So, after adding the Medical Monitor and X-ray agents to my world and finding that all the Norns had been rendered sterile, I realized I'd need to start over. It was just a question of how much so - introduce generation 1.5, or full reset? I hatched the existing eggs and found that the population was... skewed. This wasn't going to work. And since I decided to also add the agent that removes seasonal gender bias, I'd need to remake the world again. As such, I've decided to put the second gen creatures up here for download. As before, they come with a mutation report as well as their parents' and their own genome file.
Note: These Norns use the CFF Genomes and will not crossbreed well with non-CFF creatures!
 | Dawnlotus 7 new mutations: 2 Receptors, 1 Stimulus, 4 Pigment Bleeds |
 | Vinefrost 3 new mutations: 1 Receptor, 1 Stimulus, 1 Pigment Bleed |
 | Vinebreeze 5 new mutations: 1 Receptor, 1 Stimulus, 3 Pigment Bleeds |
 | Covebrook 4 new mutations: 1 Reaction, 1 Initial Concentration, 1 Instinct, 1 Pigment Bleed |
 | Valerain 3 new mutations: 2 Reactions, 1 Pigment Bleed |
 | Blossomberry 8 new mutations: 1 Receptor, 1 Emitter, 1 Reaction, 1 Instinct, 4 Pigment Bleeds |
 | Wolfleaf 3 new mutations: 1 Receptor, 1 Emitter, 1 Pigment Bleed |
Having deleted the existing world, I recreated it and set about preparing it: balancing ecosystems, injecting agents, and so on. After a while, I had it all set up as I wanted, and introduced the second attempt at generation 1 into the world. Hopefully with the medical monitor and x-ray tool, this time the population won't find itself bottlenecked by plague-induced sterility.
Just binged all your C3/DS content, love your blog! Hope you keep it up. :) Reading some of your other stuff also convinced me to get the Albian Years on Steam, so cheers!
ReplyDeleteI was too young to get into Creatures when it was first out (according to Wikipedia, I was a few days away from turning 4 when C3 dropped) but as someone who loves AI/simulation games, virtual pets, and genetics, there's nothing more recent (that I know of) that comes anywhere close to scratching this itch! Even now that there's a wider selection of evolution/genetics sims out there to choose from I feel like they're all still leagues away from something this ambitious while also being fun to play.
I *was* alive in time for Petz, which is way more family-friendly (I think still births would have emotionally destroyed me as a child), and in terms of genetics and behavior is AFAIK way simpler than Creatures. I think in terms of animation/physics they did a better job with their limitations, and I like how mixed Petz can have more physical variation, while mixed breeds of Creatures are stuck reusing body parts from pre-existing breeds... Honestly, my perfect game would probably be everything from Creatures but with the bodies working more like they do in Petz - if that existed, I might never leave my house again.
I bring up Petz though because I feel like no one's come close to doing anything like that (virtual pet + decent breeding sim), either, until very recently with Wobbledogs. And nothing I've seen has heritable/mutating psychology except the game Species, which is not a pet sim. It's been two decades so I wonder what's up with that. There seemed to have been more of an interest in the 90s and the 00s for virtual pets, but the capabilities of computers (hardware and software) are so much greater now it's strange that I don't see anyone else even trying to do anything on the same level as Creature Labs or P.F. Magic. Kind of sad.
I have also played Petz quite a bit. You may be surprised to learn that mixed Petz also just reuse body parts from the existing breeds - they can inherit heads, bodies, tails, and limbs. The key difference from creatures is that colors and markings are inherited separately from parts, making the whole animal seem much more contiguous rather than patchwork.
DeleteThat makes sense! I knew they were made up of "balls" but I wasn't sure if the body parts were inherited modularly or if each "ball" was somehow being passed on individually in some way, and I didn't know at all about the patterns. I see now why they look more coherent even though the way they inherit appearance isn't actually more complicated. Fascinating stuff! I would love Norns that don't look so patchwork as you put it. If they could inherit patterns and eye colors separately from limbs, tails, etc. It's one of the least realistic parts of what is otherwise a very thorough simulation!
DeleteRe: Petz again, I heard "breedz" also have personalities/quirks that can be inherited, but I'm sure it's much simpler than how creatures handles it. I loved Petz as a kid, and still admire it for what it was before Ubisoft just started slapping the label on any old pet game... But there's not a ton for me to come back to now as an adult unless I wanted to get into modding/hexing or whatever. Breeding's cool, but I don't have the time/energy for virtual pets who need frequent attention in real-time. Even though I didn't grow up with the game I feel like Creatures is more suited to my needs as an adult player: there's more going on than just a virtual pet, there's more emergence, and when I close the game for days or weeks to live my actual life, they don't feel neglected, haha.
Thanks for your reply, and like I said, love the blog. :)
"Petz again, I heard "breedz" also have personalities/quirks that can be inherited, but I'm sure it's much simpler than how creatures handles it."
DeleteYes, each of the premade breeds has a set personality type (and voice, which is tied to personality), which inherits with... either the head or the body. I don't remember which. AFAIK nobody ever made third party breeds with new personalities (they just cloned existing ones and changed the voices, if that). So a dog that inherits the poodle personality will always act and sound like a poodle in every way.
Also I totally get what you're saying with "I loved it as a kid but there's not much for me there now". I have it on a VM that I mostly use for Creatures 1 development, and open it once in a blue moon but it never keeps my attention very long.
Also your Mutation Finder has been SO HELPFUL to me, especially with finding out what went wrong with stillbirths/sudden infant deaths. Thanks for that as well!
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