Movin' on over to tumblr

Given the simplicity and convenience of tumblr, I will now be posting the majority of my content at http://creaturesmadness.tumblr.com/

Hope to see you there! :)

Breed Intelligence Study-Part 3: Data Visualization

Here are some visual representations to help sum up the study:

I think this is all pretty self-explanatory, but I'm more than willing to answer any questions that may arise. :)

 

Breed Intelligence Study-Part 2: Males

The male testing results are finally complete. The table is sorted by the length of time (in minutes) between reaching childhood and passing the test (reaching the Meso).

The Treehugger was irritating to watch as he was a total fool in regards to doors and lifts. He frequently complained of being crowded but remained stationary and gazing at the elevine for a few frustrating minutes as my sympathy for him started to fade. Here he is around 7 minutes old.

He was, for the most part, completely ignored by the other guys, so much of his chatter was a bit overdramatic. Mister Bondi, on the other hand, was bullied by a few others before he had the common sense to exit the workshop as he was entering childhood at 15 minutes.

Like his female counterpart, Beowulf's needs were minimal. He stomped around with a scowl and discovered that pushing Elevines resulted in extreme boredom and made him unnecessarily sleepy.

A slight hunger for carbohydrate finally begins to emerge around 15 minutes old, but he seemingly wills this need away.                        

 He certainly takes his sweet ol' time, but he does finally reach the Meso as an adolescent at 21 minutes, and he seems quite excited by the sight of fruit.

Next up: visualizing the data with tables and charts. Stay tuned for part 3!

Breed Intelligence Study-Part 1: Females

It's been a very long time since I've played with official breeds, so I have decided to perform a little experiment.  The purpose of this study is to determine the general  IQ of a breed in comparison to other breeds. Testing essentially begins as the Norn egg is hatched at the bottom of the Workshop and concludes once the subject has entered the Norn Meso. Once the appropriate data is collected, female IQ results will be compared to the male IQ results.

Notes:

• Elevators/buttons have been removed and replaced with Elevines. 

• The Empathic Vendor in the Meso has also been removed and replaced with the apple patch plant from the Garden Box. Additional food sources (mushrooms, trumpet seed launcher) placed throughout room. 

• Vocabulizer DS agent is activated for language learning convenience.

No females travel to Meso before childhood, which makes sense considering most drives are not recognized as babies. The following table is sorted by the length of time taken (after childhood) to reach the Meso(food).

 Keeping in mind that breeds are represented by a sole subject at this time, I was still a bit surprised with a few of the results.  I have studied/ played with Beowulf Norns extensively in the past and found them to be very smart and self-sufficient, so I expected the Beowulf female to perform much better than she did. To be fair, however, her needs are quite low as she reached childhood at 9 minutes:

I guess she had little need to leave the workshop once she reached childhood at 8 minutes. I think she found the whole testing process pretty frustrating, but at least she didn't beat any of the other girls to death out of irritation. 

 I was pleasantly surprised by the Bondi and Treehugger females; I wasn't sure either of them would reach the Meso before falling victim to starvation. The Alien female , on the other hand, was much more fixated on doors than I had imagined. Luckily she managed to snap out of it before too long. 

 While watching  the Siamese female struggle to figure out how to work lifts and doors and express her extreme dislike for Zebra,  I didn't have much confidence that she would pass at all.

 With her drives increasing along with her desire to [eat door], I had just about given up. I went to scope out the Meso and within a minute or two, in walks Miss Siamese. Although she managed to avoid starvation, she ended up developing a limp. (possibly caused by her own neglect? )

Next up: male testing. Stay tuned for Part 2!

Hardcore Lineage Tracing

I have been working on this project for so long that I honestly have no idea where to begin, so I'll start with this: Legacy Family Tree.

The free edition has a multitude of utilities which can be used to build an extensive database in which Norn lineage could be traced.  I've tried several methods of tracing Norn genealogy, but  combined with the free  LegacyCharting extension software, keeping track of Norn populations has never been so easy or efficient.   Fair warning: starting off is complicated. It took a lot of fiddling around before I finally figured out what the heck I was doing. Most features are only available in the paid Deluxe version, but for Creatures purposes the free version is more than sufficient.

My main family file is called Hyperborea and consists of 76 Norns at this time. I have merged several unrelated families, so there are several interwoven lineages.

At the start of generation 7, inbreeding is nonexistent to minimal. I have been diligent (obsessive) about breeding groups and strict with IQ testing. Literally everything gets documented in Microsoft OneNote and that data is entered into Legacy. It really is a beautiful thing. 

The charting feature is amazing. Here we have the ancestors of a little guy named Enu:

And here we can see all of the descendants of Enu's mother, Dyvia:

Going back even further, here are the descendants of Dyvia's grandmother, Brya:

There are several different types of charts, all with their own unique appeal. I highly suggest all Creatures genealogy buffs check out this program. I'd love to see some of your family trees!

Biodome IQ Test

Intelligence testing is a standard part of most of my worlds.  Inspired by the Creatures IQ test developed by Danikat, I have devised a similar test using the Biodome metaroom. 

The test begins at the very bottom right of the Biodome.

All eggs are collected via the Advanced Egg Collector, which along with the Vocabulizer are connection to a timer.The grids and colored dots show room boundary and CA links and are just two of the incredible functions of Amaikokonut's  Magic Words Room Edits, one of the most invaluable agents I have ever used.

After hatching, Norns must navigate doors and lifts (Elevines) in order to reach food, fruit and seeds.

There are two possible routes: Norns may either travel through the door (Torii) to the right, or use the Elevine to the left. 

Regardless of which method is used to travel up to the second subterranean level,  a Norn  must be able to resist elevator, door, machinery/toy fixation in order to progress to the next level and avoid starvation.

 I'm pretty strict. If a Norn does not pass within a few minutes after reaching childhood, they are disqualified and usually exported. Most of the genomes I use in my world are edited so that survival and navigation instincts and drives kick in as a baby, rather than as children. Survival of the fittest starts at birth, after all...

I've tried creating intelligence tests using other metarooms as well, but the Biodome seems to be the most useful aside from the original Workshop test. Has anyone else made their own version of an IQ test? I;d love to hear about it! I'm always looking for new ideas and scenarios!

Even More Garden Box Fun

I decided to turn the Grendel Jungle into a cozier, Norn friendly environment. Unfortunately, the world ended up crashing before I got a chance to import any Norns, but it looks cool nonetheless.

I wonder what today's project is going to be...

Any suggestions?

Garden Box Fun

I have been having a blast playing with Amaikokonut's Garden Box injector system. It's amazing how many hours of fun one can have in a creatureless world.

Of course, my Norns are very much enjoying their snazzy new environment as well.

Current projects

See, this is why I was hesitant to start a blog. I suck at actually updating it! It was a busy summer. Working 6 days a week left little time for Creatures, but I'm back. (Just in time for CCSF 2012)!  I have lots of material saved up to post...it's just a matter of actually doing it.

Anywho...

I have several different folders all containing several dozen altered genomes. My tendency to start a new project before finishing the previous one basically leaves me with a giant mess of ideas and no central focus. I've managed to get a handle on tweaking the nutritional and dietary requirements, so starvation isn't much of an issue anymore. On the other hand, I have a handful of genomes that basically do nothing other than hunt down food, fruit and seeds to eat. Creating a genome with stable sleeping habits is proving to be more difficult. While I have gotten lucky, that's all it is--luck. I have done endless research and testing on Norn instincts and stimuli, but have yet to develop a genome that "rests [self]" appropriately. I had a good grasping of elevator and door navigation but too much time away set me back a bit. I have the data and whatnot all filed away in Microsoft One Note, but for now the whole tiredness, sleepiness, resting vs. actual sleep confusion is my target.

Bohemian Genome Study Part 1

After exporting Bohemia I used the Genetics Kit for Creatures 3 to run a sanity check. No gene duplicates were found.
I played around with some Biochemical Receptors and Initial Concentrations and saved the new genome as Bohemian. Unfortunately, I completely forget to address the sleeping issue. Oh well...next time.

For those interested in the genetic alterations: Genome Comparison

Bohemia Case Study

Subject Zero: Bohemia-2nd generation

805 Genes;
Ran a "genome check" through LiveGMS: The only offspring with standard number of brain genes and no genetic errors.

Father: Quipo (Quip genetic breed)                                                        Mother: Elfina (Elfie genetic breed)

Both genomes need some more work, but seem stable enough to start a new project.

Observations/concerns:

Only sleeps for a moment. Literally, no more than a second or so.

Chemical values documented using the Biochemistry Set

Log begins around 34 min of age in Meso

Moved to Veridia at 42 minutes old(around 9min log time)

Reached adulthood at 44min (around 11min log time)

Log ends at 45 min (13min log time)

Average chemical values calculated using Excel:

           

Genome saved.

Genetic alterations and further studies to be posted soon. 

A few notes about my play-style...

A few notes about my play-style.

I am not a developer by any means. I’m a total amateur. Speaking of which, I am terrified of pissing someone off by posting pictures of “genetic breeds” that I’ve put together using various combinations of breeds, sprites and body data. I don’t know how I will possibly be able to give due credit. I have seen requests to not use a particular developer’s breed/sprites to create new breeds, so I am curious as to how best I can post pictures without being guilty of copyright infringement. Let me clarify: I did NOT create or design any of the Creatures-related images you will see in this blog. 

I can’t believe how long I fiddled with Docking Station before delving into any of the really good stuff.  Discovering LiveGMS was like discovering the game all over again. I save the genomes of norns that interest me the most or show the most potential (and okay yes, sometimes because I like the look). After doing a “genome check” to determine whether or not there are any major genetic errors that are far beyond my level of understanding; as long as everything looks good (or fixable by myself), the genome is saved in a special folder and eventually injected into a world using either the Portable Egg Layer for DS or the Eggernator for DS.

There are several things I do before any norns are allowed to roam around a world:

Move the teleporters from the Meso, Capillata hub and the Comms Room to into [expanded] inventory.

Next, I inject the following agents as if on auto-pilot:

Arreteur de norns

Camera Fixer

Creature Counter

CoC Pots

Dummy Control

Egg Finder Advanced

Elevines

HLM Patch

Hand Sight DS

Inseminator

Medical Moniter

Mini Copier DS

Portal Intelligence Core

Timer DS

Vocabulizer DS

Some type of intelligence test is always performed to ensure that norns with problematic genes and poor drives won’t weaken the gene pool. The Egg Finder Advanced (DS)  is placed at the bottom of the workshop and connected to the timer which is placed in the containment chamber out of reach of creatures. I despise lifts and buttons, so I have gotten into the habit of removing both in favor of Elevines. 

 I have also "designed" an intelligence test for the Biodome metaroom, which I’ll come back to another time.

There are many, many other agents that I regularly use. Those listed above have just become my basic, standard world setup.