A Belated Set of Norn Birth Announcements
Written onA wonderful blast of lightning knocked out my power over the weekend, and I lost a beautiful set of pictures I had been planning on using for a new entry. No worries, though! Creatures remained unharmed, and it wasn’t too hard to find some more photogenic opportunities. Poor Halvor was swarmed by most of the Norns in the world, and he certainly looked upset! One interesting occurrence was the rate at which Erisktad aged: Although he possessed no unusual aging genes, he was an adult at a little over 40 minutes old. Most Norns reach adulthood well after one hour of life. He seemed undeterred, though, and acted like the rest of the youngsters!
One new face pictured above is that of Forvika, who is the daughter of Dagny and Truett. What a beautiful little Norn! Her legs blended in quite well with the rest of her body, which made them look very natural. As expected, she had a handful of interesting genetic mutations worth studying. Forvika inherited all of the new Purple Mountain Norn genes from her father, but I will leave these out of the discussion. I will be discussing the differences in the newer breeds in detail sometime this month. There still are plenty of genes to look at, though! One never needs to look too far to find some sort of genetic comparison related to Creatures, especially around here! Onto the analysis and discussion, which might prove quite interesting for budding geneticists.
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.
120 Emb B MutDup Lobe #= 6 Dendrite Type 0: Input Lobe=8, Min #=130, Max#=132, Spread=0, Fanout=8
Another brain lobe mutation! The difference here exists in the minimum and maximum number of dendrites from the concept lobe to the decision lobe. Remember that dendrites are simply the means of connecting neurons between different lobes. In the standard Norn genome, there are both a minimum and maximum number of 128 dendrites. Forvika’s original genome included a minimum of 130 and a maximum of 128 dendrites: This inconsistency was automatically corrected in the Genetics Kit so that she would have a minimum of 130 and a maximum of 132 dendrites. In the end, Forvika has slightly more dendrites then the average Norn. I am unsure if this difference is significant enough to allow her to become a smarter Norn, but it certainly paves the way for a creature who has a larger capacity for learning!
Emitters
Chemical emitters define specific conditions within a Creature in order to affect chemicals. Some examples include experiencing stress from excessive drives, becoming cold due to environmental conditions, and more.
141 Emb B MutDupCut Creature, Sensorimotor, Crowdedness, chem=Crowdedness, thresh=0, samp=75, gain=51, features=Analogue
This gene should look identical to anyone following along, except for its gene number. Forvika actually has a copy of this gene in her genome! This should have no effect on her, since the gene is an exact copy. However, I have no idea what duplicated genes can do for a Norn. For instance, what if there are two copies of a gene and they have different effects? Which one will be used, or will the game attempt to use both at the same time?
Half-Lives
Chemical half-lives define the decay rate of each chemical. In the absence of any reactions, a half-life defines how long a chemical will remain. Half-lives can range from fractions of a second to an entire lifetime.
1 Emb B MutDup decASH1 1
In the standard Norn genome, the half-life of decASH1 is set at 0, which equates to an instantaneous half life. In the Genetics Kit, the next highest available number is 8, which takes about 0.4 seconds. I have a feeling that this mutation will have absolutely no effect on Forvika!
Stimuli
Stimuli genes define the chemicals that a Creature expects to receive in response to an action. These actions can range from interactions with the hand to involuntary actions like coughing or sneezing.
93 Adu B Mut ‘Pointer slaps me’ causes sig=32 GS neu=1(I’ve been slapped) int=255, , , Sensed Even When Asleep => 75*Pain++ + 32*Fear++ + 16*Anger++ + 16*Sleepiness-
This stimulus is pretty self-explanatory: It defines what chemicals will be released when the creature is slapped by the hand. This mutation is certainly a very interesting one! Forvika does not react to any spanks or slaps until she is an adult. I tested this out, and although she does yell out, she does not flinch, nor do any of the chemicals increase in her system. Even speaking the verbal command for punishment seems to have no effect on her! This creates a difficulty in teaching her not to perform bad actions, although in practice, Forvika has been a very intelligent Norn. Adulthood will come with a bit of an unpleasant surprise, unless she is on her best behavior!
The next egg hatched and revealed a startlingly sad Norn. This is Glein, the son of Arik and Bera. I expected to find a mutation that would explain his instant frown, but I was surprised to find that he had absolutely no genetic mutations. What makes Glein interesting is the fact that he has a combination of standard Norn genes and Forest Norn genes. In all of the babies thus far, they either inherited all of the updated genes, or did not. Keep an eye out for a discussion of the differences in the Purple Mountain Norn and Forest Norn genomes soon! Fortunately, Glein perked right up after he finished his initial lessons and got his first taste of food. Perhaps he just really enjoyed his home inside of his egg!
While the majority of the Norns, as well as Halvor, hung out between the jungle and the desert island, Glein made himself at home near the incubator and garden. Unfortunately, Arnes had already begun to deteriorate. Before Glein was born, he stared off into space, and walked into walls whenever he started to move. He had not eaten in ages, even with my persistent but gentle urging. Glein provided Arnes with a way to finally interact, although it was most often Glein who spoke or moved. Arnes got in a word every now and then, though! At least he could talk and have some sort of interaction with others.
Halvor escaped from the Norn group for a little alone time. I noticed that he was not eating very well, and I helped him regain his appetite. A taste of honey usually perks up any Norn or Grendel! He also sampled the nearby ugly tomato. I had not seen Halvor happier, and this image was captured as he was running around with a huge smile on his face! Could he be any more adorable? That was highly doubtful.
Most of the Norns were on the desert island, and I was able to move Forvika away from the group so she could enjoy a decent meal. She also discovered one of the few cans of Purple Mountain Hootch and promptly gulped most of it down! I closed Creatures 1 just after taking her picture, so it will be a matter of time before the alcohol can take effect. Silly Forvika! At least she was smart enough to eat before drinking. Even now, I still am amazed at how well the Purple Mountain Norn legs match the Banana Norn body. Her mother chose well!
Forvika looks great. :) I love it when the crossbreeds come out looking that good. Interesting mutation, too. I guess you’ll get to see what a norn turns out like with only positive reinforcement while growing up! (Honestly, punishing them never seemed all that effective to me, either they get scared or they just get right back to eating that weed. It’s only really useful when they refuse to listen to you!)
Interesting about Erikstad’s fast aging. This is something I’ve always experienced with some norns too, always without any mutation. In fact, it happened with my first generation PMN in my new world just now. And it’s so consistent, too consistent to be caused by stress. They always age at about twice the rate of a normal norn, reaching childhood at 11 minutes, adulthood at 40 minutes. I’m very confused by it.
I’ve been struggling to find the gene that makes stressed norns age faster too, in fact. I’ve only found it in Forest norns (only females, I believe), where 4xAdrenaline eats up 1xAgeing. But not in normal norns. Very confusing. What do you think?
In other news, I’ve been playing my own world a little, after buying the GOG version (hey, it cost like… nothing, so why not?). Currently I have five first generation norns, female banana, horse and forest, and male pixie and pmn. I added a male Snow norn (by Amanora) too, but unfortunately he had some sort of super-cheaty genome that made his lifeforce constantly stay at 96-99% WITHOUT EATING, and he aged to adulthood at 25 minutes! From the looks of his genes, he was going to be super fertile, too. So, yeah… no. I had to export him. :/ I have C3/DS for norns like that. :P Maybe I’ll make a Snow norn with the Ron genome later, since I’m interested in their genes but don’t like their sprites.
I’ve never found punishment to be very effective, either. Seems like positive reinforcement works a lot better than a slap or spank! The fast aging is very confusing. I don’t believe I’ve come across any others who aged so quickly, but I have a feeling that Erikstad won’t be the last.
Genes 282 through 292 involve the reactions that cause faster aging due to stress. However, looking at the gene called “stress reduces life-span,” it looks like the reaction is flawed: One adrenaline creates nothing. I have a feeling that this was meant to eat up aging, as is the case with Forest Norns.
So great to hear you’re playing Creatures! That genome sounds crazy! Although it’s nice to not have to worry about taking care of Norns, it kind of defeats the purpose of the game. That sounds like a good idea to make a Snow Norn with the Ron Norn genome! I’ve never been a huge fan of the Ron Norn sprites, either, although they’re kind of cute… They just don’t remind me of Norns!
I like your blog! I never took care of my grendels in C1, but that’s because I was 5. :P
Thank you very much! I completely ignored the Grendels in the past, too! I though they were kind of cute, but more of a nuisance than anything else. With a couple of downloads and a little patience, Grendels can really add another element to Creatures 1. I hope you’ll enjoy the future entries: Thanks again for creating the sub Reddit!
No problemo! I will look forward to your blog posts in future.
Forvika looks like a very interesting Norn. Having a completely duplicated gene is pretty cool, even if it doesn’t do anything right now. With the little I know about genetics in the real world that’s a pretty big deal and has the potential to be a big leap forward for the species in future generations.
The slap gene will also be interesting. I’m a little concerned about the slapping Norns do to each other. I worry that because they seem to do it randomly they may be inadvertantly teaching each other bad habits. Not receiving punishment from other Norns may actually be beneficial, although obviously it may make it hard to punish her yourself.
I’m interested to see what the duplicated gene will do in future generations. I’ve never quite understood the impacts, but I’m excited that this will be the starting point! The slapping gene is kind of odd: Forvika is able to feel slaps from other creatures, but anything coming from me is useless. I also share your concerns about the random slapping! I’m pretty sure it’s where a lot of bad behaviors stem from. I almost wish her mutation made her immune to creature slapping, rather than my own. Oh well! That’s the randomness of genetic mutations. Ha ha!