The Church of Alvis

I propose we build a communal iron harvester. There are a couple different designs, but I suggest we have it somewhat receded into the ground so it isn't such an eyesore like my last one. We could then have a steady supply of iron. We'd have to work on kidnapping....I mean forced relocation of a few villagers.

I heard somewhere that iron farms don't work in 1.8. We should verify that before we go on a major build project.

Jimer Lins wrote:I heard somewhere that iron farms don't work in 1.8. We should verify that before we go on a major build project.

I heard this too. Also, has anyone seen any villages? I went exploring the other day and didn't find any.

Yes, I found one south of Mesa but didn't save the coordinates. I should be able to find it when I check my map.

After doing a little more research, "normal" iron farms that rely on just a single village should still work. They will only work while the chunks are loaded, and it seems that in 1.8 villagers need farms, so we'd need to build one that lets them do that.

Maybe we can make a surface-level farm that we can enclose and have iron collected underneath, then piped up with a dropper chain to a surface chest.

Does the spawn point chunk still stay loaded forever? If so, we could build one there. And with an underground iron farm, we could tunnel into the side if the Mesa to collect; no need for a hopper chain.

My basic idea for partially buried is just so it isn't an eyesore, I have no problem with a stairwell even to go gather the iron.

Spawn chunks do stay loaded, yes- but I don't see any need to do it there necessarily. We're all in and around the town enough that one close to the city would work too, don't you think?

Another option is that I could set the world spawn to a point of our choosing with a console command. We could then remove the hut at the current one.

Additional:

The spawn point is the northwest corner of a specific coordinate (x and z, y is pretty much ignored and the top block under the sky is chosen). New players or players who die without having set their respawn point with a bed will reappear there in a 20 x 20 box centered on the spawn point.

So, if we want to move it, we can choose a place, lay out a 20x20 grid and put the spawn point there. Keep in mind that the actual protected area is a 33x33 box around the spawn point. So the spawn area is up to 10 blocks away, and the protected space is 16 blocks away.

Anyway, if we do that, the spawn chunk and 16 chunks around it will stay loaded permanently. Iron farms would work in that space as long as at least one player was on the server and in the Overworld. Spawn chunks are unloaded if there's no one on the server or if all players on are in the Nether or the End.

I found a couple of villages. -200,1250 and 150,850

I think the one I found was closer I'll try to get on tonight and see where its at. Also, my wife found a stronghold near the News.

From my iron farm video:
UPDATE: Villager breeding has been changed in 1.8. Villagers no longer automatically breed - meaning that dropping just two villagers into this design WILL NOT WORK. You'll need to manually move TEN into the design.
iron farm small
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dev3Ls8papM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dev3Ls8papM

let me know what you think of this design.

i think these guys have a ski farm that was built higher than bul's jump platform

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUI2khOzqNs