bandicam 2015-03-22 20-58-17-849 copyI’m still getting used to blogging for Creatures 2 in particular, and I’m a little ashamed to admit that I didn’t even know the names of the norns in this group.

The bright side to this initial confusion was that the norns stuck together in the incubation area. Of course, I was able to forgive myself for not knowing them better once I looked at their ages. Isabelle, our oldest, was just short of an hour old! Of course I didn’t know them! I hardly had any time to get to know them. For now, though, it seemed like they were content to pace around the second learning computer and the collection of dispensers I placed around them.

bandicam 2015-03-22 21-17-48-320 copySome of them pressed dispensors, but most of the time, they were happier pushing the fire, hitting each other and complaining. Good old norns. It seems like they hardly changed over the first three games, at least at a surface level. I knew the changes were much deeper than that, in their programming and genetics, but it’s still fun to consider what they all have in common.

bandicam 2015-03-22 21-22-39-544 copyOf course, it wasn’t long til one of our norns was old enough to breed. Isabelle was now an hour and 10 minutes old, finally starting her first reproductive cycle. It was interesting to take the time to watch her experience a cycle, especially with the aid of a graph. It’s something I never took a long look at before. Katie was just behind her and then the boys, so I at least had another 20 minutes before I had to worry about babies. Basically, I didn’t have to be worried about getting swarmed, even though I considered making this into a wolfling style world.

Of course, 20 minutes eventually came and went and I had to start worrying about the eggs that would come soon. I figured Ernest would be the first father because of his 5 minute lead on Dodger, but it was really anybody’s guess.

  • Share on Tumblr
  •  

Whoops! This was supposed to go out on the 23rd! Instead of putting it away til tomorrow, consider this a “sneak preview” at my return to Creatures. The next blog post will be on Tuesday, assuming things go according to plan. :mrgreen:

Thanks for your understanding!

——–

It’s been over two weeks since I posted anything Creatures related, but with some issues with my computer resolved, I could finally make some time for blogging. So here I am! I’m back!

Because they couldn’t make things easy for me, Danny and Cassy’s health levels were both in the lower 60s, but they were at least sticking around that level rather than, say, plummeting.

bandicam 2015-03-22 19-27-17-041 copyI couldn’t spend my time waiting on them to eat and instead checked on the others. David, Danny and Perry all crowded in the lighthouse while Peony loitered at the bottom, playing “back and forth” with the cart.

I urged Cassy to wander towards the bees where she could drink precious honey. Her health still hung around the low 60s and some honey would be beneficial for her. Meanwhile, Mallory and Tabby played chase games on the beach. It wasn’t really dissimilar to watching children playing chase with a dog or another child.

bandicam 2015-03-22 19-29-06-767 copyOf course, by now, being as tired of seeing Purple Mountain Norn and Ron mixes all over the world as I was, I was ready to introduce another horse norn or pixie norn to the group, just to mix things up. I hate to put it this way, but it was starting to get difficult to tell them all apart.

Still, with so many babies pending hatching, it seemed unfair to introduce a new one now, especially with Tabby just over 30 minutes old. Naturally, to keep me busy, Peony decided to get pregnant. With two males crowding her, it was hard to tell who the father was. David? Danny? I couldn’t tell! All I really knew is that I needed to start force feeding Peony some carrots to support her new baby.

  • Share on Tumblr
  •  

As usual, I started out my visit into the Shee Ark by making my rounds and encouraging the norns to eat food, eat seed, and eat fruit. Also, as usual, things were very peaceful, though I knew full well that the norns were all on their way out.

bandicam 2015-03-05 11-52-38-440 copyOur oldest now was Andromeda, who was surrounded by some friends. Akuma, Aster and Peri all stuck close by.

By now, the groups were starting to seem more exclusionary. The norns didn’t complain much at all about the creatures nearby since, I guess, they were either lucky when I moved them around or they simply packed up and left behind creatures they didn’t like.

A few still seemed to prefer solitude. Dark Cat spent his time eating chocolate roses on the second level of the norn terrarium, near the norn hut. He also seemed to like playing with the lift and only rarely met with Mese or Delia.

bandicam 2015-03-05 11-57-19-062 copyFidget, who was once the center of attention in the desert was now wandering alone, slapping gadgets. It wasn’t that she disliked any of the norns there, it’s just that she enjoyed a wander, I guess. She still came by to mate every once in a while and had a lot of pregnancies.

And then, of course, there was Lin, who prefered the desert’s underground area. She’d always seemed to prefer being alone, given all the time she spent in the Medical Bay, by herself.

bandicam 2015-03-05 12-05-01-486 copyWhen Andromeda’s time finally came, she was with her usual group of friends. Akuma, Peri and Aster all surrounded her.

Beside that, she also went out on a full belly! Now if only all norns went out quite so comfortably.

Andromeda’s death made Daedalus the next oldest norn and, of course, the next in line to go. I wasn’t especially worried, though. He always had Verax, Fidget, Kerplunk and Logic nearby. Mese even showed up and joined the group.

bandicam 2015-03-05 12-08-06-581 copyI was actually more worried about Marsyia, who didn’t move and only ate when told to. I made the decision to move her into the norn Meso, where she might get more stimulation from the other norns. It seemed like nobody wanted to be in the Norn Terrarium except for her, Delia and Dark Cat. At least Delia and Dark Cat took care of themselves.

I moved her next to Stain, where she finally ate something of her own volition. I guess the Comfort Candle was just too much of a distraction for her.

bandicam 2015-03-05 12-13-24-544 copyThe Jungle group consisted of Lin, who liked to migrate and the three permanent residents, Anai, Flame and Suprius. This room was perhaps the quietest and had the lest going on. The norns all took care of themselves and didn’t fight much at all. They were also the least chatty. Still, every once in a while, a pregnancy would come out of this room, so that was something.

  • Share on Tumblr
  •  

I finally got some free time where I don’t have a terrible headache, so I’m making time for Creatures. Hooray!

bandicam 2015-03-05 11-23-46-941 copyThe babies didn’t stray far from the incubator and nursery yet, but I was hoping that at least one of them would wander away and help me collect power ups.

Who would it be? Well, we’d just have to wait and find out. In the meantime, the babies were actually eating seeds and roots and fiddling with the dispensors. They had instincts to push them, but they also experimented with pulling them, which didn’t produce any result. A pleasant side effect to this fiddling was that norns were also pressing the drink dispensor, so portable drinks were always available. How handy!

bandicam 2015-03-05 11-29-39-818 copyEventually, the norns started to crowd around each other. I managed to separate Dodger from the group and I tried to lure him over to the second learning computer. Getting one over there would be a good start in getting them all to wander, but Dodger basically trapped the lift by falling asleep right in front of it. When he did finally wake up, he must have been very thirsty, because he stood in front of the water fountain for a while and drank. Good thing, too! This is exactly the kind of behavior I was looking for in a thirsty norn.

bandicam 2015-03-05 11-38-54-954 copyIt took some doing, but I finally lured everyone down to the second computer and brought their dispensors with them. I wasn’t really expecting everyone to learn their words completely, but this would at least make it easier to communicate with me and with each other. Besides, if one norn didn’t learn a word, chances are, the others could teach it.

Our youngest, Dodger, was now 22 minutes old and our oldest, Isabelle, was finally getting to be breeding age. Unfortunately, she became ill! With a little alone time, she healed on her own. With no science kit, I wasn’t able to find out what was wrong, but I’m glad she got better. Hopefully, things go so smoothly next time!

  • Share on Tumblr
  •