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This guide intends to make the construction of mob farms easier for its players. Be advised that AFK farming is still against Network Rules.Prism Party allows players to build mob farms on its Survival server, including those with complicated designs working around Minecraft's mob spawn mechanics. Like most larger servers, Prism Party modifies the core mechanics of mob AI and spawning behaviors to remain performant even across higher player loads. However, as a result of this alteration, many mob farm designs will require modification in order to work efficiently on the server.
Most farm designs, especially those found on YouTube, assume that the player is building them under singleplayer conditions, or on an unmodified Minecraft server. Often, this leads to players expressing confusion as to why farms claimed to be highly efficient fail to perform as expected on servers with plugins. This guide serves as a Prism Party specific tutorial on the changes that may be required in order to increase the efficiency of mob farms.
Core concepts[edit]
In order to build efficient mob farms, you must understand the underlying mechanics dictating mob spawning and despawning, as well as how Prism Party's modifications to these rules potentially impact farming.
Ticking
Minecraft processes game events on an internal loop that completes 20 times per second, with each singular cycle referred to as a "tick". During a tick, existing mobs can either perform actions (such as moving or interact with the world), or despawn if far enough away from a player (or, for new mobs, spawn if its conditions are met). If a mob is far enough away from a player, the server stops ticking that mob (thus rendering its AI "paused"), or allows it to despawn if it is able to. In moments of heavy load, the server may stop ticking certain mobs even if they are nearer to the player than would usually be expected.
Simulation distance
This is the distance, in chunks, that the server processes game events within (or ticks). On Prism Party this value is set to 6 chunks in the Overworld. Chunks extending beyond the simulation distance, but before the view distance, are still rendered to the player's client but do not process game events. Players may notice that mobs don't move, or crops don't grow, in these chunks even if they can still be seen.
Mob spawn range
The number of chunks away from the player that mobs are allowed to spawn within. On Prism Party mobs are not allowed to spawn more than 5 chunks away from players.
Soft despawn range
This is the range, in blocks, away from the player where mobs have a chance of despawning. More specifically, mobs within this range for more than 30 seconds have a 1⁄800 chance each game tick to despawn. (2.5% chance per second). On Prism Party, this value is 32 blocks.
Hard despawn range
This is the maximum distance, in blocks, away from the player that a mob is allowed to exist without instantly despawning. On Prism Party, this value is 96 blocks.
Entity activation range
This is the range, in blocks, around the player wherein entities will become "activated" (begin ticking at a normal rate). Entities outside of this range may begin ticking at a reduced rate, or not tick at all (becoming "frozen"). On Prism Party, this value is 32 blocks.
Comparison of values[edit]
| Prism Party | Vanilla | |
|---|---|---|
| View distance | 10 | 10 |
| Simulation distance | 6 | 10 |
| Spawn range | 5 | 8 |
| Despawn range (Soft) | 32 | 32 |
| Despawn range (Hard) | 96 | 128 |
| Entity activation range | 32 | 32 |
Adjusting your farms[edit]
The specific modifications players will need to make to their farms will depend on the type of farm considered. For most farms that utilize mob spawning platforms, players will need to move the spawning platform closer to account for Prism Party's lowered simulation and despawn ranges.
For instance, if a farm design dictates that a player should build their spawning platform 128 blocks away from where the player stands, on Prism Party players should instead build it only 96 blocks away. Failing this, farm drop rates will be severely diminished.
Farms with spawning areas larger than the server's simulation distance of 6 chunks may need to be scaled down to work properly. But note that mobs are not allowed to spawn within 24 blocks around any given player, both horizontally and vertically.
Other considerations[edit]
Due to the number of gameplay modificaitons Prism Party employs over Vanilla Minecraft, players building complex mob farms may need to consider more than just the altered spawn ranges.
Notes[edit]
- Prism Party does not tick villagers outside of a special activation range of 32 blocks. This means that iron farms and trading halls will work at a reduced rate unless a player is within 32 blocks.