Livestock escaping closed barn

[Echo Weaver]

Twice now, I've come home to my base to find one of my livestock roaming free. Thank goodness that 1.20 introduced rope leads. The first time, I squinted at the sheep enclosure and made some adjustments. I also hadn't bothered to put a gate on the barn, so I added that (the 2x2 gate is pretty cool). The pigs and sheep were each fenced into a side of the barn, so the gate shouldn't have mattered, but clearly I needed reinforcement.

The second time, today, it was a (pregnant) pig that was free. I cannot believe that there is any way this pig could have gotten out. So, is there a possibility that an animal can glitch through a wall? Does anyone know if there's a way to protect against this?

[Yerik]

In the 1.21 notes Tyron says they have fixed most of "animals sometimes escaping their pens if the player leaves the area" 

So hopefully this is now fixed.

[Echo Weaver]

11 minutes ago, Yerik said:

In the 1.21 notes Tyron says they have fixed most of "animals sometimes escaping their pens if the player leaves the area" 

So hopefully this is now fixed.

That seems pretty specific to my problem, yep. Thanks.

[Maelstrom]

Sometimes them domesticated animals are harder to keep penned up than nailing jello to the wall.  

[Echo Weaver]

Here's a related bizarre thing that happened -- we were coming back from caving, and my teen notices a sheep and kills it. Along with the ewe is a lamb. That lamb is labeled FOURTH GENERATION. Wtf? 

Since both our ewes in the barn are 4th gen, my first thought is that one of them glitch out of the barn and then give birth, and we just killed our own livestock. But no, both ewes are happily in the barn and both are still pregnant. So we lasso the lamb and bring it back to the barn, and now we have 3 lambs gens 4-5. 

I presume the ewe was 3rd gen, but we didn't look before killing it. 

I'm trying to think back as to any time I might've had a ewe permanently escape my barn who might have continued on breeding, but I don't think that's possible, is it? Sheep only breed if fed 10 units of food from a trough.

I got nothing. 

[LadyWYT]

24 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said:

Here's a related bizarre thing that happened -- we were coming back from caving, and my teen notices a sheep and kills it. Along with the ewe is a lamb. That lamb is labeled FOURTH GENERATION. Wtf? 

Since both our ewes in the barn are 4th gen, my first thought is that one of them glitch out of the barn and then give birth, and we just killed our own livestock. But no, both ewes are happily in the barn and both are still pregnant. So we lasso the lamb and bring it back to the barn, and now we have 3 lambs gens 4-5. 

I presume the ewe was 3rd gen, but we didn't look before killing it. 

I'm trying to think back as to any time I might've had a ewe permanently escape my barn who might have continued on breeding, but I don't think that's possible, is it? Sheep only breed if fed 10 units of food from a trough.

I got nothing. 

Any mods/playing with a release candidate? Only thing I can think of is a mod issue or some strange bug with an unstable release.

[Echo Weaver]

37 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

Any mods/playing with a release candidate? Only thing I can think of is a mod issue or some strange bug with an unstable release.

No, I'm not messing with release candidates until I can get my primary game through the story.

This is a Vanilla+ game -- I have more than 50 (!) mods at this point, but almost all of of them are json content mods. (In the debate on another thread about big mods vs small mods, I'm a small mod person but it does lead to huge mod counts for small adjustments.) 

I guess it must have been a glitch, but I guess a rare one if nobody else has seen it.

ETA: It seems relevant that the lamb was the same generation as a lamb we were expecting to be born, but the pregnant ewe in the barn stayed in the barn and gave birth to that 4th gen lamb several days later.

Edited August 16, 2025 by Echo Weaver

[Faerador]

This issue doesn't seem fixed.  I just found two of my pigs wandering outside my fully enclosed barn.  Is there anything I can do other than tear apart a wall and try to get them to chase me back in?  Console command?  Some sort of mod?  It's pretty maddening, after all the work I did to start husbandry, that this has happened, especially when there's no way to pen or lead large animals.  Kind of soured me on the game for a while, now.  

Edit:  Playing 1.21.4.  Seems to be something with how much more ridiculous the pigs act when piglets are around.  It's like they pushed each other right through the door trying to get to me.  And no, no mods should be causing this.  Game version is pretty much vanilla.  Have a simple HUD mod, Firewood into Sticks, and one or two other minor tweaks; nothing that does much to the game at all.  But at this point, I'd be down for a mod that makes capturing larger animals possible, as I'm pretty annoyed at this glitch.

Edited October 11, 2025 by Faerador
Added more info

[Diff]

Running into this issue while testing out a mod. I just want a bunch of chickens to sit in one place and yell at each other, but they're helping each other phase right through the fences.

 

It happens with any number of chickens greater than 2, although more chickens means more physics shenanigans. Usually by the time I get back from checking on my drifter colony, I'm down to one fenced chicken abandoned by everyone she helped break free of my tyranny.

[Professor Dragon]

2 hours ago, Diff said:

Running into this issue while testing out a mod. I just want a bunch of chickens to sit in one place and yell at each other, but they're helping each other phase right through the fences

I like the part where the chickens go "Poiiiinnng!" through the corner!

This mod is great for calming crazy chickens, until you get them to Gen 10. 
https://mods.vintagestory.at/chickensit
It won't solve the corner problem, but it means it will trigger much less. Plus, calm chickens.

I always double fence livestock:

• Aesthetically, looks nice and is a common thing on farms. Small pen. Bigger boundary fence (or ditch!)
• Stops predators swiping through fences
• Handles escapees

Nice testing - so great to see this done. Both at all, and with a nice little video which clearly shows the problem.
As you've got it reproducible, you may want to place it to the Issue Tracker, along with your log files (which should hold your mod list).
https://github.com/anegostudios/VintageStory-Issues

How did you get the fancy red border?

Professor Dragon.

 

 

Edited October 11, 2025 by Professor Dragon

[Diff]

1 hour ago, Professor Dragon said:

How did you get the fancy red border?

 

Those are creative mode light blocks, they come in a variety of colors and light intensities, my resolution is set really low because my "development" machine is severely anemic. So I use them to mark my testing areas so I can find them easier, especially at night.

Thanks for the mod recommendation!

Edited October 11, 2025 by Diff