Blood Wood, lets get the facts.

[Dale]

Ill make this short and sweet. I want the rumors stopped and the facts set straight about blood wood.
On my server we have the rule of: If you plant a blood wood, contain it. No one wants their view obstructed.

Why can't people use nether growth?
A player raised the argument on my server that "Flower said the purpose for blood wood is to prevent ghast spawns"

But as far as I know the main purpose for blood wood is:

1, logs for coal.
2, souls for urns.
(Two major materials needed for automation)

So here's what I want to know with sources attached if possible.

*Does nether growth prevent ghast spawns? (also does it prevent all spawns as it is a half block?)
*What is the intended use of blood wood? nether growth? respectively.
*In your opinions is it bad form to plant wild blood wood on a server, hindering any view to an aesthetic build, ect.

[Epsilon]

EDIT: FC did a much better job then I did. Read his post!

Slabs of any kind (other than upside down) prevent mob spawns above them (with the possible exception of squid...I don't think they need a solid block below them, just water). This includes ghasts. In practical terms, Groth is basically a simple way of slabbing over large portions of the nether.

Bloodwood does not affect mob spawns in any way shape or form. What it does is block line of sight and navigation for ghasts making it much more difficult for them to get around and target you.

That's it. Easy peasy.

Spoiler

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Hey Dale,

this is what I found by searching vMC wiki, BTW wiki and BTW change log

Does nether growth prevent ghast spawns?

No
It seams FC made no change so the spawn conditions of ghasts in terms of the space requirement. and the vMC wikisays

Ghasts are able to spawn above any non-transparent block in the Nether that is not in a nether fortress, as long as there is sufficient space (at least a 4*4*4 space, with the base centered above a solid block)

therefore I assume they are able to spawn above 'nether groth'; and there is nothing mentioned on the BTW wiki.
I have NOT tested this by myself. If someone can back this up with experience it would be nice.

(also does it prevent all spawns as it is a half block?)

Yes
Maybe also because it is a half block, but mainly because of

set the following to 0 to allow pig-men, magma cubes, blazes, and wither skeletons to spawn on all block types using regular vanilla rules

fcLimitNetherMobSpawns=1

As far as I know FC restricted them to only be able to spawn on 'nether rack' and 'nether brick '. This goes along with what the BTW wiki says about 'nether groth'

What is the intended use of blood wood? nether growth?

'nether groth' is intended to prevent mobs from spawning everywhere in order to boost your nether mob farm; this is also the reason why a non mycelium recipe was introduced, as finding a mushroom island is unlikely but building a good nether mob farm is required to get all recourses you need. And it is a nice tool in anarchy.
This was mentioned in many forum threads by several people including FC himself; I will search for quotations
'blood wood' is used for 'soul urn' automated production and automated wood/'char coal' production, as other automated tree farms are really tricky to build. But it's also a great tool to prevent ghast spawns. I can't remember to have read something about its "real" purpose apart from being hellish.

In your opinions is it bad form to plant wild blood wood on a server, hindering any view to an aesthetic build, ect.

If the server says 'No "wild" blood wood' it is bad style to plant 'blood wood'.
I prefer to build tunnels and covered bridges as the nether has something aesthetic.

I hope this helps somehow. Anyone it invited to post sources for what I sad without backing it up!

[FlowerChild]

Does nether growth prevent ghast spawns?

No
It seams FC made no change so the spawn conditions of ghasts in terms of the space requirement. and the vMC wikisays

Ghasts are able to spawn above any non-transparent block in the Nether that is not in a nether fortress, as long as there is sufficient space (at least a 4*4*4 space, with the base centered above a solid block)

Dude...what you just quoted says the exact opposite of what you're saying. Look at the bold portions very carefully.

[FlowerChild]

I'm heading to bed, but before this gets more painful overnight:

Slabs of any kind (other than upside down) prevent mob spawns above them (with the possible exception of squid...I don't think they need a solid block below them, just water). This includes ghasts. In practical terms, Groth is basically a simple way of slabbing over large portions of the nether.

Bloodwood does not affect mob spawns in any way shape or form. What it does is block line of sight and navigation for ghasts making it much more difficult for them to get around and target you.

That's it. Easy peasy.

[Epsilon]

I'm sorry,
Solid and non solid in Minecraft is somehow different from reality.

[FlowerChild]

I'm sorry,
Solid and non solid in Minecraft is somehow different from reality.

Yeah, I can agree with you there in that it could have been worded differently, and "non-opaque" is probably a better description, but there's really only so much "transparent blocks" can mean within the context of MC.

[Gilberreke]

No one wants their view obstructed.

I do. As soon as I can plant them, I do. I turn the entire nether into a big forest. I wouldn't ever want to play on a server that restricts that.

Why not use nether growth? Because that's way further down the line and blood wood already reduces ghasts to a minimum.

You're basically saying you should live with ghasts for most of the mod's content, because someone might want to build a pretty tower that I'd want to see?

[FlowerChild]

And even then, if someone absolutely wants a clear view that will never be obstructed, they can just clear out any nearby soulsand to prevent blood wood growth.

It's obviously up to the server op, but I'm personally surprised at how many people flip out about rampant blood wood growth.

[warmist]

IMHO it makes nether lush and alive. Let the groth and bushes spread :D

[erikdk321]

The nether is practically infinite so i dont see a problem either, but as Fc already said its up to the server owner.

[Mud]

IMHO it makes nether lush and alive. Let the groth and bushes spread :D

Enjoy your lagtastic adventure...

[SterlingRed]

IMHO it makes nether lush and alive. Let the groth and bushes spread :D

Enjoy your lagtastic adventure...

This is a rumor that needs to be squashed. Fc did some optimization stuff a long time ago if I remember right and for most hardware, leaves do not cause rendering lag or loading problems. If you are on older hardware and have an issue, fast graphic setting for leaves will fix it.
Let's stop propagating the rumor that blood wood causes massive lag, because it's simply not true.

[Sir C]

IMHO it makes nether lush and alive. Let the groth and bushes spread :D

Enjoy your lagtastic adventure...

This is a rumor that needs to be squashed. Fc did some optimization stuff a long time ago if I remember right and for most hardware, leaves do not cause rendering lag or loading problems. If you are on older hardware and have an issue, fast graphic setting for leaves will fix it.
Let's stop propagating the rumor that blood wood causes massive lag, because it's simply not true.

It's not the Bloodwood it's self that causes lag, it's the burning of the leaves and wood from nearby lava flows/lit Nether rack that causes it from my experiences. I'd get lag spikes accompanied with the screaming of poor Bloodwood logs being burned out of existence. I had to go round and plug up all the flows in the local area which pretty much fixed the problem for me. Bear in mind that I play on a brick of a laptop, generally on lowest/fastest graphics settings. It may not be an issue for others.

[EpicAaron]

I don't really understand the argument about Bloodwoods blocking views. There really isn't much to see in the nether beyond some red fog and a netherrack roof. It isn't like every open space of the nether is taken up anyway. Once the main tree is mature the branches tend to crawl along the ceiling. As has been stated, I think free Bloodwood growth adds an exotic flare to the area around it.

Besides... Uberdrasil.

Uberdrasil.

[FlowerChild]

It's not the Bloodwood it's self that causes lag, it's the burning of the leaves and wood from nearby lava flows/lit Nether rack that causes it from my experiences.

Ah! Now THAT is useful information. It may indeed be the screaming that's causing any performance degradation associated with it, depending on how I set that code up.

I'll take a note to take a look at that.

[OldMarriedDude]

[/quote]
snip
It's not the Bloodwood it's self that causes lag, it's the burning of the leaves and wood from nearby lava flows/lit Nether rack that causes it from my experiences. I'd get lag spikes accompanied with the screaming of poor Bloodwood logs being burned out of existence. I had to go round and plug up all the flows in the local area which pretty much fixed the problem for me. Bear in mind that I play on a brick of a laptop, generally on lowest/fastest graphics settings. It may not be an issue for others.[/quote]

I have a crap pc and have bloodwood planted all over the nether. I have far less lag issues in the nether than I do in the over world.

[FlowerChild]

If it's the sound thing, it may be SMP only (I may have forgotten to switch the sounds to be client side when I ported over to SMP with 1.3), but thanks for the confirmation that it's not a performance issue in your case.