About Genetic Defects

In Creatures 1 the rate of stillbirths and serious genetic defects is very low compared to Creatures 2. But since I’m apparently not the only one who has noticed this phenomenon, there must exist a fundamental problem with the C2 genome, or their metabolism has become too complicated.

Everyone has already had norns that passed out a few seconds after hatching: in general most if not all of their organs were flashing red in that case. You can’t revive such a norn with the defibrillant, it will soon pass out again. As far as I know, the reasons for these frequent infant deaths are not entirely known, but often they are due to multiple organs that consume too much energy. In other cases, the genomes of the parents are not compatible to each other.

If you think (like I did) that Cyberlife’s updated C2 genome is compatible to that of the updated norn converter, you’re wrong. In most cases the offspring will either die or show some serious problems. If it survives, I suggest that it will have inherited most genes from either its father or its mother. None of my converted norns has lived longer than three hours, most of them have died long before. I have finally compared the genome of a converted norn to one of the updated hatchery genomes and was very surprised about what I saw: they were different from each other in over 200 genes.

Some genetic defects of converted norns or their offspring are immediately obvious, but others will only show up later in their lives. One of the most obvious problems lies in their gait genes. They are switched on at the wrong moment, i.e. babies will already walk like pensioners. All my converted norns had extreme difficulties on hazardous terrain, perhaps there is something wrong with the uppatrophin and downatrophin emitters. If anybody knows more about it, I would love to hear from you. I have also noticed problems with the metabolism of converted norns, I think this is responsible for their premature deaths.

The comparison between Cyberlife’s "old" and "new" genomes which you could read at Slink’s Burrow Online (she has removed all her Creatures stuff at the end of 1998) let me think that the genomes created by the norn converter are a mix of the two versions. Even Cyberlife admits that they are not compatible to each other and that crossbreeding them will often result in stillbirths.

I would also recommand that you don't crossbreed Cyberlife's norns with Nova Subterra or Canny Norns. Their genomes are too different, in most cases you will get degenerated norns because not all of the new genes have been passed down. Crossbreeding incompatible genomes also sometimes results in genomes with more than 900 or 1000 genes, and I have noticed that Creatures 2 will more often than not crash in those cases. The only thing you can do is to delete the egg that causes the crash.

Another serious genetic defect that can also occur in pure bred C2 norns is the fact that they never reach the next life stage. The receptor genes that switch on the different life stages were not mutable in C1, I don’t know why they are are set to mutable in C2. This does not make sense. I have already had several cases in my populations, and I have even tracked a mutation of the ageing death receptor gene back to one of my hatchery norns. A norn that is a baby or child forever may be cute, but it is a very unnatural condition. If it reaches breeding age and never becomes a pensioner, it is even worse, because it is able to reproduce and pass the defective gene on to the next generation. You will never have a healthy, interesting population if you allow such norns to reproduce. I think it is not as bad as the highlander or sweet gene in C1, because these norns can still die, but it will nevertheless result in a kind of stagnation in the evolutionary process. And even in C1 I didn’t like the fact that the norns (except the Ron and Forest norns) could only die by starving to death.

At the end, you must decide for yourself what you want to get out of Creatures 2. If you don’t want a mere virtual pet, you should let natural selection take place and not try to save norns that won’t survive on their own. For the sake of the health of your breeding population you should let it pass away, at least if you want to see some progress over time. I’m still convinced that they are able to evolve in a certain way, but perhaps I’m only dreaming. ;-)

Last changes: 10/04/03