Animals shouldn't despawn in valid "rooms" even in total darkness

[Spyromancy]

One more suggestion! Sorry for posting two in one day, haha.

Currently, animals despawn in cave-level darkness (I understand why), but I think this should be disabled when the animal is inside a structure that is considered a "room" by [/debug rooms hi]=true (lights up green).  I spent hours the other day trying to trap some piglets and finally got them in my covered closed pen with solid walls (after one unlucky lightning strike that killed all of my chickens in one go, I wasn't gonna take chances anymore), but totally forgot to put a light source in there. When I looked later, they were all gone, and a quick google search told me that the lack of light was probably the issue.

If there's a good reason why this adjustment shouldn't happen, I understand. Maybe it would throw a wrench in cave spawn rates, though I'm pretty sure most animals are only supposed to spawn on the surface, so none should be randomly spawning in like, tiny enclosed pockets of air underground. Hopefully?

[Amadeo4444]

It really irritated me when I locked a bear and a few wolves in my basement behind bars to feel like a true master of the wild, and they simply disappeared

Even though I had light there.

Edited May 20, 2025 by Amadeo4444

[Maelstrom]

Animals despawn when they are in an unlit space that does not have access to the sky.  This is to prevent animals collecting in caves.  To prevent this put a lit torch, or better yet, lantern in the building in which said animals are located.

[Thorfinn]

On 5/20/2025 at 5:05 PM, Amadeo4444 said:

It really irritated me when I locked a bear and a few wolves in my basement behind bars to feel like a true master of the wild, and they simply disappeared

That's intentional. Bears despawn after 14 days, regardless of what you do. Wolves, too, IIRC. The reason was to prevent players from essentially removing bear spawns from their worlds by making a zoo.

[Evoken]

2 hours ago, Thorfinn said:

Bears despawn after 14 days, regardless of what you do.

Are you sure about that? In my current playthrough I locked a bear in 4x4 pit, he is locked here since the beginning of my world and I have already 60 hours into this save ^^ But I have to say the whole pit is fully open to the sky and I have a road near him so I "pay him a visit" every ~ 2 days

[Zane Mordien]

I question that 14 day despawn as well. Until I kill the bear or wolves they are always there in my experience.  

[Spyromancy]

4 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

Animals despawn when they are in an unlit space that does not have access to the sky.  This is to prevent animals collecting in caves.  To prevent this put a lit torch, or better yet, lantern in the building in which said animals are located.

Oh yeah I'm fully aware of this! I just feel like the debug rooms parameter could be applied as a sort of if/then statement so that if an animal is housed in a valid "room" it won't despawn even without sky light. Do you suppose an oil lamp would be enough light, or is a torch necessary for minimum light level?

[Thorfinn]

3 hours ago, Evoken said:

Are you sure about that?

No. Saw it in the patch notes a while back, but never checked it out. "Never suffer a bear to live" is my motto.

[Maelstrom]

3 hours ago, Spyromancy said:

Do you suppose an oil lamp would be enough light, or is a torch necessary for minimum light level?

I think so, but can't say for sure as I've never encountered this problem.  1.20 is the first time I house animals under a roof.

[Syrdiman]

I agree with the OP

[Maelstrom]

So animals don't despawn unless killed?  Now you're going to have a crap ton of rabbits, raccoons, foxes running around in the bottom of caves reducing performance.  Then there'll be a crap ton of complaints on the forum about poor performance.  Think through the implications of things.

[CageyLobster]

10 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

So animals don't despawn unless killed?  Now you're going to have a crap ton of rabbits, raccoons, foxes running around in the bottom of caves reducing performance.  Then there'll be a crap ton of complaints on the forum about poor performance.  Think through the implications of things.

Would those be considered "rooms" though?  

[Never Jhonsen]

5 minutes ago, CageyLobster said:

Would those be considered "rooms" though?  

A cave wouldn't be considered a room, no. 

I fully agree with OP on this as well. Valid Rooms shouldn't kill an animal. Caves can still kill animals, as caves aren't valid rooms and as such aren't in the equation here.

[Maelstrom]

Have you seen those youtube videos were insanely HUGE buildings are created?  Well, thems aren't valid rooms and if you put animals in them, they'll despawn when owners don't want them too.

Again, think through the implications.  How hard is it to simply put a single light in the room?  Even one single oil lamp will do the trick.

[Thorfinn]

If you want to make it so you don't have to light up your pens, I think it's probably reasonable to allow the drifters to attack them if there is no player in range, but to target players as soon as they are. From the game descriptions of origins of the drifters, that seems perfectly in character.