Joel, and Jonny get a leg up on the latest Minecraft snapshot with new chickens, dry grass, and cactus flowers. Plus, listener email about overgrown sheep, and poultry problems.

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FROM: BeserkSwan
SUBJECT: Sheep Wool Growth Changes

Hi Jonny and Joel,

In Episode 333, you were discussing what potential changes to sheep could be implemented in light of the updates to pigs, cows, and now chickens.

Sheep currently have only two stages of wool growth, either with or without wool, and they drop 1-3 wool when sheared. In nature however sheep wool grows continually until such time as it is sheared by a farmer or shed (see the famous case of Baarak the sheep here in Australia. (TheGuardian.com) 

I propose that the Minecraft sheep wool growth mechanic could be changed, to have a four stage system (Shorn, Short, Medium, Overgrown) which could either be progressed through a multi-stage growth cycle like crops, or could grow to a random value when it eats grass.

Each stage of growth could drop a different quantity of wool when shorn, which would offer both the aesthetic model update, and a gameplay change, including a fun optimization challenge for automatic wool farms.

What do you think?

BeserkSwan died of shock when the overgrown sheep dropped 8 wool blocks.

FROM: ArcaneGhoul_
SUBJECT: Something Most Fowl

Hey Pix and Joel,

So it looks like the ambient snapshot theme continues, and the most recent snapshot contains even more ambiance that I’m incredibly excited for, including chicken variants.

To keep it short, I’m not quite sold on the new chicken designs. I understand the current path Mojang is trying to follow, by keeping the animal models close to their original shapes. While I enjoy the new pigs, and cows, the chickens seem to have fallen short for me. I’ve seen a lot of community consensus pre-update relating to the fact that many people think the default chicken looks like a duck, and I think they’ve fallen into that trap again. Sure the cold chicken has that ‘fluff’ on its head, but I’m not sure that’s a positive, albeit the tail is going in the right direction. 

I’ve seen so many modders make a good looking chicken texture without tweaking the model too far, and I’m wishing Mojang had done the same instead of keeping with the duck style, and adding some okay additions to only one variant. 

Thoughts?

ArcaneGhoul_ experienced gravity at the bottom of a ravine after being distracted by a chicken.

New Chickens, Dry Grass, & Cactus Flowers