And we’re back! Major Tom and the Grendel female are making buddies with each other, Sapling is still above, keeping to herself. Selena and Bosco are both still stuck and Blinky Bill has finally escaped from the scary Volcano.

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Before I got to snap his picture, though Bosco passed away. The medical monitor showed nothing in his system so I can only assume that he either starved to death or that one of his vital organs died from illness. He made it to 2 hours and 5 minutes. 20 points.

Before I could celebrate Blinky Bill escaping danger, he threw himself back onto the desert sand and was scaring himself to death. It was tempting to rescue him by shutting off the volcano but that would have been unfair. I waited for our last EE victim to pass away and considered adding another grendel.

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Ultimately, I did add a male Dustdevil Grendel. A random number threw him into the Medical bay and I wondered if he’d prove to be as vicious as our female Banshee.

It’s impressive that all of the creatures in this game have stuck to their strategies thus far. Except Blinky Bill, I mean. The only creature that seemed interested in moving was the Dustdevil Grendel. He eventually made his way to the Capillata and got viciously beaten up by a hungry, angry, finally free from EE Selena.

bandicam 2013-12-06 12-17-49-990“DustM flabber Selena” indeed. I hope he doesn’t fear norns after that.

To celebrate their happy reunion, Selena and Major Tom had yet another egg. Before celebrations could begin, Blinky Bill died in the desert. 2 hours, 20 minutes. 22 points.

I’m assuming that she’s marking her matronship but Selena’s return was filled with violence directed at the grendels. When she wasn’t scarfing down all food in sight or resting, she was beating up grendels. Little else happened for a long time. At one point, Dusty and the Banshee were kissing before Selena came in and started slapping them both. I was actually concerned about Sapling at this point because she only paced next to the lift button at the top level, ate lemons and played with the musical toy at the top left.

It wasn’t long til our Dusty grendel died, though. He hadn’t made it 20 minutes before Selena killed him in the Norn Garden.

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This time, I added one of Grendel Man’s Unreleased Breeds – A Shadow Predator Grendel. She’s a little difficult to make out. Oddly, appropriately, she was destined for the Grendel Jungle where she beat up on the critters. Selena, meanwhile, made her way up to the top of the Norn Garden and wanted to Eat Elevator again. It wasn’t long, but she used one of the Offline Portals, landed in the Norn Meso and! Died. Apparently, we just aren’t meant to have a second grendel from now on.

Something happened and soon Selena was exploring again, possibly making her way to Major Tom on the bottom floor. Natrually, this prompted another pregnancy.

bandicam 2013-12-06 13-13-13-582I gave adding a grendel one last go and imported Fumi from TCR. With our Banshee frozen and all the other norns in relatively safe rooms the danger element was practically eliminated. Fumi headed up to Sapling first and made short work of her. Things were going so well. :C Sapling survived 2 hours, 54 minutes.

Fumi decided then to start chasing after Selena, who was so far our Grendel fighter. Selena managed to escape in the lift but cornered herself. She tried to fight back and lasted much longer than expected. She passed away at 2 hours, 55 minutes and laid  6 eggs. For her longevity, she gets 25 points and her eggs net her an additional 30(!) points! 55 points.

And this is where the game ends! Major Tom is the winner of this round. The game ended with his age at 2 hours, 55 minutes, netting him 25 points but he squeaks past Selena by having that extra egg with Patches. His 7 eggs net him 35 points, giving him 60 total! Congratulations! All of the babies will be hatched and uploaded for your pleasure.


Fallow Male Pan: 32 minutes old – 3 pts

Fallow Female Liberty: 32 minutes old – 3 pts

Chichi Female Seres: 32 minutes old – 3 pts

Hardman Male Jake: 40 minutes old – 4 pts

Bengal Female Annabelle: 42 minutes old – 4 pts

Harlequin Male Bobo: 44 minutes old – 4 pts

Harlequin Female Patches: 49 minutes old, 1 egg laid – 9 pts

Bondi Female Sunshine: 49 minutes old – 4 pts

Male Treehugger Fern: 52 minutes old – 5 pts

Female Astro Wanderer: 1 hour 33 minutes old – 13 pts

Male Chichi RNG: 1 hour 36 minutes – 13 pts

Male Bengal Bosco: 2 hours 5 minutes – 20 pts

Male Bondi Blinky Bill: 2 hours 20 minutes – 22 pts

Female Treehugger Sapling: 2 hours 54 minutes – 25 pts

Female Hardman Selena: 2 hours 55 minutes, 6 eggs laid – 55 pts

WINNER Male Astro Major Tom: 2 hours 55 minutes, 7 eggs fathered – 60 pts

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First things first, I would love to have people test out this breed I made. Secondly, you’re welcome to read the long study/rant I have about the Ultimate Life Norn genome, which these guys are inspired by.

Please, before you ask to be a tester, though, skim through this post to see what I was trying to do and to come up with suggestions for what I can do to improve the breed.

Download Version 1


I sorted the genes by type and, along the way, I injected norns to see the effect that various toxins had. The antigen effects in the Biochemistry Receptor were all turned off so that they didn’t have the opportunity to damage the organs.

Before I turned off Geddonase, though, I added a baby to see what it would do. As it turns out, Geddonase doesn’t just break down Adipose Tissue (according to the Creatures Wiki) But it actually attacks organ Liver B. Once that organ dies, the creature dies. That is just one example, though.

I went on to make other edits and learned more about Muscle Toxin than I did about this genome but I’ll share that discovery with you in the future.

Here are my notes:

Spoiler Inside SelectShow

With these changes I plopped an egg into my testbed, filled the room with bacteria and macrobacteria and watched him thrive. Once in a while pain would cause him discomfort but in general he was fine. High woundedness (from slapping, for example) was still enough to kill him and he still requires ATP and Energy to survive so he should be able to starve to death.

I injected another egg into the world and tested this theory.

While I did that it was time to address the Appearance. I was actually feeling a bit lazy so simply slid all of the “Swap” sliders in Pigment bleed down to the left and changed body parts. Here’s what I came up with.

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Why throw in a Grendel Tail? Well. I loves me some Grendels.

Before I finished the appearance the little critter I’d deprived of food died and at the same rate as any other creature. So far, things were looking like a success and I was ready to debut this breed on the interwebs. If you’re interested in testing this breed out with me, download a pair of them here and leave a comment, report your findings on your blog, or PM me on Creatures Caves. 😀

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From Edash’s Creatures:

This breed of Norn is very hardy and can survive anything you can inject into it (even cyanide!). They basically can look after them selves and grow up very quickly. Because of this I made them infertile so they cant breed. You wouldn’t want hundreds of adult Norns running around would you.

It’s a cute idea except that because they feel no drives and inevitably stand around and do nothing or slap other creatures to death, they’re basically uninteresting and not very useful. Which is funny because the Wiki suggested that if you can teach them manners, they can make good tutors for other creatures. All I’ve found is that they go into slapping, eating and staring fits.

Because the creator of this breed also stated that they didn’t want the Ultimate Life Norn Genome posted elsewhere I decided to just use Gene Compare and make the new breed from scratch, maybe with the CFE/Gizmo edits.

Gene Compare Results

Off the bat, the Ultimate Life breed has none of the CFE edits so I won’t list them here.

File 1: norn.expressive.bengal.47.gen I chose this genome because it does not have the CFE edits applied and the original C3 breeds seem to be the base for this breed.
&
File 2: ultlifenorn.gen This is the genome we’re investigating.

I should just glance over the receptors section here since the only differences applied are to the receptors that control a creature’s aging process. Basically, these are edited to produce fast-aging creatures. To save time, I’ll explore just one of the edited genes.

***** RECEPTORS ****
188 Different in file 1 60 0 Emb B MutDupCut 128 0 Organ# = 10, Creature, Somatic, Become a child, chem=Life, thresh=229, nom=119, gain=255, features=Inverted Digital (0)
188 Different in file 2 60 0 Emb B MutDupCut 128 0 Organ# = 10, Creature, Somatic, Become a child, chem=Life, thresh=255, nom=255, gain=255, features=Inverted Digital (0)

The way aging works in creatures is simple. Each creature is born with an allotted amount of Life chemical. In this case, 255. When that amount decreases, the creature ages to reflect that. In the original genome, the nominal (nom) is 119 which means that when the Life chemical decays to a value of 119, the creature grows to the next life stage. In the Ultimate genome, the Life chemical starts at 255 and the nominal for the first stage is 255, forcing the creature to age to a child immediately.

What I propose to do: I’d like the creature to age more slowly than the other creatures but I don’t want it to die of old age or reach the senile life stage. I might change my mind about the senile stage later but for now this is the plan.

***** REACTIONS ****
145 Different in file 1 47 0 Emb B MutDupCut 128 0 Organ# = 6, 1*Water + 1*Air => 3*Oxygen + 1*NONE; half-life = 47
145 Different in file 2 47 0 Emb B MutDupCut 128 0 Organ# = 6, 1*Water + 1*Air => 9*Oxygen + 9*Air; half-life = 0

Rather than edit the emitter that monitors Air Quality, the ultimate life genome simply produces air and oxygen when water and air enter the system. This makes it so that the creature can’t breathe underwater by producing excess oxygen and water.

What I propose to do: Simple. I’m going to leave the original genome and apply an edit to the emitter.

This following collection of gene edits makes is so that bad chemicals like Carbon Monoxide, Cyanide and Fever Toxin are instantly metabolized without causing any harm to the creature. Unfortunately, the Receptors are all still turned on so that the organs can still suffer damage.

This section is pretty substantial but many of the edits are the same in principle. It’s easiest just to say that many of the reactions

  1. Instantly metabolize toxins, antigens and other harmful chemicals instantly without altering drives or causing damage.
  2. Instantly metabolize toxins, antigents or other harmful chemicals instantly without the presence of a curing agent. Example, Antigen 0 doesn’t need Antibody 0 to react with to be eliminated anymore.
  3. Drives are instantly drained so that the creature has no drives.

It would take a LOT of time to explain each genome and I’d repeat myself quite a bit. I actually sat down for an hour before I realized that these genes were essential repeats. The above explanations are hopefully concise enough. This post was never intended to be educational.

What I propose to do: Ohhhh dear. I’ll likely be keeping the default values for most of these. The idea is that these guys need to be able to feel drives like fear and hunger in order to advise on what to do about these these drives. I want them to be immune to most if not all poisons and bacteria so it would be helpful for me to use a lot of the ultimate norn genes as an example. Many of the toxins will produce drives related to them. I plan on Fever Toxin to produce hotness as in the original genome, for example. It would also be pointless of me to instantly drain the drives if I’m going so far as to keep them in some of these reactions.

Spoiler Inside SelectShow

In the following genes, oxygen produces more oxygen, life produces more life, air produces more air, and energy produces more energy. I’m not certain of the purpose of these genes and I’ll probably not add them to the edited genome. I mean yes. I get the idea. The idea is that the creature won’t run out of the things it needs. Except that it doesn’t need anything the way it is now.

Spoiler Inside SelectShow

This last group of genes control the reproductive chemicals. Basically, all chemicals required for reproduction are instantly reduced to 0 when they enter the system.

What I propose to do: As funny as it would be to have an army of indomitable creatures running around, slapping the snot out of Grendels, I’ll be leaving or adjusting most of these edits. I would like this breed to teach other norns to “push norn when friendly” so… I don’t know. We’ll see.

Spoiler Inside SelectShow

***** STIMULI ****

Oh dear, this is a big section, too.

These two genes… I really dislike how they’re both written. The first of the two is written so that when the ultimate life norn is hit, it actually decreases woundedness and pain. They also don’t feel anger from being hit. If anything, I want them to get very angry when they’re hit and want to retaliate by hitting whatever’s threatening them. Instead, they relax, don’t feel pain and fear and are actually healed quite a bit.

The second is just as bad. Fear, pain and woundedness are all decreased when the hand slaps the norn. The only part of this gene that I like is that it maintained the punishment increase.

What I propose to do: If I wasn’t clear before, I’m going to make them mad when they’re hit. I’m also going to keep the “hand slaps me” stimuli set to the default values. There was nothing wrong with it before, though I’ll likely eliminate or reduce woundedness in that equation. I only want to slap them, not kill them.

Spoiler Inside SelectShow

391 Different in file 1 5 0 Emb B MutDupCut 128 0 I have hit (44) causes sig=64 GS neu=13 int=0, ,,,0 => -10*Anger + -2*Crowded + 2*Tiredness + -5*Boredom
390 Different in file 2 5 0 Emb B MutDupCut 128 0 I have hit (44) causes sig=0 GS neu=13 int=255, ,,,0 => -9*Anger + -124*Crowded + -124*Tiredness + -124*Boredom

*through my teeth* It’s no wonder these evil things become slapping machines. They actually benefit fully from hitting other creatures. Anger is marginally reduced but they also become much less crowded, much less tired and much less bored.

What I propose to do: I’m going to restore this gene to the default values. There’s absolutely no reason slapping anything should be this rewarding.

Actually, all of the following genes do much the same thing as the above. Rewards are exaggerated so that if the creature does anything, even sneezes, it is rewarded with alleviated boredom, crowdedness or even hunger. It’s no wonder they don’t have drives to act on.

Spoiler Inside SelectShow

863 New in file 2 58 0 Emb B 128 0 I have hit (44) causes sig=0 GS neu=13 int=255, ,,,0 => 44*Muscle Tissue + 0*NONE + 0*NONE + 0*NONE

This last gene in the stimulus section actually causes these guys to grow muscle tissue when they hit. I imagine this was intended to make them stronger.

What I propose to do: I’ll omit this addition.

***** INSTINCTS ****
460 Different in file 1 14 0 Chi B MutDupCut 128 0 [03: stim] [Cell 37 (Grendel)] + [Brain Lobe 255] [Cell 0] + [Brain Lobe 255] [Cell 0] and [Anger] => Cell 13 (Hit); unknown = 0.
459 Different in file 2 14 0 Chi B MutDupCut 128 0 [03: stim] [Cell 37 (Grendel)] + [Brain Lobe 255] [Cell 0] + [Brain Lobe 255] [Cell 0] and [Anger] => Cell 13 (Hit); unknown = 95.

In the default genome, a Norn’s instincts tell it that its anger will be totally drained when it hits a Grendel. An Ultimate Life Norn, surprisingly, expects to decrease its anger quite a bit less when it hits a Grendel.

What I propose to do: I’ll leave the default setting.

The more I look at this genome, the more I’m starting to understand why I dislike it.

bandicam 2013-12-05 08-57-29-717

Because I wanted to see what would happen (and for giggles) I decided to see what would happen if I left some of them out under various conditions. Not surprisingly, their organs were damaged but because they feel no drives they were happy to pace around and chatter about how happy they were.

Here’s what I have in mind for my edits. First, CFE. That should probably go without saying. Second, the Gizmo edits would be nice and I’ve already laid out the ground work for that.

I’m going to make them immune to toxins, antigens and drowning but I’d also like them to be able to starve to death and be hurt by eating things that they shouldn’t, like manky. A toxic version may follow. They need to have all of the drives available to them with the likely exception of friendliness so that they can advise other creatures on what to do about those drives.

Up next, I’m going to open up one of my CFE Gizmo genomes and get to work.

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We’re down to just 7 norns now. We have our loner Sapling, our Grendel hunters Selena and Major Tom, our stuck norns Wanderer, Bosco and Blinky Bill, the last of whom is being rescued by our intrepid explorer RNG.

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Somehow, Blinky Bill ended up in the Ettin Desert, probably by using one of the available Offline Portals and got separated from RNG who is still in the Grendel Jungle.

It wasn’t long til one of the Grendels was at risk again.

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Being a grendel means that he’s immune to Antigen 5 but Glycotoxin is maxed out here. We’ll see what happens to him. Speaking of Grendels, the female was still being beaten up by Selena and Major Tom. Wanderer was still stuck and Sapling was content to eat lemons away from everyone, just as always. Bosco let out a cry next to the elevator button.

bandicam 2013-12-05 13-10-09-174

RNG played with an elevator in the Grendel Jungle and made his way to the Ettin Desert to rescue Blinky Bill yet again. Good luck, guys!

It wasn’t long before RNG was in the same position as Pan was but, unlike Pan, he had Blinky Bill and the male Grendel with him to keep him company. While he ran to the left to avoid the rocks coming out of the volcano, the other two stayed in the middle of the desert, hopefully acting as a lure. Blinky Bill, save your buddy!

The slapping between Selena and the female Grendel intensified and the grendel even yelled “grendelfem grish selena”! I can only assume that means hate. While they waited for RNG to come out from hiding, the Male Grendel and Blinky Bill actually seemed to make friends. I’m not certain what “flabber” means, though.

Speaking of friends, Sapling finally got to meet another norn; Major Tom! He made his way back down to the middle level of the Meso and finally back down to the female grendel for more slapping. Oh well. Sapling got a little taste of interaction.

Another pregnancy notification popped up and, shocker, it’s Selena and Major Tom again. It’s already looking like one of these two will be the winner based on the number of eggs they’ve had!

Blinky Bill checked out the pool in the desert terrarium. I can only assume he was looking for crobsters. RNG still strugged to escape from the rocks and, as usual, Bosco and Wanderer were stuck.

There isn’t much movement now and as of writing, the norns are now 1 hour and 25 minutes old each. Even lively Selena seems stuck after laying her recent egg in the bridge. With the lull I was able to restock some of the food in this world. Thankfully, none of the rooms seemed depleted.

Finally, sadly, Wanderer passed away at 1 hour 33 minutes. Reaching 1 hour earns her 10 points and the additional 33 minutes net her another 3. 13 points! With Selena out in the hallway, not moving it was starting to look like things were in Sapling’s favor. Bosco, who hasn’t moved from his spot in the Norn Terrarium hill became sick with Glycotoxin and continued to cry quietly.

Unfortunately, RNG was the next to pass away. I can only assume that he was scared to death by the Volcano (ok, Radiation poisoning is more likely) and he lived to 1 hour, 36 minutes. Like Wanderer, this nets him 13 points.

Soon, Bosco was sick with 1 Bacteria, Glycotoxin, Histamine A and Antigen 0. It got him standing and sneezing but I was more worried about his health than before now. Antigen 0 reduced so that it wasn’t detectable anymore but now he had both histamines. He didn’t seem interested in moving and even started to feel pain.

Everyone else seemed relatively happy and healthy. Blinky Bill took to napping on the desert sand, Major Tom meandered around the bottom of the Meso and Sapling stayed true to her strategy. Selena was still stuck in the Capillata Hub (I call it the bridge) and Bosco was still fighting Glycotoxin. He seemed to be doing a good job of it, considering.

Soon there was another lull. It was a good 15 minutes before anything of interest happened and, even then, it only marginally affects our competition. The male Grendel became sick with Antigen 7 and died at 1 hour 23 minutes. Naturally, he is awarded no points because he isn’t part of the competition.

Blinky Bill took to marching in the Desert Pond afterwards and I’m not sure what he’s trying to do. Other than the death of the grendel, Bosco was still sick, Selena was still suffering from EE in the Bridge and Sapling still stuck to the top floor of the Meso.

Nearly two hours into the run, the female Grendel became an adult. She looked much more formidable now but Selena, unfortunately, was still on the bridge. Bosco fared no better and Sapling stuck to her guns. Major Tom and Blinky Bill also seemed content to keep doing what they were doing; Blinky Bill ate seeds in the desert and Major Tom ate carrots on the swampy Meso floor.

Finally, two full hours into the run it was time to cut things short. We had a pregnancy, another unfortunate case of EE, some illnesses and three deaths. Hopefully things pick up and cheer up in the next part!


Fallow Male Pan: 32 minutes old – 3 pts

Fallow Female Liberty: 32 minutes old – 3 pts

Chichi Female Seres: 32 minutes old – 3 pts

Hardman Male Jake: 40 minutes old – 4 pts

Bengal Female Annabelle: 42 minutes old – 4 pts

Harlequin Male Bobo: 44 minutes old – 4 pts

Harlequin Female Patches: 49 minutes old, 1 egg laid – 9 pts

Bondi Female Sunshine: 49 minutes old – 4 pts

Male Treehugger Fern: 52 minutes old – 5 pts

Female Astro Wanderer: 1 hour 33 minutes old – 13 pts

Male Chichi RNG: 1 hour 36 minutes – 13 pts

Footnotes: Selena 4 eggs; Major Tom 5 eggs

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