Location: "Village". Note the roofsheep infestation - shameful.
In the interests of science, I have begun documenting an experiment with a local village, unironically named "Village" by the locals.
At first, Village isn't much to look at, beyond the majestic mountains in the distance: houses, farms, the usual. Peaceful. Serene. Tranquil.
BORING.
Upon arriving, I couldn't help but notice the villagers were life-threateningly stupid. At least 3 of them were trapped in a hole, with no apparent means of escape. Neither they, nor their safer brethren, seemed concerned by this. Coupled with their complete lack of defenses, I estimated their unassisted chances of survival lasting, at most, a few minutes.
Step one of the project was to erect a wall around Village, to save them from themselves. As much as seeing a spider carry one of these people off would have been amusing, it would have also tainted the experiment irrevocably. More than that, the wall kept them in, so they could not fall into any more holes. While no formal study was conducted, I strongly suspect that giving these villagers a glass of water would cause them to drown.
The wall, post-construction. A villager took interest in the camera, before attempting to eat it. He has been ear-tagged as "Walter".
Strangely, the villagers did not seem to notice or care about wall construction. This might suggest they have extremely poor eyesight, and likely no hearing at all. Alternately, they may have been ignoring the wall, since it was not edible. I have made a note to not construct walls out of ham, going forward.
The villagers' level of technology seems appalling at best. While they have a rudimentary grasp of basic construction principles, they lack any source of electricity, plumbing, bathing, and possess primitive agrarian techniques. Their social structure (if one can call it that) is pure chaos. There are no clear leaders, laborers, specialists, anything at all. While some of their clothing varies, their day-to-day tasks rarely change. If any interaction took place, it was in the form of cryptic conversations. At this time, it is unknown what their nasal utterances mean.
Here, we see two villagers (now ear-tagged "Marv" and "Pubert") talking, presumably about sorcery. Walter looks on with jealousy - he is rarely included in these conversations, it seems.
To assist them, I began construction of a new road system, to replace the slipshod gravel mess they were using before. Both for beautification reasons, and for instilling terror in the locals, I opted to use nether brick for this task. Unsurprisingly, this task is massively laborious and tedious, so I attempted to enlist the villagers' help, by building a statue of myself, for them to admire. Shortly after, they begun following orders. Sadly, orders often had to be repeated, and reinforced with the use of an Experimental Discipline Stick.
The statue serves as the town's new centerpiece, so they never forget who their benevolent experiment supervisor is. EVER.
This is an unprecedented opportunity both for myself, and for you, the reader. A fully intact village, preserved from monsters and the elements, existing solely to fulfill our experiments! Naturally, I wouldn't be documenting this experiment if I didn't want your input and expertise!
Please include below what experiments you feel would best suit this project, dear researchers. Anything goes, because this is for science! Want to test their combustibility? We can do that! Curious how they stand up to extreme pressure? Doable! Let's hear what experiment we should conduct for day 2!
And could we make an whole city if it works on like a server?
1. Note the trades each Villager gives and form hypotheses about how on earth they obtained them (seriously, how do priests get Eyes of Ender?)
2. Note their close relationship to witches. (Oh yeah, in the snapshots, lightning + Villager = Witch)
3. I'm with vent167 on the Iron Golem interaction. Also, they can apparently "be created" by the Villagers once the village is big enough.
4. Villager interaction with hostile mobs vs. Iron Golem interaction with hostile mobs
5. Something weird: the Villager children are born with their jobs already assigned. What the heck?
6. Spawn in the Generic Villager. The one with the green robe. (Attempting a trade is bad news, however.)
7. Whenever I play a world, I notice their extreme reverence to...whoever the altar in the churches are built for. One or two Villagers are CONSTANTLY on the altar at a time.
8. There's the obvious Zombie Virus.
9. Villagers will craft bread for each other, but nothing else. Also, the butcher's pens are nearly always empty (you had one job...).
10. Villagers have put crafting tables and furnaces in certain places, but apparently have no idea how to use them (not even for making bread).
11. Put a door in the doorway of the smithy. (Are the Villagers smart enough to recognize the inside of a house?)
This is a great thread...can't wait for next installment!!!!!
BTW this is not an experiment idea; more of a convenience. You can name baby villagers with a name tag normally, and an adult villager with a name tag if someone else is trading with them. This might make it easier to see who's who. Or it could go with the "ear-tagging," specifically of Walter...
After a few days of observing them I realized that some of them were drifting further away from their homes to a point that they did not return for shelter at night, and half of them were dead. So I drew the remaining few back to the village and walled the town with fifteen-block high walls. Spiders were coming threw (duh!) so naturally I built a glass ceiling. Mobs were now spawning inside the village as well as outside, so I spawned in two iron golems.
The villagers were protected from everything but their own stupidity. The villagers AND the iron golems were now drowning in their own well now. So I fenced it off with a single gate. After that for the most part, the villagers were completely safe. Until one day... Three creepers, yes, THREE creepers blew the wall open. I didn't fix it though. I was interested to see what happened. One of the iron golems escaped and all went to heck. At night it was a mass occur of zombies, all of the villagers either died or were infected THEN died in the daylight. The experiment ended there, I hope your experiment deems more successful then mine
Good luck, and I would love to see how it goes!
So true....