I just made a tier 5 skelly cage and I set it up in a 9x9 room with a hole in the middle for the mobs to drop down and I can one hit them. I've noticed that there is pretty serious congestion at the hole, and they skellies keep pushing on each other to get though and it's just not efficient and I don't know how to do it without making it a 2x2 hole. Any help? Second, the whole spawn room is covered in water to push the mobs to the center, and the cage is 5 blocks above the center point. Some of the skellys die on impact, and I'm wondering if they take a little fall damage from 5 blocks into flowing water. Thanks in advance.
You could try using the water to push the skeletons into a 1x3 hole, then use pistons (on a timer) to push them into your 1x1 hole.
EDIT: I'm also having a problem with my sorting machines. For seemingly random reasons, they get jammed. I'm place an item in that has a destination somewhere along the line and it either sits in the first chest, or it will sit in any other buffer chest I have in use. I got rid of the buffer chest, and it still didn't send it through, and the only way I know how to un-jam the SM is to break it, and to put all of the items back in is a huge hassle. It's important this system work all the time and is easily fixable, so any help is appreciated.
Can you post a screenshot of the GUI of one of the sorting machines?
Note that they will only jam when they have nowhere to send items- so make sure that you specify a default color, and that there's no tubes painted other colors between the sorter and wherever the unsorted items go- i.e. the next sorter or an unsorted junk chest.
Can someone help with biomes oplenty? I installed the update and my sakura forest turned into a snowy conifer forest. Fine, whatever. But now it snows and it keeps freezing the water in my plant farm. Does frozen water still grow plants? And if not, how could I protect my water? If I were to make it like a glass house, would that stop the freezing?
Water will freeze if it's at a light level below 12 or so (ignoring sunlight) AND it can see the sky AND there's a block horizontally adjacent to it that isn't water.
So, place torches or glowstone near your water sources, or put something above them. I'm not sure if glass works; you might need something that isn't transparent. Slabs high up in the air should work.
If you've got a lake or a pond that you don't want to freeze over, you need only illuminate or shade the outer edge. Water in the middle of an unfrozen lake won't freeze- but the edges can, so nearby water sources are now adjacent to ice, so they will freeze in short order.
In order to thaw a frozen lake, you'll need to either cover the whole thing and pickaxe all the ice, or illuminate the whole thing and wait.
Wrath lamps might be handy here. One could probably prevent a 15x15 area of water from freezing, and even thaw any pre-existing ice in that area. It would also melt snow, so maybe this isn't the solution for your problem.
Glowstone underneath your water sources might work, too. This might be your best option, if you don't want to interfere with snow. I like the appearance of glowstone under water, even without worrying about anything freezing.
As has been mentioned, ice won't hydrate farmland- but trees don't need hydrated soil, and Xychorium Soil doesn't need water. Flowing water does, in fact, hydrate soil as well as water sources.
