A New Base Genome: The Essence of Ettins

 With my standard norn genome in a more or less good state, I decided to go ahead and start working on my ettin genome. Since it worked out pretty well for the norns, I decided to just do a feral run for the ettins from the very start. I made a docked world, set it up, and then went about creating the initial ettins.

As I said before, I'm not going about making my ettin genome by porting over all the edits I made to the ChiChi genome over to the original 2017 ettin genome. Sure, the 2017 ettin genome probably functions a lot better than the vanilla ettin genome, but the vanilla ettin genome is a rather shaky foundation to be building anything on. There's a lot of problems with it, including but not limited to a wonky biochemistry compared to norns, drives that are out of whack (especially fear), a supposed immunity to certain antigens that actually makes them a lot more vulnerable to bacteria carrying those antigens, and so on. It really feels like vanilla ettins weren't designed to be a fully realized species in their own right as opposed to just a recurring nuisance for the player to deal with.

So instead I'm starting from my standard ChiChi genome and making my changes from there. Which raises the question: what's an ettin, and what's just a norn in an ettin's skin? Is an ettin based on a norn genome a "real" ettin?

Back when I was first starting out in the community in general, I came across Alien's Frendels. On their page, they made note of Lis Morris's Peace Grendels, particularly of the fact that they were based on a norn genome. Was that really a grendel, they asked? Hence the Frendels, who are the same concept but based on the actual vanilla grendel genome instead. 

I'm not sure if there ever was a big stink raised about such things, but my dumb teenage self took it as serious advice as I started my development journey. I especially remember using that logic when creating my first friendly banshee grendels (not the ones that are available for download here at the Realm, who are more recent. I'm talking "released on the Gameware Forums" old); I considered them "real" Banshee Grendels since they were derived from the Banshee genome as opposed to Alien's (who were based on her normal Frendel genome and thus on the vanilla grendel genome by extension).

Regardless of whether it was a widely held opinion or just me taking something way too seriously, I eventually came to the conclusion that this was a stupid thing to raise a stink about. As far as the game itself's concerned, a creature is what its genus gene says it is. An ettin's an ettin, regardless of it's a vanilla ettin, a ChiChi norn in an ettin's skin, or an outright ChiChi Norn that just has "ettin" as its genus.

And let's be real here. Did the developers at Creature Labs really make a brand-new genome from scratch for ettins and grendels, or did they just base them on the norn genome? The former route sounds like too much work for little payoff; it's a development shortcut I'd certainly make. If nothing else they at least carried the brains over; there's no difference between a vanilla norn's brain and a vanilla ettin's or grendel's. It's true in the lore too; all three species are in the same genus lore-wise and were all created by the Shee (even if the grendels were an accident).

So the important thing isn't the genome I base my standard ettins on; it's whether or not I feel like these ettins are...well, ettins. What do I feel like an ettin should be?

Basically, I want my ettins to build upon vanilla ettin behavior. I'd like them to be independent sorts, who wander the ship doing their own thing and only really seeking each other out to breed. They still steal gadgets as the vanilla ettins, but they also enjoy playing with the gadgets they hoard and also with machinery they happen to find. I'm also thinking they'd enjoy travel for travel's sake even if they're not seeking anything in particular. And while they wouldn't be as cowardly as vanilla ettins, they're still very wary of the other two species.

The ettins I started the feral run with basically were ChiChi Norns in ettins' clothing, just with any gene related to species changed appropriately (the biggest initial changes were adjusting the points where they changed lifestages, with the intent of giving ettins an earlier start than norns but still aging at roughly the same rate past that point, and making the entirety of the fight-or-flight organ dormant). However, it didn't take me long to make my first changes to the instincts and stimuli to get ettins to prefer messing around with technology, and the next batches of ettins I added stole gadgets and dragged them home just like vanilla ettins do. 

How far do I want to go with this? Is just changing their behavior satisfactory for me, or do I want to go farther and mess with things like their resistance to toxins and their susceptibility to heat? Vanilla ettins do have differences there (if I remember right, they don't actually feel hot or lonely at all).

Well...in any event, I'll be sure to note anything interesting over the course of development.

On a completely unrelated note, there's something I must amend. Way back at the start of this journey, I stated that TWBs/TCBs without their titular feature didn't seem to exist. As it turns out, I was mistaken: they do exist in the form of Uranium's Intell ChiChi Norns. They also bring in some features from the Gizmo genome as well, namely the biochemistry system. Had I known they existed, I probably would've tried them first before the original 2017s, and it's possible my standard genome wouldn't exist (or at least not in the form it does now). As it is, I'll likely give them a try at some point in the future.

Until the next one, folks.