I was intending to stay out of this discussion but I can sort of confirm the portal distance. Creatures more than 22 blocks away from my portal were not affected. Wether this is spherical, cylindrical or cubical I cannot confirm. I furthermore doubt that possession is transmitable between animals as I have slaughtered a whole bunch of tainted cows right next to a pen (>22 blocks from portal) filled with sheep who were all just fine. I have also killed a few tainted sheep on another location and none of the other sheep in the surrounding area became possessed instead.Gabecraft1234 wrote:More test results . . . (still all done with cows)
cows > 20 block away from the portal facing them are safe from possession.
cows < 20 blocks away will be possessed.
If a possessed cow is killed another host cow must be within the 20 block range for possession to occur.
From these results I doubt that an insulating material exists as it appears to be easy enough to prevent possession and possible but difficult to remove possessed animals and slaughter them a safe distance away from the healthy ones.
Based on the evidence I have witnessed in my own world I still believe the only factor contributing to possession is the distance to a portal with a timed delay to make it less obvious.