Notch accidently adds Minecraft ecosystems between mobs

Posted in minecraft

After developing new code for the swamp biome, Notch has accidently introduced mini ecosystems. Interaction between mobs has unwittingly made its way into the game and animals including cows, pigs and sheep exhibit primitive behaviour such as fleeing attack.

Notch got so bored of sheep waiting to be attacked by the player that he decided to tweak the code. Rather than animals standing still, they now flee attack and run in a random direction. This made hunting a lot more fun but it had a hidden consequence that become clearer later. It turned out that not only would animals run away from the player but they would also run away from attack by other mobs. So if a wolf attacked a sheep, the sheep would attempt to run away. Kind of like a mini eco system or fish tank effect, mobs will defend themselves and co-exist in their habitats.

It turns out that Notch likes this kind of mob-to-mob interactions and it could become a bigger part of the game. With no intervention from the player, mobs exhibit behaviour similar to the natural world i.e. hunters hunting food and the pretty attempting to escape attack. So it's not just the player that has an influence on the Minecraft environment anymore.

Notch won't give any details away but he's working on a secret project at the weekend. Could this recent discovery have anything to do with it?? We'll just have to wait and see..