In which Grendel Man posts Massive Pictures of his Latest World concept.

Well, I said my next post would contain pictures. For lack of a better option, I decided to just post five pictures of my current world concept.

This world, called "The Colony," was heavily inspired by Vampess's documentation of a similar wolfling run on her site. As such, it's a feral run set in a docked where the norns have the entire ship to run around in. The population is set to 20 (though there's 36 norns in the world at the moment, since that's what the population was set to before), and an ovicidal agent keeps the egg count at that level and speeds up generations. The first generation had ChiChis and Zebras in the DS part, and Bengals and Fallows in the C3 part. Every couple generations or so, I'll throw in a pair of norns from a different species to mix things up a bit. Oh yeah, and I mean norns, not creatures. It's a norn-only world at the moment, though I might toss in some grendels later.

With the expository banter out of the way, let's dump some pictures. 

The Norn Meso is one of two possible hatching locations. At the start of the run, it was home to ChiChi Norns and Zebra Norns, and still mostly is (though you can see a Fairyfloss Norn laying around on the lower level). Not much to note, other than that I re-added the default DS life.

The Norn Terrarium was home to the Bengals and Fallows at the start of the run, and was really popular for the first couple hours. At some point, however, the norns ate themselves out of house and home, and moved on to the other terrariums. It's in the process of recovering at the moment (there's only one norn in the room as of this picture, and he didn't make it into the shot).

After the Norn Terrarium was worn out, the Jungle Terrarium became the new norn hangout. For a while, it was so clogged that I eventually removed the main reason for its popularity: the Awkwood Creeper (though there's still Creepers in the Meso). It's still popular, although a fair few norns have moved on to the Desert Terrarium. Speaking of which....

The Ettin Terrarium was empty of creatures until I removed the Awkwood Creepers from the Jungle Terrarium. Then it became another popular norn hangout. I have to say, I'm really proud of the room setup in here - I consider this my best setup of Garden Box decorations thus far, and the wildlife came together so naturally. We'll see how the ecology responds to the nornish presence, though.

Here we have the least popular metaroom; the Aquatic Terrarium. I added a new level with some GB Decos and Magic Words room editing, though that really hasn't drawn creatures here. The aquatic plants are a mix of GB and default plants - due to being more robust, the GB plants are more numerous.

Finally, a shot of the Bridge. Thanks to the norn who brought up some Munchroom seeds, the Bridge is now less likely to cause Eat Elevator Syndrome, and is in fact surprisingly popular. It really isn't capable of sustaining a large population, though - most norns just grab some munchrooms, and then move on to one of the other metarooms.

I could post pictures of the Hub, Workshop, Comms Room, and Engineering, but there's really nothing pointing out in those parts.

I don't plan on posting regular updates about this world; that tends to burn me out (hence why Tevaela rarely gets posts). I might post something about it once every ten generations or so, though. Or if something really interesting happens.

Onto other things: As most people know, the CCSF is now underway. Despite the change in format, I personally believe that this one is shaping up to be one of the best ones yet (though given how amazing 2011 was, it has a tough act to follow). So, I'd contribute a lot to it, right?

Unfortunately, that's not how things turned out. Aquanornia Revamped wound up being my major release this year - after it, the only other things you can expect from me are updates to the GB sponges and the GB Gumin Grass. I've got ambition, but I'm more a schemer then anything - I think I follow up on about 5% of everything I dream up. I might release something independently over the course of the festival, but don't count on it.

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.

Status Update

In case you haven't figured it out yet, I've gone back to being on hiatus again, for the usual reasons (lack of interest, reality's getting in the way, etc.) As such, I feel I should probably say something about the state of my projects.

First off: The Sea Garden. I'm sorry to say that, due to a combination of various factors, that it's not going to be done in time for the CCSF. Shades of Past Seas and the 2010 CCSF, I guess. Instead, I'm planning on getting it out for Christmas at the latest.

The pack of genetic breeds that was supposed to go along with it is getting canned. In their place is a single genetic breed that follows the same theme. The replacement breed is in fact almost done; I just need to add one more feature to them and color them in.

In place of the Sea Garden, I've two metaroom updates planned.

One of them is for Past Seas. I've found the lift doesn't tell creatures using it to wait. While this isn't a really big problem since the lift only has two stops, I figured I might as well fix it to stop creatures from pushing/pulling the lift multiple times upon reaching their destination. In addition, I also want to fix the Eelgrass (again) to remove instances of the teleporting plant bug. Finally, I'm also planning on buffing the lifeforms so that they reproduce faster when their populations are low.

The other one is for Jennie's Aquanornia. While we do have Devil's Reef and Past Seas for non-swimming creatures, the former is a bit too thematic and the latter's rather small. Aquanornia, on the other hand, is both sizable and pretty generic for an aquatic area. As such, I've taken it upon myself to fix a few problems with it; such as the lack of CA/CA links and especially the fact that it didn't work with DS standalone (you'll still need C3 installed to use it, though). I also removed most of the C3 life that was originally in it, so now it's essentially an aquatic Biodome. I'm more or less finished with this one - I just need to compile the agent file and it's ready to go.

The final project is a few aquatic Garden Box agents, especially the Gumin Grass conversion that I originally lacked ideas for. In addition, I'm planning on converting some C2 stuff, some lifeforms from Aquatilis Caverna, and all the Past Seas lifeforms.

Apologies to anyone who expected the Sea Garden, but hopefully everything else that I'm releasing should help mitigate that issue somewhat.

Tevaela: Ms. Annoyance

While I'm still on this playing kick, I think an update about Tevaela is in order. I've decided that updates about this world aren't going to be frequent - instead, I'll sometimes post something about it if I've nothing else to say or report.

Since Queenie decided to integrate herself into the main population, Artura went and took her place out in the swamp, since she had developed a sudden hankering for mushrooms.

Watching Warpish the early riser interact with the other norns has proven to be incredibly amusing:

Warpish: Come on Himiko, let's make love!
Himiko: Get away from me!
Bonita: Lol.

Warpish: Actually, I think I like Bonita better.
Bonita: Oh crap. Oh no no no!

Queenie: Thank you, Artura, for getting me away from this nonsense.
Warpish: How about now, Himiko?
Bonita: Hey, guys! Come and get me too!

Bonita: *Calls the elevator again*
Queenie: Just as I was about to get out....

*Insert "girls' night out" music here*
Himiko: Let me in too!
Bonita: On second thought, this wasn't such a good idea.
Artura: Phew. That was a close one.

(In case you were wondering where Matoko was in all of this: she headed over to the swamp. She's a youth now, but seems to have dropped the color changing - she's still the same color she was as an adolescent).

Bonita: Screw this, I'm outta here.
Queenie: Finally, peace and quiet. Oh look, fresh creeper growths!
Himiko: This isn't good enough; I want to go higher! *Winds up going back down*
Artura: Stupid clingy elevators....

 Bonita: Heeello, Queenie!...
Queenie: Oh, shut up.

*Some time later....*

Warpish: Oh, we're all youths! I know, we should have an orgy! :D
Everyone else: D:

Next time, I expect that someone's gonna get pregnant. Most likely Warpish.

Okay, I got kinda carried away with the characterization there, but those were pretty much my thoughts while I was watching this. My mind goes to some odd places at times.

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.