Just wondering how big you can make an outdoor animal pen before Animals start despawning and spawning inside them. In case you dont follow, I've built a Barn thats about 17X30 which is placed inside of a fenced in "pasture" about 60x80 or so. After I bred about 10 or so cows inside the fenced in area, I noticed pigs and sheep spawning inside the pasture with the cows. Then I noticed cows beginning to despawn and soon the whole thing was pointless. (I only wanted cows inside this area. Sheep go elsewhere)
I understand most people just keep the animals inside the barn but that isnt very realistic as dairy and beef cows need to graze...duh. So my question is how big can I make the pasture (fenced off area) outside of the barn before the game just thinks its another piece of land.
If an animal can't move more than 20 blocks in any direction, it shouldn't despawn.
Thanks for confirming the distance, padware. As you might be aware, I've been experimenting with this for awhile now. I have had some animals despawn from areas smaller than 20 blocks though - approx. 9 x 9 and once from a 5 x 7; but I have noted that it is a sporadic thing then, rather than the consistant despawning noted from the larger pens. Could the explanation for the disappearances from the smaller pens be that the animals are taking damage somehow, either from each other or by bumping into the fences? With the smaller pens, I also have quite a time with animals respawning upon re-entry into the game on the wrong side of the fence (i.e. either in an adjacent pen or outside the pens altogether. Is there a way to prevent this?
OP - As for wild animals spawning inside the pens, it happens all the time. I think it can happen if there is even one block of free grass inside the pen area, which is almost impossible to avoid having. I just go into the pens occasionally with my sword and cull the intruders.
I appreciate the replies. As for the theory about the animals somehow getting through the fence I can tell you right now its nothing to do with that. I now keep them in the barn where 10 - 15 cows are constantly pressing up against the fence and they never make it through. Also, I personally saw a pig and a cow despawn from the area from quite a distance away.
Im almost certain its the sheer size of the pen thats making them despawn. I just wish as soon as you fenced in an area, the game would recognize that as "domesticated" or something along those lines and would stop spawning/despawning animals inside of it.
I appreciate the replies. As for the theory about the animals somehow getting through the fence I can tell you right now its nothing to do with that. I now keep them in the barn where 10 - 15 cows are constantly pressing up against the fence and they never make it through. Also, I personally saw a pig and a cow despawn from the area from quite a distance away.
Im almost certain its the sheer size of the pen thats making them despawn. I just wish as soon as you fenced in an area, the game would recognize that as "domesticated" or something along those lines and would stop spawning/despawning animals inside of it.
I'm sure padware's response is completely accurate. He's an executive at 4J. I was throwing in the other because I have had some animals disappear from smaller pens as well. Also, I have eye-witnessed many of the respawns on the wrong side of the fence.
Yesterday I decided to start an experiment. I now have 5 different pens (fenced off areas) each with a single sheep in it, which I have dyed yellow to ensure that it's a unique animal (ie not an animal that despawned and respawned). The 5 pens range from 3x3 to 7x7. I will be going about my business in the game and checking them occasionally to see if they despawn. If they don't, I'll keep adding new pens at larger sizes until I see a despawn (or they become too large to build!).
Padware's comment is interesting though and may well explain most of my disappearing animal problems. I wish I'd known about the pen size before I spent all that time building my previous pen and herding all the animals in there.
Confirmed today that animals do not despawn when placed in a 20x20 pen. I placed 8 pigs inside of a 20x20 (it actually might be 19 by 20) and none have disappeared after a few days and lots of time spent away from the area.
Based on padware's comment, in theory a 22x22 (20x20 movable space) pen should be the maximum theoretical size. I'll build a 3x22 and 3x23 pen in my world and see if an animal in the 3x23 pen despawns.
In all my testing it had nothing to do with the amount of blocks an animal can move but more so how many blocks between you and the animals. If I moved more then 20 blocks from the animals they begun to spawn and despawn. This is total odd behavior next to the PC version. My guess is that 4J modified the behavior to increase animal population but in the process broke it. If I pen and breed animals on the PC they remain where they are no matter how far i travel from them, however i don't get a massive amount of animals spawning in each chunk like i do on the xbox. I can kill them all, enter my house come back out and there is a crapload of new animals ready for the slaughter.
I am not sure if this can happen but one time I went to sleep during a thunderstorm, then when I waked up and checked on my barn, the gray sheep I once had wasn't there and there was just gray wool. I am not sure but I think it was lightning. It was on creative peaceful
ive never had a problem with despawning animals in my village i have a pig pen a wolf/dog pen and a cow/mooshroom pen and not a single one of them has ever despawned
currently animals can still exit the pens *fences* however in the TU8 update this problem will be fixed
No.... His pens are too large, even look at what padware said. And if you still experience this bug, dig a hole 3 blocks deep, and a fence around it, your animals can't escape it.
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Update from my own testing: I had a sheep vanish from a 7x7 fenced area (5x5 inside area, which is 25 blocks). I have not lost any sheep from my 3x3, 4x4, 5x5 or 6x6 fenced areas.
I've already told you from time to time passive animals like aggressive mobs will despawn unless you stay within 20/24 blocks of them. The further you go the more likely they are to despawn as you will also notice new mobs being born all around you both passive and aggressive.
The only exception to the rule seems to be with chickens that are on a small 2x2 or 3x3 pool of water. I've had 5 chickens in a pen of water for ages and always seem to be there whenever i return. Granted some of the animals seem to be flagged and saved but the next time they too are gone.
The only way we've managed to keep them around is to have someone close by.
I've also had animals vanish from 10x10 sized pens, and I personally witnessed a group of pigs clustering themselves against a fence so hard that one of them glitched through it. For the moment I've given up on breeding animals, as all my houses seem to have tons of them around at all times anyway.
Tamed wolves don't despawn, do they? If not then a good solution to animals despawning would be to flag them as tamed. Any animal the player attempts to breed (by feeding it wheat) could be flagged in a similar fashion to a tamed wolf. This would have no effect except to prevent that animal from despawning. Animals the player has never used for breeding (and are not the resultof breeding themselves) would continue to spawn and despawn normally.
Tamed wolves won't despawn, but animals you have breed will still despawn under the right circumstances.
Right. I'm saying 4J should change that and keep animals that have been used for breeding from despawning along the same lines as tamed wolves. This would fix the despawning problem. To keep animals just breed them once.
I have a hunch that animals are stored in an array that controls the number of animals in any given area. Let's say the xbox can keep track of 10 animals in an area (that number is probably way off - but helpful for illustration). Now if the game spawns 10 animals in that area, the amount is full. Then, you lure more animals in or breed some more animals. The game already had animals in the first 10 spots, now you've added animals to spots 11, 12, 13, etc. I think that as long as you are within 20 blocks those animals won't despawn, but when you go further away the game despawns animals above it's limit. The animals in spots 1-10 are fine but your animals are now in spots 11-13 or whatever and they get despawned.
Now, if you lure / breed animals and then kill any animals in the area things change. Instead of your animals being in spots 11, 12, 13... they now take the spots freed up by killing the other animals and become 6, 7, 8 or whatever. They are now within the limit and will not despawn.
I have a pen of chickens, a pen of cows and pigs, and another pen of sheep. I had huge despawn problems (as in all my animals disappearing) until I killed other passive mobs in the area. Now I'm pretty sure I haven't lost any. Whenever I breed I go around and kill other passive mobs. This seems to work. The other helpful thing about this is that I haven't actually needed my animals for food because I always get enough killing the "wild" ones.
Maybe it's just a coincidence, but it has worked for me.
I understand most people just keep the animals inside the barn but that isnt very realistic as dairy and beef cows need to graze...duh. So my question is how big can I make the pasture (fenced off area) outside of the barn before the game just thinks its another piece of land.
Thanks for your time
Thanks for confirming the distance, padware. As you might be aware, I've been experimenting with this for awhile now. I have had some animals despawn from areas smaller than 20 blocks though - approx. 9 x 9 and once from a 5 x 7; but I have noted that it is a sporadic thing then, rather than the consistant despawning noted from the larger pens. Could the explanation for the disappearances from the smaller pens be that the animals are taking damage somehow, either from each other or by bumping into the fences? With the smaller pens, I also have quite a time with animals respawning upon re-entry into the game on the wrong side of the fence (i.e. either in an adjacent pen or outside the pens altogether. Is there a way to prevent this?
OP - As for wild animals spawning inside the pens, it happens all the time. I think it can happen if there is even one block of free grass inside the pen area, which is almost impossible to avoid having. I just go into the pens occasionally with my sword and cull the intruders.
Im almost certain its the sheer size of the pen thats making them despawn. I just wish as soon as you fenced in an area, the game would recognize that as "domesticated" or something along those lines and would stop spawning/despawning animals inside of it.
I'm sure padware's response is completely accurate. He's an executive at 4J. I was throwing in the other because I have had some animals disappear from smaller pens as well. Also, I have eye-witnessed many of the respawns on the wrong side of the fence.
Guess a UFO came by.
Padware's comment is interesting though and may well explain most of my disappearing animal problems. I wish I'd known about the pen size before I spent all that time building my previous pen and herding all the animals in there.
No.... His pens are too large, even look at what padware said. And if you still experience this bug, dig a hole 3 blocks deep, and a fence around it, your animals can't escape it.
The only exception to the rule seems to be with chickens that are on a small 2x2 or 3x3 pool of water. I've had 5 chickens in a pen of water for ages and always seem to be there whenever i return. Granted some of the animals seem to be flagged and saved but the next time they too are gone.
The only way we've managed to keep them around is to have someone close by.
Right. I'm saying 4J should change that and keep animals that have been used for breeding from despawning along the same lines as tamed wolves. This would fix the despawning problem. To keep animals just breed them once.
Now, if you lure / breed animals and then kill any animals in the area things change. Instead of your animals being in spots 11, 12, 13... they now take the spots freed up by killing the other animals and become 6, 7, 8 or whatever. They are now within the limit and will not despawn.
I have a pen of chickens, a pen of cows and pigs, and another pen of sheep. I had huge despawn problems (as in all my animals disappearing) until I killed other passive mobs in the area. Now I'm pretty sure I haven't lost any. Whenever I breed I go around and kill other passive mobs. This seems to work. The other helpful thing about this is that I haven't actually needed my animals for food because I always get enough killing the "wild" ones.
Maybe it's just a coincidence, but it has worked for me.