The Creature with the Lost Internal Clock
The most recent case study about Berose prompted the wonderful Mea to send in an interesting creature as another case study. Whereas Berose was perpetually stuck in the baby life stage, Mea had almost the exact opposite issue! Uppyo, pictured here, was never a baby, but progressed through his first few life stages extremely quickly. However, I had in my world for some time, where he was a youth around 40-45 minutes of age. It seemed that there was something strange happening to him during those first few minutes of life. Uppyo was quite interesting to watch! He turned out to have a mixture of mostly Norn and Grendel genetics.
Although Gene Compare showed a plethora of genetic differences, I thought it would be most beneficial to focus in on a few interesting ones. In particular, the aging issue was the main goal of my analysis. The gene listed on top is that of Uppyo, and the second gene belongs to a standard Creatures Docking Station Norn.
Receptors
Chemical receptors define parameters for a certain chemical. When these parameters are met, an element in the Creature is affected. These genes can increase drives, define life stages, control fertility, and more.
179 Emb B MutDupCut Organ# = 10, Creature, Somatic, Become a child, chem=Life, thresh=182, nom=123, gain=255, features=Inverted Digital
188 Emb B Organ# = 10, Creature, Somatic, Become a child, chem=Life, thresh=229, nom=119, gain=255, features=Inverted Digital
This gene defines the conditions necessary for a Norn to age from a baby to a child. One of the biggest differences is that in Uppyo, this gene can be altered in many different ways, whereas the typical CFE genome sets this gene in stone. Notice how the threshold has been changed from 229 to 182: This means that Uppyo would remain a baby for a longer period of time, barring any other genes, as we will shortly see. The life chemical constantly falls, and the genes controlling the life stages indicate at what point a Norn should grow.
180 Chi B MutDupCut Organ# = 10, Creature, Somatic, Become an adolescent, chem=Life, thresh=241, nom=127, gain=255, features=Inverted Digital
189 Chi B Organ# = 10, Creature, Somatic, Become an adolescent, chem=Life, thresh=194, nom=116, gain=255, features=Inverted Digital
Here is the problematic aging gene for Uppyo! Just as the gene above, this controls a life stage: The only main difference is that this one controls when a Norn enters adolescence. Notice the serious problem? Take a look at the threshold: This is typically set to 194, which is well below the threshold of 229 defined at childhood. According to his genes, Uppyo should jump ahead to adolescence before ever being a child!
181 Ado B MutDupCut Organ# = 10, Creature, Somatic, Become a youth, chem=Life, thresh=217, nom=138, gain=255, features=Inverted Digital
190 Ado B Organ# = 10, Creature, Somatic, Become a youth, chem=Life, thresh=165, nom=128, gain=255, features=Inverted Digital
Uppyo also had a fairly significant mutation in the timing of his youth life stage. If the game would allow it, he would have become an adolescent, a youth, and then a child! Luckily, there are parameters in place to force creatures to resort to the highest life stage without reverting backwards. Uppyo still had normal timing for his adult and later life stages: It was just amazing that he had three interesting aging mutations!
Some may wonder why I designated these genes as negative: Wouldn’t a Norn who aged to the youth life stage quicker be better? Breeding could take place faster, and who wants to wait so long for a Norn to mature? Uppyo seemed very confused with his environment, and even though he was about 40-45 minutes old, I had a feeling that he had missed out on a lot of learning that was supposed to happen as a baby and child. A lot of hormones kick in when a Norn becomes a youth, and Uppyo looked downright awestruck at times! I decided to hatch a few clones from the Genetic Kit for a better perspective to figure out what was going on.
Talk about fast! Within his first minute, Uppye was already a youth! He seemed to act quite normally for a few seconds, but he soon became very mystified over the most trivial of things. I fancied he was aiming to throw that tuba plant right through the screen and into my face… Naughty Norn/Grendel! This genome actually had many Grendel genes, and the arms were a little reminder that this colorful male might not be as soft and cuddly as a typical Norn.
I was determined to make sure that this one quick birth was not a one-time glitch, so I hatched another male from the same genome. Pardon his nameless condition here… I literally had about ten seconds after he was born to capture him as a baby! This second test subject, Uppyi, looked a lot plainer, but one must keep in mind that a lot of pigment changes occur in the later life stages. For this little one, he only had to wait a few seconds before he experienced a beautiful metamorphosis of colors! I didn’t even have to wait… Things were moving rather quickly.
Suddenly, Uppyi entered his next life stage: Which was it? I could have sworn that he looked about the size of a child, but those pigment genes were a nightmare to decipher. He would have had to skip one life stage, though: Either the child, or adolescent one. I was too slow to check what his life stage was labeled as, for it was only a few more moments before he experienced another color change. I almost wish that a color change would be set in stone for all life stages with these genetics…
So there it was: Two male Norns born a few minutes apart, who grew into youths within their first minute of life. Hopefully this case study has shed a little light on the magic behind the life stages in Creatures! I would highly recommend not breeding creatures with similar mutations, only because this could lead to a quickly growing population without the necessary survival skills. Babies and children often learn behaviors easier than older Norns, Grendels, and Ettins. Never underestimate the power of early learning in Creatures Docking Station!
Wow, three aging mutations, I was only expecting one. I honestly didn’t expect the aging mutations to have an effect on his behavior, much less that strong of an effect. It does explain why Uppyo was so confused all of the time.
I love that picture of Uppye, it really does look like he is going to try to throw the tuba at you. Silly little creature. I almost want to use that picture as an avatar on the creature forums. :P
Out of curiosity, were there any other really interesting mutations that might be worth mentioning? Either for study or as part of a tutorial on how to fix or avoid them?
Funny, I got a similar Norn recently. A Norn Grendel hybrid, he also aged to adult very quickly. Not Uppyo fast, but still unusually fast.
As was previously pointed out to me by Grendel_Man, there’s another reason why progressing through the life stages too quickly can be negative – creatures who can breed before the half-hour mark can breed before they can starve, which means that problematic genetics can become prolific instead of dying out naturally.
Uppyo is a fascinating creature and it must be something to see him flash through the colours so quickly!
Mea: I expected just one, as well! Feel free to use the picture of Uppye if you like. Seems like he wanted to become famous! I didn’t notice anything extremely striking, although Uppyo certainly has a mixture of a lot of different genes. Has he ever successfully become an adult? He may be missing this gene, although I’m not positive. He also might not be able to recognize how to walk uphill correctly… That’s about it as far as what stood out to me! How I love the simplicity of C1 genetics, though. Ha ha!
The Chesire Cat: Could it have been a mutation in the half life of the life chemical? Sometimes a creature that ages quickly through all life stages has this mutation, rather than a mutation for each life stage. His or her life span would also be cut down, whereas Uppyo should live about the same amount of time as other creatures. These mutations are neverending!
ExploringTheArk: That’s a great point! I do like natural selection to a certain extent… I’m horrible at stepping in and convincing myself that genetic problems are just unique characteristics. It kind of works in Creatures 1 when things are pretty simple, but bad mutations in C3/DS certainly can devastate a population! The colors were very pretty to watch: It wasn’t exactly instantaneous, but I probably could have looked away for a moment and thought there was a new creature!
I had never noticed any problems with Uppyo walking uphill, but it has been a while since I let him run loose in a world for any great length of time. He was born in the KT metaroom & when I exported him, he was in the sloped area near the t-rex nest.
In my worlds, Uppyo has boney grendel legs instead of the normal legs he has in your world & one thing that I’ve noticed is that when my creatures have the boney grendel legs, they actually seem to be able to move faster & easier than the norns with regular legs. That might be why I’ve never noticed him having any problems with slopes.
I’ll look through my creature folders to see if I have any versions of him where he is older & became an adult, & thanks for letting me use Uppye’s picture!
Sorry to bother you again, but I was wondering how you found all these cool genetic differences. I wanted to take a look at the genetics of Hugo (the creature I mentioned earlier. Come to think of it, he is a lot like Uppyo. Grendel and Siamese genetics plus odd aging. I don’t think this is a half life issue, he seems to be ageing at a normal rate now that he’s an adult) after I saw him do some hilariously cute poses, and I’ve been sitting here for hours stumped on how to do it. After some messing around, I got gene compare to look at it. The only problem is that I couldn’t decipher it for the life of me. I tried to take a look in genetics kit, but ran into a similar problem. I think my biggest issue here is having no idea what I’m looking at, or even what I’m looking for. Is there a guide for this stuff? A magic button that tells me what things do/what they are supposed to do? I’d love to be able to understand genetics like you, and my odd little Hugo is just taunting me every time I see him. He’s just so different from my other Norns, so much more expressive and strange!
Mea: I’m woefully behind on collecting breeds, probably because I like keeping things simple. I was happy Uppyo rendered decently, although I meant to make a note that I was missing some breeds! I might continue on with the study of Uppyo if I have a chance, just to see if he ever reaches adulthood. Enjoy the image of Uppye!
The Chesire Cat: Unfortunately, there isn’t one definitive place to get every piece of genetics information. I’ve got a few genetics tutorials posted here, with a few more in the works. I highly recommend The Creature Developer Resource for lots of genetic information, though! It’s mainly targeted to C1 and C2, but I’ve learned a great deal from what’s posted there. I’ve picked up random bits of knowledge just by reading more from the community… I had an idea to create a site solely dedicated to genetics. That might happen in the future, but for now, keep an eye out for my genetics lessons! Some may seem simple, but it’s important to understand the basics before diving in to the extremely advanced.
And if all else fails, I’m happy to take a look myself and provide an explanation, if I can! I have two C1 Norns in the queue, but that’s it for the moment.