Monthly Update

I think I'll make these monthly update posts a semi-permanent thing. Anyway, last month I said I was going to go in a "new direction" with my blog. I was aiming for a Caos tutorials direction, but made very little progress on them. I did finish some projects though! Admittedly, it's mostly because the CCSF looks like it's going to happen this year. The Sound Emitter and giant list of agents are only two of the projects. Another one, the Hoverdoc Lite, is waiting for the CCSF. (If you've seen the green and blue/pink thing floating over my norn's heads, that's the Hoverdoc Lite.) I'm also a few steps away from completing version 2 of my Stinger Norns. So they might, finally, be finished and post before the end of the year.

Besides for finishing some old projects, I've also been toying around with a few others. The biggest of one is a newer version of the weather generator. I do have more details about that, but I'll save that for next week when I actually have something coded. Another project is something I've been working on for a while, autonamers that give out names based on all of the Elder Scrolls races. There are a few Protective Tub replacers for Elder Scrolls races, but I decided to make my own autonamers for them. This also includes Orc names that actually work like real Orc names. So females pass on their first name to their female children. And that's pretty much it for projects and what's going on in-game. The only non-testing world I have is a wolfling run I threw together a few days ago.

Besides being carnivorous, the genome is fairly boring. I just wanted a new genome to throw in a wolfling run.

Recommended C3/DS Patches and Agents

I meant to post this yesterday but underestimated the sheer amount of formatting. Anyway, between updating an old agent and releasing a new one, I finally finished reinstalling C3/DS. While reinstalling, I also put together a list of agent I installed and backed them up for later. After I realized just how many agents I had found links for, I decided to turn it into a blog post. I should probably mention that my particular play style features a lot of metaroom customization and third party downloads. Depending on how you play the game, you might not find this list useful. If nothing else, I hope the list of patches/fixes is helpful. Finding some of them can be a real pain.

Download: Critter and Bug Smells v1.2

Critter and Bug Smells simply adds smells to all critters and bugs to help creatures find them easier. More specifically, it gives critters and bugs CA 0. There's also a few tweaks to let CA 0 travel like other CAs. Otherwise it wouldn't travel properly. Since it uses CA 0, and only CA 0, it doesn't conflict with agents that use CA 19, like the New Toy Smell. It also has an auto-recovery script heavily inspired by the one from Snap out of it. So any unknown bugs don't stop critters and bugs from smelling.

If you're upgrading from version 1, either start a new world or remove the old version of the agent before installing the new one. I'd recommend starting a new world but that's mostly because I don't know if CACL can connect more then one agent type to a smell. If so, you might have some very confused norns if they look for a critter/bug and find a toy instead.

Edit: 11/2/18: I've updated it to version 1.2 to fix a problem with the auto recovery script. I've also probably fixed the main problem this time. If you haven't updated it from version 1.1, please do so.

Here's a Creatures Caves download and an alternative download.

Download: Sound Emitter

I noticed while playing in the Oasis metaroom that rooms with background noises were more relaxing. So, with some sprites from Doringo, I created this agent to fill other metarooms with noise. There are two parts to it: the console and the actual sound emitters. The console creates sound emitters and also toggles if they're shown or hidden. The middle part of it lets you type in the sound you want a sound emitter the play.

The sound emitters themselves have a play/pause button, let you toggle how frequently they play the sound, and a button to delete the sound emitter. The sound emitters created by the console only play one sound, but an additional agent in this pack lets you play multiple sounds. They're also fairly easy to customize just by changing a catalogue file around. Other then that, they work like the regular sound emitters do.

There are a few quirks with this agent though. The console only accepts four characters for the sound's name and both sound emitter types only play sounds with four characters in their names. The game only plays sounds like that, so not much I can do there. If you create a sound emitter with a sound that doesn't exist and try to play it, the emitter will either disappear or spit out a "Sound file missing" error. This shows up in sound emitters created by the console and the customizable ones.

Here's a Creatures Caves download and an alternative download.

A new direction for the Ray

Regular updates to the ray stopped a while ago and it's likely going to stay that way. I have various reasons for it but the main one is that documenting nurture worlds has become more of a chore then fun. So I'm not going to do that. Instead I'll likely switch to writing about wolfling runs or Caos projects. I've been meaning to write about Caos here most of the year and now is a good time to do so. I'm itching to start a new project or two and my current ones are some where close to being done. I'm pretty sure I said that my projects were nearly done earlier this year though. So maybe take that with a grain of salt.

Besides messing around with Caos, the only other Creatures-related thing I've been doing is reorganizing folders. Exciting stuff, I know! It's only beaten by the excitement and fun of reinstalling C3/DS and tracking down various agents. My old install was a couple of years old and was bloated by agents and sprite breeds I never used anymore. So I decided to just backup the old one and start fresh. It's surprisingly renewed my interest in it. Or maybe that's just the world-eating butterflies I've been playing with.

Vokun the Vampyre

This week I've been reorganizing my Creatures folders and slowly finishing projects. While cleaning a folder out, I found my notes on an interesting vampyre grendel from my Mobula Ray world. Vokunruzfel, or Vokun for short, was born back in November in the old Mobula Ray world. Vampyre grendels can potentially live forever if they hit other creatures. Being hit reduces their lifespan though. So I was careful to make sure norns didn't hit him to often. Eventually I created a new Mobula Ray world and moved him into it. There he lived for an amazing 27 hours and died sometime in late April.

Also his name comes from an old version of the Dragon Autonamer that I was testing in the old Mobula Ray world. His name means "shadow then feral," and I think it suited him. He was a shadowy vampyre grendel who was left on his own near the end of his life.

2017s: Final Few

Disappointingly, the rest of the norns only had a few more minutes to live. After about ten minutes, the rest of the main group died. Minnow and Sculpin had a few more hours, but I decided not to write about them much. They continued to live in their hallway and only had one more egg before they died. I liked this group and was a little sad to see them die.

Speaking of which, I might as well give my thoughts on the genome and metaroom. I like some of the changes made to the genome, especially the redone nutrition system and plant/animal stim changes. I've even added a version of the stim changes to my own genomes. As of writing this though, a few people have had problems with the 2017 breeds. I didn't run into any problems I didn't cause myself. That was likely because I was distracted by documenting the norn's lives. I think I'll hold off on using them as a base genome until they're fixed.

The OLS ark, meanwhile, is really good for a metaroom mostly made from existing Creatures images. Some of the agents included with the room are rather adorable as well. It won't replace the rooms I usually use for wolfling runs. I can easily see myself using it when I don't feel like setting up a room. One thing I eventually want to try is to use the tunnels in it to connect different metarooms together and create a large, horribly complex network of metarooms.

As for the blog itself, I can't say when it will be back to regular updates. My various plans for blog posts haven't been working out and I'm quite tired of nurture worlds. I do have a few posts I wrote during the nurture world that I never posted. So when I do have a post, it'll be going up on Wednesdays.

2017s: First deaths

When I unpaused the world, the first thing I noticed that everyone had entered the ancient/senile stage already. The second thing I noticed was that Caracal and Tiger had an egg on the way. Monogamy wasn't a big thing in this world, but Tiger had only had eggs with Puma up till then. Maybe in his newfound senility, he forgot who he was kisspopping. Or he was just being a regular norn. Either way, now it was only Minnow and Puma in Tiger's hallway... Lynx's hallway. Tiger died suddenly.

It was strange to see that since was only 4 hours and 55 minutes old. Norns usually die after 5 hours. He wasn't sick or hungry, so I could only assume that his previous organ damage really did cut his life short. While I was pondering Tiger's death, Puma and Lynx had another egg. Minnow had also moved away from the hallway and back into the volcano. The volcano area caused hotness, which could kill norns if they spent to long in there. So I kept an eye on her with the x-ray. Then Lynx dropped dead as well. Like Tiger, he didn't didn't die of old age and wasn't hungry or sick. Rather suspicious, I quickly hacked a script to make norns say their current levels of adipose tissue.

Number is the amount of adipose tissue

Like I thought, Lynx had died from being overly fat. I could only assume that Tiger died from the same thing. The next fattest norns were Puma and Sculpin, and both were, thankfully, under the amount that made a receptor fire. The 2017's, and some CFF genomes, have a receptor that damages an organ when adipose tissue gets high enough. The level is high enough that most norns won't die from it if they move around enough and eat right. Tiger never moved that much, and I could only assume that Lynx was the same way. So they died from a diet rich in fat and not moving. The rest were healthier, and had levels around 0.3 or 0.6 at  the highest.

Speaking of death, Minnow avoided her own. She eventually went back to the hallway, though I don't think she was in much danger. Usually hotness depleted a creature's water and killed them that way. Minnow's water level dropped, but never far enough that I was worried. I still kicked them out of the volano though. Why take the chance? Anyway, since Tiger and Lynx's death, no one had moved back down there. While Sculpin and Minnow had the whole place to themselves, they didn't do much. They just eat, sleep, and say how much they loved the other norns. I was hoping they would have a few more eggs before they went the way of Lynx and Tiger.

2017s: Another Reunion

Simultaneous snoring

We had a natural reunion last time, and this time I decided to force one. Poor Minnow had been alone most of her life. She immediately went to Sculpin. Then she got overcrowded and ran into the volcano area. I think I upset the natural balance of the world by moving Minnow. After I did so the rest of the norns started hitting each other, even Tiger and Lynx. At least Scul[pin and Minnow remembered each other. I even heard a kisspop, though Minnow didn't get pregnant. They eventually fell asleep at the same time, and it was adorable. After that quick nap, they both had their first egg! It only took them 2 hours and me intervening to do so. At least they had one egg to contribute to the future wolfling run. Also three eggs were laid by the other females while all of this was happening, I just didn't feel like writing down who they were.

Then Puma found herself in Tiger's group again. I didn't know why she kept returning, but it was pretty adorable. Despite my best attempts, the world soon fell into a lull. Norns took naps and occasionally pushed or hit other norns, but nothing very noteworthy happened. Even when Ocelot and Lion had another egg, the only interesting thing was that she didn't go to the norn home. She had apparently gotten lazy in her old age! The other females quickly followed Ocelot and both Puma and Caracal had another egg. Tiger was the father of Puma's egg, much to my happiness. The world was still rather boring though. So much so that I found something else to do for a few minutes.

When I focused on the world again, Minnow and Sculpin were alone in the volcano and another egg had been laid by Caracal. After I took a screenshot of them, Minnow and Sculpin separated again. Minnow had apparently forgotten that eating critters and bugs reduced her hunger for starch, and kept complaining about it. I wasn't sure if that was one of my edits malfunctioning or just her being weird. I made a mental note to double check my edits anyway. While trying to get Minnow to eat, Caracal had apparently decided to join Tiger's group. Now the only norns in the main hallway were Bobcat, Lion, and Ocelot. Apparently, Tiger's hallway was a very popular place!

2017s: Lovely Loops

Puma and Tiger found each other again! I was quite happy to see this. They were probably my favorite norns, next to Lion and Ocelot. The rest of the norns were pretty much where they were the last time. Poor Minnow was all alone in the pond area. Caracal was still on the top level of the snow area and Lion and Bobcat were still in the main hallway. I almost though that they missed all of the shivering. Most of the norns had avoided the snowy area since I moved them. Caracal was the only one there and, much to my happiness, she wasn't shivering as much.

Despite me hyping up Lion and Bobcat's rivalry last time, they still liked each other. They also liked pretty much everyone in the world. Lynx was left out of Lion and Bobcat's many declarations of love/like. Puma had still grown fond of Lynx, even in the small amount of time they were together. Also the two groups were close enough to yell that they liked/loved each other through the walls of the spaceships. Because of this, the loops were pretty much a constant thing. They just really loved each other and had to let me know... constantly. Thankfully turning of creatures voices is an option! I think I'd have a silent game if it wasn't.

Puma and Tiger's reunion ended quickly. Puma and Lynx ended up having a child and Puma traveled to the norn home to lay it. Puma had mated with other males before, but Tiger had only mated with her. Maybe one of these days I would get my naturally occuring monogamous pair, but not with this group. Anyway, with Puma gone Scuplin was free to move back in with his other friends. He had strangely avoid the group while Puma was there. Puma's egg was quickly followed by one from Caracal and Lion.

After a few more minutes, I noticed everyone turning grey. Only the younger norns, Sculpin, Minnow, and Lynx, were still adults. Old age wasn't going to slow them down though. Both Ocelot and Puma laid eggs a few minute apart. Organ failure would certainly slow them down though. Caracal, Ocelot, Tiger, and Lion had received some organ damage at some point, and that particular organ was an important one. Ocelot and Tiger had the most damage, with a 20% different between that organ's health and the usual number. They would likely die of old age before that organ failed, but it was still an interesting thing to see.

2017: Moving Day

The norns didn't know it yet, but they were in for an exciting day. The OLS ark metaroom got an update a week ago that fixed my main issue with it, the shiver-inducing snow. It took me a bit, but I finally got the norn's new world decorated the way I wanted. So it was time to move the adults into the new world and hatch a bunch of babies. It would be interesting to see how everyone copes with a new world. Food was in different places and there weren't as many toys. The babies, meanwhile, were stored in a folder for later. They were destined for a wolfling run in the future.

I used moving day as an excuse to age Lynx, Minnow, and Sculpin up a bit as well. They were still adolescents and youths while the rest of the group were quite a ways into their adulthood. By the time the rest of the norns were added, Lynx was almost an hour old and the Undines weren't to far behind him. I put everyone back on the same level they were in the old word, mostly so the drama could continue.

While I was aging them up, Sculpin had made his way up to another level. I think he was a bit scared of the bigger norns because he tried hiding behind a plant when I added the other norns. Poor Minnow was left alone in the pond area. Besides for Sculpin, everyone else acted like nothing had ever happened. I counted everyone's babies and figured out that Lion had the... lion's share of the eggs. Bobcat had only had 5 out of 18 babies and Tiger only had 3. Even as I was writing that, Lion and Puma had another egg. Bobcat wasn't giving up though. A few minutes later, Bobcat and Ocelot had another egg.

While Bobcat and Lion fought over the females in the main hallway, Tiger and his gang were content to stay where they were. They had company and plenty of food to spare. Tiger had gone from snowy loner to the leader of his own group. I even saw Lynx admit that he loved Tiger! Unfortunately for Lynx, Tiger didn't know Handish. The only female not interested in mating at the time was Caracal. She was in Tiger's old area. I like to think she was reminiscing about her past, but she was likely just there for the fruit.


I was curious how everyone felt about each other, so I taught everyone the words for like and love. I regretted it almost immediately. Bobcat and Lion's group started love/like loops. Amusingly, Ocelot and Lion still loved each over. Ocelot only liked Bobcat, but Bobcat loved Ocelot. Also Tiger didn't have a strong opinion of Lynx and Lynx had decided he only liked Tiger. There had been a few slap fights, so I suppose that soured their relationship a bit. Also Puma and Bobcat had another egg, as did Lion and Ocelot. The amusing part about the pregnancies was that all of the eggs were the same color.

Yet another update

I don't have a nurture post today. I've been feeling terrible since this weekend and haven't gotten around to playing the nurture world yet. Even before that I was absorbed in some Caos coding and didn't play in the world. There's also been an update to the OLS ark, one that fixes the shivering. So I also need to create a new world for the norns. I might have something on Friday, but don't count on it. Instead of a nurture post, here's an update on some projects.

Look away, it's a spoiler!

Firstly, the new version of the Stinger Norns is done... well I'm done working on them. My interest in them has been nonexistent for a while. The base genomes haven been done for months, but work on the sub-breeds has been slow. I even thought it was my interest in genetics as a whole that was gone. Turns out that isn't the case, it's just the Stinger Norns. So they'll be release around their fourth anniversary sometime in late July. I do have something, hopefully, interesting planned for their anniversary. I won't be saying more then that because spoilers.

Secondly, the caos projects. The Simpler Hoverdoc/Hoverdoc Lite is almost finished. The main part of it is done but I keep finding things I want to change. Another caos project of mine is a monogamy script I wrote for a user on Creatures Caves. It's in a pretty stable state at the moment. I have a few ideas on improvements to it. So it'll likely have one last update to it before I upload it on CCaves. Lastly, there's two agents from last year I'm finally getting around to finishing. I'm not spoiling what they are. There's also a mystery agent but, guess what, I'm not spoiling it.

Lastly, the blog is likely going to be updated randomly once the current nurture world is over. Instead of the regular Wednesday posts, it will be updated whenever I have something to post. The main reason is that I don't have a blog world setup yet. I'm also getting tired of writing about DS. So what ever world I end up writing about won't be a DS world. There's a few interesting C3 agents that I've never tried out. Maybe it's finally time to give C3 standalone a try.

2017s: New Arrivals

Everyone was finally 2 hours old now and everyone, except for Tiger, had more then one egg to their name. That changed as soon as I unpaused the game. Puma was pregnant with Tiger's second egg. Amazingly, she was also the mother of Tiger's only other egg. These two had turned out to be more monogamous then my favorite pair in this world, Lion and Ocelot. Puma didn't even try getting to the norn home and was apparently content to lay her egg near the rest of the group. Everyone was together for a minute or two before they spread out again. Lion and Caracal went to the snowy area while the rest of them stayed in the main hallway. Despite the large amount of kisspopping, there weren't any new pregnancies. So I went off to add a new pair of Undine norns... hopefully with fixed nutrition genes this time.

Minnow and Sculpin were hatched and placed into their little pond area. I also opened the door to their area. The other norns probably wouldn't make their way there, but it gave them the option. At least something interesting would happen then. After the drama of the last few posts, the norns were taking a break. The norns were moving around, occasionally pushing each other, but not much happened for a bit.

Then Lion and Ocelot had another egg together. Ocelot laid her egg at the norn home and then rejoined the group in the main hallway. A second later, it was Puma and Tiger's turn to have another egg. And then Bobcat threw a shivering party in the snow area and forgot to invite Puma. Tiger was the first to leave the party. He either wanted some fruit to eat, or all of the shivering was getting boring. Lion and Ocelot followed soon after. I made a mental note to block of the snow area the next time I used this room. So. Much. Shivering.

Meanwhile, the Undine norns were doing fairly well. Minnow was playing with critters and critter eggs. Sculpin was taking nap on the other side of the room. Minnow eventually joined Sculpin on the other side of the room though. I also moved a few of the snail torchs to the snowy area to see if it helped Bobcat and Caracal. It helped with their boredom, but they were still shivering. I was getting quite tired of hearing the norns shiver.

Infact, I was so tired of them shivering that I created a button to, hopefully, reduce their coldness drive down to a reasonable level. I tested the button in another world first with another 2017 norn named Lynx. He was pretty lonely, so he was soon imported into the main 2017 world. I plopped him in the norn home and waited to see what happened. Tiger had apparently decided to go down a level while I wasn't looking, and Lynx found him pretty quickly. Meanwhile Caracal and Puma were in the main hall, likely looking for Tiger. Bobcat, Lion, and Ocelot were just enjoying the snow area with slightly less shivering. My cobbled together button worked, but not very well.

2017s: Dramatic Norns

Last time there were a lot of eggs and some moving around. Lion and Ocelot, a surprisingly monogamous couple, were separated when Ocelot went to the norn home to lay an egg. Bobcat, the father of most of the eggs, was trying to impress Ocelot and have an egg with her as well. She didn't seem all that interested. Puma was trying to explain to Carcal that the doors to the norn home were always open. Lastly, Tiger was shivering all alone on the top level of a snowy area where he had spent most of his life.

Tiger and Lion were apparently unhappy with my tidy little summary. They immediately moved when I unpaused the game. Lion was confused by his new surroundings and tried hiding. Tiger just joined Bobcat and Ocelot in shivering. A minute or two later, and Bobcat and Tiger went onto the top level. Maybe Tiger convinced Bobcat that his part of the room was warmer? Lion finally found Ocelot again and the two celebrated with another egg. Puma tried pushing a weed in the main hallway and found out they weren't very fun. Ocelot, meanwhile, made her way to the norn home to lay her egg.

After she laid her egg, the females immediately surrounded Lion. Despite all of the kisspopping noises, nothing really happened. They waited until I was brainstorming ideas for another world before they had another baby. This time Puma and Lion were the parents. I wasn't surprised that Lion was the father, but I was sort of unhappy about it. Ocelot and Lion made a nice, monogamous pair for a while. Both Ocelot and Caracal abandoned him after he got Puma pregnant. Maybe he and Ocelot had some version of a Nornish fight or maybe they just missed shivering. So much drama for norns that weren't even 2 hours old yet!

A minute later and Lion joined Ocelot in the right side of the metaroom. She welcomed him with a few slaps and he tried pushing her. Everyone eventually ended up on the same level and moved around enough that I gave up tracking them. There were a few minutes of shivering and kisspopping before Caracal became pregnant with Lion's egg. She paced for a bit before unceremoniously laying her egg in the coldest part of the world and walking off. She wasn't the sort to travel across the world just to lay an egg. A short while later, Puma and Bobcat had another egg as well. Puma actually tried making it to the norn home, but her shivering slowed her down. I think that was the first time she never made it.

Then the world hit another lull, so I inspected everyone's organs with the x-ray agent. Besides Bobcat and Puma, everyone had some damage to one of their organs. One of the genes in the 2017 genome was one that damaged the heart when adipose tissue was high enough. So almost everyone had apparently gotten really fat at some point. Almost as soon as I wrote that, Ocelot and Lion had another egg. I almost thought that Lion and Ocelot were going to get back together. Lion and Caracal sneaking off to Tiger's hill killed that thought pretty quickly. While there, they enjoyed this world's most popular hobby: shivering and kisspopping. They eventually had an egg together, and Caracal even tried to make it to the norn home.

This picture was too adorable not to add! (Even if Caracal is just shivering and not really surprised by something.)

Small update

Whoops. I never actually edited and posted last week's post, did I? A friend was in town for the week. Add in some wonderful allergies and the blog was the last thing on my mind for a while. I'm still not feeling great and I'm rather distracted at the moment. So the next 2017 genome post will be going up Friday instead of Wednesday.

I suppose I could give an update for a few other things as well. I've occasionally been messing around with Caos teardowns and a weird wolfling run setup. The Caos teardowns will probably start going up sometime later this month. I've decided to start with my many buttons of Caos, which are literally just buttons that run small chunks of code. Some of those buttons were used while testing an agent, and those buttons will lead into actual agent teardowns. Eventually, I'll get around to tearing apart my current project, the Simpler Hoverdoc/Hoverdoc Lite. That will be an... interesting thing to write about.

As for my wolfling run setup, I don't have much to say bout it. I could explain how it works or even what has gone into it. That would ruin the surprise though. So here's a few random screenshots from it that don't show anything too spoilery.

2017's: Eggs

I was enjoying my time with this world so far. The metaroom, the Other Lone Shee's Ark, was well done for a metaroom largely made up of sprites from the games. The area's that weren't from the games were rather pretty, especially the underground pond. Plus it had locking doors. That made it quite easy to section off the room and put different types of creatures in there. The genome I was messing with, the 2017 genome, didn't act that different from a regular creatures. This wasn't a bad thing! It meant that the creator had seamlessly added the digestive tweaks into the CFF genomes. So well, in fact, that I sometimes forgot they weren't regular CFF norns.

Anyway, Ocelot greeted me with another egg and I moved her back with Lion. Everyone in the main group had bred at least once. So I wasn't to worried about the next generation. One of the more interesting norns from the group, Tiger was still in his favorite area. He was quite cold up there, but he wasn't starving up there. Perhaps he was more of a Siberian tiger then a Bengal tiger? He certainly wasn't as interested in breeding as the other males. As I was writing that, Puma laid another egg and Bobcat was the father this time. She was quickly followed by Caracal, who actually tried making it the norn home this time. The father of that egg was also Bobcat. Then it was Ocelot's turn to lay an egg. I didn't move her back with Lion this time. She would have to make her own way back to him.

Then Puma and Bobcat had another baby. Amusingly, Caracal went with Puma to the norn home. Maybe Puma was trying to show her where it was or tell her that the door was always open. Lion, meanwhile, was already quite lonely. I felt sorry for him, but I wanted to see if he would find the elevator up. His old mate, Ocelot, was slowly warming up to Bobcat. There was the occasional kissing noise from them, but they mostly ignored each other. Neither seemed extremely interested in each other though. I was secretly hoping she would find her way back to Lion. They were pretty cute together.

2017's: Growing Up

Last time I was comparing the 2017s genome to a regular CFFs. As I was doing that, the norns decided to move around and age up. I returned and everyone had aged into adolescence. Most had decided to join Tiger in the snowy area. Puma, Ocelot, and Bobcat were huddled together to stay warm while Tiger dealt with the cold on his own. Caracal was still in the main hallway. Lion, meanwhile, was staring at some critters and feeling quite lonely.

Which reminded me, I had learned a few interesting things from the gene compare. Unlike regular CFFs, the 2017s get lonelier faster and can't reduce their loneliness by pushing critters, bugs, and plants. This forces them much more likely to seek out other norns when lonely instead of playing with critters or bugs. Digging into the genome inspired me to try a few of my own tweaks on the 2017s. So I soon had two amphibious critter-eaters living in the lower-right area of the world. (I apparently couldn't stay away from testing things, even in my non-testing worlds.)

Around 45ish minutes in Ocelot and Lion had the first egg. I moved Ocelot back to Lion's area after she laid her egg and I hid the egg underwater. I wanted to focus on the adults in this world, not their children. I also discovered that the baby undine's were starving. Turns out my great edits weren't as great as I thought. While I tried to figure out what was wrong with the Undines, Bobcat and Caracal had decided to move back into the main hallway. Lion and Ocelot also had their second egg.
 
Everyone aged into an adult while I continued to fiddle with the Undine's genetics. To celebrate this, Puma and Tiger decided to have their first egg! Puma also made the journey to the little norn home/nursery I had decorated. A few minutes later, Bobcat and Caracal also had their first egg. Caracal didn't bother going all the way to home to lay the egg though, and instead laid it next to a norndoll toy. Both of their eggs were quickly moved to the underground lake before they could hatch.

Trying a New Genome

For future reference: the norn home is on the left, the main hallway is in the middle, and the snow are is on the right.

Fiddle with a genome or bit of caos code, test it, fiddle with it some more, then get bored or have to do something else. I spend more time working on a mod or agent then I do playing. I enjoy tinkering with thinks but it does get old. Especially when your current test ends up going terribly like my current one has. I've been testing a Stinger subtype/sub-breed and it's going badly. I'll save that rant for another day though. This time I decided to just mess with other peoples' creations.

There were two interesting genomes I hadn't played with much: the True Warm Bloods (or TWBs) and the 2017 genomes. The TWBs have a number of changes to them, the most interesting of which is an actual body temperature. The 2017s, meanwhile, have some interesting hunger edits. I was more interested in the 2017's hunger edits, so I decided to go with them. I also stuck them in a new metaroom that was released this year. I named the world Anaptyss for reasons I can't remember anymore. Then I clicked on everything in the room multiple times because I was excited to have a new metaroom to mess around with. After filling the room with agents, it was finally time to add the norns.


Six norns were hatched and named after random wild cat species. Almost immediately Lion went for the stingers and Tiger tried playing with one of my weed agents. I moved Lion away from the angry stingers and let Tiger deal with the weed himself. Word must have spread about the fun little pests because Caracal and Ocelot tried playing with them as well. I ruined their fun by removing the stingers and spreading the group out some. Tiger, Ocelot, and Bobcat ended up in the snowy area. They spent a lot of time shivering, but that didn't seem to ruin their fun any. Lion, Puma, and Caracal stayed in the main hallway. Pretty soon everyone was a child and I decided to teach them some basic words with the hand teaching agent. After I was done, I couldn't resist looking at the 2017's genome anymore. So I let the world run while I opened up gene compare and explored their genome.

The blog is alive!

I didn't have a fitting picture, so here's SimEarth instead.

The Creatures blogosphere is somewhat dead at the moment, so let's see if I can change that by posting. Starting next week I'll have a regular Wednesday post for at least a month. Most of the posts are going to be about a nurture world I started while taking a break from my seemingly endless Stinger Norn tests. I've also been considering branching out into writing about other Creaturey things like ripping apart some of my cos files or documenting my ever constant struggles with genetics. So there might be a few random posts here or there.

The blog itself has also been updated somewhat. I finally tweaked the Mobula Ray's layout a bit and gave it a new background. There's also two new pages for my downloads and a links page. The downloads page is slightly out of date, and the links page is completely empty for now. (Both will be updated eventually.) I've also redone some of the tags since a few posts didn't have tags and I figured why not.

I suppose I should post an update about my projects I wrote about during the CCSF as well. The Simpler Hoverdoc is basically finished and, hopefully, bug-free. I ended up with two versions of it: one that follows the currently selected norn and one that you can attach to multiple norns. In my own play-testing I've found that I use both of them for different things. The first one is good for wolfling runs or worlds with autotab in them. The second one is good when I want to monitor more then one norn in any sort of world. It's currently waiting on me to get un-lazy and send it to a few people for some final testing.

The other major projects from that CCSF post were two genomes, a swimming ettin breed and an update to the Stinger Norns. I worked on the ettin breed a bit but forgot to write down what changes each of the different versions had. So it's on the back burner until I get bored enough to sort through the different version. Meanwhile the Stinger Norn update is going.. very, very slowly. The base genomes have been finished for months now, but I've run into some trouble with the first sub-breed I tried making. I'll save that for another post though.

For now I'll end this update by saying that I started a Mobula Ray Tumblr thing months and months ago. I have no idea why I created it, but it's become the occasional dumping spot for large screenshots that didn't end up on the blog or other random Creatures pictures. And that's pretty much it.