All aboard the mutation express

 [Originally written November 21 2020]

It’s been a while! I’m glad I keep this record now, so I can remind myself of what was going on. When we left off, the Ettin was stuck in the ground, so I exported and reimported him. Boy, the game is fast at detecting a missing Ettin, because it immediately produced another in the time it took me to reimport Smeagol, who happily settled into his new home in the incubator room and began quenching his thirst from the fountain. So now we have two Ettins. Hopefully Gollum won’t fall into the floor!

We also left off with Edmund hanging out by the seaside, occasionally going for a dive. This was something he was eager to do upon my return, so I grabbed him and carried him over to the Calendar Tree. He was not happy about this positioning and immediately called an elevator. He liked the little cave with the red berries much better, though.

I made my rounds in the typical fashion. The Mernorns and Erika needed some coaxing to eat, but at least they were happy. It’s hard to tell with Banana Norns, but I think Erika still doesn’t have her old age sprites; it seems that all Creatures 1 imports get a full shot of Life rather than scaling to their age. 

As such, old Beth is still going just as strong. She also seems to do a better job of caring for herself, as her hunger bar was just fine when I checked in on her. Like all Norns, she’s reluctant to sleep, but she did eventually get some rest.

Tom seems to have settled into place behind the purple berry bush. It’s a comfortable place with a ready supply of food that doesn’t require him to move, and he can hide from me and grin cheekily through the leaves at me. Despite having said food supply, he wasn’t eating, and I think he was disappointed to find I could see him through the bush and engage him in a rousing round of “eat fruit.” 

Meanwhile, in the ocean, Arwen finally grew her tail and gained her rich adult pigmentation. She also seemed to develop a gait problem, which worried me considerably. Instead of moving about normally, she’d get stuck in a sort of bouncing animation. I was concerned that this might be a problem with the Atlantic Mernorns and how their swimming worked, but after I removed and re-injected the swimming COB, Arwen was happily and gracefully moving about, and was soon joined by Boromir! 

Look how magnificent they are with their gorgeous coloration! Not long after, they produced a second egg, which I hatched along with the other one. First of all, I want to talk about coloration. I examined the pigment genes in both Arwen and Boromir; they both have neutral pigments and only two pigment bleed genes. All pigment-related genes are switched on at birth, so the color changes seen over the course of their lives are inherent in the mernorn sprites. Interestingly, their bleed genes differ from each other, so their children may not have the same coloration. Arwen’s first gene is female-linked with rotation 255 and swap 128, and the second is male-linked with rotation 85 and swap 200. Boromir’s first gene is male-linked with rotation 0 and swap 128, and the second is female-linked with both rotation and swap at 128.

The two boys rolled out of the seashell incubator happened to inherit the female-linked genes on both slots, so they have neutral coloration. That didn’t stop the first child, Pippin, from having a unique look, as he sported unusual arms, a mutation type I was not expecting to see so early! The second, Gandalf, looked normal, but quickly turned out to have a more sinister mutation, as he collapsed with stars around his head. I quickly gave him a metabolism transplant and defibrillant, which got him up and moving again, only for him to collapse a second time. I repeated the injection, and quit the game to dive into the genomes.

Pippin’s mutation report came back with 11 mutated genes. One of these, obviously, is his Grendel arms! I welcome this bit of variety to the otherwise very uniform Mernorn genepool. Another listed gene didn’t have any differences I could find either in the D-DNA Analyzer report or the Genetics Kit. Seven more were changes to pigment and bleed genes that didn’t actually have visual effects (life stage changes, mutability value changes, and in one amusing case the color itself mutated from Blue to 3, which the Genetics Kit autocorrected to Red, not that it matters because the value is still neutral). The remaining two mutations are as follows:

Receptor

Gene 006: 065 Prostaglandin

Organ: “Current Organ^{(001 CNS: DRIVE LOBE SUPPORT)}”, Tissue: “<no tissue>”, Locus: “Repair Rate”. Chemical: “Prostaglandin”.
Analogue: Output = 2 - ((Signal - 0) * 255). 

Organ: “Current Organ^{(001 CNS: DRIVE LOBE SUPPORT)}”, Tissue: “<no tissue>”, Locus: “Repair Rate”. Chemical: “EDTA”.
Analogue: Output = 2 - ((Signal - 0) * 255). 

Creatures produce prostaglandin when injured, which induces healing via receptor on a per-organ basis. In Pippin, this doesn’t work in the Drive Lobe Support organ, as the receptor is switched to use EDTA instead. The good news is that the medicinal Gelsemium herb that can be given to help speed healing with a boost of extra prostaglandin also contains EDTA, so will still have the same effect on Pippin. I just need to remember that he needs a booster when injured.

Receptor

Gene 145: 109 Antigen 3

Organ: “Current Organ^{(017 CNS: CONCEPT LOBE SUPPORT)}”, Tissue: “<no tissue>”, Locus: “Injury”. Chemical: “Antigen 3”.
Digital: Output = 0 + 50 if Signal > 16.

Organ: “Current Organ^{(017 CNS: CONCEPT LOBE SUPPORT)}”, Tissue: “<no tissue>”, Locus: “Injury”. Chemical: “Antigen 3”.
Analogue: Output = 0 - ((Signal - 16) * 50). 

So this one’s a double mutation – it switched from digital to analogue and also became inverted. If I understand correctly, this gene is responsible for causing Antigen 3 to damage the Concept Lobe Support organ. I’m not sure exactly how the magnitude of the output translates to the change of life force in the organ, but for simplicity’s sake, let’s just say it “deals X damage to the Concept Lobe.” 

In a normal Norn, it does 0 damage until the level of Antigen 3 rises above 16, at which point it regularly deals 50 damage. I’m actually quite glad that it inverted when it switched to analogue here. If it had not, then it would still deal no damage when Antigen 3 is less than 16, and would still deal 50 damage when Antigen 3 reached 17, but it would scale up the damage with the level of Antigen 3 in the system, quickly reaching the maximum output of 255 when Antigen 3 reached a mere 22. However, because it’s inverted, and the game clamps these values between 0 and 255, the output will always be 0, rendering Pippin immune to the Concept Lobe damaging effect of Antigen 3!

Gandalf’s report came back with 12 mutations. Four of these were inconsequential pigment gene changes. Two of them were lobe mutations, which always look intimidating, but both turned out to simply be 0s inserted after a string of <END>s in a state variable rule. He has a stimulus mutation that swaps tiredness for sleepiness, to more or less the same effect. A receptor that caused water to speed up the skin organ’s clock rate switched from being on at birth to kicking in during childhood, but that shouldn’t be too bad. But from here on out, things just got worse.

Receptor

Gene 146: 142 Prostaglandin

Organ: “Current Organ^{(017 CNS: CONCEPT LOBE SUPPORT)}”, Tissue: “<no tissue>”, Locus: “Repair Rate”. Chemical: “Prostaglandin”.
Analogue: Output = 2 + ((Signal - 2) * 255).

Organ: “Brain”, Tissue: “Perceptible i/ps”, Locus: “Leakage”. Chemical: “Prostaglandin”.
Analogue: Output = 2 + ((Signal - 2) * 255).

Uhhhhh… I don’t know what this means but I don’t think it’s anything good. First off, this means the prostaglandin healing effect for the Concept Lobe is just straight-up gone. Secondly, it seems to be having some kind of effect on the perception lobe’s “leakage,” though I haven’t a clue what this actually means in practice.

Emitter

Gene 220: 028 Hunger Lobe 9 Cell 2

Organ: “Brain”, Tissue: “Lobe 9^(regulator)”, Locus: “Cell(2) Output”. Chemical: “Hunger”. Sample every 20 ticks.
Digital: Output = 2 if (255-Signal) > 127.

Organ: “Brain”, Tissue: “Lobe 9^(regulator)”, Locus: “Cell(2) Output”. Chemical: “Need for Pleasure”. Sample every 20 ticks.
Digital: Output = 2 if (255-Signal) > 127.

The nasty mutations continue. Lobe 9 is the not exactly part of the normal brain lobe system; it’s a regulator that contains the receptor emitter pairs that control the hunger mechanism, much like the Life Kit Norns from Creatures 1. This mutation means that the mechanism that is supposed to raise Hunger instead raises Need for Pleasure.

Emitter

Gene 217: 029 Thirst Lobe 9 Cell 1

Organ: “Brain”, Tissue: “Lobe 9^(regulator)”, Locus: “Cell(1) Output”. Chemical: “Thirst”. Sample every 8 ticks.
Digital: Output = 25 if (255-Signal) > 127.

Organ: “Brain”, Tissue: “Lobe 8^(concept)”, Locus: “Cell(1) Output”. Chemical: “Thirst”. Sample every 8 ticks.
Digital: Output = 25 if (255-Signal) > 127.

Similarly to hunger, Lobe 9 regulates thirst. This, too, is screwed up in poor Gandalf. Once again, this mutation breaks the emitter-receptor mechanism for thirst, instead basing thirst on a cell in his concept lobe.

Emitter

Gene 244: 70 PGK lobe 9 cell 13

Organ: “Brain”, Tissue: “Lobe 9^(regulator)”, Locus: “Cell(13) Output”. Chemical: “Glycolase”. Sample every 2 ticks.
Analogue: Output = (Signal - 0) * 232. 

I think we’ve just found the biggest problem. This gene is responsible for producing glycolase; in Gandalf it doesn’t kick in until childhood. Glycolase is part of the process of converting glucose to ATP, which is effectively the vital life essence of a creature. Let me lay out the relevant reactions to illustrate why an inability to produce glycolase is a death sentence. Italicized inputs come from other reactions that I left out of the table. I also omitted the reaction where cyanide consumes energy, because that’s not part of the “normal” chemical cycle.

Gene	Input	Output
308	1 Hexokinase + 1 ATP	1 ADP + 1 Activase
321	1 Energy + 6 ADP	6 ATP + 1 Hotness
322	1 Glucose + 1 Glycolase	2 Pyruvic Acid + 2 Energy
323	1 Pyruvic Acid	1 Lactic Acid
324	1 Pyruvic Acid + 3 Oxygen	2 Energy + 3 Dissolved CO2
378	1 Oxygen + 1 Lactic Acid	1 Pyruvic Acid + 1 Oxygen

To produce energy, you need either oxygen and pyruvic acid, or glucose and glycolase. To get pyruvic acid, you need glucose and glycolase (the lactic acid loop effectively doesn’t produce pyruvic acid, it just changes its form back and forth). No glycolase means no pyruvic acid and no energy. No energy means no ATP. No ATP means death. Technically, I could keep this Norn on life support by injecting him with ATP until the emitter finally turns on in childhood, but given all his terrible mutations, it seems both wiser and more merciful to let him pass on – and not pass on his genes.

The great migration

[Originally written September 3 2020]

With a plan in place, I loaded up Creatures 1 and set to work exporting all the Norns onto a USB in the KVM for easy transfer to the other computer. This left Greg rather suddenly the only creature left in Albia – and I couldn’t resist spending a little quality time with him before proceeding. 

Between bad lessons learned from the problematic food COBs in the base game and a few accidental slaps at the worst moments, Greg needed some one on one attention to relearn his previous good habits. I tried to get him to sample some of Jessica’s improved carrots, but he seemed to prefer the honey pot – and I can’t say I blame him! I don’t care for carrots, either. 

I also had to help him rediscover his love of the ball, which he’d been scared off of by a few smacks that were aimed at troublesome Norns (or even meant to be tickles for Greg himself – Grendels’ hunched pose can be problematic). I did eventually get him to sample a carrot, and then he enjoyed some downtime by the lemon trellis, where he demonstrated his restraint by resisting the siren call of the weeds. But looking was fine, so long as he didn’t touch!

Then it was into the kitchen to play with the top and take a nap by the fire. He seemed to be settling back into living a happy life! It must have been nice having all the toys and food to himself and not having gaggles of Norns tripping over him for once! Enjoy it while it lasts, Greg; there are 8 eggs lined up to be introduced to the world soon.

So I left Greg to his nap and moved to Creatures 2. I suppose I should probably talk about my world setup before I dive into the storytelling, so here it is:

• Frog Norn improvements! I have downloaded the lasting frogs COB, but I didn’t inject it – I simply hatch my Frog Norns (who use my new sprites).
• Sprite fixes to remove the extra tails on Ron, Forest, and most importantly Purple Mountain Norns, and to fix the male PMN ears and eyes.
• A pump fix to reduce accidental wallbonking by adding a pipe to move the water fountains a little farther away from the edge of the pond.
• Modified carrots, potatoes, nuts, and tomatos, in the same vein as Jessica’s C1 carrots – hide them when the creatures can’t eat them!
• And of course a host of updates and patches that ship with the Albian Years, as well as a few official COBs like the pufferfish and such.

And of course, one does not simply start a new world without a naming scheme! I batted a few around and ultimately settled on Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit names. Ironically, my first task was to get something out of a volcano – or alternatively, and perhaps more appropriately, getting Smaug out of the mountain. See, that was what I’d named the Grendel, and I knew time was of the essence; Grendels tend not to do well in this game due to living their lives in the radioactive volcano, so I wanted to get Smaug out before it did too much damage. I swooped in with the laptop, lured him to the lift, and brought him to the surface for an impromptu lesson on the most important vocabulary: “come hand.” 

He also learned “eat” and “fruit” in the process, although he refused to actually eat the coconut (ok, “masham berry” – it’s a coconut as far as I’m concerned) he picked up on the way.

Eventually, though, we made it to the Calendar Tree in decent health, where I taught him some more words and got him to eat some honey. Mission success! I left Smaug to his devices and checked briefly in on the other native resident of this world, Smeagol the Ettin. He was doing fine, so it was time to begin the migration!

I decided to start with only the girls. The point of this whole migration, after all, is to let this generation die off naturally (which wouldn’t happen in Creatures 1) so their offspring with fixed genomes can inherit the old world, and the Creatures 2 Norns can eventually succeed them in the new one. As such I don’t want my imported C1 creatures reproducing in C2 – there’s no way to back-port their offspring and I don’t want them taking over this world. The simplest way to prevent breeding is to separate the sexes. So I ushered Beth and Erika into the world! 

I must have exported Beth right on the cusp of aging (or perhaps she was somehow stuck in adulthood in C1), since she came into this world a little more haggard than I remembered her – and considerably purpler! Oh, C2 pigmentation genes, I really don’t understand you at all. Erika was also affected, looking quite blue – but hardly sad, as she was thrilled by the new invention called a water pump! 

One of the words I taught Smaug had been “weather,” and boy did he turn out to be a bit obsessed. He ended up following clouds across the bridge and into the desert, and I can hardly get him to pay attention to anything else when there’s a weather phenomenon nearby. What a character! I’ve never been too crazy about the C2 Grendel, but  I must admit I’ve gotten rather attached to this guy.

As I cycled through the creatures, I found Smeagol attempting to enter the dangerously radioactive volcano – thankfully I got there just in time and slammed the door in his face. But he took to just hanging out in the door area behind Pitz’s doghouse, where there was nothing for him to eat – and where nothing would grow. I left him a honey pot on the swamp bridge, but I feared that wouldn’t be enough. 

So I decided to plant the red mushrooms from the Life Packs in his chosen area. With enough of them, you can raise the inorganic nutrients in the soil high enough to start growing plants, and eventually I was able to turn the area into a thriving garden! 

The only trouble was it was nearly impossible to click on anything in there without accidentally uprooting the vital red mushrooms. Oh well.

I went back to the Norns and found that due to the increased number of object types in Creatures 2, the girls were actually missing a lot of vocabulary! So I gave them some lessons, which led to an amusing misunderstanding where Beth evidently thought she was supposed to bow to the fruit! The Norns did surprise me though, in that they’d learned more than I’d expected. Maybe Doozer-Sensei is also responsible for teaching them to bow!

For some reason the Norns were content to not leave the incubator area. I’m pretty okay with this, especially given where I found the next creature! I was quite shocked to find Smaug in the ocean, but very thankful that I’d injected the pufferfish into the world! Without it, it would only have been the sheer luck of my timing that could have saved him. Unfortunately the fish ejected him from the water on the volcano side, so I had to call him back down to the boat to cross back to the tree – but not before he grabbed a bat and, I can only assume from its disappearance, ate it! No, Smaug, that’s how you get Coronavirus!

Meanwhile, Erika and Beth were having regular slap fights that I was always too slow to intervene in; I don’t want to smack a Norn if I’m not sure they’re actually responsible for the slapping I’m hearing. This didn’t seem to bother Erika any, as she was happy as a clam with all the new toys in this world.

But as much as I’d like to end on that happy note, while cycling through creatures I happened to note that Smeagol’s life chemical was very low. They sure don’t live very long, do they? I’ve decided that to avoid using up a ton of names on them, all the Ettins will be named Smeagol, just like this one. Anyway, I’m generally not an Ettin person, but I thought it fair to stay with him in his final moments and make sure he was comfortable. He took one last nap, moved over to his garden, and curled up with Pitz for the final time among the greenery I’d brought to his little corner of the world. Rest in peace, little guy.