There hasn't been a change maybe is just a bug right now if i were you delete your minecraft.jar from you .minecraft folder and update minecraft againg and see if it works
I don't think it's a bug. I've heard that the system is changing and passive mobs only spawn once when a new chunk is generated. That's it. However, in 1.9 there's supposed to be animal breeding which will allow you to get more passives.
I don't think it's a bug. I've heard that the system is changing and passive mobs only spawn once when a new chunk is generated. That's it. However, in 1.9 there's supposed to be animal breeding which will allow you to get more passives.
It's true. Animal respawning conditions have changed. While they still have the ability to respawn, the conditions needed to replicate that will almost never be replicated in a normal survival gameplay, so you'll almost never see animals respawn.
If you want more information, check the link in my signature.
I don't think the criteria for them to spawn has changed, I think what has changed is that passive mobs stick around for much longer than before and this has some unintentional pitfalls.
When I started my new world in 1.8.1 everything seemed fine for a while, but then I looked around and realized that I hadn't seen a passive animal in a really long time. So I did a little ranging and what I found was all of the passives had found their way into all of the enclosed watering holes and deep parts of caves with surface entrances. I found at least 4 or 5 watering holes that there were no 1x1 routes out of, filled to capacity with a writhing mass of cows, chickens, pigs, and sheep. Once these trapped animals were either given an escape route or were...uh...otherwise freed, everything seemed to work out just fine.
What you might want to do is make a sweep of the area around your base and either add a 1x1 block slope to any tiny ponds or watering holes or fill them over with dirt and cap off any open mine shafts. That worked like a charm for me.
Ive heard this too.
It's true. Animal respawning conditions have changed. While they still have the ability to respawn, the conditions needed to replicate that will almost never be replicated in a normal survival gameplay, so you'll almost never see animals respawn.
If you want more information, check the link in my signature.
When I started my new world in 1.8.1 everything seemed fine for a while, but then I looked around and realized that I hadn't seen a passive animal in a really long time. So I did a little ranging and what I found was all of the passives had found their way into all of the enclosed watering holes and deep parts of caves with surface entrances. I found at least 4 or 5 watering holes that there were no 1x1 routes out of, filled to capacity with a writhing mass of cows, chickens, pigs, and sheep. Once these trapped animals were either given an escape route or were...uh...otherwise freed, everything seemed to work out just fine.
What you might want to do is make a sweep of the area around your base and either add a 1x1 block slope to any tiny ponds or watering holes or fill them over with dirt and cap off any open mine shafts. That worked like a charm for me.