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.
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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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One Thought on “About the Ultimate Life Genome

  1. Pingback: Designer Genes » Eternal Norns – Take 1/Testers Wanted

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