Hera: Retraining of EVERYONE ]:

So after the painful process that was retraining Stella, I found myself having to do the same with Loorea:

Times like these I really wish I had a working brain-in-a-vat so that I  could have a little insight into perhaps -why- exactly, these norns insist on trying to literally eat everything in their range, and even some things that aren't, before they eat anything actually edible. The fact that this extreme level of stubbornness has occurred with both Stella and Loorea, and to some extent, Amina, makes me believe it's not genetic, but learned. Funny thing is, I don't recall encountering anything like this in all of my C3/DS life-- it's very reminiscent of C2, however. Maybe this is supposed to be some sort of hidden "feature" in C2inDS, hah!

Had a bit of a scare with PinkiePie earlier-- I noticed that she was resting for an awfully long time, and for ten minutes or so, didn't move or sleep, but simply rested, with a score of 100, occasionally complaining about hunger or boredom. Finally I gave her a couple smacks-- a scripted method for forcing creatures out of sleep (and so I hoped, rest). She quickly jumped to her feet and began eating and playing with toys again. I was relieved, but I had to wonder what would have happened if she hadn't smacked her. Would she ever have gotten up on her own? Would she have starved? Of greater concern, is this the result of a genetic fault that might be passed on to any offspring? I don't have any qualms with helping out when creatures are suffering, but if creatures are suffering genetically, the last thing I want to do is have them reproduce and create more potential suffering creatures. But maybe I'm thinking too much into this based on one incident; she could have just been really tired!

Since the great re-training, Stella and Loorea have been doing alright on their own! For a while, Amina was stuck to Loorea's hip, following her around everywhere repeating "Approach norn." It was nice to see the girls socializing together, and they seem to be doing pretty well for themselves! I wish they would travel a bit more without my prompting them to push elevators, but oh well.

All this time spent retraining and guiding everyone in the right direction, I tabbed over to realize that Rishi was growing up, and fast! Gladly, she seemed pretty capable of caring for herself, wearing a big smile when I asked her to express. She's still hanging out in the swamps with Lilac, but neither of them are at all shy about using the elevines to climb from branch to branch. I hope they eventually finds the courage to leave the swamp; I think they might make great explorers. It won't be long now before Rishi is of breeding age, and while she won't be doing any breeding in the traditional sense, she'll be old enough to start getting scored. I think at that point, barring any more serious tragedies, I'll go ahead and up the breeding limit to eight, to allow for two more offspring in the world.

I'll admit, this is holding my interest for a lot longer than I expected it to. Maybe it's something about the scoring system that makes it a little more compelling. Funny, considering in all my attempts to make creatures more attachable, something as left-brained as a numerical score never came to mind. But it does make a very good at-a-glance indicator for who is taking care of themselves and who needs a little guidance (that, and these creatures seem to... need an awful lot of guidance). Maybe I'll think of implementing the scoring system as a separate script eventually, maybe with a sort of control panel that lets you control what, exactly, calculates into the score. I dunno, it's something to think about.