On Silverfish and clay farms

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DiamondArms
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On Silverfish and clay farms

Post by DiamondArms »

So I've been hoping to set up a silverfish farm on the server I play on, but I don't know much of the details to enderfish(not mites) beyond the fact that they need an obsidian beacon in the end and eat stone, stone brick and maybe cobble. Everything else I know is just rumors.

Before I jump into this (and potentially destroy my server's or my own endstructures), I'd like some advice on enderfish. Is there anything I should note in particular that might cause the end as we know it?

Of particular note, I'd like to know if the beacon range is a hard cap on enderfish spawning areas or if they can appear outside its range as long as the beacon is within viewing distance. I'm thinking of placing this enderfish farm near an enderman farm to promote productivity of both farms.

Please and Thank you
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FlowerChild
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Re: On Silverfish and clay farms

Post by FlowerChild »

I won't get into too many specifics, but if your enderman farm is made out of stone (likely), then no, don't build a beacon anywhere close to it unless you know exactly how silverfish behave and how to contain them.

Silverfish are basically stone termites in BTW, so I'm sure the other players on your server would not be pleased if you unleashed them upon their mob trap :)
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Rob
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Re: On Silverfish and clay farms

Post by Rob »

Would it be beneficial to just build your ender farm out of wood/sandstone/netherrack/netherbrick?

I know this won't help your current situation without completely rebuilding the farm, but I think you are looking at the situation wrong, and should be think how to make the enderfarm fish proof, instead of how to keep the fish out of the stone-built enderfarm. *Insert cliche holiday inn express joke here.*
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myrkana
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Re: On Silverfish and clay farms

Post by myrkana »

not sure how they work but casn you escape proof your silverfish farm? put something they cannot travel through around it and make the way to it something you can take apart/close(trapdoors?) so htey cannot travel accross but you can?
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Rob
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Re: On Silverfish and clay farms

Post by Rob »

myrkana wrote:not sure how they work but casn you escape proof your silverfish farm? put something they cannot travel through around it and make the way to it something you can take apart/close(trapdoors?) so htey cannot travel accross but you can?
I think the problem is the spawn radius is quite large(from what I gather with FC's post), so to incase the whole setup would need a big area, possibly too far away to keep both the enderfarm and fishfarm running while standing at one or the other.
Last edited by Rob on Thu Apr 03, 2014 12:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
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FlowerChild
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Re: On Silverfish and clay farms

Post by FlowerChild »

Well, it's not *that* large. Problem is, if you don't know how to close them in right, mobs will travel, and accidents may happen.

A single silverfish getting over there would be enough.
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DiamondArms
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Re: On Silverfish and clay farms

Post by DiamondArms »

So I've decided to throw the productive proximity idea out. currently have a wood bridge 250 blocks out, no structure built on it yet.
I did briefly consider trying to have minecart "launchers" to cross gaps and keep the farm isolated, but that one involved minecart "stacking" (in the same space) and was kinda inconsistent with distance and direction of flight.

Current concern is how to keep the silverfish spawns in a certain area. I'd like the farm itself to be safe to walk around and keep loaded without having to camp in a tiny space.
I'll most likely try an airlock design for keeping the little buggers in, but I'm not sure if that'll work. I also need to consider how to keep the endermen out as well.

Maybe I'll build the floors out of half slabs. that might work for restricting spawn areas.

On a side note, I've also imported demonic cows into the end to test and run a much smaller scale enderfish farm. no results yet, but I've only just built it. the entire thing is inside the endmoon, which seems to be containing the silverfish well enough.

I'm a bit nervous about building that beacon. I keep thinking it'll cause silverfish to be able to appear all over the end. I really hope I'm not right.
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DiamondArms
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Re: On Silverfish and clay farms

Post by DiamondArms »

New question: hows does the silverfish spawning work?

I've completed the silverfish farm, but I'm having difficulty getting the silverfish to spawn. is there a minimum distance I need to be from the spawn area? does the beacon simply enable silverfish to spawn in range or does it cause a silverfish to spawn somewhere in range every now and then? Are there any conditions I may have overlooked?

I've got a T3 obsidian beacon and the farm stretches to about 16 blocks away. the only floors with full blocks are the spawn area, which is unlit, the redstone wiring for the stone placer, which is liberally lit every 2-3 blocks, and the flushing area, which is always covered in water. the silverfish are dropped into the flushing area to small drowning zone above a hopper. The main floor is 12 blocks below the spawning area and fully covered in sidings.
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FlowerChild
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Re: On Silverfish and clay farms

Post by FlowerChild »

Well, I'll give you a hint there: the beacon isn't the main spawning mechanic. It's just how you get a few initial silverfish to start your farm.
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DiamondArms
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Re: On Silverfish and clay farms

Post by DiamondArms »

Hmmm. Okay, so instead of a single floor of replacing stone, I'm looking at several floors to encourage silverfish to breed multiple times?

Can silverfish enter stone blocks under a waterflow? I'm thinking of putting several more layers into the farm and turning it into a large flushing area to collect the clay that comes out.

Challenging. I'm not sure I like it, but its interesting.
Equitis1024
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Re: On Silverfish and clay farms

Post by Equitis1024 »

DiamondArms wrote:Hmmm. Okay, so instead of a single floor of replacing stone, I'm looking at several floors to encourage silverfish to breed multiple times?
Multiple floors make sense given the number of silverfish you'll want, but how do they encourage them to breed multiple times? If you're dropping the silverfish down a floor each time they eat stone, how are you repopulating the upper floors?

I don't think there's an established 'solution' for silverfish farms. My own farm, for instance, doesn't bother with killing any of them, although I might retrofit it eventually once it gets large enough.

Silverfish farms are definitely challenging to design, but I really like that they're so different from other farms. It's a nice super-late-game project.
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TheGatesofLogic
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Re: On Silverfish and clay farms

Post by TheGatesofLogic »

Alternatively, if your a crazy bastard like myself you could use Noir's old tileable design which is about 30x more resource expensive than necessary and reiterate it 64 times. Noir was equal parts impressed and horrified at my wastefulness of resources.
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DiamondArms
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Re: On Silverfish and clay farms

Post by DiamondArms »

Equitis1024 wrote:Multiple floors make sense given the number of silverfish you'll want, but how do they encourage them to breed multiple times? If you're dropping the silverfish down a floor each time they eat stone, how are you repopulating the upper floors?
The topmost floor is bare and should be able to serve as a spawning platform for more initial silverfish. the amount of active silverfish should increase as the floors go down. once you reach the bottom, there should be more than a few silverfish egging the layer. This is just my idea atm, though. I'm not sure how viable or efficient it is.
Equitis1024 wrote:I don't think there's an established 'solution' for silverfish farms. My own farm, for instance, doesn't bother with killing any of them, although I might retrofit it eventually once it gets large enough.
while leaving the silverfish to their business is tempting, this farm is also intended to get efficiency scrolls. not killing the silverfish defeats the purpose.
TheGatesofLogic wrote:Alternatively, if your a crazy bastard like myself you could use Noir's old tileable design which is about 30x more resource expensive than necessary and reiterate it 64 times. Noir was equal parts impressed and horrified at my wastefulness of resources.
This intrigues me. which design was it? I might be able to glean a few ideas from it.
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