Creatures Community Chat

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Artwork: Time to leave the ship

Hasn't been a great deal of progress since my last update. Haven't been feeling terribly inspired lately.

But anyway, this update contains the waterfall in the background. I fiddled around with fluids for a little while and wasn't able to get satisfactory results. Playing with particles on the other hand gave me decent results pretty quickly, and with a bit of tinkering I've reached a level I'm pretty happy with.

A combination of multistreak particles for the water and some cloud particles for a little bit of spray down the base of the fall, coupled with a water material for the pond area and here's the result:



Unfortunately the main tree is blocking the majority of the fall so I may need to push things around a little bit more as I'd like to get more water in the shot. The problem is I've got so many details I'd like to get into the shot it's becoming somewhat cramped. Will need to re-evaluate my layout and camera angles at some point.

Creatures 1: The run

Welcome back to my humble little version of Albia. The run seems to be going quite successfully. My population is now maxed out with Tabby finally having her first child. All the Norns seem to be eating and amazingly even sleeping well. I've come back to my computer several times to find three Norns all on the one screen dozing away. They do a pretty good job of taking care of themselves.

The average lifeforce sits anywhere between 60-80%, depending a little on the Norn but mostly on where in the world each Norn is located. A couple of the cobs I have give the Norn a good kick of life, such as the oranges from the orange tree.

And in other exciting new Jeremy has finally aged to his adult body. Although he has yet to father any children he is fertile. Only time will tell if his children end up with the antioxidant -> life gene. Fingers crossed they don't and can live life the way it was intended. For now Jeremy is tormenting Pollen up by the computer. They've been teasing each other for a while but nothing...productive yet.




Tracey (Tabby's and Tony's little girl) appears to be quite a lovely Norn. She has extremely low drives and almost always has a big smile on her face. I'm not yet sure if it's her genetics that keeps her drives so low or if she just takes good care of herself. Hopefully a combination of both.



There does seem to be a reluctancy to breed with this batch of Norns. They have maxed out my population but as of yet I haven't started collecting any eggs. Hopefully they will shortly, as I want at least 8 eggs stockpiled before I consider moving on to the next generation. Still, the average Norn is only 5 hours old, so they've still got at least half their lives to reproduce. I'll wait for their mid-life crisis to be over before they settle down and start raising families.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Artwork: Time to leave the ship

So it's 1:30 in the morning here and I've finally figured out how to make the tree leaves start looking awesome.

Turns out it was as simple as turning on Maya's physical sun & sky, rather than using the default lights I've been using. The leaves look great, but now other parts of the scene are far too bright...sigh.

Anyway, just a short post coz I'm happy with how things are progressing and I'll likely be away for a couple of days.

Check out some of the sexy new textures ;)

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Artwork: Time to leave the ship

Been playing around with paint effects (PFX) more this morning. This time I'm actually working on some plantlife, rather than getting distracted by water droplets. Although I did temporarily get distracted by Maya's new substance materials, but that's another story entirely.

The problem I've always had trying to learn PFX in the past is that all the tutorials start with a default PFX and then manipulate it to do something more useful. An okay starting point, but not great for learning how all those attributes work together.

I found this tutorial really good for teaching things from the ground up:

Creating a paint effects tree

It walks you through starting with a basic PFX curve and building it up into a fully fledge tree. Far from teaching you anything advanced, this tute covers heaps of basics and should give a solid grounding to create something more special.

So here's the overhanging tree after fiddling for a few hours.




Not a bad start, and definitely the best tree I've ever made with PFX. Still quite a lot of work to do before it stops looking like a CG tree and begins to look more realistic.

At this stage I've already converted the PFX curves into polygons so I can have better access to the materials and also so I can use the Mental Ray renderer.



And here it is after some more playing this morning. I finally found the settings that allow me to bend branches, so I've been able to give the tree some sway. I've also fiddled more with the bark texture and layered over some moss.

For those who might be interested, here's the basic material layout for the bark.



All in all not a bad start. I still want to look into make the leaf material more realistic. I also need to manipulate the shape more so the bulk of the leaves aren't blocking the background so much. But all things considered, I'm quite happy with where this is heading.

Creatures 1: The run begins P2

It's been about half an hour or so of play and we have some lovely new children running about the world.

First and foremost we have a new Grendel in the world. Although I haven't taken the time to name the reptillian, he has been assimilated by the group of Norns and has even spent some time at the computer learning their language.



Here is the first egg of the run. Don't be fooled though, this egg belongs to Lillai, who didn't quite make it into the shot. Grace and Pollen watch over the egg as Lillai goes to grab a bite.



Shortly after Grace and Pollen also lay their first eggs. Laid at almost exactly the same time, which one will hatch first?



And the race is on!. Both eggs start squirming at nearly the same time. I've no idea who will hatch first!



But on another front. Lillai's egg has finally hatched! Say hello to Beatrice. She is the daughter of Lillai and Heartly, and is the first Norn of the run.



And the blue egg hatches first! Meet Troll, the son of Grace and Heartly. Goodness, Heartly has been a busy boy ;)



Moments later the third egg hatches and out pops Jake, the son of Pollen and Tony.



This now puts the population up to 11 Norns. I'm not certain, but I think I've got room for one more baby now. Fingers crossed it will be Tabby's, but despite the kiss-popping, there's been no new pregnancies for a while.

More updates coming soon!

Creatures 1: The run begins

With a couple of days before my new job is scheduled to start, I found myself a little time between tweaking resumes to import all 8 Norns and begin the run.

And what an exciting start it is! Once I had all the Norns imported, I took a quick snap shot to remember the moment.



At first all the Norns were a little nervous of each other, and most of them bunched up into the corner. But they quickly got over those initial nerves when I introduced a ball into the mix.



It couldn't have been more than 5 minutes in before I hear the first kiss-pop! It appears Lillai, our Powwow Norn is the first pregnancy. It's a little hard to tell in the mix of it all, but it appears Heartly may be the father.



No more than a minute later I see two more pregnancy indicators pop up in the Observation Kit. I missed the kiss-popping here so I've no idea who the fathers are, but Pollen and Grace are also pregnant.



Now the only female who isn't pregnant is Tabby. Typically the main female I wanted to see breed. Still, her first reaction after meeting so many new faces was to take a nap, so she's only a little behind the eight ball. Give her time.

Well, it's been a very exciting first 5 minutes. Let's watch and see how it goes from here...

Monday, May 23, 2011

Artwork: Paint Effects

Just to give a recap to those out there who aren't 3D people, Maya has this wonderful little tool called 'Paint Effects' (PFX). Incredibly powerful in the right hands, this tool is most often used for creating trees, plants and grasses.

Sometimes they're pretty basic:





Other times they can be quite artistic:



And yet other times, in the hands of masters, they can create something astounding:



Yes, that's all 3D. Trust me, I've seen the breakdown and wiremeshes.

But, don't think that PFX are limited to creating foliage. That is what I learnt yesterday, and the reason for this post.

While doing some research to create pretty trees for my new Creatures inspired image, I stumbled upon a tutorial that told me I could use PFX to create water droplets on glass bottles. Essentially, condensation.

After a few hours of playing with the settings, and some After Effects tweaking, here's the result:



Not too shabby eh? Took quite a lot of work getting the droplets to animate nicely. They kept being very jerky and in the end I had to manually remove individual droplets to get a nice result. Still, not too bad for a days work.

Never did get 'round to making that tree though...

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Creatures 1: Jeremy & Grace

So we're down to the final two Norns. Jeremy the Pumuckle Norn and Grace the Wood Norn, a male and female respectively. And what interesting Norns to finsh with. Both have some very interesting manipulations to their genetics and boy there's a lot of them.

Jeremy:

Jeremy has the potential to be a bit of a black sheep of the run. Although he has the gene that allows him to die of old age, I missed the fact he still had the gene that converts antioxidants into ageing. As such, he is still a child at 3 hours old.



I've decided to keep him in the run and if any of his children end up with this gene still in their DDNA (which is unlikely as he is the only Norn with this gene) I'll remove it manually. The other potential issue is he may never actually reach adulthood and thus never breed. Obviously this will keep his bad genetics out of the pool, but it would be disappointing as I really like the Pumuckle sprites.

Jeremy has been a bit of a disappointment. Although he started off being a good eater and sleeper, he has progressively got worse with age. Around the 3 hour mark was when he started going downhill. I'm not sure what caused this. It was around this time I left him to his own devices and started raising Grace, so it may have been a lack of attention, however it is an issue that doesn't seem to have affected my earlier Norns.

Jeremy is friendly enough with other Norns and I'm happy to see he seems to get a lot of joy out of playing with music.

Another thing I've started looking for is a drunken stagger. Some Norns have it, others don't seem to. I've no idea why this has been changed in some breeds, but personally I like seeing them wander about clumsily when they've had a few too many. It's something I'll try and breed into the population if I can. I'm happy to report Jeremy has the stumble.

Jeremy has quite a few mutations, but a big chunk of them follow the same logic, so I'll group those together.

Receptors:
321: Die of old age, chem = Ageing NEW
326: floating chem 2, chem = Glycogen NEW


321 is the Die of old age gene, which is present in all my Norns. I'm not certain what 326 does.

Emitters:
327: floating chem 2, chem = hunger NEW


I need to figure out what these floating chemicals are, as it's cropped up a couple of times now and I still don't know what it is.

Reactions:
71: 1*Pain-- + 1*Pain => 2*Reward + 1*NONE
71: 1*Pain-- + 1*Pain => 1*Reward + 1*NONE

72: 1*NFP-- + 2*NFP => 2*Reward + 1*NONE
72: 1*NFP-- + 1*NFP => 1*Reward + 1*NONE

73: 1*Hunger-- + 1*Hunger => 2*Reward + 1*NONE
73: 1*Hunger-- + 1*Hunger => 1*Reward + 1*NONE

74: 1*Coldness-- + 1*Coldness => 2*Reward + 1*NONE
74: 1*Coldness-- + 1*Coldness => 1*Reward + 1*NONE

75: 1*Hotness-- + 1*Hotness => 2*Reward + 1*NONE
75: 1*Hotness-- + 1*Hotness => 1*Reward + 1*NONE

76: 1*Tiredness-- + 1*Tiredness => 2*Reward + 1*NONE
76: 1*Tiredness-- + 1*Tiredness => 1*Reward + 1*NONE

78: 1*Sleepiness-- + 1*Sleepiness => 2*Reward + 1*NONE
78: 1*Sleepiness-- + 1*Sleepiness => 1*Reward + 1*NONE

79: 1*Loneliness-- + 1*Loneliness => 2*Reward + 1*NONE
79: 1*Loneliness-- + 1*Loneliness => 1*Reward + 1*NONE

80: 1*Crowdedness-- + 1*Crowdedness => 2*Reward + 1*NONE
80: 1*Crowdedness-- + 1*Crowdedness => 1*Reward + 1*NONE

82: 1*Fear-- + 1*Fear => 2*Reward + 1*NONE
82: 1*Fear-- + 1*Fear => 1*Reward + 1*NONE

84: 1*Boredom-- + 1*Boredom => 2*Reward + 1*NONE
84: 1*Boredom-- + 1*Boredom => 1*Reward + 1*NONE

85: 1*Anger-- + 1*Anger => 2*Reward + 1*NONE
85: 1*Anger-- + 1*Anger => 1*Reward + 1*NONE

86: 1*SexDrive-- + 1*SexDrive => 2*Reward + 1*NONE
86: 1*SexDrive-- + 1*SexDrive => 1*Reward + 1*NONE


As you can see there's a great deal of changes to Jeremy's reaction genetics, but they all follow the same logic. The top gene is Jeremy's, the bottom one is an ordinary Norn.

As you can see, the Norn receives extra reward when counterbalancing a decreasing drive. This makes sense in some cases, as it should stabalise the Norns drives. But in some cases you would seek to bring a drive down to zero, such as hunger. Receiving reward for basically increasing hunger doesn't make a lot of sense.

I'm not certain yet whether these changes are a good idea, or if whoever created this breed was a little confused as to how Increase/Decrease chemicals work.

Stimuli:
91: 'Pointer pats me' , Sensed Even When Asleep => 64*NFP-- + 16*Pain-- + 16*Loneliness-- + 30*Reward
91: 'Pointer pats me' , Sensed Even When Asleep => 64*NFP-- + 16*Pain-- + 16*Loneliness-- + 16*Reward


A simple enough change. When tickling, the Norn receives additional reward, but only when tickled by the Hand.

Instinct:
163: Both, Drive i/ps SexDrive + General Sensory i/ps IT is opposite sex + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Push => 207*Reward
163: Male, Drive i/ps SexDrive + General Sensory i/ps IT is opposite sex + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Push => 207*Reward

164: Both, Drive i/ps SexDrive + General Sensory i/ps IT is opposite sex + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Pull => 112*Reward
164: Male, Drive i/ps SexDrive + General Sensory i/ps IT is opposite sex + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Pull => 112*Reward

322: Drive i/ps Boredom + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Push => 129*Reward NEW

323: Drive i/ps Boredom + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Pull => 156*Reward NEW

324: Stim source i/ps Food + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Push => 255*Reward NEW

325: Stim source i/ps Food + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Pull => 225*Reward NEW


These instinct changes are quite interesting. I'm not convinced all of them are good, but they seem to be on the right track.

163: has been changed so both sexes receive reward from pushing opposite sex Norns. In an ordinary Norn is appears only the males received this. A strange choice, and I think this edit is definitely a good one.

164: The same logic as 163, but works with pulling opposite sex Norns. I'm not actually certain if 'Pull Norn' does anything, so this might be completely useless. However pulling and pushing other creatures might have similar effects, so I'm not sure.

322: A new gene that injects reward for pushing objects when bored. A good idea I think, as it should encourage experimentation.

323: A new gene that injects reward for pulling objects when bored. I'm not so sure this change is a good idea, for the same reason as in 164. I'm not sure pulling most objects does anything.

324: A new gene that injects reward when pushing food. A gene that encourages good eating habits. Can't complain about that.

325: A new gene that injects reward when pulling food. I'm almost certain that pulling food does nothing, so I think this gene is a bit of a waste.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Grace:

Like Jeremy, Grace has been a bit of a disappointment. She started life as a good eater and sleeper and has progressively got worse. She doesn't eat well and getting her to sleep has proven nearly impossible. She has only slept two or three times in her life.



So lets take a closer look at her genetics and see if we can find the problem.

Receptors:
320: Die of old age, chem = ageing
325: Circulatory, floating chem 2, chem = Glycogen


Emitters:
326: Circulatory, floating chem 2, chem = Hunger


Essentially the same receptors and emitters as Jeremy. Perhaps that floating chemicals do something interesting...

Reactions:
71: 1*Pain-- + 1*Pain => 2*Reward + 1*NONE
71: 1*Pain-- + 1*Pain => 1*Reward + 1*NONE

72: 1*NFP-- + 2*NFP => 2*Reward + 1*NONE
72: 1*NFP-- + 1*NFP => 1*Reward + 1*NONE

73: 1*Hunger-- + 1*Hunger => 2*Reward + 1*NONE
73: 1*Hunger-- + 1*Hunger => 1*Reward + 1*NONE

74: 1*Coldness-- + 1*Coldness => 2*Reward + 1*NONE
74: 1*Coldness-- + 1*Coldness => 1*Reward + 1*NONE

75: 1*Hotness-- + 1*Hotness => 2*Reward + 1*NONE
75: 1*Hotness-- + 1*Hotness => 1*Reward + 1*NONE

76: 1*Tiredness-- + 1*Tiredness => 2*Reward + 1*NONE
76: 1*Tiredness-- + 1*Tiredness => 1*Reward + 1*NONE

78: 1*Sleepiness-- + 1*Sleepiness => 2*Reward + 1*NONE
78: 1*Sleepiness-- + 1*Sleepiness => 1*Reward + 1*NONE

79: 1*Loneliness-- + 1*Loneliness => 2*Reward + 1*NONE
79: 1*Loneliness-- + 1*Loneliness => 1*Reward + 1*NONE

80: 1*Crowdedness-- + 1*Crowdedness => 2*Reward + 1*NONE
80: 1*Crowdedness-- + 1*Crowdedness => 1*Reward + 1*NONE

82: 1*Fear-- + 1*Fear => 2*Reward + 1*NONE
82: 1*Fear-- + 1*Fear => 1*Reward + 1*NONE

84: 1*Boredom-- + 1*Boredom => 2*Reward + 1*NONE
84: 1*Boredom-- + 1*Boredom => 1*Reward + 1*NONE

85: 1*Anger-- + 1*Anger => 2*Reward + 1*NONE
85: 1*Anger-- + 1*Anger => 1*Reward + 1*NONE

86: 1*SexDrive-- + 1*SexDrive => 2*Reward + 1*NONE
86: 1*SexDrive-- + 1*SexDrive => 1*Reward + 1*NONE

320: 4Antioxidants = 1Ageing REMOVED


Again, the same changes as Jeremy, although Grace does have the antioxidants to ageting reaction removed. Not really much to add here, as these changes appear identical to Jeremy and I have the same concerns about them.

Stimuli:
91: 'Pointer pats me' , Sensed Even When Asleep => 64*NFP-- + 16*Pain-- + 16*Loneliness-- + 30*Reward
91: 'Pointer pats me' , Sensed Even When Asleep => 64*NFP-- + 16*Pain-- + 16*Loneliness-- + 16*Reward


The Norn receives addtional reward when patted by the Hand. What's interesting is this happens even when asleep. Hypothetically, you should be able to reward a Norn who is asleep. Could be useful for teaching Norns sleeping is a good thing.

Instinct:
163: Both, Drive i/ps SexDrive + General Sensory i/ps IT is opposite sex + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Push => 207*Reward
163: Male, Drive i/ps SexDrive + General Sensory i/ps IT is opposite sex + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Push => 207*Reward

164: Both, Drive i/ps SexDrive + General Sensory i/ps IT is opposite sex + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Pull => 112*Reward
164: Male, Drive i/ps SexDrive + General Sensory i/ps IT is opposite sex + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Pull => 112*Reward

307: Attention seek o/ps food + Drive i/ps Hunger + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I push -> 255Reward
307: Stim Source i/ps food + Drive i/ps Hunger + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I push -> 255Reward

321: Dirve i/ps Boredom + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I push -> 129Reward NEW
322: Drive i/ps Boredom + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Pull => 156*Reward NEW

323: Attention seek o/ps Food + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Push => 255*Reward NEW
324: Attention seek o/ps Food + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I Pull => 225*Reward NEW


163 and 164 are the same as Jeremy, so Grace will receive reward for attempting to breed rather than just the males of the species.

The other changes all seem very similar, however the "i/ps" and "o/ps" have me a little confused. They are different between Jeremy and Grace and I don't know exactly what they do.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In other news, dear Bob has finally passed away. He was about 12 hours old, so he certainly outlived most of the Grendels I've known. And to top it off he had some basic teaching and managed to live a pretty happy life too. He died right in front of me, just as I was finishing up with Jeremy and getting ready to export him.



Bob's presence will be missed, as he was a friendly Grendel. But at the same time I start the first run a new Grendel will be born and new life will flood into Albia for both Norn and Grendel. Best of luck to all of them.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So this marks the end of the first generation of Norns. I have the eight I want, and they've all been backed up for future study. Next time I start up Creatures I'll begin importing all eight Norns and introduce them to each other.

They've all been exported with low hunger and tiredness drives, so they should all be ready to play with each other. As I intend to bring them all in around the same time I expect there to be a few instant pregnancies. It will be interesting.

I imagine my next few posts will be quite short, however there will be a lot of them. I'll try and update things as they happen, rather than keeping a log and doing one big write up. This means there could be several updates in the one sitting.

Here's the Norns that will participate in the run:

Males:

Heartly
Jeremy
Justin
Tony

Females:
Tabby
Pollen
Lillai
Grace

Place your bets boys and girls. Which Norns are going to be successful and pass on their genes to the next generation? Perssonally, if nothing else I'd like to see Tabby and Heartly produce a few offspring together. I'd love to get Tabby's genes mixed in with the Pixie Norn sprites.

I'm considering giving out awards for successful Norns in each generation. "Best breeder", "Oldest Norn", that sort of thing. If you have any special awards you'd like to see given out, let me know.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Artwork: Time to leave the ship

Done a little more work today on my latest piece. I've been playing around with ideas on what the background rainforest should look like, and how to go about putting it together.

I've played around a little with the copy of Vue Frontier I was able to get through 3D World Magazine and although it's obvious the software is incredibly powerful, being a free version it has a lot of things missing that is likely to make it unusable for me in this case.

Which leaves me with two options. Making each plant/tree individually, or using the paint effects that come with Maya. I think I'll probably do both. The major flora I'll make by hand and then use paint effects for the background objects. I've been wanting to learn to use Maya's paint effects for quite some time, so this will be a good chance for me to do so.

I've put a little more time into fleshing out the rainforest in the concept I put together.



I liked the idea of putting a trodden path leading off into the distance. I thought this would give a sense of intelligent life and the path itself would represent a moving into the future. I need to be careful not to have it lead directly up to the ship though, as this might give the impression it was deliberately put there for the Norn.

The waterfall in the background is mostly an excuse for me to play with particles and possible fluid effects to create running water, something else I've been wanting to do for a while.

They're a little hard to see here, but there's some vines hanging down in front of the doorway. I wanted to include these as I want to give the impression the ship has crashed here and ultimately doesn't belong. I may add some elements inside the ship to enhance the idea that ship is damaged and won't fly again.

And here's the progress so far in the 3D:



I'm having a little trouble getting everything I want into camera. The door is quite a small portal, and I want to see as much outside as possible. At the same time, I'd also like to add a couple of small details inside the ship off to the sides, just to add to the story. I've tried playing with the focal length of the camera without much success. Will need to consider this a little more.

I've tweaked the lighting a little, which has made the outside easier to see, but now the inside is way too bright. Will need to play a little more to make the inside of the ship much darker and contrast it with the outside. As you can see from the concept, I'm aiming to have only the Norns outline visible and not much else.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And now, for dinner. And after that, probably sit down and get the last couple of Norns ready for the first run. I've hatched the last two Norns, bringing me to the total of 8. Just a little more time and they'll both be ready. But more on that next time.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Artwork: Time to leave the ship

For those of you who have been reading my gibberish for the past few months, you've probably picked up that I breed Norns in my spare time, and that my day job is in fact a 3D artist.

Well I've just finished off a major project spanning about 6 months and I've got a little bit of a break in between starting my next one. I've also realised it's been far, far too long since I did any of my own work and with the release of Grandroids in the (hopefully) not too distant future I felt compelled to make some artwork related to Creatures and/or Grandroids.

While I was working on 'The Island' in Unity3D I found it quite beneficial to write about my progress, both as a means of establishing my thoughts and as a way of encouraging me to continue my work. You'd be amazed how inspirational it is to have even a small number of people interested in your work and the extra pressure you put on yourself to make regualar updates in an attempt to satisfy your audience.

So I thought, why not try the same thing with any project I tackle? Why not try this progress blogging with a 3D piece? And considering the next piece I want to tackle is Creatures related, why not just use this blog?

So, without further babble, here's the initial concept I have for the next piece I have dubbed 'Time to leave the ship':



I'm not a particularly good sketcher (another of the things I like to work on in my spare time) so instead I try and piece together my concepts from other inspirational works. The background geenery is all chopped up from works done by one of the guys I watch on DeviantArt, Nukeation. His work takes a lot of influence from Valve's 'Half-Life' series. If you have a DA account I'd really recommend checking him out.

So the idea behind this piece is that the release of Grandroids is likely to mark the death of the Creatures series. The Creatures Community has stuck it out for many years, despite the shrinking population and the lack of assistance from the company, creating many beautiful works in the process. But come the release of Grandroids I can see there will be a shift in the community, and although Creatures and the Norns, Grendels and Ettins will always have a very special place in our hearts, most people will give up playing Creatures in lieu of the smarter and more interesting Grandroids.

Those of you who followed the Creatures story know that the Shee took their creations and left for another planet, but the story never reached it's climax and arrived at this new world.

So I thought, as a final farewell piece to the Norns that have given me so much enjoyment over the years, why not let them finally reached their new home? One last final act where we can release our Creatures into the wild of this exciting new planet before moving on to bigger and better things.

Here's the progress I've made so far on the 3D piece:







And here's some of the initial lighting I've started:




And yes, the Norn in those pictures is Tiggy, my first ever Norn.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Creatures 1: Lillai

I've started playing around with some of the third party breeds. So far I've tried a female snow Norn, and a female Pow-wow Norn. At least for now I've decided to forgo the snow Norn, Kosci, as her genetics have been massively altered. Most of it seems to be beneficial, but there are a couple of mutations in there that related to her boredom drive and they seem to be a little nasty.

Without going into too much detail (I'll probably do another post for Kosci later as there's a lot to learn from her) it basically sets up her genes so she is bored a lot of the time and it rises very quickly. I can only assume whoever created them was trying to build a Norn that would play a lot, but her boredom rises faster than she can relieve it, which I feel is a little cruel. I think I can figure out how to reverse most of it, and if I can I might give the breed another go with some subtle changes. With all the different genetic material in them, they could be very interesting to add to the pot.



On an interesting note, Kosci is the only Norn I've had who receives major boredom benefits from playing music. I'd love to be able to keep that.

Lillai:



But on to Lillai. Lillai is the second female Pow-wow Norn I've ever hatched. Unfortunately the first one I hatched (Lilly) had the original age related genetics that the hatchery Norns comes with and I had to go in a tweak the genome a little to remove the antioxidants -> ageing gene.

How very exciting. My first gene manipulation. It will be interesting to see if I've done it properly.

Interestingly, Lillai seems to have a couple of the same genetic tweaks as the Purple Mountain Norns. Again it's the changes to the genes that interact with Geddonase, so I don't quite understand them.

There is another change to one of the Receptor genes (274) that I've seen a few times and I think I've finally figured out what it is.

274: Creature, Sensorimotor, stagger, chem=Dancing...
274: Creature, Sensorimotor, stagger, chem=Alcohol...

I've noticed some of my Norns don't seem to stagger about when drunk, while others do. I'm thinking this might have something to do with it. Instead of stagger about when drunk, I think they might try and dance instead. Which is kind of cute, but I find it really amusing to see a drunk Norn. Reminds me of high school :P

----------------------------------------------------------------------

In other news, I've been watching Trista closely for a while now and she seems to be doing well for herself. Very well in fact. She constantly seems to have a big smile on her face and it's got nothing to do with me. Her tiredness and sleepiness drives seem to be low most of the time and I've even caught her sleeping a couple of times. I think she might have managed to overcome her genetic disability and is surviving quite well.

As I want some genetic variation in my gene pool I probably won't include her in the run still, however while she and Justin were sharing the world together she managed to fall pregnant (they were together for all of 10 seconds. Seriously, what happened to romance?) and an egg has been laid. I intend to let this egg hatch later (perhaps during the run) and see how well the child fares. Should be an interesting wild card to throw into the mix.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Creatures 1: Justin

I'm not sure what I'm doing with these first generation Norns, but I'm getting some interesting mutations. Justin is our next Norn, and although I don't think his mutations are enough to exclude him from breeding into the next generation, they are worth talking about.

Justin:

Justin is still a child as I write this. I keep trying not to get behind in my write ups and for once I seem to be on top of things :P



As with the other Norns I've raised in isolation, Justin has proven to be a good sleeper and eater. Especially the eating part. He still needs some practice at the sleeping part, but there's no doubt he's getting better as he ages.

Justin has had the privilege of meeting Trista. I've been keeping her in the world for this very purpose, as I want her to live has much of her life as possible before I export her to start the run. She serves the purpose of introducing the younger Norns to others of their species, so they shouldn't run away screaming when they're suddenly expected to breed with each other.

Justin appeared nervous meeting Trista for the first time. He discovered her asleep in the lift near the submarine and cautiously crept over to her. He then spent the next minute or two going back and forth between "run Norn" and "push Norn". Eventually he got up the courage to 'push'. Then ran away to eat some carrots while Trista continued snoring.

They've met up a couple of times since then and Justin is slowly becoming accustomed to the company.

As per usual, Justin has the mutations related to ageing properly, so we'll skip over those.

He has a small mutation in Lobe 8, gene 122 which has changed his Max# from 3 to 2. Honestly I've no idea what that means yet.

Lobes:
122: Lobe#8 Dendrite Type 0: Input Lobe =0, Min#=1, Max#=2, Spread=3, Fanout=2
122: Lobe#8 Dendrite Type 0: Input Lobe =0, Min#=1, Max#=3, Spread=3, Fanout=2


He also has a mutation to gene 59, one of the reaction genes.

59: 0 Ado, 1HungerIncrease + 1None -> 1Hunger + 1Punishment
59: 0 Emb, 1HungerIncrease + 1None -> 1Hunger + 1Punishment


This mutation means the reaction in question won't turn on until Justin is in his adolescence stage of life, as opposed to it usually turning on in the embryonic stage.
He will still get hungry, he just won't be punished for it. Considering this mutation is similar to Tabby's, where the gene has been completely removed, hopefully this gene will get passed on.

The other mutation Justin has is one of his instincts.

302: Verb i/ps Left + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + Drive i/ps Pain and 'I left' -> 255Reward
302: Verb i/ps Left + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and 'I left' -> 255Reward


It appears Justin will only receive the reward chemical when travelling left when he is also in pain. I'm not sure why a Norn would need to be rewarded for walking to the left, so I can't see this being a great issue.

Justin is now the 5th Norn I've hatched. I will hatch one last female from the incubator, then the final two will be hatched using the Genetics Kit. I intend to use two custom breeds to add a little more variety into the mix.

Do we have any requests for what breeds I should use?

I can always download other suggestions, but at the moment I have access to:

Snow Norns
Powwow Norns
Pumuckl Norns
Wood Norns