A Little Bit of Junk in Creatures 1

After a short break from Creatures 1, even Euphonia needed a quick reminder of what the game looked like! She had a very enjoyable time watching a slideshow with her honeypot. The only distraction was a lone bee who would not stop buzzing during the little movie. Euphonia gave him a few stern looks, but she eventually backed away when she remembered how unpleasant his stinger could be. This was probably the first time that anyone, Norn or Grendel, had taken the time to watch the pictures of Albia float by. Admittedly, a few still nature shots were hardly exciting compared to other Norns and spinning tops, but they were still better than nothing!

It was at this moment that I decided it was time to add another piece to the puzzle. Meet Junco, the son of Gwydion and Llyan. What a happy little face! When I picked his name, I immediately thought of the nickname of “Junk” in the most loving manner. In reality, I was about to find out that one part of Junco’s brain was mostly a piece of junk. All of my previous Norns and Grendels with seemingly crippling genetic mutations survived quite well, though, so this little guy was just another challenge for me! On the surface, his genome looked pretty safe with only one mutation that had the possibility of having an effect. After a few seconds of life, I realized that Junco was very different.

Lobes

Brain lobes include important information about how the different parts of the brain work, from how concepts are learned to how a Norn goes through the decision process. These genes can greatly affect the learning process.

Default: 121 Emb B MutDup Lobe #=7 State Rule: state PLUS type0
Mutation: 121 Emb B MutDup Lobe #=7 State Rule: chem3 PLUS type0

The wonderful world of brain lobe mutations! Many of these are typically harmless, but Junco’s mutation affects the way his attention lobe functions. This lobe helps define what a Norn focuses on. Normally, stating the word “look” results in a Norn taking an interest in the object for a reasonable period of time before he or she gets distracted. I quickly learned that Junco was lucky to focus his attention on an object for more than half a second. Not very conducive to learning! Junco’s father, Gwydion, passed this down. He got along well enough, so there was definitely hope for little Junco!

Reactions

Chemical reactions define rules for individual chemicals and chemical combinations. These genes can also state the rules for how chemicals are used up, and each reaction has a defined half-life to determine how often it occurs.

Default: 290 Ado M MutDupCut 1*Adrenaline + 1*Testosterone => 1*SexDrive-; half-life=72
Mutation: 290 Ado M MutDupCut 1*Adrenaline + 1*Testosterone => 1*Anger-; half-life=72

Look familiar? This genetic mutation was inherited from Junco’s mother, Llyan. Under normal circumstances, adrenaline binds with testosterone to decrease the sex drive in a male. Adrenaline is a byproduct of excessive stress, so stressed out males are less likely to kisspop. Makes sense! In Junco’s case, adrenaline will still bind with testosterone but will decrease his anger, rather than sex drive. The effect could be fairly similar, though, since his testosterone will slowly decrease if this chemical reaction occurs a lot.

As I struggled to teach Junco his vocabulary, I caught Hypocolius raiding the refrigerator in a very odd position! Body data issues, how we love them. Truth be told, I’m disappointed to say that I haven’t made any progress on my C1 sprite and body data project. This summer has been much busier than I anticipated, although it’s still on my list! One day, male Norns with Banana Norn arms will be able to actually reach up to grab something without their arms going haywire! No worries about Hypocolius: He found some food, and ran off with a smile. Those silly arm and hand issues could do nothing to stop him!

In all of the excitement going on with the Norns, I was surprised to see an egg notification pop up. As far as I knew, the adult male and female Norns had separated themselves. And so that was true… It was Arianllyn the Grendel who had a special delivery! I knew that reunion between Adaon and her was filled with a lot of love! Arianllyn was exhausted after her first pregnancy, and I was careful not to disturb her. To try to avoid glitches in this world, I will be hatching and exporting all Norns and Grendels, instead of hoarding all of the eggs. Hopefully this strategy will work!

After more than ten minutes, Junco was already a child… And still had yet to eat his first meal. With his attention lobe mutation, teaching him nouns was extremely difficult. Naturally, yours truly made a mistake and made him believe that “food” meant the clock in the kitchen. Undoing this mistake meant that he needed to learn a new word for the clock before I could teach him what food really was. Suffice to say I was extremely frustrated over failing this little one! He was still in good spirits, though, and I was not about to give up. At least he had someone to cuddle up to while he napped!

Blackcap decided to show how speechless he was over his extreme joy. He wasn’t happy to see me, though: This joy was a result of him fighting off an illness in record time. It was a nasty one: An antigen, two unknown toxins, fever toxin, and histamine B. As I was trying to find a good screenshot to graph it, though, he was already just about cured! Take that, infection! It was also a rather opportune time for him to be in the temple region. Cotinga had finally left her treetop refuge in search of companionship. Maybe Blackcap was ready to become a daddy!

« Previous Post | Next Post »