AE2 Spatial Cell Bug: Are Your Birds Getting Duplicated?

Hey everyone, ever been exploring the vast, amazing world of modded Minecraft, particularly in a packed experience like the TerraFirmaGreg-Team, Modpack-Modern, and stumbled upon something truly bizarre? We’re talking about a glitch that’s turning your cool AE2 Spatial Cells into unintended cloning machines, specifically for your feathered buddies, the Gliders and Soarers. This isn't just a minor visual hiccup; it’s a pretty significant bug that can have some wild implications for your game, from unexpected entity proliferation to weirdly genderless birds! If you're using modpack version 0.11.8 on a server, especially if you're venturing into new worlds, you absolutely need to pay attention. We're here to break down what's happening, why it's a big deal, and what you can do about it. Let's dive in and unravel this avian anomaly!

What's Happening with AE2 Spatial Cells and Your Feathered Friends?

Alright, guys, let’s get straight to the heart of the matter: there's a peculiar AE2 Spatial Cell bug making headlines, or at least, making some chaos in our virtual worlds. Specifically, players in the TerraFirmaGreg-Team, Modpack-Modern, running version 0.11.8 on a server, are noticing that when they try to move certain mobs – and by 'certain mobs,' we mean the adorable, flight-enabled Gliders and Soarers – using an Applied Energistics 2 Spatial Cell, these creatures aren't just moving; they're multiplying! Instead of a single entity gracefully transitioning into or out of spatial storage, you're suddenly looking at two, then four, or maybe even more of them. This isn't the kind of magic AE2 is known for, right? Spatial Cells are designed to precisely capture and release chunks of your world, including all entities within them, maintaining their integrity. The expected behavior is a seamless transfer, a sort of advanced teleportation for structures and inhabitants. What we're witnessing, however, is a fundamental breakdown in how these specific entities are handled during the spatialization process, leading to uncontrolled duplication. This bug isn't just a quirky visual effect; it brings with it a cascade of issues. Imagine the resource duplication, the potential for game-breaking exploits if left unchecked, and the sheer clutter of unintended mobs. Even more concerning, the report indicates that the duplicated birds often come out corrupted in some ways, losing their health, inventory, or even their gender, resulting in strange, genderless birds that are definitely not part of the intended gameplay experience. This suggests a deeper problem with entity NBT data serialization and deserialization when interacting with AE2's spatial mechanics. It's a tricky beast, and it's something that definitely needs our collective attention to understand and ultimately, to fix. For any server admins or players out there, understanding this issue is the first step to mitigating its impact.

Diving Deep into the Duplication Disaster: The Glider and Soarer Story

This AE2 Spatial Cell bug is a real head-scratcher, especially when we consider the specifics of how Gliders and Soarers are affected. It's like these two birds have a special, unintended secret handshake with the spatial cells that no one planned for. Let's break down the bizarre behavior we're seeing and the exact steps that seem to trigger this cloning catastrophe. Understanding the precise chain of events is crucial for anyone hoping to replicate the bug for testing or to simply avoid it in their own worlds.

The Expected vs. The Reality: A Tale of Two Birds (or More!)

Let’s set the scene: you’ve meticulously built your AE2 Spatial Pylons, hooked up your I/O Port with a fresh Spatial Cell, and you're ready to store a section of your world. The expected behavior here is pretty straightforward, right? You place a beloved Glider or a Soarer – just one of them – into the spatial area, activate the cell, and it gets perfectly packed away. Later, when you unpack that cell, you should get that exact same single mob back, no fuss, no muss. It's supposed to be a fancy, high-tech way to move your pets or your custom builds, preserving every detail. But here's where the plot thickens, guys, and things get wild. The actual behavior is something out of a science fiction movie, but less cool and more problematic. When you pop that single bird into the spatial cell, sometimes, even inside the cell, you might already observe two birds instead of one. It's as if a ghostly twin spontaneously appeared! And then, the true climax: when you finally extract that chunk of the world back into reality, you're not greeted by one, or even two, but often four birds! Yes, you read that right, a single bird has somehow turned into a quartet. This rapid multiplication is alarming, and it's not just a visual trick. These are distinct entities, taking up server resources and potentially creating an endless supply of feathered friends. What's even weirder is the inconsistent copying of their attributes. Health bars, inventories (if they happen to carry anything), and even their gender can be lost or randomized in the process. We're talking about the potential for completely new, sometimes genderless birds appearing from the void. This points to a deeper issue beyond simple duplication – it suggests that the entity's NBT data (the specific data that defines an entity's unique characteristics) isn't being properly serialized and deserialized. Instead, AE2 might be creating new default instances and then failing to correctly apply the saved data, or perhaps it's reading the entity data multiple times during the transfer. This specific issue with Gliders and Soarers is likely due to how their particular mod (part of the TerraFirmaGreg-Team, Modpack-Modern) implements them, causing a conflict with AE2's generalized entity handling. This isn't just annoying; it's a massive flag for potential instability and game imbalance if exploited. Imagine the impact on your server's performance with hundreds of duplicated entities!

The "How-To" of Unintended Cloning: Steps to Reproduce

For anyone looking to confirm this bug or, conversely, understand how to avoid triggering this AE2 Spatial Cell duplication, knowing the exact steps to reproduce it is absolutely key. The good news (or bad, depending on your perspective) is that triggering this bug seems surprisingly straightforward, making it a critical issue for players on TerraFirmaGreg-Team, Modpack-Modern version 0.11.8. Here's the sequence of events that consistently leads to our feathered friends multiplying like crazy:

1. Get a Glider or Soarer: First things first, you need one of these specific avian creatures. It seems that only these particular birds from the modpack are susceptible to this bizarre cloning phenomenon. Catch one, breed one, just make sure you have it ready for its grand spatial adventure.
2. Gather Your AE2 Spatial Components: Next, you’ll need the core elements of your Applied Energistics 2 spatial system. This includes an Energy Cell to power everything, an I/O Port (the gateway to the spatial dimension), a Spatial Cell itself (the storage medium), and several Spatial Pylons to define the area you want to spatially store.
3. Build Your Spatial Platform: Construct the structure for your spatial storage. This involves setting up the Spatial Pylons to enclose a small area, placing the I/O Port, and ensuring it’s properly connected to your AE2 network with adequate power. Make sure the area is large enough to comfortably contain your chosen bird.
4. Introduce the Bird and Activate Spatial Storage: Now for the critical step. Get your Glider or Soarer into the defined spatial area. Once it’s inside, activate your spatial storage system through the I/O Port, initiating the transfer process. You'll observe the area being