Genetic Mysteries: The Case of GrM0262

 

Ten years ago (why am I so old?), I was running a series of grendel wolfling runs with the goal of reaching generation 1000, after which I'd take the final result and use it as a base genome for a new genetic breed. I still have that goal of reaching generation 1000 on my own someday, but alas generation 300 was as far as I got. Nevertheless, I shared three packs of grendels, one for every 100th generation milestone. 

On the approach to generation 300, the run was suddenly stricken with an epidemic of sliders (creatures who lack pose genes and thus can't move; if you try leading them with the hand they "slide" along the ground, hence the name) and other such maladies. And among the individuals in the run was GrM0262 (a clinical name given to him by Kezune's Wolfing Autonamer, which I used to track generations in the time before I made my Wolfling Nametagger). 

All of the genomes I used to start the run and continued to add new generation 1 creatures from were CFE based and included all of their immortality preventing edits. Yet somehow, GrM0262 was immortal; he was going on 17 hours of age for genomes that died under the five hour mark. I naturally exported him as soon as I realized and set about trying to figure out what went wrong.

At the time, I never did, and the best anyone else could figure out was that he was extremely vulnerable to injury and basically all of his organs were dead. Ten years later, I came to a realization about what the cause could've been...and not only was it figured out, but it lead to the discovery of yet another oversight with the vanilla genomes.

Genetic Mysteries: The Grendel Twitch

 If you've ever played with the vanilla C3 grendels or any creatures based on their genome (such as CFE grendels, or Osiris Norns), you may have noticed they have a tendency to dance. That is, sometimes while they're doing something else they'll randomly strike a pose for a second before going back to whatever it was they were doing. It's most noticeable in creatures suffering from EES; while other creatures just tend to stay locked up in one position, grendels tend to twirl around and around until they're snapped out of it. 

Since it's one of those things I find charming about grendels, I naturally sought the means to replicate it in other genomes. Since it also happened in creatures based on the vanilla C3 grendel's genome, I concluded that it had to be genetic somehow. However, what exactly was causing it was not so easy to figure out. 

Since it involved grendels striking a pose, I figured that it might have something to do with the pose or gait genes...but nope. The actual poses and gaits themselves are more or less identical in both the vanilla norn and grendel genomes, and while there's some differences in the receptors that trigger them replicating these differences in a norn didn't result in a norn that twitched. 

I could also confirm it had nothing to do with the brain, as all three species have the same brain structure in their vanilla genomes, and I also ruled out the grendel-specific chemical Grendel Nitrate (which reduces a creature's reluctance about hitting things, particularly other creatures; the brain gene responsible is actually present in all three species). So if not all of those, what was it?

My next guess was the involuntary actions (flinching, sleeping, etc.), as those also involve striking a pose sometimes. Grendels have two differences from norns involving those genes. One of them involved flinching from pain...but that wasn't it. The answer was in the other changed gene:

141 Different in file 1 201   0 Emb B MutDupCut        128   0 Organ# = 6, Creature, Sensorimotor, Involuntary action 7, chem=Air, thresh=77, nom=255, gain=255, features=Inverted Digital  (0) 

124 Different in file 2 201   0 Emb B MutDupCut        128   0 Organ# = 6, Creature, Sensorimotor, Involuntary action 7, chem=Air, thresh=77, nom=255, gain=0, features=Inverted Digital  (0)

Involuntary Action 7 is drowning. This particular gene works by checking for the level of the Air chemical produced by a creature's body. Since it's set to Inverted, it triggers at low levels of the Air chemical rather than high levels.

In a norn (the first gene listed), both the nominal and the gain are set to max. Nominal can be thought as as the "default" level the receptor fires at if the associated chemical's level is below the threshold. Gain, meanwhile, can be thought as the level the receptor fires at if the chemical's level is at or above the threshold. And it's set to Digital to basically act as an on/off switch; a creature is either drowning or it isn't.

In a norn that's not drowning (that is, has a normal amount of Air in its system), the gain is subtracted from the nominal, and since they're both the same that's a value of 0 and thus the receptor doesn't fire. Should air drop below the threshold, it's not subtracted and the nominal value of 1 takes over, triggering the involuntary action.

In the grendel (the second gene listed), the gain's set to 0. So the nominal value is the only thing determining whether or not it's firing, and it's set to 1. So the receptor's always firing, regardless of the level of air in a grendel's system.

So that charming grendel twitch? That's what the drowning involuntary action looks like (if the grendel was underwater it'd also produce bubbles). So the twitch means grendels are always drowning. Which...isn't so charming. 

Fortunately, the drowning involuntary action is separate from the actual breathing of the creature and doesn't impact their quality of life at all, so while vanilla grendels might technically be drowning all the time they're still breathing normally so long as they're not underwater or affected by anything else that could impact their Air levels.

The CFF and beyond changed how drowning works as part of the larger cycle based around lactate and pyruvate, so grendels based on those genomes shouldn't twitch any more. Which is fine, since CFF and beyond also added a stimulus gene to make creatures scared while they're drowning, so if it worked like how it does in vanilla grendels you'd get grendels that are scared all the time. 

Suffice to say, now that I've learned what makes grendels twitch, I've decided that it's not worth reverting the changes to drowning in my standard genome, whenever I decide to start working on it. Which might be sooner rather than later; I'm a little stuck on my ettin genome at the moment, and I know I'm probably going to get a lot more use out of my grendel genome than my ettin genome.

Until the next one, folks.

The Grendel Garden

Recently I managed to set up a wolfling run world, in order to start up a new project. I could just post a picture and a description, but that'd be a bit boring. So instead, have a video:

It's a wolfling run world (well, technically a feral run, but I don't interfere all that often) set in Veridia. I wasn't aiming for anything in particular with the room setup, other than maybe encouraging the grendels to move around more.

Most of the food sources come from the Garden Box. There's four permanent patches; three large patches on Veridia's lower level (apples on the right, explodonuts on the left, and carrots in the middle), and a small patch of mushrooms growing up in the egg hatching area. There's also a number of seasonal patches. In addition to the Garden Box, there's also a few potted plants and vendors scattered around, mostly in the upper level. There are no non-permanent food sources.

The participants are grendels, based on the ChiChi Norn genome. Every ten generations or so, I export a sixth of the population (six males or six females, depending on which gender has the majority at the time) and replace them with fresh firstgens that have additional genes I'd like to add to the main population.

At first, the population only had some edits to make them more grendel-like, but currently I can say that they breed rather quickly and have the same aging rate and lifespan as a banshee grendel. At the time this video was recorded I was trying to breed in resistance to crowding, but so far I'm not certain how that's working out.

Their appearance is a mixture of standard C3 Grendel, Banshee Grendel, and Mask Grendel sprites. I did try introducing Zwergbunt Grendel sprites, but they didn't seem to have stuck.

The max population is 24, and an Ovicidal Machine keeps the amount of eggs around that limit as well. I plan on continuing the run until generation 100.

Since recording a video like this really isn't a problem for me, I'm thinking there'll be more videos like this eventually. However, most of them won't be as long as this one. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd like to hear them.

On a completely unrelated note to all of this, I'm almost to 100 posts on this blog (took me long enough). I may or may not have something special planned for the 100th post....

Until the next one, folks.

P.S.: The music in the video is Agniratha, Imperial Capital, from Xenoblade Chronicles. It's a great game with a great soundtrack; if you have a Wii and come across a spare copy, I highly recommend picking it up.

An Interesting Fact + Another Status Update

As I've stated multiple times, I've made a lot of stuff over my time as a Creatures developer. In particular, I've drawn attention to the fact that I've made over 100 genetic breeds (counting the breed I'm making for the CCSF, which is indeed a grendel, 70 of those are C3/DS grendel breeds). Out of curiosity, I decided to calculate just what percent of C3/DS grendel genetic breeds were mine.

Counting in my stuff from the Norn Adoption Center and the breedlist at CU7, there are 112 total grendel genetic breeds. I didn't count "spritemixes" (such as Angelneko's Little Sea Monsters), and I didn't count full breeds (such as the Dusky Grendels), but I did count updated versions of previous breeds (e.g. the Waterfall Grendels V1, V2, and V3 were all counted as separate breeds).

Calculating it all up using the percent formula (70/112 * 100), I figured out that roughly a whopping 62.5% (rounded up) of C3/DS grendel genetic breeds were my work. Granted, I imagine this number is a little lower since there's bound to be a few undocumented breeds I didn't catch, but still. I've made over half the genetic grendel breeds available to the community. Talk about leaving one's mark.

Now, the percent of all genetic breeds that are mine is probably a lot lower than the factoid I just posted, but that's a calculation for another time.

Okay, enough boasting about my achievements - time for a mini-status update. The mini-hiatus mentioned in my previous post is over now, and I've gotten to work on my CCSF releases. I've completed the Aquanornia update (it just needs to be sent to Jessica now) and the Gumin Grass for the Garden Box (which I would consider to be the best plant I've coded yet), as well as fixed a few things that bothered me about the GB Sponges. I still need to complete the genetic breed (if you want to help me by dropping a suggestion or two in this CCaves topic, it would be much appreciated), and I've only started converting a few AC agents. Next in line after the genetic breed is the Past Seas update, and after that I'll finish up the GB conversions.

On top of that list, Mea and I started another metaroom collab. I wouldn't count on this one being out for the CCSF, since it only got underway a few days ago, but I'll post a preview of it here once I get it in-game, as well as revealing what exactly it is (provided Mea doesn't post it on her blog once she's done with it).

So far, so good. Apologies about the picture-less posts; I swear my next post will have some sort of image in it.

I'm back, baby

...Well, kinda.

I've decided against retiring - as annoying as some people can be, I enjoy being a member of this community, and I enjoy contributing to it. Sure, sometimes I get a little bored, but as far as I'm concerned I'm going to be a part of this community until I die or until there isn't a community to be a part of. On top of that, Creatures is my favorite franchise; sometimes I get a little bored with it, but ultimately I've been playing the games for almost, if not over, ten years and I see no reason to stop now. Yes, there will be hiatuses, but you won't have to worry about my departure.

So what's the best way to celebrate this decision? Well, how about a genetic breed release? This one isn't quite as fancy as some of my more recent works - actually, it's quite a simple breed - but it was a nice way to ease back into development, and the previous version of it sorely needed an update anyway. So, without further ado, I present...

Not a whole lot to these guys: they're exactly what it says on the tin. They're banshee grendels that are (mostly) nice to your norns and aren't angry all the time. They feel at home in the norn home (though they still enjoy the grendel home, mind you), and have the same sort of camaraderie with norns as they do with other grendels. They're great if you like the banshee's appearance, but not their anger issues.

Download the Friendly Banshee Grendels!

It'll probably be a while before I get back to work on the Sea Garden and the breeds going with it (in fact, I might not get them done in time for the CCSF - I have a backup plan in that case, however). In the mean time, this release should hopefully tide you over for a while.

Rant: Much Ado about Crappy Norn Breeds that don't Deserve the Slot Space They were Given.

Most people who frequent CCaves are aware of the BorgNorn revival project being headed by Annex. I liked the Borg Norn Lite version when I used it - they're fun to mess around with. So the project has my interest.
Why am I mentioning this? Because of the breed slot suggestions that have been popping up in there. My suggestion was Geat Q since the Primrose Norns in that slot aren't particularly well done and have a better version made by Norngirl. The next suggestion that came up was Grendel E, made by Sam999, apparently so he can have the Borg Norns in his game.

WARNING: Incoming furious rant with lots of censored profanity. Viewer caution is advised.

First off: He could have them in his game regardless of what slot they were in, so that's not a good reason. Secondly, the apology at the end of his post came off as incredibly condescending, like his opinion was the word of God. Finally, why the heck was his first thought a grendel slot? One with a Grendel breed already in it, no less?

Knowing Sam, I'm pretty sure he was the same person who put down the Fayen Norn idea down at the Creatures Wiki; an idea that really, really ticked me off. Why? Someone suggested putting a GOD. ****ING. ****. NORN BREED. in the SAME. ****ING. SLOT. as the Banshee Grendels. Why? Because they aren't legally available anymore and "don't work on Macs."

Really?

What the **** was the person who wrote that entry thinking? "Oh, the only official Grendel breed ever made is no longer available, so that slot is technically open. I know! That's the perfect slot for a NORN breed! Certainly that won't annoy the **** out of all the Grendel fans, because Norns are so perfect that they deserve to fill every single slot in the game!"

Really. That was that person's first thought? Even though there's a ton of crap in the Norn and Geat slots that no one will miss if it gets overwritten, they wanted to put a ****ing norn breed in Grendel B, a slot that should belong to the Banshees alone, or failing that a quality Grendel breed that will fill the void they left behind when the Gameware shop went down. 

Okay, furious rant is over with.

This sort of mindset annoys the crap out of me. I know Norns are supposed to be the centerpiece of the series, so I'm not angry at the fact that there's a lot of norn breeds - that's to be expected. What I'm annoyed at are the people who put norns in grendel and ettin slots, especially if they ignore all the junk that's in the norn and geat slots, and especially if said norn breed is a lazy recolor (biggest example: The Crimson Norns - they're barely altered from the original sprites!).

Being the major Grendel fan I am (in fact, Norns were never my favorite species - I've always liked Grendels or Ettins better), I'm naturally of the belief that we need more quality Grendel and Ettin breeds, not more Norn breeds who take up those slots. Granted, I'm willing to excuse the offense if the Norn breed is really well done (the Aqua Norns, for example - sure they look goofy, but you can't say that they aren't a well-done breed). It's the recolors that tick me off.

It's not just the recolors, actually - I get very annoyed whenever someone suggests putting a norn breed in a slot that's already occupied by a grendel (or ettin, to a lesser extent). In that case, I really don't care how good the norn breed is, in that case. I will continue to loathe that breed until the creator decides to move it. Admittedly, I originally thought this way about grendel breeds who share the same breed slot, but I've moved past that period now.

 As such, I'm happy to see that most breed-makers these days put their norns in the norn and geat slots, overwriting the crappy and/or lazily done recolors that were originally in those slots. Hopefully, this trend continues into the future. Keep those norns out of the grendel and ettin breedslots, people. Support Creature Equality!