Behaviour
What a wild Vehicon does when it runs into you depends on your team, its personality and whether you’ve hit one of its mates lately.
Meeting one
Section titled “Meeting one”- Autobots get attacked straight away.
- Decepticons are on its side. Give it things to build up trust, and see Teammates and leaders for what happens if you hit it.
- Everyone else gets watched for 15 seconds first (Curious ones watch for longer), which is your chance to bribe it by dropping an item near it. The countdown only starts once it has landed and is standing in robot form, and while it watches it keeps its blaster aimed at you, or its melee weapon out if you’re close.
- Sometimes it bullies you instead of just watching, and Autobots can get bullied before the real fight too.
- Hit any Vehicon and the others nearby skip the watching and bullying for the next 30 seconds.
- Wild Vehicons go for players before mobs, unless a mob is actually attacking them.
Bullying
Section titled “Bullying”About a third of the time, a Vehicon toys with a stranger instead of just watching them. Aggressive and Curious ones do it most, Cautious ones rarely and Cowards never. If a Leader starts it, the rest of its patrol joins in.
It lasts about as long as the watch would, and bribing still works: drop something it wants near it and it’ll grab it and leave you alone. Hit any Vehicon and the bullying turns into a real fight straight away. Otherwise they attack once they’re done.
While bullying, a Vehicon mixes up tricks like these:
- It teabags you, hops around you, copies your crouches, jumps and swings, runs circles around you and steps in front of you when you try to walk off.
- It slaps you with its bare fists for half a heart (a slap never finishes you off), shoves you back with a sprint without hurting you and throws snowballs if it has any.
- It shoots the ground right next to your feet, drops its boat or cobweb on you, slaps the item out of your hand (it won’t take it) or fakes a surrender and sucker punches you when you get close.
- Grounders do donuts around you in car mode, and Flyers make low passes over your head in jet mode.
Autobots get it worse. Instead of attacking straight away, a Vehicon sometimes bullies an Autobot first. It goes on a bit longer, the slaps and shoves actually hurt, and you can’t bribe your way out of it. Once the real fight starts it keeps trolling: it teabags you when it lands a hit while you’re low, and might fake a surrender once to get a sucker punch in.
Senses and searching
Section titled “Senses and searching”They find you by sight or by hearing you nearby, and you can lose them by getting out of sight and keeping quiet. Glass, iron bars, fences and anything else you can see through won’t hide you, though they won’t shoot through it.
How far away they can hear you:
| Noise | Heard from |
|---|---|
| Walking, jumping or swimming | 10 blocks |
| Sprinting | 20 blocks |
| Driving in vehicle mode | 32 blocks |
| Breaking or placing blocks, opening doors and chests | 16 blocks |
| Fighting or gliding | 24 blocks |
| Shooting | 32 blocks |
| Explosions | 48 blocks |
Curious ones hear everything from half as far again. Crouching makes your footsteps silent. When a Vehicon hears something it goes to check it out, and if it finds nothing there it looks around for a bit.
Once a Vehicon can’t see or hear you, it heads for where it last saw you and the way you were going, and gives up the chase if you’re not there. When a patrol loses you, it splits up and checks spots around where you vanished for up to 30 seconds, and the first one to spot you calls the rest over. While any of them can see you, it keeps telling the others where you are.
Guards still sense intruders through walls near their post.