Wither Skeleton Farm
Hi everyone,
I was wondering, if one didn't exist already, some players could help me make a wither skeleton farm. I've already kinda started planning things out and will be gathering materials soon. The planned location is in a fortress at x:700 z: -2165 (far enough away from spawn so that new members don't mess with it). The parts I need help with are:
-Slabbing the entire region around the farm to prevent other spawns
-Redstone (probably since I'll be doing this mostly from Youtube tutorials which may lead me to make the odd mistake
-General other help
-Moral support
What are people's thoughts?
It has been three weeks, and I'm still feeling guilty over not recognizing that this was breaking the rules. I put a lot of effort into slabbing, thinking I was making a valuable contribution. I'm sorry for my part in rule violation, and I am grateful that I wasn't banished.
Now that we have a new Nether, I've been doing some work at and near spawn. Most of it is, I think, pretty obviously okay - a safe space around the spawn, and a few easy resources for people brave enough to venture through the gate. (I put a small farm beneath with carrots and nether wort, and made a little brewing room with an ender chest.)
I'm now working on the old public blaze grinder. I was initially reluctant to use pistons and plates to move the blazes, because it seemed to violate the rules as I understood them. (Indeed, the blaze grinder I built in the previous world had only one piston that was installed after the fact, and manually controlled.) However, I had also recognized from the sound that some similar system was in use at the former facility. I'm also now more comfortable doing so, having found a method by which blaze production can be halted. (near the end of this video... it basically uses a triggered lava flow to create enough light to halt blaze production.)
But, feeling that I need to tread extra carefully at the moment with regard to rules and culture, I want to be sure I'm not doing something deemed damaging to the economy. Should I avoid adding a crusher component on a public grinder, so it's not too easy? (I don't think there was one on the old grinder.) Is a public grinder already violating the spirit of the server? (I'd be a bit disappointed if it were, since a significant part of my enjoyment of the server is helping other people.) Is it okay to have some limited piston/redstone work if it can be shut off, despite the fact that users may not always remember to turn it off? (Or do I need to make sure it's a pressure plate system that can only operate when being stood upon?)
Please forgive me if this is off-topic, but these thoughts sprung out of the last part of this thread. Thanks for any feedback!
Yeah exactly. So you stand at least 24 blocks away, but within 128 blocks, and wither skeletons, blazes, zombie pigmen, and normal skeletons will spawn. Tripwires detect them and pistons move the blocks they stand on so they glitch through the floor. Then they fall and you can kill them with looting 3 and get loot!
The reason I'm covering everything in slabs is because there's a limit to how many mobs can be spawned in loaded chunks, therefore if I let mobs spawn everywhere very few would spawn in the actual farm.
Mobs don't spawn in lava which makes this a bit easier as it means I don't have to cover the lava but mobs can spawn pretty much everywhere else which sucks.
Anyone who'd like to help is totally welcome to just travel to x:700 z:-2165 and start placing half slabs everywhere you see near the farm.
This is gonna take a while.
Just logged on after returning from my trip and really love the progress. I'm seeing far better rates and the glass does really help. Thanks a million 23caterpie and Papa_Jynx
You have my moral support.
Thanks crstl! :D
Thanks to some great help from Sleeping_Owl I have enough pistons to do the main build.
Progress is slow thanks to my lack of iron.
The first layer of 3 is almost complete (I have the resources to complete 2 levels currently)
Pics and numbers to show progress to follow...
Level 1 is done
Annnnd a final update for today:
That's level 2 out of 3 more than half complete (I'm almost out of iron for hoppers)
I can get you some iron. Msg me if you and I are on at the same time.
Thanks to some great help from crstl Level 2 of 3 of the wither farm is now complete
Pics --> Link
Now onto the final level. :)
However that's not the whole story... :(
I've then got to do the REALLY time consuming task of covering with lava or placing half slabs over EVERY spawnable space within 128 blocks of the farm to maximize its efficiency... anyone want to help me with that?
I'm also looking for someone to design the structure that encloses the farm (you wouldn't want ghasts to screw up the redstone and you wouldn't want to see a massive building built by me)
If you see me pop in game shout at me. I will help out. I will just probably forget that I offered. lol.
I don't have any projects going that I cant help out.
Nice one!
Level 3 is now complete and looking exactly the same as the other levels... maybe no need for pics.
Next is to dig out a big drop for mobs, make a structure around the farm and slab off all spawnable spaces... not so fun.
x:700 z: -2165 in the nether if anyone wants to join me in my monumental struggle of preventing mob spawns around the farm.
Needless to say I'll take you up on that iamjonno23 :D
Slabbing is super fun
Sorry to the people that may think I'm making the nether as ugly as hell (LOL XD)...
I'd be happy to help with this. But how does it work? Do you stand a certain distance away from the trap and mobs spawn in it and fall?
Sweet! I put in a few hours of slabbing today, hopefully it helps a little.
Thanks caterpie!
Gotta love slowly covering a large area of the nether with slabs. Today I rebuilt part of the farm as magma slimes were messing up the pistons and mobs were getting stuck AND a couple of blocks seemed to be missing.
I've put the farm in a nice clean room and also prevented mobs from spawning on the farm components.
So now it's basically done. It works. BUT not all the blocks in a 128 block radius are slabbed and all that currently happens to the mobs is that they fall in a ditch. The next thing I'm going to do is make a proper nice collection hole for mobs to fall into. Unfortunately I can't collect all the mobs into an area smaller than the base of the farm as water in the nether isn't a thing and I don't want to add and more pistons for fear I may cause server lag (Currently it's just frame lag if you're on a not-so-powerful computer)
Anyone is welcome to come and use the farm any time at x:700 z:-2165 in the nether but please don't touch the actual farm unless you know what you're doing or have been asked to by me... or unc I guess.
FYI you need to be at least 24 blocks away from the farm for it to spawn things and if you see any mobs that spawned outside of the farm (except for ghasts) Please find where it came from and slap a slab on it
I've been slabb'n for a bit more and the spawn rates in the farm are getting better. I have noticed though that large magma cubes are still clogging the system. You need a bit more glass on the West side. Also I noticed a wither skelie just sitting there and it wasn't getting him. I'm not sure why that happened that time but I think the two pistons were trying to push at the same time. I took the netherrack out of the hopper in question and put it back in and it fixed it.
Oh! And walls of glass might help in future troubleshooting.
Thanks again caterpie. Yeah I noticed that mobs sometimes got stuck in the farm. I suspect it's because the chunk updates are happening weirdly and the pistons liked to fire 1 tick late. I'm afraid I can't fix that. Walls of glass would be good BUT ghasts break glass a lot and that could cause some real issues.
I'll start work on the pit that the farm drops mobs into soon.