Godfrey has been busy.

He’s claimed Pennywhistle’s second egg and Bianca’s first. It seems he’ll have a pretty strong influence when the next generation comes. I hoped mating with this first gen and 2nd gen female would help eliminate his crazy walk but we’ll have to see.

After the ladies laid their eggs, there was a long period where nothing happened. Bianca still had one egg left to lay and all of the boys were finally old enough to breed. It wasn’t long til Bianca broke away from her friend Penny long enough to start chasing down one of the boys.

At first, she was chasing little Charles but it was Godfrey who started kiss-popping first. It only seemed natural that Godfrey would lay claim to this last egg. With the eggs safely stowed in some water (to keep them from hatching, y’know.) It was time for their personalities to finally shine.

Penny took to complaining about cold though she was the only one shivering. The two girls seemed inseparable and Godfrey was only interested in the females. He would occasionally join the other boys to eat but mating was his priority. There wasn’t much chatter after the ladies laid their eggs so I spruced the place up with Garden box.

It wasn’t long til I started to see signs of senility. Oscar was the first to complain about hunger for starch despite being surrounded by seeds. I smacked him once on the butt when he ignored my commands to eat seeds and soon he was eating every seed in sight. Once he did, he was feeling much better and started to explore the room again. Love is both carrot and stick.

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… A little annoyed with Ainarda.

Anyway.

I got tired playing with sleeping genes and trying to learn about genes without the aid of CDR so I returned to my C3 world. The game broke so I had to start over with this group.

This time, though, I’m putting them through the ropes. I’ve noticed some weird walks and haven’t had the time or knowledge to investigate their genetic mutations. To keep the group healthy, I’m going to put them through the classic IQ test. If they can’t make it to the meso before Adolescence, they’re getting neutered.

Penny was first. When she turned 11 minutes old and became a child, she made a beeline for the norn meso in search of starch. Since she was 4 minutes old at the start, this means it only took her 7 minutes. Next norn!

Knowing that norns (normally) can’t recognize what to do when they’re hungry until they’re children, I fed Bianca at the bottom of the Workshop and watched Pennywhistle explore her new home. While we waited for Bianca to join us, Pennywhistle became an Adolescent. Soon, at 9 minutes old, Bianca finally made her way into the Meso.

Godfrey was next. At 5 minutes old, Godfrey made his way into the hub. He was focused on the door that he’d just exited, though so I checked on the others. Pennywhistle stayed by the Holistic Learning Machine and Bianca explored the top level of the Meso. Finally, as a Child, Godfrey made his way into the Meso. His unusual walk caught my attention again but since he passed, I wouldn’t be neutering him.

More quickly than anyone, Oscar made his way into the hub as a 4 minute old baby. While Oscar bopped around in the hub, Bianca took the first steps into Terra: Reborn. Penny and Godfrey were in the Norn Meso now. At 9 minutes old, Oscar made his way into the Meso and started eating seeds.

With all the other norns in the game, it was time to introduce Baron again. As he turned 10 minutes old, he passed into the hub and Pennywhistle became an adult at just over an hour old. Baron was still just a baby so I was starting to think he might be a slow ager like his grandma five cheese. Finally, at 12 minutes old, Baron made it into the Meso as a child.

With the world lagging quite a bit, I decided to make Charles the last baby for this run. This would make it easy to keep up with all the little ones anyway. As I waited for Charles to make his way to the meso I realized that I only had two females for this little group of six. With their breeding limited to just two eggs each and an unlimited number for the males, it seemed like the males who joined the game first would have the advantage and that we’d be coming out of this with just 4 eggs. This was fine by me.

As I waited, Pennywhistle became pregnant! I was working on the downloads page at the time so I didn’t catch who the father was! We’ll find out in due time.

I checked on Charles to find that he was a child and was still at the bottom of the workshop. It started to seem like he would be the only one who wouldn’t pass the test.

All the other norns, except Godfrey, soon made their way into Terra. Charles was suffering from EES for a little while saying ‘eat door’ while he stood next to the elevine. I slapped him twice to snap him out of it and at 15 minutes old, he finally made his way into the meso. Thankfully, he was still a child and passed the IQ test. With all the other norns in Terra, I scooped him up and brought him to the others.

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Creatures seems to be struggling with just these four youngsters so I’m going to have to snatch them all up and move them to a new metaroom. Also, rather than hatch everyone at once, I’m going to handle this run in groups of 8. That said, I’m going to do my best to keep siblings from mating. So we won’t be working with two of the three siblings in the last bunch.

I moved Bianca and Pennywhistle into Terra Reborn while I introduced the next youngsters.

As I introduced Godfrey into the Norn Meso, Bianca became an adolescent. Speaking of little Godfried, he is the son of  Hannah and Cheddar. He didn’t take long to start eating and he did much better than his half-sister Charity who passed away last time.

From the get go he felt very lonely and it took some serious petting to get him to feel any better.

Once Godfrey was a child, I moved him to Terra and brought in another boy.

This is Oscar. He is the son of Mary and Timber so he might have a little bit of a violent streak when he gets older.

Oscar here was a much happier baby, though. He ate and rested on his own and even talked about how happy he felt! Good for him. It didn’t take him long to learn to push the buttons on the empathic vendor.

Bianca and Pennywhistle were both able to breed now. Bianca was already starting to feel friendly but poor Godfrey, who had trouble feeling lonely before was now feeling very crowded!

His crowdedness probably wouldn’t get any better soon since Oscar was now old enough to join the others.

Once Godfrey became old enough to breed, I spotted a weird quirk in his limp. I can only guess that he got it from his mother Hannah. Sadly, I’m going to remove him from the breeding race. I considered doing this in a few ways but ultimately, and thanks to Malkin and Ghosthande, I’ll be using an agent to keep him from breeding.

Next to join us is little Baron.

He is the son of Nami and Rave. He looks alright for having so many different types of sprites! He also seems to have his priorities straight; he eats and rests when he’s supposed to! He has a bad walk as well. As he’s trying to move in either direction, he stops for a moment to face the camera and then continues to move forward for a few steps just to repeat his stutter. It actually causes him to move very slowly. Sadly, I would remove him from the gene pool as well.

Thankfully, I was hoping to shrink the size of the next generation anyway.

With five norns in my game now, it was starting to hiccup just a little bit. I could probably get away with adding just a few more norns before we start having problems and we’ll get a chance to meet them next time.

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Just a quick update. My oldest norn, Atta, has just passed away at 2 hours, 21 minutes! One of the quirks of this breed is that females are allowed to become queens by breeding with males. Breeding with males prolongs their lives, after all. I really like this feature and it’s kind of fun to see how long you can get them to live. Anyway, carry on.

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No, as a matter of fact. I don’t know what I’m doing.

C-rex worked very hard on this new genome and I’ve definitely been looking forward to it. Naturally, when he said he needed testers, I was more than happy to oblige.

I loaded up a fresh world in Creatures 2 to introduce the new norns.

Atta was first. I figured that since males live such short lives I should introduce the male a little later.

The first thing Atta did was eat the mushrooms. She learned all the words I could teach her with the computers and at 10 minutes old, she was an Adult and ready to breed. She learned all of the vocabulary she could from the two computers by 11 minutes old and it was time to export her.
I did the same with Flik and he was ready to breed at 10 minutes as well. I saved copies of both of them in their new adult stage and introduced them to each other.After they met, the ran straight for the cave and proceeded to wall bonk. In the midst of all their head injuries, they ended up getting pregnant.It almost seems like once they met, Flik just continues to wall bonk and has actually forgotten to eat. I’ve given him fruit and I keep asking him to eat but he dances around the fruit and continues to bonk against the wall.

I’ve been able to get Atta away from Flik and she’ll eat fruit when she’s separated from him. After some one on one time with Flik, I think he’s forgotten to eat fruit but he’ll still eat food.They met again and started kisspopping and wall bonking right away. Soon, Flik was all mated out and died at just 21 minutes old. I knew males lived shorter lives than the females but I wasn’t expecting just 20 minutes. Still, he has two eggs to his name.

Out of those eggs came these two little males. These two males cause or have the same problems as their father did. Atta is still to crashing into a wall when they’re around but they still happily eat fruit. We’ll see if that changes when they grow up.Before long, they were old enough to breed and the wall bonking got worse again.

Only 45 minutes into the game, it seemed like the babies and pregnancies were starting to get out of hand. Rather than try to raise them all myself, I decided to leave them to their own devices.

Eventually, it became clear that wallbonking was a serious problem. Whenever they would mate they would get stuck in this cave.I don’t know if it’s a result of the slapping, running or breeding but no matter what, when other ant norns are around, these guys run straight for this cave and repeatedly into the wall. It’s actually frustrating to watch and a bit boring.

Otherwise, I think their lifespans are about right and it’s fun to watch them breed and grow up so quickly. If their quirks were worked out I think they’d make a great wolfing breed! I only wish they would explore a little bit and remember to eat once in a while.

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