Tuesday 24 July 2012

Nightmarish Glitches and Muddling Mistakes

Another update...already? Yes! I know it's soon but a lot of changes have occurred since I've continued to play.

A horrible glitch almost destroyed my whole world. What happened was that I went and grabbed a paper off a muffin that one of my Norns had just eaten while up near the learning computer having some time out. The paper had yet to disappear and he kept trying to eat the empty wrapper, so I glibly snitched it out of his hungry little paws and dove down to drop it beside the fireplace on the lower level. This is where everything went wrong. The paper vanished after a half second or so, but Mummy became frozen in place, unable to move! My 'hand' was curled around a non-existent paper wrapper, stuck and unable to move. I couldn't take care of my Norns like that!

Fortunately the mouse was still working so I managed to zoom up to the file bar and export each Norn before I would lose them. I wasn't sure if I exited the world whether I'd be able to get back in. So I opened the Emergency kit and started a new world, I imported Aurn, to allow me access to the CoBs injector...yet another blunder on my part again thrust the world into chaos! I attempted to inject the gardenshelf CoB, which had worked perfectly in my other worlds, yet this time it must not have wanted to share with the rest of the CoBs I had installed as an error message popped up, telling me that something had gone wrong.

I closed it and was surprised to find my game still open and running, without, or so I thought, any problems to show for the recent scare. I went along injecting everything I thought my Horsies would need before I would let them roam Albia again.

Alas! When I went to select Aurn so that the camera would zoom to him, an error message popped up alerting that SMALL FURRY CREATURES...had stopped working and needed to close.

Each time I tried to re-enter the game and select Aurn, who was my only creature in the world, the same thing happened, and I was also shocked to see that Aurn was non-existent, though his name was in the drop-down menu.  Hurrumph...!

With sinking heart, I tried again. Emergency kit...New world, and this time, a copy of the baby version of Aurn that is saved on my computer. I copied it, pasted his file into 'Creatures' folder and imported the baby before I added in, one-by-one, the rest of my pretty ponies.

I must have been asking for trouble because something even worse, if that could be possible at this point in time...occurred. XP Upon importing Marlika she became stuck with her eyes sealed closed, unable to move except for left and right, unable to interact with others, yet still able to hear. It was one of the saddest most pathetic sights I've had to witness and It nearly broke my heart. I didn't want to leave her that way. So I copied her saved file, imported the child version...and what happens?! She fast-aged to adult and promptly dropped dead!

A horrible glitch, a death...I had to try one more time. There was no way I would give up on her.

I brought in a copy of her one more time. This time, I breathed a sigh of relief. She was being a picky eater and didn't want to move...but at least this time she was alive and well. She stood staring at her deceased clone, trying to pat and interact with her, unwilling to leave until Chrissie walked past her out into the garden in search of food, and then little Marlika followed, regaining her usual prep and joining the hunt for carrots.

Did everything finally settle down and go right for me now? No! I know it all sounds so bad that I have to be making it up - but really I was so upset and frustrated by this point that I wanted to pull my hair out! T_T Boohoohoo....I felt like crying.

I was having no luck with getting any new babies from my Norns and I had other concerns as well. Marlika grew up faster than her younger half-brother; at around 50 minutes or so she became a mature young adult, yet her little bro was still a child/teenager at 1:23 hours and minutes.

This had me worried. I thought that maybe he was going to stay a child forever and be unable to breed, yet later discovered much to my relief that this was not so. He and his father just take longer than the females before they reach the next stage.

Not to mention that their father was now a baby again! Strange occurrence that you don't get to see every day. Ahaha! XD

I wondered whether I could increase the amount of available Horse Norns and add some diversity to my world through the base game hatchery eggies. To my dismay, I had completely used up my supply hunting for Horses in the first world, thus it was completely...empty. You could almost hear the fleas rustling in the nesting hay. :(

I exited the game with the idea to replenish my stocks, hopeful this time that at least SOME of the unatched littlies would be Horse Norns if I had more eggs to choose from.

Always be sure to read the warning notices from that emergency kit, folks. It will save you much sadness and hair-ripping. XP

Performing this action of restoring my eggs supply with this kit and totally ignoring the notice due to plain weariness, I accidentally managed to delete all the Norns in the world and end up with a fully stocked hatchery - with no Norns to play with. Arrrrrrrghhh!

Needless to say, you could probably guess my reaction at this time.

But I've got to admit that I am completely and utterly...

...stubborn at times! Ahaha. When I have my heart set on something and I want it so badly, I won't give up.

I started a whole new world, refreshed the hatchery and hatched all the eggs to check for Horse Norns (There were none. ._.?? And all my Norns were mixed breeds of the originals, which I believe is a glitch that happens with some C1 games), then I went and imported yet another copy of baby Aurn, went and injected the items I knew had worked and were safe in the previous worlds, (or so I hope this time around. Nothing is screwing up so I think I finally have it right. I'll tell you what I have injected at the end of this post). I then copies and re-imported all my copies of Horse Norns which I had saved including a new Horse girl whom I had overlooked in the beginning named Arrianne. I'm so very glad that I thought to save copies of each and every creature. It really has been an (artificial) life-saver with this game. <3 :D

I discovered that having Aurn, Dawn, Chrissie, Blondini (Blondie XD), SweetHeart, Arrianne, Chocolate and Marlika all in the world at once caused the incubator to close. So I exported the infertile Norns (SweetHeart, Blondie) and the charmingly clunky machine opened it's door once again, giving me renewed hope.

Although, technically, it may seem like I'm starting all over from the beginning, I'm really not. It doesn't feel like it, in any case, because even though I have to do some things over again with younger versions, copies, of the originals, it is different for them each time, and I know they are still themselves, that Marlika is the daughter of Aurn and Dawn and that Chocolate is the son of Aurn and Chrissie, despite the fact that nobody but me will remember it.

I've been playing my Creatures game all afternoon and finally eveynorn has grown up and become young adults, even Chocolate - which allayed my earlier fears. I was so surprised because at first I thought it was Aurn running around up on the Grendel bridge near the cable car but it was actually his son! The peculiarity of Aurn being younger than his son and daughter also happened in this current world, since I had to start him over as a baby but he's finally all grown up for me too.

Unfortunately, I have had terrible trouble with breeding them. *sigh* It never seems to be the right timing, or somebody is crowded or someone is infertile due to stress....

Just when I was losing hope and becoming lost in despair again thinking that my dream of the next generation was merely that, something wonderful happened!

We have two brand new babies to introduce! One is still in Mama's tummy but the other has been laid and hatched naturally in the wild before I exported them to make a copy. <3 I'll show you all the screen shots and goings-on in my next posts. I can't wait to show them off and share some good and happy news with everyone after all of these disasters.

Blessings and Cheese,

SpringRain. <3

P.S. These are the CoBs I currently have installed:
Juicy Apples - I love these! they grow on the Grendel tree and look so pretty and delicious. My Norns love scoffing them down. I also noticed that they seem to increase life force a little.
Hooch Shelf - somewhere to store things neat and tidy.
Moveable distiller - makes the hooch vendor moveable, which is useful.
Bridge over lovers' leap near the wishing well
Bananas (these grow on the unbanana-like tree above the wishing well near the lantana bush XD)
Fig tree
Rhubarb plant
Doughnut vendor
Pink Lemonade
Safe bees and honey
Strained carrots
Noodles Inna Pot Vendor
Beanie Norn toy
Super Speech toy
Choo Choo Train
Oven Room/Vendor
Shelf beside the oven

I removed the Muddy Swamp Carrots and Honey Carrots as well as the garden shelf and a few other CoBs to make things less complicated. I also have yet to add the Grendel selector and friendly Grendel CoBs as I have been mainly focusing on my Norns and sorting out the chaotic into the organised and calm once more before I add any new things into Albia.

I'm going to add them in soon though, so wish me luck?

:) SpringRain.








10 comments:

  1. Also, I forgot to add: I injected the CoBs for the long bridge across the sea to the island and another that makes extra rooms under the Grendel tree bridge and above the temple.

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  2. Oh my, lots of glitches and issues! I'm glad you got things working again, though. I've had some bad experiences with C1 issues, although I haven't run into any major problems as of late. This is probably going to be another long response, so I apologize ahead of time! I just hope my rambling is useful, rather than tediously annoying!

    Rather than using the Hatchery to get new Horse Norns, have you considered injecting them via the Genetics Kit? This removes the issue with the Hatchery creating a new world when replenished, and I've found it's a lot easier! You can also choose the gender, or leave it up to chance. I'll be happy to walk you through it if you haven't done it before. Just a thought!

    On that subject, are you using the original C1 genetics? The only reason I ask is because these are immortal, and are missing the "die of old age" gene. Tarlia fixed this with a set of genetics available at Creaturetopia: I can send you these via e-mail if you don't have an account there, since registrations have been down. Her updated genes also fixes the issue with the Hatchery eggs mixing two different breeds together at times. I'm pretty sure it's not a glitch, but it never made much sense to me!

    A set of COBs I recommend comes from TreeSprite's Creatures Grove. There are two which allow the incubator to stay open or natural pregnancies to happen with up to 24 Norns in the world. Be warned that the observation kit crashes with 18 Norns, but this extra cushion is sometimes all that's needed! I also have another version, called the 24 Norn World COB, although I can't seem to find where to download it. Not that you need more Norns in a world... I just like to have a little buffer to get to about 10-12 Norns if I want to.

    Lastly, have you checked out Jessi's COBs? They're pretty new, and I know she fixed one issue with them that made the selected Norn get the benefits, so the food works properly. They're quite neat and different, and I love how they look! I'm going to be using these with the next generation of my Norns.

    Good luck!

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  3. Oh, there's no need to apologise. I love your long replies. :D Your comments and recommendations are always so helpful and insightful, they've been a blessing to me. They certainly aren't tedious or annoying, so no need to worry! =^.^=

    Umm, nope, can't say that I'd thought of using the genetics kit at all. Mostly because I'm too scared to touch it. XD It does sound very useful though. Perhaps I will give it a try once I get my Grendel Friendly thingu injected and sort out a couple of other things. (I'm planning to inject new things very carefully this time around, as...well...I want to make sure all my CoBs will play nice together.)

    As to the genetics I'm using: I have no idea. I downloaded all of my starter Norns from Creatures Caves apart from Arrianne, so I'm not sure if this means they will have differet genetics or if they automatically use whatever I have installed.

    Having a bunch of immortal Horse Norns trit-trotting about indefinitely could soon see things become super crowded. :/

    I have taken your wonderful advice once again and retrieved both the 24 Norn CoBs and some of Jessi's as well.

    Ooh la la! Jessi's CoBs are all so pretty (and quirky) - I love them!! Especially the wee creepy kitty doll. Lol.

    Looks like I'm off to make some changes and fiddle a bit before my next update. Keep your eyes peeled.

    SpringRain. :)

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  4. "And all my Norns were mixed breeds of the originals, which I believe is a glitch that happens with some C1 games"

    It's no glitch - they're supposed to be that way.

    Each Hatchery norn is a child of two genomes - if you look in the Genetics folder, you'll find genomes titled 'mom1', 'mom2' 'dad1', 'dad2', etc. Each Hatchery norn is produced by combining mum# with the matching dad#. The mum and dad genomes don't have the same appearance files, resulting in mixed-appearance norns. It's supposed to give your norns a bit of diversity in physical appearance.

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  5. If you do use the Genetics Kit, you can check each Norn's genome to see if he or she has the "Die of old age" gene. It's literally called that, so it's hard to miss! It's usually gene number 320-325 or somewhere thereabouts. Creatures with duplicated or missing genes could have it in a slightly different place, but you should basically find it near the very end of the gene list. I'm not a fan of Norn deaths by any stretch of the imagination, but I prefer natural deaths to having them live forever, which inevitably means death from starvation or disease.

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  6. @Ettina: Ohh, I see. Many thanks for the explanation. It's good to know that it's not a glitch. :)

    @Discover Albia: Okay! That sounds good. Please forgive my ignoranc, but how do I use the genetics kit to check their genomes? I've never used it before. <.///.;>

    If it turns out that their genome is the one missing the 'die of old age' gene, then would it be okay to request you to email them to me?

    Also, I did receive Bellis, thank you very much for her. Yet I encountered a small problem when I tried to import her into the world. I think I don't have the program to open .rar files. Do you know which one to use?

    Kind Regards, SpringRain. <3

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  7. EDIT: Nevermind! I found how to extract the .rar files now. Turns out I can use a thing called 7-Zip which was free.

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  8. Man oh man, that is a massive stream of bad luck. I think I've had just about all those glitches as some point, but never all at once!

    So happy to hear you're keeping backups of all your Norns. I do that now but I've lost a few in the past and it's quite depressing.

    I'm interested...what is the 'Safe bees and honey' COB? I can't find referece to it on the Creatures Wiki.

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  9. Hi ArchDragon. :) Yeah, it wasn't much fun but I was determined to not give up so soon. Lol. I was hoping that was all my bad luck out of the way.

    Yes, I decided to save copies of them in case something happened. I already saved all of my CoBs on my external hard drive so doing the same with my Norns turned out to be a very good thing.

    Actually, I don't know where you can find that CoB as I have things that I downloaded ages ago and now am not sure where I got most of them. I have copies of everything though, so if you want I can send you it via email. I can be emailed at HoneyGlobule@hotmail.com. :)

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  10. Aha, bit of hunting and I found the 'Safe bees and honey' upgrade. You can get it at Creatures Caves.

    http://creaturescaves.com/downloads.php?section=COBs&game=C1&type=&searchFor=&page=7

    A little unrealistic in that the bee's stings now reduce pain and boredom, but I like my Norns playing with critters, so I think I'll still use it.

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