Creatures 1: Gen3 - Seebal & Toff

I think it's about time we got back into checking out the genetics of a few new Norns. Today's new recruits to the breeding pool are Seebal and Toff. Interestingly enough they both Lillai as a grandmother, however none of their parents are the same.

Seebal:

Although still relatively young, Seebal is rather good at taking care of himself. He's already been on quite an adventure around the world, and a fair bit of that time we spent alone, as Totlet was in the world at the same time and I kept ducking back and forth between the two.
He is the child of Mayflur and Techie.
He has a couple of new mutations, although only one of them is of much interest.

Mutations:

First off Seebal has a mutation in his HALF-LIVES. It is however extremely minor, as it has changed the initial concentration of chemical '078', which as far as I'm aware does absolutely nothing. Even more so it's dropped it from 255 to 253, so even if it did do something, it's a very minor mutation.
Let's not forget though, that at any point in a future generation there's no reason a chemical couldn't mutation to any other, including this one. There's always a possibility this mutation could play a part in the future.



HALF-LIVES:

1: '078' 253
1: '078' 255

The other mutation is actually rather prominent, and may cause some minor issues once Seebal reaches maturity. The mutation is in his STIMULI region, and may effect his SexDrive.


STIMULI:
92: Creatures pats me, sig=80 GS neu=0(I've been patted) int =254, Sensed even when asleep => 48*NFPDecrease + 16*LonelinessDecrease + 31CrowdednessIncrease + 8*NONE

92: Creatures pats me, sig=80 GS neu=0(I've been patted) int =255, Sensed even when asleep => 48*NFPDecrease + 16*LonelinessDecrease + 31CrowdednessIncrease + 8*SexDriveIncrease

As you can see from this, getting patted by other creatures usually increases SexDriveIncrease, thus leading to a higher SexDrive overall. However Seebal is missing this chunk of the gene, and won't produce additional SexDriveIncrease. This could mean getting into a bout of snuggling doesn't really do it for him, and may make reproduction more difficult.
The SexDriveIncrease is set pretty low though, so I've no doubt SexDrive comes from many other sources. I doubt this will be a massive hindrance for Seebal, but there's no doubt it's a bad mutation.

In addition to these brand new mutations, Seebal inherited a couple of nice ones that are worth briefly mentioning.

Gene 98: Decreases NFP, Boredom, Loneliness and SexDrive when objects come into his view.

Gene 99: Is very similar in that it decrease the same drives, but upon hearing new words. This was a new gene introduced with the Ron/Forest Norns and should encourage learning.

Genes 327,328,329 and 330: All work to reward based upon instincts. Seebal will be rewarded for approaching food or herbs upon hearing the words, he will be rewarded for retreating from weeds and for resting.

That said Seebal has been an excellent learner. He and Bilp spent quite a bit of time in front of the computer, teaching each other English. To be fair though, I think Bilp was doing most of the button mashing.

Toff:

Toff is the child of Enza and Bonza, and like Seebal she comes off Lillai's family tree. For interest sake, she is named after my favourite character from Avatar (The airbender, not the blue hippy cats).

Although she's still quite young, Toff seems quite good at taking care of herself, and is quite sociable. She and Seebal have been inseparable since they met.
She doesn't seem so great when it comes to nap times unfortunately, but that may be due to an inherited mutation.

Mutations:

Toff only appears to have a single mutation from her parents. It lies within her RECEPTOR genes, and I'm optimistic it won't have any impact on her.




RECEPTORS:

162: Ado chem=Testosterone, thresh=0,nom=0,gain=255, features=Analogue
162: Ado Creatures, Reproductive, become fertile if high, chem=Testosterone, thresh=0,nom=0,gain=255, features=Analogue

Generally I underline the part of the gene that has mutated, but in this case it's not possible because it's just not there. Somehow it seems like the part of the gene that expresses where chemical is associated (inside the creatures reproductive organs in this case) has been deleted!
I've absolutely no idea what could cause this. I've always thought genes could be delete, duplicated or mutated, but I've never seen a gene partially deleted before. My only guess is that instead of being associated with the creatures reproductive organs, the gene mutated to a value of zero.
Fortunately I've checked this in the genetics kit and it seems to have repaired itself and been set to her reproductive organs anyway.

INSTINCTS:

The other mutation worth mentioning is one inherited from Bonza. This is a mutation I was really hoping would get bred out, but that hasn't happened this generation. This mutation prevents Toff from receiving reward chemical when resting whilst tired. Naturally this means she may have some issues getting a good sleep.

136: 5 0 Emb BMutDupCut, Drive i/ps Tiredness + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I rest => 93*<048>
135: 5 0 Emb BMutDupCut, Drive i/ps Tiredness + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) + (Lobe/Cell=0/0) and I rest => 93* Reward

Creatures 1: The amazing, floating Bilp!

Yes, that's exactly what it looks like. Down there, in the lower right hand corner.
What a way to introduce the new resident Grendel. Um...this is Bilp. Apparently he's magical.

Well, maybe not quite so magical. It appears there's a slight bug in my world and I'm pretty sure I know what it is.












This is one of the new COBs I've installed recently. I found my Norns and Grendels often seemed to get themselves to the Island, but then not know how to get back. Or at least, I assumed they don't know how to get back as they often spend most of their lives there once they arrive. Maybe the weather is just really good.
Either way, I installed this COB to see if maybe the creatures would move around a little bit more. I haven't had enough Norns in the world to test this out yet, but in the mean time it's allowing for flying Grendels, so I guess it's not all bad.

If you draw a line from this new bridge over to where Bilp is sitting, you'll see the two line up perfectly. I guess whoever made this COB made the room a little too long. I still have no idea how poor Bilp managed to get himself into this hidden room though.

Fortunately a quick export/import gave Bilp his land legs back. It appears the Muggy was quite happy to have him back, as it came rushing up at the exact right moment.

Alls well that ends well. Now that that's been taken care of, let's get back to raising more Norns!

Creatures 1: Gen3- Clowen update

Wow, is it just me or has the Creatures Community blogs been really quiet lately? Hmm, perhaps I'm not the only one who has been sucked in by other games such as Skyrim...


Well, Steve gave us an update on the Grandroids progress today and it's given me a bit of a drive to do some Creatures related stuff again.


Firstly, I probably can't give any serious details as to the Grandroids posts, but I think I'd be safe simply saying it was all about the Grandroids vision. And boy is it going to be better than the Norns. Like much, much better. Without going into the nitty gritty of how it works, Grandroids should be able to differentiate objects by things like shape and colour, instead of just object categories. Rather amazing stuff but that's probably all I can give away right now.


I'll be hoping to get some details out shortly about another new baby Norn, but this post will again be about Clowen, our genetics study from last time. The reason being I included some info that was just plain wrong and wanted to amend it.


Clowen has a RECEPTORS mutation that affects her Need For Pleasure chemical by changing it from Digital to Analogue.

RECEPTORS: 

45:Creature, Drive Levels NFP, chem=NFP, thresh=0, nom=0, gain=255, features = Digital
45:Creature, Drive Levels NFP, chem=NFP, thresh=0, nom=0, gain=255, features = Analogue

Last post I suggested this mutation basically inverted the chemical, so rather than increasing NFP this mutation would reduce it. Well that was just plain wrong!
The difference between Digital and Analogue is the way the values get calculated. The formula can be found at The Creatures Developer Resource, but I'll lay it out here with some examples so we can try and wrap our heads around it.

The formula for Analogue receptors is:

Nominal + (((ChemicalAmount - Threshold) * Gain/255) * R)

R = 1 if 'Output reduces with increased stimulation' is not checked, OR

R = -1 if 'Output reduces with increased stimulation' is checked.

In the case of this gene this box is not checked, so R equals 1.

The gain and threshold can be seen above in the gene itself.

The Digital equation is a little more tricky:

Nominal + ((ChemicalAmount > Threshold ? Gain : 0) * R)

Honestly, I've found this layout with the '>' and '?' to be confusing, so I've rewritten it to be:

if (ChemicalAmount > Threshold) {

     Nominal + (Gain * R)

}

   else {

     Nominal

}


Hopefully the programming language doesn't mess with you too much there. Basically this means that if the ChemicalAmount is greater than the Threshold, then multiply the Gain by R and add the Nominal. If the Chemical Amount is less than the Nominal, leave it at the Nominal value.

Again, R can be 1 or -1. In our case it is 1.

By themselves these equations are pretty meaningless, so lets add some numbers into them and see what we get.


Generally the NFP RECEPTOR gene should be calculated with an Analogue equation. Let's assume that Clowen's NFP chemicalAmount is currently set to 50.

0 + ((50 - 0) * 255/255) * 1 = 50

However Clowen uses the Digital formula, meaning it will look something more like this:

(0 + (if 50 > 0) 255) * 1 = 255

So what does all this mean for Clowen?

Ahhhhh...honestly I have no idea. In theory it should mean her NFP drive rises much faster than other Norns, but I've been watching her NFP drives for the last hour and comparing them to her near twin Totlet. Aside from Clowen saying "Clowen get yes" (which seems to be their way of asking for tickles, effectively lowering their NFP) constantly whenever her NFP drive was above 0, I couldn't spot any serious differences.


I did learn a couple of interesting, although largely irrelevant things. Firstly, the only visible difference between Clowen and Totlet seems to be their legs (note that's their legs, not their feet). What's really amusing about this is that Totlet seems to have a slight slouch, making Clowen about half an inch taller. It's really quite cute when they stand next to each other.


The other thing, is Totlet really is a darling. Having the NFP chemicals being graphed I was able to see just how much love Totlet was dishing out. She was actually making my experiments hard because she kept tickling Clowen to the point her 'Need For Pleasure Decrease' chemical was maxed out!


The only relevant thing I've learned is that Clowen does need a little extra care. It's not a huge deal, but she can get stuck in a "Clowen get yes" loop, where she's reluctant to do anything. She will need lots of hugs to enjoy life fully, whether they come from the Hand or other Norns.


This actually makes Clowen a rather interesting Norn. Although it's unlikely she'll make it into the next generation of breeding, I'll likely put a star next to her name, as I'm wondering if I could breed a group of Norns that need hugs to properly thrive. Clowen really doesn't need a lot of food, which could make for an interesting breed.


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On a completely irrelevant note I've found some settings for the blog layout and made a few minor adjustments, the most noticable of which is that the column width is now larger. I've put it at 1024px, which means it should fit comfortably on most peoples screens. It also means the Genes should fit on one line from now on, making them much easier to read!