Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-31507215-20171102170817

""Sméagol always helps," he said. "He has brought rabbits, nice rabbits. But master has gone to sleep, and perhaps Sam wants to sleep. Doesn't want rabbits now? Sméagol tries to help, but he can't catch things all in a minute.""

- The Two Towers

Today I am going to be suggesting some improvements to rabbits - specifically their behaviour and spawning.

Detection
The rabbits in the mod are rather bold. They are not very afraid of the players, even to the point of casually walking up to them sometimes. In real life, rabbits are quite the opposite. The ones I am familiar with will flee as soon as I get within a few yards of them, if not as soon as they see me.

So, rabbits should have a very high chance of running away if a player gets within 5(?) blocks of them. If the rabbit is eating a crop, their detection range should be much smaller, but still a decent enough size to make it tricky to catch them

Speed
In the mod, rabbits amble along at a slow pace normally, but when they see a threat, they pick up the pace. This picked-up-pace, however, is still very slow. In real life, it seems that rabbits are gone in the blink of an eye.

In light of this, rabbits' sprinting speed should be roughly the same as the sprinting speed of a player. Their normal walking speed would stay the same, however.

Fences
I am not sure this is possible, but it would make sense.

In real life, it seems that rabbits can get into anywhere, mainly because they can squeeze themselves into (and out of) tight places. So, if possible, rabbits should be able to "phase through" wooden fences and gates.

Breeding
Rabbits should breed like other passive animals, however, their breeding should be done purely automatically.

Here is how it works: When two rabbits are within eight blocks of one another, they will briefly emit heart particles and breed like other passive mobs. When they do, however, two to four baby rabbits will spawn, instead of the usual single offspring. These baby bunnies will be almost exactly the same as the adults - they will just have smaller bodies and fewer hit points. The babies will mature after one LotR day. Once the parents have bread, each one must wait half a day before they can breed again. ''I know these times and numbers aren't realistic, but it's Minecraft. Since when did realism matter?''

Rabbit Warrens
Right now, rabbits just appear out of nowhere in certain biomes. That method will be kept, but added onto. This new method will be Rabbit Warrens! They would be something like a combination of Silverfish Blocks and Termite Mounds, with some other changes. Here are the details:

The Block
A new block, called "Rabbit Warren" will be added. It would look just like a grass block, but the top texture would have a small, grass-covered hole in it. It would have the same breaking speed, dig/step noises, and blast resistance as grass. When broken without a Silken tool, it would yield dirt, but when broken with a Silken tool, it would yield itself.

Generation
Rabbit Warrens would be small structures that would generate semi-rarely anywhere rabbits can spawn. They would be made out of Rabbit Warren blocks, and would replace about 50% of the top layer of grass in a 5x5 area. Tall grass would spawn on top of 50% of the grass/warren blocks in the same 5x5 area.

Mechanics
Rabbit Warren blocks would have two states: Occupied and Unoccupied. When a Rabbit Warren Structure generates, 1-3 of the warren blocks will be Occupied. When an Occupied warren block is broken (with or without a Silken tool), one adult rabbit and 0-3 babies will spawn where the block was. When a warren is broken with a Silken tool, the dropped block will always be Unoccupied.

When a rabbit is fleeing (from a player or predatory entity), if it locates an Unoccupied warren block 8 (or fewer) blocks away, it will run towards it. When it reaches it, the rabbit will disappear (perhaps in a shower of dirt particles), and the block will become Occupied.

An Occupied warren block will spawn an adult rabbit directly above it (with a puff of dirt particles) about twice a LotR day. When it does so, there is a 50% chance the warren will become Unoccupied.

As always, thanks for reading my suggestion! If you have any other ideas, or if you notice that I missed something, please comment below!

 