Mob Farm question

[Dżdżownica]

Does it matter how far away in hight platforms are in mob farm? In other words can I make very tall and multistory mob farm so mobs spawn on each and every flor?

[Lil Puppy]

Yes
Technically mob farms work best when placed outside of another chunk zone.
A chunk is a 16x16x16 area within a claim.
if you place 2 spawners within the same chunk area, they will fight each other for spawning rights. To maximize your spawn rates you should place each spawner outside of the spawn zone of each other. Additionally since natural spawns will also fight for spawn rights, it's optimal to put your spawners in/on the ocean since nothing natural currently spawns there.

[entuland]

In addition to what Lil Puppy explained, you also have the problem of floors casting shadow onto each other - several mobs require full daylight to spawn, and you could have only one of such spawners on top of your building.

Each chunk gets checked for presence of specific blocks in order to trigger a specific spawn, but it also has to hit a probability of spawning against a random number generator - this means that having multiple chunks of the same spawner increases your chances of getting such spawns.

My advice is to not stack spawners on top of each other, but to put them on different claims altogether.

I am making a large series of spawners in a world and they are all working pretty neatly, I've started from the bottom-left corner of the map, over the ocean, leaving two free claims between spawners just to make sure that when I move from a spawner to another, the one I'm leaving gets unloaded and will have to be loaded again when I come back - this normally triggers spawn's checks again, spawning new mobs.

All of these spawners are made of a single layer of blocks over the ocean leaving at least two free blocks between the water and the spawner (this is necessary to avoid triggering a bug that makes mobs and treasure chests spawn _beneath_ the spawner's floor)

Right now I have:

- a 9 claims corruption spawner, made with Corrupted Stone and Corrupted Dirt, covered with an equal amount of Glass Slabs way up in the sky to cast full shadow and have the spawner working at any time of night or day

- a 4 claims snow spawner, made with Snow and a small percentage of Peakstone, without any cover because some of the mobs I'm interested in require full daylight

- a 4 claims lava spawner, made with Hardened Lava and Igneous Rock, covered with Glass Slabs

- a 4 claims trog spawner, easier to explain by linking this: http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/discussions/18446744073709551615/3277925755438373686/?appid=280790
absolutely no cover here of course

- a 4 claims sand spawner, modified from the trog spawner design, where I have 49 modules of 15x15 Sand blocks sticked to eachother (just a narrow 1 block void to drive the mobs towards the trap); no cover here either

I plan to make a Feral Pigsy spawner next, and I think I'll be done with spawners then, cause I can't think of any other mobs one may need to kill in large quantities once you hit Lumite equipment.

[Dżdżownica]

i have 3 spawners (peak stone, diamond nodes floor and canyon floor in this order from the bottom) playced at 4 chunks at the same time (22x22, 11x11 in each chunk) each on top of another starting from 150th block high above the ocean. My farm is automatic though and I was wondering if I can just stand on the bottom waiting for mobs to fall down

[entuland]

Originally posted by Dżdżownica:

i have 3 spawners (peak stone, diamond nodes floor and canyon floor in this order from the bottom) playced at 4 chunks at the same time (22x22, 11x11 in each chunk) each on top of another starting from 150th block high above the ocean. My farm is automatic though and I was wondering if I can just stand on the bottom waiting for mobs to fall down

You can fence through the floors (dividing the space in two) and put a TP in a opening of the fence to get the mobs anywhere you want (those that can move at all, that is).

[Dżdżownica]

I use fans to throw them into "Death Pit" xD

[entuland]

Originally posted by Dżdżownica:

I use fans to throw them into "Death Pit" xD

That's good as well, but I'm a bit puzzled, cause you seemed to be asking for a solution to drive mobs from the various floors to the bottom of the building, and it seems you already had that working with fans... I guess you weren't really asking and I misread your words :P

[Dżdżownica]

"In other words can I make very tall and multistory mob farm so mobs spawn on each and every flor"

"My farm is automatic though and I was wondering if I can just stand on the bottom waiting for mobs to fall down" :)

[entuland]

Originally posted by Dżdżownica:

"In other words can I make very tall and multistory mob farm so mobs spawn on each and every flor"

"My farm is automatic though and I was wondering if I can just stand on the bottom waiting for mobs to fall down" :)

That's exactly the part that made me think it was a question: "I was wondering if". That conveys the idea that you weren't actually doing that, just asking whether that could be done.

[entuland]

Or, reading all of your messages under a different point of view: was the question about the need of actually going up to the other floors in order for mobs to spawn? If that was the point, then it all depends on how far apart the floors are. You need to be in a minimum range of distance from a chunk in order to trigger the spawning, and that applies to vertical distance too. I can't tell for sure how large that distance is, that may also very well be tied to your view radius, but this is just a wild guess.

[Dżdżownica]

i have set view radius to 13 chunks (max possible) and I'am about 2.5 chunks below highest platform

[entuland]

Originally posted by Dżdżownica:

i have set view radius to 13 chunks (max possible) and I'am about 2.5 chunks below highest platform

I guess that the question was then about the spawn distance related to your character. Well, only testing can verify that for your particular spawner. You may put sensors on the upper floors and wire them to an Arc Sign downstairs to keep track of mobs spawning out of your line of sight, if so you desire.

Would be nice if you could report the results of such tests, if you perform them.

[Dżdżownica]

Originally posted by entuland:

You may put sensors on the upper floors and wire them to an Arc Sign downstairs to keep track of mobs spawning out of your line of sight

huh, didn't think about it, great idea

EDIT: If you wish i could show you what I have done there, you'd be amazed xD

[entuland]

Originally posted by Dżdżownica:

Originally posted by entuland:

You may put sensors on the upper floors and wire them to an Arc Sign downstairs to keep track of mobs spawning out of your line of sight

huh, didn't think about it, great idea

EDIT: If you wish i could show you what I have done there, you'd be amazed xD

Sure thing, I would like to visit that spawner, let me know where to see it.

[Liellamelody777]

Originally posted by Dżdżownica:

Does it matter how far away in hight platforms are in mob farm? In other words can I make very tall and multistory mob farm so mobs spawn on each and every flor?

I would not do that because the spawners will interfere with other spawners above or below it. I have tried. The only one that used to work was Lava above Corruption spawners. They would spawn things at different times of day. But still did not work after a while.