anything. I also dug around my trap to make sure any caves near by were well lit up so that only monsters should spawn in my trap.
I'm not entirely sure how you managed those results. I just ran a quick 5 minute test to extrapolate some numbers for you, but now the extrapolation seems unnessisary. I got 190 items/ 5 minutes. While the small sample time can cuase some problems, I doubt they are of this scale.
Just ran another 5 minute test with similar results. 201 items/ 5 minutes. I'm not sure what is causing this, maybe an undiscovered cave system is bitting into your spawns.
I'm a hoarder, I truely am. In my SP world I have 148 diamonds (2 stacks+20). The only thing I use diamonds for is mining obsidian for my vast portal network (120 Mb save file). I know they diamonds are meant to be used, "but I might need it later" syndrome is locked in.
SMP is a compleatly different story. I spent a VERY long amount of time constructing a huge mob trap, hidden very very far from everything. As a result, I sell mob drops by the inventory full at the least. Consiquently, I have a few hundred diamonds (nearing 1,000), a large chest full of iron, and an entire storage room full of coal. I actually use diamond tools in SMP, but only because I'm getting several diamonds a week without any mining. Yay for trading!
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I saw this video:
-video-
And I'm sort of tempted to do this. Obviously I won't make the animal farm or the big thing on the top which I don't even know what's that. Soooo... any tips on that?
The lit up area on top was to stop mobs from spawning up there. As for tips, I think you should drop into here: viewtopic.php?f=1020&t=115218.
EDIT: Keep in mind the scale. Several people worked on that for about a month to get the finished product. Also, you want the big thing on the top so there isn't a chance of rouge hostile mobs.
There's no optimization in the video. If you want to improve the rate of your mob trap, light up all the caverns in a 150x150 box around where you AFK and then flood the terrain above with water/light.
Well, I had a rather interesting problem. I'd lit everything up pre construction (for different reasons) and after constructing the trap no mobs were spawning, anywhere. I have no idea why this is, but going into the spawning room for a few seconds started it spawning mobs by bucketfull.
Mobs only spawn within a certain distance of you, and I believe that 80 blocks away would stop all spawning. I also rememebr something out mobs wandering over the spawning distance, deloading themselves. So 25-40 is probably your best bet. Bonus: make your mine 18x18 and just build this tower in the predug area (just add floors and water), all the way from bedrock to skybox!
Also, no, you dont have to build the grinder first, but as your trap centers around it and the only semi-difficult part of this is the grinder, I would recomend that you do build it first. BUT, if you go for the skybox to bedrock, please, save yourself a few hours and build the grinder first, so you dont run out of room and hit bedrock.
EDIT: 18x18 was the interior size, to clear that up. The entire first floor would be 20x20x5, if we include the walls, ceiling, and floor.
So I have created this monster trap on my SP game and I am having some monster spawning troubles. It seems like only when I am close to the knife that monsters will get killed by it, but when I am back where the items should be flowing, I get little to none items. Any Idea why?
I had ths problem too. I solved it by lighting eventhing around the trap up then sitting at the collection point for a few minutes. After that I ran into the spawning room and ran out, and poof! More items then I'll ever use. Also, I've hooked the collection point of this up to my rather excessive cactus farm and my chicken holder (ie free eggs).
Side note: Items have a MUCH shorter lifespan on SMP (atleast on the server I'm on) and often the items wouldn't make it all the way to the collection point. You can compensate by moving closer (obviously) or lining the bottom of your item track in ice (sleep with your admin or something).
Mob towers are rather simple to make. I am assuming you know how to make a lava grinder (or cactus/drowning, whatever suites your fancy) you can use a real basic layout.
Note: As always, read everything before starting construction.
After you make your grinder (with a 2x2 entrance going down) center a 18x18x3 (lenthxwidthxheight) room on the 2x2 entrance. When you are do you should have a nice 2x2 hole in the middle that is 8 blocks to the nearest point on every wall. Then add pressure plates/signs as so( = Source Block = Flowing water = Pressure plate/Sign = 2x2 pit to grinder):
Copy this format in all 4 directions (Do you need two pressure plates or three? I can never remember.). After you are done add a roof (so the entire area is 5 blocks thick, floor, 3 open blocks [and water], and a roof). Now take the output of your grinder and run a water trench (drop down one block and add a source block every 8 blocks) that goes *25* blocks away from the wall of your tower (Well, the 25 block no-spawn zone is a sphere, but I really dont want to calculate the exact distance, sorry.).
Now you can go back and remove your torches (If you haven't already) and sit at the collection point. Add floors as needed (Line up the 2x2 holes, use the same grinder) until your item output is satisfactory. Oh, and the spawning rate is greatly helped by placing torches around the collection point (~80 blocks) and lighting up any underground area you find near the tower.
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EDIT: I'm not sure about the three high ceiling. I would guess it would help (mine is 3 high).
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In SP? I use stone tools for all my stripmines and diamond tunneling, while carrying along an iron pick for redstone/diamond. However, based on the number of iron I am averaging, yes, mining with iron tools is sustainable (even more so with the increase in tool duribility).
0
That doesn't stop anyone from getting infinite obsidian. I have a cobblestone hut around my portal, along with a large cobble extension over the lava lake part of the Nether. An inventory of buckets works just fine.
0
Remember to look not only above/below the spawning room, but everywhere within 72 (pillar, not sphere) blocks of your collection point.
0
You can solve this by placing a block (I haven't tried with a sign) directly next to the sign, making the water flow more sharply towards the sign:
0
I'm not entirely sure how you managed those results. I just ran a quick 5 minute test to extrapolate some numbers for you, but now the extrapolation seems unnessisary. I got 190 items/ 5 minutes. While the small sample time can cuase some problems, I doubt they are of this scale.
Just ran another 5 minute test with similar results. 201 items/ 5 minutes. I'm not sure what is causing this, maybe an undiscovered cave system is bitting into your spawns.
0
SMP is a compleatly different story. I spent a VERY long amount of time constructing a huge mob trap, hidden very very far from everything. As a result, I sell mob drops by the inventory full at the least. Consiquently, I have a few hundred diamonds (nearing 1,000), a large chest full of iron, and an entire storage room full of coal. I actually use diamond tools in SMP, but only because I'm getting several diamonds a week without any mining. Yay for trading!
0
The lit up area on top was to stop mobs from spawning up there. As for tips, I think you should drop into here: viewtopic.php?f=1020&t=115218.
EDIT: Keep in mind the scale. Several people worked on that for about a month to get the finished product. Also, you want the big thing on the top so there isn't a chance of rouge hostile mobs.
0
Well, I had a rather interesting problem. I'd lit everything up pre construction (for different reasons) and after constructing the trap no mobs were spawning, anywhere. I have no idea why this is, but going into the spawning room for a few seconds started it spawning mobs by bucketfull.
0
0
Also, no, you dont have to build the grinder first, but as your trap centers around it and the only semi-difficult part of this is the grinder, I would recomend that you do build it first. BUT, if you go for the skybox to bedrock, please, save yourself a few hours and build the grinder first, so you dont run out of room and hit bedrock.
EDIT: 18x18 was the interior size, to clear that up. The entire first floor would be 20x20x5, if we include the walls, ceiling, and floor.
0
0
I had ths problem too. I solved it by lighting eventhing around the trap up then sitting at the collection point for a few minutes. After that I ran into the spawning room and ran out, and poof! More items then I'll ever use. Also, I've hooked the collection point of this up to my rather excessive cactus farm and my chicken holder (ie free eggs).
Side note: Items have a MUCH shorter lifespan on SMP (atleast on the server I'm on) and often the items wouldn't make it all the way to the collection point. You can compensate by moving closer (obviously) or lining the bottom of your item track in ice (sleep with your admin or something).
0
0
Note: As always, read everything before starting construction.
After you make your grinder (with a 2x2 entrance going down) center a 18x18x3 (lenthxwidthxheight) room on the 2x2 entrance. When you are do you should have a nice 2x2 hole in the middle that is 8 blocks to the nearest point on every wall. Then add pressure plates/signs as so(
Copy this format in all 4 directions (Do you need two pressure plates or three? I can never remember.). After you are done add a roof (so the entire area is 5 blocks thick, floor, 3 open blocks [and water], and a roof). Now take the output of your grinder and run a water trench (drop down one block and add a source block every 8 blocks) that goes *25* blocks away from the wall of your tower (Well, the 25 block no-spawn zone is a sphere, but I really dont want to calculate the exact distance, sorry.).
Now you can go back and remove your torches (If you haven't already) and sit at the collection point. Add floors as needed (Line up the 2x2 holes, use the same grinder) until your item output is satisfactory. Oh, and the spawning rate is greatly helped by placing torches around the collection point (~80 blocks) and lighting up any underground area you find near the tower.