Talk:Tutorials/Drowned farming

Getting tridents
But Drowned that have been generated from drowning zombies have 0% chance of generating with Tridents. Only naturally generated Drowned will have Tridents. 59.149.187.125 08:34, 23 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Really? Then explain to me why I am getting a trident from the farm now and then. Amatulic (talk) 08:42, 23 September 2018 (UTC)
 * I see the problem. I have clarified that the farm produces tridents in the Bedrock edition, which by now would be the largest installed base. Even in 2012 the mobile versions (which became Bedrock) accounted for over 2/3 of new installations. Amatulic (talk) 09:00, 23 September 2018 (UTC)

Reversion of rewrite
The point of this page is to present a basic drowned farm that can be built in survival mode. I had to revert the massive changes made to this page by User:Gregatron6000 because they created disorganization and in some cases imparted incorrect information. For example: Overall, I disagree with the editorial commentary being added about the utility of dropped items, detracting from the context of a zombie/drowned farm. We have articles on those subjects. Additionally, the lead section was reduced to a single sentence and failed to introduce the topic properly.
 * While drowned drops gold occasionally, it is far from an "easily renewable resource".
 * It is not easier to "craft and enchant" a fishing rod yourself, rather than acquire one by farming (or fishing), particularly since an enchantment table requires diamond and obsidian, and a drowned farm can be built long before a player gets to the point of acquiring diamonds.
 * A drowned zombie doesn't drop tridents in Java edition (see section above), so the bedrock-only tag shouldn't have been removed.
 * A trident doesn't "function much better than bows". They function differently. And using as a ranged weapon without the loyalty enchantment is worse than a bow.
 * Underwater designs are generally not practical for survival-mode farms. Describing complex designs up front doesn't serve the purpose of a tutorial.

On the other hand, there were some very good parts to the changes, which I have fully incorporated into the tutorial while expanding the original structure. The YouTube videos are great examples. ~Amatulić (talk) 03:40, 24 October 2018 (UTC)


 * It is clear from this that we have different views on what tutorials should be. I write tutorials that show the mechanics behind various contraptions so that other players can develop their own designs. It is also clear that I did not do my homework, and I appreciate the fact that you pointed it out before I could do any more harm.


 * The reason for my rewrite is because the page was showcasing one particular Bedrock Edition drowned farm that could yield tridents. I thought it was unfair that most of the page is dedicated to one design that only works in one edition. Again, it’s a difference in style.


 * As for the fact that underwater designs are impractical in Survival - conduits make their construction millions of times easier and they are surprisingly easy to obtain.


 * On the subject of the “Bedrock only” tag, I stated it in words because I have an extremely limited understanding of how tags work.


 * Gregatron6000 (talk) 07:29, 24 October 2018 (UTC)


 * Thanks for your reply. In my view, a tutorial is a "how to" guide. Your revision had reduced it to general information about mechanics. That's helpful information to have, but having only that doesn't actually tutor someone on how to build a farm.
 * A lot of kids play Minecraft, not just adults. While general information such as you added (and which I retained in the current revision) is useful to a kid, someone like my 9-year old benefits more from reading detailed advice about an actual example. Kids are pretty imaginative; understanding how to build one thing often leads to the kid inventing creative variations.


 * Thinking about it some more, I imagine a farm tutorial would ideally be structured like this:
 * Lead paragraph giving an overview and purpose
 * Description of mechanics, including differences between Minecraft editions
 * Detailed description of the most basic farm that can be built without cheats, and with minimal resources, in survival mode.
 * Multiple subsections may be needed for different Minecraft editions if necessary. That isn't the case in this tutorial if you just want general zombie loot, but if you specifically want tridents, you do need a different farm than the example I provided, and it would be great to have a minimal no-cheat survival-build example for Java edition if such a thing exists.
 * The description would include considerations like location, preparation, materials needed, and a diagram, similar to what I did here.
 * Examples of more elaborate farms that may require creative mode, with Youtube links etc.
 * None of the tutorials on this site have that structure. Do you have thoughts about how a farm tutorial should be structured?


 * For my part, I find that other farm articles over-emphasize builds that are impractical in survival mode. Describing a survival-mode build is critical, in my opinion &mdash; after all, if you're going to enable cheats and build a farm in creative, that's great for coming up with fancy contraptions but it sort of defeats the point of survival mode. So I've been trying to balance that in the few works I've done here, such as this tutorial, Tutorials/Turtle farming, and the second example ("Survival build") in Tutorials/Iron golem farming. All of my survival-build tutorials show farms that my son and I have actually built and tested in survival mode without cheats. There are lessons learned doing this in survival that need to be conveyed in a tutorial; lessons that don't arise in creative mode. That said, I agree with you that my instructions may have too much detail, and I have already reduced the preparation section with this in mind.


 * Most of these farm articles could use restructuring and a shift in emphasis. Your attempt at rewriting this one gave me ideas for improvements, which I appreciate. ~Amatulić (talk) 17:09, 24 October 2018 (UTC)


 * I agree that most of the farm tutorials need to be reorganized. Your outline sounds very good and I am intrigued to see what comes out. It seems most farm tutorials are dedicated to showing how to build specific designs rather than showing mechanics. I end up writing tutorials that are the exact opposite - they overemphasize mechanics and only briefly mention designs. I think the balance depends on the tutorial - iron golem farms for example are ridiculously complicated to explain (I am currently trying to develop one and there aren’t many more hairs I can pull), but can be relatively simple to build. Your proposal has the best balance I have seen. The key is ensuring that tutorials are applicable to both Editions where possible.


 * For Survival purposes, it might be a good idea to add a main section about building in Survival. For example, if a farm is mostly underwater, what materials would be needed to avoid death?


 * Gregatron6000 (talk) 05:59, 25 October 2018 (UTC)