It's Evolution.... Just Evolution....

The Realm now has 100 posts. Only took me over two years to do it. No matter how long it took, I do think it's something worth celebrating. And I have just the things. 

Remember that wolfling run I mentioned last post? Well, I had a bit of an ulterior motive for running it beyond just my amusement....

Meet the Darwin Grendels, named after the famed Charles Darwin and created from the results of the wolfling run. They are very robust and can live in all sorts of environments short of a toxic world or underwater. They also breed very quickly, making them ideal if you want to just watch a population in action. 

At long last I feel I've satisfied my desire to make my own GoM-like breed, and I have to say I'm pretty happy with the final result.

Download the Darwin Grendels!

That's not all I have, however. The Darwin Grendels had to have come from somewhere....

The Garden Grendels are the forerunners of the Darwin Grendels. Their genome (or genomes, rather) were taken straight from the Grendel Garden and composed into an egg agent, and they're offered alongside six grendels from the population at the end of the wolfling run. They aren't as refined as the Darwin Grendels are, but they should prove to be just as capable as their descendants. 

Download the Garden Grendels!

And that's still not everything. This last release is only tangentially related to the Darwin and Garden Grendels, although it was tested and eventually became part of the wolfling run. 

The result of my latest collaboration with Mea, this acorn patch plant will add a much-needed seed to the Garden Box. The acorns themselves are fairly unremarkable, though your creatures will likely find them delicious. 

Download the Garden Box Acorns!

Phew, that was a fair few releases. Actually, there would have been even more had I not burned myself out towards the end (though chances are the stuff I had planned will be created and released at a later date). 

At any rate, I hope you enjoy the new releases! 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.

We'll Drink a Drink a Drink....

So today I had a hunch to make something, and so I did. It's nothing really spectacular, but it seems like a good first release of the year.

This is a conversion of Steve Dismuke's Medicinal Compound for C3/DS. It is most efficacious in every case, whether it be helping a sick creature get better, or for healthy creatures looking for a quick way to get smashed. Might not want to let that latter category overindulge themselves.

All credit for the original Medicinal Compound goes to Steve Dismukes. It was one of my favorite C1 COBs, and I hope he doesn't mind the fact that I've converted it over to C3/DS.

Download the Medicinal Compound!

Chione Update

For the third year in a row I have a Chione update ready for release. It's looking like it's going to be some kind of odd tradition that'll end awkwardly once Chione's more or less completely finished.

Sadly, there's still no life in this room. Instead, I've changed how the transportation pillars work. Originally, they became invisible after a creature used one to prevent them from speeding past their intended destination. After testing with the similarly coded elevines, however, I found that this method could lead to increased chances of Eat Elevator syndrome should the creature not find what it's looking for at its destination. 

The new lifts instead flash their buttons for a short time before transporting the creature. It still works to make sure the creature actually stays on the level it intended to reach, but by keeping the elevator visible it helps reduce instances of EES. 

This new update can be downloaded from the Metarooms section of my C3/DS Downloads, or you could save yourself some clicking and just get it here.

Until the next one, folks. I'll see you in 2015.

'Tis The Season....

...To spend time with your loved ones, eat lots of cookies, open presents, and maybe go completely bankrupt because Christmas is just that commercialized these days.

Tralalalala, lalalala.

I'm no Santa Claus, but I do have some gifts for you to enjoy today. Neither are actually Christmas-related other than being released today, but I hope they're enjoyable anyway.

Release #1 actually ties into one of my CCSF releases....

 I may not have considered the pack of grendels I released to be a full breed, but some tweaks to the genome later they now are. This version of the Artemia Grendels has all the features of the pack, along with some further refinements to make life in Artemia Sea easier for them.

Download the Artemia Grendels!

The next release also happens to be an aquatic breed of sorts.

*Brief interlude to actually finish the banner because I somehow forgot to do that earlier*

....Ahem. 

This is a new genome for the Aquanorns created by Tomtschek. They're mostly similar to the originals, although they've been freshened up with all the recent advancements I put in my genomes these days (including the CFE and some CFF edits) and have some new features they don't share with the originals. 

Download the New Aquanorns!

Sadly I wasn't able to squeeze a third thing in. The closest thing I managed was updating the Featured Freak, and what better way to celebrate the holidays than with a cold-loving...dragon? Well, Abaasy wasn't intended to be really festive. 

Have a Merry Christmas, everyone!