The Staples of Albian Life: Cheese and Honey
With the recent release of the updated C1 carrot variant, I figured I might take some time to play Creatures. Yet it dawned on me that this was no time to relax! I originally planned to release these updated food items quite regularly, and that certainly hasn’t happened. So after a bit of a delay, courtesy of technology woes and forgetting all about the remastered patch (which is absolutely crucial), I jumped right into the CAOS behind two very important food items: Cheese and honey. What a diet! These have never been as flawed as some of the other food objects, such as the carrots and lemons, although they could certainly use some fixing up. I have my own ideas, but I would appreciate your feedback! Leave a comment with your thoughts, which might include your ideas about:
- Amount of Honey: Should each honeypot keep its usual 10 meals, or should this amount be more/less?
- Honeypot Design: Do you like the honeypot as it is? If you could redesign it, what would it look like?
- Size of Cheese: Should each piece of cheese last for more than just a single bite?
- Vending Cheese: How would you like to get more cheese? A plant, or possibly an updated refrigerator COB?*
* I am sticking with updating the official objects in Creatures 1, but this is one rare exception. The sprites for the refrigerator actually came with the original game, and I plan to create this COB from scratch. No copying is intended: Mark Boehler created the wonderful refrigerator COB! I know that the current one does not work with the updated sprites I’ve released, though, which is another reason why I would like to create this COB at some point.
The project to update the sprites and body data for the C1 Norns is on hold, simply because those are purely cosmetic updates. These object updates make some visual improvements, but the main driving force behind them is to reduce confusion. I haven’t managed to study these updated COBs in the long-run, but please feel free to share stories of what you’ve observed! In the worst case, I hope these have not made eating any more difficult for Norns and Grendels. Ideally, I hope that these have improved your Creatures’ lives and your own time in the game! This November marks the 20th anniversary of Creatures 1. I hope that there will be plenty of updated objects in your world to celebrate, and I plan to release many before then!
I think I’d like the hives to vend one-shot honey pots, not ouchy bees, when they’re pushed. That would help improve the food situation in that area of the world, I think?
With the official bees and hives upgrade, I thought pushing the hives allows a Norn to eat directly from it. Sort of a mouthful of honey, if you will. Pulling the hives produces the awful bees, though! The animals in Creatures 1 are another story: The bees and cave flies cause pain, but all of the other animals (like the fish or birds) are either neutral or positive. Very confusing!
But I do think the bee hives deserve an update, both for the bee behavior and how the hives work. It’s certainly on my list! The one-shot honey pots are a good idea. Maybe these would function like the breakable ones for a little dramatic effect. Ha! Thanks for the suggestion!
And down the line, I have other plans for helping the food situation everywhere. I have some thoughts for having natural food sources that can be placed in other areas.
Hm, I was going off the description of Muppetboy’s update which alters the official update. According to Muppetboy’s site, the original vends bees with pushes and honey with pulls. Still, because the bees hurt, the hives are well worth a look-see.
Ouch! I think I assumed things worked for so long that I didn’t realize how bad the official update really is. A quick rundown for anyone interested (courtesy of the lovely CrEd32:
So even vending the honey by pulling the hives still results in pain. Definitely not right! This is also why I’m thinking that I’ll be going through every official object and update to check for confusing factors. This is on my list, along with pretty much everything else I’ve looked at so far. Ha! Thank you for setting me straight and providing this information: I had thought that an “update” would have made a marked improvement, but that’s definitely not the case. These bees and hives will work nicely one day!
Wow, that’s a marked difference! :( Have you tried Muppetboy’s update, or Spotling’s?
Even just in the food category, there’s a few things to watch out for, particularly the Beelacanth Fruit and Coconuts, which have both had ‘safe versions’ created by Spotling. The official description of the Christmas Pudding from the 1997 Christmas Pack warns against norns burning their mouths on the pudding, or biting into a coin, so it’s probably painful.
I haven’t tried any other updates, as I tend to play the game with as few add-ons as possible. I’ll definitely look into everything, though! Like you said, even food items that seem fairly safe can have some odd consequence. Sure, it sounds endearing to make it seem like a Norn can bite into a coin in the pudding… But what does that really do to a fairly simple brain? One of the hardest things about Creatures 1 is dealing with Norns who have horrible eating habits, and it seems like it really wasn’t their fault!
I think a cheese plant is silly. Perhaps a cheese wheel on the cutting board?
Ah, that’s a great idea! I’ll definitely take that into consideration. Thanks for the suggestion!