User blog:Scooter8pie/Brown Mob and the Colorwood Experiment

I’ve spent a lot of time experimenting with the Brown Mob and its ability to transmute one material into another. Recently I realized that I had incorrectly interpreted the results of some of my tests. With some of the more common materials (Dirt, Rock and Gravel) it was easier to get background interference from the surrounding materials. The Brown Mob’s explosion would be so powerful that it would not only transmute the material I was testing, but also a lot of material above and to the sides of my test cube. If you haven’t read it already, my Alchemy and the Brown Mob blog describes my testing procedure.

Thanks to some comments and keen observations by Mrob27, I decided that if I wanted to be sure about the transmutations I needed to revise my tests a little bit. At this time I was also trying to figure out a good method to use in explore mode to take advantage of the Brown Mob’s explosions. I went back over the list of Materials and started retesting the ones that didn’t follow the pattern that the other materials seemed to be. Mrob27 pointed out that it seemed like if you looked at the original material’s block type number in the Items list, it would transform into the material one block type number higher in the list. So Dirt (block type 1) should transmute into Sand (block type 2), originally I thought I was getting Leaf (block type 5) from Dirt.

As the common materials started aligning with the pattern, we realized that Colorwood (Moon Bark in the in-game crafting guide) would need to do something unique. Colorwood is block type 42 therefore it should transmute into block type 43. Block type 43 is undefined, so would Colorwood not transmute into anything or would it transmute into the next higher block type on the list? Block type 100, Mini Light, is the next higher value listed. Originally I found that Colorwood changed into Dirt. In any case I wanted this test to be error free.

Doing the test in explore mode was very challenging; I failed a few times before getting it right. Explore mode also had some advantages:
 * I could keep track of the actual number of each block I had in my inventory. This helped me not only keep track of the number of blocks I had placed, but also to see how many of which block I had more of after the explosion.CW_Inventory_Pre_Blast.jpg
 * I didn’t have to shoot the Brown Mob to get it to explode. This meant I didn’t have to be in the same space as it was to get it to blow up. More than a few times, in my creative mode tests, it would nudge me into a block which I would have to drill my way out of or I would push it into a block which meant that it would start jumping downward again and if I didn’t catch it in time it would end up below my test cube and my time will either have been wasted or I would have to spend more time coxing it back to the top of the cube. Not having to shoot it was also a curse; a number of times I would accidently hit the jump button and the boost would take me within the Brown Mob’s trigger distance and it would explode before I was ready for it to. If you are closer than 4 blocks to it once it has become aggressive it will detonate.
 * I knew the exact block location where the explosion took place. Previously I thought the explosions were destroying mainly blocks below or to the sides of it. Again Mrob27 pointed out that he noticed blocks above were also being destroyed. After he made that comment I started keeping track of how many blocks, above and below, were being destroyed. I was able to confine the Brown Mob to a 1 block space and I knew exactly where that space was. Before, when I had to shoot it, I never knew for sure where it exploded.CW_Happy_Alchemist.jpg

The Colorwood test was my most complicated to date. I placed 1,114 Colorwood blocks. I had to collect almost 300 of those blocks manually first. I used an inventory bug to get the rest. I built my test cube deep underground to avoid accidental detonation. After I had placed all the blocks I dug a 2 block wide buffer zone around the cube so that there were no other types of block touching the test cube. I also over-excavated an area at one of the corners so I could take some pictures.

My 3x3 Colorwood “chimney” was 4 blocks tall, centered on the top of the cube. The chimney space actually extended all the way to the surface, where my Brown Mob was trapped in a shaft, but the upper blocks around the shaft were not changed.

I then went back to the surface and gradually dropped the Brown Mob down the chimney 2 blocks at a time. I was standing next to its trap shaft, I would drill 2 blocks out from below me, then drill 2 blocks out below it. That way I was outside of its detonation zone and was able to get it inside my Colorwood test cube. When I reached the top of the Colorwood chimney I stopped drilling blocks from below me and continued its shaft into the cube to the maximum drill distance (9 blocks from where I stood). So, the Brown Mob was 5 blocks below the top of my cube. Then I placed a Colorwood block directly above it and filled the rest of the chimney with Colorwood. I then stood in the center of the chimney and drilled out the blocks below me one at a time until my world blew up around me.

And I did all this only to find out that my initial results were correct after all, sort of….. Colorwood does transform into Dirt, but not regular Dirt. It transmutes into topsoil. The blocks I collected could be placed as topsoil. These blocks could not be stacked in my inventory and the icon looked like regular Dirt. When a block was placed in the scanner the information box was blank. When the block was equipped it looked like topsoil in my hand. After I saved my game, they changed into regular Dirt. I’ve added a note about this to the transmutations table on the Brown Mob page.

In conclusion; I’m crazy for having done all this, and if anyone ever wants topsoil, ask a Brown Mob to make some for you out of Colorwood. Do it in creative mode though. The explosion destroyed 387 blocks of which I only got 12 blocks of topsoil. Not a very good return on investment.

Part 2
With the Version 1.8.0 update a new block was added. Beacon is block type 44. So, instead of trying to test a Brown Mob's effect on the Beacon blocks, which produce the extremely buggy Friendly Astronauts, I decided to re-test Colorwood (now called Moonbark). Would it now produce block type 44? No, it still gives Topsoil. The only difference this time is how the transmuted blocks look prior to picking them up. They are now yellow instead of the white block I got before (I'm not sure if it looks like Snow or Light).

I took my own advice and did this test in creative mode and you do end up with infinite stacks of topsoil. This only lasts until you save the game, it will change into normal dirt when the game is reopened.

I guess I'm going to have to figure out a way to test Beacons. Maybe I'll use the method suggested in a comment on the Beacon page; put down a whole crap load of Turrets before placing any Beacons.

Update
I did manage to complete the Beacons test which gave a disappointing result. Beacons transmute into topsoil as well. If you care to read about that test you can check out my Brown Mobbed Beacons blog.