I have a "caveless" seed request

[Punnikin]

I've spawned a number of worlds using random seeds and what I've found is that every one of them is simply lousy with underground caves and ravines. It's like the devs are actively trying to discourage mob traps by making it impossible to shut down the underground spawns. Has anyone got a seed that is relatively cave free? Or at the very least, has a spot that doesn't look like Steve is living on a dirt sponge? I'd kill for the option to turn off the chasms on world generation but until then, a lucky seed will do.

[Thalarctia]

One option that you could consider is building a large part of your mobtrap underground, so that in digging it out, you will uncover most of the troublesome caves and be able to light them up.

[Punnikin]

I considered that, and even though it would mean a massive undertaking I may still do that. I considered asking FC if there would be a way to change terrain generation and maybe make it an option but I really don't want to ask him anything. He's busy enough as it is, and I really don't feel the need to get banned because of any number of factors that are used to decide that sort of thing.

[Sandrew]

Mine a 240 * 240 grid with tunnels 20 blocks apart around the center of your mob-trap to find all caves. An efficient mob-trap is a large undertaking and will consume alot of time and material. Just go down there with ten stacks of torches at a time. I spent several hours placing torches and have only lit up maybe a quarter of the caves underneath my spawner, probably less. The upside is that all the caving brings in a ton of resources.

[diegokilla]

With build height being raised, you can now find a nice spot out over the ocean, (or any place really, that isn't a tall mountain) and build a floating one. It may not be the most beautiful thing in the world, but it works pretty well. I had planned to turn mine into a floating island with vines and such hanging from it.

[Punnikin]

I did find a world that spawned me in the ocean, the closest land was a 7x7 or so mycelium island with 2 mooshrooms on it. I had to swim for almost 3 minutes to find a tree. That might not be a bad place to start assuming I can get cows and such to spawn there.

[Ribky]

That mushroom biome would be a bad place to build a mob trap over though, you won't get any natural mob spawning. Build it out to sea a ways and that mushroom biome will fix any above ground spawning issues though.

[Punnikin]

I should clarify a bit... I had to swim for 30 minutes, not 3, and I'm already mining under the island for the materials to build the trap. I love the fact that I have an endless food supply too, thanks to those poor ugly mooshrooms. Soon I'll use a boat to find the edge of the biome and make this work.

[Husbag3]

If you find a large ocean and build your mob trap up near the old sky limit. You don't have to load the higher chunks and most of the ground area is spawn proof.

[Punnikin]

I'm considering building my mob trap below the ocean. since there won't be any spawn above besides squids that will help eliminate my need to light up caves as Thalarctia recommended. I like to live underground and I already know how to make a windmill work underground so I can advance to water wheels quickly and then set up shop in the caverns.

[aJaroOllie]

Mine a 240 * 240 grid with tunnels 20 blocks apart around the center of your mob-trap to find all caves. An efficient mob-trap is a large undertaking and will consume alot of time and material. Just go down there with ten stacks of torches at a time. I spent several hours placing torches and have only lit up maybe a quarter of the caves underneath my spawner, probably less. The upside is that all the caving brings in a ton of resources.

Ooh, is that how large an area can affect a mob trap? Man, that's a lot. At what y levels should I dig these tunnels too? Wanna try and make this as effective as possible :3

[Thalarctia]

Ooh, is that how large an area can affect a mob trap? Man, that's a lot. At what y levels should I dig these tunnels too? Wanna try and make this as effective as possible :3

Mobs can spawn in the interval of [24:124] blocks of the player as far as I know, so if you want to be really effective, you should map out where you usually spend your time, and then remove all spawnable areas within those 124 blocks of where you happen to be, except for the mobspawner itself.

Regarding the Y-levels, digging at y=40 and y=20 seems to work well. A mod like Rei's minimap can help, but since the cave mapping feature there is based on light, most dark caves won't show up. Sound clues from zombies and the ambient minecraft "Ooo, theres a big dark room nearby" train-sounds are your best bet, so keep the volume audible. Positional sound works pretty well for zombies too.

[aJaroOllie]

Mobs can spawn in the interval of [24:124] blocks of the player as far as I know, so if you want to be really effective, you should map out where you usually spend your time, and then remove all spawnable areas within those 124 blocks of where you happen to be, except for the mobspawner itself.

Regarding the Y-levels, digging at y=40 and y=20 seems to work well. A mod like Rei's minimap can help, but since the cave mapping feature there is based on light, most dark caves won't show up. Sound clues from zombies and the ambient minecraft "Ooo, theres a big dark room nearby" train-sounds are your best bet, so keep the volume audible. Positional sound works pretty well for zombies too.

Thanks, I've lit up the overworld all around it now, which looks pretty nice when stood at the top of it. Starting the process of looking for caves now, it's been really fun actually. Thanks for the advice :)