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[Girlinhat]

What do you mean it deteriorates?

[Rhodan]

There are a couple of bugs in the ecology systems in some of the terrariums in C3, causing some species of plants and smaller critters to go extinct.  Most of those have been fixed by modders so if you search around a bit (or ask on the forums) you'll have a lively ship forever and ever until you mess things up yourself.

The 'Gaia' thing was a rather buggy 'fix' that addressed the problem by just re-injecting new critters when old ones would go extinct and really didn't fix anything. It looked rather ugly, too.

[Neonivek]

There are a couple of bugs in the ecology systems in some of the terrariums in C3, causing some species of plants and smaller critters to go extinct.  Most of those have been fixed by modders so if you search around a bit (or ask on the forums) you'll have a lively ship forever and ever until you mess things up yourself.

The 'Gaia' thing was a rather buggy 'fix' that addressed the problem by just re-injecting new critters when old ones would go extinct and really didn't fix anything. It looked rather ugly, too.

Well if there are other fixes then perfect!

Also yeah Gaia was rather ugly, so I ignored it.

--

Also I kinda wish the Creatures kickstarter happened a bit back instead of WAAY back.

I just know it would have got a lot more funding had it happened when the Kickstarter boom occured.

[jockmo42]

On a bumping spree today I guess. C3 was always my favorite, but it was because I had the chance to play 1, then 2, then 3 in quick succession. I loved each for their own reasons, but 3 and DS are what I'd call the most advanced. You can wire up turrets to creature detectors so that these guns can auto-track grendels in range, or wire health monitors to med-bay teleports so creatures who are sick get auto-contained, all kinds of crazy stuff that wiring opens up, not to mention how much more you can do with it if you get a few downloads from the community.

The best C3 game you'll play is the first few times. After that it becomes a bit more formulaic and nothing surprises you anymore, and it makes the game feel a bit cold. I still boot it up once in a while to mess around with new downloads though.

I also had something that did well to replace Gaia, it was an ecology control panel for every C3 room that allowed you to spawn animals without using the weird bio-scan spawner derp thing that didn't even have all the choices. I don't remember where I got it though.

Wish they'd get those games on Steam. It'd do a lot to encourage more of that old feel if a lot of people played them. The new creatures 4 game coming out seems like a pretty casual bastardization of the games that we're talking about. I hope I'm wrong.

[Rhodan]

The developers posted a lot of detailed information about the games on their blog, and I've had a few chats with them when they logged into the Creatures chatroom.

So far it seems Creatures 4 is still as complex as the previous games in terms of genetics and brains and behaviour. They basically took the previous engine and went from there.
They added 'cosmetic' genes on top of the regular genes to make breeding of Norns more visually interesting. Which will probably have the same side effects you get when breeding actual pets for their physical characteristics. A lot of cats and dogs are prone to certain genetic illnesses because of focused breeding.
The game will also feature 4 genetically different breeds of Norns right from the start, such as bulky cave bears norns and finned aqua goblins norns that can breathe underwater. Mixing these breeds could be a lot of fun.

The only real downside I can think of is the free2play model, but since the free aspect of the game will be just as deep as the original games, and the 'paid' aspect is mostly cosmetic I don't think people should complain about getting a free game.

The collector's edition will also feature the old games, a norn figurine and the value of the collector's edition in in-game money.

[Neonivek]

the 'paid' aspect is mostly cosmetic I don't think people should complain about getting a free game.

Is it extra norns?

[DeKaFu]

This is the first I've heard of Creatures 4. It looks... hm.

One thing that stands out and bothers me:

As shown in the demo, whenever the player's Norns reproduce the player can choose what features are inherited from the parents using sliders to control what feature if they want the Norn to more closely resemble one parent than the other. There are limits imposed from the norn's genetic code on how customisable their appearance is, as they inherit their potential appearance from their parents.

Just...  What's the point of breeding if you get to customize the outcome?!

[Labs]

stuff

You there, I see that avatar.

[Matz05]

Wait WHAT!?

Cash-shop breeds?
"Select cosmetic mix percentage" for all eggs?

What's next, "Coming soon: only on iPhone and iPad!"?

I can see why the lead guy bailed.

[Rhodan]

Cash-shop breeds?

Cash-shop breeds haven't been confirmed, but if there are any, how are they different from the additional breeds you could purchase for C2 and C3? Other than the base game being free this time.

Just...  What's the point of breeding if you get to customize the outcome?!

The cosmetic mix percentage thing was part of the very first demo at Gamescon 2011. A lot of things have been changed since then and those sliders will only appear when you're actually using genetic machinery to mess with the outcome. (I also don't get why you don't see the point of breeding anymore, doesn't the very bit you quoted state that the possible outcomes still depend on the parents?)

What's next, "Coming soon: only on iPhone and iPad!"?

The game will be available on PC, Mac, iOS and Android with seamless switching between platforms.  Play on your Mac at work, play on your Android phone on the bus and keep on playing on your PC at home.

The lead guy, by which I assume you mean Steve Grand, has only been involved in Creatures 1.

[DeKaFu]

(I also don't get why you don't see the point of breeding anymore, doesn't the very bit you quoted state that the possible outcomes still depend on the parents?)

This is my inner biologist showing through, but I think realistic breeding and genetics are really cool.
That quote makes me picture this scenario: Mother is blue, Father is yellow. They lay an egg and you get to decide if the baby is blue, yellow, or any shade of green in between. Father has horns, mother has no horns, you get to choose if the baby has horns, no horns, or small horns.

That's really not genetics. That's a character creator with a couple limitations thrown in. If that's the way the final game operates it's an instant dealbreaker for me.

[Rhodan]

Well, like I said in a previous post, the regular genes still exist. And you'll only get to choose the cosmetic genes that get inherited if you use one of the genetic machine thingies. A natural birth will have a random mix of both parents' genes, both cosmetic and, umm, non-cosmetic.
So if you're mixing and matching norns just to get a blue one with yellow spots, you might end up breeding in some genetic defects since the underlying genes wouldn't get weeded out. Something that happens in real life a lot with dog and cat breeding. Your inner biologist ought to like that, no?

Norns can still have all sorts of genetic diseases like the ones they had in previous game. Infertility, rapid aging, missing organs, amnesia, dementia, insomnia, cheese allergies, anger issues, the works. (I know some of these aren't really genetic diseases, but they are when they happen in Norns)

[Girlinhat]

Or, to put some fears to rest: Breeding will occur with the usual norm standards.  When you unlock a fancy device later in the game, you get access to the slider.  Until then, it's old-fashioned bashing norms together until something works the way you want!

Probably.  I have no idea, but that's probably how it'll be done.

On that note, Creatures 2.  Any advice on how to go about bashing norms together to get interesting children?

[Ozyton]

I just wanted to point out there's a sale on GoG, not sure how long it will last though.

Now to just find time to try them out. I remember playing these when I was younger but I didn't know what was going on, but now we have magic/internets =3