The Last of the First Generation Norns
Written onTowards the end of his life, Ranulf suddenly took a dislike to kiss popping. It was surprising, but a welcome change! Still, I was sad to see that he absolutely refused to rest and even had some eating issues. I followed Ranulf to the ends of Albia, where he ate a couple of ugly tomatoes and seemed relatively satisfied. He passed away peacefully at 11 hours and 8 minutes old. His death meant that there would be no more eggs. With thirteen to call his own, though, Ranulf certainly will not be forgotten! Rest in peace, little guy.
Halvor had the rare opportunity of being the only male creature in Albia. He might have been a Grendel, but I still thought he was just as endearing as any Norn. I convinced him to leave the desert island for a spell: Halvor soon developed a passion for music! I loved how he reached his hand up in the air and listened to the music for a little while. Afterwards, he polished up on his vocabulary with a quick lesson from the Creatures 1 learning computer. Halvor already knew most of the words from his encounters with the Norns. He picked up his education from experience!
I allowed Nordis, the last Norn in Albia, to explore on her own for a little while. She clearly developed terrible eating habits, and also walked into walls more often than she had previously. Note how small amounts of adrenaline were produced when these two needs were on the high side: This is the chemical that can shorten a creature’s life in high doses. Adrenaline is often produced at some point, though, so a small amount every now and then is not usually cause for concern. Constantly high drives, however, should definitely be avoided. She was not having a very good time in her later hours of life. Nordis fared very poorly in small spaces, where she enjoyed walking into walls. One might assume that her decrease in hunger was a positive move on her part: Not quite!
She decided that the deathcap mushroom looked like an excellent food source. It offered her a hunger decrease, but created many more problems. I tried to coax her into using the lift, but she was determined to hang out in the damp darkness. Nordis took not one, not two, but three deadly bites out of the colorful weed. It had time to grow back, too, so she received its nasty gifts three times. She was soon infected with antigen 6, as well. It was a lot to handle, and even my emergency service looked bleak.
I managed to nurse her back to health from the first two bites of the deathcap mushroom, but the third time was too much for Nordis. Coupled with the sickness, she died at 9 hours and 58 minutes old. She was brought into Albia as a summertime gift, and that she was. Six eggs held her children, and we would always remember Nordis for the off season holiday cheer she brought. Her death was a sad one, and one I wondered if I could have prevented. There was no turning back, though.
Albia laid in peace, with no more Norns to speak of. Only the unhatched eggs promised new life in the serene atmosphere. The stillness was broken, however, by a cheeky Grendel who had discovered the music room! Halvor banged away on the drum like a maniac, and looked like he was thoroughly enjoying himself! It would only be a few moments before he was whisked off to a new Albia. His farewell tour was filled with plenty of rambling music, which fit nicely.
The plan for the second generation is relatively simple. First, Halvor will be exported and imported into a new world, once it has been set up. The reason for this is because the cart glitch seems to have created a few small problems with the current world… As well as the very big problem of not actually having the cart in use! The eggs will not be hatched as they are: Instead, the Genetics Kit will be utilized to lay each egg based upon the already created genomes. There will be no further genetic mutations, and this will also allow me to have more than eight Norns in the world. Keep in mind that the import feature only works up to this limit, and I hope to have 12-16 Norns in the new Albia at any given time. Each genome will be used in order, so that it will be very similar to hatching each of the actual eggs. All 33 second generation genomes will be used… Eventually! The plan might not be completely ideal, but I think it solves a lot of the issues. Feel free to share any comments!
I was sad to see how Nordis decided to pass away. Never like to see norns die from accidental causes. I’m glad to see Halvor will bring the memories of the old norns in to the new world though.
I’m also very pleased to hear of Halvor’s planned exodus. Not sure how the scripting works in C1, it’s possible you may end up with 2 grendels, although I wouldn’t hold my breath.
I like your plan for setting up the new world. Since the genomes are already created, why would you think there could be more mutations? DO they have a chance of mutating again at hatching time?
I’d be careful using the extra Norns cheats. I haven’t had any crashes using it in the past, but it makes it harder to keep tabs on all your Norns. You’ll have to find them manually rather than using the menus.
Poor Nordis! Maybe she just couldn’t bear being the last norn alive? …Or more likely norns just make very bad choices sometimes.
But I’m really looking forward to seeing generation 2! Your plan sounds good. There’s no generation numbers or anything in C1, so all you’ll really be missing is the parent information in the Owner’s Kit, and presumably you’ve already got that stored elsewhere. :)
Arch: There’s two ways of hatching an egg from the Genetics Kit – one’s with two genomes as the parents, which can result in mutations, and one is an option for a “virgin birth” with only one parent, which results in a perfect clone. :)
I don’t believe there will be another grendel, the world checks for the presence of a grendel before hatching a new one.
Told you I’d read your site, and I did. Again, I feel like a total jerk. /blastchez.
Kittie: I hate seeing Norns die of anything but natural causes, too. At least Nordis was fairly old when it happened, though. I get pretty upset when non-elders die. Halvor will definitely be a nice tie in with the new world, which will be coming very soon!
ArchDragon: Tarlia answered many of your questions, but I’m kind of hoping for a second Grendel for Halvor to play with! I’m almost positive it won’t happen, yet it never hurts to hope. The only reason I mentioned that there would be no more mutations is because some might think that anything related to the Genetics Kit could involve mutations. Thank goodness for the virgin birth option! The increased population will definitely be a challenge, but with 33 eggs to hatch, it’s almost a hindrance to have a small number of creatures in the world. Blame it all on Ranulf! Ha ha!
Blastchez: No worries! I wasn’t exactly without fault, and I’m glad we got to talk a little bit. I was surprised to learn that you actually knew what Creatures is: Not too many people outside of the active community are familiar with it! Glad you took a moment to check it out: I’ll certainly be keeping up with any upcoming news about Creatures 4! Hope you’re able to check back every once in a while!
Tarlia: I think it was mostly a matter of bad choices, but still: Poor Nordis! As I said before, at least she was able to live for a relatively long time. Maybe that last hour or two she missed out on would have been dreadfully lonely. I’ve got myself a spreadsheet, indeed! I neglected to start it until there had been a bunch of eggs and genomes created already… That was pretty fun figuring everything out! Thanks for clarifying some of the points about the Genetics Kit and Grendels! It shouldn’t be too long until we finally can meet the second generation!