Hardcore Nether Animals Discussion (Spoilers)

[Sandrew]

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.

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.

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.

[FlowerChild]

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.

Just to avoid misinformation about something people already seem to have figured out, and because this may cause some confusion: animals of all types possessing others when killed is what I changed in the last release. The experiment you performed where your sheep were fine right next to slaughtered cows was likely done with the previous one.

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.

And no, that's just wrong, and was wrong in the initial release as well.

[Gabecraft1234]

So portal distance is one factor among several?

Other possible factors

1 portal direction

2 type of animal

Can anyone think of others?

[jorgebonafe]

Just to avoid misinformation about something people already seem to have figured out, and because this may cause some confusion: animals of all types possessing others when killed is what I changed in the last release. The experiment you performed where your sheep were fine right next to slaughtered cows was likely done with the previous one.

Oh... Ok, that explains why my cows were fine... That was before this last release...

[FlowerChild]

Oh... Ok, that explains why my cows were fine... That was before this last release...

Yeah, I actually made that change so that things would be more consistent and a little easier to figure out, but wanted to clear it up now as I was realizing that it was having the opposite effect for people that had begun experimenting before the last release :)

[craniak716]

Long story short I believe it has to do with lighting netherrack to heat a cauldron. Before I did this I had absolutely no issues with my cows or my chickens. Creating a hibachi uses concentrated hellfire which has been treated. In this the souls are trapped in netherrack and putting them at rest requires filtering them through a soulsand hopper and then turning them into a concentrated hellfire ingot. I have a pretty good feeling about this. Let me know what everyone thinks?

[Gormador]

Long story short I believe it has to do with lighting netherrack to heat a cauldron. Before I did this I had absolutely no issues with my cows or my chickens. Creating a hibachi uses concentrated hellfire which has been treated. In this the souls are trapped in netherrack and putting them at rest requires filtering them through a soulsand hopper and then turning them into a concentrated hellfire ingot. I have a pretty good feeling about this. Let me know what everyone thinks?

No. Or at least, very not likely. It seems rather unatural and not FC style. Don't ask me why, I just don't feel it.

[craniak716]

You might be right. There was another thing that happened prior to my cows and chickens going all "exorcist." A dumb zombie tore the gate off my cow pen and some of them wandered very close to the portal. The strangeness started after this. I killed some and corralled others back into the pen. Sometime later I decided to kill the cow or cows that were acting strangely. I can't recall how but the little fuckers got loose and a couple wound up in the hole with all my chickens. There was no way for me to get the cows out of a two deep hole without freeing the chickens too, so I killed the two cows in the hole with all the chickens. Then, chickens went kablooey! I have never, ever, passed an animal through a portal, so I can't understand how THAT could be the reason. Uggghhh! It is just a mod, right? Then why do I feel like I'm trying to figure out answers to the television show LOST? lol

[DaveYanakov]

You might be right. There was another thing that happened prior to my cows and chickens going all "exorcist." A dumb zombie tore the gate off my cow pen and some of them wandered very close to the portal. The strangeness started after this. I killed some and corralled others back into the pen. Sometime later I decided to kill the cow or cows that were acting strangely. I can't recall how but the little fuckers got loose and a couple wound up in the hole with all my chickens. There was no way for me to get the cows out of a two deep hole without freeing the chickens too, so I killed the two cows in the hole with all the chickens. Then, chickens went kablooey! I have never, ever, passed an animal through a portal, so I can't understand how THAT could be the reason. Uggghhh! It is just a mod, right? Then why do I feel like I'm trying to figure out answers to the television show LOST? lol

That would be an incorrect assumption as BTW officially became a total conversion awhile back. Basically it is a new game using Minecraft as an engine at this point in time.
More things are passing through your portals than you think. It probably takes massive amounts of energy to tear a hole in the fabric of reality and the resulting radiation is giving your livestock nether cancer.

[TallTyrionLannister]

My cows and sheep went demonic when I built a portal too close to their pens. My chickens didn't start to explode until I began filtering ground netherrack into hellfire dust using a powered hopper (several days later). Ugh... I thought they were safe...

[Gunnerman21]

Did you feed your chickens before grinding the netherrack? I heard that chickens only explode after being fed, but please correct me if im wrong.

[jorgebonafe]

Did you feed your chickens before grinding the netherrack? I heard that chickens only explode after being fed, but please correct me if im wrong.

That's false, I just tested. Keeping the chickens close to a portal is sufficient to blow them all up.

[TallTyrionLannister]

Did you feed your chickens before grinding the netherrack? I heard that chickens only explode after being fed, but please correct me if im wrong.

That's false, I just tested. Keeping the chickens close to a portal is sufficient to blow them all up.

How long does a portal have to be open to affect the livestock? I originally had my nether portal directly below my chicken coop, but I broke the portal before updating in the hopes they wouldn't be affected. I thought I had built my new portal far enough away, but my cattle and sheep went all Amanda Bynes so I broke it and moved it farther away. My chickens continued to be fine for several days after this incident, but they were about 25 blocks farther from the new portal than my other animals so perhaps they weren't hit this round. But I was gearing up to search for a nether fortress and needed to link my portals (since I broke my original that was under the coop), during this trial and error, 3 separate portals opened within 10 blocks of my chicken coop (these originated from the nether) which I broke as quickly as possible (less than 5 minutes per). Still they were fine. All this time I was feeding them to harvest feathers, and no explosions... until I started grinding netherrack down and filtering it to make nethercoal.

[Taleric]

Careful when you kill possessed animals the souls will leap into others.

You can hear the souls leap into the animals. It is the same sound as ground nether rock on soul sand.

It happens pretty quick, maybe inside a minute of portal exposure from what I could hear.

I have not run into an issue grinding nether rock by animals as close as 10 blocks.

[pgelinas]

Allright, I just pissed my pants. Great job.

I turn a corner in my base and I see one of my dogs looking at me. I didn't like that. At all.

Spoiler

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His eyes were red and his head was spinning. Like, exorcist style.

However, my nether portal is kinda far away (64 blocks, give or take) and the dog never went near a portal. I know I have another infected animal: there's only 1 cow and two dogs there, and the cow is infected, the other dog I don't know. No infected animal died (they're all dead already, lost my livestock when this went live!). So I have no idea how this happened...

[Six]

Allright, I just pissed my pants. Great job.

I turn a corner in my base and I see one of my dogs looking at me. I didn't like that. At all.

Spoiler

Show

His eyes were red and his head was spinning. Like, exorcist style.

However, my nether portal is kinda far away (64 blocks, give or take) and the dog never went near a portal. I know I have another infected animal: there's only 1 cow and two dogs there, and the cow is infected, the other dog I don't know. No infected animal died (they're all dead already, lost my livestock when this went live!). So I have no idea how this happened...

A dog you say...? They do seem to make an interesting noise when doing their 'thing'.

Spoiler

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I'm pretty sure infected wolves can act as a conduit for other souls to come through and infect nearby animals. You'll notice they give off portal sounds when they do their special thing.

[pgelinas]

So that's why I keep hearing those noises in my base even though the portal is far off! I didn't think about that, thanks! I think you just saved my livestock, I was about to migrate them closer to my base!

[FlowerChild]

I kept telling you guys wolves were evil...

[Six]

I kept telling you guys wolves were evil...

Ever since I realized the fact that wolves actually have ender-like teleportation abilities, I've never trusted them.

[TallTyrionLannister]

Allright, I just pissed my pants. Great job.

I turn a corner in my base and I see one of my dogs looking at me. I didn't like that. At all.

Spoiler

Show

His eyes were red and his head was spinning. Like, exorcist style.

However, my nether portal is kinda far away (64 blocks, give or take) and the dog never went near a portal. I know I have another infected animal: there's only 1 cow and two dogs there, and the cow is infected, the other dog I don't know. No infected animal died (they're all dead already, lost my livestock when this went live!). So I have no idea how this happened...

A dog you say...? They do seem to make an interesting noise when doing their 'thing'.

Spoiler

Show

I'm pretty sure infected wolves can act as a conduit for other souls to come through and infect nearby animals. You'll notice they give off portal sounds when they do their special thing.

Ahaaaa... Yes. I can confirm that I did move some William Friedkin Excorcist-style wolves to my base (near chicken coop) shortly before they began to explode. And I can also confirm the portal noises in my base now. By joe, I think you've worked it out for us...

[turtlemuncher]

And Vmc players think they have problumes when they hit a wolf on accident...

[derekiv]

Just to see if one of FC's other posts was a hint, I killed my infected wolves using fire. Nothing special happened.

[derekiv]

So I here is a summary of what people have discovered so far:
Confirmed:

Mobs can be infected with souls from hell.
Each Mob has a interaction with this soul:
Sheep: Their wool now has anti-grav capabilities. Shear them to turn it off.
Cows: If you breed two infected cows, good luck getting a baby cow.
Pigs: They get replaced with their nether brethren.
Chickens: They decorate the walls with their gizzards.
Wolves: Re-enact the exorcist.
Villagers: Become a little more magical.
Killing an infected creature releases the soul to infect another one.
Taking animals into the nether infects them.
Souls can enter the world via the portal, and remain within the overworld.
Feeding the animals doesn't cure them.


Unconfirmed:
Souls also come from filtering ground netherrack and or grinding netherrack.
Wolves can infect other creatures even if they don't die. It is speculated that this occurs when the produce dung.
Cats cannot be infected (FC didn't say so directly, but heavily implied).
The only way to remove souls is to kill the animal when there is no nearby thing for it to reinfect.
Screws do something to the creatures.
Fire doesn't appear to do anything special.

Jossed:
The portal will not infect creatures over one hundred blocks away.

[pgelinas]

Unconfirmed:
Souls also come from filtering ground netherrack and or grinding netherrack.
Wolves can infect other creatures even if they don't die. It is speculated that this occurs when the produce dung.
Cats cannot be infected (FC didn't say so directly, but heavily implied).
The only way to remove souls is to kill the animal when there is no nearby thing for it to reinfect.
Screws do something to the creatures.
Fire doesn't appear to do anything special.

Jossed:
The portal will not infect creatures over one hundred blocks away.

Wolves infecting other and killing animals when nothing nearby has been confirmed.
Cats, I have no idea, but they probably aren't "infectable".
Ground netherack: false. The player that reported that later said that he indeed had infected wolves nearby.
Screw: I don't remember anyone saying anything about screws. You can't use them on animals anyways.
Fire: well, it can kill the animal. And cook its meat. Other then that, not much.

[Rob]

I think the screw idea was FC trolling us with exorcism techniques from days of yore.