Wednesday 25 July 2012

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Christmas in July...What?!

Welcome back to SpringRain's Blog. :)

We last left off with a series of awful events. Things are back on track and running along nice and smooth since my previous post documenting the disasters.

I've re-injected CoBs with no hazardous happenings and even added two new ones so my Grendel, Fig (he named himself that - must have a liking for them), can now interact with my Creatures however he likes and so that I can keep an eye on him too. Both of these things are courtesy of the Grendel Selector Button and Grendel Friendly CoBs, which Discover Albia has kindly posted links to in the past few comments she posted under my previous entries.

Ah, now I'm blabbering on too much. Sorry...On with the story!

Right, this is what the Observation kit looked like to start with. Aurn was an adult, and roaming about with the other full grown Norns, having fathered two offspring with a different mother each. It looks really straightforward, with everynorn's age in the correct time and place, more or less. :) And, as you'll notice, no pregnancies.


This is the photo I managed to take after importing multiple copies of Marlika, when things were completely haywire. The one lying down is the Marlika that fast-aged to adult then died instantly. The smaller one walking away is the younger child/teen Marlika, following Chrissie the dark choco Norn off to find carrots. This was after she spent some time trying to tickle, touch and understand what was going on with her...other self. :< It was really sad.

Something I forgot to mention in my older post was that this older version of her also refused to vanish after the event of her death as well as the fact that I could still tickle her nose...I wasn't sure what to do! It was a little bit eerie. So off was whisked into the export folder once again...


After restarting, refreshing and having to begin all over with their 'clones', this is what the new Observation kit looked like:

Bwahaha! Imagine having to meet your father as a baby again. Boy that would be so weird. I'm super glad Marlika and Chocolate will have no idea. I'd be worried about what kind of psychological damage such strange events might have caused them through all this otherwise.


In came the first Norn to test out their new world with her first tentative steps...Dawn. I've noticed she is the one I always choose whenever I want to venture into an unstable world, since Aurn disappeared on me that time. Lol. Maybe it's because their names rhyme or something but I'm really very fond of her. She's one of the most independant and intelligent Norns out of the herd.


But bacteria and illnesses aren't picky about whom they choose to inhabit and she was no exception. Certainly we had a fresh new world to play in, with a choo choo train and tasty healthy apples, and we also had all new antigens to face to match along with the theme. >.>


Dawn was lucky this time again, though. She munched down copious amounts of food as though she knew she had to somehow, thus her antibody 4 kicked into gear a bit faster than when she had antigen 2. Or maybe the various antigens are weaker and stronger in different Norns. I'm not really sure. I just know she hogged down a ton of food and... 

...beat that bug into the ground! Yay, Dawn! She had triumphed once more. Such a good girl.


Meanwhile, have a wee guess who this is? He had me really confused for a couple of minutes when I first saw him up on the bridge by the chuggy cable car but this is actually Chocolate all grown up. Isn't he handsome? XD Kinda reminds me of somenorn else I know. Not sure if he's got his Daddy's weird obsession with plants or no, though he's a pretty good eater so it's a bit hard to tell. Foods of all kinds seem to do him just fine.



*Gasp!* Can it be? My wish came true at last! There must have been something in the water at that island, or maybe in the strawberry patch under the viewing window, because after some hours of playing and letting my Norns explore while they grew into healthy young adults, Arrianne was found to be pregnant. I can't remember who the father is but it is either Aurn or Chocolate since they were the only males capable of breeding in the world at the time.


I had to keep peeking at her progress in the fertility kit just to make sure it was really happening. Such good news was warmly welcomed after all the madness. It was so exciting to watch the little eggy timer counting towards 8! I tried to move Arrianne away from the other Norns to give her a chance to rest and eat something, but she would not have it. So, without wishing to stress her out with too many commands or too much travelling, I let her stay with the others on the bridge under the Grendel tree, where she complained of hunger although her life force was stable enough for me not to worry too much. I think the juicy apples must add a wee bit of a boost to Norns' life force when they eat them.


Not long after this, she settled down and laid one teeny-weeny purple spotted polda-dot bikini  egg!

It was fun to watch it grow, waiting with anticipation while my other Norns frolicked with the ball and munched apples. I couldn't wait to see who came out.


As all this is happening, I am pleasantly surprised by being alerted of yet another pregnancy in the Observation kit. This time it's Chrissie. It's going to be her second baby. Mind you, she won't even know it, so probably, this is going to feel like her first pregnancy all over again, unless she had some before I downloaded her into my world.


She laid her egg in the underwater viewing cave with a marked look of worry upon her sweet face, (or maybe that's pain), while her pal Arriannne stood there grinning as though she was the proud mother of this new egg instead. Arri, it's not nice to steal the limelight like that, you know? XD

..

Um, Arrianne, I also don't think good friends should eye off their friends eggs as food.
Maybe Chrissie's look of worry was well founded. Now that I see this, I really can't blame her!


Meanwhile, how is Dawn faring since her recovery? Why, happy and full of energyyyyy~! As you can see:

Yup! I imagine this is the effect that drinking tons of coffee in the morning has on most people. Anyone who drinks coffee or energy drinks will definitely understand. She's been glugging down the contents of that coffee pot like it's going out of fashion.

And there's another in Albia with a big happy smile plastered across their face as well - meet Fig, my adorable Grendel who, incidentally, loves bananas also. He has a wee Norn doll to keep him company for the time being. I'm sure he'll get the chance to play with some furry pals when they encroach on his peaceful existence eventually.


Alright, enough suspense, you say? Then, I'll show off our newest baby: Can you spot where she is?


Alright, alright, I'll be nice.

This is Pommes, which means 'apples' in French, (I think). I thought the name fittted the tiny girl perfectly, seeing as she was surrounded by the sweet crunchy fruits that horses usually love. Isn't she sweet? >w<

Dawn thinks so! Or maybe thats the ten billion gallons of coffee talking. After finally dropping the coffee pot she headed up the lift to eat everything in sight before playing with the ball and I managed to catch her in this pose.


Marlika is also doing well amongst her fellow Norns. Guess which one she is in this line-up? Ahaha. The Norn to the left is Blondini. I exported Pommes shortly after she was born in order to keep a better eye on the others as well as make a back-up copy of her, just in case.


Marlika close up. She's a pretty Norn with that reddish colouring, only I have had lots of trouble trying to get her to fall pregnant with any of the males roaming about. She doesn't seem to mind however, quite amused nomming apples and viewing the pretty scenery around the ocean.


Zipping around taking care of everyone, I finally notice that Chrissie's egg has hatched due to a little BIRTH notice bar at the bottom right of my screen and promptly zoom over to goo and gaa over our fourth addition to the world. A cutesy, adorable, sweet little teeny tiny - Gaaaahhhhhhhh!! D: Wh-what? What on Albia is that?

O_O! It's a fully grown Santa Norn crawling around. And no matter where I look, I cannot see a tiny baby anywhere. The registration kit shows this is indeed the fellow that had been cramped up inside Chrissie's egg the whole time - must have been pretty squashy in there for him. :O

With some humming and hawing, I finally settle on the name 'Crimson' and exported him to safety, wondering what has gone wrong. It has given me a very amusing idea for some Creatures 1 fan art which I hope to release at the CCSF 2012. *grins*


Not to worry, I still intend on letting him join the others to live a full and happy life with his family. I probably won't let him breed though. I think Santa Norns are said to be infertile in any case. Don't get me wrong - I love the colours and I think he's super cute but this is a Horse Norns, not a Santa Norns Blog...I might do that some other day. Lol.

Once again, just to compare, this is the size of a normal Norn baby...


But who decides what's normal and what's not, right? ^_^ They're both new to Albia so I'll treat them the same.

Chocolate poop? Lol. I had blinked at the screen a few times before realising that 'p' was a 'b'. They do sound slightly similar, don't they? I don't even know if Norns and Grendels in Creatures 1 CAN do that sort of thing. XD It never really occurred to me to wonder before now. Thank you, Chocolate, for that wonderful revelation. <3

On second look, Notice the look on Dawn's face. While I think Marlika is pretending not to hear.


One final pic before I end it here. This is a very funny happening with Dawn whilst she was sleeping. Her pain levels were rising yet she wasn't holding onto a bee, was not sick, had not been bumping into walls....They would rise a bit, then go back down, then rise again a bit, and so on. I'm not sure what would cause this kind of reaction. Would it be a mutation? I was watching over her the whole time and I am fairly sure she didn't eat any weeds.

Alright, let me know what you think of the newest additions and I'll have more news again soon.

Take care,

SpringRain. :D

4 comments:

  1. "It's a fully grown Santa Norn crawling around. And no matter where I look, I cannot see a tiny baby anywhere. The registration kit shows this is indeed the fellow that had been cramped up inside Chrissie's egg the whole time - must have been pretty squashy in there for him."

    The default Santa norn sprites include only adult male sprites. If you look around on the internet, somewhere you can find baby and female (and female baby) Santa sprites. If you get those he'll be baby-sized.

    "I think Santa Norns are said to be infertile in any case."

    Only the default Santa norn genome. Crimson is as likely to be fertile as any other norn, since it seems his Santa appearance was a mutation of some sort. His genetics will still be Horse norn, he just looks different. (It's a really strange mutation, though, since he got all the separate appearance genes mutating the same way.)

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  2. Ettina hit on everything regarding the Santa Norn. There are two versions of the Santa Norn available: The '96 version and the '97 version. I've always used the '96 version, but I found out where to get the '97 version (which takes up a separate breed slot) so I might just have lots of Santa Norns arriving this Christmas! The newer versions should also include all life stages, so you don't get the silly full grown babies.

    The difference in speed of antibody growth is courtesy of genetics. Antigens 0, 1, and 2 build up at a slower rate than the rest, and antigens 0 through 4 use up more glucose than the others. There could be some mutations, but these are the base statistics. Although I've always imagined that Norns who eat lots of carrots recover faster!

    Does Arrianne have Banana Norn legs? That picture where they don't quite line up is on my list of sprite fixes for Creatures 1 Norns... Little things like this have bothered me for way too long!

    I would be happy to take a look at Dawn's genome if you can't figure out what's causing her odd pain! There's a chance it could have been something in her environment, but it sounds like something genetic. I love solving little mysteries like these, although it's definitely frustrating when it doesn't make any sense!

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  3. @Ettina: Ah, geeze, I feel kinda silly. ^///^; Thank you for pointing out what went wrong. I'm very gratefulto both of you.

    I didn't realise that at the time that I posted this, though I am glad to be made aware of it. I'll have a look for the '97 versions and download them to prevent this happening in future. Mind you, I did get a fun idea from this amusing occurence! :D

    I wonder if I let Crimson have children, would they have Santa Norns appearances too?

    @Discover Albia: In that case I'm glad Dawn is such a good eater. It may have been the reason she recovered so quickly on the second time around. I don't know if the others would have fared so well, since one time Aurn did fall ill and all he did was spin around with things he was supposed to be eating. >:

    Hmm...I never noticed that about Arrianne's legs before. :O You might be right with that observation. I'm not sure if they are Banana/Fox Norn legs or if it's just the view we have of the front of her. A sprite fix for the forward facing pose of C1 Norns would be fabulous. Ah well, at least most of my population is pure Horse Norns. I think...with Crimson's appearance, I'm not so sure. XD

    I don't think I'm able to figure out what's causing her pain. Also, Aurn seems to get angry when playing with toys, so maybe you would find him interesting to look at as well?

    Can I send them as attachments via email to you, if that's okay with you?

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  4. Feel free to send them my way, SpringRain! Their genome files are a bit easier for me, but I can always import them to create new genomes and go from there. I might post the results on my blog, if that sounds good to you. I always find something to talk about, and hopefully it turns into a learning experience! Thanks!

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