Mob traps: This has been rewarding

[FlowerChild]

I will admit that I often focus on the negative in my posts with regards to the mod, probably much more than I should. However, I just wanted to take a moment to focus on the positive:

I'd like to mention that I'm finding it *extremely* rewarding to be seeing so many people posting about their experiences with mob-traps over the past few days. One of my big goals with this last release was to incentivize the construction of mob-traps as I've always found them to be a fascinating aspect of MC, that was not only lacking in any kind of real in-game reward for their construction, but which the game-creators seemed hell-bent on destroying in a series of moves that were totally perplexing to me.

This was similar to how I felt about redstone when I first started making the mod: a really cool system, but majorly lacking in cool results to motivate people to actually learn how to use it.

Anyways, just to say that it warms my shriveled black heart to see so many people thinking about and enjoying one of my personal favorite aspects of MC, many for the very first time.

There's still a lot of work for me to do before I feel mob-traps are fully integrated into the gameplay of BTW. A lot of balancing and additional incentives for me to include. However, I just wanted to say how pleased I am with the initial results of my efforts. People are building mob-traps and getting a whole whack of interesting gameplay out of them, and that puts a big old smile on my face :)

[Ribky]

Well, I fall into that "for the first time". Not gonna lie, it was a really fun experience. Still needs a bit of tweaking, and a lot of vine traps, but it's getting the job done (Big airborne chess grid fall trap, fun to watch too!)

Thank you for the added gameplay that I may not have ever experienced without the incentive you've put into it.

[SterlingRed]

I'm still planning mine out... Trying to figure out how to manage water flows in hcb for a 126x126 trap that can have additional floors added easily later. But I am enjoying the push to do it, I have delayed making a large mob farm for far too long

[Battlecat]

Well I'm very glad you feel that way! You've certainly given me incentive to build and improve the mob traps I've created! I was very disappointed when mojang started nerfing them but I'm looking forward to starting work on several more!

[Graphite]

Well, unlike what you might expect, I am having some fun thinking up designs for specific mobtraps. The villagers one should be quite entertaining, considering they'll be playing russian roulette whenever they enter a house. And just to make the more classic spawners a bit more entertaining (or is that evil), I was considering turning a surface-based zombie-spawner nearby into a solar-powered deathtrap (I can live with it only working for half the time :P).

To add a bit more challenge for myself, I do intend to make my mobfarms look fancy in the process. For example, below is the passive mobspawner I half-finished last weekend. Which sorta brings me to one point I didn't get to mention in the last thread anymore before Batto locked it. Me finishing my passive mobfarm last weekend was what triggered me to post. It only happened to coincide with this release, which was unfortunate timing of me, so don't think I was 'dissing' on this release. My apologies if it seemed that way. In fact, I quite approve of the item-based enchanting and I'm looking forward to what else you'll do with it.

And now my mobfarm. Probably not the most efficient design ever, but eh... it produces more than I need already:

Spoiler

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[morvelaira]

And now my mobfarm. Probably not the most efficient design ever, but eh... it produces more than I need already:

Spoiler

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I want a schematic for that roof line if nothing else. If I can learn how to integrate Japanese architectural shapes into my buildings... kaos' decoration add-on will go into my jar sooner rather than later.

[Rianaru]

And now my mobfarm. Probably not the most efficient design ever, but eh... it produces more than I need already:

Spoiler

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I want a schematic for that roof line if nothing else. If I can learn how to integrate Japanese architectural shapes into my buildings... kaos' decoration add-on will go into my jar sooner rather than later.

Try fences with half slabs on top for small archways. I can pm you a picture later if you want(just to avoid excessive off-topic-ness in the thread). It works really well for decorating pathways and entrances :)

[FlowerChild]

Which sorta brings me to one point I didn't get to mention in the last thread anymore before Batto locked it. Me finishing my passive mobfarm last weekend was what triggered me to post. It only happened to coincide with this release, which was unfortunate timing of me, so don't think I was 'dissing' on this release. My apologies if it seemed that way. In fact, I quite approve of the item-based enchanting and I'm looking forward to what else you'll do with it.

Yeah, sorry about that whole thing man. It's really hard for me when I spend a lot of time on a release, and feel it's getting harshly criticized right after, before I really have a chance to effectively balance for it. I've also been sleep-deprived for the past week due to some construction going on near my home, so I know I'm not in the best of moods. What you're saying about about having already been working on a mob-trap before actually makes a lot of sense.

One thing to keep in mind also, and which I also did briefly mention in the other thread, is that I do agree with a lot of the points you made: already for this next release I've done an extensive revision to the numbers required of various objects for glue example, to weight them more heavily towards being animal product based. I'll see how that works out, and if necessary even completely remove stuff like rotten-flesh/bones to glue if I feel it's necessary. Buy yeah, it's definitely an ongoing balancing process that I am engaged in here. Mob-farms just became an "official" part of BTW, and that means a hell of a lot of tweaking will have to be done before I'm satisfied with the results.

Anyways, no harm done, so don't sweat it :)

[blithen]

Don't go getting all soft on us now Flower. :|

[DIG_down]

I made my first ever mob farm just the other day, it was a fun experience and already I have a dozen new ideas on how to improve it. Before BTW I didn't even know what a mob farm was, let alone build any, but with the recent pre-update talk of them I had planned to make a few of my own. I've noticed mob farm isn't like any other building, it's not like a house, storeroom or even a factory. Learning how to make them for myself is going to be a very new and rewarding experience for me, which I intend to enjoy the heck out of. I know you didn't invent mob farms themselves but rather reinvented them through BTW, Vanilla players would brag about all their chests full of crap, but now we can boast about all our chests full of dung and crap.
These changes feel like what was done with underwater and SFS armour, while mob farms much like underwater, already existed, you've added some bonuses to exploring them.

In short thanks a lot FC i'm loving all the updates(pre-existing content too ;)) your efforts aren't going unnoticed. Keep it up bud and have a round on me
Cheers!

[FlowerChild]

In short thanks a lot FC i'm loving all the updates(pre-existing content too ;)) your efforts aren't going unnoticed. Keep it up bud and have a round on me
Cheers!

Awwww....shucks. Thanks man :)

I was a little down actually because nobody has really "bought me a beer" since the last release. So, thanks for that. I was considering going out tonight and having a couple, and that just convinced me to do exactly that ;)

[FlowerChild]

Don't go getting all soft on us now Flower. :|

You ain't seen nothing yet:



And yes, I'm still practicing for that one ;)

[Gargantuan_Penguin]

just before this last release I had begun working on my very first mob farm, and I must say it was one of the most rewarding things I have done in minecraft. I am now beginning work on my second, and much larger one. The sheer number of ways the things can be set up boggles my mind.

:edit: Muppets are amazing.

[DIG_down]

I know how that goes man, work your ass off and The Man just keeps asking for more. It helps to have good friends and good beer for such times-so here we are.

edit: muppet songs??? oh shit guys he's snapped run for it!
Also

[jorgebonafe]

And yes, I'm still practicing for that one ;)

Wouldn't that be so appropriate for the return to home release? XD

[FlowerChild]

Wouldn't that be so appropriate for the return to home release? XD

I'm still planning it as the new trailer for the mod, comprised of all the best (and most violent) scenes from my previous vids.

I've got a very strong mental image of it. It's bound to happen one of these days when I'm in a particularly playful mood ;)

I've been considering writing a friend of mine though to put together a background track (free of copyright) for it that I can sing over. If anyone in the community has the skills to pull that off, that would be great too.

[orangeweaver]

This was similar to how I felt about redstone when I first started making the mod: a really cool system, but majorly lacking in cool results to motivate people to actually learn how to use it.

Really glad to hear you are having a similar experience to mob farms right now as BTW is the reason why I have learned redstone at all. I'm not the most skilled with it but I have actively sought to improve since installing BTW.

I built my first tower farm in the weeks before 3.8. I am devising ways to improve my pig farm currently. Trying to build a double blaze spawner. Have plans to return to the end for an endermen culling.

If you are half as effective as improving / expanding upon the idea of the mob farm as you have been with redstone systems / machines. You win Minecraft.

[aJaroOllie]

Now, in my new BTW SSP world, where I plan to explore the tech tree in all its glory, I've got a simple dropper mob farm build, 4 8x8 spawning platforms, mobs walk into water and then face a 30 block drop just to make sure they all die. But, around my base area I have found 3 spawners, one skelly, one zombie and one spider. Is it worth building mob farms around these, rather than a player made one? I have no idea which is better, and although I'm using the skeleton spawner at the moment for mossy cobble production, the other two are pretty much unused at the moment. So how would a spawner mob farm compare to a player made one?

[FlowerChild]

Now, in my new BTW SSP world, where I plan to explore the tech tree in all its glory, I've got a simple dropper mob farm build, 4 8x8 spawning platforms, mobs walk into water and then face a 30 block drop just to make sure they all die. But, around my base area I have found 3 spawners, one skelly, one zombie and one spider. Is it worth building mob farms around these, rather than a player made one? I have no idea which is better, and although I'm using the skeleton spawner at the moment for mossy cobble production, the other two are pretty much unused at the moment. So how would a spawner mob farm compare to a player made one?

One of the probs with spawner-based farms is that you have to be within a very small distance (I think it's 12 blocks or something...I never build them) of the spawner in order for it to work, whereas a regular trap works as long as the chunks in question are loaded.

I personally prefer regular ones for this reason, and because I find them more interesting to build. I really don't think spawner based traps can keep up with the output of a large regular one either, unless you have a LOT of spawners on hand.

But really, this is pretty off-topic. Lots of threads about constructing mob-traps going on now, whereas this one is more about my reaction to that :)

[aJaroOllie]

One of the probs with spawner-based farms is that you have to be within a very small distance (I think it's 12 blocks or something...I never build them) of the spawner in order for it to work, whereas a regular trap works as long as the chunks in question are loaded.

I personally prefer regular ones for this reason, and because I find them more interesting to build. I really don't think spawner based traps can keep up with the output of a large regular one either, unless you have a LOT of spawners on hand.

But really, this is pretty off-topic. Lots of threads about constructing mob-traps going on now, whereas this one is more about my reaction to that :)

Thanks for that information, didn't realise that! And sorry about that :3

[HavokSCOUT]

Of course, I just finished a mob trap that connects to the one I made around a spawner, so I get the best of both worlds ;)

[crazybrit]

I've always liked mob farms. The whole aspect of an automated killing machine is very interesting =]
Thank-you FC for creating more uses for them! Your mod feels like a MC expansion imo

[Thordan Ssoa]

Your mod feels like a MC expansion imo

Slightly off topic, but ^this^. I agree with this.

[MoRmEnGiL]

The sheer number of ways the things can be set up boggles my mind.

This. This is what I love about mobtraps, and the most fun aspect of them imho. ^^

Slightly off topic, I was wondering how could btw play a role in mob trap architecture, i.e. impose design considerations and/or the possibility/incentive to build more than one trap and make them both togglable on off.

It is an interesting thought for sure.

[Tekei]

While on the topic of rewards, I think the most rewarding thing I've ever done in BTW was finishing my sorting system. It still can't split rotten flesh from iron ingots, but other than that it splits all drops from my mobtrap into different chests/water streams.

So, thank you for that one FC! :)