First. Thank You for Minecraft. It's the best game ever.
I've pretty nuch abandoned animals farms altogether. (except for sheep, because I still need wool.)
This is not about new features, just about tweeking the ones we already have. I know this should likely go under bug report or feature request but was hoping for a more general discussion.
Please post your experience and how you think this should be addressed.
A Short History:
First there were animals, they come, they go, they ignore you;
but there was an endless supply and sheeps wool grew back so you alway travel with sheers, get them on your way, get em when you come back. There was never any shortage of wool.
Cruse the ocean and you could always find critters taking an extended swim. Sometimes a LOT of them.
There there was an update (TU6) Animals don't spawn any more, sheep wool doesn't grow back and
you cant breed more. Animals were pretty mich extincet in my world before I realized they did
not spawn any more. But you could build Animal traps, Enclose a VERY large area with dirt, put a fence
on the inside, they walk in and can't get back out. Go away for an extended period of time and
when you come back you are ready to harvest.
Then for Christmas we got the nearly bug free (TU7) (can you say sarcasm... I knew you could)
and were back to they come, they go, they come again, and again and OFTEN ignore you;
Then for what seems like no reason at all, they disapear. You can put them in a pen, breed them,
walk away and half of them are gone. Large Animal traps don't work; if the area is too large they just despawn. Small ones sort of work as long as you make a point to kill everthing that's not in your pen.
Breading also works as long as you make a point to kill everything that's not in a pen; except that eventually you don't see any more animals and your penned enimals start to disapear too. You try to bread more and get nothing. So you check the oceans and find nothing. You check the mountain sides and find DOZENS of animals stuck there. Taking your trusty bow, you again Kill Everything IN SITE.
And voile', animals start to breed again.
And what about (TU8)? If it has changed much I can't tell.
What's right:
1. Animal Breeding. (love it)
2. Leading animals with food (love it)
3. Animals don't migrate like lemings to the ocean.
What's wrong:
1. Penned animals despawning. (I've seen it happen right before)
2. Penned animals failing to breed without warning. (A wild animal should despawn when you breed more)
3. Unknown / undocumented caps on herd size that seems to be different between animals.
4. Sheep hair that does not grow back. (Wool has become WAY to hard to get without lots of time and effort.)
5. Animals spawning on mountain ledges. Given enough time, virtually all wild animals end up stuck
on mountains and are hard to find every where else on the map.
Suggested Fix:
1. Publish the max number of each animal type, max enclosure size, food needed for breeding with the "in game" documentaion.
2. Enclosed animals should NEVER despawn.
3. Animals only spawn on a flat square at least 3 x 3 in size. That will take care of most mountain problems.
4. To maintain the animal cap, breeding an animal should delete the oldest wild animal. More animals can be bread by adding additional pens up to the limit on the animal type. It should be possible to domesticate
every animal in the game this way.
5 Animals should only fail to breed when ALL animals have been domesticated
6. Sheep hair should grow back. Let us manually harvest grass with a sheer and feed to the the sheep to make it grow. I'm thinking that would be simpler to impliment and require fewer resources than making it time dependant. Growing grass would also give is a new use for bone meal.
Pretty sure sheep's wool has never regrown. That should be coming in the future.
If you want wool and easy way to do it is color parent sheep one of two different colors. When you breed them they will be one of the two adults colors. Wait until the offspring are full grown, then shear and kill them. I keep 8 sheep and breed 4 babies of different colors every day or so. You can shear the parents but since the wool doesn't regrow right now it makes it random what colors you get.
You also need to make sure that your penned animals can't move more than 20 meters in any direction.
Let me just say:
THANK. YOU.
for getting the voice out. I've been really ticked with these problems, and am glad someone finally put together the words to explain it.
+1
EDIT: Blackbear, the wool has regrown before. Actually, it still does now, but it just takes forever!
TU6 the animals did spawn, it was just at an extremely low rate...--_-- Plus it was the patch after 1.8.2 that upped the spawn again, not TU7. So spawning has been same since 1.8.2 patch. Well the spawn rate. unsure if the ocean thing was fixed or not, but them still wander around like lemmings.
What you are suggesting probably already exists in the game and possibly is what is causing the problem in the first place. There is no difference between penned and unpenned animals. No such thing as wild unless you are talking about wolves. All other passive mobs are the same, and right now all share the same Passive mob cap. It is the spawn rate at the moment I bet that is causing the despawning to some degree at the moment. I am sure that will be sorted out in a future update as then wool will most likely grow back.
One thing I do have to say is the spawning behavior I would like changed a bit so that an animal needs to have a 2x2 space to be able to spawn in order to circumvent the mountain stragglers... Well beyond the ones that fell/climbed down from the top of those mountains like the lemmings they are.
3x3 would be a bit excessive and would spawn similar to spiders, which I guess is ok, but still a bit extreme. If there is a 2x2 space ledge on the mountain, then it is likely to have a path leading up and/or down to it. It is rare for a 2x2 ledge, at least in my experience, to just be along like that with out a clear way up & down. it is mainly the 1 x # ledges that I seem to notice them spawn quite often on. I personally don't mind them spawning on a ledge but it at the moment is excessive. So 2x2 will at least cut that down quite a bit.
3x3 space would mean some worlds would not have animals spawning at all, since it is hilly and rugged, or too many trees all around for them to spawn. I have a few maps that I am fond of that are like that. I would have to travel to the other side of the map to see any spawn and lead them back in hopes that I make it alive while leading them. I am not a fan of flat land or too much plains/desert.
the main problem I have with animals is due to fences and doors... they have tendency to glitch through both, usually granted on save/exit now. Still see it, but from the looks of it that has been lessened to just that instead of crowding. Then again I have not had crowding problems yet.
can't think of anything else at the moment....hmm...
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
My First World, always getting back to is a pleasure I enjoy with each new update that brings in more things to add in.
As others have pointed out, sheep have never regrown their wool on the XBox. Obviously, the sheep you had thought regrown wool were newly spawned sheep after your sheared sheep had despawned.
I have been steadily killing animals in my TU7 and TU8 worlds (and I have the XP and many enchanted tools to prove this). They are still spawning in the same sorts of numbers as they did when the world was first created, so your statement about the spawning dwindling off is inaccurate. It is most likely that, over time, a number of the animals in your world have wandered underground and become trapped in sinkholes and caves or have spawned on small ledges on the sides of extreme hills.
Pens of the proper size actually work quite well.
I have yet to have an animal fail to breed when given wheat (wheat seeds for chickens).
Thank you for posting this!! I couldn't agree more.
I was thrilled when they introduced animal breeding, but the despawning issues made it impossible for me to keep any captive animals. It was a real bummer to watch my rainbow-colored sheep army disappear one by one.
The cliffside spawning issue is a huge problem as well. I have a few maps with a base built high in the mountains, and I've watched over time as the mountains around me started to look like Christmas trees decorated with bouncing animals. I used to run to plains or forest when I needed wool, or even an ocean, but now I just head straight to the tallest cliff because I know it will be covered with sheep. I only have to risk death by gravity to get to them.
I'd have to agree with most of this. I don't know if 3x3 is quite the answer, seems a bit large. But I'd rather give that a try than keep with the problem of stranded mobs on cliff sides. Either way I'm sure the problems will be ironed out eventually. I'd rather wait for a slow, methodical fix than I would to receive a quick fix that causes more problems and confusion.
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Ahhh.... Internet Forums... Longtime Jurisdiction of a large, faithful force of steely-eyed Grammar Police.
Pretty sure sheep's wool has never regrown. That should be coming in the future.
If you want wool and easy way to do it is color parent sheep one of two different colors. When you breed them they will be one of the two adults colors. Wait until the offspring are full grown, then shear and kill them. I keep 8 sheep and breed 4 babies of different colors every day or so. You can shear the parents but since the wool doesn't regrow right now it makes it random what colors you get.
You also need to make sure that your penned animals can't move more than 20 meters in any direction.
Nope, the PC version got it in 1.0 but the Xbox still doesn't have it.
Do your research, way, way back in the history of Minecraft sheep wool did actually regrow. Zombies also wore armor, way back in survival test I think. I've seen it with my own eyes. Wool regrowing was one of these things that was there and then removed, and only recently put back. The Xbox version should get it very soon.
I don't play on Xbox much anymore, but from what I read there are cronic problems with the animal mechanics. I don't know why 4J can't just do it the same way as the PC version - on initial chunk loading animals spawn and become persistent. They are breedable and will follow a player holding wheat. When penned in they will stay there. Once killed animals will not respawn in existing chunks except in very rare circumstances. It works perfectly once a farm has been created and I've never had any of the Xbox-related problems with farming on the PC version. In fact, it makes me realise how annoying the animal mechanics were before, when I play beta 1.4 on my netbook.
They did what you're suggesting at first, but they did it before implementing breeding, so many people complained of lack of animals. I thought they'd put it back with the addition of breeding, but they have not...
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The good people, they always die. And the bad people do too...But the weaker people, the people like me, WE have inherited the Earth. -Morgan Jones
Pretty sure sheep's wool has never regrown. That should be coming in the future.
If you want wool and easy way to do it is color parent sheep one of two different colors. When you breed them they will be one of the two adults colors. Wait until the offspring are full grown, then shear and kill them. I keep 8 sheep and breed 4 babies of different colors every day or so. You can shear the parents but since the wool doesn't regrow right now it makes it random what colors you get.
You also need to make sure that your penned animals can't move more than 20 meters in any direction.
Sheep wool DID grow back on the first Mincraft XBOX that I played. My son and I played it a lot and he remembers it growing bact too. I never killed sheep because the wool always grew back; so, I won't debate that point. I also won't debate the exact update timeline,
As for the other points I can confirm all of it, buts it very alarming to breed animals colored or not, and then come back and the children have disapeared. I make my pens underground and breeds are seperated by fences sections much smaller than 20 x 20. If I kill all un-penned animals I find, the problem stops.
I've pretty nuch abandoned animals farms altogether. (except for sheep, because I still need wool.)
This is not about new features, just about tweeking the ones we already have. I know this should likely go under bug report or feature request but was hoping for a more general discussion.
Please post your experience and how you think this should be addressed.
A Short History:
First there were animals, they come, they go, they ignore you;
but there was an endless supply and sheeps wool grew back so you alway travel with sheers, get them on your way, get em when you come back. There was never any shortage of wool.
Cruse the ocean and you could always find critters taking an extended swim. Sometimes a LOT of them.
There there was an update (TU6) Animals don't spawn any more, sheep wool doesn't grow back and
you cant breed more. Animals were pretty mich extincet in my world before I realized they did
not spawn any more. But you could build Animal traps, Enclose a VERY large area with dirt, put a fence
on the inside, they walk in and can't get back out. Go away for an extended period of time and
when you come back you are ready to harvest.
Then for Christmas we got the nearly bug free (TU7) (can you say sarcasm... I knew you could)
and were back to they come, they go, they come again, and again and OFTEN ignore you;
Then for what seems like no reason at all, they disapear. You can put them in a pen, breed them,
walk away and half of them are gone. Large Animal traps don't work; if the area is too large they just despawn. Small ones sort of work as long as you make a point to kill everthing that's not in your pen.
Breading also works as long as you make a point to kill everything that's not in a pen; except that eventually you don't see any more animals and your penned enimals start to disapear too. You try to bread more and get nothing. So you check the oceans and find nothing. You check the mountain sides and find DOZENS of animals stuck there. Taking your trusty bow, you again Kill Everything IN SITE.
And voile', animals start to breed again.
And what about (TU8)? If it has changed much I can't tell.
What's right:
1. Animal Breeding. (love it)
2. Leading animals with food (love it)
3. Animals don't migrate like lemings to the ocean.
What's wrong:
1. Penned animals despawning. (I've seen it happen right before)
2. Penned animals failing to breed without warning. (A wild animal should despawn when you breed more)
3. Unknown / undocumented caps on herd size that seems to be different between animals.
4. Sheep hair that does not grow back. (Wool has become WAY to hard to get without lots of time and effort.)
5. Animals spawning on mountain ledges. Given enough time, virtually all wild animals end up stuck
on mountains and are hard to find every where else on the map.
Suggested Fix:
1. Publish the max number of each animal type, max enclosure size, food needed for breeding with the "in game" documentaion.
2. Enclosed animals should NEVER despawn.
3. Animals only spawn on a flat square at least 3 x 3 in size. That will take care of most mountain problems.
4. To maintain the animal cap, breeding an animal should delete the oldest wild animal. More animals can be bread by adding additional pens up to the limit on the animal type. It should be possible to domesticate
every animal in the game this way.
5 Animals should only fail to breed when ALL animals have been domesticated
6. Sheep hair should grow back. Let us manually harvest grass with a sheer and feed to the the sheep to make it grow. I'm thinking that would be simpler to impliment and require fewer resources than making it time dependant. Growing grass would also give is a new use for bone meal.
Thanks again J4 and Mojang for your efforts.
If you want wool and easy way to do it is color parent sheep one of two different colors. When you breed them they will be one of the two adults colors. Wait until the offspring are full grown, then shear and kill them. I keep 8 sheep and breed 4 babies of different colors every day or so. You can shear the parents but since the wool doesn't regrow right now it makes it random what colors you get.
You also need to make sure that your penned animals can't move more than 20 meters in any direction.
THANK. YOU.
for getting the voice out. I've been really ticked with these problems, and am glad someone finally put together the words to explain it.
+1
EDIT: Blackbear, the wool has regrown before. Actually, it still does now, but it just takes forever!
What you are suggesting probably already exists in the game and possibly is what is causing the problem in the first place. There is no difference between penned and unpenned animals. No such thing as wild unless you are talking about wolves. All other passive mobs are the same, and right now all share the same Passive mob cap. It is the spawn rate at the moment I bet that is causing the despawning to some degree at the moment. I am sure that will be sorted out in a future update as then wool will most likely grow back.
One thing I do have to say is the spawning behavior I would like changed a bit so that an animal needs to have a 2x2 space to be able to spawn in order to circumvent the mountain stragglers... Well beyond the ones that fell/climbed down from the top of those mountains like the lemmings they are.
3x3 would be a bit excessive and would spawn similar to spiders, which I guess is ok, but still a bit extreme. If there is a 2x2 space ledge on the mountain, then it is likely to have a path leading up and/or down to it. It is rare for a 2x2 ledge, at least in my experience, to just be along like that with out a clear way up & down. it is mainly the 1 x # ledges that I seem to notice them spawn quite often on. I personally don't mind them spawning on a ledge but it at the moment is excessive. So 2x2 will at least cut that down quite a bit.
3x3 space would mean some worlds would not have animals spawning at all, since it is hilly and rugged, or too many trees all around for them to spawn. I have a few maps that I am fond of that are like that. I would have to travel to the other side of the map to see any spawn and lead them back in hopes that I make it alive while leading them. I am not a fan of flat land or too much plains/desert.
the main problem I have with animals is due to fences and doors... they have tendency to glitch through both, usually granted on save/exit now. Still see it, but from the looks of it that has been lessened to just that instead of crowding. Then again I have not had crowding problems yet.
can't think of anything else at the moment....hmm...
I have been steadily killing animals in my TU7 and TU8 worlds (and I have the XP and many enchanted tools to prove this). They are still spawning in the same sorts of numbers as they did when the world was first created, so your statement about the spawning dwindling off is inaccurate. It is most likely that, over time, a number of the animals in your world have wandered underground and become trapped in sinkholes and caves or have spawned on small ledges on the sides of extreme hills.
Pens of the proper size actually work quite well.
I have yet to have an animal fail to breed when given wheat (wheat seeds for chickens).
Stay fluffy~
I was thrilled when they introduced animal breeding, but the despawning issues made it impossible for me to keep any captive animals. It was a real bummer to watch my rainbow-colored sheep army disappear one by one.
The cliffside spawning issue is a huge problem as well. I have a few maps with a base built high in the mountains, and I've watched over time as the mountains around me started to look like Christmas trees decorated with bouncing animals. I used to run to plains or forest when I needed wool, or even an ocean, but now I just head straight to the tallest cliff because I know it will be covered with sheep. I only have to risk death by gravity to get to them.
They did what you're suggesting at first, but they did it before implementing breeding, so many people complained of lack of animals. I thought they'd put it back with the addition of breeding, but they have not...
Sheep wool DID grow back on the first Mincraft XBOX that I played. My son and I played it a lot and he remembers it growing bact too. I never killed sheep because the wool always grew back; so, I won't debate that point. I also won't debate the exact update timeline,
As for the other points I can confirm all of it, buts it very alarming to breed animals colored or not, and then come back and the children have disapeared. I make my pens underground and breeds are seperated by fences sections much smaller than 20 x 20. If I kill all un-penned animals I find, the problem stops.
Stop killing wild animals for a few reals days then report back.