Lookin' Nice

The zombie grinder is coming together very nicely. I had to change the design a little bit so that the zombies wouldn't be blocking each other from getting into the killing chamber, and it started being really effective.

The redstone mechanisms work as intended. I've had to move them once or twice in order to accommodate for changes, but it's really not that complex. I have a personal rule where all redstone must be done on wooden planks.

Silly gravel, staying afloat when it is supposed to fall.

It became time to carve out the shape of the grinder room. I had an idea for the room's floor, but was undecided for the walls.

To the right of the spot where zombies are processed is an alcove for the anvil. I found out you could place an anvil facing forward or sideways. I also came up with a tentative design for the alcove.

The beginning of the redstone part of the room. This dispenses stone swords, and will eventually have an indicator when I'm low.

That has been updated, as we will see momentarily. I began working on the walls and door to the enchantery. I think it looks pretty good.

A couple more miscellaneous pictures to bring you all more up to date.

The floor currently has concentric circles, but the wiring for the crusher kind of interferes, so I think I'm going to change the floor pattern.

Mob Spawner Madness

The world of spawners and XP grinders beckoned to me today. The spider dungeon I was working on previously had caused me a bunch of trouble, and it didn't seem like I would be figuring it out anytime soon. A little bit further away, in another cave system, was a zombie dungeon. In my previous map my main source of XP was a zombie spawner so it would be the easiest for me to construct.

This time I wanted to take a more high-tech but simpler route of making an XP farm by implementing a zombie crusher. It uses pistons to suffocate the mobs. All that I really needed was an idea for how to do the redstone. This video shows how the redstone was to be done. It was fairly simple to construct and works just as intended.

Perhaps the only thing I don't like about the redstone is how it's operated using a lever instead of a more convenient button. Until I get used to it I may end up botching a lot of zombie crushing.

Water streams and redstone in place, I was able to get a crude XP grinder working. Due to the variable armor points zombies appear to have, it's usually not a one hit kill. I will need to add a dispenser that outputs stone swords in order to get one hit kills.

The finished results, for now:

It is a really good start, but there is more I wish to do with it. I think I laid out my plans for the spider in another post but I've modified them slightly. They are as such:

• The main chamber, which has the killing spot, anvil, and a crafting table, will be roughly round. Not terribly large, but hopefully not small enough to feel cramped. A ladder will lead to the surface.
• At the surface will be a sort of little outpost with windows and a door. For the sake of convenience I will point the entrance toward my current main home.
• Connected to the main chamber will be a room for enchanting stuff. I will keep a stack or two of iron ingots here for making and repairing tools.
• I need to modify the spot where zombies gather because right now only one is able to get into the killing area. Perhaps I need to lower it and the redstone a few blocks.
• The spawning chamber will be made to look better, and controlled by redstone. When I hit a lever, pistons will hide jack-o'lanterns and cause dispensers to release water. Turning off the spawning chamber will light up the room and cause the water to be retracted.
• A dispenser/hopper/double chest system will be used to provide a steady supply of stone swords. I may also include a comparator and torch system to alert me when the chest is almost out of swords.

In a mineshaft I explored some time back I found a skeleton spawner and a cave spider spawner just a few blocks apart from each other. I'm thinking of using the piston crushing technique to make an automatic grinder. Water and gravity will push the skeletons and spiders to a central collection chamber. Every 20 minutes (controlled by how items despawn after 5 minutes when dropped) the pistons will activate, crushing the mobs. Their drops will fall into a dispenser beneath them.

This is all very nerdy and exciting for me.

Yay, Progress!

I recorded most of the work I've done recently, so eventually I'll post a really crummy video of my progress to both here and my YouTube channel.

More details have been put on the villager tower. The walls of all the rooms are now completed, making 17 rooms total on the four levels. Half slabs have been added on the rims of the ceiling and fences put in place so any villagers walking on them don't fall to an untimely demise.

I finally got around to cobbling up the doors and trapping villagers inside the buildings. That way they shouldn't be killed by wandering zombies. Although I am concerned there might be incidents involving mobs spawning inside the houses - maybe I should light them up. One villager, a butcher, refused to find a house. Let's see how many nights it lasts out in the open.

Another Iron Golem spawned, which is pleasing.

Now I am putting in the jack-o-lantern lighting.

Still need to do something with those lighting glitches.

Underneath the village are some caves, but I noticed the minimap indicating a big crowd of mobs huddled in one place. I dug a little to see what all the fuss was about, and I'm pretty sure there is a zombie dungeon not too far down. If the endless stream of zombies is indicative of anything...

This might very well be a godsend for me. If there is in fact a spawner down there, I can speed up the process of making the village greatly by putting some water in place and making a piston-based crusher. Will need to check it out.

MOAR CAVES

I have never been so hooked on exploring caves and soaking up what resources I find in them. Today I log yet another post on my adventures.

As previously mentioned, this world is rather bad for getting diamonds. Nonetheless, there were a couple patches of them.

After fighting a zombie wearing a chainmail chestplate, I ended up getting it as a drop!

At one spot there was a horde of zombies itching to get at me. A couple Creepers helped whittle away at them until I finally dove in and took out what remained.

Much more also happened while I was in the cave systems. I promise this will be the last time I make a caving post until my resources run low, which I imagine won't be for several weeks or months. I have enough iron to keep myself armed and prepared for a long time. Here's the net collection of this mining trip:

It was nowhere near as much as the last time but it's a very handy addition to my current reserves. I now have a stack of iron blocks - I'm that rich.

After the conclusion of one night, I observed a Creeper stuck in a small hole next to my storage room. I went to kill it, and didn't quite manage to get away in time.

That kind of sucked. I filled it in with gravel to make it secure as I fixed it up, then repaired it and now things are good as new. I also placed a torch where the mobs kept getting stuck, so maybe now the problem won't come up again.

In my next post I should be returning to working on either the village or an XP grinder. Depending on how things go, I may not even need to use the spider dungeon as an XP farm - I could simply configured my mob grinder to let me one-hit-kill mobs. This in combination with my anvil would make it possible for me to get high-level enchants on my iron armor and tools.

Caves, Dungeons, and Mob Traps

On my friend's private server and my single player map, I have been doing more cave clearing. It's a bit of a diversion from working on the village tower but it's fun and it's letting me stock up on resources for the project.

Friend's Private Server
A couple skeletons were shooting at me, when suddenly war broke out between them. I went down another tunnel to let them duke it out, and when I returned the victorious skeleton was still shooting where its opponent once was. Rather trigger happy, apparently.

Later on, found a proper skeleton dungeon!

Not more than a few minutes later in another tunnel there was some cobblestone protruding under a pile of gravel. It wasn't place there by me. Moments later I noticed some zombies and discovered it was a dungeon!

Those were some good times going through the caves. Eventually I'll need to get back in and collect the ores. It will leave me well-set for a while.

Single Player World
I've been hurting for mob drops ever since the map began so finally I've put together a cheap and ugly mob trap by my house. At the bottom of the 20-something block fall is a hopper-chest pair which collect the deceased mobs' remains.

A picture from the top early in the construction.

And now a montage of pictures from various angles.

At the bottom where the hopper and chest are, I built a small chamber with an iron door to protect me. Here I can idle for as long as I want while the trap brings in the goodies.

After a little while of running the trap I realized it was possible spiders were spawning in it. Since they are 2x1 in shape it is possible they might clog the tunnel to the bottom, rendering the whole setup useless. My suspicions were confirmed when I pillared near the spawning chamber.

Those red dots are almost all spiders, locked on me and hoping to pounce at the first chance. I went around to the top and broke in, but ended up falling right into the midst of them. Somehow my armor was able to keep me alive while I battled almost 20 spiders at the same time!

I lived with half a heart remaining! That was a bit terrifying.

While recovering I placed half slabs at every other block on the spawning pads. Now there is no way a spider can spawn, leaving me with zombies, skeletons, and Creepers. It's very satisfying to hear their death sounds as they hit the bottom of the long fall.

Clipping Enderman!

In order for a mob trap to run efficiently, you need to light up all the caves within 128 blocks of the central spawning point. As you do that, the game will have fewer and fewer dark areas to place a monster. Eventually you just have the mob trap itself, making it very efficient and fast. While on a trip to light up some caves I came across a zombie dungeon.

At this point I've found all three types of dungeons, plus a cave spider spawner. I didn't actually have it as a goal to find all three types of dungeons, but somehow I've done it, and it's quite pleasing. As for the mob trap, I might add a second layer in order to make it faster.