FlowerChild wrote:I think we'll get a good idea of where they're going with mob-traps as the AI guy's work starts having more of an impact on the game. I fully expect vanilla traps to break completely as a result of the changes he'll be making. Really, all that's needed is for mobs to avoid water and damaging falls, and mob traps are no more.
Technically, the community already has a way of circumventing mob AI - the piston-based mob traps. While I'm not exactly happy at the jump in complexity (square pads mobs fall off, vs a tower of pistons hooked up to 'guide' mobs down) or the steep difference in resources, the sense of achievement from building the newer generation of mob traps can make it worth it.
I'll admit; if mojang manage to make changes to the AI that prevents them being pushed off things by pistons, I'll be pissed off. Till then, it seems like the way to go really. At least in BTW, a total cost of 1 iron per spawning space isn't that unreasonable.
PatriotBob wrote:Damn it, I'm going to go eat pumpkin pie while I still think that it tastes good.
From what I've seen (in my very limited exposure) the piston mob traps are the only reliable system currently. However I do believe I read Jeb publicly declaring he was against mob traps, I could be wrong ...
I'm pretty interested to see where things go and as FC said, letting the AI programmer really take root. I can't do anything other than take that approach, on the one hand I think mob traps are a really cool concept and a motivator to learn redstone and build something immense and then to integrate it into your world, on the other hand it can take away from the need to explore for xp / drops.
Again though ... combat in minecraft is at the most secondary, if not tertiary to the experience ... I don't think when it comes down to it I really want to spend time running around in the dark to get xp points. That sounds just stupid.
Gilberreke wrote:
I think the current system of special drops is perfect. Provide a baseline drop that can be automated, make it drop some rare loot now and then when out adventuring. Best of both worlds.
I don't buy into the fact that Mojang is deliberately breaking mob traps, but I do believe they consider it a harmful side effect, so they don't care about breaking em. They should recognize excellent emergent game-play, instead of reigning it in. I also understand their point to an extent, in that it is very hard to balance Minecraft in a way that allows for mob-traps, but doesn't make them completely over-powered. I can understand that they don't want to make mob-traps standard game-play either.
I think we'll get a good idea of where they're going with mob-traps as the AI guy's work starts having more of an impact on the game. I fully expect vanilla traps to break completely as a result of the changes he'll be making. Really, all that's needed is for mobs to avoid water and damaging falls, and mob traps are no more.
Please stop spamming me and Notch about "save the mob grinder." It's just a rumour based on me using the word "may" in a design discussion
Okay i found the "origin" of the previous one :
@tinfoilchef to @_jeb:
does the hunger thing affect people sitting afk for hours while something grows or a mob tower produces stuff? Jeb's Reply:
No, the food meter is only affected by activity... although we may make grinders obsolete in the future. For instance, exp orbs are only dropped if a player did the killing Reply:
That's ok, if I'm using a mob grinder I want the drops more than the exp orbs Jeb Reply:
Yeah but that was what I was hinting at... We haven't changed it yet, but we may make drops work the same way as orbs
Even if drops are changed in that manner, funnels with non-lethal fall damage deal with that quite well. Water currents still work too, even if it might not be as well as they once did. I've seen water current traps for both slimes and spiders functioning quite well in the latest release (not snapshot). The biggest problem mob systems face are Endermen damaging the structure(s), and there are quite a few ways around that too.
As far as I can tell, the various piston traps weren't designed because the other traps became unreliable but because you can't beat a 1:1 ratio on how many mobs get harvested. If every mob that spawns is guaranteed to reach the point of harvesting, and if you're killing them off regularly, the efficiency is bound to be better.
Also, I think the evidence suggests that they've done as much as they're willing to do to discourage mob trap use. The new rare drops require a player action to kill them (automating a dispenser with splash potions might work though...), but the normal drops have not been effected.
FlowerChild wrote:I fully expect vanilla traps to break completely as a result of the changes he'll be making. Really, all that's needed is for mobs to avoid water and damaging falls, and mob traps are no more.
So if this did happen, would you take steps to fix it? Whether by restoring the old behavior, or introducing a new farming system or something.
Think I already know the answer but would just like to confirm.
grimper12341 wrote:
So if this did happen, would you take steps to fix it? Whether by restoring the old behavior, or introducing a new farming system or something.
Think I already know the answer but would just like to confirm.
The vine traps should most likely already be able to trick the mobs.
