Before I started building timed pistons or flush mechanisms in Skyblock, I knew that I wanted a clock-timer that would minimise the use of iron and/or redstone. I asked in chat if "armor stand clocks" still worked in 1.16 and got "huh?" type responses from c0w and at least one of the mods. That wasn't something they were familiar with; fair enough. So I went off to 1.16 in single player mode, and built my mechanism. It worked perfectly. An Armor Stand Timer consists of an infinity pool with at least one pressure plate in the bottom with a red-stone trail connected to a redstone mechanism. An armor stand is dropped into the pool and it floats around and around, briefly triggering a redstone pulse each cycle as it passes over the pressure plate. By changing the length of the pool, or by building the floor with soul sand, very long cycles can be generated. I then went back onto Skyblock, recreated my mechanism, dropped the armor stand... and it failed. No matter how I tried to drop the armor stand, it would not float. It would simply stick; to the ground, to a wall, to a tree. Knock out the wall it was stuck to and it woudl simply hang there is mid-air. I was puzzled. A little bit of digging around the interwebs, caused me to suspect that somewhere in the configuration files for this server, there is a "NoGravity" setting that has been turned on for the Armor Stand. Apparently some servers apply such a setting under the theory that armor stands being allowed to drop and be pushed by water can be a cause of server lag. The other theory, is that some servers try to discourage infinify pools (otherwise known as AFK pools) and by turning off the gravity on Armor Stands, it makes the use of infinity pools much less attractive. Sure, I can make long-cycle clocks using a hopper-clock mechanism, or something more complicated, but it seems to me that, particulary for this server, simple mechanisms might be best. Could this be looked into to see if indeed, there is such a setting? And if so, could it be toggled? Thanks.
I was not familiar with the concept of an armor stand clock, but your explanation makes sense. Yes, there is a setting for disabling armor stand ticking, and yes I have it disabled. The reason for this was indeed to help reduce lag. We always have to balance lag reduction with gameplay expectations, typically erring on the side of reducing lag to make a more enjoyable experience for everyone. I will speak to @waseric about potentially reversing this config setting, since I know you can build some pretty neat contraptions with armor stands. It is also possible that if we do allow this feature, you will not be able to lock your armor stand, meaning anyone on your island could potentially remove items from it.
^^ this, as long as you're not super fussy about timer, because there's a lot of animal bobbing (have tried cows and sheep) in an AFK-style pool, so sometimes they won't hit the plate on a given cycle. I've been wanting to try a humanoid in mine, but haven't gotten around to it. 5k for a villager egg is a lot of $$ to see if it works better! Another option is a sheep/cow and a boat, in a 2 wide afk pool. That works pretty well for me. Searching "boat timer" will get you some examples, BUT in Sandlot, a boat does not set off pressure plates, so you'll need to add an animal in the boat. (In my build, the animal pops in and out of the boat, so I need walls around the boat track, too.)
Another option for this is the try out the clock in our Creative world. That way you can see if it works (must enable redstone first by doing /redstone on) first without having the buy the villager!
I have disabled the setting. Please give your clock a try now. It would also be a good idea to have an island member you trust to see if they can remove items from your armor stand.
Does the creative world run the same ruleset as Skyblock? I tried it in single player creative, and it worked differently.
I would assume c0wg0d and waseric might have a few things different, but for the most part it should work the same.
They won't be identical because different plugins, like the Skyblock plugin vs. the plot plugin in Creative, do things slightly different.
A fix for this could be just having bocks above the mob (adult zombies work best for this) would keep floating and staying at the same y level here are some screenshots:
The modified setting lets the armor stand clock work. I didn't try allowing a trusted person to remove armor from the stand because I don't trust anyone enough to join my islands. For simplicity, just use an empty armor stand. This screenshow shows an armor stand triggering a redstone pulse at as it crosses the pressure plate. Very simple to build for when you want a short redstone pulse on a long timer cycle. Can be adjusted by making a longer water path, or putting soul sand on the bottom. Add extra pressure plates along the water path to generate additional pulses. Also a shot of two plant-growth observer clocks: long cycle, short pulse. The timing on the bamboo clock can be made longer by raising the observer higher and bringing a signal down to the piston. Thanks for the feedback.
yes it only works with 2 block tall mobs like zombies, villagers, skeletons, creepers, witches, etc...
