Along the lines of automating farming... I thought of automating farm animal production. Earlier I had suggested modifying a dispenser to be used as a 'Seeder', and I started thinking, if only you could use the dispenser to feed animals.
It occurred to me that if the (Passive, and Wild Passive) Mobs could pick up and eat, a sheaf of wheat, or un-planted seeds, or a bone, or meat, or fish, etc.
Then you could use dispensers/droppers as animal feeders for automated animal husbandry/healing.
Scratch that, now the idea is:
To allow animals to be able to feed from the output port of a Hopper (if there is food in it for that animal and the output port doesn't feed into another block)
That's a good idea in general. Why shouldn't animals react to a dropped, as well as held, item?
It might be better to have a % chance of the food item initiating breeding rather than guaranteed, as it is when you feed it to them, more for game balance than anything.
Unsure about the ground items, but the dispenser part would be nice. Dropped items isn't the reason for the dispenser to work. It is because you yourself can use them.
I can see a lot of problems with the dropped part of the idea. Nothing like farming and having a cow/sheep run over to annoy you when you are just simply trying to harvest wheat. Have enough problems with planting seeds, and the chickens getting in the way. Of course this is in the beginning before I have actually made pods/sections for things.
The only thing I would even support is the idea of the dispenser modification to allow feeding of animals. As I don't see anything wrong with that, it seems feasible, since it would seem like a food trough.
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I actually like the idea of the cows and chickens messing with you (if you didn't bother to segregate them and pen them off) in response to you farming (and not catching everything as you go).
Relying on the dispenser specifically to deliver food items would mean an additional level of complexity where you would have to check IF there was an animal in front of you before you dispensed, and even then, there wouldn't be much guarantee that the animal would be 'hungry' at the time (full health and either in breeding mode, too young to breed, or just recently breed).
Dropping to the ground and having the animals that are nearby and notice, scramble for the food, would add an amusing (and sometimes challenging) aspect to the game. I had originally thought of it being specifically a function of the dispenser, but had rejected that line of thought for the reasons stated above and came up with the item drop idea instead.
I was thinking about this idea again, and if passive MOB's picking up and eating dropped wheat/carrots/seeds/etc. from the ground is objectionable. since the Hopper should be on the horizon, maybe a tweak to the Hopper such that if it's output is set to open air, and the food item is available for that passive MOB, (and they are ready to enter love mode ... or in need of healing), then the Passive MOB can feed from the Hopper if they are near the Hopper's output side.
Perhaps a block they could eat (when placed)? For example, when hay bales come out, they could be edited to be able to provide a mighty feast for sheep and cows. But what to make with carrots?
The point of the suggestion was to have a way to automate feeding using a redstone architecture, and although that is technically possible with sticky and normal pistons with what you proposed, i don't think that having 'placed blocks' that can be destroyed by passive MOB's are too likely to get into the game, because the nature of the game at it's core is a sandbox/build game. If the hay bale hasn't been placed yet (in the Java Version), it can be feed as an item, but that doesn't address the original point of this suggestion, as it still requires a player to manually feed the animal directly.
Perhaps a block they could eat (when placed)? For example, when hay bales come out, they could be edited to be able to provide a mighty feast for sheep and cows. But what to make with carrots?
How about a trough? You could put, left trigger to fill it, or place a dispenser behind it (And in later versions, a dropper) and it would fill the trough with different types of food. Every few minutes, an animal might walk over to it to eat.
The only problem with this that animals might breed excessively. You would need to control the amounts food you put into the trough.
I did too, but a few people didn't like the ideas:
1: of an item being dropped and if not eaten, item will eventually time out and disappear.
2. if animals were enabled to eat dropped items, this would impact other areas where there were farming or flooding involved, and animals may eat drops you don't want them too.
How about a trough? You could put, left trigger to fill it, or place a dispenser behind it (And in later versions, a dropper) and it would fill the trough with different types of food. Every few minutes, an animal might walk over to it to eat.
The only problem with this that animals might breed excessively. You would need to control the amounts food you put into the trough.
Using the Hopper as a feeder/trough makes sense in that no new item has to be added to MC in order to make it work. Hoppers are intrinsically designed collect items handed to it and to then hand-off items to other blocks, so why not extend this to MOB entities as well. It even sort of looks like a trough when you look at it from the top.
Feeding can be controlled by redstone mechanics to control when food is loaded into the feeder hopper. Such that players would have to be responsible in controlling excessive breeding issues.
I did too, but a few people didn't like the ideas:
1: of an item being dropped and if not eaten, item will eventually time out and disappear.
2. if animals were enabled to eat dropped items, this would impact other areas where there were farming or flooding involved, and animals may eat drops you don't want them too.
Using the Hopper as a feeder/trough makes sense in that no new item has to be added to MC in order to make it work. Hoppers are intrinsically designed collect items handed to it and to then hand-off items to other blocks, so why not extend this to MOB entities as well. It even sort of looks like a trough when you look at it from the top.
I do like your original "animals eat dropped items idea", I support that. I suggested the trough because witherwarrior suggested place-able food blocks.
As for the hoppers, I don't know if all those mechanics might work out, because hoppers usually pick up from the top, and give out to chests. I think that there should be a trough as a more specific and aesthetic block.
... hoppers usually pick up from the top, and give out to chests.
Actually, hoppers give out direction-ally depending on the position of the bottom spout (either down or to one of the cardinal sides), and it feeds into much more than chests, to include furnaces, furnace carts, chest carts, other hoppers, etc. This mechanic 'could' be applied to other in game objects (such as MOB's).
I don't object to a new trough for feeding purposes, maybe roughly the size of a half slab block, I'm just saying that it isn't required to add a new block when another block could be used to serve in this function. Aesthetically, I'd prefer a separate trough block, but seeing as 4J may be more amenable to adding functionality to existing blocks over adding whole new blocks that would require a new block ID and all...I'm willing to settle for the more practical option.
It occurred to me that if the (Passive, and Wild Passive) Mobs could pick up and eat, a sheaf of wheat, or un-planted seeds, or a bone, or meat, or fish, etc.Then you could use dispensers/droppers as animal feeders for automated animal husbandry/healing.Scratch that, now the idea is:
To allow animals to be able to feed from the output port of a Hopper (if there is food in it for that animal and the output port doesn't feed into another block)
It might be better to have a % chance of the food item initiating breeding rather than guaranteed, as it is when you feed it to them, more for game balance than anything.
Definitely a good idea, though. Support.
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I can see a lot of problems with the dropped part of the idea. Nothing like farming and having a cow/sheep run over to annoy you when you are just simply trying to harvest wheat. Have enough problems with planting seeds, and the chickens getting in the way. Of course this is in the beginning before I have actually made pods/sections for things.
The only thing I would even support is the idea of the dispenser modification to allow feeding of animals. As I don't see anything wrong with that, it seems feasible, since it would seem like a food trough.
Relying on the dispenser specifically to deliver food items would mean an additional level of complexity where you would have to check IF there was an animal in front of you before you dispensed, and even then, there wouldn't be much guarantee that the animal would be 'hungry' at the time (full health and either in breeding mode, too young to breed, or just recently breed).
Dropping to the ground and having the animals that are nearby and notice, scramble for the food, would add an amusing (and sometimes challenging) aspect to the game. I had originally thought of it being specifically a function of the dispenser, but had rejected that line of thought for the reasons stated above and came up with the item drop idea instead.
How about a trough? You could put, left trigger to fill it, or place a dispenser behind it (And in later versions, a dropper) and it would fill the trough with different types of food. Every few minutes, an animal might walk over to it to eat.
The only problem with this that animals might breed excessively. You would need to control the amounts food you put into the trough.
I did too, but a few people didn't like the ideas:
1: of an item being dropped and if not eaten, item will eventually time out and disappear.
2. if animals were enabled to eat dropped items, this would impact other areas where there were farming or flooding involved, and animals may eat drops you don't want them too.
Using the Hopper as a feeder/trough makes sense in that no new item has to be added to MC in order to make it work. Hoppers are intrinsically designed collect items handed to it and to then hand-off items to other blocks, so why not extend this to MOB entities as well. It even sort of looks like a trough when you look at it from the top.
Feeding can be controlled by redstone mechanics to control when food is loaded into the feeder hopper. Such that players would have to be responsible in controlling excessive breeding issues.
I do like your original "animals eat dropped items idea", I support that. I suggested the trough because witherwarrior suggested place-able food blocks.
As for the hoppers, I don't know if all those mechanics might work out, because hoppers usually pick up from the top, and give out to chests. I think that there should be a trough as a more specific and aesthetic block.
Actually, hoppers give out direction-ally depending on the position of the bottom spout (either down or to one of the cardinal sides), and it feeds into much more than chests, to include furnaces, furnace carts, chest carts, other hoppers, etc. This mechanic 'could' be applied to other in game objects (such as MOB's).
I don't object to a new trough for feeding purposes, maybe roughly the size of a half slab block, I'm just saying that it isn't required to add a new block when another block could be used to serve in this function. Aesthetically, I'd prefer a separate trough block, but seeing as 4J may be more amenable to adding functionality to existing blocks over adding whole new blocks that would require a new block ID and all...I'm willing to settle for the more practical option.