mob spawner questions

[myrrdan]

Ok, i'm not understanding how the mod spawner works...
I have a chamber, i was trying to make a mod killing trap that drowned them & swept the resulting items into hoppers...
But no matter what i try, i cannot get anything to spawn.
I took water away, i took all windows/doors away, it is as dark as possible,
The spawners (i'm only using 2 until i figure out whats going on) are 1 block above the stone, and i have one that has 2 empty spots about the stone.
Is it that i'm too close?
What distance do you have to be away for it to spawn?
Does it have to have at least a little light?
What requirements are there for the spawners to work?
I know if i use grass, its passive, but any other solid block will produce aggressive mobs.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

[walker_boh_65]

try attaching the mob spawner to the block instead of having it hover it the air, that may work, although i dont normally use spawners for my mob traps, just a huge dark room with a "river" of water

[HavokSCOUT]

Same as walker, I just have a big, dark room for my aggressive mob spawning needs and it sounds like the spawners aren't close enough to the floor.

[myrrdan]

ah ok, any idea of time frames or distance i have to be away..
i've left the room alone for 2 + days game time and gotten nothing ... :(

[walker_boh_65]

not sure where i heard it but i think its something like you have to be a least 23 or 24 blocks away for the mobs to spawn

[the_fodder]

Google ethos labs mob spawner he hours into great detail.

[Dark_Tundra]

If you mean to say you are using a mob spawner block, and can't get it to work;

Mob spawning blocks only activate in darkness, while you are standing within 16 blocks. That is for clarity, less than 16 blocks away from every spawner you want to activate.
A mob spawner also will not spawn on peaceful (technically it will, but the mob is deleted instantly).

WIKI QUOTE

Show

Spawning Behavior

A spawner will create mobs provided there is space for its mob type to be generated and the light level within the spawning radius remains below seven. Mobs are created within a 8 x 8 x 3 high area centered on the spawner block's lower left corner. Note that mobs can spawn in any dark space within range, even if the spawner is fully lit [1]The spawner will only spawn mobs if the player is within 16 blocks of it.

Note: Placing torches around a monster spawner used to deactivate it so that it could not spawn monsters, but that since has been changed and no longer works. If there is no valid place dark enough for monsters to spawn, however, no monsters will be spawned.

The monster spawner will wait 200 + x ticks between spawns where x is a random number selected between 0 and 599 on each spawn, and a tick is 1/20 of a second. This means that on average, it will attempt to spawn a mob every 24.975 seconds. If 6 or more monsters of its type are present within a 17 x 17 x 9 area centered on the spawner block, the spawner "poofs" without creating a monster and then waits for the next interval. Otherwise, it tries 4 times to place the mob at a random position within a 8 x 8 x 3 high area centered on the spawner block's lower left corner. If the 4 places that it tries are all invalid, it waits for the next spawning to try again.

Unedited Monster Spawners will spawn Spiders, Skeletons, or Zombies. Spawners do not drop resources when destroyed, and a placed spawner will spawn only pigs. The spawner type can be changed through Hacking. Spawners can be given unusual entity IDs like Minecart or Boat to make a decorative block with the named entity spinning inside the cage.

Unedited Monster Spawners will spawn Spiders, Skeletons, or Zombies, the exact monster that spawns is chosen at random, Spiders have a 1/4 chance, Skeletons have a 1/4 chance and Zombies have a 1/2 (2/4) chance in spawning.

In Peaceful difficulty, Monster Spawner blocks will still appear, but any spawned mobs will disappear the instant they spawn. This makes it easy to make the aforementioned trap without any trouble.

[myrrdan]

ah, ok, thanks for the info :)
will have to play around now whooo hooo LoL :)