User blog:OrigamiDragons/Blue Studies

Hooray! My experiences with the Blue I mob are not over.

And this time it didn't die.

Always good, Yah?

Well. This story starts with PolyCastl. Always a good beginning (And yes, a big blog post on that when it is finished.) After starting in work on PolyCastl It used up most of my time for building bases. Previously, my worlds had been as follows:

Moon A: A small starter base with only a few rooms, in creative mode.

Moon B: A survival mode world where I just perpetually wandered around killing astros.

Moon C: the modified base from the "Life in an Astro Base" articles.

Moon D: PolyCastl construction.

I realized I was a bit bored with my current setup. Whenever I needed a break from PolyCastl, I would wander in Moon B, and I wanted to keep Moon C because of the line of blog posts about it. But I had no real need for Moon A since PolyCastl was the most important base I was building right now. So I decided to restart it as survival mode, wandering and fighting, and once I collected all the v3 items and it got dull I would restart it again, to keep things interesting. Well, that is what I did. And it worked out great- for about 10 sq km.

By this time I had all the v3 items, yes, but I was wandering about for the sake of it. And that was when....

Another blue. I froze. I'm really, really, really lucky, I told myself. I have to be very careful with this situation. I have too.. um.. catch it..or, uh, shoot it, or at least get at least 100 nearly identical pictures of it standing there. I have to be very quiet...I edged closer...and maybe get around the other side of it... AN ITEM HAS BEEN STOLEN!

Oh okay. That's cool too.

The next picture was:

This is just a blue's legs in the air. A second later it stole something. I wasn't sure what though.

I stood still for a bit then thought, oh, yeah, I am stupid. No doubt about it. Maybe...

I jumped up and scanned the area for the blue. It had teleported away, of course, but I did spot it. I got closer, and tried to get around it... AN ITEM HAS BEEN STOLEN! This began a wild goose chase of sorts across the moon. Each time, it stole something, teleported away, but I found it again.

First sighting: I am a blathering idiot in its presence. I lose an item.

Second sighting: I jump up and look for it. I find it a short distance away, yet still do not know how to deal with it. I circle it and lose an item.

Third sighting: I look all around but do not see the Blue. I think, okay, maybe it left for good, and continue on my way. I must have gone in a circle though because eventually I find it again. This time, I plan to build a tower to stand on and watch it safely. However I get too close and it charges. In a panic, I shoot it.

The Blue goes down.

I am horrified.

Yet I said it didn't die. After staring at it a bit, I turn away, just looking (Idiot) for maybe another blue somewhere. No other blues. I notice the blue dropped a light block, maybe one of mine. I thought I had been missing one. (I created the world with zero tree cover, so all my light came from the walls of Astro lairs. So it wasn't that much at all, and I would notice if one was missing.) Thinking I will probably delete the world now, I turn around, and my game crashes. I am sent to the menu. I reopen lunacraft and choose moon A. And there is the blue. Hooray! My unwise shot was undone. Isn't life nice?

I build a tower like I said, a single column of sand about ten blocks high. I suddenly realized what an attacking Blue I looks like from above, a sight few have seen:

I very slowly lowered my tower to 8 blocks, low enough to build on the ground. Every block deleted from beneath me brought me closer to the blue, jumping crazily and circling the tower. Blue I can SO jump higher than a block.

I tried building a sort of pen around it, but it went right through the walls and kept on circling. Confused, I paused, then the blue jumped ontop of the pen wall, and onto my tower. I lost an item.

Fourth sighting: Nightime again. I circle and find it near some hills. I go to take a picture and find myself holding a data chip instead. The space my camera was is empty.

It stole my camera! It stole my camera! Hey, No fair! I had to take sideways add-filled screenshots for the rest of the photos.

Yet this time, I managed to trap it.

I built a tower of sand again, but had to build the top of polymers. I noticed nervously I was running out of materials. I got a bright idea. I dug a pit four blocks deep in the side of a mountain nearby, and the war crazed blue fell right in.

I had trapped it! yaaaay!

I immediately built polymers and boron crystals (Hey the only item I had lots of left) around the pit. The blue was trapped for good!

I was stunned. I have a blue I mob trapped for experimentation. I built a small roof of ice over it and am perfectly safe up there, I think. However seeing how it walked through the walls of the other pen I was afraid to walk off the roof and collect more materials. Maybe with its straining efforts directed sideways it would be able to get out of the pit.

I have no idea what to do with it now. However I have a blue I in an isolated environment, ready for experimentation. Anyone who wanted to study the blue I, comment an experiment I could run. I need something to do with it. I will do any experiment that doesn't involve touching it, For I have no doubt it would immediately steal and teleport out of my pit. And keep in mind this is survival mode.

I caught a Blue I!!!

His name is George. My friend named him that after I told him about this adventure. Everyone wish George luck for surviving the next brutal stage of testing.

CONTINUED EXPERIMENTS
I waited for a bit and no one commented an experiment so I will admit I got impatient. I finally just said "to heck with it" and jumped off the roof. It was exactly as I said. George was able to jump to ground level (about halfway up the shaft of his pen) and go through the wall towards me. He stole my DRILL and teleported right out of the hole.

It was okay though I had made a backup drill so I used that. I immediately jetpacked up and looked around...and that's when I realized something else about the Blue I mob.

It doesn't teleport. That is, it doesn't vanish and spontaneously appear somewhere close by. Rather, it vanishes and falls out of the sky a short distance away. I have no picture but I saw it fall from at least twenty blocks up, and I looked around first before seeing it. My theory is that George falls from 63 blocks up, the top of the world, down onto a patch of ground.

Well I managed to trap him again. I dug another hole. It got surprisingly easier after the first time: dig a small hole eight blocks deep, build a tower beneath you, and wait for the blue to notice you. Once I had to go and get George to chase me, and then lead him toward the hole, which was really really scary, I have to tell you. Anyway I knew this hole wasn't going to work either because it wasn't eight blocks deep. Therefore George could jump and touch me on ground level. It even managed to jump out of the hole and touch me standing on the rim.

The last hole really succeeded. The blue fell into an ice field. The ground was level and flat, and I quickly dug a 3x3x8 hole in the ground. I then got close to the blue, goading it into the hole.

I realized that this was perfect. I could walk around anywhere I liked on the surface, and since the blue could not jump to ground level or through his hole I was in no danger from him. I could collect all the dirt, sand, and ice I wanted, even going back to my last hole to collect the boron crystals. I built an observation facility floating over george's hole so I could look down on him safely. Here are some photos (and Mrob27, if you could rotate these agin that would be great, because I don't know how.)

On the left is the observation facility for George 'I' (Bwochinski helped name him that. Its kind of like the Blue I, which he is, but also like george the first or King of Mobs. A good name for him. Does anyone think I anthropomorphise him too much?)

On the right is the interior. Notice the hole in the floor. this looks down on George's hole.

The slightly disturbing thing is that george can jump high. I mean, really high. He can jump up to four or five blocks high, plus his three block height, is enough to get his head above ground. Not enough to get out, but enough to be frightening.

Now my experiments can include more things, as I can collect materials of technically all types as long as I place blocks to lead me back. I am about to test the superblock disarming theory- whether going a superblock away will make George stop jumping at me and trying to get me. Please, post some experiments.

EXPERIMENTS DONE
1. Superblock-disarming

I tested this by walking one superblock away from the observation facility, then walking back. It is indeed true that walking a superblock away will stop the Blue I's bloodlust. It goes back to wandering normally, not always facing you or jumping at you. However, as I stood above George's hole looking down at him, he suddenly turned to me and started jumping. So he is safe as long as you don't go within his 'set off point' for too long. And If you walk away, past his set-off limit yet within a superblock, he will still face you and jump. This doesn't really benefit you as a Blue I will always suddenly realize you are there. I don't know if an unrestrained blue will stop chasing you if you run past a superblock boundary.

BLUE I MYTHS
Myths 'busted' through this experiment

1. The Blue I cannot jump high. On the blue I page it states that the Blue I can only jump 1 block high. This is NOT TRUE. See the above picture of george jumping out of his pit. I believe that while nuetral, George will only jump a block, but if chasing you he can jump veryvery high.

2. '''The Blue I steals a whole stack of items. '''I don't think this is true. It stole a single light from me, which would imply it takes a single item out of a stack. Yet I am not sure; I haven't figured out the rest of the things it stole.

3. The Blue can teleport whenever it wants. I don't think there is a single scenario more worthy of teleportation than being trapped in a pit with a roof. Also with prey right near you.

4. The Blue I cannot move fast. It moves SO FAST when it chases you! This is also written on the blue I page, but it will move faster. And you better run.

5. The blue will attack you if you can see it. From what I've gathered, the Blue I set-off point is about ten/twenty blocks away. At this point it will turn towards you and rapidly move in your direction.

6. The blue teleports superblocks away. Not usually. I could always find the blue within sight of the last robbery. Except that one time, and I think it was nearby anyway.

7. '''The Blue I cannot be seen through glass. '''This is true, but I want to specify; The blue I cannot be seen through glass or any other type of transparent crystal. This includes hyperglass, boron crystal, sulphur crystal, blue crystal, ice, or unknown. In other words; no way to see the blue without having it open to you.

8. '''The Blue I cannot be trapped. '''