Mob Traps

[whitechaos35]

I've never really found spiders in my traps to be much of an issue, and I've never built to avoid them, so I'm not sure why people build traps to avoid them so often.

It's not that spiders are issues. As you said, they are quite easy to design for. But as others have commented, by removing spiders the other mob drops increase.

[jkievlan]

Just a small nitpick on the checkerboard pattern: why are you guys wasting half your floor space on the vine traps? You can have much larger spawning pads and smaller vine traps and still get just about every mob to drop down, which greatly reduces the number of levels you need for an efficient mob trap. I like to have 1-block-wide strips between stone strips two or three blocks wide, which works out pretty well.

[erikdk321]

I make the gap 2 blocks for the spiderps

[whitechaos35]

My gaps are 3x3, because spiders rarely fall down 2x2 gaps. I always have the 3x3 gaps, because even if I use pillars to prevent spider spawns, I can remove the pillars to allow spiders to spawn again and they'll still fall down because my traps are large enough.

[erikdk321]

Well, if you are using strips im pretty sure they fall down, but if you are using the checkerboardpatteren then you probably need more space.

[ExpHP]

I personally use a hash shape with 2-wide lanes

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I used this layout because I liked the aesthetic. Though I will openly admit that it still uses many more vines than are probably necessary (49% of it is vines!). Had my original plans not involved fitting the thing inside a chunk, I'm sure I could've made the whole thing quite a bit wider with no ill effects (the same pattern would be 64% spawning spaces if I made it 4 tiles wider).

[milkmandan]

You don't need 100% coverage with vines. I usually start with 1 trap per 2-4 blocks (I keep it simple with 1 wide beams with 2 gap on either side). You just need enough for them to think there's a way to walk. I have not tested output vs 100% coverage... but when you're first starting out, vine traps are usually the limiting factor for adding levels. If you can double or triple the number of levels...

[Six]

You don't need 100% coverage with vines. I usually start with 1 trap per 2-4 blocks (I keep it simple with 1 wide beams with 2 gap on either side). You just need enough for them to think there's a way to walk. I have not tested output vs 100% coverage... but when you're first starting out, vine traps are usually the limiting factor for adding levels. If you can double or triple the number of levels...

I've actually though about this a fair bit, but never researched into it in much depth. Once you have most of the caves in an area lit up, the main limiting factor in the rate of a trap becomes how quickly you can get mobs to fall down and then kill them. I'm not entirely sure how mob pathing works, but in theory what you want to optimize is (after they spawn on a solid block) the proportion of points they will try to walk to which will take them over a vine trap. After that the limiting factor becomes how quickly you can kill them once they reach the bottom, so that they are removed from the mobcap number.

Although in saying this once you have caves lit up, almost any mobtrap will output far more than enough for most needs. I just like thinking about a theoretical 'best'.

[VegasGoat]

My first trap was a 6 level 12x12 checkerboard trap that really wasn't producing. I'd only get a few mobs during the day.

Just yesterday I expanded that to be 6 level 18x18 using a plus sign pattern (spawning pads 8x8 with vines in between like a plus shape). It actually uses less vines than the 12x12, but a heck of a lot more stone. I get mobs dropping all day long now, they even have to queue up for the saws. The output slows a bit at night as the surrounding area becomes valid spawn sites, so I'll have to work on lighting up the nearby landscape.

It could just be the fact that I now have 4 times the spawning area (260 per level instead of 72), but it seems to work much better than the checkerboard style and seems like more than 4 times the number of mobs dropping.

[Rob]

Just yesterday I expanded that to be 6 level 18x18 using a plus sign pattern (spawning pads 8x8 with vines in between like a plus shape). It actually uses less vines than the 12x12, but a heck of a lot more stone.

Could you post a picture of this layout, or a simple diagram? I don't know if it's because of the way you described it, or just the way my brain is working tonight, but I can't visualize your floor plan. Does it allow spider spawns?

[TheGuy]

He just means put a 8x8 platform in each corner of a 18x18 room and you end up with a 2 wide cross in the middle.

[Rob]

Oh. That isn't remotely close to the layouts I was thinking up. lol

[VegasGoat]

Could you post a picture of this layout, or a simple diagram? I don't know if it's because of the way you described it, or just the way my brain is working tonight, but I can't visualize your floor plan. Does it allow spider spawns?

I forgot to take a screenshot last night, but thanks to TheGuy for describing it better. It looks like this but with vine traps instead of water:



It does allow spiders though, and it's a pain to prevent them (needs 9 pillars on each platform). I'm still working on the right kill area setup to handle them. Saws on the ceiling isn't quite doing it.

[Mud]

@VegasGoat: The traditional solution is for all your mobs to drop down into flowing water that ends in a 2-high wall of saws. It's an effective way to kill spiders along with zombies, creepers, and skeletons.

[erikdk321]

Vegas, isn't that design extremely inefficient since alot of mobs will never find their way to the vinetraps and die.

[jkievlan]

Vegas, isn't that design extremely inefficient since alot of mobs will never find their way to the vinetraps and die.

It's a bit inefficient but no, most mobs will in fact die in that design. I've played around with numerous designs, including one similar to Vegas's, and the levels empty pretty quickly in that setup. Remember, mobs move around a lot. In fact, the checkerboard designs (and worse, the designs that have *more* vine traps than spawn blocks) are hugely inefficient because mobs will only spawn on the solid blocks.

[VegasGoat]

What jkievlan said. I've observed mobs in the wild a little bit, and they seem to pick a direction and move in a straight line for a bit (at least 8 blocks), then stop and do it again. So maybe 50% of the mobs don't fall down the first time they move and take a little longer, but I think I'm getting more spawns because of having more blocks.

I know it's not the most efficient, but I like it because it's easy to build and uses exactly 64 vine traps per level.

[Rob]

Wouldn't a more efficient layout include a border of vine traps to catch mobs that walk to the walls?

[abculatter_2]

I'm rather surprised that endermen-compatible overworld mobtraps aren't more common... You can use four pistons, a turn table, open gates and any solid block to make an Enderman-compatible push source, and plus there's always drop traps. If nothing else, this would at least ensure that you're ready for activating the end portal without having to fight the damn things yourself.

I think there's also ways to prevent the endermen from teleporting off the conveyor belt, I remember hearing that they can't teleport off half slabs. That may be wrong, though. If there's any other ways to prevent them from teleporting, please enlighten me.

[dawnraider]

Overworld traps that support endermen are way more effort than they're worth. Endermen won't drop endstone in the overworld, and they spawn rarely enough that you won't get as much drops as you would in the end, not to mention the pain it is to make traps enderman compatible. It is generally just not worth it, and it is better to make an end-based one, which will have FAR higher output.

[FlowerChild]

Overworld traps that support endermen are way more effort than they're worth. Endermen won't drop endstone in the overworld, and they spawn rarely enough that you won't get as much drops as you would in the end, not to mention the pain it is to make traps enderman compatible. It is generally just not worth it, and it is better to make an end-based one, which will have FAR higher output.

Yup, which is entirely by design given there wouldn't be much reason to build in the end otherwise.

[TheGatesofLogic]

didn't stop some of the folks on Edolas :P, albiet it WAS before all of the ore and redstone changes

[VegasGoat]

I find that a fall trap that supports endermen is good for collecting that first set of pearls to reach the end the first time. It's a bit annoying to go around checking all the hoppers at the landing site, but IMO it's much less painful than actually hunting endermen.

[myrkana]

I find that a fall trap that supports endermen is good for collecting that first set of pearls to reach the end the first time. It's a bit annoying to go around checking all the hoppers at the landing site, but IMO it's much less painful than actually hunting endermen.

but its easy to get those pearls o.O just make a two high hut thing with no sides and look at endermen each night, they cant get under the hut but you can so you can attack them from underneath the hut. I'd think getting the pearls fro mthe trap would take much longer than the few nights it takes to kill the 12 or so endermen you need

[VegasGoat]

but its easy to get those pearls o.O just make a two high hut thing with no sides and look at endermen each night, they cant get under the hut but you can so you can attack them from underneath the hut. I'd think getting the pearls fro mthe trap would take much longer than the few nights it takes to kill the 12 or so endermen you need

I tried this, but it didn't really work for me. The main reasons are that you can only do it at night, so there's a lot of other danger around, and the endermen warp away as they die so it's a pain to find the drops. I died at least 3 times in various attempts. It's much safer for me using a trap and working on other projects while waiting. Once I have enough pearls and iron I can convert that trap into a normal one with water & saws and no endermen.