For the new year, I decided to take a page from Alien and her Weekly Freaks and introduce a new feature to this blog: the Freak of the Week!
At the start of each week, I'll post a new genetically edited creature for you to download. These creatures aren't quite as in-depth as my genetic breeds, but nevertheless are built around concepts that may or may not become full breeds in the future.
If you want to share a genetic experiment of your own, then drop me an e-mail and you just might see your darling become the next Freak of the Week (but see the archives page for more details on this).
The first Freak of the Week is the ChiChi/Deep Norn cross Tianna, who requires specific living conditions for survival. Click her picture under the Freak of the Week to download her!
Edit: Apart from the Freak of the Week, I've also added my contact information right above the Fish Tank. Granted, my e-mail is included in the readmes of all my genetic breeds, but I figured I'd post it here as well so people wouldn't have to download something to get at it.
Risen Angel's Creatures blog, dedicated to the various ways the games can be played, altered, and sometimes completely broken.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Friday, December 21, 2012
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Doomsday
Right, this place has gone unupdated for a little too long, I daresay. My absence wasn't so much due to a hiatus or anything - it was because I was planning on releasing Chione for my new 50th post. However, I promised to release it only after Survivor filled up, and that's taking a freakishly long time.... Hence, lack of updates.
Where did the Oasis review go? Well, I deleted it mostly for the sake of my own sanity. It was a rant moreso than anything worth leaving up; just my disappointment at finding out how useless the room was for keeping creatures in. It sure as heck wasn't worthy of being the milestone 50th post. I'll post a far more fair review of the room at a later date.
Second thing: It's been a long while since the CCSF 2012, and I've just been plain lazy with putting my stuff up on my own website. So I'm going to take care of that now.
Second thing: the redone Aquatic Terrarium plants for the Garden Box. For the CCSF they were all in one .zip file, but here I'm packaging them separately. The sponges have had some bugfixes since the last release, but they're otherwise the same as last time. The Gumin Grass behaves somewhat differently from its original counterpart; it throws out fully formed seeds as opposed to growing them first, and will throw out fully developed sproutlings instead of seeds should the population get low. The seeds also go dormant if creatures outnumber the plants and seeds. These ones have been updated slightly since their release at the CCSF; they no longer throw out their seeds so quickly and the seeds themselves stick closer to the bottom.
Where did the Oasis review go? Well, I deleted it mostly for the sake of my own sanity. It was a rant moreso than anything worth leaving up; just my disappointment at finding out how useless the room was for keeping creatures in. It sure as heck wasn't worthy of being the milestone 50th post. I'll post a far more fair review of the room at a later date.
Second thing: It's been a long while since the CCSF 2012, and I've just been plain lazy with putting my stuff up on my own website. So I'm going to take care of that now.
My main contribution to this year's CCSF was this redone version of Jennie's Aquanornia. It's a lot emptier than the original, but that's because I took most of the C3 stuff out of it. It's now more or less an aquatic Biodome, and you can set it up how you please for your aquatic creatures' comforts.
Second thing: the redone Aquatic Terrarium plants for the Garden Box. For the CCSF they were all in one .zip file, but here I'm packaging them separately. The sponges have had some bugfixes since the last release, but they're otherwise the same as last time. The Gumin Grass behaves somewhat differently from its original counterpart; it throws out fully formed seeds as opposed to growing them first, and will throw out fully developed sproutlings instead of seeds should the population get low. The seeds also go dormant if creatures outnumber the plants and seeds. These ones have been updated slightly since their release at the CCSF; they no longer throw out their seeds so quickly and the seeds themselves stick closer to the bottom.
And now, we move on to the completely new stuff. As you might now, today was the widely predicted date of the end of the world. Predictably, jack squat happened. So, in celebration of the world's continued existence and the upcoming holidays, here is a crapton of releases!
I know I said I wasn't going to release Chione V1.1 until Survivor started. That's taking forever, and my patience is wearing thin. So instead, I'm releasing it as an early Christmas gift for the CC.
It's still empty of native flora and fauna, but now the room has teleporters and elevators, plus a weather system and some mapping fixes (no more stuck baby creatures!). I also moved it so that it no longer conflicts with the Biodome (though it might still overlap some other metarooms; I didn't bother to check to see if there was any in its new location).
Next up: a new genetic breed! These guys aren't the same breed I was going to release for the CCSF, but they're pretty similar in concept to that breed. You can consider them a belated addition to my CCSF releases.
The Aqua Grendels are pretty much generic amphibious grendels - they're amphibious, have a diet skewed towards critters and bugs, and heavily resistant to coldness. They're more placid than normal grendels, but that doesn't mean they're entirely norn friendly - they're still likely to attack your norns, only they'll do it out of crowdedness instead of anger.
Baby Aqua Grendels go for bugs by instinct - they won't start going for critters until adolescence. However, there aren't that many (edible) aquatic bugs to go around. With permission from Moe, I decided to change that....
These here are Shrimpton - the cute little water bugs that normally swim around in the waters of the Oasis. Since the originals weren't really receptive to creatures, I gave them some new code. They still behave similarly to the originals, but they're now classified as "bug" instead of "critter", and your creatures can play with and eat them. Make sure you have some plants lying around, though - they need them to lay their eggs.
Thanks to Moe for letting me rip the Shrimpton from the Oasis, and thanks to Ghosthande for making the Vendor sprite (as part of the Biodome Pack - there's some interesting stuff in bd-launchers.c16...).
This next release still ties into the Aqua Grendels, though it isn't as necessary for their comfort.
This update to the Aquatic Terrarium lowers the floor above the right entrance to the fish nursery, preventing baby creatures from getting stuck there and making the right tank navigable for non-swimming creatures. If you want a place for your non-swimmers to roam, but lack the space for a new metaroom, then this update might be for you.
Finally, I release a pack containing a look into the past....
This here is a large pack of C2 and C3/DS genetic breeds that I completed and zipped up, but for whatever reason didn't see fit to release before now. Most of it's pretty old, but don't that let that discourage you. Take a look; maybe there's a breed that tickles your fancy in there.
Yeah, a lot of stuff here. Hopefully, this will satisfy everyone's desires for a Christmas release (the Sea Garden, again, is nowhere close to being done and probably won't get released until sometime next year). Happy Holidays from Grendel Man, y'all!
Monday, November 5, 2012
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.
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
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.
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.
Saturday, October 6, 2012
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.
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.
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