Talk:Astronauts/@comment-4501235-20111128090857/@comment-4583259-20111128131328

This goes along with my observations about mob activity in general: The .dat files (like 0_128_-256.dat) store the information about mobs, and those files are only getting saved (updated) when I am in or near that file's superblock coordinates. If the file isn't getting updated, there would be no way for Mooncraft to remember any new position for the mobs when you reload the game, so it seems clear that mobs "hibernate" (stop moving and stop fighting each other) when you are far away from them.

So this phantom pistol noise must be a mob of some kind. I originally thought maybe it was the friendlynaut trapped inside rock somewhere.

As for why do the disks get thrown away but mobs don't: Because Mobs can move from one part of the map to another, the game has to keep a list of "active mobs" in memory somewhere. When the terrain regen happens, I'm sure it wipes out the .dat file, but then whenever it auto-saves the game, any active mobs that are in that block will get written to the .dat file. So the mobs survive, including the invisible friendly astronaut.