Community Grinders

BobbyDigi

We'll never have to worry about Feathers again. Soon we will never have to worry about string or wool.

I finished up the Zombie grinder last night. Got over 200 feathers just working on it. They are available in the Market. Winfrey is the one who showed me where the dungeon was so he can show you where it is at if you want to see it in action.

I also built a fully functional Spider grinder, collected 48 string and then a couple creepers blew up through the wall. It's a hell zone in there right now. I'm going to go in and clear it out and rebuild next time I hop on. Then I will work on safe passage in and out. and I'll put a landmark on top to show people where to be careful digging.

If anyone knows where a skeleton spawner is, please let me know. If we can get a skeleton grinder going then we will have all three grinders setup.

Snarkasm

What in the world are grinders?

/minecraftnub

Basil

Snarkasm wrote:

What in the world are grinders?

Building/mechanism designed to kill mobs on a large scale but preserve their loot for collection.

Usually use water currents to force mobs into cacti/lava with another stream to collect the loot and dump it at an easily accessible location.

BobbyDigi

Yup, Basil gave a great description. I used a drowning grinder on the zombies. They spawn over a current off water that takes them into a 3high by 1 wide channel that they drown in. Then the water current continues to take the feathers to a single square. You stand in the collection square and wait, feathers come to you.

I used a very similar grinder on the spiders but use a row of cactus to kill them then a current to bring the string out. It is important to only use one row of cacti that the water does not touch as if you use more it can and will destroy the loot.

ErrorNullTurnip

Maybe the community as a whole could work on a monster grinder by carving out a cave with water channels in it. That way we could get both spiders and creepers.

BobbyDigi

Spider grinder is finished. String and Fishing poles now available in the farmers market.

BobbyDigi

Thanks to IR_Bender we now have a community Skeleton grinder! Unlimited Arrows for all. Thank you to Ryder for passing along the info to me.

Also talked with Prag and got permission to make a road across his land to my land, then it will continue on to the Skeleton Grinder entrance. Keep an eye out for it off the South road near the entrance to town.

the_technocrat

Perhaps put a sign up at each grinder so we can find it on the map?

BobbyDigi

There are signs at all the grinders. They were not there the last time the map was rendered with signs.

pragtastic

If I get some time (and maybe a helping hand), I can look into fixing the grinder at my place. It's a tower design grinder that was just built a little too low so the collection flow system didn't quite work right. If we got that fixed up I would be happy to open it up to the community to use.

Note: This type of grinder spawns everything, so its kinda nice for getting all your mob-drop items in one convenient location

BobbyDigi

Yus Prag! I would love to take a look at your tower and grinder! Next time we are both on maybe you can give me a tour and we can see how to crank that bad boy up a notch :-D

Basil

Fixed mine.

Now have a working 16x16 tower grinder in/on my mountain.

Spawns everything, if you're in the area feel free to check for l00t.

cola

I'll be up for helping you Prag

BobbyDigi

Has anyone been to the Skelly grinder since Beta? I tried building a grinder on another SMP server yesterday with the same design as the one at Benders place and the mother lovers were staying on top of the water, not falling in and drowning.

I'm currently a few game days away from the center of the map on our server so if someone who is near there can check it out and let me know that would be great.

ErrorNullTurnip

I used it a while back, got ~100 arrows no problem. I used lava in a grinder once with great success.

BobbyDigi

I made my way back to town (Stash and suicide) and checked on the skelly grinder, all is well. Guess I need to figure out what I did different on my other one.

the_technocrat

I checked out the spider grinder in the NW side of the spawn island - the string is staying up by the cactii. I got a few strings, but when I lit the place up, I could see 6 string or so not washing down to the collection station.

BobbyDigi

Hmmm, Thanks for letting me know TT, I'll check it out tonight.

BobbyDigi

I removed the blocks between the cactus towers. I think that may have been what you were talking about them sticking on. I also capped the Cacti. I saw a string fly up and land on top of it and get obliterated. If the cap would have been there it would have made it. Unfortunately that means the spider grinder doesn't produce cacti anymore.

Thanks for letting me know T_T, Also String, Fishing Poles and Bows will be added to the Farmers Market soon.

the_technocrat

cool. Cactus is ridiculously easy to grow, probably not a big deal.

BobbyDigi

Checked all the grinders in the last few days and they are all 100% now. I'll be restocking the market with goods next time I hop on. I also built entrance tunnels to the grinders so they stand out a bit more. They should show well on the next render.

Dargon317

I would like to announce the grand opening of my brand new skeleton grinder. Inconventiently located at the very bottom of a mineshaft at hard to find -551, 416, waaaaaay north west of town, it's considerably less convenient than Bender's. But it's there, just letting you guys know. I'll put a torch on a tower outside the mine shaft so it's a bit easier to find.

BobbyDigi

Proud to say Skele and Spider grinders are still working like a charm. Going to check on the Zombie grinder after collectin' some string.

RyanFodder

Since I haven't been around, I should tell everyone there is an "everything" grinder to the SW of town.

Look up, you'll see it.

Its not finished, but the basic premise is that the only place in the rendering area for the monsters to spawn is in the sky... and they are channeled to fall to their death at sea level, where you can easily pick up things like feathers, string and ... gunpowder.

Good luck, and feel free to continue the pattern if Cola and Bender agree

cola

Go for it, I'm probably not gonna get back to working on the tunneling for quite some time. (I'm waaaaaay far north, like 5 in game days or so) getting new stuff to bring back.

Dargon317

I have added an elevated walking path from the north station to the shaft that contains my skeleton grinder. The path is lit and has sandstone/fence at either end, so it should be safe to access day or night.

Dargon317

quick question regarding the spider grinder. I notice it has a sign that says "keep dark to increase spawn rates," and have seen the bottom of the grinder completely dark. How much do spawn rates increase if the torch at the loot chute is destroyed, and more importantly, is there a chance to spawn mobs at the base of the grinder if you do? I don't want to break the torch and accidentally spawn a creeper and blow it up.

BobbyDigi

There should not be a torch though I have noticed torches when I visit the grinders sometimes. They wont spawn outside of the enclosed area, that's not a worry, but because I used glass so we can see whats going on, any light at the collection area might slow the spawning. It is probably a good idea to keep it lit so that mobs do not spawn in there as/before you arrive. I usually pop up any torches, collect what I need and plop one or two back down.

the_technocrat

CannonFodder wrote:

Since I haven't been around, I should tell everyone there is an "everything" grinder to the SW of town.

Look up, you'll see it.

Its not finished, but the basic premise is that the only place in the rendering area for the monsters to spawn is in the sky... and they are channeled to fall to their death at sea level, where you can easily pick up things like feathers, string and ... gunpowder.

Good luck, and feel free to continue the pattern if Cola and Bender agree

I went there, but the mobs don't fall?

Dargon317

So I accidentally got the entrance to the spider grinder blown up (went out, went back in, game messed up, and suddenly I was outside looking at a creeper).

I did my best to repair it, and it seems back to normal. However, I could not figure out how to get a door at the top of the stairs. I broke the top of the stairs so I could put a door on a block, so you have to jump to get out now. I have placed a chest with some stairs in it in the grinder in case someone else knows how to fix it.

Tushon

the_technocrat wrote:

I went there, but the mobs don't fall?

I thought I saw on someone's post that mobs can only spawn on flat areas, not just in the sky. :confused2