So although I haven't had a lot of time to play Creatures 3 for most of this week, a lot has still happened. There's been a huge number of both births and deaths, as well as some interesting (although not particularly good) observations within the world.
Let's start with the world.
Firstly all my original food supplies from the Norn Terrarium seem to have dried up (or bugged out). No apples or seeds fall from the trees anymore, and any cheese dispenser I try to active auto-kills. It's hardly an issue, as there are plenty of other alternative food supplies. It may have something to do with installing the new Terra room, as I've only noticed it since then. But then again, I haven't been looking too hard either.
Norns
I've recently started using the Biochemestry set as I wanted to check out some things in the specific breeds.
Hardman & Treehuggers: I can't help but feel both the Hardman and Treehugger breeds are at a bit of a genetic disadvantage. Both seem to have genetic drives that hamper both their enjoyment of life and their breeding potential. Of course this is my first time playing with them, so it may be me as a breeder.
As we already know the Harman are a very angry bunch. Although not a huge issue in itself, their ability to get over their problems are somewhat more concerning. To my knowledge, anger is controlled by two means; hitting things (preferably Grendels) and expressing themselves (NornX extremely angry).
While beating up Grendels is an excellent way of reducing anger, expressing is much less effective. This is mostly due to overcrowding. I did some experiments with Munch, one of my few Hardman Norns and the Biochemistry set. I found that Munch could control his anger through expressing only if there were less than 3 other Norns around him. Any more and his crowding added to his anger at such a speed he couldn't 'express' it out of his system fast enough. This led to a loop where he would try to express his anger out, only to have it build up instantly again. He then spent most of his time standing around telling everyone how he felt and never got around to breeding. (He died as I was typing the next paragraph). Even with Grendels present he would prefer expressing to hitting, which may have to do with his upbringing and not being heavily exposed to Grendels.
I found a similar situation with the Treehuggers, although if anything it is worse. The problem is once again overcrowding, but with the Treehuggers they end up frightened and crowded. Once again this leads to breeding issues. Basically, they won't. I found this more concerning with Treehuggers, as expressing their crowdedness seems to have no impact on how crowded they feel. Or once again it's so minor it gets filled again.
The cuddly tree is fantastic at relieving this stress, but comes at a major cost. Once Treehuggers realising pushing toys reducing their crowdedness they will think ALL toys do the same. I've found Treehuggers on several occasions pushing toys non stop, scared out of their wits. I would seriously consider not having this agent in your world. What would have worked better is if Treehuggers reduced their crowdedness from toys in general, not this specific toy.
Tribes
I'm only up to generation 5, but I think this run is just about over. I think the family tree I've been keeping explains why.
So for the most part this should confuse the hell out of you. There are so many lines going in all directions that making any sense of who is related to who is almost impossible. However, there are several interesting observations we can obtain from this data.
The first is that those people who have been requesting a family tree function as a Creatures extension THIS is what you need to work with. If someone can come up with an efficient way of making this data intelligible to the average user I'm all ears. Personally I'd love to see a family tree feature in the game, however looking at this and considering this is only generation 5, I don't think it would be viable.
Next is that of the four tribes the Toxic Norns have completely dominated the others. I believe there are several reasons for this.
1. The Toxic Norns travel much more than the others, which gives them a greater chance of multiple partners and many more children.
2. The reasons mentioned above with the Treehuggers and Hardman. The other tribes just didn't seem to want to breed.
3. Although there were a few offspring from the Bondi's, they were only with the Toxics, which leads me to...
4. None of my Toxic half-breeds survived long enough to breed. This is mostly due to their chemistry issues (I believe) but also in part due to the restrictions of adult breeding.
Another observation I have made is how much of an impact having a good breeder makes to the tree. It may not be immediately obvious with lines going everywhere, but almost all the 4th and 5th generation Norns (purple and pink nodes, respectively) are descendants of 'Zap'. You will then notice that his children that survived (Alberta, Dusty, Candy and his granddaughter Bitteret {Candy's child}) were also fantastic breeders and as a result these children now own the world.
Almost from a single Norn the dominant gene has prospered, and within two generations.
There's quite a bit more that could be added, but I'm afraid it's getting late and my brain is slowly ceasing to work. I've got a long weekend coming up, so hopefully I'll add some additional observations over the next few days. As long as I'm not too busy playing Stabby-Stabby Creed.
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