Darn Genetics.

Well, around generation 300+ in ColorRush, I got tired of seeing a bunch of norns bumming around in the workshop, somehow stupidly happy and alive despite doing hardly anything. They apparently had no desire whatsoever to push the door-- they all liked to crowd around it, but I'm pretty sure no one left that workshop for a good 50 or so generations.

I finally compared the genome of one of the random norns to the orginal Siamese CFE genome and wasn't really surprised to find a ton of odd mutations. There were over 300 genetic differences--more than a third of the genome had changed.

For one, his Hunger For Protein drive was associated with Pain. So I assume if you beat it senseless it would start complaining of hunger, but I'm not about to try it. Furthermore, his Boredom drive was associated with fear. That made me laugh a bit; I can image a norn facing a huge monster only to yawn and start complaining of boredom.

Organ repair rate for a few organs was affected by EDTA instead of Prostaglandin. There was a male-specific gene regarding how to deal with pregnancy. The genes to raise and lower sex drive in certain siutations had mutated so they were ineffective. Hunger for protein backup dissolved into nothing while Hunger for fat backup became coldness, but that didn't matter because hunger for fat would become hunger for carb backup if the need arose.

Hearing creatures speak actually made it lonely instead of crowded. Eating critters apparently relieved pain. Pushing pests relieved boredom.

There were a ton of insiginifcant mutations, just little changes in some of the values so some reactions took place a bit faster or slower. There were also a lot of genes I just didn't really understand because I'm still far from being a genetics expert. But it was an interesting experiment if nothing else.

I'm not entirely sure what to do next. But I probably should wait until after I'm finished with my senior project to worry about that.