1) No animals in magical biomes: I came across area around pure node that was clearing the taint. I fenced the area and returned many times over RL days and I never seen anything spawning there. Is it intended? Do we need to get animals though thaumic or botania means? I was surely far enough for spawning to work (easily >100 blocks)
2) Nether is quite peaceful: On my Nether visit I expected much worse (see my past post from pre-1.3). But it was fairly quiet, with few occasional ghasts. I was mostly a jetpacking around and was avoiding pigmen from far, so maybe that's why. Noticed few wither skellys and blazes around the fortress. I quite liked it actually, finally the Nether was not crazy. But unusual (for your pack
) and very different from older version where I was insta-popped as soon as I entered through portal.
3) Silverwoord trees on surface disappeared: I crafted and planted two silverwood trees. One was planted in a fenced area on raised, cleaned (untainted), lighted up cobblestone platform. Platform was only accessible by ladder from within my base. Second tree was planted on the surface, in the same fenced area. I never had any mobs spawning within the fenced area.
Both saplings grew to trees, both trees had pure nodes in them and even cleared some blocks from taint. The trees were at least 20 blocks away (i.e. fire could not jump from one to another, no lava around). After several RL hours (I play after work, so I'd guess even after 2-3 world starts across multiple days) I went to the surface and both trees were gone. I found 4 magical wood blocks from the surface tree, the one on platform was completely gone. No drops, no mobs. Can the meteorites destroy trees if planted on surface? I am not familiar with mechanics of Meteorcraft and besides occasional loud swoosh&explosion sounds I never noticed any trace of meteorites around my base (no craters, no drops).
4) Blown up by creeper that spawned next to me: Before my death I was inside my underground base and saw zombers tracing me on minimap. Also heard digging sounds, so they have been tunneling for a while. Then I suddenly got swarmed by 4 zombies and 1 TNT-placing guy while in a closed room. After I managed to kill them I went to inspect the place, but haven't found any tunnel - all walls were solid rock. Can zombies or TNT guys teleport through solid walls if close enough to player? Maybe only the TNT guy and he immediately spawned zombie reinforcements?
10 minutes later I went to surface to farm vis by provoking and killing taint tentacles. It was during storm. Out of nowhere (nothing on minimap) a charged creeper suddenly spawned 3 blocks away from me and immediately exploded killing me instantly... I lost the golden laurel previously to the Thaumcraft "ghost" that suddenly spawned in my underground base. My area was not far (~50 blocks) away from Thaumcraft crimson knight "floating obelisk". Can the obelisk in proximity cause these super-close spawns or teleportation of mobs to the inside of underground base (top floor of my base was ~20 blocks below surface, maybe 70-100 from the obelisk)?
5) No diamonds and very fewgems. I dugged in layer indicated by JEI but I believe I only found 3 gems and 0 diamonds. Is this intentional? Are we supposed to get them from dungeon loot (found not dungeons while digging) or farm treasures? I could not do any enchantments ... tried my luck with fishing (myslef + golem) and ended up with a 2 enchanted books which were the only enchantments.