In which i show off my crazy XP Farm (Mobtrap Item sorting!)

[Mrchaim]

So, the release of 3.71 inspired me to have a go at seeing just how all of this Exp-Farming buisness could work.

This was the result: (Warning, spoilered for huge)

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I must apologize that it was all built in creative. (I know, i know, boo, hiss!), but it was more about testing the theory of some of the systems. Every drop save for raw iron bars is sorted (they get lumped with Rotten Meat - they're so rare it simply was not worth diverting them elsewhere). Arrows are blown out and destroyed, but everything else is collected and either processed or stored, ready for the player to use.

Of particular note, how i ended up solving "Sorting" Bows/Armor/Swords -

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They're filtered out from the other drops, and sent into a Stewing Pot for rendering. When the player wants to, they can come by, and flip a switch - causing the Pot and Crucible to vomit their contents out - The pot vomits into/onto the crucible, and the cruicbile sends it's contents into a water stream and storage area to be collected by the player. It's all nicely timed so that while one switch makes both Pot and Crucible tip, the crucible always tips first, ensuring that it collects whatever the Pot had in it when it turns right way up again. (Minecraft physics, how i love you)

The other system i'm pretty pleased with is the EXP shower:

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This is a set of 5 rows of 8 soul sand hoppers, each stacked above the other, with a waterflow conveying the exp ever downwards. When the mechanical power is turned off, the EXP runs through, gradually filling up each of the hoppers, the excess simply being dumped on the ground at the end. Flip the power on, and the EXP starts to shower down from all of the hoppers until it's dumped on the catchment platform for the player.

and by "Shower" i mean that fully charged, those hoppers will take you from 0-46 and a bit (Not counting any other exp that's waiting for you when you get down there - and there's usually a pretty crazy pile if the trap's been running full bore).

So, enjoy and tell me what you think!

A world download is here, if people want to browse it: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/58385392/The%20 ... actory.zip

It should be just fine on a basic install of Better than Wolves

[embirrim]

That's pretty amazing. I've never really been much into mob traps but I have to say that is freaking cool. Can you not put the tipping mechanism on a timer?

[ExpHP]

I'll say, the actual mob spawning system layout is beautifully efficient with the use of Vine Traps. I wish I hadn't just finished building my own lame water-based one in Survival.

I'm actually getting a lot of nice ideas from this. These are probably old, commonly-used designs that I just haven't seen yet because I haven't visited the forum much, but I like your alternating turntable clock and the Light Blocks next to the hoppers, too. You've used just about every feature of item sorting, too (finally, I know an item that bellows can push!).

Unless I'm mistaken... is this piston-less?

[Mrchaim]

That's pretty amazing. I've never really been much into mob traps but I have to say that is freaking cool. Can you not put the tipping mechanism on a timer?

I could. However - i a, suck at timers. B - The actual output of bows/armor etc is sporadic enough that coming up with a working timer would almost certainly be more hassle than it's worth - as it is, the player can just drop past occasionally and do it manually.

I'll say, the actual mob spawning system layout is beautifully efficient with the use of Vine Traps. I wish I hadn't just finished building my own lame water-based one in Survival.

I'm actually getting a lot of nice ideas from this. These are probably old, commonly-used designs that I just haven't seen yet because I haven't visited the forum much, but I like your alternating turntable clock and the Light Blocks next to the hoppers, too. You've used just about every feature of item sorting, too (finally, I know an item that bellows can push!).

Unless I'm mistaken... is this piston-less?

Entirely piston-less, yep. The light blocks next to hoppers is a trick that i cant remember where i got it from, but it's very handy for quickly telling at a glance what's full and what's not.

[Gilberreke]

I fixed your images, none of them were working.

[Mrchaim]

I fixed your images, none of them were working.

Blast, i thought i'd fixed that. Thank you!

[ExpHP]

I could. However - i a, suck at timers. B - The actual output of bows/armor etc is sporadic enough that coming up with a working timer would almost certainly be more hassle than it's worth - as it is, the player can just drop past occasionally and do it manually.

My almost-solution:

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"Almost-solution" because the hopper sometimes ejects items into the cauldron while it's tipped, causing any items that land on it immediately after the tip to go straight through to the crucible.

This could probably be solved by raising the hopper up one block, though.

Edit: Fixed.

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But it also appears to need a pulse extender to keep the signal on long enough to guarantee that the cauldron flips. With all the areas that redstone can't safely be placed, seems like too much effort.

[Thalarctia]

This is one magnificent build! Had a look around, testing your golden shower, beautiful! Pity about creative, but with enough resources, time and hoppers on the ground beneath to collect your crap when you fall down and die during construction... :)

[Mrchaim]

This is one magnificent build! Had a look around, testing your golden shower, beautiful! Pity about creative, but with enough resources, time and hoppers on the ground beneath to collect your crap when you fall down and die during construction... :)

Aye. Creative was more "Let me build this fast and actually make sure everything works". Having done it, i'm seriously thinking about a game where the goal is to rebuild this, 110% legit.

God i'll fall to my death so many times. XD

Thanks for all the compliments guys! It's appreciated!

[Prof_Ion]

Not only must I say "This is just to cool man great work!! Love the pics too!!"
I would also like to ask if you dont mind. What texture pack are you using I have never seen this one before, and I would like to [if possible] use it sometime in the future :)
agian good work!!

[StormBeforeDawn]

That is a good farm there. I usually don't kill with a fall, because it doesn't kill all, but yours seems to have a higher yield then ones I have made in the past due to the mobs being processed faster. Very nice build.

[Gargantuan_Penguin]

very nice, very nice indeed. I like your gear box set ups. your sorting system. all very nice.

[darahalian]

Man, this is just beautiful. I love it!

I really like the XP shower system, and I am quite impressed with the output this thing gets! I will probably use your spawning floor design.

That is a good farm there. I usually don't kill with a fall, because it doesn't kill all, but yours seems to have a higher yield then ones I have made in the past due to the mobs being processed faster. Very nice build.

If you download the world, you'll see that the fall only kills some of the mobs (as they are landing in flowing water), and saws kill the rest. The amount killed by the fall definitely reduces the potential for bottlenecking at the saw though.

[FlowerChild]

Big thumbs-up on this one man. Very cool. I have something similar in my own world, but given that I've expanded on it over time as I've added new features to the mod, its layout is much more all over the place than yours ;)

[agentwiggles]

This is awesome, I've wanted to build a mob trap since before the Halloween release but for some reason never finished digging out the room. Since that world went belly up, I haven't given it another go - but this one's pretty damn inspiring, and could give me a project to at least get started while I wait for my hemp to grow.

Can you attempt to give a more detailed explanation of the filtration system? I'm playing with the world download now, but I'm having trouble figuring out what's going on without tearing things apart.

EDIT: Also, any particular reason you chose not to collect arrows?

Second Edit: I've gotten a pretty good idea of whats going on now, so don't feel obligated to explain it in too much detail

[Mrchaim]

Thanks for all the commentary guys - Especially from FC!

I must admit, the spawning floor design was a bit of a happy accident - i knew i wanted to have spiders spawning, and i knew i wanted to avoid ender men, so 2 by X Floors with 2-wide gaps seemed like the way to go. One note i will make: originally i had so many floors that mobs were actually hit them and left loot on the floors. Oops. (This no longer happens). Probably also means the trap can be shortened in height as to not be quite so monolithic. If you wanted to increase the traps output volume, what i'd probalby do is attach 3 more spawning towers to the outside of the current one, and have them feed their EXP/Drops into the main tower and down into the filtering mechanisms

Here's an updated version, by the by - I've made a couple of changes to it. One, i've changed where the EXP is filtered to prevent the orbs from falling into the arrow-trap and being destroyed if the player walks nearby. Two, i've made changes for the existence of 3.72, allowing you to melt down bows, filter out the string and sticks, and then melt down everything else in the crucible.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/58385392/The%20 ... actory.zip

As to how the filtering system actually works -

First off, Gunpowder and string is filtered out from the drop flow. These are then split up and sent into a storage stream for each flow. Everything else is channled into the arrow destroying stream, which uses a row of bellows going off in a sine wave to dump the arrows. After that, the filters just break everything down into the right storage areas.

As to why I'm destroying the arrows - at the point you can build this monstrosity (in a legit game), arrows are mostly unneeded. Once you've actually got this up and running, the EXP out is so high that you should easily be able to create a Power "X"/Infinity I Composite Bow. And do this _repeatedly_. So there's just no reason to keep the arrows. If you did want to keep some of the arrows, I'd fiddle with how the sifter is setup so that any arrows dropping into say, the last 3 slots are collected in Stewing Pots for you to grab.

[Flesh_Engine]

Care to post up a pic of the inside of the tower so we can take a gander at your spawnareas?

(sounds rather dirty :p)

[Thalarctia]

Care to post up a pic of the inside of the tower so we can take a gander at your spawnareas?

(sounds rather dirty :p)

There's a link to the world download - Even better than screenshots =)

[Mrchaim]

Care to post up a pic of the inside of the tower so we can take a gander at your spawnareas?

(sounds rather dirty :p)

Just a tad.

Here's a shot of one of the floors. Obviously, you could recreate the effect with signs (I think? do they still work like that?) but i prefer to use the legtimate toys the mod provides us.

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Here's a shot of the redisgned Bow & Iron "Filter" by the way. It's probably a little over done, but it does exactly what i want - filters everything down into a nice, easily digested form! (As everyone knows, Steve's actual diet is Iron, String, Sticks and souls. Honest)

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For a final bonus shot: Exp Shower!

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I've updated the download link in both posts to the most recent version of this. Just some minor tweaks to smooth out the Bow/Iron filtering, and to add in a library next to the exp farm.

[Thalarctia]

Not only must I say "This is just to cool man great work!! Love the pics too!!"
I would also like to ask if you dont mind. What texture pack are you using I have never seen this one before, and I would like to [if possible] use it sometime in the future :)
agian good work!!

Since noone appeared to answer here, if I am not mistaken it's Sphax PureBDCraft, with a BTW addition that I personally have been looking for but not managed to find an updated version of *hint hint* :)

[Mrchaim]

Not only must I say "This is just to cool man great work!! Love the pics too!!"
I would also like to ask if you dont mind. What texture pack are you using I have never seen this one before, and I would like to [if possible] use it sometime in the future :)
agian good work!!

Since noone appeared to answer here, if I am not mistaken it's Sphax PureBDCraft, with a BTW addition that I personally have been looking for but not managed to find an updated version of *hint hint* :)

I've not yet seen an updated version. Also, even if i'd updated it myself (Which i am thinking of doing), it'd be blatantly wrong to redistribute that. But yes, it's Sphax PureBDcraft.

[Thalarctia]

I've not yet seen an updated version. Also, even if i'd updated it myself (Which i am thinking of doing), it'd be blatantly wrong to redistribute that. But yes, it's Sphax PureBDcraft.

As far as I know, there should not be anything wrong in distributing only the files related to BTW since they would be your own original work (mostly...), but asking permission has never harmed anyone ofc. Pity that the "official" btw addon avaliable via the customizer is so outdated though.

[Flesh_Engine]

Hmm, your spawnpads are 2*2 => doesn't this allow spiders to spawn which clog up your trap?

[Mrchaim]

Hmm, your spawnpads are 2*2 => doesn't this allow spiders to spawn which clog up your trap?

If by clog up you mean "They hurtle to the ground and either die or are mulched by the saws and turned into delicious EXP/Silk", sure.

[Vail]

Not only must I say "This is just to cool man great work!! Love the pics too!!"
I would also like to ask if you dont mind. What texture pack are you using I have never seen this one before, and I would like to [if possible] use it sometime in the future :)
agian good work!!

Since noone appeared to answer here, if I am not mistaken it's Sphax PureBDCraft, with a BTW addition that I personally have been looking for but not managed to find an updated version of *hint hint* :)

I've not yet seen an updated version. Also, even if i'd updated it myself (Which i am thinking of doing), it'd be blatantly wrong to redistribute that. But yes, it's Sphax PureBDcraft.

Something like this: http://bdcraft.net/forum/better-wolves-360 , perhaps?

:)