By now, I can happily say that I'm not going to be on hiatus any time soon. I've finally gotten the state of the Creatures install on my new computer close to where it originally was on my old one. I just need to install the map editor and find some way to get the GIMP Plugins and MNG Tools working and I'll be golden as far as development goes.
Only problem: where the heck is the rest of the community?
None of the main blogs have gotten new posts in months, CCaves is dead silent apart from a few newbies and will probably remain so until the revamp goes online, and it doesn't seem CTopia is any closer to getting out of the rut it's been in for the last year or so. One would think summer would be the peak of activity in a community like this, and yet it's the opposite. Either this summer is particularly busy for some reason (I know there's some people who are moving), or everyone's enjoying the break while it lasts. I envy that latter group - not having a social life outside the internet hurts sometimes.
I've heard that the best way to encourage activity is to be active, so I might as well make this blog interesting for the CC members who are just as bored as I am. So, I've decided to take some suggestions.
Is there anything you would like to see happen here? Interested in seeing a wolfling/feral run get documented? A few tidbits about projects such as the Flesheaters? CAOS/Genetics tutorials? Or heck, even a genetic breed/agent (that doesn't require new sprites) you'd like to see made? I'm open to all sorts of ideas.
In case you're wondering about some projects, I'm holding off on doing anything about the Sea Garden until I get the GIMP problem fixed, since trying to use the Sprite Builder for this sort of thing is both tedious and tends to create rainbow spew, and I'm not too convinced about Edos being a worthy substitute. No, it's not cancelled. On the other hand, I've finally come up with some sort of direction for the Sea Monsters V2 beyond "generic amphibious grendel breed" (they absorbed some features of the Merrow Grendels, which I briefly mentioned in a past post). Stay tuned - I'll probably talk more about the sea monsters in future posts.
Risen Angel's Creatures blog, dedicated to the various ways the games can be played, altered, and sometimes completely broken.
I feel your pain mate. Rest assured that although I haven't posted comments here, I've been reading all your recent posts.
ReplyDeleteI'd say some of the silence is due to the C4 delay, which many no doubt found disappointing.
Personally I just finished the main quest in Skyrim a few nights ago and the game is quickly losing its appeal.
Although I'm spending a bit of time working on a short 3D animation, hopefully some of my gaming time will now be directed back to Creatures.
As I'm more of a C1 fan I'm more interested in hearing stories about C3 stuff, rather than developments. I'd love to read some feral run stuff from you.
Yup, same here, I always watch but rarely post & I'm starting to get back into the swing of making sprites & backgrounds again. Hopefully I should be able to finish a background tonight & get it posted on my blog. Once that is done, I plan on getting back to work on the Sea Garden sprites so that they are hopefully finished by the time you get the GIMP problem fixed.
ReplyDeleteI'll try to get some more stuff posted for the wolfling run that I have running on Creaturetopia as well. I haven't forgotten it, I just get distracted. I do have a few other ideas for possible posts or topics on Creaturetopia, I just want to get some of the other projects I'm working on finished first.
I'm always interested in seeing wolfling & feral runs, & more info about the Flesheaters is very interesting to me as well. I've been doing some breeding experiments recently & as large as some of my populations become, I'm always interested in possible predators to bring the population back down to a more reasonable level. The current experiment is only 6th generation but there are over 100 creatures in that population. So I'm very interested in the flesheaters & how they might affect the evolution of a population of creatures. I'm starting to wonder if I should start a second blog to post some of the records for those breeding experiments. Do you think it would help get a bit more activity going in the community?
Because of the breeding experiments & a few mutant creatures that have hatched recently, I've become a bit more interested in try to mess around with genetics again. I'd eventually like to try & make a genetic breed based on that mutant creature, but my skills in genetic modification are very limited. So genetic tutorials are something I would definitely be interested in seeing.
Well, I'd be interested in reading about your experiments at any rate. I imagine it'd drum up some interest if you post them.
DeleteIf I do decide to start writing genetics tutorials, I should note that they aren't the newbie-friendly "here's how you make X do Y" sort of tutorial, since there's already an official genetics tutorial about that and Jessica's probably going to continue her tutorials at some point. Mine would be more geared around explaining some of the more confusing things about genetics (such as what "nominal" is, as the official C3/DS genetics tutorial is very vague about it).
Even if the tutorials are currently too advanced for me, the more tutorials the better is my opinion. :)
DeleteThe current generation of creatures in my breeding experiment was so large that by the time the last of the eggs had hatched, the first creatures that had hatched just reaching adolescence. I prefer to have all of the creatures be of breeding age before I start the selection process for the next generation, so that they are all on equal footing for the tests. Since you had mentioned looking for ideas for agents that don't require sprites, I was wondering if an agent that exports creatures once they reach adolescence would be a possibility? I know there are agents that remove creatures when they reach Old life stage, but I'm not sure if there are any that remove them when they reach breeding age.
I'm on my way back to becoming active again! Work was kind of crazy, and I also had to help take care of my mom while she recovered from major surgery. Your posts are always interesting, Grendel Man, so I'm not sure if I have a preference for anything. I do enjoy reading about wolfing runs, but your projects are always so unique!
ReplyDeleteI'd very much like to see some more advanced generic tutorials. I've got my head wrapped around most of the basics, but there's some things I've never been able to find out. If you were able to fill some blanks that would be awesome.
ReplyDelete