A Case Study of Dee the Norn: Part III

Our journey through Dee’s genetics is almost completed! I highly recommend at least glancing through Part I and Part II of this case study. I briefly want to cover her modified instincts, appearance genes, and pigments. Further along, I will be including some observations about her behavior in Creatures 1 as it relates to her genetics. Remember that she can be downloaded at The Creatures Repository for anyone who would like to take a closer look at her genome! As a part of Albia, she certainly loves to have fun and explore. Not even that odd scarecrow can scare her! This case study was suggested by Malkin, and I know I learned quite a bit throughout these explanations.

Instincts

Instincts define the expectations for certain behaviors. These genes do not state exactly what happens when the parameters are met, but rather provide the basis for Norns to base their decisions on.

163 Ado B MutDupCut Drive i/ps SexDrive + General Sensory i/ps IT is opposite sex + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Push => 207*Reward
164 Ado B MutDupCut Drive i/ps SexDrive + General Sensory i/ps IT is opposite sex + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Pull => 112*Punishment
New 404 Ado B MutDupCut Drive i/ps SexDrive + General Sensory i/ps IT is opposite sex + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Pull => 255*Punishment
New 405 Ado B MutDupCut Drive i/ps SexDrive + General Sensory i/ps IT is opposite sex + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Push => 255*Reward
New 406 Ado B MutDupCut Drive i/ps SexDrive + General Sensory i/ps IT is opposite sex + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Run => 170*Punishment

The standard Norn genome only rewards male Norns for kisspopping, at least in terms of instincts. Dee’s modified genome states that this reward, indicated in gene 163, will be experienced by both genders, thus reinforcing breeding. Gene 164 originally only applied to males, and actually rewarded them for hitting (pulling) members of the opposite gender. Now this gene applies to both males and females, and punishes them for slapping Norns of the opposite gender. No help here for males hitting males or females hitting females, though! Genes 404 and 405 seem to reinforce the originally altered genes: I wonder why both instances are present, but a large quantity of reward or punishment will be received when a Norn kisspops or hits a member of the opposite gender. Another New gene in this group is gene 406: It simply states that if Dee sees a male and runs away, she will be punished. This should encourage her to stay around the males longer and not want to run away from them. Coupled with the other sex drive genes, she should be an excellent breeder.

New 396 Emb B MutDupCut Drive i/ps Hunger + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Stay => 127*Punishment
New 397 Emb B MutDupCut Drive i/ps Hunger + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Push => 127*Reward
New 398 Emb B MuDupCut Drive/ips Hunger + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Pull => 127*Reward
New 399 Emb B MutDupCut Drive i/ps NFP + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Stay => 127*Punishment
New 400 Emb B MutDupCut Drive i/ps NFP + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Push => 127*Reward
New 401 Emb B MuDupCut Drive i/ps NFP + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Pull => 127*Reward
New 388 Emb B MutDupCut Drive i/ps Hunger + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Stay => 127*Punishment
New 391 Emb B MutDupCut Stim source i/ps Food + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Come => 255*Reward
New 393 Emb B MuDupCut Drive/ips Hunger + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Stay => 127*Punishment
New 408 Emb B (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + Drive i/ps Hunger + Stim source i/ps Food and I Push => 255*Reward
New 409 Emb B (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + Drive i/ps Hunger + Stim source i/ps Food and I Come => 255*Reward

Genes associated with instincts might look daunting, but most of this information is empty, much like the NONE included in chemical reactions. This set of genes basically involves what happens when Dee experiences hunger or need for pleasure (NFP). She will be punished if she stays still and takes no action, or she will be rewarded if she pushes or pulls something. Granted, this does not explicitly cause her to interact with food when she is hungry or toys when she desires something pleasurable. With learning and experience, though, she should have a pretty good grasp of what to do when either of these drives is too high. Note that genes 408 and 409 reward Dee for approaching food and pushing (eating) it. There also appear to be some duplicated, or very similar, genes.

New 389 Emb B MutDupCut Stim source i/ps Herb + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Come => 127*Reward
New 390 Emb B MutDupCut Stim source i/ps Weed + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Come => 127*Punishment
New 411 Emb B Stim source i/ps Herb + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Push => 40*Alcohol
New 412 Emb B Stim source i/ps Weed + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Push => 40*Alcohol

The first two of these genes should be fairly familiar: They are present in the Forest Norns. Basically, when Dee approaches an herb she will be rewarded, and when she approaches a weed, she will be punished. These effects are supposed to aid in the learning process, where Norns learn that herbs are good and weeds are bad. Genes 411 and 412 alter the effects of every herb and weed, in that Dee will receive alcohol from them all. Quite an interesting modification! Since alcohol has no serious detrimental effects in Creatures 1, this should only serve to make Dee stagger about if she decides to eat too many herbs and weeds.

New 392 Emb B MutDupCut Drive i/ps Sleepiness + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Rest => 255*Reward

This gene should be fairly easy to understand: When Dee is sleepy and decides to rest, she will receive a massive dose of reward. Yet another gene that should help her become a master of sleep!

New 395 Emb B MutDupCut Drive i/ps Fear + General Sensory i/ps IT is approaching + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Run => 255*Reward

This is an interesting gene in Dee’s genome. When she is fearful and another creature is approaching, she is rewarded for running away. Very interesting! This seems pretty clear, but it also means that Dee will not seek out the company of other Norns to ease her fear. I suppose it assumes that it’s those Norns themselves who create the fear! This is possible through excessive slapping, of course.

New 402 Emb B Stim source i/ps Ugly + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Pull => 255*Reward

I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw the word “ugly” included in this gene! In the Genetics Kit, it appears to simply correspond with ID 37. In reading the description of the Yin Yang Norns, this appears to be the gene which rewards Dee for pulling (hitting) a Grendel. This would be perfect for C3/DS Norns, but with such a gentle Grendel from C1, I almost feel like this gene continues the awful stigma associated with Grendels. Perhaps this gene would have made more sense if it tied in with fear or pain in some way: As it is, Dee is rewarded simply for a hitting a Grendel on a whim.

New 403 Emb B MutDupCut Stim source i/ps Maker + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Push => 255*Reward
New 410 Emb B Stim source i/ps Maker + Drive i/ps Hunger + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Push => 255*Reward

I was completely mystified over what a maker was for a little bit, until I realized that it corresponded with a vendor. The main vendor in Creatures 1 is the carrot vendor on the desert island, although there are many other vendor COBs. Unlike a standard Norn, Dee is rewarded for pushing (activating) a vendor at any point, and especially when she is hungry. This should help reinforce her eating habits when there are vendors scattered about. They provide an unlimited food supply: Better to keep the Norns interested in them!

New 407 Emb B (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + (Lobe/Cell=0/37) + General Sensory i/ps I’ve bumped a wall and I Come = 204*Punishment
New 413 Emb B (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + (Lobe/Cell=0/37) + General Sensory i/ps I’ve bumped a wall and I Run = 255*Reward

One quick note here is that the lobe is defined as 0, but there are instances where the cell (neuron) is defined as 37. In my experience, a chosen neuron only has an effect when a lobe has been defined with a value between 1 and 7. These two genes will encourage Dee to move away from a wall after she has bumped into one. Remember the incessant head bonking? These should reduce the chances of Dee continuously running into walls: She is punished when she continues to approach it, and rewarded when she moves away.

Appearances

Appearance genes define the sprites and body data files to be used for each body part. In Creatures 1, these genes consist of the appearances for the head, body, arms, and legs.

Rather than list the genes, I figured a short description might be easier to understand. Dee has gender-specific appearance genes, meaning that males and females appear differently. A standard Norn will have a single breed chosen for the head, body, legs, and arms. The only difference between males and females is the set of sprites used. A White Haired Pixie Norn will always appear as a White Haired Pixie Norn, whether male or female. With Dee, she has appearance genes for males and females. As we can see from her photo, her head and body are of the White Haired Pixie Norn, while her arms and legs use the Banana Norn sprites. A male with the identical genome would actually use all Horse Norn sprites! This opens up the possibility of having the closest thing to recessive genes as is possible in Creatures. Remember, the genetic structure of Norns, Grendels, and Ettins does not use dominant nor recessive traits. However, imagine if Dee had a daughter who inherited these gender-specific appearance genes, and passed this along to her own daughter. Barring any interference from the male mates, these females would look like Dee. Yet they would have the possibility of giving birth to male children who look extremely different. Quite an interesting idea!

Pigments

Pigments are used to apply unique coloring to a Norn. These can be used to bring out one particular color, or create a mixture of different hues. Pigment genes are applied to the base sprites, which often are already pre-colored.

Again, listing the actual genes involved is not necessary to understand what is going on with Dee. In the description of the Yin Yang Norns, one can discover how the pigments tie in with the name of this breed. Females have every pigment set to the maximum intensity, which results in a very light coloring. Remember that the C1 sprites have a base color applied to them, so it is impossible to get a completely white Norn without modifying the sprites. As with the appearance genes, pigments are gender-specific. A male with Dee’s genome would have all of his pigments set to an intensity of zero, so that he would appear very dark. Again, it is impossible to get a completely black Norn with the colored sprites in Creatures 1.

The first thing I noticed about Dee was the fact that she did not appear to have a normal cycle, yet she also was not pregnant. This graph reminded me of some of my infertile males whose testosterone levels disappear due to stress. Aside from this, Dee seemed to be enjoying herself in C1! She ate up the cheese, enjoyed spending time with the hand, and quickly developed a love for the spinning top. She actually was not forced to obey my commands, as I thought might be the case with her lobe modifications. She did listen much more intently than most Norns, though!

Before long, I watched Dee make her way to the temple region. Although it looked like she was interested in testing out the hootch, she fortunately decided that the piano player was much more interesting! She passed by the herbs and weeds without hesitation, even though I expected her to take a nibble out of something. One can never know what these Norns will decide to do, though! Even with an improved genome, Dee seemed to have some classic Norn behavior of becoming distracted and not napping when she was getting tired. One of her genes converts tiredness into sleepiness to improve her sleeping habits, but this doesn’t mean she will automatically fall asleep. Dee still had to make the decision on her own. Perhaps free will still exists for creatures: Most of the behaviors can not be fully determined!

When Dee still not produce estrogen, I injected her with cough medicine, which acts as a sex booster according to her modified genes. Here it is represented by the sudden spike. I thought that perhaps she had some painkiller in her system, which acts as a sterilizer with her altered genes. Her gonadotrophin remained exceptionally high, with no sign of slowing. I am still at a loss for an explanation: The half-life of gonadotrophin is 96, which means it should fall to half its value in 20 minutes. Still, I spent a good amount of time with her and saw no change. Any thoughts on what could possibly be going on? Dee continues to be filled with interesting genes… As well as a mystery in and of herself! She was definitely a very interesting subject of a case study, with plenty of genetics to sift through and examine.