The Last Children

In my last post I mentioned that the C2 Norns produced seven new hatchlings, so I'd split the genetic analysis off to a separate post. And here it is!

The first two hatchlings were from the Mernorns. This makes four, and all of them are male, so for the next generation, I'll have to introduce a new female. First up was Vragi! He has seven pigment mutations and one pigment bleed mutation but all are invisible.

He has a minor brain lobe mutation that I expect won't affect him at all; his decision lobe rest state is 81 instead of 80. He also has a stimulus mutation that makes falling through the air a little scarier for him, but given that he'll live underwater, that shouldn't be a problem!

His brother, Halfdan, may look similar right now, but I expect that to change! He inherited the male pigment bleed gene on both slots, although one has mutated to kick in at childhood instead of birth. He also has several pigment mutations, of which four actually changed pigment values, albeit only from 128 to 129. This may explain why he looks ever so slightly different from Vragi already. Aside from these, he has only one mutation, changing an output value in a stimulus from 0 to 1 - but that slot has <NONE> for the chemical, so it doesn't matter.

Continuing the green parade, Baldur is the spitting image of his mother, Gunhild! He inherited none of Bjorn's looks. He has eight mutations. One of them is a half-life mutation for an unused chemical, and one is an instinct mutation that changes the cell number for one of the unused lobes, so no big deal. There's also a small change in the gain value for the crowdedness receptor, which shouldn't have much effect in practice. And he has a small lobe mutation: a relax susceptibility value changed from 0 to 1, which I'm not even sure has a measurable effect given that the slider in the genetics kit will only jump to multiples of 8. At any rate, the associated susceptibility rule is undefined so it probably wouldn't do anything anyway.

Reaction

Gene 354: Muscle Tissue to Amino Acid

1 Muscle Tissue = 6 Amino Acid.
Rate: 80 (Max to 0 in about 5 mins)

0 Muscle Tissue = 6 Amino Acid.
Rate: 80 (Max to 0 in about 5 mins)

This one is one of those mutations that isn't valid and gets autocorrected, but as I've said before, I have yet to determine whether invalid mutations actually apply when not put through the genetics kit. Baldur may be able to answer that question, because his mutation would theoretically allow him to generate infinite amino acids!

Emitter

Gene 229: Inhibin Lobe 9 Cell 5 (M)

Organ: "Brain", Tissue: "Lobe 9^(Regulator)", Locus: "Cell(5) Output^{(Testosterone/Inhibin)}". Chemical: "Inhibin". Sample every 8 ticks. 
Digital: Output = 24 if Signal > 127.

Organ: "Creature", Tissue: "Drive levels", Locus: "OVERCROWDEDNESS". Chemical: "Inhibin". Sample every 8 ticks. 
Digital: Output = 24 if Signal > 127.

According to the developer reference, this lobe basically consists of floating emit-recep pairs, and this specific one is for testosterone and inhibin. Inhibin, as I understand it, essentially acts as the counterbalance for testosterone. In Baldur, instead of forming a negative feedback loop that causes testosterone to rise and fall, he'll produce inhibin in response to feeling crowded, regardless of testosterone level.

Receptor

Gene 361: 116 Antigen 0

Organ: "Current Organ^(Heart)", Tissue: "<no tissue>", Locus: "Injury". Chemical: "Antigen 0".
Digital: Output = 0 + 50 if Signal > 16.

Organ: "Current Organ^(Heart)", Tissue: "<no tissue>", Locus: "Injury". Chemical: "Loneliness".
Digital: Output = 0 + 50 if Signal > 16.

Well that's... darkly poetic. But also really problematic. Being lonely will literally break his heart!

Receptor

Gene 192: 049 Lactate Sensor Lobe 9 Cell 0

Organ: "Brain", Tissue: "Lobe 9^(Regulator)", Locus: "Cell(0) State^{(Lactate/Suffocation)}". Chemical: "Lactate".
Digital: Output = 0 + 255 if Signal > 16.

Organ: "Brain", Tissue: "Lobe 9^(Regulator)", Locus: "Cell(0) State^{(Lactate/Suffocation)}". Chemical: "Lactate".
Digital: Output = 1 + 255 if Signal > 16.

This is another emit-recep mechanism, this one responsible for lactate producing a suffocation response. It may look scary, but this mutation actually won't do anything at all. The paired emitter is also digital and has a threshold right in the middle of the spectrum, because it's expecting the value to be either 0 or 255. As far as the emitter is concerned, a 0 and a 1 are identical.

Next up was the first of Magni and Freyja's three daughters, Astrid. She has only three mutations, one of which is an imperceptible pigment bleed shift. The second mutation is the drive receptor for the need for pleasure, which has shifted its nominal value from 0 to 1. This is a small enough change I don't expect it to have any real effect. The last is a slight mutability change.

After Astrid, I got a chance to hatch that mystery egg that I fished out of the ground under the incubator room! Out rolled precious little Eira, another Frog/Goldie mix. Her genetics file was actually generated on July 20th, so this egg has been stuck here for a while! She's got seven mutations. One is a bog-standard number-tucked-in-ends state rule mutation. Like Baldur, she's got an inconsequential off-by-one change in an all-or-nothing emit-recep pair.

Emitter

Gene 058: 040 adrenaline from excess need for pleasure

Organ: "Creature", Tissue: "Drive levels", Locus: "NEEDFORPLEASURE". Chemical: "Adrenaline". Sample every 32 ticks.
Digital: Output = 4 if Signal > 175.

Organ: "Creature", Tissue: "Drive levels", Locus: "PAIN". Chemical: "Adrenaline". Sample every 32 ticks.
Digital: Output = 4 if Signal > 175.

Need for pleasure won't stress her out, but pain will be extra stressful because she's got two emitters for it.

Reaction

Gene 370: 096 Oxidative Phosphorylation

1 Energy + 6 ADP = 6 ATP + 1 Hotness.
Rate: 0 (Max to 0 instantly)

1 Energy + 6 ADP = 6 ATP + 11 Hotness.
Rate: 0 (Max to 0 instantly

Okay, first off, in the D-DNA analyzer, the report says this reaction has mutated to produce a whopping 74 Hotness, but when I open it in the genetics kit it says 11. For Eira's sake, I really hope that the game goes with 11! Either way, the poor girl is going to constantly be very warm!

Reaction

Gene 572: 110 Disease 4

2 Antigen 4 = 1 Antibody 4 + 4 Fever toxin.
Rate: 64 (Max to 0 in about 80 secs)

3 Antigen 4 = 1 Antibody 4 + 4 Fever toxin.
Rate: 64 (Max to 0 in about 80 secs)

I initially mixed up which genetics kit was the baseline and got excited because I thought Eira had a helpful mutation, but no, I was reading it backwards. She'll take slightly longer to fight off Antigen 4 than others.

Stimulus

Gene 545: 014 Activate1

Stimulus: "I've Activated1^(Push)", Significance: "0". Sensory Neurone: "<none>", Intensity: "0".
+4 Tiredness, +16 Boredom--.

Stimulus: "I've Activated1^(Push)", Significance: "0". Sensory Neurone: "<none>", Intensity: "0".
+4 Sleepiness, +16 Boredom--.

This might actually be helpful, assuming Eira reacts in a logical fashion (which is never a given with Norns). To reduce tiredness they just have to hold still, but to reduce sleepiness they have to actually sleep. Of course, sleeping involves holding still, so both needs get met there, so this may make Eira more likely to actually sleep. Given what I've seen of C2 Norns, I won't get my hopes up.

Instinct

Gene 336: 034 verb hit

When... "Verb i/ps" "verb: Hit it" ...and you "Hit it": +255 Reward.

When... "General Sensory i/ps" "IT is Active" ...and you "Hit it": +255 Reward.

This instinct normally gets creatures to want to follow instructions to hit things. Instead, Eira will instinctively want to hit things when they're active. Hopefully this will mean hitting the objects and not other Norns in the vicinity!

One last thing while we're talking about Eira - it hadn't occurred to me before to check Sigurd's children and see who inherited his amphibious nature, so I went back and peeked into the genomes of all five of the Frog hybrids; only Eira and Brandr can breathe underwater. Grelod, Halla, and Runar cannot.

I expected Hilda to be Freyja's last child, as I was keeping her on life support through the pregnancy. Hilda has only two mutations. The first is in the receptor that links the anger chemical to the anger drive; in Hilda, the anger chemical instead raises her boredom drive, so she would never get mad, only bored. The second mutation, however, gave me pause.

Emitter

Gene 234: 062 Hunger Lobe 9 Cell 8

Organ: "Brain", Tissue: "Lobe 9^(Regulatory)", Locus: "Cell(8) Output^{(Adipose tissue/Hunger)}". Chemical: "Hunger". Sample every 8 ticks.
Digital: Output = 4 if (255-Signal) > 127.

Organ: "Brain", Tissue: "Lobe 9^(Regulatory)", Locus: "Cell(7) Output^{(Bile acid/Bilin)}". Chemical: "Hunger". Sample every 8 ticks.
Digital: Output = 4 if (255-Signal) > 127.

Okay, so it's bad that hunger is no longer linked to what it's supposed to be linked to. But the internet didn't have much to say about bile acid and bilin except that bilin signals bile acid production and that bile acid is a digestive aid. Digging deeper into the genome didn't shed much more light; fatty acid and steroidone produce cholesterol, which reacts with bilin to produce bile acid. Fatty acid is naturally associated with fat. What I'm getting from all this is that bilin and bile acid are generally involved in things that happen after a creature has already eaten, which is not exactly useful as a means of triggering a desire to eat.

Of course, Freyja stuck around for one more egg after that, dying moments after laying it. That egg contained Valdis, who was exactly what I was hoping for: assurance that all Lop Norn appearance genes will live on! Valdis has five mutations. One is the good ol' "harmless number tucked in a state rule" mutation. One is a harmless mid-range threshold change for a gene tied to a 0-or-255 value. And one is a quantity change in a reaction, but it's associated with an empty chemical slot, so there's no effect.

Receptor

Gene 581: 135 Antigen 7

Organ: "Current Organ^(Skin)", Tissue: "<no tissue>", Locus: "Injury". Chemical: "Antigen 7".
Digital: Output = 0 + 50 if Signal > 16.

Organ: "Current Organ^(Skin)", Tissue: "<no tissue>", Locus: "Injury". Chemical: "Antigen 7".
Digital: Output = 1 + 50 if Signal > 16.

Basically, Valdis will always have a very small level of skin injury even without Antigen 7 in her system. However, it's such a small amount that I don't think it will affect her.

Reaction

Gene 400: 129 Heat Loss Through Breathing

1 Hotness + 1 Water = 1 <none> + 1 <none>.
Rate: 40 (Max to 0 in about 10 secs)

0 Hotness + 1 Water = 1 <none> + 1 <none>.
Rate: 40 (Max to 0 in about 10 secs)

Just like Baldur's mutation on 354, this is an invalid change, so I don't know if it actually affects anything. If so, it's definitely bad, because it means this reaction would no longer get rid of heat.