Addressing a Rumor About the C1 Cave Flies

Update: Special thanks go to Grendel Man and Jessi for properly testing this rumor out and proving me wrong! Grendel Man took a look at the actual scripts involved, and found that there are two scripts that affect the pianola and either the jukebox or the radio. Jessi went ahead and tested the Cave Fly COB in game on an adult female Norn, and found out that her sex drive rose in response to the pianola. This suggests an injection of alcohol had been experienced. In the end, this rumor was actually true! It also goes to show that other opinions are vital! Thanks again for the information, and for showing that this rumor was actually true! Someone suggested creating separate COBs for the pianola, jukebox, and radio so that we wouldn’t have to deal with the cave flies in order to have this update. Anyone up to the task is more than welcome to take it on. Make sure to read the comments for more information!

Several months ago, Malkin posed an interesting question about the Cave Flies COB for Creatures 1. Apparently, there was a rumor that it also altered the pianola, in addition to adding six pesky cave flies to the game. Rather than testing this theory on my current world, I started fresh with a little female named Valanice. She looked like a mixture of many breeds, but she was merely a standard first generation Norn with some appearance gene edits. She needed to stand out a little bit!

First off, I wanted to test the baseline for another item in the same instrument category. The pianola, jukebox, and smaller instruments are all classified as instruments, just as carrots, honey, cheese, and lemons are all classified as food. It’s a bit difficult to see in this graph, but Valanice had a slight decrease in need for pleasure (NFP) when she played the trumpet, but no other changes. I was also disappointed to find out that Purple Mountain Alcohol was classified as chemical 80, but since it was undefined in the chemical list, it was not possible to graph it. However, I have seen Norns ingest drinks associated with this chemical, and their gait is unmistakable! So far, I had a pretty good idea of what the handheld instruments could do. Next was the actual pianola and what it would do!

Valanice had to journey a little ways to actually find the target instrument. She did not become bored, so I had to hold myself back from tickling her, in order to keep her NFP relatively high. I still was only looking at the baseline, and had not yet injected the cave flies. As soon as she interacted with the pianola, it was clear that it created a different reaction than the trumpet. Not only did her NFP decrease, but her tiredness also decreased. It was also interesting to note that she received the same response whether she was the one who activated the pianola, or if I did it myself. Basically, it looked like the pianola affected any creatures within earshot. A decrease in boredom was the only other mystery, although I assumed it did just that. Valanice just wasn’t bored enough with Albia!

While Valanice was in the vicinity of the pianola, I injected the cave flies into Albia. The reaction to it looked identical to me: There were still decreases in NFP and tiredness. I also made sure to play it numerous times, to see if she would exhibit a different gait that might indicate drunkenness. Nothing happened. I also brought the trumpet back to Valanice, and confirmed that it still acted in the same manner. It dawned on me that this might be something that would only affect the newer breeds, such as the Purple Mountain Norn and Forest Norn. After all, they had some updated genes which could have defined Purple Mountain Alcohol in a more direct way. I set about the task of finding a friend for Valanice who could share in this experiment and test the update as thoroughly as possible.

Meet Graham! Together with Valanice, they formed a pair of characters from one of my favorite computer series. Quite an old one, but a great one all the same! Maybe I’m the only one who knows what it is, though… Anyway, Graham had another interesting appearance, but his genome was otherwise identical to that of a Purple Mountain Norn. It seemed odd that the pianola would only affect a certain breed, but stranger things have happened in Creatures. At least Graham was a very willing participant! That is, so long as he got to take his honeypot along for the ride.

The pianola had exactly the same effects on him as it did on Valanice, and he showed no signs of a drunken gait that would indicate the presence of Purple Mountain Alcohol. However, this graph is not of the reaction to the pianola: Graham had a rather fun time with the trumpet, and he played it about eight times over the course of this graph! It wasn’t much of a substitute for a tickle, though. A single tickle could sharply drop the NFP to a negligible amount, and a short round of tickles was more than enough to satisfy this need. I had hoped to see something happen with the pianola, but it looked like this had just been a rumor. Or perhaps I just missed something: Has anyone tried this out and found anything to the contrary? It would be interesting! Sometimes the effects are found in different ways, via other chemicals.

The two main references that were pointed out to me regarding the cave flies and the pianola can be found here and here. Maybe there is something hiding in the code that I simply overlooked: It certainly would be nice if the cave flies COB counteracted those nasty bugs with a nice update to the pianola! This might also affect the jukebox, although Valanice and Graham didn’t look like they really wanted to go across the world. Indeed, they had heard enough music to last them their entire lives!

Update: Please read the comments section to find out how true this rumor actually is. I was happy to be proven wrong, though! Next time, I’ll know a few other ways to really understand how to test something like this. Thanks again to all those who commented, particularly Grendel Man and Jessi!

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