Posted January 02, 2011
Aaaaand I've just discovered that I can't chain posts together to produce a single thread. Garabarabjlfdbl
I'll take out the truly important parts that were in my original notepad file and put them here, but if there's a way to lengthen my posts a bit, that would help.
Starting the Game (And Having it Work)
This game requires 16-bit color depth. It won't cooperate with 32-bit color, flashing an error message if this is the case. This can be a bit of a pain in the neck sometimes. You can change the color depth in Windows 7 by right-clicking the desktop, clicking on "Screen Resolution" in the drop-down menu, clicking the "Advanced Settings" link near the lower left, clicking on the "Monitor" tab, and then clicking on "High Color (16-bit)" in the "Colors" drop-down menu at the bottom. Doing this will disable the Aero theme if it's on. Don't worry, it'll re-enable itself after you switch the color depth back to 32-bit.
Though the GOG installer puts two different shortcuts on the desktop, I recommend double-clicking the "Docking Station" link for now; this allows for the full, internet-connected version of CE. It'll probably throw an error about the update server being down; since you're not going to need to be updating, just tell the dialog to ignore the patch if it can't find the server. That server's been down for a while, and you're already patched anyways thanks to GOG!
After starting up, you'll get a screen asking you to enter a Nickname and Password, and providing a link to, ideally, start the process of making an account... Except that server has also been dead for quite some time. However, you can still register for an account right here. After registering there, type in the details you gave, click the button with the green check, and after a short registration of your new world to your profile on the game's site, the game will begin. It'll ask you a question about laying eggs, starting with a pre-made family of norns, or just start the game without either; again, this is your choice, because you are now playing CE!
NOTE: If you're wondering about what the difference between a normal norn breed and an "Expressive" norn breed is in regards to the egg-layer machine, the "normal" breeds don't have the full range of facial expressions available in the game, making them appear permanently happy. "Expressive" norns will show ranges of emotions, such as sadness, fear, anger, and so on. You should probably hatch and breed expressive norns.
Chemistry and You
As with most virtual pets, creatures eat; unlike most virtual pets, however, there's actually body chemistry involved here. Creatures take in nutrients, process them into vital body chemicals, and use those chemicals to function. The three main nutrients that most creatures eat are starch, protein, and fat, and should they know a language, will talk about needing one or the other when they're hungry. They have brain chemistry that controls how they react in given situations, digestive chemicals that break down what they take in, and reproductive chemicals that allow them to have children. There's also the all-important life chemical ATP, which is basically the creature's life force and is used in nearly every reaction in the body; no ATP means a dead creature. There are also poisons and diseases to deal with.
A list of chemicals and how they react in the vast majority of creatures can be found here. That wiki is going to be coming up a lot, so make a bookmark out of it. Later in the links section, I'll make sure to put up a reminder.
Genetics
All creatures have a complete genome in this game that is unique to them. Their genetics control what kind of creature they are, how their bodies work, and most importantly, how each chemical will affect them. This last part is very important to how the game works--what is a poison to one creature may be absolutely vital to another.
Creatures follow most of our laws of genetics, save for one big one: their genetics are haploid. Unlike humans in which two genes (alleles), one from each parent, are inherited in a dominant or recessive state (remember those funny grid boxes?), creatures only inherit one allele from their parents, randomly determined. For example, if Dad has spotted arms and Mom has striped arms, there's a 50/50 chance that Baby will have spotted or striped arms. Let's say Baby is born with striped arms, meaning Mom won the coin toss. She won't inherit the gene from Dad, and will not pass Dad's arm gene down to future generations.
The genetic code for each creature can mutate before birth--as far as I'm aware, mutations do not occur after birth. This is where 99% of the genetic fun stuff, and in my opinion the great majority of the game, comes from. There are pretty much only two rules to genetic mutation in this game: the mutation can't remove the ability for the creature to die (though it can definitely come close), and the mutations always make sense from a code perspective ("if x, then y" can become "if x, then z" during a mutation, but it can't become "aweoruasfrldfjkcvnkl" as that would just crash the game). Everything else is fair game. Creatures can become immune to poisons or even gain nutrition from them; on the flip side, they can lose the ability to move their legs. Brains can grow extra lobes, new organs can form, colors can change, aging rates can be completely rewritten... Or you might just end up with a stillbirth. Horrible and wonderful things can happen with the genetics in this game.
As a side note, you should totally go sign the petition in the other thread on this forum to have GOG upload the breed packs. Those packs add some very fun and interesting genetics to the game, and are totally worth your time to go sign for!
Agents That I Find Very Useful
Multi-Agent Gold - The big draw of this is the light bulb button, which will instantly teach English to all of the creatures currently in the game. There's a couple other good buttons there, too, like the one that dispenses food and toys, but I get the most mileage out of the instant English, because I'm just far too lazy to drag my norns away from the Brain Sucker for hours on end...
MHLM (Right Click > Save As...) - ...Which is why I also install this. This modifies the Holistic Learning Machine (i.e. the Brain Sucker) so that it allows only one brain-sucking per creature.
Medical Monitor - This adds a monitor that continually tracks creatures and alerts you if they become sick. Handy for someone with a lot of creatures.
Balrog - To shamelessly plug a creation by myself, this is a fairly simple toy Balrog from popular independent game Cave Story. Kicks up dust clouds, says "Huzzah," and everything like that. Even reacts to being hit. The norn will probably also react to having hit him, since he's made of metal.
Apple Norns - This is probably the best player-created breed I've encountered. The image work is beautifully done and fits the game perfectly. They're more of a "genetically perfect" norn breed, having few genetic weaknesses that I know of. The reduced difficulty afforded by that makes it perfect for a beginning player, or someone like me who just wants a fun, relaxing pet to play with.
Grettin Switch - Installs a little button in the bottom left corner that, when clicked, expands and allows you to toggle the grendel and ettin egg-laying machines on and off.
I'll probably add more as I remember them.
Links
Sadly, most of the websites that once composed the Creatures community are now either dead links or dying ones, so a lot of the sites that I'd like to link here just wouldn't work. There are a couple that are just about indispensible though.
Creatures Wiki - Told you I'd remind you! Regardless of which version of Creatures you're playing, this wiki contains links to everything that you could possibly want to know about Creatures, and then some. There are links to agents and breeds, as well as to tools for developing for this game and how to use them.
Creatures Caves - This has a couple of agents that just don't appear on the Wiki's list, plus I find that the forums are still active and still a good place to find answers to questions you may have.
Breeders Beware - Some awesome metarooms here, as well as another one in development that I've really been keeping my eye on. Links to some very nice agents, as well!
As with the last section, I'll add more as I remember them.
So What Should You Be Posting Here?
I'm going to be maintaining this as a general answers and information thread. I'm sure that there are people far more versed in specific topics than myself, such as CAOS scripting and things of that nature--posts describing those things in detail are encouraged. This would also be a good thread to ask questions or talk about things that you just feel aren't deserving of their own thread.
I'll take out the truly important parts that were in my original notepad file and put them here, but if there's a way to lengthen my posts a bit, that would help.
Starting the Game (And Having it Work)
This game requires 16-bit color depth. It won't cooperate with 32-bit color, flashing an error message if this is the case. This can be a bit of a pain in the neck sometimes. You can change the color depth in Windows 7 by right-clicking the desktop, clicking on "Screen Resolution" in the drop-down menu, clicking the "Advanced Settings" link near the lower left, clicking on the "Monitor" tab, and then clicking on "High Color (16-bit)" in the "Colors" drop-down menu at the bottom. Doing this will disable the Aero theme if it's on. Don't worry, it'll re-enable itself after you switch the color depth back to 32-bit.
Though the GOG installer puts two different shortcuts on the desktop, I recommend double-clicking the "Docking Station" link for now; this allows for the full, internet-connected version of CE. It'll probably throw an error about the update server being down; since you're not going to need to be updating, just tell the dialog to ignore the patch if it can't find the server. That server's been down for a while, and you're already patched anyways thanks to GOG!
After starting up, you'll get a screen asking you to enter a Nickname and Password, and providing a link to, ideally, start the process of making an account... Except that server has also been dead for quite some time. However, you can still register for an account right here. After registering there, type in the details you gave, click the button with the green check, and after a short registration of your new world to your profile on the game's site, the game will begin. It'll ask you a question about laying eggs, starting with a pre-made family of norns, or just start the game without either; again, this is your choice, because you are now playing CE!
NOTE: If you're wondering about what the difference between a normal norn breed and an "Expressive" norn breed is in regards to the egg-layer machine, the "normal" breeds don't have the full range of facial expressions available in the game, making them appear permanently happy. "Expressive" norns will show ranges of emotions, such as sadness, fear, anger, and so on. You should probably hatch and breed expressive norns.
Chemistry and You
As with most virtual pets, creatures eat; unlike most virtual pets, however, there's actually body chemistry involved here. Creatures take in nutrients, process them into vital body chemicals, and use those chemicals to function. The three main nutrients that most creatures eat are starch, protein, and fat, and should they know a language, will talk about needing one or the other when they're hungry. They have brain chemistry that controls how they react in given situations, digestive chemicals that break down what they take in, and reproductive chemicals that allow them to have children. There's also the all-important life chemical ATP, which is basically the creature's life force and is used in nearly every reaction in the body; no ATP means a dead creature. There are also poisons and diseases to deal with.
A list of chemicals and how they react in the vast majority of creatures can be found here. That wiki is going to be coming up a lot, so make a bookmark out of it. Later in the links section, I'll make sure to put up a reminder.
Genetics
All creatures have a complete genome in this game that is unique to them. Their genetics control what kind of creature they are, how their bodies work, and most importantly, how each chemical will affect them. This last part is very important to how the game works--what is a poison to one creature may be absolutely vital to another.
Creatures follow most of our laws of genetics, save for one big one: their genetics are haploid. Unlike humans in which two genes (alleles), one from each parent, are inherited in a dominant or recessive state (remember those funny grid boxes?), creatures only inherit one allele from their parents, randomly determined. For example, if Dad has spotted arms and Mom has striped arms, there's a 50/50 chance that Baby will have spotted or striped arms. Let's say Baby is born with striped arms, meaning Mom won the coin toss. She won't inherit the gene from Dad, and will not pass Dad's arm gene down to future generations.
The genetic code for each creature can mutate before birth--as far as I'm aware, mutations do not occur after birth. This is where 99% of the genetic fun stuff, and in my opinion the great majority of the game, comes from. There are pretty much only two rules to genetic mutation in this game: the mutation can't remove the ability for the creature to die (though it can definitely come close), and the mutations always make sense from a code perspective ("if x, then y" can become "if x, then z" during a mutation, but it can't become "aweoruasfrldfjkcvnkl" as that would just crash the game). Everything else is fair game. Creatures can become immune to poisons or even gain nutrition from them; on the flip side, they can lose the ability to move their legs. Brains can grow extra lobes, new organs can form, colors can change, aging rates can be completely rewritten... Or you might just end up with a stillbirth. Horrible and wonderful things can happen with the genetics in this game.
As a side note, you should totally go sign the petition in the other thread on this forum to have GOG upload the breed packs. Those packs add some very fun and interesting genetics to the game, and are totally worth your time to go sign for!
Agents That I Find Very Useful
Multi-Agent Gold - The big draw of this is the light bulb button, which will instantly teach English to all of the creatures currently in the game. There's a couple other good buttons there, too, like the one that dispenses food and toys, but I get the most mileage out of the instant English, because I'm just far too lazy to drag my norns away from the Brain Sucker for hours on end...
MHLM (Right Click > Save As...) - ...Which is why I also install this. This modifies the Holistic Learning Machine (i.e. the Brain Sucker) so that it allows only one brain-sucking per creature.
Medical Monitor - This adds a monitor that continually tracks creatures and alerts you if they become sick. Handy for someone with a lot of creatures.
Balrog - To shamelessly plug a creation by myself, this is a fairly simple toy Balrog from popular independent game Cave Story. Kicks up dust clouds, says "Huzzah," and everything like that. Even reacts to being hit. The norn will probably also react to having hit him, since he's made of metal.
Apple Norns - This is probably the best player-created breed I've encountered. The image work is beautifully done and fits the game perfectly. They're more of a "genetically perfect" norn breed, having few genetic weaknesses that I know of. The reduced difficulty afforded by that makes it perfect for a beginning player, or someone like me who just wants a fun, relaxing pet to play with.
Grettin Switch - Installs a little button in the bottom left corner that, when clicked, expands and allows you to toggle the grendel and ettin egg-laying machines on and off.
I'll probably add more as I remember them.
Links
Sadly, most of the websites that once composed the Creatures community are now either dead links or dying ones, so a lot of the sites that I'd like to link here just wouldn't work. There are a couple that are just about indispensible though.
Creatures Wiki - Told you I'd remind you! Regardless of which version of Creatures you're playing, this wiki contains links to everything that you could possibly want to know about Creatures, and then some. There are links to agents and breeds, as well as to tools for developing for this game and how to use them.
Creatures Caves - This has a couple of agents that just don't appear on the Wiki's list, plus I find that the forums are still active and still a good place to find answers to questions you may have.
Breeders Beware - Some awesome metarooms here, as well as another one in development that I've really been keeping my eye on. Links to some very nice agents, as well!
As with the last section, I'll add more as I remember them.
So What Should You Be Posting Here?
I'm going to be maintaining this as a general answers and information thread. I'm sure that there are people far more versed in specific topics than myself, such as CAOS scripting and things of that nature--posts describing those things in detail are encouraged. This would also be a good thread to ask questions or talk about things that you just feel aren't deserving of their own thread.
Post edited January 02, 2011 by steelfoot
