This creation is a work in progress. Me and a few others (Marshmallow369, 820327 and others) are working together to build a wither farm, we've done lots of prep work already, and are about to begin work on the wither grinder itself. Before I start, I thought I'd video the process, mistakes and all. Please post here, anything you'd like to know about wither farming. And anything you'd like to see in the video. So I can try to include all that as I go. NB: There are already many video's on fortress spawning areas, and wither spawning specifically. BUT there's also a LOT of incorrect information in those video's. So I may try to clarify as much of that as I can. And perhaps people far more expert than me can correct ME if I get anything wrong? I'll include it all in a little FAQ, along with screenshots and video. This build will start very soon, so be quick with your questions/requests. Perhaps I'll try to upload it as we go, as a sort of 'lets play'? We've built ourselves a 'cage' area to build in, to avoid dealing with ghast attacks breaking redstone etc. (The few bits of odd netherrack and Brick in the top corner is actually a Blaze Spawner that I sealed up.) This pic is the design we'll be working from. Something I whipped up in creative mode. Based on other designs, but also a bit of my own design. (So if it doesn't work, you know who to blame).
Nice. Maybe mention some EMC specific info. Like how you need to make sure Withers even spawn at the fortress, first, because of how the 1.7 update made some fortresses not be recognized as "structures", so they just spawn the same mobs as the rest of the Nether. I suppose someday the 1.8 update may pose a similar risk of breaking a good Fortress, due to a similar problem (updating the MC world terrain generator without resetting Nether, and I am Glad that we don't reset Frontier Nether). I have never had or seen success with a Wither farm on EMC, so I am curious if you will. I hope it goes well, looks cool. Thanks for this thread.
Very true. I found this nether fortress a while back. And indeed, the first thing you want to look for is Wither Skeletons spawning in the fortress areas. Indeed, EMC has custom mechanics that will affect a wither grinder. The main one being that you must do >50% damage to the mob for a chance to drop a head I'm not sure there is anything else EMC specific that would affect a wither grinder. If anything, It'll make building an EMC wither grinder easier. Such as mobs only spawning up to 64 blocks around player in EMC (as opposed to vanilla's 128 blocks around player). Meaning, you only need to eliminate hostiles spawning 64 blocks out from the Wither Grinder. There are other EMC specific differences that should not affect a wither grinder at all. Such as the active range of hostiles being much smaller in EMC than in vanilla. So long as your design doesn't rely on the mobs 'wandering' off the edge of a spawning platform. The number one aspect of a wither grinder's success is eliminating all spawnable blocks around the farm. (usually done by slabbing everything). Also the single largest, time consuming job of building a wither grinder. Am I missing anything important?
Correct. Though early wither farm designs employed a 2.5 space for spawning, at the time, that was correct. Dinnerbone since 'fixed' wither spawning requiring 3 spaces above spawn block for wither to spawn. Hence, the famous 'Witherripper' design can still work, it would just need 3 spaces instead of 2.5. NB: I don't recommend building the Witherripper's mob 'sorting' system. It doesn't work well, and would work even worse in EMC due to redstone timing.
As your onboard wither skeleton farmer with local knowledge, I have two suggestions. 1) Make sure that all spawning pad blocks are within 64 blocks of any spot in the collection point. I have lost many a wither skeleton farm that way. 2) NVM, I see you already made a cage.
lol yea... you must have had a pretty huge farm to be over 64 blocks away from the spawning pads? I suppose if your spawning area was say 19 high, with another 12 to drop chute, plus that complicated witherripper style sorter, another 10+ blocks, and then a 22 block drop + 2-3 blocks to player standing to reach mob feet = ~65 blocks to the top spawning pad. I guess it's possible. Good tip, be aware of distance to spawning pads.
by the way, EMC has changed the way withers and such spawn; they will spawn on any nether brick and only on nether brick, regardless of "zones" Withers only spawn on nether brick regardless of fortresses NEVER MIND
I like this project very much, mainly because i have never seen one before. If you dont mind i like to come and take a look some time to look and learn.
I know this was discussed, but I think, as of now, you still need a fortress bridge intersection (one that actually spawns Wither Skeletons). Funny most people call them "Wither" farms, but they are actually "Wither Skeleton" farms. Wither farms would be crazy !
I know i've been gone a while, but I didn't see any update from Aikar confirming that Wither Skeletons now spawn on nether brick. So I'm not sure that's true. I was around when it was being discussed, as the most viable 'fix' to 'broken' fortress locations. 1. I've spent some time in the nether recently, and have noticed Wither Skeletons will spawn in fortress spawn areas per vanilla minecraft mechanics. Regardless of block type. (they spawned on stone brick) 2. I have noticed wither skeletons have NOT spawned on Netherbrick outside of normal fortress spawn areas. Though I cannot confirm with 100% certainty that they will not spawn on Netherbrick outside of normal fortress spawn area. Perhaps someone who's put in 100+ hours of watching a player made netherbrick area, can confirm they do not spawn there? PS. I call it a Wither grinder because i don't like typing out 'wither skeleton' every time, people know what i mean.
oops sorry, i just remember that feature being discussed when all of the pre generated fortresses broke.
Who said it will ever be opened? it could become abandoned and ghosts will haunt it and stuff while its 4/5 of the way built...
