While going to make female body data for the treehuggers, I noticed something that might be of interest to those of you who ever had messed-up body data for things like the C1toDS grendels or the Neko Ettins.
As it turns out, the official breeds (well, the norn breeds - I'm pretty sure the banshee grendels don't do this) not only install body data for the corresponding norn slot, but for the corresponding grendel and ettin slots (e.g. the treehugger norn agent installs body data for Norn H, Grendel H, and Ettin H). The extra BD isn't tailored for the grendels and ettins, either - it's a carbon copy of the BD the norns use.
The result? Any grendel or ettin who shares a slot letter with an official breed and lacks body data for any of the usual life stages (baby, adolescent, adult) will start using the body data the official breed installed when they hit that lifestage. Usually, that winds up making them look like this.
That junk BD is also part of the reason why automatic install from an egg agent isn't quite as reliable as installing a breed manually. When an automatic installer agent injects for the first time, it reads filenames, and if any of the files are missing it installs them to the correct folders. However, it only looks at filenames, and you can't tell the difference between two files by name and type alone if they share a name and type. So if the agent comes across one of the junk BD files installed by an official breed, it assumes that the file in question belongs to the breed it's trying to install and skips over it. Again, this results in grendels and ettins using BD meant for norns and looking very odd as a result.
Fixing it is relatively simple: Delete the body data for the breed slot in question, then reinstall the breed. With grendels and ettins that have typical proportions and lifestages, this means you can use the official agent again without repercussions as that agent will assume that the body data for the grendel or ettin breed is the same as the body data it's trying to install and skip over it.
However, for grendels and ettins that only have BD for one lifestage (the C1toDS grendels, for example), then you'll have to repeat this process every time you use the official norn breed agent whose slot has the same letter as the grendel's or ettin's. As such, it's a good idea to make copies of the one lifestage with original BD and rename them so they occupy the adolescent and adult lifestages as well, preventing the official breed agent from reinstalling the junk BD.
The official breeds only install BD for the male, as the female usually uses the same body data (although this practice causes issues on its own accord - try hatching a female treehugger in C3 standalone after installing the Gecko Norns, and you'll see what I mean). For this reason, it's more likely that you'll see messed up males than females, as it's the male slot that gets filled with garbage and not the female.
Why CL made it this way is beyond me. My best guess is that it's a failsafe should the original norn BD get deleted and the norns have to rely on grendel/ettin body data, but if that happens simply hatching another egg should fix it. As it is, the "extra precaution" wound up causing nothing but inconviences.
Hopefully, this little tidbit of info should help those of you who can't get their C1 grendels, Micro Grendels, and other grendel and ettin breeds to look right after installing them!
Risen Angel's Creatures blog, dedicated to the various ways the games can be played, altered, and sometimes completely broken.
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Monday, June 25, 2012
We are the Heart of Darkness....
Three release posts in a row - I seem to be on a roll here.
Anyway, I found that it has been a long while since I've made a properly new norn breed (the ice dragons were the latest norns I released, but those were made when the Gameware Forums were still up, which should tell you how old they really are). So, this latest release of mine shall remedy that:
These norns have nothing to do with the vampire romance series of questionable quality, so don't worry about that. :P
The Twilight Norns are a night-themed breed - they are resistant to cold, take less naps than normal norns, and can play with beasts, pests, and weeds with no impact on their well-being.
They're also loners, so watch them around your normal norns...they don't react well to crowds.
Anyway, I found that it has been a long while since I've made a properly new norn breed (the ice dragons were the latest norns I released, but those were made when the Gameware Forums were still up, which should tell you how old they really are). So, this latest release of mine shall remedy that:
The Twilight Norns are a night-themed breed - they are resistant to cold, take less naps than normal norns, and can play with beasts, pests, and weeds with no impact on their well-being.
They're also loners, so watch them around your normal norns...they don't react well to crowds.
For those of you wondering about Ark World, it's been called off - it was on my old computer, and I really don't feel like restarting it on my new one. To make up for that, I might detail my plans for my scenario world (which I'll start once the Garden Box gets publicly released).
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Yet another release (and an update)
First off, here's an update to the C2 Flying Creatures COB. I found that it had an error whenever a flying creature went underwater (it was supposed to kick them out if they fell in - instead it threw an error about an "infinite loop").
Secondly - I have a new release, and this time it hasn't come out of the blue:
The glowflower is a variation of the iceflower that increases the light level as opposed to decreasing the temperature. Its flowers are notable for their calming effect when eaten, and for their tendency to emit the home smell of the species they detect the most of. The plant only sprouts at night, in low light areas, or when there aren't many other plants around.
This was yet another plant I made for Mea as part of our "sprites for agents" deal. That's one more thing knocked off the projects list...
Secondly - I have a new release, and this time it hasn't come out of the blue:
This was yet another plant I made for Mea as part of our "sprites for agents" deal. That's one more thing knocked off the projects list...
A bunch of recent happenings on the internet drew my interest away from Creatures for a little while, but rest assured that this case is not a full-blown hiatus. I'm still playing Creatures, and I've still got a few things in the works. Do know that half the things in the project list post aren't coming to fruition, however (about the only things I'm sure are going to get done at some point are the Mea collabs).
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Oh hey, a release!
First off, an update about the blog: The name change has finally paid off. No more bad sites are contributing to the traffic here (although not all the current traffic sources are Creatures-related...the new non-Creatures source seems to be inoffensive, though). Also, I've changed the background again (the old one looked weird on my new computer, since its resolution is crazy high compared to my old one), and am now completely happy with the blog's design. I wouldn't expect any major design overhauls in the near future.
Now, for the main point of the post: I've actually finished a release! Unlike the grand majority of my past releases, though, this one is for Creatures 2:
This COB will allow creatures of all ages to fly, provided they have a sufficient concentration of chemical 218 (which is also used by the Angel Norn COB - don't use both in the same world, lest you have issues). On the surface, it's not much different from past flying COBs. However, this one brings along some extra scripts that give flying creatures control of their vertical velocity - no more grounded fliers!
This is the first C2 COB I've made and released - not exactly the most typical of first COBs, but I'm very proud of it. I plan on making a Swimming COB that makes use of the extra scripts to allow swimming creatures to control their vertical velocity as well - my first attempt didn't go over so well, though.
Now, for the main point of the post: I've actually finished a release! Unlike the grand majority of my past releases, though, this one is for Creatures 2:
This is the first C2 COB I've made and released - not exactly the most typical of first COBs, but I'm very proud of it. I plan on making a Swimming COB that makes use of the extra scripts to allow swimming creatures to control their vertical velocity as well - my first attempt didn't go over so well, though.
As for other projects...well, I've been having trouble focusing. I've been having major trouble trying to stay focused on one project without getting bored/frustrated and moving on to another. The lack of focus is the main reason for lack of activity right now since the other reasons for the hiatus are now a non-issue. Hopefully, I can get to work on some of my older projects (*coughseagardencough*) sometime soon.
Monday, June 4, 2012
Status Update
First off, I finally got my new laptop last Tuesday. It's an MSI 683US - in other words, a gaming laptop with a dedicated graphics card. Suffice to say, it's working beautifully - no more random slowdown and noisy CPU that probably wasn't healthy.
As far as Creatures goes, this thing runs C3 and DS (C3 from the Creatures Trilogy, and DS from the free install - I'm not touching Exodus with a 10 foot pole if I don't have to, given all the inconveniences I've heard about it) perfectly fine, along with all the programs necessary for development (in my case, that would be the Genetics Kit and CAOs Tool - I haven't gotten around to installing the Map Editor yet). So once I get around to developing again, there will be no issues.
But there's more - the increased processor can also handle FRAPs and Creatures running at the same time - in other words, I can record videos now as well. I still need to get the hang of editing and whatnot, but once that's done I might record a video of some of my projects (and possibly make promotional videos for the ones I've completed). Just don't expect commentary from me - apart from my not being very fond of vocal commentary in general (with a few exceptions), I'm not cut out for it since I'd trip over my own words 20 or more times in the attempt and the thought of it makes me nervous.
So does this mean the hiatus is over? Well...unfortunately, no. Quite the opposite, actually. The CC is being really, really quiet - the blogs are inactive apart from Geek2Nurse's, and most of the activity at CCaves is due to either newbies, the C4 forum, or both. I've almost no motivation to work on anything for Creatures right now (although I did try to create a better swimming agent while waiting for a chance to hook this thing up to the internet - I didn't get very far, unfortunately).
However, that's not the only reason I'm still on hiatus at the moment - the other major reason is that, since this computer can handle much more than my old one could, I'm playing other games that take advantage of the new processor and graphics card - especially StarCraft II. Brood War was one of my favorite games, and now that I can run the sequel without any issues, I've been playing it practically nonstop. So yeah, the "other games are more interesting than Creatures" reason is still very much in effect.
The final reason for the hiatus: the C4 hype is really starting to annoy me. I couldn't care less about Creatures 4, and that mindset isn't changing because its release is imminent. There are other games that I'm much more excited about (Pokemon Black and White 2, for example).
Between those 3 things, I can say that this hiatus is going to last for a while (at least for another month). I'm not certain when I'll get around to all the things I was working on, but know that I haven't abandoned them completely. I'll get back to them at some point.
As far as Creatures goes, this thing runs C3 and DS (C3 from the Creatures Trilogy, and DS from the free install - I'm not touching Exodus with a 10 foot pole if I don't have to, given all the inconveniences I've heard about it) perfectly fine, along with all the programs necessary for development (in my case, that would be the Genetics Kit and CAOs Tool - I haven't gotten around to installing the Map Editor yet). So once I get around to developing again, there will be no issues.
But there's more - the increased processor can also handle FRAPs and Creatures running at the same time - in other words, I can record videos now as well. I still need to get the hang of editing and whatnot, but once that's done I might record a video of some of my projects (and possibly make promotional videos for the ones I've completed). Just don't expect commentary from me - apart from my not being very fond of vocal commentary in general (with a few exceptions), I'm not cut out for it since I'd trip over my own words 20 or more times in the attempt and the thought of it makes me nervous.
So does this mean the hiatus is over? Well...unfortunately, no. Quite the opposite, actually. The CC is being really, really quiet - the blogs are inactive apart from Geek2Nurse's, and most of the activity at CCaves is due to either newbies, the C4 forum, or both. I've almost no motivation to work on anything for Creatures right now (although I did try to create a better swimming agent while waiting for a chance to hook this thing up to the internet - I didn't get very far, unfortunately).
However, that's not the only reason I'm still on hiatus at the moment - the other major reason is that, since this computer can handle much more than my old one could, I'm playing other games that take advantage of the new processor and graphics card - especially StarCraft II. Brood War was one of my favorite games, and now that I can run the sequel without any issues, I've been playing it practically nonstop. So yeah, the "other games are more interesting than Creatures" reason is still very much in effect.
The final reason for the hiatus: the C4 hype is really starting to annoy me. I couldn't care less about Creatures 4, and that mindset isn't changing because its release is imminent. There are other games that I'm much more excited about (Pokemon Black and White 2, for example).
Between those 3 things, I can say that this hiatus is going to last for a while (at least for another month). I'm not certain when I'll get around to all the things I was working on, but know that I haven't abandoned them completely. I'll get back to them at some point.
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