Mob Farm Help

[Zeeblosity]

Hey, so I believe that I am ready to start the construction of my mob farm, I just have no idea where to begin. I was recently watching Mumbo Jumbo on Youtube and he made a sky spawner about 80 or so blocks in the air, then an AFK platform about 128 blocks up, or whatever the number for no mob spawns is, to prevent cave spawning. So I have a couple questions, would it be better to make a similar sky spawner, to avoid the caves? As I easily get lost and frankly, they scare the crap out of me with hardcore darkness and all. Would it be better to dig a hole in the ground and have the killing platform underground, like JeetTol on Youtube? An above ground spawner and just light up caves? So yeah, any advice or help would be much appreciated.

[chaoticneutral]

Sky farms are problematic, since they need either pistons or screw pumps to be efficient, and both use lots of iron, but you need a mob farm to get enough iron. And at the time you got enough resources for that, you probably lighted most caves around your base, cancelling any advantage they had.

So I build the spawning room just aboveground, near my base: a room with a 2m large water channel in the middle, coming from the nearest pond/lake and leading to the grinder (usually a saw, but you can also dig a 25m pit if you want to kill by fall damage).

For room size, 18x18x2 works okay for me. Making it too large allows the mobs to waste more time walking instead of dying - if you need a faster spawning, you can add more floors.

Spiders are problematic, but a well-placed chicken makes some wonders. You can also put some pigs and cats to make zombies and creepers go faster to the grinder.

[Sandrew]

The sky and afk platforms are based on vanilla exploits using the 'sphere of influence' in which mobs can spawn. If I recall correctly, BTW uses a cylinder centered on the player in which mobs can spawn to discourage the use of sky mobtraps. You'll have to light up caves anyway.

As for your question, I personally start my mobtraps by building a feeding chamber that uses water to push mobs into a kill chamber. Mobs drop from the platforms into the chamber which floats them to a central drainage pit. After that I build spawning platforms on top of it until I'm satisfied with the height of the trap. Kill chamber usually comes last for me.

Two meta-game pointers: traps surrounded by air blocks are more efficient than those surrounded by stone (so build up, not down) and lighting up your caves makes a ton of difference in output. I have a trap with seven or eight levels, fifteen 3*3 platforms each and I have more iron and experience than I know what to do with.

[Zeeblosity]

Alright, thanks for the help. I'll see what I can't get going.

[Zeeblosity]

I have tried building what you described, but I'm having trouble still. Do you have any pictures?

[Rawny]

Skip through Ko-TekNik's video here
http://youtu.be/gDg6l7hygos
I said 'skip through' cus he speaks French. I made one of these based on what he did and it works well. Good and cheap-ish too. Once its built, find something else to build nearby and occasional return for spoils.

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Basically a 3x3 pit deep(or high) enough for all mobs to die from fall damage. At the top start adding 9x9x3high platforms with the 3x3 hole in the middle. Cover the hole with vine traps. All mobs can spawn and occasionally fall and die. A series of pistons push items in hoppers. Need pre-end dimension tech.

[Daisjun]

We have a mobtrap similar to what Sandrew is describing in our world:

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As you can see, there are 4 3x3 platforms surrounded by vine traps. The mobs spawn on the platforms (the torches are just there so you can see, the whole trap is dark) and then drop down into the water. They are fed down into the center where they drop down into the level below or in the case of the last level, into the killing floor:

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The killing floor is then pretty simple, the mobs drop from the top down to the saws where the mobs are pushed into, items are pushed beneath the saws into a collection point below.

You only need basic tech and materials and the whole trap is completely passive. Put in as many levels as you can be bothered making. It kills all mobs except endermen. Our one is built underground but as others have said, building above ground has its advantages, particularly if you want a substantial sorting system, although you will have to find a high water source. I'll leave it up to you to work out how to make it more efficient.

[Sandrew]

I have tried building what you described, but I'm having trouble still. Do you have any pictures?

I actually just recently reopened the top of my mobtrap to add the final two levels so I can show you what I did. I uploaded some images in an album here. It's a bit of water trickery but I'm pretty sure it's one of the fastest ways to funnel mobs to their doom.

[Zeeblosity]

Thanks for that guys. I've been doing some testing and playing with it, and I think I've got one that will work. So, thanks again :)

[EtherealWrath]

My current design is basically a giant funnel- with the spawn floors being a 3x3 chessboard design.
The stairs down each side have a row of half slabs every layer to stop mobs climbing back up.
Killing mechanism is a flat 3 block wide flow into 6 saws, with the delicious body bits dropping directly into the water channel below.

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+small footprint- you can fit a lot in around it.
+looks kinda cool (I guess- depends on preference)
-spiders have the potential to jam around the bottom of the funnel
-can be hard to get the initial pattern right
-somewhat expensive killing mechanism

I have tinkered with drop traps/sky grinders in the past (Battosey's old videos show a really awesome design).

+higher output due to the near instant killing
+very cheap killing mechanism that doesn't jam up
+potentially more vertical height to work with (sorting mechanism)
-large 'floating' structure in the sky (can be hard to make it look good).
-large footprint/drop collection area.

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I guess what was mentioned above with the sphere/cylinder of influence means a sky grinder is viable without being stuck up there with it.