Norn sleeping issues

Everyone knows that Norns suffer from sleeping issues. Although the C3 Norns found ways around this, the C1&2 Norns have always had issues.

In the past I've always put it down to being distracted by other things, stubbornness or even just plain stupidity. But lately I've been wondering if it is something more and perhaps an issue with the game moreso than their brains or genes.

The other day I took a dive into the Genetics Kit to see if I could find something. I went through all the genes related to sleeping and so far at least I haven't found anything that leads me to think there's anything wrong there.

But tonight I found myself in a fortunate position of having a new Norn who I was raising and trying to get her to take her first nap. Simply for interests sake I opened up both the Health Kit and Science Kit and watched little Sprinkles' brain for a bit.

I examined the 'Brain activity' page in the Health Kit, as well as the 'Decisions' and 'Brain scanner' tabs in the science kit.

Here is the result I got when asking her to sleep. She kept her eyes on me the whole time and the 'Brian activity' did not change. I watched the 'Brain scanner' as well as the 'Decisions' to the same effect. Which is to say there wasn't any. It's still early days but basically I can't decern any intelligent response from Sprinkles when talking to her on the subject of nap time.

I must admit I've had this incling for a while. My Norns pretty much ignore me when I ask them to sleep, tending to be distracted by other things nearby.

There is a difference between 'rest' and 'sleep' in C1. Resting is what a Norn does when they lay down, but sleeping is largely an involuntary action and something the Norns can't choose to do. This is not dissimilar to our own bodies and brains.

My initial concern was that maybe by telling a Norn to 'sleep' you were asking them to perform the involuntary action, rather than resting. However after checking the Genetics Kit this seems unlikely.

Regardless though, the Norns do seem to have issues understanding the concept of sleep. I'll be probing into this further and one day hope to adjust the genetics to make Norns who understand the need for sleep.

In the mean time I'd love to hear what experiences others have had, and whether or not you're getting the same results I do.

Creatures 1: Gen3 - Ryan

Well apparently my idea of raising this generation up and letting them loose in the world for another feral run hasn't exactly inspired me to do a heap more Creatures related stuff. Not to worry too much though, as things are still happening, just a little more slowly than I would like.

 That said, it's time to introduce Ryan! Ryan is another fairly stable Norn to the population. He doesn't have any mutations from his parents (Totem and Stephanie), however he's acquired a lot over the last few generations. He seems to have that odd combination of glucose/starch/glycogen genes that results in him having an extremely low hunger drive. I'm still not sure how great this is, as I believe it kind of results in the Norns not realising they're hungry. However they do still eat (Ryan included) and it tends to leave them free to do other things like play and breed. So all in all it seems to be good for the species, even if there's some fallback to the individual.
I can't actually figure out yet whether Ryan is a good sleeper or not. He ran into that annoying issue of restless sleep far too often early on, despite his best efforts to get some shuteye. He really seemed to be doing well, but he couldn't sleep long enough to get the needed reward and I think it may have effected his sleeping patterns a little. I managed to get him to take a really long nap just before I exported him, so I'm still optimistic.




Speaking of learning things when you're young, you'll see in the first image he had the trumpet nearby whilst at the learning computer. He didn't exactly take to the computer whole heartily, however he does seem to have a bit of an affinity for music. He seems to quite like the sax, to the point where he'll try and sleep by it.

Mutations:

122: Lobe #= 8  at X=11 Y=5 is 42 neurons wide and 18 neurons high.
122: Lobe #= 8  at X=12 Y=6 is 40 neurons wide and 16 neurons high. 

Like most of the Norns in this gene pool, Ryan has inherited some extra neurons from his Forest Norn ancestry.

68: 1*Boredom++ + 1* => 1*Boredom + 1*; half-life = 8.
68: 1*Boredom++ + 1* => 1*Boredom + 1*Punishment; half-life = 8.

A gene I'm quite happy to see get passed on to another Norn, if for no other reason that I find it interesting. In a normal Norn the creature would be punished for feeling boredom. Ryan basically has this gene made redundant and won't be punished.

142: 1*Starch + 1* => 2*Glucose + 1*HungerDecrease; half-life = 64.
142: 1*Starch + 1* => 2*Glucose + 1*; half-life = 64.

144: 3*Glucose + 1* => 1*Glycogen + 1*; half-life = 56.
144: 3*Glucose + 1* => 1*Glycogen + 1*HungerDecrease; half-life = 56.

145: 1*Glycogen + 1* => 3*Glucose + 1*; half-life = 64.
145: 1*Glycogen + 1* => 3*Glucose + 1*Hunger; half-life = 64.

These three genes are all related, so we'll talk about them together. This isn't the first time we've encountered them, so hopefully this will be a bit of revision.
In a normal Norn starch (eaten food) turns into glucose (energy ready to be used) which turns into glycogen (stored energy). When starch turns into glucose the Norn's hunger level stays the same. When Glucose turns into Glycogen the Norn's hunger decreases. Finally, when Glycogen turns back into Glucose, the Norns hunger increases.
This doesn't make a lot of sense, as it means the Norns hunger only decreases when they store energy, not upon initially receiving it. It also doesn't make a lot of sense for a Norn's hunger to increase when retrieving stored energy.
Ryan (and a lot of Norns in this generation) have these genes laid out a little differently. Essentially it should result in something very similar, just a little more realistic.
Ryan's hunger will decrease upon consuming starch and having it turned into energy. His hunger won't decrease when storing energy in the form of Glycogen. And finally nothing will happen to his hunger when retrieving stored Glycogen.

Frankly I view these changes as more realistic, and therefore good. Still, it doesn't quite explain why he has such a low hunger drive. Perhaps this system does more for his hunger than one might initially think.

92: 'Creature pats me' => 48*NFP-- + 16*Loneliness-- + 31*Crowdedness++ + 8*
92: 'Creature pats me' => 48*NFP-- + 16*Loneliness-- + 16*Crowdedness++ + 8*SexDrive++

This gene is related to Norns tickling each other. Generally a Norn's sex drive is increased when they 'push' each other. Ryan won't get this comfort, which means he'll have a slightly lower sex drive than normal. Fortunately there are other ways of increasing a Norn's sex drive, so hopefully it won't be too detrimental to him.

97: 'I bump into wall' => 25*Pain++ + 127*Turnase + 0* + 0*
97: 'I bump into wall' => 25*Pain++ + 0* + 0* + 0*

My understanding is that this gene was added with the Forest Norns and that Turnase prompts a creature to face the other way. In effect this should encourage Ryan to turn around after bumping into a wall.

98: 'Object comes into view' => 12*NFP-- + 12*Boredom-- + 12*Loneliness-- + 3*SexDrive--
98: 'Object comes into view' => 0* + 0* + 0* + 0*

The final gene worth noting is gene 98. Again added with the Forest Norns, this gene essentially gives the Norn a decrease in a few choice chemicals when an object comes into their line of sight. This should encourage exploration and reduce their Need for Pleasure and Boredom. Strangely it also decreases SexDrive, which is possibly detrimental so it's strange to find it here. Overall though this gene adds quite a bit of good stuff, so it should be considered a good gene.

And that's it for little Ryan. Hopefully my next update won't be quite so long coming. Then again, Assassins Creed 3 is due out in a week, so don't hold your breath!