Creatures Community Chat

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Observation: Population and Tribes

I'd been a little worried after messing with the food supplies. My population got culled dramatically and although it's even lower than last post, the Norns are gathering together again and breeding. I'm down to 20 Norns but a lot of them are now babies and the elderly have nearly all passed on.

There's virtually no point in talking about tribes anymore, at least not in the sense of differing breeds. The Norns are now so inbreed it doesn't matter, and I'll refer to the tribes now by where they are located.

The Norns located in the Jungle are predominantly Toxic, although there is a some Hardman genes that managed to propagate into the pool. This seems to have given them an affinity for being able to eat detritus as well as normal foods, and they tend to anger more often than other Norns. Although not nearly as much as a pure Hardman would.

Sadly the population here is very small, mostly due to the bad mixing of Toxic genes with the other breeds. I've had a LOT of baby Norns die, presumably due to this bad mix.

The Norn Terrarium is almost devoid of (relatively) intelligent life, with only two elderly Norns still alive there. At one point the Apple and Toxic Norns mingled here, but the babies either died, or move onto different rooms. Anyone with Toxic genes seems to have headed to the Jungle and the Apples have made their way to the Meso. Sadly it looks as though the Treehugger genes have once again died off, at least in appearance.

At the moment most of the population is jumping between the Meso and the Norn Garden. Without the Treehugger genes they aren't getting as overcrowded, although it does seem to be on the rise. The Chichi Tribe seems to be doing the most breeding here, with Sirel,Risen and Joost producing quite a few new faces. Fortunately they're also breeding with the other Tribes, so I have an incredible mix of patchwork Norns. I have temporarily turned off the population monitor due to the dwindling numbers (although youth and elderly still can't breed) and this is clearly having an effect with a small number of Norns owning the gene pool. I will probably need to turn it back on shortly to stop these few Norns controlling the next generation.

(Random observation: One of the lifts in the Norn Terrarium has broken. The one leading up to the Crypt. This will cause problems for Norns wanted to escape the Terrarium. Any suggestions on how to fix it?)

One nice thing with the introduction of the Chichi tribe is that I've started producing babies (well, not me personally obviously) with mutated pigmentations. All Berry's children have started life with a purple colouration, although most of them seem to lose it later in life. I was terribly disappointed to find a bright orange Norn, but before I could take a screenshot he was at childhood and had already lost it.

(Random Observation: There has just been a new Grendel born with the strangest gait mutation I have ever seen. Namely, he doesn't have any. The poor thing doesn't appear to be able to move at all. I do the right-click and drag to make him walk and he just slides along the ground, continually facing forwards. I've exported him in case anyone would like a look at him, but mostly because that just seems a cruel life. Even a quadriplegic can be fed and entertained, but this poor creature doesn't seem to be able to do ANYTHING for himself.)

The family tree has nearly got to the point of impossibility. It's now so large I have trouble finding the Norns parents to make the appropriate links. Although now the elders have all died off it's starting to become easier again. Essentially all the purple and pink nodes are still active.



I've also started work on a new creatures related project. I don't feel that anything is ready to show just yet but I'll start throwing up some random images soon. Terribly exciting :D ...

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