[Originally written October 11 2020]
Before diving back into Creatures 2, I needed to fix that little issue with the Neptune’s Undertow portals. Thankfully, the original author of the COB did a wonderful job making the code robust and easy to change, so I was able to remove the volcano portal without much trouble. Since I already had a test world open, I figured I should go ahead with making my own C2 COBs to make sure the Mernorns have something to eat besides fish. Now, granted, I haven’t yet gotten into 3D modeling, so I just lifted the sprites from Creatures 3. Since it was my first foray into C2 COBbling, I decided to keep it simple and make an edible, stationary sponge that is classified as a fruit – basically, aquatic versions of the mushrooms in the incubator room.
It went poorly at first… but eventually I got it working. Sort of. I was having some difficulty with getting its eaten state to be properly hidden so creatures wouldn’t keep trying to eat it, so I actually took the lazy route and made it so that it never becomes inedible. It’ll still become invisible if a creature looks away from it, in theory, but I didn’t want to put so much effort into making it behave perfectly as long as it didn’t confuse the Mernorns. C2 is already an inelegant and hacky game to begin with, so it fits right in. Speaking of which, I also made a quick cob to render the bowl anemones invisible to creatures, since they’re classed as critters and I don’t want them confusing anybody about the edibility of fish.
Download Opal Sponge Download Anemone Hider
With that done, I went back to my gameplay world and injected the new COBs, and released the Mernorns from their containment chamber. I was immediately called away by a low ATP notification – it was Damien, failing to eat. After reviving him, I got him to eat some fruits in the swamp garden, which certainly lightened his mood.
I continued my rounds from there, and found that Edmund also needed to eat. He decided to be cheeky and hide from me – sorry, Ed, I can still see you! He really didn’t want to eat his veggies though, and ended up carrying a triffid fruit with him into the desert, steadfastly refusing to actually do anything with it.
Eventually I gave up and moved on to Tom, who gave me a similarly hard time with the coconuts.
Beth was a lovely breath of fresh air, as she happily complied with my commands to eat fruit. She really loves her tomatos, and completely devoured the mushroom patch.
Boromir was so enthusiastic about his new underwater home that he didn’t want to sleep, resulting in a very tired Norn. I know the feeling, buddy – sleep is so inconvenient! At least he gave my new sponges a thorough test run.
Erika had found her calling as a gardener, tending to the compost heaps. I kept an eye on her but I didn’t catch her eating the rotten carrots, just moving them around. That’s probably a good thing, as it ensures that the nutrients get spread around into the soil properly. Good job, Erika.
When I checked in on Arwen, I found her clipping into the ground. I tried to pull her out but due to a misclick ended up dropping her through the floor into the Shee labs. She seemed excited about the adventure, but I was worried about getting her back off dry land before she grew her tail – even though her genome means that in adulthood she won’t suffocate out of water, I’d prefer to keep adult Mernorns fully aquatic. Thankfully it was a relatively easy fix – a trip up the elevator and over to the goldfish pond, where I shoved her off the dock and into the water, which contains one of the undertow portals.
That’s when I got a notification about a Norn having heavy metals poisoning. Tom was in the volcano! I decided the easiest way to extract him would be to get him out the door into the swamp, and thankfully he was in one of those states where another gait overrides his usual limp… but on the way out things went from bad to worse, as he clipped into the ground under the volcano, not that he seemed bothered by it. He was also soon joined by the Ettin, who was still stuck down there as of the end of this session; I suppose I should probably pull him out too.
Unable to find a way to get Tom out, and now also receiving notifications about a creature with low ATP, I simply exported Tom for the moment and went to handle the issue – unsurprisingly it was Damien again. Ever-faithful Pitz stood guard by the fallen Norn as I prepared an injection. Then the kits closed. I blinked. There had been no whimper. There was no death notification. Damien had simply vanished into thin air.
I clicked through my list to make sure everyone else was still there. Dazed, but with no much else I could do, I exported Erika and Beth temporarily and imported Tom, fed him some berries rich in EDTA, and began the long, limpy journey through the desert and across the bridge. Then I reimported the girls and went to check in on the Mernorns, and found this unusual sight waiting for me by the seaside. Edmund was doing something I can only describe as pinwheeling. He was using his walk animation, but his left foot seemed to be stuck in place above the dock, leading to him sort of rotating around it. I am coming to be very, very thankful for the springy toy, which is quickly becoming my all-purpose Norn Dislodging Device.
At some point the Grendel passed away, so I extracted young Saruman from the volcano and set him on his way. Then, with the chaos finally under control, I checked in on the Mernorns, who had a grand announcement for me! The second egg in this world was on its way! I have tucked it away in the airlock for the time being, as I’d rather hatch it after the existing Mernorns have developed their tails.
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