If you haven't visited LNA in a while, I hope you'll give it another peek-- I've made quite a few improvements to it and I'm going to do my best to find time to improve it even more as time goes on. I really hope people will enjoy it.
Showing posts with label LNA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LNA. Show all posts
Thursday, May 26, 2011
New LNA Site!
So in between settling in at both my new home and my new job after moving across the country, I've really been trying to get LNA a decent site running; check it out!
If you haven't visited LNA in a while, I hope you'll give it another peek-- I've made quite a few improvements to it and I'm going to do my best to find time to improve it even more as time goes on. I really hope people will enjoy it.
If you haven't visited LNA in a while, I hope you'll give it another peek-- I've made quite a few improvements to it and I'm going to do my best to find time to improve it even more as time goes on. I really hope people will enjoy it.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Grandroids and LNA
So in case you've been living under a rock, you probable know that Steve Grand, the original mind behind Creatures, is working on a new artificial life project and has a kickstarter fund going to help cover his cost of living while he works full time on it.
This is essentially our Creatures 4, guys. It may not have norns, but I'm telling you, if you were drawn into Creatures for the science and lifelikeness of it, this is more than worth getting really, really excited about!
Even though the project has passed its requirement to be funded, you can still pledge until April 8th, and the rewards are more than generous. For $50, you get a copy of the final version of the game, and you get to beta test it. Seriously, fifty bucks isn't much more than what a lot of games retail these days, and those games don't generally contain groundbreaking developments in AI. Just think of it as a really, really early pre-order. Or, for $75, you not only get to test the game, but you get access to development tools such as gene editors and the like to get a jumpstart on developing (my personal interest of course). Just the thought of being a part of that whole process thrills me to no end.
There are other pretty nice rewards if you can afford to pledge more, so check it out and support the next generation of sillicon-based life!
On another note, yes, I've pretty much dropped off the face of the earth and I don't know that I'll really ever have the time to climb back up, but I did get a new computer and used the old one to fire up Live Nornish Action again, so pop by and say hi if the stream is up! I have a few ideas I'm working on to make it a bit more interactive-- an agent that lets you adopt creatures straight from the LNA world for instance, but I'll see what time I can find. You guys probably know by now that my ideas tend to far outweigh my actual productivity, heh.
This is essentially our Creatures 4, guys. It may not have norns, but I'm telling you, if you were drawn into Creatures for the science and lifelikeness of it, this is more than worth getting really, really excited about!
Even though the project has passed its requirement to be funded, you can still pledge until April 8th, and the rewards are more than generous. For $50, you get a copy of the final version of the game, and you get to beta test it. Seriously, fifty bucks isn't much more than what a lot of games retail these days, and those games don't generally contain groundbreaking developments in AI. Just think of it as a really, really early pre-order. Or, for $75, you not only get to test the game, but you get access to development tools such as gene editors and the like to get a jumpstart on developing (my personal interest of course). Just the thought of being a part of that whole process thrills me to no end.
There are other pretty nice rewards if you can afford to pledge more, so check it out and support the next generation of sillicon-based life!
On another note, yes, I've pretty much dropped off the face of the earth and I don't know that I'll really ever have the time to climb back up, but I did get a new computer and used the old one to fire up Live Nornish Action again, so pop by and say hi if the stream is up! I have a few ideas I'm working on to make it a bit more interactive-- an agent that lets you adopt creatures straight from the LNA world for instance, but I'll see what time I can find. You guys probably know by now that my ideas tend to far outweigh my actual productivity, heh.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Overheard on LNA, Installment 1
I've been absolutely hit hard with personal family/life drama and really haven't been able to put much time into my Creatures ventures, but I'm still around. I've received a few messages over the last couple of days that have reminded me that people do get some joy out of the random stuff I throw together in the name of Creatures, so it's inspired me a bit to try and find more time to stay active in the CC. Thanks guys :)
I finally put LNA back online (It was still streaming, just an offline world), and it's a bit chaotic but the queue is starting to clear out. I thought this would be a good time for a little segment I've been planning called, "Overheard on LNA"
For those of you that don't know, LNA, or Live Nornish Action, is a live video stream of Docking Station hosted on Justin.TV (formerly on Ustream). Because it's publicly hosted, quite often random strangers will stumble onto the stream and leave very shocked messages in in the chatroom. Other times even regular visitors will have something odd to say. Some of these amusements have been screened for posterity and will now be posted here for your amusement, with usernames blurred out, of course:
Some of these are amusing enough to use as satirical slogans for the channel. I can see it now:
LNA: Right when I entered this channel, I believe I have developed a drug problem.
or
LNA: It's like the ewoks take over hell
or
LNA: WHY ARE THEY HAVING AN ORGY IN THE CORNER?
...Okay maybe not. I think I'm just amusing myself now.
Next post when I get around to it will probably be an image dump of my latest pet world, Mixed Nuts.
I finally put LNA back online (It was still streaming, just an offline world), and it's a bit chaotic but the queue is starting to clear out. I thought this would be a good time for a little segment I've been planning called, "Overheard on LNA"
For those of you that don't know, LNA, or Live Nornish Action, is a live video stream of Docking Station hosted on Justin.TV (formerly on Ustream). Because it's publicly hosted, quite often random strangers will stumble onto the stream and leave very shocked messages in in the chatroom. Other times even regular visitors will have something odd to say. Some of these amusements have been screened for posterity and will now be posted here for your amusement, with usernames blurred out, of course:
Some of these are amusing enough to use as satirical slogans for the channel. I can see it now:
LNA: Right when I entered this channel, I believe I have developed a drug problem.
or
LNA: It's like the ewoks take over hell
or
LNA: WHY ARE THEY HAVING AN ORGY IN THE CORNER?
...Okay maybe not. I think I'm just amusing myself now.
Next post when I get around to it will probably be an image dump of my latest pet world, Mixed Nuts.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Updates for LNA
I did a little developing for LNA today. If you check it out now you'll notice that next to the creature's name is a notification that displays one of two messages-- if there are creatures in the queue, it will display the number, but if there are no creatures in the queue, it will display the number of population slots waiting to be filled by your charming creatures. And it looks a lot better than that red box in the corner used to.
On another note I think I'm going to be sticking with Justin.tv for hosting, at least until I get an uproar of feedback demanding otherwise. I really haven't had much feedback at all though, and since it's overwhelmingly easier for me to deal with than Ustream, I don't see any reason to choose otherwise. The Justin page seems to overall get more strangers stumbling in too, most of which express confusion, but it occasionally attracts a few former creatures players who really appreciate it, and that just makes me feel all fuzzy inside.
On another note I think I'm going to be sticking with Justin.tv for hosting, at least until I get an uproar of feedback demanding otherwise. I really haven't had much feedback at all though, and since it's overwhelmingly easier for me to deal with than Ustream, I don't see any reason to choose otherwise. The Justin page seems to overall get more strangers stumbling in too, most of which express confusion, but it occasionally attracts a few former creatures players who really appreciate it, and that just makes me feel all fuzzy inside.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Live Nornish Action Test Stream
Ustream has been giving me grief for quite some time now-- mostly because its broadcaster client likes to randomly freeze up and cut out the sound, and I have to reload it to get it to work. So I'm going to test running it on Justin.tv for now, to see how it works and how people like it. You can check it out here, and feel free to give feedback! Depending on how it runs, and if people like the newer stream, I may switch over permanently. I'll have to see how it goes though.
Meanwhile, the Splice DS agent is currently undergoing some heavy testing much thanks to the nice folks at Creaturetopia, and should be ready for release soon :)
Sorry for the lack of updates-- I've been extremely busy with some career-related things and it will probably actually get busier as the weeks go by, but don't worry, I'll come around eventually.
Meanwhile, the Splice DS agent is currently undergoing some heavy testing much thanks to the nice folks at Creaturetopia, and should be ready for release soon :)
Sorry for the lack of updates-- I've been extremely busy with some career-related things and it will probably actually get busier as the weeks go by, but don't worry, I'll come around eventually.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Omnomnom Norns
It's getting hard to tag these posts when I'm covering like three different topics in a single post, haha.
I found a few people willing to test my DS splicer, so we'll see how buggy it is on other people's computers. I managed to work out the bugs I mentioned before. Here's a tip if you're ever going to make agents that move creatures using the mvsf command; it's helpful to preface the command with a "doif movs = 0". If a creature is currently in a vehicle (like say, a splice pod) and you try to move it using mvsf, you'll get an error saying mvsf only works on autonomous agents. If a creatures movs value equals 0, that confirms it is autonomous and it won't try moving it if it's not.
LNA is down, sadly, mostly due to the computer it was running on completely blowing up. I'm currently fixing up one of my older computers to try running it on. It might be a while, but I'll get it back up eventually.
In the meantime, when I'm not splicing creature in mass quantities, I've been working on other horrible things like a script that allows creatures to eat each other. It's easy enough to script something that simply allows creatures to be edible, but I've been trying to script something a little more realistic... so far, the script in its current state allows one creature to eat another, but "eating" won't instantly kill a creature, just wound it a lot and make it very prone to infection (it's more like biting than eating, really, but the creature will still die if bitten several times in succession). Though the biting creature receives nourishment, it still gets stim'd for disappointment-- sort of like a guilt trip for eating one of your own kind. However, the hungrier a creature is, the less disappointed they will feel, so hopefully creatures just won't eat each other unless they're really desperate.
I suppose I'll tweak it a little so say, grendels won't feel any guilt for eating norns, norns will only be able to eat a grendel if it's dead, among other things. Just to add some realism to the game, however gruesome it may be.
I still feel that C3/DS is far too easy if your goal is to raise a family of norns, and while it's not difficult to pick some more frail genomes to raise, that still really limits your variety. So I'm trying to come up with some ways to make the game as a whole a bit more difficult. Ideally these would be changes they would take effect regardless of the breeds of norns or metarooms that were used.
Perhaps a scripted "mating season," a script that essentially only allows creatures to become fertile during the in-game summer season, to make it a little more difficult to keep the population high. I wonder what other sorts of changes could be made to up the difficulty of raising creatures...
I found a few people willing to test my DS splicer, so we'll see how buggy it is on other people's computers. I managed to work out the bugs I mentioned before. Here's a tip if you're ever going to make agents that move creatures using the mvsf command; it's helpful to preface the command with a "doif movs = 0". If a creature is currently in a vehicle (like say, a splice pod) and you try to move it using mvsf, you'll get an error saying mvsf only works on autonomous agents. If a creatures movs value equals 0, that confirms it is autonomous and it won't try moving it if it's not.
LNA is down, sadly, mostly due to the computer it was running on completely blowing up. I'm currently fixing up one of my older computers to try running it on. It might be a while, but I'll get it back up eventually.
In the meantime, when I'm not splicing creature in mass quantities, I've been working on other horrible things like a script that allows creatures to eat each other. It's easy enough to script something that simply allows creatures to be edible, but I've been trying to script something a little more realistic... so far, the script in its current state allows one creature to eat another, but "eating" won't instantly kill a creature, just wound it a lot and make it very prone to infection (it's more like biting than eating, really, but the creature will still die if bitten several times in succession). Though the biting creature receives nourishment, it still gets stim'd for disappointment-- sort of like a guilt trip for eating one of your own kind. However, the hungrier a creature is, the less disappointed they will feel, so hopefully creatures just won't eat each other unless they're really desperate.
I suppose I'll tweak it a little so say, grendels won't feel any guilt for eating norns, norns will only be able to eat a grendel if it's dead, among other things. Just to add some realism to the game, however gruesome it may be.
I still feel that C3/DS is far too easy if your goal is to raise a family of norns, and while it's not difficult to pick some more frail genomes to raise, that still really limits your variety. So I'm trying to come up with some ways to make the game as a whole a bit more difficult. Ideally these would be changes they would take effect regardless of the breeds of norns or metarooms that were used.
Perhaps a scripted "mating season," a script that essentially only allows creatures to become fertile during the in-game summer season, to make it a little more difficult to keep the population high. I wonder what other sorts of changes could be made to up the difficulty of raising creatures...
Friday, June 26, 2009
Of Streaming and Splicing
The amusement never seems to cease when I'm reading the comments people leave in the LNA chatroom. Most people just ask "what game is this?" despite the show description blatantly stating it (I do wish that was a bit higher on the page..). Others will come in the chatroom to tell me to play warcraft/starcraft/other various games. And yet others who know and understand the concept will ask me to "kill off" some of my norns so theirs can warp in.
I wish there was a way to mark myself as away or something, because though I want to be around to answer questions and help people out, I don't appreciate it when people leave nasty messages because I'm not watching my chatroom every second. I also really wish the show description was somewhere other than the bottom of the page. That's kind of critical information, and I don't really appreciate how ustream pushes it underneath the comments box and other recommended shows.
Ah well.
In other news, my DS splicer control panel is coming along rather nicely! You'll have to click the thumbnail to see the full image though-- I didn't want to break the screen with it.
Right now it works decently-- the top button divides all creatures in the world into two groups and drops a group over each of the splice pods so they don't have to be dragged over to them, the second button automatically imports all creatures from the My Creatures folder, the third button will create a pair of random creatures from two randomly selected genomes in the Genetics folder and drop one over each of the splice pods so they're ready to mix. The fourth button is the sedative gas, which can be turned on or off; it lowers all drives of the creatures in the splicing area and lulls them into a deep sleep, which ensures the creatures are the happiest they have ever been and as a bonus stops them from moving around and getting out of the range of the splice pods. For the most part, these buttons work pretty flawlessly.
The AutoSplice button, which is pretty awesome when it works, is still giving me a few problems. Essentially it systematically splices all the creatures in the world until there are only a specified amount left (6 is the default, but that number can be changed by the user). It starts by splicing all the creatures near the splice pods, (realigning them with the pods if they wander off), and then teleports the second generation under the splicer up to the pods to resplice, and so on until the desired number is reached.
I'm having a few issues though-- one is with the teleport segment of the process; even though I'm using the exact code from the top button which works perfectly, it likes to give me "invalid position" errors. The second problem is an issue with the splicer itself: occasionally it will mistake an empty pod for being full, which throws the cycle into an endless loop of trying to splice something that isn't there. So I might have to actual modify the code ripped directly from the C3 splicer, which I was hoping to avoid.
Nonetheless, I'm pretty happy about how well this is going. I've never created anything this elaborate before, and even though much of it is just altered code from the C3 splicer, the control panel thing was pretty much done from scratch, with the exception of the import button which takes a lot from the DS import script. Now if I can just figure out how to fix these bugs... then I'll need to seek out people interested in testing. Developing is certainly a fun path :)
I wish there was a way to mark myself as away or something, because though I want to be around to answer questions and help people out, I don't appreciate it when people leave nasty messages because I'm not watching my chatroom every second. I also really wish the show description was somewhere other than the bottom of the page. That's kind of critical information, and I don't really appreciate how ustream pushes it underneath the comments box and other recommended shows.
Ah well.
In other news, my DS splicer control panel is coming along rather nicely! You'll have to click the thumbnail to see the full image though-- I didn't want to break the screen with it.
Right now it works decently-- the top button divides all creatures in the world into two groups and drops a group over each of the splice pods so they don't have to be dragged over to them, the second button automatically imports all creatures from the My Creatures folder, the third button will create a pair of random creatures from two randomly selected genomes in the Genetics folder and drop one over each of the splice pods so they're ready to mix. The fourth button is the sedative gas, which can be turned on or off; it lowers all drives of the creatures in the splicing area and lulls them into a deep sleep, which ensures the creatures are the happiest they have ever been and as a bonus stops them from moving around and getting out of the range of the splice pods. For the most part, these buttons work pretty flawlessly.
The AutoSplice button, which is pretty awesome when it works, is still giving me a few problems. Essentially it systematically splices all the creatures in the world until there are only a specified amount left (6 is the default, but that number can be changed by the user). It starts by splicing all the creatures near the splice pods, (realigning them with the pods if they wander off), and then teleports the second generation under the splicer up to the pods to resplice, and so on until the desired number is reached.
I'm having a few issues though-- one is with the teleport segment of the process; even though I'm using the exact code from the top button which works perfectly, it likes to give me "invalid position" errors. The second problem is an issue with the splicer itself: occasionally it will mistake an empty pod for being full, which throws the cycle into an endless loop of trying to splice something that isn't there. So I might have to actual modify the code ripped directly from the C3 splicer, which I was hoping to avoid.
Nonetheless, I'm pretty happy about how well this is going. I've never created anything this elaborate before, and even though much of it is just altered code from the C3 splicer, the control panel thing was pretty much done from scratch, with the exception of the import button which takes a lot from the DS import script. Now if I can just figure out how to fix these bugs... then I'll need to seek out people interested in testing. Developing is certainly a fun path :)
Monday, June 22, 2009
You can't be serious.
I thought adding the WarpMonitor to my LNA world would be a nice way to let viewers know how long they would have to wait to see their creature on screen. I wasn't expecting to find a line of 70+ creatures awaiting entry. My goodness.
I didn't know what else to do-- I cleared out the backup by exporting all the creatures as they came in until the queue was empty.
Wow though. I knew there was a queue but this came as a serious shock. Now that I have this agent running though I should be able to monitor the queue more carefully. If this continues to be a problem I might have to figure out a way to limit things.
Friday, June 19, 2009
More Efficient Splicing
First of all, I need to gush about how much fun session 1 of the first Live Wolfling Run was today (erm, yesterday technically, seeing as it's 1 in the morning now). It's been so long since I was in a chatroom with other creatures players, and all the silly commentary that was made about what was going on onscreen just made it so much fun. It was like we were all raising norns together. I am both excited and apprehensive about tomorrow-- Hopefully the fun will continue, but I also know creatures will start dying out, and that will be a sad thing to watch...
In my personal worlds though... I have been splicing hundreds of creatures that have been found in export files on my harddrive, doomed to an eternity of being frozen in time otherwise. But during my splicing adventures, I kept thinking how nice it would be to be able to have the splicer in an undocked world so I wouldn't have to deal with the slowdown that all those extra metarooms in a docked world bring.
So just out of curiousity to see if I could do it, I poked around in the C3 splicer .cos files, changed some coordinates, then messed around with some of the scripts involved in the powerups and bioenergy to actually get the thing running. And tada:
I then went so far as to add some extra rooms to the area underneath the main hub area so freshly spliced creatures land on a floor underneath the splicer-- this is so I don't accidcently splice them again until the whole first generation has been spliced.Then I was on a roll, so I decided to fix another problem-- a ton of adult norns running around the splice room tend to block the hand from being able to click the pods to get the creatures inside them.
Still having way too much fun with this, I then created a Creature Call button, which, when pushed, teleports all creatures right above one of the two splice pods, alternating between the two so that the creatures are evenly distributed. This, combined with the sedative that makes them sleepy mean I virtually never have to chase norns around to get them into the splice pods ever again.
At that point the most painful part of the process is importing all the creatures to splice. So again I tinkered with the import button found in the DS UI and created a similar button that essentially automated the process of importing. One click imports all creatures in your My Creatures folder (or at least, until you reach the population limit or your game explodes from holding too many creatures).
So now my splice process consists of moving 40 creatures from my Random Creatures folder to the My Creatures folder, one-click importing them all, using the call button to place them all by the pods, click-click-splice, repeat until the first generation is all spliced, call the second generation to the pods, repeat two more times or until I have about 5 creatures left, which are exported.
It's quite an improvement over manually importing each creature, dragging it to the splice pod, getting it in without tickling it, repeat for second creature, splice, move offspring somewhere safe, and so on and so forth.
Right now though, this splice system is spread out in about 6 different cos files and the buttons are in random places and are unlabeled, so perhaps I'll eventually structure them into a decent control panel and use proper sprites for the buttons, and compile and release it as a tribute to fellow splicers.
I'm also considering a button based on my Random Run script that creates a pair of completely random creatures for the beginning splicer who doesn't have hoards upon hoards of exported creatures sitting around on their hard drive.
...I'm sure I'll get back to working on BattleStance and my random run and all my other projects eventually. I just have so many nutty ideas.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Live Nornish Action FAQ
I've been getting an awful lot of questions about LNA-- most of them left in the chatroom (which is an impossible way to contact me since I'm usually not around to respond). So this is a little FAQ to answer the questions I get asked the most.
Last update: June 14th, 2009 -- added a new question: What is the maximum population of the LNA world?
About Creatures
What is Creatures/Docking Station?
What exactly is going on here?
What are the creatures saying?
About LNA
What is Live Nornish Action?
What software is used to record the video?
What breeds/agents/other addons are installed?
What is the maximum population of the LNA world?
How do I contact you?
Sending Creatures
How do I send you a norn?
Can I send ettins or grendels?
Is there anything I shouldn't send?
Did you get my creature?
Where is my creature?
Can you send my creature back?
About your Creatures
Why does my creature look different in your world?
My creature is starving! Do something!
Will my creature be able to breed?
Why was my creature exported?
--
About Creatures
What is Creatures/Docking Station?
Creatures is a series of Artificial Life programs starring the Norns, a breed of curious furry creatures eager to explore their world. Norns are unique in that they are far more complex than any "virtual pet" game on the market today. They have a realistic simulated biochemistry and a neural network brain with which they make descisions. None of their actions and behaviors are pre-programmed-- norns learn about the world around them as they grow and experiement, then make their own choices. Each norn also has its own set of genetics, which it passes on to its offspring, allowing for endless variety in crossbreeds made even more interesting with the random chance of mutation.
Creatures Docking Station (often abbreviated as DS) is one of the more recent additions to the Creatures series, and is completely free. DS adds a new level of functionality-- it allows users to swap and share their creatures with each other online via the in-game warp. As its name suggests, Docking Station may be "docked" with the retail version of Creatures 3 to expand the world, but the world is also expandable with thousands of free new breeds, objects, and rooms, all created by the community.
If you want to learn more about Creatures, check out the Creatures Wiki. If you want to experience Docking Station for yourself, you can download it free at Docking Station Central, and be sure to check out the small but dedicated Creatures Community at Creaturetopia.
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What exactly is going on here?
No one is actively playing the game; it is running by itself (though if you watch for long enough you may occasionally see the hand checking the world for immortal norns, responding to messages, and so on). For the most part you are watching the norns (or ettins or grendels) in their natural habitat, eating, sleeping, exploring, and interacting with their environment and fellow creatures.
The following diagram will help you to more easily understand what you are looking at:
1. Name of the currently selected creature. Every few moments a script will select a different creature.
2. The connection indicator. Green means the world is online and likely open to receiving new creatures. Orange means the world is offline.
3. Life events. These icons depict the last three major events that took place in the LNA world. The small egg inside the larger one represents a pregnancy, the egg icon means an egg has been laid, and the cracked egg means a newborn creature has just hatched. A cross icon means a creature has recently died. The cross icon is generally the most common in LNA, because the population is usually too high for the creatures to breed or lay eggs.
4. The small red arrow hovers over the selected creature. This makes it a little easier to see which creature is selected in a crowd.
5. The small green arrow hovers over the object or creature that the selected creature is looking at or thinking about. Right now, Skitty is thinking about the bit of purple food she is holding.
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What are the creatures saying?
Norns speak in their own gibberish language (generally referred to as Bibble) but activating certain objects in the world will allow them to learn very simple English, which they use to express themselves and make suggestions to other creatures.
Creatures speak in third person, referring to themselves by their own names. They will often speak about how they feel, what they are doing (or thinking about doing), and make suggestions to other creatures. Their overly simplified vocabulary may be confusing at first, but it is not difficult to catch on. The most confusing thing to understand at first may be the verb "push" which is an all-purpose word for "interact with." To push a toy is to play with it; to push a vendor is to get it to dispense food, to push a bug is to poke it. Pushing a creature is a gesture of affection. For objects with two different interactions (such as elevators which can either go up or down), creatures will push the object for the first interaction, and pull it for the second.
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About LNA
What is Live Nornish Action?
Live Nornish Action (abbreviated as LNA) is a stream of video from the game Creatures Docking Station. The game is left mostly unattended (except in certain events) so the creatures are left to fend for themselves.
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What software is used to record the video?
The software I use is called WebcamMax. Its primary function is to add various effects to a normal webcam, but it includes a feature to turn a portion of your screen into a webcam. The trial is free, but you'll have to register if you want to get rid of the watermark.
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What breeds/agents/other addons are installed?
I have made an effort to include as many different breeds as possible so norns sent into the world will show up correctly on screen.
Depending on what is currently going on in the world, there may be any number of agents installed. There are, however, two invisible scripts that are always running. One is AutoTab, a script I wrote that targets a new norn every few minutes so you don't have to always watch the same one, and the other is the Supernamer, which automatically gives a unique name to any unnamed norns.
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What is the maximum population of the LNA world?
The total population of creatures allowed in the LNA world is currently set at ten. The goal is to keep the population small enough that it doesn't get too crowded, so people don't have to wait an hour for the auto-selecter to get around to selecting their creature, and so the world doesn't slow down too much.
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How do I contact you?
Honestly, the fastest way to contact me is by sending a private message on the Creaturetopia forums to Amaikokonut. Alternatively you can leave a comment at the bottom of this page. You can also send a message inside Creatures Docking Station to LNA, but beware, it may show up on screen. You can also send a message to my personal DS ID, BluburryNorn, but response may be slower as I don't check that every day.
Leaving a message in the show chatroom is not an effective way to contact me, as I don't watch it constantly.
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Sending Creatures
How do I send you a norn?
If LNA is online and the warp is open, you are perfectly welcome to warp it into the LNA world and watch it on screen. To sending a norn into LNA, you must warp it in via the Docking Station warp. A simple guide is as follows:
- Make sure you are online.
- Go to the Workshop.
- Select the 'Configure Chamber' icon at the top of the warp champer interface (the one that looks like a norn in jail)
- Use the arrows to add and remove names the "send to" list. Make sure LNA is the only name in the list. If LNA is not in your contacts list at all, you can add it manually from the Creature Labs site. If LNA is shown in red, the world is currently offline and is not accepting creatures from the warp at that time.
- Drop the creature you wish to send into the containment chamber and make sure it is locked.
- Click the green checkmark to send off your creature! You may need to reselect the Configure Chamber icon if the check doesn't light up at first.
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Can I send ettins or grendels?
Despite the name of the stream, yes, you are perfectly welcome to warp in Creatures of all sorts.
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Is there anything I shouldn't send?
Because the warp portal is wide open to the randomness of the warp, it is understood that anything might show up. However, please try to avoid sending immortal or especially violent creatures. Creatures older than 8 hours will be routinely exported to keep from clogging up the queue of incoming creatures, and sending creatures to kill everyone else is just mean :(
You should also avoid sending creatures with special needs, dietary or otherwise, because the creatures are not cared for by hand and must be able to fend for themselves.
[Back to Top]
Did you get my creature?
Ideally, LNA is up and running 24/7. Unfortunately, I am not. For this reason I am not watching the game constantly and cannot give you specific information on your creatures. You'll have to keep watching the stream yourself to see if your creature shows up.
[Back to Top]
Where is my creature?
When you send a creature through the warp to LNA, it is unlikely that it will show up in the world immediately. Often there is a queue of creatures sitting in the warp waiting to get into the world, and it may take a while before yours appears. There is a population limit, so a creature must die or be exported before the next in the queue can show up.
[Back to Top]
Can you send my creature back?
LNA is not constantly monitored, so it is highly unlikely that any creature you send can be returned to you before it finishes living out its life. Please keep in mind that when you send a creature anywhere in the warp, it is could end up anywhere and its fate is no longer in your hands.
[Back to Top]
About your Creatures
Why does my creature look different in your world?
If you warp in a creature and it looks quite different on screen from how it appears in your world, it is usually either because LNA has a breed installed that you don't, or because you have a breed installed that LNA doesn't. If you are fond of a particular breed that does not display properly on LNA, feel free to leave a message with a link to where the breed is available so it can be installed.
[Back to Top]
My creature is starving! Do something!
In LNA, creatures are left to fend for themselves. The resources in the norn meso are more than adequate for a creature's survival. Unfortunately, if the creature leaves the meso and cannot find his/her way back, there is often nothing that can be done. If this troubles you, avoid sending creatures with poor survival instincts into LNA
[Back to Top]
Will my creature be able to breed?
Technically, yes. If your creature comes into the world during a time of low population, it may find a mate and produce offspring. However, this is highly unlikely, because quite often norns are coming in through the warp as others die off and the population rarely gets low enough for breeding to be possible. If you want your norn to produce offspring, please let it do so before sending it in.
[Back to Top]
Why was my creature exported?
Creatures are exported if they are considered detrimental to the population. For example, if a creature is immortal, or is more than 8 hours old, it is exported to make room for more creatures; it's not fair for a norn to stay in the world for so long when so many others are waiting to get in. On the other hand, a creature will also be exported if it is quite violent and excessively beats other creatures. A creature may also be exported if its name is considered inappropriate.
[Back to Top]
This FAQ will be updated as necessary. If you have any other questions, feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of this page.
Enjoy the show!
Last update: June 14th, 2009 -- added a new question: What is the maximum population of the LNA world?
About Creatures
What is Creatures/Docking Station?
What exactly is going on here?
What are the creatures saying?
About LNA
What is Live Nornish Action?
What software is used to record the video?
What breeds/agents/other addons are installed?
What is the maximum population of the LNA world?
How do I contact you?
Sending Creatures
How do I send you a norn?
Can I send ettins or grendels?
Is there anything I shouldn't send?
Did you get my creature?
Where is my creature?
Can you send my creature back?
About your Creatures
Why does my creature look different in your world?
My creature is starving! Do something!
Will my creature be able to breed?
Why was my creature exported?
--
About Creatures
What is Creatures/Docking Station?
Creatures is a series of Artificial Life programs starring the Norns, a breed of curious furry creatures eager to explore their world. Norns are unique in that they are far more complex than any "virtual pet" game on the market today. They have a realistic simulated biochemistry and a neural network brain with which they make descisions. None of their actions and behaviors are pre-programmed-- norns learn about the world around them as they grow and experiement, then make their own choices. Each norn also has its own set of genetics, which it passes on to its offspring, allowing for endless variety in crossbreeds made even more interesting with the random chance of mutation.
Creatures Docking Station (often abbreviated as DS) is one of the more recent additions to the Creatures series, and is completely free. DS adds a new level of functionality-- it allows users to swap and share their creatures with each other online via the in-game warp. As its name suggests, Docking Station may be "docked" with the retail version of Creatures 3 to expand the world, but the world is also expandable with thousands of free new breeds, objects, and rooms, all created by the community.
If you want to learn more about Creatures, check out the Creatures Wiki. If you want to experience Docking Station for yourself, you can download it free at Docking Station Central, and be sure to check out the small but dedicated Creatures Community at Creaturetopia.
[Back to Top]
What exactly is going on here?
No one is actively playing the game; it is running by itself (though if you watch for long enough you may occasionally see the hand checking the world for immortal norns, responding to messages, and so on). For the most part you are watching the norns (or ettins or grendels) in their natural habitat, eating, sleeping, exploring, and interacting with their environment and fellow creatures.
The following diagram will help you to more easily understand what you are looking at:
2. The connection indicator. Green means the world is online and likely open to receiving new creatures. Orange means the world is offline.
3. Life events. These icons depict the last three major events that took place in the LNA world. The small egg inside the larger one represents a pregnancy, the egg icon means an egg has been laid, and the cracked egg means a newborn creature has just hatched. A cross icon means a creature has recently died. The cross icon is generally the most common in LNA, because the population is usually too high for the creatures to breed or lay eggs.
4. The small red arrow hovers over the selected creature. This makes it a little easier to see which creature is selected in a crowd.
5. The small green arrow hovers over the object or creature that the selected creature is looking at or thinking about. Right now, Skitty is thinking about the bit of purple food she is holding.
[Back to Top]
What are the creatures saying?
Norns speak in their own gibberish language (generally referred to as Bibble) but activating certain objects in the world will allow them to learn very simple English, which they use to express themselves and make suggestions to other creatures.
Creatures speak in third person, referring to themselves by their own names. They will often speak about how they feel, what they are doing (or thinking about doing), and make suggestions to other creatures. Their overly simplified vocabulary may be confusing at first, but it is not difficult to catch on. The most confusing thing to understand at first may be the verb "push" which is an all-purpose word for "interact with." To push a toy is to play with it; to push a vendor is to get it to dispense food, to push a bug is to poke it. Pushing a creature is a gesture of affection. For objects with two different interactions (such as elevators which can either go up or down), creatures will push the object for the first interaction, and pull it for the second.
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About LNA
What is Live Nornish Action?
Live Nornish Action (abbreviated as LNA) is a stream of video from the game Creatures Docking Station. The game is left mostly unattended (except in certain events) so the creatures are left to fend for themselves.
[Back to Top]
What software is used to record the video?
The software I use is called WebcamMax. Its primary function is to add various effects to a normal webcam, but it includes a feature to turn a portion of your screen into a webcam. The trial is free, but you'll have to register if you want to get rid of the watermark.
[Back to Top]
What breeds/agents/other addons are installed?
I have made an effort to include as many different breeds as possible so norns sent into the world will show up correctly on screen.
Depending on what is currently going on in the world, there may be any number of agents installed. There are, however, two invisible scripts that are always running. One is AutoTab, a script I wrote that targets a new norn every few minutes so you don't have to always watch the same one, and the other is the Supernamer, which automatically gives a unique name to any unnamed norns.
[Back to Top]
What is the maximum population of the LNA world?
The total population of creatures allowed in the LNA world is currently set at ten. The goal is to keep the population small enough that it doesn't get too crowded, so people don't have to wait an hour for the auto-selecter to get around to selecting their creature, and so the world doesn't slow down too much.
[Back to Top]
How do I contact you?
Honestly, the fastest way to contact me is by sending a private message on the Creaturetopia forums to Amaikokonut. Alternatively you can leave a comment at the bottom of this page. You can also send a message inside Creatures Docking Station to LNA, but beware, it may show up on screen. You can also send a message to my personal DS ID, BluburryNorn, but response may be slower as I don't check that every day.
Leaving a message in the show chatroom is not an effective way to contact me, as I don't watch it constantly.
[Back to Top]
Sending Creatures
How do I send you a norn?
If LNA is online and the warp is open, you are perfectly welcome to warp it into the LNA world and watch it on screen. To sending a norn into LNA, you must warp it in via the Docking Station warp. A simple guide is as follows:
- Make sure you are online.
- Go to the Workshop.
- Select the 'Configure Chamber' icon at the top of the warp champer interface (the one that looks like a norn in jail)
- Use the arrows to add and remove names the "send to" list. Make sure LNA is the only name in the list. If LNA is not in your contacts list at all, you can add it manually from the Creature Labs site. If LNA is shown in red, the world is currently offline and is not accepting creatures from the warp at that time.
- Drop the creature you wish to send into the containment chamber and make sure it is locked.
- Click the green checkmark to send off your creature! You may need to reselect the Configure Chamber icon if the check doesn't light up at first.[Back to Top]
Can I send ettins or grendels?
Despite the name of the stream, yes, you are perfectly welcome to warp in Creatures of all sorts.
[Back to Top]
Is there anything I shouldn't send?
Because the warp portal is wide open to the randomness of the warp, it is understood that anything might show up. However, please try to avoid sending immortal or especially violent creatures. Creatures older than 8 hours will be routinely exported to keep from clogging up the queue of incoming creatures, and sending creatures to kill everyone else is just mean :(
You should also avoid sending creatures with special needs, dietary or otherwise, because the creatures are not cared for by hand and must be able to fend for themselves.
[Back to Top]
Did you get my creature?
Ideally, LNA is up and running 24/7. Unfortunately, I am not. For this reason I am not watching the game constantly and cannot give you specific information on your creatures. You'll have to keep watching the stream yourself to see if your creature shows up.
[Back to Top]
Where is my creature?
When you send a creature through the warp to LNA, it is unlikely that it will show up in the world immediately. Often there is a queue of creatures sitting in the warp waiting to get into the world, and it may take a while before yours appears. There is a population limit, so a creature must die or be exported before the next in the queue can show up.
[Back to Top]
Can you send my creature back?
LNA is not constantly monitored, so it is highly unlikely that any creature you send can be returned to you before it finishes living out its life. Please keep in mind that when you send a creature anywhere in the warp, it is could end up anywhere and its fate is no longer in your hands.
[Back to Top]
About your Creatures
Why does my creature look different in your world?
If you warp in a creature and it looks quite different on screen from how it appears in your world, it is usually either because LNA has a breed installed that you don't, or because you have a breed installed that LNA doesn't. If you are fond of a particular breed that does not display properly on LNA, feel free to leave a message with a link to where the breed is available so it can be installed.
[Back to Top]
My creature is starving! Do something!
In LNA, creatures are left to fend for themselves. The resources in the norn meso are more than adequate for a creature's survival. Unfortunately, if the creature leaves the meso and cannot find his/her way back, there is often nothing that can be done. If this troubles you, avoid sending creatures with poor survival instincts into LNA
[Back to Top]
Will my creature be able to breed?
Technically, yes. If your creature comes into the world during a time of low population, it may find a mate and produce offspring. However, this is highly unlikely, because quite often norns are coming in through the warp as others die off and the population rarely gets low enough for breeding to be possible. If you want your norn to produce offspring, please let it do so before sending it in.
[Back to Top]
Why was my creature exported?
Creatures are exported if they are considered detrimental to the population. For example, if a creature is immortal, or is more than 8 hours old, it is exported to make room for more creatures; it's not fair for a norn to stay in the world for so long when so many others are waiting to get in. On the other hand, a creature will also be exported if it is quite violent and excessively beats other creatures. A creature may also be exported if its name is considered inappropriate.
[Back to Top]
This FAQ will be updated as necessary. If you have any other questions, feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of this page.
Enjoy the show!
Random LNA Ideas
So I'm still racking my brain for ways to make Live Nornish Action more interesting for the community. And while I'm planning on doing a few community live wolfling runs, so far the idea really hasn't gained much support or contribution.
One of the problems with streaming community live wolfling runs is that the lives of the norns are so short. People might be interested in watching their own norns and maybe their first offspring, but after that the creatures are foreign to them and there's no real motive to keep tabs on them.
So I'm trying to come up with some more ideas for "programs" that hopefully people can feel a little more connected with.
The first and simplest notion to come to mind is just a feral run with genetically altered norns-- just changing the half-life gene so the norns age very, very slowly. I'm talking a lifespan of 100-200 hours (less so if the run was shown in intervals rather than stream 24/7). Some other modifications might be made to make pregnancies longer as well as recovery time afterward, but otherwise the run would proceed as normal. It would give everyone a chance to see their creatures in action and perhaps put more emphasis on actual survival, since the longer a creature lives the more likely it is to come in contact with antigens and other dangers. People might be able to get a bit more attached to something like that.
Now, developing the notion a little further, I might consider running some sort of Survivor-esque game show (which.... probably wouldn't be very survivor-esque, considering I've never even watched survivor) in which members of the CC send in creatures under their names. The creatures are genetically altered to be fixed at a desired lifestage and never age (they are still perfectly mortal, just not by aging). These representative Creatures would be released into the world and occasionally be subjected to certain obstacles-- be that disease, a particularly vicious creature, an elaborate version of the IQ test, etc.. Creatures would be awarded points based on how many children they had (which would be exported after note was made of them) and for exceeding in certain obstacles (being the first to finish the IQ test or killing off the vicious creature). Most of the time though, the creatures would just run around doing their creaturely things-- though I would probably make note of dates and times that certain events would take place so people could watch at that time if they wanted to.
Something like this could work several ways:
- The game could run for a certain length of time and at the end the creature with the most points would be declared the winner. Creatures that died throughout the course of the game may be reincarnated at the cost of half or all of their points.
- The game could last as long as it takes for all but one of the creatures to die off. Points could be spent on reincarnations, but if a creature dies and is out of points, it is out of the game.
- As per tradition, people could vote a different creature out of the game every week. The creature with the most points would be immune to the votes, reincarnation would cost a set number of points, and votes against creatures with negative points would be worth twice as much.
- The game would be ongoing until everyone got bored and and have no real winner, but a point tally would be kept for fun.
In the end though, LNA is just a bunch of creatures running around-- something anyone can witness by firing up the game. Except in the case of special events, it's really not meant to be something you watch for extended periods of time; it's just something you peek in on now and again to check on a favorite creature. Unless the community can really benefit from it in some way, I'm not sure how long it will last after the novelty wears off.
I am considering using it for other purposes though-- perhaps as a way for developers to promote upcoming breeds, metarooms, or agents. I think having an open warp in an unreleased metaroom would be quite a way to get people interested about what is to come.
It doesn't have to be limited to unreleased stuff either... It could also just promote any community-created content that people might be interested in. Might be a fun way to spread the word about new or nearly-forgotten content.
Anyway I'm rambling now. I believe I've been up all night brainstorming.
One of the problems with streaming community live wolfling runs is that the lives of the norns are so short. People might be interested in watching their own norns and maybe their first offspring, but after that the creatures are foreign to them and there's no real motive to keep tabs on them.
So I'm trying to come up with some more ideas for "programs" that hopefully people can feel a little more connected with.
The first and simplest notion to come to mind is just a feral run with genetically altered norns-- just changing the half-life gene so the norns age very, very slowly. I'm talking a lifespan of 100-200 hours (less so if the run was shown in intervals rather than stream 24/7). Some other modifications might be made to make pregnancies longer as well as recovery time afterward, but otherwise the run would proceed as normal. It would give everyone a chance to see their creatures in action and perhaps put more emphasis on actual survival, since the longer a creature lives the more likely it is to come in contact with antigens and other dangers. People might be able to get a bit more attached to something like that.
Now, developing the notion a little further, I might consider running some sort of Survivor-esque game show (which.... probably wouldn't be very survivor-esque, considering I've never even watched survivor) in which members of the CC send in creatures under their names. The creatures are genetically altered to be fixed at a desired lifestage and never age (they are still perfectly mortal, just not by aging). These representative Creatures would be released into the world and occasionally be subjected to certain obstacles-- be that disease, a particularly vicious creature, an elaborate version of the IQ test, etc.. Creatures would be awarded points based on how many children they had (which would be exported after note was made of them) and for exceeding in certain obstacles (being the first to finish the IQ test or killing off the vicious creature). Most of the time though, the creatures would just run around doing their creaturely things-- though I would probably make note of dates and times that certain events would take place so people could watch at that time if they wanted to.
Something like this could work several ways:
- The game could run for a certain length of time and at the end the creature with the most points would be declared the winner. Creatures that died throughout the course of the game may be reincarnated at the cost of half or all of their points.
- The game could last as long as it takes for all but one of the creatures to die off. Points could be spent on reincarnations, but if a creature dies and is out of points, it is out of the game.
- As per tradition, people could vote a different creature out of the game every week. The creature with the most points would be immune to the votes, reincarnation would cost a set number of points, and votes against creatures with negative points would be worth twice as much.
- The game would be ongoing until everyone got bored and and have no real winner, but a point tally would be kept for fun.
In the end though, LNA is just a bunch of creatures running around-- something anyone can witness by firing up the game. Except in the case of special events, it's really not meant to be something you watch for extended periods of time; it's just something you peek in on now and again to check on a favorite creature. Unless the community can really benefit from it in some way, I'm not sure how long it will last after the novelty wears off.
I am considering using it for other purposes though-- perhaps as a way for developers to promote upcoming breeds, metarooms, or agents. I think having an open warp in an unreleased metaroom would be quite a way to get people interested about what is to come.
It doesn't have to be limited to unreleased stuff either... It could also just promote any community-created content that people might be interested in. Might be a fun way to spread the word about new or nearly-forgotten content.
Anyway I'm rambling now. I believe I've been up all night brainstorming.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Ever wanted to watch someone else's feral run?
...probably not, but now you can!
There's an old computer sitting in the family room that serves as a "public" computer... it's the one we let guests use when they visit, and it's pretty much free-for-all for the family to use too, even though we all have our own computers. Since I can't remember the last time anyone used it though, I decided to load Docking Station onto it and start a live Ustream of a vanilla Chichi feral run.
The world is also actually online at the moment, so if you send a creature through the warp to BluburryNorn, it may show up on the screen... as a chichi though, I haven't installed any other breeds yet. In fact, the only thing I have installed is the Supernamer and a homemade script made to automatically cycle through the norns every few minutes so it's not targeting the same one for hours.
I suppose this would be a fun way to do a community feral run-- have several people send in their norns and then watch the run unfold. But I really haven't gauged if there's enough interest for such a thing yet, or if I have the technical capabilities.
See, the computer I'm streaming the run from is quite dated, not to mention full of various applications that strangers have downloaded onto it over the years. That means I have to keep the population low and can't really inject a bunch of extra agents and metarooms or the computer will slow down dramatically. Streaming the video takes an awful lot of resources as it is. Not to mention that since it is a public computer, anyone at anytime could just come by and use it to check their email or something, or just turn it off.
Streaming from my own computer is an option, but a complex one. While I would be able to have a lot more world variety, I wouldn't really be able to have sound. My sound card doesn't support recording from anything but my microphone (most newer soundcards disable it as a form of music piracy prevention... frustrates the heck out of me), so there would be limitations there. Plus it would tie up my computer and prevent me from doing anything else on it, so I really wouldn't want to use it to stream constantly.
Still, I could use it for events that only ran an hour or two and benefitted from narration. I am tossing around silly ideas in my head like a Truman show knockoff: "The Trunorn Show" which would run for an hour per session for six sessions (since most norns live about 5:40) and track a single norn throughout his life (among other norns, of course). But since watching a norn grow up and live its life isn't the most interesting thing in the world, a lot of the show would rely on exaggerated, interpretive narration. I would need a cohost or two and I really don't know a single person that would be interested in such a thing right now. Not to mention getting enough people interested enough in watching live norns to actually set aside a scheduled hour of their day to do so would be a feat in and of itself, considering how small and scattered the CC is.
A lot of these are just overinflated dreams right now, but they're fun overinflated dreams. For now I'll just have to wait and see how much interest this silly little feral run gets.
There's an old computer sitting in the family room that serves as a "public" computer... it's the one we let guests use when they visit, and it's pretty much free-for-all for the family to use too, even though we all have our own computers. Since I can't remember the last time anyone used it though, I decided to load Docking Station onto it and start a live Ustream of a vanilla Chichi feral run.
The world is also actually online at the moment, so if you send a creature through the warp to BluburryNorn, it may show up on the screen... as a chichi though, I haven't installed any other breeds yet. In fact, the only thing I have installed is the Supernamer and a homemade script made to automatically cycle through the norns every few minutes so it's not targeting the same one for hours.
I suppose this would be a fun way to do a community feral run-- have several people send in their norns and then watch the run unfold. But I really haven't gauged if there's enough interest for such a thing yet, or if I have the technical capabilities.
See, the computer I'm streaming the run from is quite dated, not to mention full of various applications that strangers have downloaded onto it over the years. That means I have to keep the population low and can't really inject a bunch of extra agents and metarooms or the computer will slow down dramatically. Streaming the video takes an awful lot of resources as it is. Not to mention that since it is a public computer, anyone at anytime could just come by and use it to check their email or something, or just turn it off.
Streaming from my own computer is an option, but a complex one. While I would be able to have a lot more world variety, I wouldn't really be able to have sound. My sound card doesn't support recording from anything but my microphone (most newer soundcards disable it as a form of music piracy prevention... frustrates the heck out of me), so there would be limitations there. Plus it would tie up my computer and prevent me from doing anything else on it, so I really wouldn't want to use it to stream constantly.
Still, I could use it for events that only ran an hour or two and benefitted from narration. I am tossing around silly ideas in my head like a Truman show knockoff: "The Trunorn Show" which would run for an hour per session for six sessions (since most norns live about 5:40) and track a single norn throughout his life (among other norns, of course). But since watching a norn grow up and live its life isn't the most interesting thing in the world, a lot of the show would rely on exaggerated, interpretive narration. I would need a cohost or two and I really don't know a single person that would be interested in such a thing right now. Not to mention getting enough people interested enough in watching live norns to actually set aside a scheduled hour of their day to do so would be a feat in and of itself, considering how small and scattered the CC is.
A lot of these are just overinflated dreams right now, but they're fun overinflated dreams. For now I'll just have to wait and see how much interest this silly little feral run gets.
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