Hera: Tragedy? Already?

I... forget sometimes, that when left to run feral, norns can...forget that the hand is supposed to be their almighty authority. Amina was a wonderful example of this. In my quest to find her a friend, I attempted to verbally guide her through the motions of leaving her little den and venturing out into the world. Never have I felt so completely ignored by a norn! After a few slaps, I finally got her to look at the elevine, and start to walk toward it, but then she would get distracted, and start looking at the apples and carrots, still whining about her loneliness. I had to keep spamming Ctrl+S, and finally, finally she made her way to the surface and started walking out towards the bridge to the island.

A little exhausted and frustrated by all this effort, I went to check on the others. It looked like Xuxu had found a friend after all! The two were happily playing in a bounty of food, but Xuxu maintained a score of 100, the worst score one can have. All creatures start out with the worst score, and it was still early on, but it was still a little worrisome. Even Stella, who hadn't traveled far from her spot at all had managed to take her score down by 16 points already.

I was a little worried, yes. But I didn't expect him to....suddenly drop dead.

 

... What happened? I really wish I knew. They weren't slapping, the hoverdoc showed no signs of disease or high drives. Could it just be faulty genetics? It's possible, but it might also be that my script is being a little bit more aggressive than I hoped it would be. If a creature has a terrible score for an extended amount of time, its life chemical is supposed to slowly decrease, resulting in an overall shorter lifespan for creatures that don't care for themselves. But it certainly isn't supposed to cause sudden death! I'll let it slide this time-- any number of things can make a creature drop dead, but if it happens again, some tweaking may be in order.

And poor Stella; she seemed so upset...

 It was almost touching....

 .....

And this, my friends, is why I write things like the peaceful death script.

Ugh...Stella. I know instinctless norns are known for their openness and willingness to try new things but.... come on, really?

After that craziness, I was willing to go check on Amina again:

Excuse me while I bang my head into the wall.

After lots and lots of verbal guidance, ctrl+s spamming "right", I finally got her to wander over to the island and investigate the coconuts. There we fought, again. Eat seed. Eat fruit. But no, she wanted to eat leaf, a leaf that wasn't even edible, and when she complained of boredom, I tried to get her to push the horn, but as if in defiance, she lie down and took a nap, her score at its very worst. Agh. When did this become so hard?

But the circle of life continues, a lot sooner than I had predicted. Xuxu's demise left a slot open in the world; a slot the scenario script will soon fill. If all goes according to code, it won't be long before the two girls with the lowest scores will contribute their genetics towards the future. I wonder who it will be? One thing is pretty certain though... I highly, and sadly doubt it's going to be Amina.