We're not dead!

Just sleeping a bit. I'm going to be back with the next post in a bit, I have a bit of redesign work to do with my other blog first though.

Natural Hatchery (AR G1 W1 P8)

After checking Lucy's age (by hours and minutes) in the Owner's kit, she should still have enough hours to have more children. As a result of that I've made my decision to keep the egg safe until later. If for any reason I end up with only one creature left in this world I will definitely hatch a third hatchery egg to give them a partner. Since Bruno is 3 hours younger than my main couple he might have enough time to breed with a hatchery female norn should the need arise, so long as the norn can grow and mature quickly enough for Bruno.

Lucy struggled to eat at first and decided to have a nap instead while Bruno was happy and enjoying himself by the computer with no particularly high drives. Meanwhile, Darius was steadily getting hungrier. He was bored at first but started playing with the piano in the temple to pass the time, however after he eyed a lemon on the trellis in the distance he definitely felt his stomach rumbling.

Coming back to Lucy I saw that her pregnancy recovery countdown was at 4 and she was riding the raft back and forth until I moved her back over to the basement. However, in the corner of my eye...

The egg is hatching! I quickly lifted it to freeze it into this stage for later incubation. That's the first egg in my natural egg hatchery for now! The plan is to acquire even more natural eggs for this hatchery and when Darius and Lucy become pensioners I will incubate the eggs to hatch the next generation of this world.

However, one thing worries me a bit. Is there some kind of egg limit in Creatures 1? If there is, that could be detrimental to this plan however it would depend on how restrictive the limit is. If it was something like 6 I might be able to handle it, but if it

was more like 2 or 1 for natural eggs I might have quite the problem on my hands.

After this however, I caught Bruno sleeping badly. He was standing up to sleep with a sad expression, turning left and right every now and then. As any seasoned Creatures 1 player knows, when this happens it means the norn is in fact not getting any satisfaction from this rest. I'm not sure myself why this happens, but it isn't good for norns at all and you should try to get them to sleep properly if you can.

While I was occupied with Bruno I caught Lucy running off with the egg in the corner of my eye and I have to admit, it definitely made me chuckle! To wrap up for today I would like to ask all of you readers to please vote in the poll, as it is the final day for which you will be able to do so!

Third natural egg (AR G1 W1 P7)

I opened up Albia to find Lucy walking into a wall constantly, as well as a perfect excuse to take a snapshot of the harp! I also found both Bruno and Darius to be hungry, so I had to feed them first. Once I had finished feeding carrots to them both, Lucy had already navigated to the basement and gotten herself out of the situation. Scanning her with the Health kit, however, I found her to be a wee bit peckish so I fed her as well. With all of that out of the way I also scanned her with the Breeder's kit to find her pregnancy was currently at stage 6.

Some time passes and I look away from Lucy for just one very short moment and here she is with the new egg as pictured. In fact, speaking of which, Lucy appears to be pretty camera-shy today! I am currently considering whether I should hatch the egg and hope for a female, or if I should interrupt it and hold on to it for a later date so I can hatch a batch of eggs together. However that could leave Bruno quite lonely. I have been planning on increasing viewer interaction on this blog though, so perhaps I should start some method for viewers to name these norns, or perhaps have a norn named after themselves?

Looking at our performance so far, we appear to have accumulated a lot of Breeders Score lately. I am still not sure if the goal I set myself will keep me on G1 W1 (Albia) for far too long for my liking, or if the length isn't actually that much of a bad thing, as it lets us get very comfortable in Albia before moving to the next world?

Curiosity takes me as I continue to study the Performance kit - what would happen if my Breeders Score got too high? Would the game crash or perhaps the score would just stop increasing? Would it escape the restrictions and start blocking where the text says "Breeders Score" or would more digits be added, putting more numbers towards the right? Or, would the number overflow and become something very low?

Before I end this post, please don't forget about the poll! It ends at the very beginning of Friday, so if you want to have your say in the future of the run, be sure to cast your vote!

Photos of Albia (AR G1 W1 P6)

Just before the pregnancy was confirmed in the Breeder's kit, the cable car had conveniently arrived as if it secretly knew I would be wanting to use it right now. As soon as Lucy woke up I called her into the cable car and sent her on her way back down to the beehives, while I fed Darius (and wrestled with the cable car lever again!).

With Darius sleeping in the lift I went over to check on how Bruno is doing. It turns out that while I was with Darius and Lucy, Bruno had worked up quite an appetite! I fed him three carrots and left him with his drink. As he had been so studiously tapping away at the computer, his boredom levels were very low.

As I went back to Darius to feed him some carrots I found my eyes drawn to something in the background. A huge mountain. Now while it is known the main part of the background was sculpted in real life, I always wondered what process was used to make the

distant background. Judging from the way that this mountain wrinkles as well as the rocky, dusty texture of it I would assume at first glance that this was made using 3D modelling, perhaps some old method of terrain creation coupled with a grainy texture. The way it stands out against the sky leads me to believe that the original render was completely isolated and just pasted in front of the sky. As for the clouds which sweep past it I am not sure, but I doubt those were made in 3D.

Whoa, where was I? Oh yes, I was about to check on Lucy to see how her pregnancy is going. So far we have a 5 and counting, here's hoping it's not a false pregnancy! As for her drives, which I gave a quick scan using the Health Kit beforehand, she is perfectly content aside from a little bit of pain from wallbonking. She is currently playing with the slideshow projector once again, which she does indeed appear to enjoy! Who doesn't enjoy photos of the Albian landscape?

Before I sign off for this post I would like to announce a poll! Next Friday I will be adding a new COB to this run and you will be given the choice between three COBs, be it the cow, the television for Albia or maybe even the working oven? Please vote in the poll (Located on the right hand side of the site) for which COB you want to be added to this run the most and check back on Friday when it will be added to the current world!

What's your favourite part of Albia? (AR G1 W1 P5)

The teleporter has always been an effective means to distance two norns from each other. After I finished feeding Lucy, Darius was extremely bored. When I passed him a microscope to play with I moved over to Bruno, who was in the same place he has been for most of these updates.

A quick scan from the Health Kit to check his drives - he appeared to be rather hungry! As I was feeding him I spotted Darius advancing towards the incubator in the corner of my eye. He stumbled obliviously right into the wall behind the incubator and as he did so, Bruno made straight for the teleporter of his own accord. Taking advantage of this convenience, I called the lift down for Darius to take Bruno's space.

Checking back on Lucy I made the decision to move her to Darius to try for another norn. As I called her to the cable car I took a moment to reflect (while also wrestling with the switch!) on the existence of the cable car in the game. It is indeed a very novel concept and you just have to think of the thought process that went behind it's development, how it syncs up with the background of Albia as well as the direction it moves in. One wonders what interesting e-mail conversations could've been had between developers regarding this concept. In fact, the tube train in Creatures 2 could very well have been inspired from this cable car!

When Lucy finally arrived at the treehouse I saw that Darius was out with Bruno. I used the power of the teleporter to split Bruno away from Darius and then I called Darius up the lift to meet with Lucy. However, when Darius was halfway up the lift he immediately fell asleep!

Darius lied there, snoring, while Lucy tried her best to wake him gently. After a few pushes, he woke up with a smile, returning the favour with a kisspop! However, upon checking the Breeder's Kit I saw no pregnancy. Lucy was getting rather tired and Darius was feeling rather hungry, but they tried again a few more times and a second kisspop was had just before Lucy decided to take a nap. Checking the Breeder's kit once more I had confirmed a pregnancy!

Before I sign off for this post I have a question for all of you avid Creatures fans out there. What is your favourite part of Albia? Do you enjoy the cable car, the teleporter network or perhaps the relaxing environment of the lighthouse and the island? Please leave a comment reflecting on which parts of Albia you like the best!