I’ve already discussed in earlier posts that creatures are capable of learning that those nifty calm-balm potions are effective at decreasing anger and that once grendels learn about it, they’ll drink the potion when they get angry.

The wiki states that calm balm can kill a creature if they have too much of the stuff, so am I really better off letting them slap the hand or each other? Am I better off letting them yell all the time to release their stress?

This bit of research sets out to find out why the wiki might state that the useful potion is dangerous.

I took a normal bengal norn and stuck it in the infirmary. In my previous tests with calm balm, I noticed that the only things that changed were anger and sleepiness.

First, I needed a baseline to go off of. I hatched a baby Bengal Norn and watched his chart, without giving him anything.

He wasn’t angry and he was newly hatched, so I wasn’t expecting either of these to get very high.

Next, I introduced some calm balm into our situation.

After observing my grendels falling asleep after having calm balm, I was expecting this. Each little peak corresponds with a sip of the potion. The sleepiness steadily decreased on its own.

Since I haven’t had a creature over-dose on the stuff, I decided to go ahead and go nuts, and let the little norn have as many potions as I could cram into his mouth.

Here’s what happened here. He fell asleep right away and his sleepiness decreased steadily until his sleepiness was low enough for him to wake up on his own. The dips are from me picking him up. The room doesn’t detect him if I’m holding him up. Otherwise, he seemed perfectly happy. This is when I started to feel frustrated. I then started ‘resetting’ our little norn friend by letting him get the calm balm out of his system. Finally, I just had to check to make sure that his anger was being affected by the potions. I injected him with anger and gave him a potion.

I injected him with a lot of anger but one potion was enough to get his rage down to a much more manageable level. So far, all I could see were benefits. I was still pretty curious about why the creatures wiki said that the potion “can kill other creatures if they take too many”. (http://creatures.wikia.com/wiki/Calm_Balm) I kept digging.

I checked every chemical from 0 to 138. I just had to stop here, and you’ll see why in a minute.

Um. What? Sleepase and Sleepiness Backup were doing what I thought they were supposed to. I couldn’t be completely sure so I dug still deeper. (I’d forgotten to check tiredness, but we’ll get to that at a future date.)

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Today I made a small change to the game that allows multiple births per pregnancy. The reason for this is that grendels have the unfortunate gene that causes females to grow old and die after their first pregnancy. I’m often lucky if this baby grendel is a female but most times, I have to introduce a new female to make it to later generations, which is unfortunate. To alleviate this, I decided to make litters possible, much in the same way that Jessica did in her C3/DS Social Experiment world.

Anyway, the Grendels were all settled and were all Youths and Adolescents now so I started to flip through the norn breeds in Muco to decide what I wanted.

I ended up picking a huge variety of breeds instead of just two males and two females from two different breeds. Now, I have 3 males and 3 females, all from different backgrounds.

Meet Five Cheese, or just Cheese for short. She’s a Bondi norn and the first female norn in the world. It took me a minute to realize that she wouldn’t be able to learn a full vocabulary in the Norn Terrarium, so I added a Portal Intelligence Core to the Norn Terrarium, near the Incubation area. I was alerted to Bomb contracting a bacteria, which I intercepted with the hover dock, and Cheese here feeling pain from eating chilis but I was soon ready for my next egg.

Loving Wren, this handsome Male Chichi Norn was born just as Obese Bomb got pregnant and laid two eggs. I had to neglect poor Wren for a moment to scoop up her eggs for later. Since both Mac and Giants were nearby and kiss-popping her, I can’t know for sure who the father could be. I think I have an idea who the culprit is, but I can’t know for sure just yet.

Mom looks pretty pleased with herself.

Hopefully, these two hatch and grow up without any problems!

The new eggs got me thinking, though. How would you all feel about an egg-counter?  Not one in game, but one in the blog? I might also keep a family tree, though things may just get out of hand. I’ve installed a population control agent so that creatures become infertile after fathering or mothering 4 eggs. I had originally wanted to limit this number to 2 but with so many different breeds roaming around, the chance for still borns and sliders gets pretty high, and I don’t want to limit myself.

Anyway, let me know what you guys think!

Egg counter?

  • Yes! Keep track of the eggs! (100%, 3 Votes)
  • No, I think we're fine without it. (0%, 0 Votes)
  • Maybe. I'm ambivalent about it. (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 3

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What about a family tree?

  • Maybe, it would be interesting. (67%, 2 Votes)
  • Yes, definitely! (33%, 1 Votes)
  • No, I'm not interested in family trees. (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 3

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Normally, I’d add this to the back-log, but I had to share this right away. I’m so excited to start looking at C1 genomes!

Hooray! Jessica of Discover Albia was kind enough to direct me to the proper download link of the D-DNA Analyzer, normally (and actually) hosted at Treesprite’s Creatures Grove.

Treesprite’s Creatures Grove

http://creatures.treesprite.com/

D-DNA Analyzer Download

http://creatures.treesprite.com/Slink/danalyze.zip

I have 8 norns to get through, so let’s just jump right in!

All of the genomes here are compared with the standard C1 genome.

Gertrude

Meet Gertrude. She’s the oldest in the group and one of the two girls. She’s first Generation so I wasn’t expecting to find too much. She is also an alright eater and is very adventurous. She hasn’t spent too much time with the other 7(!) norns but she seems very happy and happily obeys the hand.

At this point in her life, she is only 2 and a half hours old and seems too stubborn to get away from those darn bees. Maybe it’s the honey that draws her in?

Her adventurous streak has kept her from getting infected by a disease I had thrown at me early in the game. All the other norns came down with sickness, and I feared I would lose some of them, thanks to Histamine B. Still, everyone survived and Gertrude was completely oblivious.

Sections marked in boldface are the differences from the standard C1 genome.

Lobes

121 6 0 Emb B MutDup Lobe #=7 State Rule: state PLUS type0 PLUS type1 end end end, WTA=1 Dendrite Type 1: Input Lobe=4, Min#=3, Max #=1, Spread=0, Fanout=0

Lucky me, this particular lobe was addressed by CDR (Creature’s Development Resource). What the bold part of this gene means is that her attention will not only be directed to whatever she finds most stimulating (or herself) but she’ll also listen to what the hand has to say. Lucky me!

Half-Lives

1 1 0 Emb B MutDup <159> 247

I’m… not exactly sure what this means, sadly. All I’ve gathered from the CDR and Genetics Kit is that the chemical half-lives are at between 26 and 52 real time years. I looked over the Creatures 1 Chemical list on the Creature’s Wiki, but I didn’t find an entry for number 159. This might not have any effect. I’m not sure.

Stimuli

99 10 0 Emb B Mut ‘Unrecognized word’ causes sig=16 GS neu=8(Audible event) int=128,,,Sensed Even When Asleep, Feature =16 -> 0*<NONE> + 0*<NONE> + 0*<NONE> +0*<NONE>

This was a bit of a grey area on CDR and I can’t make out what Feature=16 is supposed to mean. Unfortunately, I don’t have the knowledge or experience to figure this one out. Maybe one of you can help me?

103 14 0 Ado B Mut ‘I’ve Activated1’ causes sig=0 GS neu=255 int=0,,, => 3*Tiredness++ + 16*Boredom- + 0*<NONE> + 0*<NONE>

I was pretty sure that this meant that she didn’t become more tired or less bored from being selected until she became an Adolescent, as opposed to experiencing this from birth. This hasn’t seemed to cause any problems, so I’m not concerned about this particular gene.

Trent

 

Up next is Trent. He’s much less adventurous than Gertrude. Where Gertrude has circumnavigated Albia once on her own already, Trent has gone no further than taking the sub to the island and coming right back home to the garden and kitchen.

Once, when he was still a baby and after his first vocabulary lessons, he came down with a bad sickness and his health dropped from 60% to a dangerous 30%. He’s since recovered and his health sits at a more comfortable 77% now, despite the frightened norns around him and not eating much food.

A heads up about him, he does carry PMN genes in regards to dancing and alcohol. Otherwise, he’s come out of this with no mutations.

Janie

Up to bat now is Janie. She’s made fast friends with the Grendel on the island (where she now lives), who I’ve fittingly named ‘fig’. He knows a full vocabulary thanks to the Encyclopaedia Nornica COB (also available at Treesprite’s Creatures Grove, linked above).

She also got terribly sick when the world’s first infection hit. She got a dangerously low health force of 25% and I could only watch and wait while she spun with a carrot in her hand and didn’t eat. I really struggled but hoped for the best.

She’s a terrible eater but has somehow made it so far. Maybe her Grendel friend is shoving food down her gullet when I’m not looking? (And yes, I’ve checked. I don’t have the Starch glitch.)

Lobes

121 6 0 Emb B MutDup Lobe #=7 State Rule: state PLUS type0 PLUS type 1 end end end, WTA= 1 Gain State Rule: end end end end end end 0 end, Gain= 0

Like Gertrude, she also pays attention to the hand, rather than just what is most stimulating. I don’t know why she’s having trouble eating or doing what I ask, though. That 0 at the end means nothing since it comes after an end.

Reactions

146 30 0 Emb B MutDup 1*Glucose + 2*WasteH2O =>4*CO2 + 1*<NONE>; half-life = 24

Simply looking at it as a chemical equation, it only means that Glucose and Waste Water become CO2, which is expelled from the body. Hexokinase is also a waste product and would normally be expelled this way. Where Hexinokase can apparently reside as residue, Waste Water may either deplete naturally or cause behavioral problems, at least according to the wiki.

I don’t know enough about these two waste products to know for sure whether this is bad or not. Especially since one waste product or the other is being expelled anyway!

These genes don’t really point to or help explain any of her food eating problems. Maybe it’ll come to me someday.

Alec

Poor Alec. I don’t think I’ve seen him happy since he hatched! He’s always talking about how tired he is but has never slept. Maybe it’s the abundance of norns keeping him distracted from sleeping. I managed to get him away from other norns and across the ocean (you can see the sub) to get this picture, so maybe he’ll be lucky enough to take a nap!

This poor guy was also involved in the infection that spread through my norns. He was a bit older and managed to get through with hardly a sniffle, though! Lucky me, he’ll also eat on his own.

Lobes

122 6 0 Emb B MutDup Lobe #=7 State Rule: state PLUS type0 PLUS type 1 end end end, WTA= 1 Gain State Rule: end end end end end end 0 end, Gain= 0

Hooray! There’s that helpful “I can pay attention to the hand” gene that apparently isn’t present in all of my norns or in the standard genome.

Receptors

NEW 50 7 1 Emb B MutDupCut Creature, Drive Levels Sleepiness, chem=Sleepiness, thresh=0, nom=0, gain=255, features=Analogue

I’m not sure what this means. I’m very much a newbie. I have read about receptors in CDR and after looking at the other drive genes, it looks like this one was just a copy of another gene. The only difference that I see is the gen#, which is set to 1 instead of 0. Does that mean that this is the copy? I don’t know!

Reactions

71 32 0 Emb B MutDupCut 33*SexDrive++ + 1*<NONE> => 1*SexDrive + 1*Punishment; half-life = 8

Wow. That’s quite a different number than 1. I’m guessing that this means that instead of 1 Sex Drive creating punishment (and 1 sex drive), it takes 33 Sex Drive to create 1 punishment (and 1 sex drive). I guess this means that his Sex Drive is going to be prone to a lot of ups and downs, though the good news is that he isn’t punished so quickly for having a high sex drive. Good news!

Brendan

Next is little Brendan. He’s got a crush on Janie and just won’t leave her alone, even at the cost of not eating any food. I wish I could tell my norns that love conquers all but death, but I know they wouldn’t listen anyway.

The infection actually started with him and he’s fared pretty well! He looks a bit sad on the island now and is always complaining about food, but doesn’t listen to my pleas of “push food” and, like all the other males, is more interested in pushing Janie.

No major mutations, though I did notice 2 new genes (or, actually, genes that aren’t in the standard genome).

Reactions

321 60 0 Emb B MutDupCut 5*Geddonase + 5*Glucose => 5*Geddonase + 1*<NONE; half-life = 72

322 61 0 Emb B 2*Geddonase + 3*Glycogen => 1*Geddonase + 1*<NONE; half-life = 88

I actually haven’t been playing C1 enough to know what Geddonase poisoning is until now. What perplexed me is that this wasn’t shown in the other PMN above. The description in the Gene Editor says it’s a normal gene, however. I couldn’t find any other explanation of where it’s from and they aren’t copied. Still, I started to understand why Geddonase is dangerous.

There are no other mutations.

Farrel

Farrel is next, and I hate to admit it, but the other norns kept me so busy that I couldn’t learn too much about him! Now’s my chance, I suppose. Unless I remember incorrectly, he wasn’t born when the infection took hold of the other norns, so every norn below him wasn’t part of that issue, either.

Strangely enough, the only mutation he has is the “listen to hand” mutation I talked about in some of my previous norns.

After I looked into it some more (on CDR, of course) I read that the Plus type1 mutation was supposed to exist in all versions of the game but in the UK, it was released with only Plus type0 which made Norns hard to talk to. Go figure, right? Turns out not having this ‘mutation’ is the odd thing!

That said, he has no mutations to speak of.

William

William came next! He was a quick learner and he spends most of his time on the island with the other males. Really, the only male who doesn’t spend most of his time there with Janie is Trent, who prefers to stay at home with the hand.

Because he’s part of the ‘mob’ it’s hard to learn about him. He and all the boys spend their time playing with the lift and not eating or sleeping.

Like Farrel above him, he has no mutations.

Verne

Goodness, we have a lot of boys. We also have a lot of PMNs! 3 out of 8 norns are male PMNs! Go figure.

This little one is a lot easier to pull out of a crowd than the other norns and I’m glad he listens well. He does have problems eating and sleeping like all the other norns, unfortunately.

Oh well. I manged to get him all the way back to the herbs to help him get some food and sleep.

Receptors

126 16 0 Emb B MutDupCut Brain, Concept, Chemical 1, chem=conASH, thresh=0, nom=4, gain=251, features=Inverted Analogue

Normally, this number would be 255. As CDR doesn’t have any information on this, I don’t have anything to say. At least the change is small? I have learned that this particular gene does prevent the Concept Lobe from atrophying, though.

Reactions

158 31 0 Ado F MutDupCut 1*Gonadotrophin + 2*Oestrogen =>3*Gonadotrophin + 1*<NONE>; half-life =40

Since he’s male, this won’t do anything to him. However, Gonadotrophin prevents female norns from getting pregnant once they become pregnant. What this does is it actually produces more gonadotrophin than usual. This’ll really prevent any daughters who inherit this gene from getting any unwanted pregnancies while they’re pregnant. Honestly, though, I think this is pretty neutral.

There. With the last of my 8 foundation norns accounted for, I can close the D-DNA Analyzer and The Genetics Kit. It was a lot of fun learning about the differences from the standard gene that my norns had and how the different gene lobes work. I’ve still got a lot to learn but I’m enjoying myself so far!

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After the recent death of Geese, I figured it was a good time to introduce the next pair of foundation grendels. Since C3 generation creatures are much smarter (pre-programmed to survive and breed well) I left my Banshees to their own devices and hatched these two. Admittedly, it’s going to be difficult for me to tell them apart.

Bomb doesn’t look too happy in her picture but with the name the Autonamer gave her, would you be? Giants looks pretty pleased, though.

Before long, I had 4 (mostly) happy grendels in the jungle, all advising each other to “eat potion” when they’re angry. They’re doing a great job of eating when they need to and sleeping isn’t an issue since calm balm seems to have a soothing, sleepiness effect.

Honestly, I’m glad to have such good sleepers in my grendel population. I’m not sure if it’s common to have creatures who won’t sleep in C3/DS since I’ve only just started reading blogs about peoples’ games but in my experience, it’s actually a pretty common problem.

As I made my rounds to make sure that everyone was happy, I caught these two playing in the grass. Just as I tried to snap a photo, Mac said that he liked Bomb, though they were retreating from each other, Bomb backpedaling and Mack charged forward. If not for their names and speech bubbles, I don’t think I’d have caught them!

It wasn’t long before these two were slapping and kissing each other, though. Maybe we’ll have a pregnancy before long?

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