Animal Tweaks
Contents
Hardcore Hunger for animals
As of Version 4.ABCFEFE, animals need to eat to survive. The easiest ealy way to accomplish this is by giving them grass. Different animals require different amounts of grazing land.
The following rules of thumb assumes a grass plot with a fence (or glass) around it (with grass under that) all with sight to the sky.
- Chickens can get by with a 5x5 plot for 4 chicken. A 3x3 should even be enough for a single chicken if there is grass on all sides all around.
- Pigs need 8x8 or so for 1 pig.
- Sheep you're sheering regularly need 10x10 or so for 4 sheep.
- Cows you're milking need 16x16 or so for 4 cows.
Baiting/Breeding Animals
Like in vanilla you can bait animals to follow you and breed animals with the appropriate crops(wheat, cows/sheep; carrots, pigs;seeds, chickens) but better than wolves adds several new ways to bait and breed animals:
- Tall grass can bait Cows and Sheep but they will not eat it. Pigs are too smart to fall for such a trick and will not follow you.
- Pigs are real pigs so they will eat almost anything. So you can bait and feed pigs domesticated crop(wheat, carrots, potatoes) or chocolate. You can also breed pigs with Kibble, but you can't bait them with it.
- Chickens can no longer lay eggs without being fed Chicken feed, but unlike other animals, chickens are unisex and do not require breeding partners. In order to get more chickens you have to throw the eggs, sometimes a chicken will pop out while other times it will just drop a raw egg. Pumpkin or melon seeds are the preferred early game food used to get feed to breed chickens.
- Animals will only follow their respective breeding item if they are ready to breed, allowing for sorting out animals which are ready.
Animal Products
Better Than Wolves has changed many of the methods to acquire the resources that animals produce and the uses for those resources.
- Milk has become a much more important food because it you can use it to make scrambled eggs and chocolate milk. see also Hardcore Hunger and the vanilla feature of milk curing poison makes it vital when facing a jungle spider. Unlike in vanilla minecraft cows can not produce endless supplies of milk, instead cows have to first eat enough grass blocks similar how to sheep eat grass to regrow their wool. In order to tell if you can milk your cow you can look at the cows udder. If the udder is longer then normal then you can milk your cow. Importantly, sheep regrowing wool or cows producing milk will require more food. see also Hardcore Lactation
- Leather has become crucial in advancing the tech tree because it is required to produce Tanned Leather
- Sheep no longer drop wool blocks but rather wool as an item which you can craft into a wool block by centering four wool around a wicker block in the crafting table. Unlike in vanilla you can not use dye to permanently mutate a sheep's color, instead, a system of cross breeding and mutation was implemented so that you can acquire a sheep of any color you (see also Sheep#Hardcore Sheep) or you can look out in finding a colored sheep in the wild.
- Eggs are one of the first renewable foods that Steve can survive off of, and it is used in many crafting recipes.
Automating Animal Breeding
In order to allow the automation of breeding animals, this mod makes several changes to aid in this process:
- Animals will eat food off the ground, and even path to loose items. If that food is a breeding item, they will enter love mode.
- Animals will always attempt to breed with the closest animal also in "love mode" to prevent them getting stuck trying to breed with animals behind walls and such.
- If the animal they are trying to breed with breeds with another animal instead, they will select a new target for their affections instead of just continuing to pursue a lost cause.
- Babies can only jump half the height adults can jump. Because babies can't jump onto a full block but an adult can you can design animal pens with a one-block high ledge so that only the adults can jump out into the loving embrace of your mechanical contraptions.
- The Breeding Harness when placed on an animal will prevent it from walking around so that it will always stay by its breeding partner. However, this prevents the animal from roaming to graze so automatic mechanisms must be used to feed the animal instead.
Miscellaneous
- Unlike in vanilla, animals do not randomly spawn on grass over time as a result if you or something else kills all the animals in near your base you will have to explore it in order to find more.
- Mobs will kill animals they come across at night and they will eat them. Zombies will target pigs, sheep, and cows, while spiders will target chickens.
- If a zombie that is one fire attacks an animal(or you) it will set the animal on fire. If the animal dies as a result it will drop burned meat which can save you from having to cook it, but provides less nutrition.
Cows
Spawns: Forests, Taigas, Plains, Ice Plains, Mountains
Drops: 0–2 leather, 1–3 Raw Beef (1–3 burned meat if killed by fire) and 1–3 experience.
Produces: Milk by eating grass, udder is distended when the cow is ready to milk.
Breeds: In pairs by eating cake
Follows: Wheat, Tall Grass, and Cake
Pen size: Cows you're milking need 16x16 or so for 4 cows.
Cows are tougher than in vanilla. They have higher health, take less knockback, and will kick anything behind them when spooked (except other cows), dealing high damage and knockback. This leads to cows being hard to kill without a bow, but they also survive much longer than other animals.
Mooshrooms
Spawns: Mushroom Islands
Drops: 0–2 leather, 1–3 Raw Beef (1–3 burned meat if killed by fire) and 1–3 experience.
Produces: Mushroom Stew by eating grass or mycelium, udder is distended when the cow is ready to "milk"
Breeds: In pairs by eating cake
Follows: Wheat, Tall Grass, and Cake
Pen size: Mooshrooms you're milking need 16x16 or so for 4 cows.
Mooshrooms use the same behavior as cows, and are created when a cow eats mycelium, they produce Mushroom Stew when "milked" with a bowl, and also they spread Mycelium to dirt blocks when walking over them. This does mean that mooshrooms are slightly easier to keep fed as they will regrow some of their own food.
Sheep
Spawns: Forests, Taigas, Plains, Ice Plains, Mountains
Drops: 1 Wool, 1–2 Raw Mutton (1–2 burned meat if killed by fire) and 1–3 experience.
Produces: 1-3 Wool per shearing, regrows wool by eating grass
Breeds: In pairs by eating Pumpkin Pie
Follows: Wheat, Tall Grass, and Pumpkin Pie
Pen size: Sheep you're sheering regularly need 10x10 or so for 4 sheep.
Sheep will eat more grass after being sheared.
Pigs
Spawns: Forests, Taigas, Plains, Ice Plains, Mountains, Jungles, Swamps
Drops: 1–3 Raw Porkchop (1–3 burned meat if killed by fire) and 1–3 experience.
Produces: None
Breeds: In pairs by eating Chocolate.
Follows: Wheat, Carrot (raw & cooked), Potato (raw & cooked), Chocolate.
Pen size: Pigs need 8x8 or so for 1 pig.
When eating grass, unlike other animals, pigs will turn the grass into loose dirt instead of regular dirt. Care is needed when building a pen to ensure none of their dirt can fall. Additionally, pigs can be bred before finding a village, due to them accepting Chocolate.
Chicken
Spawns: Forests, Taigas, Plains, Ice Plains, Mountains, Jungles, Swamps
Drops: 0–2 Feathers, 1 Raw Chicken (1 burned meat if killed by fire) and 1–3 experience.
Produces: Eggs after eating chicken feed.
Breeds: Only by breaking eggs (1/8 chance of chicken, 1/32 chance of 4 chickens)
Follows: Wheat Seeds, Melon Seeds, Pumpkin Seeds, Hemp Seeds, Chicken Feed
Pen size: Chickens can get by with a 5x5 plot for 4 chicken. A 3x3 should even be enough for a single chicken if there is grass on all sides all around.
As long as the chicken is fed chicken feed before sunset, they will lay an egg on the following morning. If fed after sunset, they will wait until the morning after to lay an egg.
Wolves
Spawns: Forests, Taigas
Drops:
Produces: Dung, after being fed meat or kibble
Breeds: In pairs by eating meat (except Wolfchops) given by hand (Only when tamed)
Follows: The player only when tamed
Wolves will produce dung a few minutes after being fed. This process is sped up significantly if the wolf is in darkness. When a wolf begins starving, it will turn hostile and attack you.
