One of the less-noticed changes for 1.11 1.10 was splitting certain mob types up, giving them their own spawn eggs. While I had read about the spawn eggs changes, I'd also quickly forgotten, until I needed more wither skulls, and noticed something off about my wither skull farm. Apparently, the staff also failed to notice. So this topic is about discussing the merits of catching those new mobs, as well as the merits of changing the catchability of existing mobs. (§ 0 ¶ 1)

((Also, it'd be great if Kerm or comic (who stills needs the server password?) would post the current catch rates for mobs in this topic, as they've been changed since the server started. For example, comic's first list of mob catch rates said endermen were catchable. They aren't currently.)) (§ 0 ¶ 2)


My proposed configuration changes mentioned in poll: (§ 1)

This poll is for speedy consensus on multiple compromises. If you believe my discussion on any of these issues is incomplete or requires further, more detailed debate, vote no and discuss below; the decisions on each point will then be made separately. (¶ 1)

• (a) Forbid catching of Wither Skeletons, but (b) make an exception for my single wither skull farm in the nether. ((a₂) Consider using wither skeleton spawn eggs as event prizes.)
• (c) Forbid catching of Elder Guardians, in keeping with previous policy. ((c₂) Consider using elder guardian spawn eggs as event prizes.)
• (d) Keep Shulkers uncatchable, but (e) allow Rivereye to farm them, because he previously won a shulker spawn egg. Give him a second shulker spawn egg, because the first didn't take.
• (f) In the future, when spawn eggs are given as prizes, always give at least two, due to the bug with mob spawners not accepting mob changes the first time.
• (g) Change Endermen to catchable.
• (h) Change Blazes and (i) Ghasts back to uncatchable.
• (j) Confiscate unauthorized (j₁) blaze, (j₂) ghast, and (j₃) wither skeleton eggs, (j₄) without penalty to users. (k) Order unauthorized (k₁) blaze, (k₂) ghast, and (k₃) wither skeleton mob spawners changed back to a catchable mob.
• (L) Keep (L₁) Strays and (L₂) Zombie Villagers catchable.
• (m) Keep/make Evokers uncatchable.
• (n) Allow catching (n₁) Vexes and (n₂) Vindicators.

I believe there should be a quorum requirement for this to pass: at least 3 staffers (out of comic, KermMartian, LittleMoonBean, tifreak8x, and ElementalVis) and at least 3 regular players should vote for these to become consensus. If fewer votes are cast by December 19^th (2 weeks from the poll start date), consensus is not reached, the current configuration stands, and any of the changes may later become implemented, at the discretion of the administration, or per later discussion. (¶ 3)


Summary of my findings: (§ 2)

Discussion is needed on catchability of Wither Skeletons and Elder Guardians. I am strongly in favor of catchable wither skeletons. I'd vote for catchable elder guardians, but my opinion isn't particularly strong. Also, Strays are currently catchable, despite this not being discussed, as far as I can tell; my vote is that they remain catchable. (¶ 1)

Shulkers should remain uncatchable, in keeping with previous policy. However, Rivereye won a shulker spawn egg in an event, which is good. Unfortunately, due to the unsolved bug with mob spawners not accepting mob changes, his egg was wasted. My vote is that he get a second egg (or as many as it takes to get that spawner working), and be allowed to farm shulker shells. (¶ 2)

Additionally, there have been some configuration mistakes: Blazes and ghasts were accidentally set to catchable at some point, probably on the upgrade to 1.10. They should probably be immediately reset to uncatchable. Endermen were set to uncatchable, which may have been a mistake. ('G' for Ghast follows 'E' for Enderman, and there are no 'F' mobs.) I suggest that the staff figure out who's supposed to have access to ghast and blaze eggs, and request that anybody who has unauthorized eggs (e.g. me, KermM's secret ghast egg supply) destory them. (¶ 3)

Finally, there are three new mobs for 1.11. Evokers should be uncatchable because they drop totems of undying; staff consensus seems to be against totems of undying being widely available. Vindicators and Vexes should be catchable, because why not? (¶ 4)


Notable 1.10 spawn eggs changes: (§ 3a)

Wither Skeletons were previously a variant of skeletons. Skeletons spawned in Nether Fortresses had an 80 % chance of spawning as wither skeletons. This allowed wither skull farming: Simply spawn skeletons in the nether fortress. This was made considerably easier with using a mob spawner. (¶ 1a)

In 1.10, wither skeletons are a separate mob type. (We apparently didn't notice in 1.10.) This means that spawning a skeleton in a nether fortress will never yield a wither skeleton. (At least, not from a mob spawner. Since beacons weren't selling, I had no need to farm wither skulls during the entire 1.10 era. Also, EggCatcher probably didn't support it, anyway.) Conversely, you can also now spawn wither skeletons in the overworld. (¶ 1b)

Pro: Allowing catching wither skeletons would continue allowing wither skull farming. Previously, most players were unaware that wither skulls were farmable, even though the 80 % thing was documented on the Wiki. Because wither skulls were farmable, not allowing wither skeletons to be catchable would be a regression. (¶ 1c)

Con: Allowing catching wither skeletons would also allow farming wither skulls from the Overworld, and make beacons a bit more common. (Pro: Nobody was buying beacons, anyway, so a massive flood of supply wouldn't seem to change much anyway.) (¶ 1d)

Note that whether or not wither skeletons should be catchable has never been previously discussed, as Minecraft itself did not support directly spawning wither skeletons without using special commands. (¶ 1e)

Elder Guardians were previously a variant of guardians. Guardians were catchable, and elder guardians were a non-renewable mob. (However, farming monument items from guardians is terribly slow using mob spawners, even if you have access to a quadruple spawner.) (¶ 2a)

Pro: Allowing catching elder guardians would allow users to place them near their base so they could have Mining Fatigue. Additionally, it would allow farming sponges, because elder guardians drop a small number of sponges on death. (¶ 2b)

Con: Allowing catching elder guardians would allow users to farm sponges, a previously rare resource. (At first, KermM had a monopoly on sponges, which he never capitalized on. Since then, tifreak8x has gotten the largest sponge supply, although oddly, he, too, does not seem to be selling/renting them?) (¶ 2c)

Note that whether or not elder guardians should be catchable has never been previously discussed, as Minecraft itself did not support directly spawning elder guardians without using special commands. (¶ 2d)


Other mobs: (§ 3b)

Blazes weren't catchable in 1.9. It appears that, during the 1.10 upgrade, they accidentally got enabled. (¶ 3a)

Pro: They're a good PvE mob, and drop blaze rods for making end rods. (¶ 3b)

Con: They weren't supposed to be catchable. I'm not sure why. But I suspect ACagliano wouldn't be happy about losing his semi-monopoly. (¶ 3c)

Creepers were not and are not catchable. I'm not sure why, but I suspect it's an anti-griefing measure. Perfectly sensible. (¶ 4)

Endermen were originally said to be catchable. I'm not sure why that changed. I must note, however, that mob spawners can't spawn endermen half as fast as tifreak8x's XP farm in the End does, so making them catchable wouldn't change much, since people always get their ender pearls and XP from the XP farm. (¶ 5)

Endermites and Silverfish aren't new, but I've no clue whether they were previously catchable. I don't see any harm in making them catchable. They don't drop anything special, and could be useful as PvE traps. (¶ 6)

Evokers are a new 1.11 mob. Upon death, they drop a Totem of Undying. (¶ 7a)

Pro: They're a great mob to add to PvE arenas. Furthermore, unlike sponges, elytra, and shulker boxes, totems of undying are single-use items; once you don't die, you lose the totem. (¶ 7b)

Con: The staff have previously indicated a desire to emphasize survival aspects of game play. Allowing evokers to be catchable would make totems of undying farmable, which would seem to contradict the emphasis on survival. (¶ 7c)

To me, it seems clear that evokers should not be catchable. However, the staff should also monitor the supply of totems of undying and how often woodland mansions appear, and force a woodland mansion to appear if they turn out to be extremely rare. But this is Minecraft, and I worry that we'll go six months without a woodland mansion, and then suddenly get three woodland mansions in the same abba world. (¶ 7d)

Ghasts were originally said to be uncatchable. They are currently. I'm not sure what prompted the change. My guess is that somebody confused the endermen and ghast catch rates. (¶ 8a)

Pro: Allows farming ghast tears, and allows trolling KermM in the overworld. (¶ 8b)

Con: Allows farming ghast tears, and allows trolling KermM in the overworld. (¶ 8c)

Llamas are a new 1.11 passive mob. Previously, all passive mobs have been catchable. Why change that now? (¶ 9)

Shulkers are not a new mob. Their catchability hinges primarily on the merits of farming shulker shells. However, I note that their Levitation debuff is a fun mechanic, and I'd hate to see PvE arenas not have access to that. (¶ 10)

Slimes have a 100 % catch rate. This means that, when mining a slime chunk, the easiest way to deal with the slimes is to egg them. This seems at odds with the reason skeletons and zombies don't have a 100 % catch rate. (¶ 11)

Strays were introduced as a variant of skeletons. They can drop a tipped arrow of slowness on death. (¶ 12a)

Pro: Skeletons were catchable, so strays should be too. (¶ 12b)

Con: You might want to prevent farming of arrows of slowness, although I'm not sure why. (¶ 12c)

Vexes are a new 1.11 mob. They don't drop anything special. (¶ 13a)

Pro: They'd make a great addition to PvE arenas, especially since evokers are almost certain to be uncatchable, and 90 % of the fun of fighting evokers is due to them summoning vexes. (¶ 13b)

Con: You hate vexes? (¶ 13c)

Vindicators are a new 1.11 mob. They don't drop anything special. They can drop an emerald, and can drop an ax. You can also name them Johnny to make them fight other mobs, which is kind of neat. (¶ 14a)

Pro: In a PvE arena, they can function as a sort of harder variant of zombies. (¶ 14b)

Con: Heeere's Johnny! (¶ 14c)

Zombie Villagers got their own spawn egg in 1.10. They can be converted into regular villagers. (¶ 15a)

Pro: In a PvE arena, they can function as a sort of variant of zombies. (¶ 15b)

Con: Braaains. (¶ 15c)

The poll as currently phrased is a really unfortunate one, because I agree with just about every single item you list with one exception, (g). Details below:

(a) Forbid catching of Wither Skeletons, but (b) make an exception for my single wither skull farm in the nether. ((a2) Consider using wither skeleton spawn eggs as event prizes.) I can agree to this.
(c) Forbid catching of Elder Guardians, in keeping with previous policy. ((c2) Consider using elder guardian spawn eggs as event prizes.) Strongly agreed, because I don't think sponges should be a ubiquitous item to keep the fun and challenge of finding Monuments in Abba worlds.
(d) Keep Shulkers uncatchable, but (e) allow Rivereye to farm them, because he previously won a shulker spawn egg. Give him a second shulker spawn egg, because the first didn't take. Agreed. I have something I made and schematized to make it possible to get more shulker shells than currently exist, and will try to release as an event for this weekend.
(f) In the future, when spawn eggs are given as prizes, always give at least two, due to the bug with mob spawners not accepting mob changes the first time. All prizes will be (multiples of) 2 spawn eggs from now on for this reason.
(g) Change Endermen to catchable. Disagree.
(h) Change Blazes and (i) Ghasts back to uncatchable. Agree.
(j) Confiscate unauthorized (j1) blaze, (j2) ghast, and (j3) wither skeleton eggs, (j4) without penalty to users. (k) Order unauthorized (k1) blaze, (k2) ghast, and (k3) wither skeleton mob spawners changed back to a catchable mob. Agreed
(L) Keep (L1) Strays and (L2) Zombie Villagers catchable. I see no reason why not. Agree.
(m) Keep/make Evokers uncatchable. Based on your justifications, agree.
(n) Allow catching (n1) Vexes and (n2) Vindicators. Agree, since they don't drop anything interesting.

I voted no bc of point J. First, let me preface this by saying I'll respect whatever the consensus is, but here's my thoughts. Some players have monopolies set up based on some farmable goods based on spawners (iron, guardians, blazes). We have all spent time and resources to create these farms and create signshops to sell them. Now, with this proposed change, some players are having some of their primary income sources completely destroyed, while others aren't, based completely off of some technicalities. When you do changes like this, I believe players should be compensated in some way if they are forced to change their economy. The verbiage of "without penalty" in that point makes it seem like doing something that was not in violation of any rules at the time it was done should be "penalized".

So I promise an amendment to that point that would work something like this. We decide on a retroactive date to a spawner change. A player that has changed a spawner a long time ago and built up an economy that is based on something we are changing and has had this this way for a long time is able to keep it, without penalty. Any spawners changed after that retroactive date must be reset to something catchable. A good retroactive date would be the date the discussion topic was actually first posted here.

Edit: I do agree that all eggs that are made uncatchable should be surrendered

Interesting. I came to the conclusion that this was a mistake because I didn't see any discussion about it. If this was previously discussed, can you post a link to that discussion?

As a collorary, the spawner may no longer be available for other uses. If anybody changed it, an admin would have to change it back. Alternatively, would you (the staff) allow me to keep a supply of wither skeleton eggs for making sure that I can revert it? The prohibition on me and other users setting up other spawners would still apply (per (j)). The eggs would be kept in a nearby chest (possibly a chestshop, e.g. set up to sell dirt blocks), so staff could check egg withdraws using logblock.

So to be clear, that's two questions: Can the spawner in question no longer be used for other purposes if I want to continue to farm wither skulls there? And do I get to keep some wither skeleton spawn eggs for the exclusive purpose of reverting the spawner back to wither skeleton spawning?

Which players would be affected? You already have the blaze semi-monopoly. Did you set up a wither skeleton skull farm and/or ghast tear farm a long time ago? Regardless, the proposal doesn't mention confiscation of blaze rods, wither skeleton skulls, and ghast tears. I figured we'd handle those on a case-by-case basis. For example, if you farmed a ton of blaze rods, wither skeleton skulls, and ghast tears right after reading this topic, then we might say you need to surrender those assets because you appear to have farmed them in bad faith.

I didn't mean to imply such a thing, but rather, specifically to imply the opposite. For me, I knew something was up when I accidentally egged a blaze, and I knew they weren't supposed to be eggable. An argument could be made, therefore, that if I had since set up a blaze farm, I should get a penalty for acting in bad faith. The without-penalty phrase was intended to give no-questions-asked forgiveness for everybody with unauthorized eggs. This allows users to ask for the aforementioned case-by-case discussion for their specific circumstances, without worrying about whether they'll be penalized. For example, if I had farmed a bunch of blaze rods before this topic, knowing full well I wasn't supposed to be able to make my own blaze rod farm, I wouldn't be banned (a permaban or tempban would be a punitive penalty), but I might required to surrender the blaze rods (which is not, in my view, a punishment per se).

Ah. Well my concern is that obviously if my blaze spawner was forced to be reset, I would eventually run out of sellable merchandise and lose my main income source. I created my blaze farm within like a month or two of the server starting, if memory serves.

Now I do also have a wither skeleton farm that i created when i realized the egg had changed, before reading the topic about not allowing that egg to be caught. So in that case, I'd be more than happy to surrender that stuff and reset the spawner (I already have reset the spawner to zombies). I do feel tho that my blaze farm is a slightly different case.


That's a fair argument. I suppose I read that point the opposite of how it was intended. But I could counter that unless you're up on what's "supposed to be" catchable, you would have no way of knowing that's not supposed to be a thing. When I created my blaze farm, I thought there were only two mobs you couldn't catch.. creepers (anti-griefing) and endermen (they teleport when hit). So I wasn't trying to actually exploit anything. Just my two cents. But like I said, I'll go with whatever the end decision is regarding these things.

I think the non-punative point DrDnar was making fits precisely into what you're talking about with those two points. If someone started from scratch on the server (eg, at the beginning of 1.9, or now at 1.11), there would be no precedent for what were "correct" rules, and they wouldn't know it was wrong to exploit some mistake. But if someone has been on the server for a long time, and suddenly you can egg and farm a valuable mob, or duplicate diamond blocks, or you find 10,000 blocks of Lapis ore hidden underground, without any discussion having taken place about a change in rules (since we do try to be democratic!), I believe most of our players have the integrity to say "hey, did something go wrong, or did you intend to change the rules"?

(a) Forbid catching of Wither Skeletons, but (b) make an exception for my single wither skull farm in the nether. ((a2) Consider using wither skeleton spawn eggs as event prizes.) As long as the playerbase itself can effectively gather the skulls, I am alright with this.
(c) Forbid catching of Elder Guardians, in keeping with previous policy. ((c2) Consider using elder guardian spawn eggs as event prizes. I want to lean to disagree on this. I know Elder Guardians can be a pain to move around and egg would be handy (Kerm can probably confirm this), but maybe we make it so that Elder Guardians are not allowed to be placed in spawners, and of course, no stealing/killing of Elder Guardians that are already up. I also believe this should be an exception to the 2egg minimum prize rule.
(d) Keep Shulkers uncatchable, but (e) allow Rivereye to farm them, because he previously won a shulker spawn egg. Give him a second shulker spawn egg, because the first didn't take.As long as the shulker shells can be had on a fairly regular basis (maybe find a way to make them Accessible in Abba?) I am fine. There are some neat designs I am seeing out there with Shulker Boxes for a new storage system)
(f) In the future, when spawn eggs are given as prizes, always give at least two, due to the bug with mob spawners not accepting mob changes the first time. Agreed, unless we decide the mobs should not be placed into a spawner (see my Elder Guardian post
(g) Change Endermen to catchable. Not sure if it matters. Endermen run away from projectiles. Either way, no real need. Their only drop is super easily accessible to players that only need to go out to the end and swing a sword a few times.
(h) Change Blazes and (i) Ghasts back to uncatchable. Undecided. I have thought of a few places I could use a ghast or two for an actual purpose outside of being destructive
(j) Confiscate unauthorized (j1) blaze, (j2) ghast, and (j3) wither skeleton eggs, (j4) without penalty to users. Disagree. Unless there is a way to find out which eggs are authorized and unauthorized, we can remove eggs that have been won in previous matches. I know I have a ghast egg or two I won and would hate to loose. Again, see thoughts on eggs not allowed in spawners
(k) Order unauthorized (k1) blaze, (k2) ghast, and (k3) wither skeleton mob spawners changed back to a catcable mob.I would keep at least one blaze farm in the Nether. They are a natural spawn there. The wither skeleton can go either way, as we can build a farm using platforms in the nether fortress if need be. No need for ghast farms
(L) Keep (L1) Strays and (L2) Zombie Villagers catchable.Agreed
(m) Keep/make Evokers uncatchable.Agreed, unless we can change the loot table of the mob, then no reason to leave them uncatchable
(n) Allow catching (n1) Vexes and (n2) Vindicators.Agreed

(a) Forbid catching of Wither Skeletons, but (b) make an exception for my single wither skull farm
(a) neutral.
(b) Strongly disagree.
I've been retyping this sentence a few times now so I'll just give an analogy to make my point clear.
For example, let's say we ban iron farms. This would be fair if it was banned for the whole server. But, I have already built a big iron farm before the change, and I don't want it removed, so then the rules exclude existing iron farms. But what have we got now? Sure, we wouldn't have a monopoly since you can just go dig down for some iron, but still there is an inequality between seniors and newer players. How will you explain this to new people? "No you can't build an iron farm even though they have one because they built theirs early. You can just buy iron from them, or mine your own."
And even if all existing iron farms were forced to become public farms, I would still have one right next to my house. I can just walk 20 meters and get all the iron I need while others would have to go much further. I can also put a shop next to that farm, and get all the traffic from people passing by.

What I'm trying to say is that if new rules are created, everyone should abide them, no exceptions for seniority. So if wither skeleton eggs are banned, then no one should have a farm, if they are allowed, then anyone may create their own spawner.

Just because a farm relied on a quirk in 1.10 doesn't mean it should be kept alive in future updates.

If however you do obtain a witherskele spawn egg through an event then you get a 'right to farm' so to speak. At which point it is okay to create a wther skele spawner.

(c) Forbid catching of Elder Guardians, in keeping with previous policy. ((c2) Consider using elder guardian spawn eggs as event prizes.)
I agree with this, I don't have high stakes in this discussions so I'll just go with whichever outcome.

(d) Keep Shulkers uncatchable, but (e) allow Rivereye to farm them, because he previously won a shulker spawn egg. Give him a second shulker spawn egg, because the first didn't take.
(d) and (e) Agreed.
While this case is similar to (b), I would allow this, since event prizes are more seen as a 'right to farm' than as individual entity eggs. Rivereye can have the exclusive 'right to farm' shulkers and so should anyone who wins a shulker egg in the future.

(f) In the future, when spawn eggs are given as prizes, always give at least two, due to the bug with mob spawners not accepting mob changes the first time.
Technicalities, see (e) for 'right to farm' as opposed to 'getting a spawn egg'

(g) Change Endermen to catchable.
Agreed.

(h) Change Blazes and (i) Ghasts back to uncatchable.
Disagree, but this is just an opinion.

(j) Confiscate unauthorized (j1) blaze, (j2) ghast, and (j3) wither skeleton eggs, (j4) without penalty to users. (k) Order unauthorized (k1) blaze, (k2) ghast, and (k3) wither skeleton mob spawners changed back to a catchable mob.
This loops right back around to (b), (h) and (i) therefore disagree.

(L) Keep (L1) Strays and (L2) Zombie Villagers catchable.
Agreed.

(m) Keep/make Evokers uncatchable.
Agreed, although again 'right to farm' prizes for events.

(n) Allow catching (n1) Vexes and (n2) Vindicators.
Agreed.

Thank you for your comments. I'm sure Kerm and comic will appreciate them greatly when making their final determination. I'm disappointed, however, to see that comicIDIOT, tifreak8x, and LittleMoonBeam have yet to weigh in.

I see your point. However, revoking the spawner I had set up during 1.9 (not 1.10; 1.10 broke it and I didn't notice) would cause a regression; it would break something that worked when the server started in 1.9. So I'd like to suggest a better rule: only mob spawners located in a nether fortress may be set to spawn wither skeletons, unless you won wither skeleton spawn eggs in an event. This would preserve the 1.9 restriction that wither skeletons could only spawn in nether fortresses, while allowing the new 1.10 feature to be taken advantage of at a later date. So if somebody were to win a mob spawner block in an event and placed it in a nether fortress, they would have a right to demand an admin set the spawner to wither skeletons. This rule would not be applied after a map reset; at that time, the catchability of wither skeletons would be revisited, and if decided against, no wither skeleton farms would initially be possible.

Mostly because I've got long work days between two jobs and wanted to get more player feedback before responding.

Anyways, I'm here now since I've had some time to read responses and mull it over.

(s1a,b,c,f) I can agree to this. Eggs given/found as prizes should be allowed to be used freely, such as for a farm. I've already told Rivereye I'd given him his egg back plus another so he can farm whatever it that it was. Going forward, I firmly believe that egg prizes should be no more than 2. If those two eggs don't create the associated mob spawner then too bad. Maybe that mob egg will be in the next event.

(s1d,e) I'm personally kinda bummed that Shulkers aren't a repopulated mob in the Nether but in spirit of the first three points, I can agree to this too.

(s1g)

(s1h,i,j,m,n) I agree.

Think of it this way. He didn't cheat the server rules or plugin mishaps to get a Wither. He won an egg as a prize and successfully set up a mob spawner with it. I don't think it's fair for us, the admins, to renege on our prizes. We wouldn't have given it as a prize had we not wanted users to use them in a clever manner. DrDnar set that farm up fair and square as far as I'm concerned, what he does with the eggs he found is his business.

It's always a possibility that Wither eggs (and Shulkers and other mobs) will be a prize in the future.



Not really the same argument. Golems are a mob that spawns naturally and the game can be tricked into thinking it's spawning a Golem in a town by exploiting the amount of doors and Villagers. We certainly will - and have - ask users to scale back the size of their iron farms if it's effecting server performance.



"That user won an egg as a prize and successfully set up a mob spawner with it."



It's not the eggs we're banning. We're just setting Wither Skeletons [back?] to uncatchable.

(s2p1) Maybe, instead of setting the catchable rate to 0%, we set it to 1%. I don't know if fractions of percents are possible but that way if a user was determined or lucky, they could catch a mob.

(s3ap6) Sure, sounds fair.

(s3ap7c) Seconded. They'd make for a great prize

(s3ap9) Likely because we haven't updated the EggCatcher YML file.

(s3ap10,11,12,13,14,15) Fair.

It seems to me that consensus is forming on the following, and these changes should be made immediately:

• (alpha) Set Wither Skeleton catch rate to 0 %.
• (beta) Set Elder Guardian catch rate to 0 %.
• (gamma) Set Blaze and Ghast catch rates to 0 %.
• (delta) Set Stray catch rate to Skeleton catch rate.
• (epsilon) Set Zombie Villager catch rate to Zombie catch rate.
• (zeta) Set Vex and Vindicator catch rates to, oh, 50 %.
• (eta) Change Endermen catch rate to > 0 % (probably 100 %).
• (theta) Check that Evoker catch rate is 0 %.
• (iota) Post the catch rates for all mobs, plzkthx.
• (kappa) Give another Shulker spawn egg to Rivereye.
• (lambda) Don't forget to give spawn eggs in pairs.
• (mu) Inform users about the rule change for Blaze, Ghast, and Wither Skeleton spawn eggs.

The following requires further discussion:

• Should ACagliano be required to move his Blaze farm into the Nether? He originally planned to make one in the Nether using a spawner, then noticed Blazes were catchable, and built one in the Overworld instead. He has claim to the Nether spawner.
• Should my Wither Skeleton farm in the Nether be removed? See prior discussion.
• Discuss catch rates for Strays, Zombie Villagers, Endermen, Vexes, and Vindicators if you disagree with my suggested values.
• Determine who had previously won Blaze and Ghast spawn eggs. As we may not be able to find records, some amount of honor-system will apply.
• Discuss comic's excellent proposal for 1 % catch rates for Wither Skeletons, and possibly Elder Guardians.

Sounds fair.

I, too, would like to see Shulkers in the Nether, not just the End!

Perhaps I was unclear. I never won a Wither Skeleton spawn egg. In 1.9, I configured a mob spawner in the Nether to spawn Skeletons. Since Skeletons spawned in a nether fortress had an 80 % chance of being spawned as Wither Skeletons, I effectively had the same thing as a Wither Skeleton spawner, just 20 % less effective. In 1.10, this set up no long works because Wither Skeletons have a different spawn egg.

So, the justification for point (b) is that Wither Skeleton spawners should be allowed in nether fortresses because they were effectively allowed in 1.9; it's a no-code patch to address a breaking change. As a corollary, anybody who owns a mob spawner in a nether fortress should be able to create one. However, there's only two, and the second is used for spawning Blazes, which are also uncatchable. Thus, there's no need for admins to come around to give out new Wither Skeleton spawn eggs to users in the Nether because there's just the two of us and we're not changing our spawners. (Both spawners were originally set to spawn Blazes, so no exception is needed for the other, because it was never changed.)

Or maybe I misunderstood you, and you were just saying the claiming a spawner in the Nether is like winning a prize.

"The user claimed the spawner in 1.9, and used it for Wither Skeleton farming when it was possible to use a spawner set to spawn regular Skeletons to farm Wither Skeletons."

Haha, I actually love this idea. It think it's a particularly good idea for Wither Skeletons, since they move around a lot more than Elder Guardians. "You can catch this mob, but it's going to be a PITA."

As far as I know, they haven't been set to uncatchable. There hasn't been any anywhere yet to catch. I was just saying, it should be official that they're catchable.