Creatures 1: Gen 3 - Kalimeris

I've finished the main quest (and most of the others) in Skyrim and it's still another month before Guild Wars 2 comes out, so it's time to get back into a little bit of Creatures action.
On a mostly random note, for anyone out there with a smart phone, give Dragonvale a try. It's like Sim City, but with dragons. Stupidly addictive for the basic gameplay it has. Anyway, back to the Norns. Oh also, it's free.

This post is a very special post, due to who it's about. I doubt anyone will remember all the Gen3 Norn's names, but this is one we haven't seen before. That's because he's not one of mine.
I'd like to introduce Kalimeris, one of Jessica's Norns from Discover Albia. It's taken a while but we've finally organised our first adoption, and I'm pleased to say he's doing quite well.

I generally find the younger Norns tend to take better care of themselves and sometimes get worse later in life, but little Kalimeris is fantastic even for an infant.
He naturally seems to have lower drives than average and because of that he spends a lot of time wandering about doing stuff, although so far he hasn't been too much of a traveller.
He didn't take a great deal of interest in the learning computer (although he did eventually learn all his words), however he has taken slightly more interest than average in the critters around the world. This may be more due to the recent critters I added to the world being more interesting (the Muggy's in particular) but it's a nice personality trait none the less.
I was actually quite dumbfounded at one point where I came across Kalimeris giving the Muggy a pat (pull) which causes the Muggy to dig up a feverfew for him. As Kalimeris ate the feverfew the Muggy continued on its long walk. Kalimeris ate the feverfew, then immediately raced after the dog to give it a tickle (push), almost as if he was saying 'thank you'. Sometimes I really do wonder if there's more going on in these Norns heads than they let on.

Kalimeris' parents are Pettvika and Mevik. The original matriarch of his family line was Ingelill. (I'm sure Jessica will correct me if I've got any of that wrong :P).
Unfortunately I don't have his parents genome files, so I can't tell you what new mutations he has, but we can certainly compare him to an original Norn genome.

MUTATIONS:

LOBES:

121: Lobe#=7 Min LTW=255, Max LTW=255, Min strength=254, Max strength=255, flags=0
121: Lobe#=7 Min LTW=255, Max LTW=255, Min strength=255, Max strength=255, flags=0


 LTW is short for 'Long Term Weight' and refers to how a Norn learns things over the long term. To get your head around this it would probably be best to read some of the documents Steve Grand has written over the years (Jessica recently did a post with links to all of them) or Steve's book "Creation: Life and how to make it", but I'll try and give a quick overview here.

The LTW is in essence a Norns learning curve and kind of the likelihood a Norn will repeat an action. In this diagram the LTW is indicated by the 'rest level'. When a Norn performs a specific action the STW (Short Term Weight) will kick in, raising or lowering the rest level. This will then decline over time dependant upon some complicated algorithms before coming to a new rest level. This then becomes the new LTW.

I think this mutation will make it possible that the strength of this rising or lowering could vary, whereas in an ordinary Norn it's locked into the maximum value. Considering the minor change I doubt it will have much of an impact.

RECEPTORS:

320: Creature, Somatic, die of old age, chem=Ageing, thresh=5, nom=102, gain=255, features=Inverted Digital



It's been a while since we last saw this baby. I havent' bothered mentioning it the last generation because it's very standard now, but this is the new gene that allows Norns to die of old age. Thankfully Jessica was using this patch too.

EMITTERS:

136: Creature, Sensorimotor, I'm Asleep, chem=NFP, thresh=0, samp=65, gain=1-, features = Inverted Digital
136: Creature, Sensorimotor, I'm Asleep, chem=NFP, thresh=0, samp=64, gain=1-, features = Inverted Digital


The 'samp' is the sample rate, or how often a chemical is injected into a Norn. The higher the sample rate, the larger the gap between injections. Getting the NFP chemical while asleep is a bit of a nuisance as it may make the Norn wake up earlier, and if nothing else is likely punishing the Norn slightly for sleeping. As Karlimeris gets NFP slightly less often while sleeping this is technically a beneficial mutation, although it's so small it won't be noticable.

I think some breeds have the gene for drunken stumbles removed. It's nice to see a Norn who can enjoy his hootch.

137: Creature, tissue 6, locus 3, chem=Hotness, thresh=0, samp=24, gain=49, features = Analogue
137: Creature, Sensorimotor, Air is this hot, chem=Hotness, thresh=0, sampe=24, gain=49, features = Analogue
 
This is without doubt Kalimeris' most interesting mutation. In an ordinary Norn this gene controls the increasing of the Hotness chemical when the air is hot. Interestingly the CDR claims this Sensorimtor is turned off in C1 Norns. I'll have to keep a close eye on Kalimeris to see if this is true.
Unfortunately I can't quite figure out what 'Tissue 6, locus 3' corresponds to, so it's possible Kalimeris may experience additional Hotness under a random situation. What it certainly means is that he won't experience Hotness directly from the air, essentially making him immune to heat.
Technically this would usually be a bad mutation, however considering the limited heat and cold sources in Albia I'm going to list it as good. It should help stabalize his internal temperature, making him more comfortable.

As a completely random bit of information, the 'notes' in the Genetics Kit says this gene was last changed on the 22 August, 1997. SJGL. I have no idea what the 'SJGL' stands for.

REACTIONS:

142: 1*Starch + 1*NONE => 2*Glucose + 1*HungerDecrease
142: 1*Starch + 1*NONE => 2*Glucose + 1*NONE

In some of the newer Norns (such as the Ron or Forest) some genes to do with digestion were tweaked. This one and the next three are some of those.
Gene 142 has to do with how Starch is converted in Glucose (stored energy). In ordinary Norns this would just kind of happen and the Norn would be none the wiser. In these newer breeds HungerDecrease was added to the equation, and should help keep a Norns hunger drive down. This certainly appears to be the case in several of the Norns I've raised, and Kalimeris seems to be the same.

144: 3*Glucose + 1*NONE => 1*Glycogen + 1*NONE
144: 3*Glucose + 1*NONE => 1*Glycogen + 1*HungerDecrease


If memory severs me correctly, the digestive system is: Food becomes Starch, Starch becomes Glucose, Glucose becomes Glycogen. Glycogen can also be converted back to Glucose.
Starch is essentially sugars. Glucose is energy the body can use and Glycogen is stored energy (something akin to fat). Glucose can be used right away. The body will need to break down Glycogen (fat) back into Glucose before it can be used.
In the original Norns, when Glucose was converted to Glycogen it would decrease hunger. However this doesn't really make sense. This is the body's way of storing fat. Storing fat doesn't decrease hunger, using it does. Therefore this was changed in the newer breeds.

145: 1*Glycogen + 1*NONE => 3*Glucose + 1*NONE
145: 1*Glycogen + 1*NONE => 3*Glucose + 1*Hunger

Honestly this one doesn't even make a lot of sense to me. Why would converting fat into usable energy make the Norn hungry? This is definitely a beneficial change and should help keep a Norns hunger at lower levels.

146: 1*Glucose + 2*Hexokinase => 4*CO2 + 8*Activase
146: 1*Glucose + 2*Hexokinase => 4*CO2 + 8*NONE


I'm actually not certain what Hexokinase or Activase does, although I do know this was another gene added to the newer breeds so I'm pretty sure it's beneficial. I'm pretty sure I've seen this mutation discussed on other blogs, so hopefully someone can help me out here.

STIMULI

97: 'I bump into wall' causes sig=0, GS neu=2(I've bumped a wall) int=255, Sensed Even When Asleep =>
25*PainIncrease + 0*NFP + 0*NONE + 0*NONE
97: 'I bump into wall' causes sig=0, GS neu=2(I've bumped a wall) int=255, Sensed Even When Asleep =>
25*PainIncrease + 0*NONE + 0*NONE + 0*NONE


Currently a neutral mutation as it's just changed a 0*NONE to a 0*NFP, effectively making no difference. Should this mutate again in a future generation however, it could be beneficial. Adding NFP to the system is generally bad and will make a Norn slightly less likely to walk into walls.

98: 'Object comes into view' causes sig=255, GS neu=255,, int=0, Modulate Using Sensorty Signal =>
12*NFPDecrease + 12*BoredomDecrease + 12*LonelinessDecrease + 3*SexDriveDecrease
98: 'Object comes into view' causes sig=255, GS neu=255,, int=0, Modulate Using Sensorty Signal =>
0*NONE + 0*NONE + 0*NONE + 0*NONE


Again, I'm pretty sure this is a gene added to the newer breeds. This gene gives the Norn a decrease to NFP, Boredom and Loneliness when seeing new objects. For some reason it also decreases sex drive which doesn't make a lot of sense to me, however it's pretty minor and shouldn't be a big issue.

99: 'Unrecognised word' causes sig=16, GS neu=8(Audible event) int=128, Sensed Even When Asleep =>
12*NFPDecrease + 12*BoredomeDecrease + 12*LonelinessDecrease + 3*SexDriveDecrease
99: 'Unrecognised word' causes sig=16, GS neu=8(Audible event) int=128, Sensed Even When Asleep =>
0*NONE + 0*NONE + 0*NONE + 0*NONE

Almost exactly the same as gene 98, except in this case it decreases NFP, Boredom, Loneliness and SexDrive upon hearing a new word. Again, the association with SexDrive seems a bit vague to me, however in general it's a good change.

Well, that's Kalimeris. Sorry for such a long post but being a new Norn we needed to go over all the genes.  We covered a bit of ground we've already been over, but hopefully it's a good refresher and serves to solidify your understanding.

I adopted two Norns from Jessica. At some point we'll get to take a look at Sadleria, the female I adopted. But with the Guild Wars 2 Beta event on this weekend it may be a week or so!