Mob spawning rate

[Thorin]

So Pants has asked a couple of times in-game: has the mob spawning rate been changed on our server?  I've noticed that I've spent entire nights outside without even a skeleton spawning (no creepers, that's fine by me!), and with no one else on for the mobs to be spawning around.  So any chance that when you installed Bukkit, the mob spawning rate somehow got affected, Tom?

[Mr. Analog]

I think the difficulty setting may have been changed, but I noticed this too, not that I'm complaining

[Thorin]

Possible solution here?  http://forums.bukkit.org/threads/hostile-mobs-not-spawning.83971/#post-1208654

Pants is trying to make a mob farm, so he'd like it set to at least the normal spawning speed   And I kinda miss being able to get the last three or so levels needed to get to 30 before enchanting by simply going outside and culling the world's creeper population.

[Thorin]

Another possible solution? http://forums.bukkit.org/threads/mob-spawn-rate-so-low.70580/#post-1148887

[Mr. Analog]

Again with the mob farms, I don't understand the appeal anymore.

[Thorin]

I think he actually uses it as a drop farm, not an xp farm.  But he was complaining that he couldn't even go out at night and fight monsters to gain some levels or get bonemeal and gunpowder and string.

Here's another possible solution (and Tom installed NoLagg, so this might be the best solution for us): http://forums.bukkit.org/threads/problem-with-mob-spawning.50158/#post-898091

[Mr. Analog]

Fine, as long as areas that DON'T use cheaty spawners don't end up being overrun by mobs.

[Thorin]

Not sure what you're definition of a "cheaty" spawner is, but if you're talking about darkened buildings that encourage hostile mobs to spawn so that you can kill them and take their drops, well, that doesn't seem all that different from having an underground herd of cows to kill and take their drops.  If you're talking about an xp farm built around a mob spawner found in a dungeon, well, that's using in-game elements to your advantage, not all that different from stripping all the rails out of an abandoned mine; it's not even taking advantage of a glitch or bug.

The xp farm isn't nearly as necessary as it was in 1.2.5, though, I agree with you on that.  Although I will say that in digging out my giant underground room I have come across far too little ores, and the xp I get from smelting the cobble is curtailed by the lack of coal I'm finding, so I'm burning through enchanted diamond pickaxes faster than I'm gaining level 30, so I need some way to add xp or face the prospect of mining out this giant room with non-enchanted pickaxes (costing probably three times as many diamonds in the process).

As far as getting overrun by mobs, Pants was just hoping for it to return to the same spawning rate as vanilla Minecraft.

[Mr. Analog]

I think it would bother me less if there were only one or two mob griders on the server but there are more now and I can feel it when people idle near them.

[Pants]

I think he actually uses it as a drop farm, not an xp farm.  But he was complaining that he couldn't even go out at night and fight monsters to gain some levels or get bonemeal and gunpowder and string.

Exactly.  A drop farm for items, not a farm that allows mobs to pile up.

I also really enjoy dangerous caving and being constantly alert for a creeper attack while building.  I don't play on peaceful mode because I find it rather dull.

[Mr. Analog]

I agree with you there, nothing more exciting than spelunking and making sure your armor and weapons are in good order for some fun!

Drop farm isn't so bad I guess, before the changes to XP there were a few players who would idle in the xp farms and it would sometimes make things laggy, which sucks when you spend a lot of time noob-towering your way up on a large scale build and blocks beneath you keep glitching out (eg http://mc.tomasu.org/#/527/64/-121/-2/0/0 )

[Tom]

It may be a combination of NoLagg and me setting the view-distance to 8 to try and cut down on lagg. One of those threads seem to say that a view-distance of less than 10 may also effect the spawning rate.

I've changed the view-distance setting, if that doesn't help, I'll play with the bukkit and nolagg settings.

[Mr. Analog]

Man, that explains why I was having such a bitch of a time taking screenshots the other day, I'd move too far and I'd lose the background vista I was trying to capture.

Ok, makes sense now.

[Thorin]

Yah, not sure we really needed NoLagg?  Most of the time, it played fine, even with four or five players on...  My lag problems on my old computer had more to do with dust between the chip and the heatsink than anything else   I do remember a couple of times we asked for a reboot because things appeared laggy, but that could just as easily have been internet problems.

I did a bit of that idling, but I tended to do it when other people were not online, late at night.  I tried leaving it overnight one time and found myself logged out and on top of a structure tall enough to kill me when I stepped off (boy, that sucked), so I never left myself idling if I wasn't in the same room as the computer after that.  And if you're sitting there by the computer and hear a hundred skellies, might as well go beat 'em with a piece of bread and try to get the xp orb headswarm

Anyway,

I've changed the view-distance setting, if that doesn't help, I'll play with the bukkit and nolagg settings.

Pants, Mr. A, and anyone else, please report how the game plays with this setting change.

Oh, and Tom, did you restart the server after the change?

[Tom]

Yah, not sure we really needed NoLagg?  Most of the time, it played fine, even with four or five players on...  My lag problems on my old computer had more to do with dust between the chip and the heatsink than anything else   I do remember a couple of times we asked for a reboot because things appeared laggy, but that could just as easily have been internet problems.

I did a bit of that idling, but I tended to do it when other people were not online, late at night.  I tried leaving it overnight one time and found myself logged out and on top of a structure tall enough to kill me when I stepped off (boy, that sucked), so I never left myself idling if I wasn't in the same room as the computer after that.  And if you're sitting there by the computer and hear a hundred skellies, might as well go beat 'em with a piece of bread and try to get the xp orb headswarm

Anyway,

I've changed the view-distance setting, if that doesn't help, I'll play with the bukkit and nolagg settings.

Pants, Mr. A, and anyone else, please report how the game plays with this setting change.

Oh, and Tom, did you restart the server after the change?

I /reload'ed the server. Which reloads the config.

As for nolagg, the only bits left atm are grouping items, and some item spawn throttling. I'd like to turn on the chunk loading bits, but the 1.3.1 version of the plugin is a bit buggy in that regard (the chunk you land in tends to not be there).