As the title suggests, I'm having difficulty with my dark room mob spawner. It is built 24 blocks in the air, with an additional room 3 blocks above it. It uses a redstone system involving water in dispensers to flush mobs in the 19x19 area down a hole, where they are caught by water (using signs) and drop 23 blocks without dying. In theory, I wait at the bottom and hit them with 1 swing of a sword and a hopper system collects drops while I collect XP. I've only ever had a max of 4 mobs come through when activating the system, and this is after waiting about 15 minutes during the daytime. There is a cave system beneath but it is relatively small and well lit, and the field around it in a 100 block radius is also well lit. I know the water system is working because I can see droplets fall through the floor when it's on. Any advice on how to get mobs to spawn more frequently?
Only for zombies, they're the only ones that care anything at all about villagers. Villagers won't prevent zombies from spawning, but the zombies might fight the water to get to the villager. This would generally be a very temporary delay, however.
The more likely explanation is that either you're too close to the grinder and therefore preventing mobs from spawning (what you saw was just what spawned when you were not at the base), or you really didn't light up enough caves.
Beyond these two considerations, you're either on a server with other people on (generally kills natural spawn rates in the sense they're appearing around someone else instead) or have built the grinder incorrectly. In 1.12 and below, for example, building the grinder where you did means it automatically operates in a best-case scenario at 50% efficiency (it could even be in a void world so that this is the only land available and it would still do this). In 1.13 this no longer matters, but it's been replaced by the fact that the ground that exists outside of your grinder both above it and below it matters a whole lot more (get rid of it and you will see your grinder speed up significantly).
In 1.12 and below, for example, building the grinder where you did means it automatically operates in a best-case scenario at 50% efficiency (it could even be in a void world so that this is the only land available and it would still do this). In 1.13 this no longer matters, but it's been replaced by the fact that the ground that exists outside of your grinder both above it and below it matters a whole lot more (get rid of it and you will see your grinder speed up significantly).
Are you sure about that?
The way I heard it it maximum efficiency still requires building as low as possible and removing all solid blocks in the chunk above the height of the spawner. The difference being that in 1.12 what mattered was how many subchunks (16X16X16 blocks) up from the bottom the highest solid block was and in 1.13 supposedly the exact height of the highest solid block is what matters. That is, in 1.12 16 blocks from the bottom is no worse than 1 and 17 blocks is as "bad" as 32 whereas in 1.13 every layer counts.
I've never seen it suggested that blocks below the spawner make any difference (unless mobs are spawning there of course).
Some of the latest snapshots seem to have messed up mob spawning.
Have you checked that the flushing system isn't stuck on?
Press F3 and check the fifth line, the two numbers after "E:" the first is the number of entities, mobs amongst other things, in your field of view, the second is total entities. If the second is too high, usually 70, you need to find out what they are and do something about them if they are hostile mobs.
(On a server the mob cap may be higher (?) or lower than 70.)
As the title suggests, I'm having difficulty with my dark room mob spawner. It is built 24 blocks in the air, with an additional room 3 blocks above it. It uses a redstone system involving water in dispensers to flush mobs in the 19x19 area down a hole, where they are caught by water (using signs) and drop 23 blocks without dying. In theory, I wait at the bottom and hit them with 1 swing of a sword and a hopper system collects drops while I collect XP. I've only ever had a max of 4 mobs come through when activating the system, and this is after waiting about 15 minutes during the daytime. There is a cave system beneath but it is relatively small and well lit, and the field around it in a 100 block radius is also well lit. I know the water system is working because I can see droplets fall through the floor when it's on. Any advice on how to get mobs to spawn more frequently?
You need to light up any caves in a 128 block radius around the farm. Also your render distance needs to be at least 10.
All caves and areas within a 128 radius are lit up. My render distance is 10 as well
I do have a villager breeder on the ground about 10 blocks from the dark room horizontally and 25 vertically. Could this be interfering somehow?
Only for zombies, they're the only ones that care anything at all about villagers. Villagers won't prevent zombies from spawning, but the zombies might fight the water to get to the villager. This would generally be a very temporary delay, however.
The more likely explanation is that either you're too close to the grinder and therefore preventing mobs from spawning (what you saw was just what spawned when you were not at the base), or you really didn't light up enough caves.
Beyond these two considerations, you're either on a server with other people on (generally kills natural spawn rates in the sense they're appearing around someone else instead) or have built the grinder incorrectly. In 1.12 and below, for example, building the grinder where you did means it automatically operates in a best-case scenario at 50% efficiency (it could even be in a void world so that this is the only land available and it would still do this). In 1.13 this no longer matters, but it's been replaced by the fact that the ground that exists outside of your grinder both above it and below it matters a whole lot more (get rid of it and you will see your grinder speed up significantly).
Are you sure about that?
The way I heard it it maximum efficiency still requires building as low as possible and removing all solid blocks in the chunk above the height of the spawner. The difference being that in 1.12 what mattered was how many subchunks (16X16X16 blocks) up from the bottom the highest solid block was and in 1.13 supposedly the exact height of the highest solid block is what matters. That is, in 1.12 16 blocks from the bottom is no worse than 1 and 17 blocks is as "bad" as 32 whereas in 1.13 every layer counts.
I've never seen it suggested that blocks below the spawner make any difference (unless mobs are spawning there of course).
Just testing.
What version are you playing?
Some of the latest snapshots seem to have messed up mob spawning.
Have you checked that the flushing system isn't stuck on?
Press F3 and check the fifth line, the two numbers after "E:" the first is the number of entities, mobs amongst other things, in your field of view, the second is total entities. If the second is too high, usually 70, you need to find out what they are and do something about them if they are hostile mobs.
(On a server the mob cap may be higher (?) or lower than 70.)
Just testing.