A Perficio Start For The Week

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MoveIt really feels like I’m starting over with the games after the extended break I’ve been forced to take. On top of computer troubles, I’ve lost all of my norns and worlds for all of my Creatures games. I suppose things could be worse but, honestly, not by much.

At any rate, I’ve decided to look at this as an opportunity to try playing this game relatively clean, that is, without any fancy addons, agents and the like. I haven’t even bothered to download the tickets for the hand or Encyclopedia Nornica since my tragic data-loss. Honestly, I think going cold turkey from those things might make me a better norn-mommy anyway.

I did download one third-party add-on, though. Today, I’m starting a new world with the Perficio breed. Let’s go ahead and meet our first little one.

TrevorThis is Trevor! He’s got the appearance of a Horse Norn but, like all of the creatures that will follow, he’s 100% Perficio. The only difference, genetically, between him and all other creatures that follow will be in their appearance genes. Should make for an interesting world, I think.

I taught him “toy”, “food”, “look”, “push” and “pull”. As I cycled through his other words, I noticed something already wildly different from the original norn genome. Trevor’s health actually reached 100%! Fantastic! With vanilla genomes, I was used the genomes rarely making it above 75%. Now, seeing his health over 100% got me thinking that he might be better off with his better genes. From what I remember about reading about the genome, this comes from better chemical and drives balancing, which also kept him from feeling hungry when he didn’t actually need to eat.

I taught him all the words available in the computer and decided to raise him up to about 10 minutes old before exporting him and introducing his new friend. He was very easy to raise and didn’t demand much attention.

EvelynSoon, Evelyn would join us. She learned her vocabulary just as quickly as Trevor and soon, she was allowed to explore, at least to an extent. She preferred sleeping and spent more time in the house. Before long, I coaxed her out of the house and taught her the same lesson about weeds and plants that I’d taught Trevor.

It wasn’t long before she was gripped by a wanderlust and she got to learn additional lessons, like how much fun it was to play the musicola in the temple. She pressed it again and again. I was starting to think I’d have a musician in this pair. I noted her age (just 9 minutes) and I led her back to the house to prepare her to meet her partner Trevor. Fingers crossed they get along!

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Settled? Well, yes but…

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It’s been a while since my last post and I promise it’s not because I’ve been lazy. Honestly, perhaps the worst thing could have happened to my data when I backed everything up.

After backing up all of my files onto an external hard drive, my husband and I assembled my new computer, installed all the software and I thought I was ready to go. This process included zero-filling my old hard drive to prevent system errors, which meant that anything that wasn’t saved onto the external hard drive was lost forever. Except…

My external hard drive ended up… well. Kicking the bucket.

As a result, I’ve been forced to start over. My Morrowind backup, including mods that are no longer available online? Gone. My saved games for my Youtube Channel? Gone. Old games that I bought from no-longer-existing companies, like Reflexive Arcade? Gone. All of my petz, all of my guppies and all of my Creatures and worlds? Back-flipping gone.

Rather than get bummed about it (trust me, I’ve already experienced all the stages of grief) I decided to buck up and move on to new things. For example, this is an opportunity for me to play with a mostly vanilla world. I’ll still be playing with fixes, patches and other bug-repelling mods and patches for the Creatures games, but now, I’ll be sort of limited in the number of agents that I have in my arsenal. This is good for two things. 1) It’ll force me to look for agents that I’ll find the most useful and 2) it’ll keep me from creating a monstrously big list of agents to choose from in-game.

It has got me limiting myself to Creatures 1 for the time being, though. As much as I enjoy Creatures 3 and Docking Station, I’d be lying if I said I wanted to jump into playing two games simultaneously right away. For now, though, to help me get back into my blogging routine, I’d like to play with the Perficio Norn breed. It should be fun!

Anyway, regular posting should resume soon. In addition to a computer upgrade and some other new hardware (Intensity Shuttle with Thunderbolt? You bet.) I also got Adobe CS6. It’s a tremendous upgrade from CS3, which I was using before, but I’m still getting used to some of the differences. Aren’t tax returns great? I’ll see you all very soon.

Kez

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Immune to Antigen 3? Good thing!

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Finally, to wrap up our genetic analyses, let’s take a look at our last norn to import and a new baby I’m introducing.

bandicam 2015-04-30 21-48-51-853 copyHoss – Male – Son of Cassy and David

Moniker – 1NAB

Look at Handsome Hoss! I do love seeing Horse Norns cropping up, even if only on the Creature’s face. I just love those teeny, tiny little horns that the sport with their stylish haircuts. He had a neat mix of parts, too.

When I investigated his genetics, I did find one interesting gene that had popped up in the past. At 1 hour old, he wasn’t even old enough to breed, but I was excited for his offspring already.

Good | Bad | Interesting

229 Different in Hoss  38   0 Emb   B MutDupCut   2*<219> + 4*Glucose => 1*Antibody3 + 1*Hotness; half-life = 80.
229 Different in dad4  38   0 Emb   B MutDupCut   2*Antigen3 + 4*Glucose => 1*Antibody3 + 1*Hotness; half-life = 80.

After mulling over this genetic mutation, I came to realize just how much of a blessing in disguise it was. If you think back to my post about Typhoid Mallory, you might remember that she had a mutation that prevented her body from ‘reacting’ to Antigen 2. Basically, she wasn’t able to have an immune response til she was at life-stage 16, which doesn’t exist and isn’t auto-corrected by the game engine. While this means she can harbor disease, it means that she is also safe from it. Isn’t that handy?

Hoss on the other hand has the same mutation as his father. Instead of a non-existent life stage protecting him from Antigen 3, however, he reacts to chemical 219, which isn’t injected in the game. Just as good as being immune, the way I see it.

bandicam 2015-04-30 22-06-10-788 copyArchie – Male – Son of Cassy and David

Moniker – 7GXR

Next was Archie, who I named during his vocabulary lessons. He’s Hoss’s full brother, so I’m happy to see more Horse faces in the game. He’s a cheerful little guy, too and I’m happy to welcome him to the group. Peony came and distracted him for a while, but we eventually got through lessons and he got to taste cheese and carrots before very long.

Good | Bad | Interesting

229 Different in Hoss  38   0 Emb   B MutDupCut   2*<219> + 4*Glucose => 1*Antibody3 + 1*Hotness; half-life = 80.
229 Different in dad4  38   0 Emb   B MutDupCut   2*Antigen3 + 4*Glucose => 1*Antibody3 + 1*Hotness; half-life = 80.

What luck! Archie had the same mutation as his brother Hoss. This gave me some hope to breed a line of norns that were immune to this antigen. Every little bit helps, you know?

With all the investigating out of the way, I was finally able to continue documenting their lives, just as before. It wasn’t that I couldn’t blog without looking at their genetics, but after looking at Mallory’s genes, I guess curiosity got the better of me.

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Redoing the Pearlmaid Outline

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With the 3 month long Random Event Nurture Follow Up Run (This thing’s name just keeps on changing) finally, finally, finally over, I can move on to new and interesting projects. I asked for input at Creatures Caves, and I got some interesting feedback. Perhaps the most appealing idea to me though was revisiting the Matriarch Mermaids concept.

The more I thought about it, the more complicated the world concept got so rather than sit around and speculate while I knitted, I decided to put my thoughts to paper (metaphorically) and finally get this bad boy outlined. It might even change before I finally get the run started.

Besides, the better organized I can get this thing, the easier it will be for me to follow when I finally get around to starting it and running it. Because I lack the patience and time, I won’t be closely investigating the (male) mermaid’s genetics unless something unusual crops up. All the new queens will have their genetics investigated, however.

Anyway, that’s enough of that. Let’s get some details down.

Matriarch Society
– At all times, there will only be one female in the world. All of her daughters will be exported and tested before being reintroduced.

– Daughters will have to pass the classic IQ test (no added hazards) and have their genetics looked over. Of the girls that pass, the queen will be the first to breed. In the event of a tie, the girl with the first (leftmost) pregnancy notification will be queen. Once she has become pregnant, all other girls will be exported for a separate run, splicing or testing; deleted; or saved for future upload.

– The male population will not be closely monitored at all and generations might get mixed up. All of the queen’s “surviving” male offspring will be allowed to stay in the world and will only be removed if problems crop up. Problems include sliding and other gait issues, failing to pass the IQ test, fast agers, immortals, etc. Fast agers and immortals should be impossible with the genome I plan to use.

– To prevent breeding outside of the aquatic area, males and females will be kept separate until adult hood.

Amphibious Species
– There is an added challenge related to egg laying. Only eggs that are laid on land in the “brooding areas” will be considered viable, “surviving” eggs. In Artemia Seas, the two areas on the sides of the map are considered the brooding areas. Eggs that were laid underwater will be considered “drowned” outside this space will be considered un-incubated due to cold and will be deleted with the Mini-Recycler. Artemia Seas is too large to accommodate this. Instead, I’ve set the egg limit to 30+ the max population to allow for many eggs.

– Mermaids will not be allowed to enter the aquatic area of the world until they have reached breeding age. In the genome I will use, this is when they’ve grown their tail. Once they’ve reached adulthood, they will not be allowed back “on land”.

Colorful Creatures
– I plan to use CFF, Colortrue Pearlmaids. This in mind, I will start the world with a rainbow of colors. Each time a new queen is introduced, a new, Generation 1 male will be added. His color will be chosen based on the world’s dominant colors.

– I will make the appearance, pigment and blending genes highly mutatable as well.

Fierce Competition (?)
– I had an idea to introduce a “predatory” species, namely Artemia Grendels. I would love to see these as colortrue and do a run similar to this with the Grendels but here, in this setting, I think I’d like to keep their role subdued.

– Ideally, the grendels here would take on Grendel Man’s Flesheater Grendel concept and be a survival pressure on the Pearlmaids rather than a natural disaster.

Eventful World
– I enjoyed playing with the Random Event concept so much during last year’s CCSF that I think it could make a fun addition to this world.

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