In with the new

My typical routine for C3/DS is the launch the game, launch the biochemistry set (as a substitute for the observation and health kits), and then proceed with gameplay. I have installed Advanced Protective Tub to automatically name creatures using a custom catalogue, but apparently the biochemistry set didn't like that. Sure enough, on line 2358 is "Man-o\\\'-war", and the biochem kit was apparently choking on that escaped apostrophe. I removed it, changing the line to simply say "Man-o-war", and everything was fine. It's not like I'm going to be using that word list anyway, as I've designed the Nature Names catalogue to generate names like Mistwillow or Dawnbrook.

Then it was time to test that name catalogue out with a round of new 1st generation creatures. I hatched ten breeds of Norn that I want in the world - I have all of them, but I'm just not a fan of Bruin, Civet, or Harlequin Norns, and while I like Toxic Norns well enough, it's a huge hassle to keep and interbreed them with other Norns. I then introduced the Grendels (which seem to now be only Jungle Grendels; perhaps it's fixed now). I had to regenerate one name because it happened to come out as Cedarcedar (and yes, Moonmoon is a potential name from this list too), but otherwise I'm quite happy with the results.

Download the Nature Names Catalogue

This time around I'm keeping a much closer eye on the Grendels and the Hardman Norn, and teaching them from birth that potions are preferable to hitting. We'll see if my more attentive style yields results. For their early childhood, I kept all twelve creatures in the Meso, so I could watch them all in close proximity to each other. 

Once I started seeing creatures age up, I moved everybody to the Woodland, where I continued to watch the Grendels like a hawk. While I was there, I decided to take care of the bramboo growing out of control into the main part of the terrarium, stripping the berries off to make cookies. The Norns quickly formed into little cliques, with Rainwolf, Ivyraven, Flowerbloom, Nightsun, and Reedlotus cheerfully playing ball and yelling their little heads off by the pond. 

Fernwind preferred to stay up in the top tree platform, and Rosethorn isolated herself in the middle level of the Meso, while Meadowglade, Cloudstream, and Berrycove gathered in the bottom level of the Meso. I let them stay that way for a while, but once the first egg arrived, I decided to gather everyone in the Woodland again, because if the males segregated themselves from the females, they would never pass on their genes. My ears regretted the decision. Also, Ivyfeather is a rather unpopular Grendel, except with Reedlotus apparently.

I figured it might also be a good idea to drop the Grendels off in the Jungle and see how they fared there. For the Norns, at the very least, gathering everyone up caused the population to reshuffle itself as different groups headed for different locations. Berrycove and Flowerbloom went on a teleporter adventure that took them to the Aquarium, where they were briefly joined by Meadowglade and Rosethorn. Nobody much liked the area, as the two bold explorers made a beeline for the door and everyone else just teleported right back out.

The Grendels, it turns out, didn't like the Jungle very much, as they came right back to the comfort of the Woodland - bringing diseases with them. I pulled them aside to scrub down with pink fog and drink a cough syrup, which Bloombreeze was very reluctant to do. Then I went through and checked each Norn for sickness, and quarantined those who were infected, dosing each of them with pink fog and cough syrup in the same fashion as the Grendels.

The disease had me distracted until I got my first death notification of this round. I headed to the Woodland expecting a dead Norn, but no - apparently, Ivyfeather's unpopularity caught up with him. I went to the Jungle to intercept his replacement, Streamivy, and found that Berrycove and Flowerbloom had settled in by the spewers. They were, as you might expect, riddled with bacteria, so I scrubbed the whole area down quite thoroughly and then encouraged them to move into the jungle. 

Next, I set about training Streamivy, bringing Rosethorn in as an assistant. I figured, if I'm going to have a Norn and a Grendel isolated together so I can train the latter not to hit the former, I might as well bring a Norn that needs to be taught not to hit Grendels so I can train them both.

Fernwind, Meadowglade, Reedlotus, and Nightsun flocked together, while Rainwolf went exploring through the teleporters. Cloudstream wandered off on his own, and Rosethorn once again settled into the Meso.

Round 2 seems to be off to a good start. Is it bad that that makes me nervous?