@CHRISTIANALPHA And please don't just tell me that because on an "SMP server mob spawn rates are low, and mob cap,bla bla bla", I know that.

I was thinking this, but....
I spent three nights around a full moon wandering aimlessly in a swamp and didn't see a single hostile mob spawn that entire time (with 35-40 people online). Not a sausage!
It doesn't seem to be just slimes, and the fact that we have two other recent threads saying the same thing suggest maybe something is up besides the norm .

Some things I wondered about...

• Hostile mobs building up in spawn chunks. Pretty sure the spawn protection and natural despawning takes care of this though
• Some change to render distance or somesuch. Seems doubtful..
• More players than before afking at mob spawners. Maybe the cause since people have had the time to set up grinders since the reset. That said I doubt it would make that much difference.
• People exceeding the mob cap. I'm going to assume staff are on top of this so that's not what's happening :)

Basically, I have no idea...seems a bit fishy to me but could be just spawn mechanics letting us down.

I will say if you can get on when the servers a bit more empty (say, <25 people) spawn rates are way better. @CHRISTIANALPHA when do you normally play/how many people are normally online?

I've always been curious why diamonds are so highly valued since mending was introduced. I think I've used less than 4 diamond blocks for crafting since the last reset. There's half a stack of diamond blocks sitting in my echest that I doubt I'll ever use for anything except trading.
Is this driven by pvp, losing/breaking armour? I'm genuinely curious what everyone actually does with all these diamonds to make them so valuable.

@mike_n_ike4 there is a general worldwide limit on the amount of hostile mobs that can be spawned at any given time and that a larger amounts of loaded chunks causes few if any mobs to spawn in if the cap is reached

If anyone's interested the mob cap depends on the number of loaded chunks. So the more chunks are loaded the higher the cap.

The two main reasons why spawns appear to be so low are:

1. Mob caps are shared between everyone. If you're killing mobs around you but other players aren't, over time mobs will tend to accumulate around players who aren't killing them. Building up to the cap and basically blocking spawns around you.
2. The render distance is low to improve performance. Unfortunately this means that the mob cap is naturally low because few chunks are loaded around each player.

@_Confederacy_ If you want increased spawn rates you can always use an alt

This is a good idea - but (stinky but) it's only really practical in the nether and end (like you said). Different dimensions have their own mob cap. Generally there's so many people in the overworld it won't make any difference, but in the end it doesn't even matter it might work. Just make sure nothing can spawn around your alt.

@Tez1010 do you mean that if more players are in an area more mobs spawn?

It's kinda the opposite. Mob caps depend on the number of chunks loaded, so if players are more spread out more chunks are loaded so the mob caps are higher.

@TheBlizWiz Local difficulty does bugger all to affect mob spawn rates or caps, except for slimes in swamps

If anyone wants any more bedtime reading to send them to sleep this old thread might be interesting :)

Just been re-reading some of Carlos Ruiz Zafon's books over Christmas and dipping in and out of a few Terry Pratchett books. Would highly recommend anything by either of the two.

Also been reading 1493 (Charles C. Mann) on and off which is fascinating if you're interested in globalisation and the like.

@BloxForDayz
This is apparently not limited to zombie villagers but other named hostile mobs also despawn.
Upvote this bug report to get it fixed!
https://bugs.mojang.com/browse/MC-27535

Pretty good, diamond for emerald trade is way off though. Emeralds are worth so much less than they used to be without the spawn jeweller.

@HaloNest me too

You actually have to play in order to die though...

@R4iscool1 It makes perfect sense to raid a monument with invisibility pots

Just in case anyone is thinking of doing this, see this bug report. Guardians and Elder guardians still attack you if you're invisible

@R4iscool1 it's up to the players to say what they think now and finally for crafty to come to a decision.

I haven't really seen any compelling argument either way. I was surprised to hear that this a team-specific thing, meaning that I can use invisibility potions to properly hide from some players, but not from others.

To me this seems a bit absurd, and essentially changes behaviour of invisibility potions depending on rank. From the perspective of a default player invisibility potions won't work correctly for most of the other players on the server. However for a server bill donor, because there are far fewer of them, invisibility will work correctly for almost every other player. (assuming I understand this right)

I see no particular reason to have it one way or the other, but to me it makes no sense for it to work differently between ranks than within them. I think it should either work correctly for everyone, or no-one.

@jamlbon I preferred ArchdukeAttackApple

@Abbasilol There is only one good,Knowledge.And there is only one bad,Ignorance. :D-Secrates

Yes but Socrates also supposedly said:

I am wiser than this man; it is likely that neither of us knows anything worthwhile, but he thinks he knows something when he does not, whereas when I do not know, neither do I think I know; so I am likely to be wiser than he to this small extent, that I do not think I know when I do not know

So he was clearly mostly evil and can't be trusted.