1.20 clearly upped the BEAR SPAWN count and it's too much

[Devkrin]

I noticed bear spawn count increased dramatically after 1.20 for the "sturdy leather" or whatever. Now I run into a bear every 200 blocks and it's no fun. They only stop being a threat when you get iron or steel armor and that's literally end game not to mention the COST of making those. At the very least tone down the brown bears. Them out running you is not fair in this case since they are GODDAMN EVERYWHERE. You have to run so far in this game all the time to find anything at all and I just end up getting killed 1000-2000 blocks out with all my leather backpacks and constantly having to create new ones. It's no fun. They are ok here and there but goddamn not like this. You can't even cheese them anymore with a 4 high stack.

This is just frustrating. I tried running in circles with a spear but their health is too high. Nothing works. Their spawn count was fine before. Bring it back. Or at the very least let us cheese them with 4 blocks high dirt stacks.

I constantly have 2-3 black bears camping 50 blocks from my home at all times no mater how much I kill them. And the moment you want to look for fire clay you spend 80% of your time running from brown bears that kill you anyway. Very frustrating. At least give us bear spray or some shit if you are that adamant about them being this plentiful.

Edited February 4, 2025 by Devkrin

[ArgentLuna]

Unbearable

[Thorfinn]

Yeah, I thought I was seeing more of them, too. They are also either a bit slower to react, or I'm a bit faster. I'm half-ways tempted to move Butchering into my Vanilla+ modlist so there's something to do with all the stupid bushmeat.  At first, I thought, "Oh, good, it's DoorDash!" but now it's more, how many stacks of rot are going to accumulate before I get the saw?

Brown bears can't outrun you going uphill as long as you time all the jumps right. And they are easy to give the slip to in brush.

[EDIT]

That's kind of weird. (Updated.)

Spoiler

Didn't notice my compare plugin's defaults changed.

There is very little difference between the spawn conditions other than they added  a minimum spawn distance from the player of 30. They also doubled the chances of the bear roaring when idle, so it must be we are just noticing them more. Because I'm not seeing the same change in, say, rabbits or sheep, it's unlikely that its the code itself.

Oh, and glancing through the rest of the file, looks like my reaction time is a bit better. Yay, me!

 

Edited February 4, 2025 by Thorfinn

[Dilan Rona]

Really? Only saw one bear so far, and half the time the wolves doesnt seem as aggro anymore. In fact they run away half the time (leaving the poor pups behind). I've seen more aggresive behaviour from pigs when I am near a piglett in fact.

[LadyWYT]

I've not really noticed an increase in bears; the most bear trouble I've had is when playing with a friend, since we seem to have a knack for building our base near a brown bear's territory. All it really means it a lot of bear stew(thank you Expanded Foods!) and some free entertainment whenever one of us ventures into the woods without armor.

[Zane Mordien]

I've been playing 2 worlds since 1.20 and I haven't noticed an increase. Some areas are just worse IMO. The RNG sometimes takes a crap on you. If it is annoying you there is a mod that halves the bear spawns. I use it sometimes when I get fed up with them. I can kill them but honestly sometimes I get tired of running into them constantly and having to waste my time getting rid of them.

[Michael Gates]

Bears are common, but they're also *really* easy to drive away now. Nerdpole up four blocks and throw  half a dozen stones at Mr. Brown, and he will run a hundred blocks thataway and STAY there unless you go poke him. Personally I'm kind of annoyed at it because I've gotten to the part where I want MOAR BEAR HIDES, but I recognize that I'm kind of a special case.

[Thorfinn]

Right, @Michael Gates, me, too. If you want those sweet, sweet hides, you almost have to trap them or build a series of nerdpoles with ladders pretty much anywhere you encounter bears.

[Dilan Rona]

With bears, its open hunting season for me, and given my current seed, I have 2-3 polar bear for every 1 brown bear I see. And since its a wooden area, I have a bit of a wolf problem now, Since I have a few pit traps close by, I just let them chase me, and jump over a pit trap. Deep enough to stop a bear from climbing out should it get trapped there on occation

[Zane Mordien]

I want to update my response.  I was creating some snowball earth maps with 70% land cover and I kept seeing multiple double spawning polar bears. Beyond that I was seeing way more bears than I'm used to seeing in these worlds. 

[Bavask]

It's not just that they spawn so often, but they're the MOST COMMON CREATURE I'VE SEEN. Aside from *maybe* raccoons, I've run into bears and wolves more often than any other wild animal. I haven't even traveled that far. I play a hunter and can barely escape Brown bears, let alone try to fight them.

[Bruno Willis]

7 hours ago, Bavask said:

It's not just that they spawn so often, but they're the MOST COMMON CREATURE I'VE SEEN. Aside from *maybe* raccoons, I've run into bears and wolves more often than any other wild animal. I haven't even traveled that far. I play a hunter and can barely escape Brown bears, let alone try to fight them.

Welcome to the forums, and the endless bear pain.

I think I've learned how to deal with them without too much trouble, but I do wish they were more interesting. If they made dens in caves and stuck kinda close to their dens. If they marked their territory so you knew when you were making a travel mistake. I think they would be a lot more fun. 

[Entaris]

3-4 deep hole takes care of most animals.

 

Prey animals will randomly fall in, then the predators will fall in looking for food (the prey animals)

[Thorfinn]

12 hours ago, Bruno Willis said:

If they made dens in caves and stuck kinda close to their dens. If they marked their territory so you knew when you were making a travel mistake. I think they would be a lot more fun. 

My, well, complaint is too strong a word, quibble, maybe, is that bears are already too predictable. The only real "randomness"  to them is that they chase prey animals a good distance, so quickly disperse from wherever they spawn.

[Jaiden Troxel]

I'm having the exact same problem. I'm playing through both a singleplayer and multiplayer world right now, and it seems some seeds absolutely shaft you with bear spawns. Our small server (2-4 people) has around 10-12 bears within a 1000 block radius of spawn. 2 of them spawned right next to our house. It's genuinely so bad that the bears are more of a problem than the actual monsters. It's to the point where we aren't even able to go in some areas because of how many bears there are (one valley has 3 currently). 

[Theyflower]

It's very annoying in the first few days of a world when I'm wombling about in search of clay but instead flee Bear pursuers for hundreds of blocks at a time. Often the first indication I got that there was a Bear upset with my presence was when I took damage from it. At least with Wolves there is the growling noise that signals to run. Surely once I'm outside of the Bear's territory it should allow me to bugger off.

[Topminator]

On 2/8/2025 at 4:52 PM, Thorfinn said:

Right, @Michael Gates, me, too. If you want those sweet, sweet hides, you almost have to trap them or build a series of nerdpoles with ladders pretty much anywhere you encounter bears.

why wouldn't you want to trap them? feed them a small animal to get them to good weight then slaughter them for double fat drops! (and bushmeat)

[Thorfinn]

27 minutes ago, Topminator said:

why wouldn't you want to trap them? feed them a small animal to get them to good weight then slaughter them for double fat drops! (and bushmeat)

Does that work? Incidentally, I've learned how to deal with bears since then. Always fun to see reminders of how I've improved as a player.

[Topminator]

6 minutes ago, Thorfinn said:

Does that work? Incidentally, I've learned how to deal with bears since then. Always fun to see reminders of how I've improved as a player.

it's how i survive in the arctic, trap bears in pits, feed them nearby foxes then kill and eat them. it's trading half a fox for like 2 fats and 12 bushmeat. later on you can start farming rabbits and feed them those (or farm musk ox, but where's the fun in that?)