Work Text:
Excerpt from “A Practical Guide to Villager Optimization” (Chapter 3, Section 2–Observing Villager Behavior Under Duress) by ImpulseSV and TangoTek
Test Nine: The Pit
Testing Chamber Parameters: Standard 25 x 25 block room made of solid iron blocks. 100 beds are provided, on the North side of the room. A 3 x 3 block wide pit has been dug in the center of the room, leading to a pit of lava below. Dispensers in the ceiling will provide two stacks of bread every night.
# of villagers: 100
Purpose of Experiment: To determine villager social behavior in a scenario that requires them to sentence each other to death.
Experiment Description: At the beginning of the experiment, all villagers are informed that “The Pit” will require one villager to be intentionally sacrificed into it every night. They are not informed that if this did not happen, the next day flaming arrows will be fired from ceiling dispensers until at least five villagers are killed. The situation will be allowed to run for at least thirty days, or until every villager has perished.
Pre-Experiment Notes:
- This villager experiment was undertaken by TangoTek and InpulseSV during the latter half of Hermitcraft Season 7, well after the 1.14 update.
- All villagers in this experiment were sourced 100% organically from a large, play-constructed, functioning jungle villager community. They were previously assigned job posts, and grew up in what should be considered a normal villager environment.
- Said community was run by another player, who fulfilled the villager requirement by temporarily adding more beds and bread, and slowly shipping away adult villagers during the night and placing them in a temporary hold facility until the required number was achieved. Villagers were transported via temporary slab tunnel to experiment site, and enticed to location by placing a zombie at the starting location.
Experiment Log:
Day 1: Villagers appear agitated, but take the time to aquaint with one another. Bread is divided semi-equally, though a few villagers hoard several pieces and a few receive none.
Night 1: Villagers appear agitated. Several discuss whether the threat should be taken seriously enough. No villager offers to be sacrifice. None of them attempt to for it.
Day 2 : Arrows are fired. Six villager casualties. Mass panic behavior is spotted. Several villagers try using each other as shields. Many beg for mercy, or bemoan questions about why this is happening to them. Arguments are had about whether they did something to deserve this fate, or if it is “the gods punishing us”. Bread is divided semi-equally, though a few villagers hoard several pieces and a few receive none.
Remaining villager count (RVC): 94
Night 2: Villagers argue about who should be sacrificed to the pit. It becomes clear that there are still too many villagers for any coordinated effort to take place. No villager in the group had held any significant position of power back in the original village. All villagers try to crowd the corners of the testing chamber, refusing to move close to the pit.
Eventually, a fight breaks out between a larger villager, who tries to drag a smaller one over to the pit. The scuffle reaches the pit. The smaller villager manages to catch the larger one by surprise, and kick it in. It then retreats to a bed. While this happens, two villagers were making out in the opposite corner.
RVC: 93
Day 3: Bread is divided semi-equally. Villagers appear relieved arrows did not rain down again. The smaller villager (Villager of Note #1–also know as VoN-1) appears to have achieved some level of respect among other villagers.
Night 3: Villagers discuss among each other whole to sacrifice. A former Idiot is chosen and forcibly hauled by two other villagers to the pit.
RVC: 92
.
.
.
Day 18: Two new villagers are born. Villagers discover, to their horror, that only a live sacrifice to the pit counts as a sacrifice. The previous night’s civil war-like battle and bloodbath did not involve any live villagers being intentionally tossed into the pit, so the arrows rained down. Seven villagers were killed, including VoN-5.
RVC: 49
.
.
.
Day 30: VoN-3 takes a stack of bread. VoN-7 takes 20 pieces of bread. The rest of the bread is split evenly.
RVC: 34
Day 30-1: Villagers are let out of testing chamber at exactly noon. A tunnel is revealed, which leads back to their original home village. Villagers cautiously explore as a group, and all return to the village soon after.
Post-Experiment Notes: Villagers appear to form social groups and bonds in a way somewhat similar to players. They are capable of violence under duress, some more than others, and will fight and murder each other if correctly prompted. The returning villagers, expecially those 12 that were part of the original group, exhibit symptoms of PTSD to varying degrees. All in all, a fun and enlightening experiment!
Test Eleven: The Boom(ers)
Testing Chamber Parameters: (15 block by 15 block) x3
# of villagers: 300
Purpose of Experiment: To find a very fast and reactive villager, and to test which of the Boomers were able to randomly kill villagers fastest under given parameters.
Experiment Description: Three identical 15 block by 15 block flat areas were fenced with 2-block high obsidian, and with obsidian flooring, and 100 villagers placed into each. Each of “The Boomers” (ImpulseSV, TangoTek, BDoubleO100) constructed a TNT machine aimed at killing the villagers of their fenced area, with the machine meeting the following requirements:
- Only 20 pieces of TNT were allowed to be dispensed each round.
- The dispensers the TNT would drop from had to be chosen randomly each time it was activated (ie, if there were 50 dispensers, the 20 that dropped TNT the first round could not be the same ones that did so the second round, unless by sheer coincidence.
- No manual player input should be needed after the experiment started, besides an on and off switch.
Pre-Experiment Notes:
- Grian bet 20 diamonds on TangoTek killing all villagers the fastest.
- Xisuma bet 30 diamonds on ImpulseSV all villagers the fastest.
- DocM77 bet 16 diamond blocks on BdoubleO100 all villagers the fastest. He was subsequently chased away after discovering he had been making BdoubleO100’s machine for him. The 16 diamond blocks were confiscated and added to the betting pool.
- Cubfan135 bet 32 diamond blocks on Bdubs killing all villagers the fastest.
- FalseSymmetry bet 40 diamonds on TangoTek killing all villagers the fastest.
- GoodTimeWithScar bet 32 diamonds on ImpulseSV killing all villagers the fastest.
- Hypnotized bet 25 diamonds on ImpulseSV killing all villagers the fastest.
- iJevin bet 50 diamonds on TangoTek killing all villagers the fastest.
- Joehillssays supervised the betting pool.
If a player wins the bet, they get back all the diamonds they themselves originally bet. All the diamonds of losing players are then split equally among the winning players as well.
[This section contains a series of reference images of the three redstone TNT machines.]
Experiment Log:
Round 1:
- ImpulseSV RVC: 89
- TangoTek RVC: 78
- BDoubleO100: 56
Round 2:
- ImpulseSV RVC: 67
- TangoTek RVC: 67
- BDoubleO100: 34
Round 3:
- ImpulseSV RVC: 21
- TangoTek RVC: 34
- BDoubleO100 RVC: 18
Round 4:
- ImpulseSV RVC: 2
- TangoTek RVC: 11
- BDoubleO100: 1
Round 5:
- ImpulseSV RVC: 0
- TangoTek RVC: 3
- BdoubleO100 RVC: 1
Round 6:
- TangoTek RVC: 1
- BDoubleO100 RVC: 1
Round 7:
- TangoTek RVC: 1
- BDoubleO100 RVC: 1
Round 8:
- TangoTek RVC: 1
- BDoubleO100 RVC: 1
Round 9:
- TangoTek RVC: 1
- BDoubleO100 RVC: 1
Round 10:
- TangoTek RVC: 1
- BDoubleO100 RVC: 1
Round 11:
- TangoTek RVC: 1
- BDoubleO100 RVC: 1
Round 12:
- TangoTek RVC: 0
- BDoubleO100 RVC: 1
Round 13:
- BDoubleO100 RVC: 0
Post-Experiment Notes:
All betted diamonds were subsequently distributed accordingly. ImpulseSV would not shut up about it was very humble about his victory.
Test Twelve: Cloning Machine
Testing Chamber Parameters:
# of villagers: 20 (5 used)
Purpose of Experiment: To see if VintageBeef’s cloning machine works on villagers.
Experiment Description: 20 villagers were led to VintageBeef’s cloning machine, with the intent of being fed to it.
Pre-Experiment Notes: N/A
Experiment Log:
Trial #1
Input: Villager
Machine Mods: Standard
Output: 2 Villagers
Trial #2
Input: Villager
Machine Mods: Jungle wood doors
Output: Witch
Trial #3
Input: Villager
Machine Mods: Glowstone block
Output: Dead withered villager
Trial #4
Input: Villager
Machine Mods: Jungle wood doors and glowstone block
Output: Zombie villager with Sharpness IV stone sword and fire resistance 2 for 30 seconds
Trial #5
Input: Villager
Machine Mods: stair removed
Output: Villager had no legs and appeared to be flipped upside down
Post-Experiment Notes:
VintageBeef’s machine unfortunately broke down after Trial #5. He declined to rebuild it.
Test Ten: The Button
Testing Chamber Parameters:
# of villagers: 34 (One Player-made Village)
Purpose of Experiment: To determine villager social behavior in acquiring vanity titles.
Experiment Description: A redstone build identical to Mumbo Jumbo’s “The Button” (See Index, Misc. Contraptions) was constructed in the middle of the villager. Villagers were informed of the rules. Time was allowed to pass normally to observe results.
Pre-Experiment Notes: N/A
Experiment Log:
Day 1: All…
