Donkeys despawn?

[wyldefx]

I walked a considerable ways north until I found a savanna for the sole purpose of getting a few donkeys for the old homestead. Brought the first one back and parked him outside. Went in to get supplies to build a fence, and when I came out, he was gone. Do they despawn? Or do they simply return to where I found them? Also, will a fenced in area keep them in?

[Problem Solver]

If you had a saddle left on him he should have stayed there. If you removed the saddle; then they will wander

[wyldefx]

Left the saddle on him. I went back up to the savanna to see if he returned there but couldn't find him. Brought back another donkey, saddle and saddlebags. This one I parked inside the fenced pen along with a few horses. Went inside for a few minutes and came back out. The second donkey was gone as well. The four horses were still there.

If despawning is to be common among pack animals whenever not in their original biome, then the devs might need to fix this. We go to places out of the way to get things (ores, specialty weapons in dungeons, etc.). It would be difficult to be able to use the pack animals otherwise.

[red51]

Basically animals are not supposed to despawn. Animals will only be deleted if they die (but since animals don't get attacked by other animals, they can only die due to fall damage or if a player kills them)...

Did the donkeys disappear in singleplayer or multiplayer? Are you running any plugins? If animals have a saddle on their back, they won't wander off, unless a plugin instructs them to do so.

[wyldefx]

I have no plugins or addons. I am playing single player. I parked the donkey (saddle and saddlebags still on him) right outside of my house. I went in to make materials for a pen, and when I came out, the donkey was gone. I built the pen, and placed a few horses in it with saddles on them. Went back to see if the donkey returned to the savanna, but couldn't find it. Got another one, put a saddle on it and rode it home. Parked it in the pen, and closed the door. Went inside the house and when I came out, the donkey was gone from the pen, but the horses were still there. There are no predators in the area where my house sits.

[red51]

Hmm... are the donkeys still missing after reloading the world? Is there a room or a cave directly under the pen so the animal fell through the ground? This shouldn't happen for mounts, especially if they have a saddle on their bag, but until the animal AI and collision detection is fully reworked, there is basically a (very) small chance that this happens... although it's strange that this doesn't affect the horses apparently oO

Maybe you can enable the debug console, probably it provides more information about what's going on there. To do that, go to your game directory (rightclick on rw in steam -> properties -> local files -> browse local files) and open the "config.properties" file with a text editor. Set "game_debug_console" to true, save the changes and run the game again. Play until you run into this issue again, then quit the game, and go into the "Logs" folder in your game directory. There should be a log file now, please send this file via email to [e-mail] or alternatively post it on http://pastebin.com (and post a link here) ;)

[wyldefx]

Okay, I entered fly mode and went under the ground. They are there. Not a cave or room, just under the dirt. How do I get them out?

[wyldefx]

Is there a way to get back the stuff you lost when you die? I went under the ground to get the donkeys, and when I tried to get them out, I died. Now a lot of specialty gear the donkey and I were carrying is gone.

[red51]

Is the donkey just hovering in the air, or is there a cave under the pen? Instead of teleporting an npc, it's easier to spawn a new one by opening the console (by pressing ` or ~) and typing "spawnnpc donkey" (it then spawns in front of you).
To get a new saddle for it, type "item saddledonkey 1" into console.

Originally posted by wyldefx:

Is there a way to get back the stuff you lost when you die?

There should be a dead body at the location where you died, it can be looted to get the stuff back. Although it despawns after a given amount of time... Alternatively you can go to your game settings (settings -> misc) and tick the "Keep Inventory" box, then save the changes. This prevents you from losing your items the next time you die.

[wyldefx]

The donkey appears to be in a tunnel - well, it was. I couldn't get it out. Getting a new donkey isn't my problem. It is the stuff I had and that was in the donkey's saddlebags that is the problem. And there isn't a dead body there, unfortunately. May have to start the game over.

[red51]

Maybe you can try to access the saddle bags of the donkey by using the flymode (F2). If you get close enough, you can access them and try to safe the items.

[wyldefx]

Donkey and I already died. Will have to start again. No big deal.

[Staari™]

Something else .... it will help when you build a pen so they don't decide to become ground hogs --- when i built a grove for my cow, i first placed blocks, then i put metal grates over the blocks and then dirt and made it all pretty ... this was about 3-4 months ago and yes, lots of work BUT the cow is still there and very much happy!!! ^^

[Walter das Trevas]

It would be interesting if the horse settled in a drinking fountain with grass around, for example. A little stable.
http://www.equestrianandhorse.com/care/stables-barns/equipment.html

[wyldefx]

Originally posted by StaariZA:

Something else .... it will help when you build a pen so they don't decide to become ground hogs --- when i built a grove for my cow, i first placed blocks, then i put metal grates over the blocks and then dirt and made it all pretty ... this was about 3-4 months ago and yes, lots of work BUT the cow is still there and very much happy!!! ^^

There is no way I am doing all that. The donkeys should be able to stand on the ground, I would think. Maybe it was because they were out of their own biome. I don't know. But I started over, and the biome I am in now has donkeys not too far away. Maybe they won't fall through the ground here.

[Problem Solver]

Just remember Wyldefx that the game is still in early access. There are going to be glitches. Just let Red know and he will do everything he can to fix these glitches.