How to protect villagers from zombie sieges ?

[Racooknight]

As per title; my perfectly slabbed, perfectly lit village just got zombie zerg rushed, and I couldn't do much more than fight and die along with my people. Since there is no more iron golems, how can you effectively protect a village ? Should you build traps that kill zombies but not villagers ? Zombies can also spawn inside houses, regardless of the lighting level/slab; they can even spawn inside of blocks, according to the vanilla wiki.

Anyone got an idea that's not also dangerous for villagers ? I really can't see anything.

[Charzy]

A wall and lots of lighting.

[Wibbles]

Aside from walling off your village and lighting up the place like a christmas tree, what I do when I find a new village is wait until night when they all go inside then put dirt blocks in front of the doors so the zombies can't break them down. Then you can make a more permanent solution once they're all safe and sound :)

[Racooknight]

As said in the OP, the village was perfectly lit; also I had a gigantic wall all around it, such as that no creeps could even see the villagers from outside. Is blocking the doors worth it, since zombies can also spawn inside the houses regardless of light level and slabs ?

[FlowerChild]

I've changed the code so that zombie sieges follow the normal monster spawning rules, to make village defense more reasonable. If you check back in the release notes, you'll see it there a few months ago.

[SterlingRed]

Check your roofs. I had a zombie spawn on the roof, drop into the backyard of a house and then consume my precious villagers living there.

[Racooknight]

Do they ? Well, then I'm dumbfounded about how they rampaged through my village. I'm one hundred percent certain it was completely lit, slabbed and walled. I'd make you a few screenshots if I hadn't died and respawned kilometers away ;o
In fact, it was a hole with a wall around it, completely slabbed and lighted up. Pretty hard to miss a spot where mobs could have spawned.

I guess I'll try again and see if it still happens.

Roofs where also made of slabs.

Although they MIGHT have spawned on stairs connecting the roofs. Maybe those weren't sufficiently lighted.

[FlowerChild]

When in doubt, make some ender spectacles. You've likely got valid spawn locations somewhere.

[Racooknight]

I did have ender spectacles and check it all. Might have missed the stairs, though. They were connecting the roofs from above, forming arches. I built them afterwards and thought the light from the houses' walls right under them would be enough, but it seems I was wrong. That's my best bet; I'll check that when I get back to the area.

EDIT : Indeed, the stairs were the culprits. I overestimated vertical lighting propagation length. Sorry for all the fuss, everyone. May this be a lesson to all overconfident players like me !

[EtherealWrath]

If you can spare the materials- separate a few breeding pairs of villagers from the rest; if worst comes to the worst you can repopulate.

[mogulus]

I always leave a foundation one block above ground level and build the house on top of it, so you and villagers must jump up to get inside any house. Zombies cannot seem to jump and break the door at the same time, so every time they jump, the door's durability regenerates. The bastards aren't smart enough to hit the door from ground level, therefore must jump to punch it, therefore invincible door.

Just be sure to place said door from the outside so its flush with the wall or the zombie will be able to jump up into the doorjam and break it from there.

Flower child, thanks for making zombie sieges preventable. I didn't know you had done so. Awesome!