Hard at Work on the Next Generation
At this point, everyone is spread out through the various regions of Albia. The funny thing is that the males tend to go off in one direction, while the females head in the opposite direction. Hence, the number of new eggs has drastically dropped off. Fortunately, I intervened and brought some of the males to the females! The Creatures 1 world is not extremely large, so everyone would have eventually met up. Population decline might be more of an issue in Creatures 2, where the world is much larger. I mention that because I plan on attempting an install either tonight or tomorrow!
Back to Creatures 1, though. Rafin and Evria managed to seclude themselves from the rest of the group. Both fell sound asleep after a good deal of kiss-popping. Poor Rafin didn’t even have the energy to lie down: He just closed his eyes and drifted off into dreamland! His pink hands are really adorable, but viewing his body from this perspective makes it look like he’s wearing pants up to his armpits! Oh dear. Apparently no one took this into consideration when putting the final touches on the sprites! At least it wasn’t too obvious… Or maybe it was!
Their work was done, however, and I managed to move their egg to a quiet area of Albia. It joins Izria’s egg as one which will be hatched down the line. I kind of like the idea of having a little group of eggs… But the suspense will eventually become unbearable, and I might end up exporting some of the older Norns so I can hatch the eggs in the incubator, and then re-import them. Any ideas on whether or not that would work? Another alternative is to have a world for the senior citizens to live out their lives in peace. But I much prefer to have the elders interact with the youngsters: It helps to show the progression.
Good luck with C2! …You do know it does not work on Vista? Unlike C1, which works on Vista 32bit with a bit of fiddling, C2 will not run on Vista at all. :( The only exception is the version of Albian Years from GOG.com. I solved it by installing Windows 2000 on a virtual machine myself.
Also, I wouldn’t recommend exporting the norns to hatch the eggs, as you won’t be able to import them all again. Like the incubator, the import function gets blocked after 8 norns. It’s a bit of a pain. One major advantage of DS/C3 is the ability to decide for yourself how many norns you/your computer can handle!
I wasn’t aware of Creatures 2 not working on Vista… Thanks for letting me know, Tarlia! I’m hoping for a miracle with my brother’s programming, but I imagine I’ll either have to buy the digital download or try using a virtual machine.
And again, more great information from you about the maximum population! It’s a pain trying to find a happy medium with all of the issues that the population restrictions bring. Thank you again for adding such great information!
Not trying to crush your hopes or anything, but there’s nothing your brother can do. It’s a deep rooted problem with how C2 renders the graphics and how Vista works. The only way to fix it is to alter the engine of C2, which is what has been done with the GOG.com version. But yeah, GOG version or VM works fine. :) (I have C1 on the VM too, since it won’t install on Vista x64.)
Also, I uploaded the altered C1 genetics on Creaturetopia. :)
My hopes have been crushed! Ha ha! No worries, though: I’m usually way too optimistic and now see that it’s an issue with Creatures 2. I might just have to buy the GOG version, especially since that would also give me a back-up for C1 in case something ever happened to the disc. I might install Creatures 3 next, in order to share some different experiences and get familiar with the game again.
And thanks for the altered Creatures 1 genetics! Those will be very helpful!
I’ve had a similar problem getting C3 to work on Vista. But then again I know others have had success. It may be a 64-bit issue, rather than a Vista issue.
Anyone know if Windows 7 works any better? I’m planning an upgrade in the near future and I’d love to get C3 off my old computer :D
I’ll see what happens with Creatures 3, Arch: I hope to find some time today or tomorrow to attempt an install on Windows Vista 32-bit. I’m hoping for the best!
Unfortunately, I’m not sure if Windows 7 works any better or worse than Vista. At Creaturetopia, there is a topic about running Creates on Windows 7. I’m not sure if it would be much help, but maybe it answers a question or two. Good luck!
What about gog.com? They have the Creatures games there, right?
Yes, indeed! The last reply was a few years ago, when it was still possible to run the original Creatures CDs. It might still be so, but GOG.com is probably the best place to go to find a reliable version of Creatures! I haven’t had any problems with the games in Windows 7, and I highly recommend checking the site out.