Baiting pigmen: farming gold in the nether

[The great randomo]

In version 1.0 of minecraft, gold nuggets were added as a mob drop to zombie pigmen, making gold a renewable rescource. This was great, as gold is not at all easy to find, and is required to make redstone eyes, which are used up very fast.
Unfortunately, this requires you to go exploring into the nether to find lots of the creatures to kill, which is one of minecraft's weaker points.
The idea, is a kind of 'bait', for luring in zombie pigmen, that would be used for collecting gold nuggets in larger quantities. Means of killing them could then be used, and, once we have our nether transport system, automated drop collection could be applied.
The whole thing would provide more reason to go to the nether and expand your base there, something that is always good.
For performance reasons, it might have to spawn in the pigmen around it, so it doesn't have to check for miles around to bring in pigmen.

[EvilSheeper]

I would personally love to see something like this, however it is still possible right now by using a bow. But, if possible, I would prefer it to not be a spawner.

[Stormweaver]

forum rules, read them.

[The great randomo]

I wasn't saying it should act like a normal spawner, but something that might increase the chance of pigmen spawning around it. If it had to run a check for any pigmen in loaded chunks nearby, I think here would be a considerable performance cost.

Edit: sorry, I didnt think of that. Would you approve of some form of farming then though?

[Stormweaver]

Edit: sorry, I didnt think of that. Would you approve of some form of farming then though?

I'd approve yeah, but there's already a method of doing it.

- Find large lava lake
- Clear out any small landmasses, or cover them with lava
- build mobtrap.

It's the same theory that lighting up caves has, except it's probably a lot easier. A lot harder to do it neatly, but getting infinite gold should take some effort imo.

[whynocheese]

Pant blood wood trees. Problem solved anything within a range (can someone find that range?) will come for you including Zombified Pigs.

[Xekrom337]

what about snow golems? do they work in the nether?

[elipod]

what about snow golems? do they work in the nether?

Yup, and they kill blazes.