Minecraft Forums

Hey Chris, have you made any progress on your sorter? I've been experimenting with different mob trap layouts and recently decided to build a sorter for the passive ones. My main goal is to collect the wool in as automated a way as possible. It's such a waste to see all the sheep just getting killed off in my current trap. If only there was a way to bump the wool off them as they're collected... Getting them all into one place is about the best we can do anyway.
I've got pigs and chickens dealt with, by challenge now is separating the cows from the sheep.

I have a few ideas, just need to get time to sit and work them out.

Sporadic is right. I've seen this issue since the latest update too. My grinder gets waves of mobs instead of the steady stream I used to get. Some others have seen this change too in this thread: http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=1020&t=204816

Hey deltahat, this exact thing happened to me last night for the first time, probably just like with Kastrel. My mob grinder went silent, for over 30 minutes...no hostile mobs would spawn. All I was getting was pork, feathers, and leather. (My mob grinder has a top level grassland collector). I was starting to wonder if they were all hiding somewhere plotting against me. I tried changing to peaceful mode and back to normal. Tried shutting MC down and relaunching, still nothing. Then I remembered a dungeon I had lit up and looted earlier. I went back and removed the torches from around the spawner and bam, I got 3 spiders right away. But still no hostile mobs anywhere else. I was underground all this time so went up to the surface to explore, it was night time and all was quiet. So strange to go for so long with no mobs. I eventually went back down to my grinder\warehouse area and the hostile mobs started spawning again.

No idea what was going on, temporary mob strike? Mob's day off (it was more like 4 MC days)? I don't think it was machine related, the game has always run fine on my Ubuntu laptop.

If I had thought of it, I should have dropped into the Nether to see if that was deserted too. Oh well...

Have to agree with all the advice so far. The room is too small, ceiling height is fine, and you need way more rivers to carry the mobs into your grinder. Also, make the river troughs 2 blocks deep so they can't jump back out. There are many instructional vids on mob traps.

Try what I've been doing for the past couple weeks. Go on a lightstone dust gathering quest. I have almost 15 stacks of it so far. It really is quite a challenge, on normal difficulty of course, avoiding the ghast fire-balls and magically appearing pig-men.

This much exploring in the nether gives a real purpose to those chests full of cobblestone. Also makes having a good mob trap in the normal world worth while. You will go through a LOT of arrows and grilled pork.

Now, what to do with all this lightstone dust... I hate to convert it back into lightstone. Sitting on it for now, I want a double chest full!

Here's an easy way to make an underwater light, using only 5 blocks of glass, one sign, and a torch.

Place 4 blocks of glass on the floor in a plus shape with a dirt or sand block in the middle. Then place a 5th block on top of one of the 4. On the side of this top 5th block place a sign so it is over the middle of the plus ( see picture ). Then dig out the center block and place a torch in there. Lights up the underwater area pretty good and is quick to make.

1> Player must mine 2 blocks (and only 2) of Iron ore within 1 minute of mining *diamonds(s).
2> Player must stand on a **wooden block facing due ***east and consume 1 bowl of mushroom soup.

* Note, the diamonds must be mined with an iron pick (not diamond) crafted with a birch wood handle.
**Note, if you are at layer 16 or below the wooden block must be substituted with sand stone.
***Remain facing east after eating the soup. Do not turn around until you hear the slime approaching, It'll be one of the big ones.

Quote from Cornshot »

You will find huge beaches of it spread far apart from each other. Just keep on looking
By the way, what do you need slow sand for anyways? It's pretty useless, just slowing things down slightly and making one way doors.

Spiders cannot climb up Soul Sand. It's about the only material they will not climb without having to add any additional counter measures.

Edit: I meant to add a link to Thescorpi0n's post. Credit where credit is due! http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=1020&t=149154

Edit 2: ok, I have to retract my words. This just in... Spiders in fact can climb Soul Sand. It's just hard for them to get a start. But they will eventually get up it.

It all depends on what the halves are half of. If they are halves of a half, then putting the two halves together will only make one half.

It really depends on what your goal is. Hopefully you intend to do lots of mining and killing mobs ! If so a good home serves as a base of operations. You'll want to return here to stock up on health and weapons, load up on new pic-axes and deposit all your loot in a safe place! Make sure you have more than one way out/in. Also, make sure you can find your home easily from the spawn spot. Or at least write down the coordinates (F3 to reveal your X,Y,Z) so you can navigate back from anyplace. (I know, there are mods for this - I am a Minecraft purist, I avoid modding for now)

Lava pool is a good idea, you'll want to incinerate any nearly used up tools and other useless stuff.
I like to keep an indoor wheat garden. Mine yields a 64 stack of wheat each time I make it back.

You'll want to organize all your stuff, maybe even in separate rooms. I have a pantry room, a treasure room, garden, and a fabrication room with lots of chests and furnaces.

Build build build!

Having a similar experience here. I generated a new world 5 after the update last week. Found 4 dungeons so far, all in the same enormous cave system. The caverns are HUGE. Some areas aren't even cave-like at all, just giant vacuous spaces with openings leading every direction, floors riddled with lava. I love it, exploring caves like this is a real challenge. I never move the difficulty from normal. Even building a trap out of a skeleton spawner, do it with mobs on, really keeps you on your toes :-)

I don't know if there's been a change in the frequency of blocks, but all the iron seems to be in veins of at least 6-8. I found a vein this morning with 13 blocks of Iron in it! oh yeah! Daddy needs a new minecart system!

Happy mining!

I love your method zcvl. I try to spend as much time underground as possible, as long as the tunnel is lit well, nothing should ever jump out at you. (never say never... stinkin creepers) When I find a location with access to a cave system or two, I build a mini-base (cobble stone room with chests) and thoroughly explore all mines underneath. Sometimes my path back to my stronghold is underground, sometimes it is across open terrain, which I will only do during the day. It usually takes 2 or 3 trips back to home base to carry everything. But I can't consider a mining expedition done until every bit of the loot is safely in a chest in my base.

Here's a challenge for you. Something I really enjoy lately. Do this in single player Minecraft, no hacks, no mods, straight game set on 'normal' difficulty. Start up a fresh world and start a timer. Stop the timer when you have acquired 10 pieces of lightstone dust in the real world. My best time so far is 7.5 hours of game time (not all in one sitting) Think about it, there are a lot of prerequisites built into this end-game. You will need to acquire wood, stone, iron, diamonds, flint, a portal to the nether, lots of food\health along the way. Anyway, It is a great challenge.

Hi ChezBoyardee, couple quick questions. Is your MC server dedicated ? Are mobs active ? And would there be a cartograph map available to get the lay of the land and choose a suitable place to build ?

Thanks, I look forward to building!

Tim

Water is the best idea, 1x8 water canals make great timers\delay devices. If the full 8 run is too long, pop a sign on the side of the canal to drop the item right there. I use water timers to activate minecart track corners. Sort of a cart router to change course while I am riding.

Here's a challenge for ya, I'd like to see a functioning mob trap in the nether. I don't know if they give any loot other than grilled pork, (which is very handy in that hell-hole) and fire doesn't even hurt them. I am pretty sure a cobblestone pit can hold water in the nether, going to play with this today and see if it's possible to drown them pig-men.