A New Dominant Gene in Creatures Docking Station
Written onSimteo took another few moments to collect himself after he successfully became the next alpha male. I was able to export the rest of the males, who had conveniently scattered themselves across the land. No unexpected pregnancies, though! As I would soon find out, Simteo would not be the only one with such a unique appearance. This was also the perfect timing for anyone with the more aggressive Hardman Norn genes to take out that anger… Slaps echoed from one end of the Daedalus metaroom to the other! There was plenty of room to spread out into, yet a large group of violent females decided to stay together. Wonderful.
Poor Caeriv! Although she was very lucky to have earned the title of alpha female, she had the unsavory task of laying four eggs over the span of a minute or two. The look on her face summed up the experience perfectly! She was back to her usual happy self in no time, though. I thought the experience stuck with Caeriv, for she refused to go near Simteo for a long time. Four eggs appeared to be more than enough to start the next generation with anyway! I still dislike the extremely short pregnancy cycle in C3/DS, especially since it makes it easy for a female to become pregnant very quickly. Caeriv was content to have her body to herself. I was ready to give her all the time she needed to rest up.
The same could not be said for Filana, though! She had to go through the same ordeal as Caeriv, but with the benefit of just two eggs. Simteo moved along quickly, and found a little love with Dilae. Unfortunately, she would only have one egg: There was a high chance that the Siamese Norn head would leave the population. I also took this time to murder the lift… It wasn’t just removed politely! It was very glitchy, although possessed seemed like a more apt description.
The first egg to hatch was one from the alpha couple. Little Alyfin was an exact replica of her father with the very unique Hardman Norn head. As a female of the alpha male and female, she was soon exported. I actually had a brief memory issue, and completely forgot to take her picture! Alyfin got to experience being imported and exported, although it didn’t seem to add very much to the adventures of her life. There were three more related eggs to hatch, and I couldn’t wait to meet the next one!
Out popped someone who looked exactly like Alyfin! This tiny female, named Balae, was identical both in appearance and genes. The remaining two eggs from Simteo and Caeriv would be the same, although there was a chance that a male or two could be present. This is the only instance where “identical” twins can be of different genders, thanks to the way in which Creatures determines the gender at birth, not conception.
I was a bit surprised to meet another female: Three in a row was a little rare, and I wondered if the last egg would hatch into a male. Chasina seemed like a very outgoing little Norn, and she looked very happy to take the spotlight away from the last egg, even if it was only for a few moments. I considered keeping these three sisters in the world, but the gene pool was already fairly limited as it was. They would eventually find new homes, so there were no worries!
A nice surprise greeted me with bright green eyes and lots of stripes! Dizor was the first male that would eventually compete to become the next alpha male. Actually, that test began at birth: Some former males passed away early in their lives. There is a certain survival of the fittest element factored into this world concept, although I still often step in to watch over ill Norns. I’ve slowly been stepping back, but it certainly is difficult to do. At least Dizor didn’t seem the least bit upset to take care of himself.
A fifth egg from the alpha couple? Not quite! Emmik was identical to the four previous Norns, but he was the first baby from Simteo and Filana. It was a bit of a shame, for a female would have been nice in this case! Filana was one of the only two Norns with a Siamese Norn head… She had one chance to pass that appearance gene along, yet there was the added challenge of gender. Would that second egg hatch into someone to keep in the world? I waited, quite impatiently, as it began to crackle.
It was a double dose of disappointment, although I didn’t hold anything against Faerim. His birth meant that Filana’s genes would not be passed along, and that there was only one chance for a Siamese Norn head via Dilae’s lone egg. I should note that I chose to continue hatching the eggs in the canopy of Veridia, and the young males will now be able to grow up on the ground level. It’s quite a step up from the hallway and warp room! Faerim was exported to join his brother, and many other Norns.
I gasped when I saw Dilae’s daughter: Out of these seven babies, every single one had the exact same appearance! Ginda actually was slightly different… Can you spot it? No more Siamese Norn heads in the population, unfortunately, but I was glad to bring the first female into the Norn Meso. I complained so much about how dominant the Zebra Norn head had become, and now it was the Hardman Norn head to watch out for! Every generation has some sort of quirk, though: ‘Tis the magic of genetics!
It’s nice to see you’re slowly getting to the “hands off” stage for real now. ;)
Ginda has the cutest little tail! :D
For my attempts, I had to restart two times, I think, due to issues with the room I was using and the fact that my Draconians would die within moments of turning into Adolescents without fail if raised in it.
Then I had really horrible luck with genders in the second run (the King and Queen got two Princes, but the other matings produced male offspring as well–I have since installed the no season bias thing which I found linked in your blog :).
So the current attempt had both Princes planning to co-rule the “first” generation, then having the one King after that. With that goal in mind, I started with two females from each of the three Breeds which had produced no offspring in the second attempt (Draconian, Siamese and Fallow). So the two male ChiChi/Butterfly hybrids selected their Princesses and things seemed to be working out…Of course, one of them then managed to drown himself after only fathering one son. *sighs*
I am not opposed to leaving some of the Old Maids around to try their luck with the next generation, and tend to continue after 4-5 Princes are nearly of age. Then I kill off–Uh, “retire”?–the old Royal Couple, just like the Princesses and illegitimate sons before them, and wait until everyone but the Draconians are at least Youths to move them to the co-ed area, leaving a forcefield between the two genders until they’re all moved. [I gave the two first Draconians a half-hour head start in life and they still weren’t ready when all the others were!]
And now I stop babbling about my experiments to continue reading yours!