Moving overseas is always difficult. My husband and I are finally getting things finalized for our move. Our dogs have appointments, and they’re going to be flying for their first time. Our stuff is going to be picked up in a week and a half and we’ve got lots of packing to do. Well. I would be packing, but the hubby’s yet to bring me boxes to put our things in.

In the meantime and while I still don’t have internet, I’m going to play Creatures.

I apologize in advance for any weird structure in my post today but I’ve got the internet company on the line (I’ve been on hold for 15 minutes) and I’m still waiting to be helped. I sure miss the internet already.

Anyway.

We last left our Creatures 3 world with 8 new norn eggs in the world. The Norns did a great job of not playing favorites this time. Sour Drink hid up in the upper right corner of the Terrarium, away from the boys who were crowding around the bottom level.

Flawless Color felt lonely in the Meso by herself and I started to feel a little bad about separating her from the other grendels. She spent most of her time pushing elevator buttons, though. I decided to leave her alone for a little while longer, though.

Impartial Relation on the other hand was still a Youth. This cheered me up a little. I checked on the other four Grendels and they all seemed to be fine. I figured it was a good time to hatch two more Grendel eggs.

Meet Elite Cap and Clear Glass, both boys. This was a little upsetting. I was hoping for a girl to replace Flawless Color in the genepool.

I hatched two more eggs, hoping for the best.

One was Wide-eyed Payment, the daughter of Obese Bomb and Earthly Giants. She gave me the hope I needed for the next generation. I only hoped she didn’t have an aging disorder.

Next was Gifted Waves. I was pretty happy that these two turned out to be purebreed creatures. It’d make it easy to check them for mutations and if they were clear, I would have a more stable population as a result. A quick look at Wide-eyed’s profile says there’s no mutation, though. Lucky me! Clear Glass, on the other hand..

His poses, pigments and pigment bleeds are all slightly different from the default. That’s all there is to say about his Appearances.

Instincts

Unsure – 500 2 0 You B MutDupCut 128 0 [03: stim] [Cell 31 (Grendel home)] + [Brain Lobe 255] [Cell 0] + [Brain Lobe (254)] [Cell 0] and [Comfort] => Cell 4 (come); unknown = 0.

The difference here is in the Brain Lobe number (originally 255). Without internet, it’s difficult to look up the information I need. In the Gene kit, there’s no visible difference, though it looks like Grendels just approach the Grendel home when they need comfort and they learn to do that at the Youth stage of their lives.

Grendel Eggs

Obese Bomb

Thin Desire

Norn Eggs

Five Cheese

Scandalous Laborer

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[Images are very large!]

With the arrival of these two (and my internet going down Christmas day) I’ve made time to sketch and check out the genetics of my two newest grendels.

GeneCompare kept crashing on me and I had no internet to look up how to fix the problem. A bit of a pickle. I did use the DDNA Analyzer, though.
It seems to have worked but I needed to have at least two copies of the C3/DS Genetics Kit open to help me through. Naturally, one was for the creature in question and the other was for the Banshee or Boney Genome. I went ahead and created a check against Banshee and Boney grendel genetics to check for mutations that deviated from both genomes. Anyway, onto the genetics.

Be warned, I’m probably going to get a lot of things wrong. I don’t have access to the internet as of writing this and am forced to just wing it and rely on previous experience (though I don’t have much of it).

[A little Aside: Apparently, DDNA Analyzer swaps Nominal and the Chemical ID. Lesson learned. When GeneCompare works again, use it.]

Impartial Relation

Receptors

Unsure – 472 2 51 0 Chi B MutDupCut Stim# 128 causes sig=0 GS neu=95 int=0, , , => 240*<NONE> + 0*Reinforcement + 0*conASH + 0*PunishmentEcho

This gene is actually different from both the Banshee and Bone versions. The difference is the GS neu(?) value, which is set to 94 in both of those genomes.

When I opened this up in Genetics Kit, I found that the stimulus was different. In the banshee and boney genomes, the stimulus is “Travelled in lift” and in Imp’s, it’s “Travelled through external(meta) door”. Otherwise, all the variables are the same. The Up, Down and Wait drives are reduced by 1, and Fear is increased by .016. That’s all I know. Just looking at the sliders tells me that the Boney and Banshee genomes treat it so that travelling in a lift relieves all drives related to lifts and for Imp, travelling through an exernal door does the trick. I’m hoping he doesn’t fail to learn to use the elevators when he needs to ascend or decend. I’m not too worried since he isn’t able to see any doors, anyway and food is readily available on all levels of the terrarium. If this becomes a serious problem, he’ll be moving to the norn meso.

Pigment

318 3 0 Emb B MutDupCut Intensity of color 255 is = 1

Not much of a mutation, but this color is drifting up a little. This only means he’ll be more blue but you probably wouldn’t be able to notice.

Flawless Color

She seems to have come off pretty mutation free. I know this can’t be right. I’ve checked her against both ‘parent’ genomes and she comes up pretty clean.

This is good news, but she still looks very strange. More later if I can get Gene Compare working!

I’ve already made copies of these two and I’m going to make them available for download whenever I get an internet connection and the time to do it.

Merry belated Christmas?

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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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