Matthew McInnis

This is the code:

protected boolean canDespawn()
{
return !this.isTamed() && this.ticksExisted > 2400;
}

from this forum

http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/minecraft-discussion/survival-mode/2386255-do-untamed-wolves-despawn

I'm no programmer, but that looks like a simple fix. And yes, there are bugs like that, but they are usually unintentional side effects caused by the addition of new content. This appears to my untrained eye to be intentional coding. Also http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Wolf lists this as a change made in 1.6.1, convincing me further that this is an intentional, albeit faulty, aspect of the wolves' spawning and despawning patterns.

Edit: Please read Larry Blackburn's and Anomie X's comments.

That's the root of my frustration, Tristan. These comments will likely get deleted by a mod, but I don't see why they don't have a "polish" team. There's probably reluctance to expand much within the Mojang gang, regarding efficiency as something that belongs in an economics class. Maybe the renewed traffic on this discussion will attract the assignee's attention; I don't know.

In the meantime I suggest packing up on bones and doing some good ole exploring to load some new chunks. That's the only "kosher" solution as of now. I spent the last few hours doing this (my world is mostly savanna and desert), and my heart skipped a beat upon actually finding some wolves. I spammed my 30+ bones and got four wolves for good measure.

Edit: And King, this problem should be relatively easy to fix. I got the impression that they would just have to tamper with the "canDespawn" part of the code for passive wolves. The reason it's been two years is that technically this mechanic "works as intended" but is not viable for most situations. Like a comment above says, it makes sense for ocelots but not for wolves.

Did the mods abandon this? It's not so much a bug as much as it is a faulty game mechanic that's gone unfixed for two years. I can't find any wolves on my world at all. Can we get a fix on this for those of us who don't know how to decompile and alter code?