Creatures Caves

Hello, people. I am completely new to this game and trying to get a hang of it.

There is a lot of things I do not understand, and especially if that what was written about the game still apply to community-developed genomes and recent versions of the game.

(When I ask if there is a feature, I not only mean a built-in one, but also from custom COB, mod, companion program, etc)

If some webpage has an answer to my question(s), or you know how exaclty to google that up, just point me there, I can read ;-)

Answered questions are coloured like this, but more opinions are still appreciated. "{redacted}" means that I edited the question to make it sound a bit clearer. I generally do not copy hyperlinks - if interested, see what other answered on some subject.

On user interface:

(questions apply to both C2 and C3)

1) Is there a way to add more colored lines to biochem graph than possible by default in C2?

2) Is there any nicer interface to brain diagram to see what exactly did they learn over last several minutes?

3) Is there a way to reduce game speed or set it on pause that does not completely block user interface? I am often not quick enough to respond on creature's need before they switch their attention to something else...

4) Are there hotkeys to reward and punish currently selected creature in C2? I seem to miss the clicks for those routinely.
Answer for C3: hold INS or DEL, then click a creature

5) {redacted 2} When a creature looks at something, but does not know its name, how can I find out what exactly they are looking at, when few objects are too close to each other. I.E. is a norn looking at tomato plant, or a tomato underneath it?
Answer: Try saying a single random non-memorized word, then compare their answer with what is written in square brackets when mouse hovering each object (C2) or F1/right click (C3). Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Unfortunately norns often seem to switch attention before I finish typing...
So the only sure-fire way is to instead encourage them to look at each object, and name them all.

6) Is there a way to constantly monitor any creature's biochems and neural activity in C3/DS (like it is possible in C2)?
DS has hoverdoc for that, there are also some custom agents.
There is also the biochemistry set

7) Is there a list of all standard objects (plants, critters, ...) with a description or tips for each one?
Answered: the wiki has category pages for that, and Allen has image gallery that can be used to look up things by their appearence. Not terribly convinient but that works.
In C3 right-clicking gives some kind of description.

8 ) Is there a complete directory of what words from default vocab of a newborn norn ("gaa", "boop", "dat", etc) mean?
Answer: {redacted 2} It is in catalogues\Norn.catalogue in C3:
"goo", "foo", "flib", "doo" # verb
"dis", "dat", "bab", "daa" # noun
"gaa", "oogh", "bibble", "boop" # drive
"ba", "coo", "flub", "na" # special (look yes no like dislike...)
"vre", "rly", "exmly", "i" # qualifier
"em", "me", "eem", "bub" # "me"
So, if I understand it correctly, for each thing they pick one word for each category at random, and some things may end up using the same word. That means there is no way to understand them before teaching them proper language.

9) How can I change the language that learning-computer teaches? that is, let's say I want to make creatures undestand word "good" instead of "yes".
Answer for C1: There is a button on the learning computer
Answer for C2: It is probably impossible by default.
However some custom COBs can teach custom words, "encyclopedia nornica" is one of those.
Answer for C3: Modify game files, they are in text format

General

10) {redacted} Is there a game-installation and configuration guide for newbies that takes windows 7/8, newly developed breeds and custom COBs into account? Like "install game, then install this update, edit your registry like that, inject these cobs but do not touch those, now import one of those eggs..."

11) Some people saying C2 is 'better' than C3. What exactly they think is better? multiple-window-oriented interface? better custom genomes? more community-made COBs? anything else? what is worse? there probably is a detailed discussion on that somewhere, but I only found small "flame wars" giving too few details.

12) Is there a ready-to-use specialized program that backs up world periodically? I know of generic backup systems, but ask for creatures-specific one.

13) Where can I found a more or less complete list of useful websites dedicated to creatures games?
Answer: Shambler0 exmly stupid, look LINKS section of this website :-)
The wiki also has a lot of those, use archive.org if they are down

14) Are there C2 akamai canny norns in the form of EGG files, and not importable EXP-files?
Answer: Hatchery expansion actually does that

On norn behaviour and interaction:

(questions are mostly on akamai canny, nova subterra, but also default C3 genomes)

15) Is there a valid newbie guide on teaching / caring for C2 nova subterra / akamai canny norns?
Answer: There are few youtube videos, though it may not be an obivoious way to understand which use which genome... though they could be used as a starting point for some experimentation.

16) What is a time period during which they understand that they are rewarded (or punished) for something they have just done, and not necesserily for something they are doing right now?
Answer: A few seconds, the faster the better. That really reinforces the question of slowing up game speed on demand...

17) Is it still a valid tip to reward a norn few times for successfully eating, playing and sleeping? I see on the biochem graph that they are rewarded for this already, and canny breed norns seem to sleep a lot more than they ever need. When I reward them too much they seem to catch some of the effects of that famous "stupidity syndrome"
Answer: Some say it is best to let them learn everything themselves (you still can suggest them i.e. eating food - but they automatically learn that it is a good thing after they try), others say is probably best to tickle a bit once, but not too much, and don't mess with sleeping. I myself found both ways work.

18 ) (C2) Let's say, I want a norn (named MyNornName) to push a toy. I say "MyNornName push toy". They answer "toy" each time, look at it, and do not do anything useful, despite I repeat myself many times. Am I supposed to repeat just "MyNornName push", or I have to say just "push" then?
Answer: {redacted 2}
Papriko suggested that (in C3) it could mean they did not fully learn what 'toy' is. After a while they should stop repeating "toy" and act.
However in C2 I found this probably happens when they just prefer to ignore my command, but they still can learn noun at the same time. I don't know why is that. When norns happen to stop ignoring me they stop repeating "toy" and go push it.

19) {redacted} If they want/need to eat food, do they need to learn to first "come food", or "get food" before they can "eat food"? That is, do they need to form another mind connection to actually approach object before using it, or they automatically approach objects which they want to interact with?
Answer: Just "eat food" is enough - they know they need to aproach it. But food must be in sight range

20) {redacted} How do they understand items that they are carrying around? For some reason they are sometimes reluctant to actually use those.
Answer: They should be able to use them when they start searching for an object of matching type. To me it looks like if they see another of this type somewhere nearby, they may switch attention to that, ignoring what they are already carrying

21) Are they able to learn that following any of my orders in rewarding, and not only specific orders in specific conditions?

22) My norns often say "why?". What do they want? Can I answer such a question in a way they can understand?

23) {redacted} What are phrases/sentences (rather that individual words) they can understand? I.e. they do know words "hungry", "eat" and "food", but can I say something like "if hungry then eat food" to encourage them to make a connection between hunger and eating?
Answer: No, although they may probably be able to take such suggestions from other creatures

24) {redacted} (This is C2 only) Norns say "MyNornName yes". What do they mean? Are they just babbling around?
Answer: They say that when they do something that is very rewarding to them

On norn neuroscience:

(questions are on akamai canny, nova subterra, and default C3 genomes)

25) What are norn/ettin/grendel senses? Are they able to distinguish sounds? see background? know object colors?
Answer: {redacted 2}
Vision: Neuron associated with item category fires if such item is in sight range
Sound: some objects make sound that norns can hear. They can tell direction and strength of sound, which decreases with distance and is muffled by any objects inbetween sound source and creature. They may switch attention to object producing sound and approach it.
Smell (C3 only?): They know what direction is the smell coming from, and its strength (decreases with distance). They are able to travel toward smell sources. Smell can reach a long range, with "Norn home"-like smells probably reach through entire C3 map(?).

26) Do norns have immidiate memory? For example, are they able to understand reward a minute after an action, provided I focus their attention on object in question?
Answer: No

27) Can they form and learn any thought chains? Like "press button makes cheese appear -> cheese is a valid target for eating -> eating is rewarded if hungry", or only "if i'm hungry, pressing the button has some relationship to being rewarded (from hunger decrease) after a short while"
Answer: Only simple thoughts are possible like "i'm bored -> push toys"

28 ) Is there any way they can learn to abstract from or generalize things except for built-in object categories? Such as understanding that both "food" and "fruit" are "edible items", and then understanding that "eating an edible_item is rewarding", instead of having completely independent thoughts on "fruit" and "food".
Answer: {redacted 2} Not directly what I meant, but the documents show that they should be able to generalize some kinds of situations: if they recieve stimuli A&B&C, and have a memories related to having stimuli A&B, A, B&C, they should be able to use those (but memory about A&D is ignored). However, it seems that to their senses, "food" and "fruit" have nothing in common except both being "items", and they seem to be incapable of associating any kind of "new" neuron to both of them and then use it as input. However, i can guess genetically adding new lobes theoretically might allow them to do that on basic level, although it wouldn't be easy.

29) Can someone give an example of maximum complexity of thoughts a norn can learn / understand?
Answer: They seem to only form very simple thought patterns like "hungry -> eat food". C3 norns are more "robotic" than canny ones.
For C3 there is also CFE breed ("Creatures Full of Edits" which is designed to be smarter

30) Can they distinguish between different buttons, toys, plants, and more importantly, "nature"-type objects? Different subtypes of those? Different individual objects? Objects of same type in different locations?
Answer: No, only categories

31) Can they tell apart different individual norns?
Answer for C3/DS: They seem to be able to do that.

32) Do they really know where they are in the world? That is, are there "receptors" that sense absolute X/Y position, with the ability to learn coordinates of points of interest? Or maybe they can distinguish some zones and learn how are they connected to each other?
Answer: They actually navigate by smell. The only fixed landmarks are ettin/grendel/norn home in C3

33) Are norns actually able to understand the need to be in some specific region of the world and thoughtfully navigate/pathfind there?
Answer: They go in general direction in which landmark smell increases intensity

34) Can they ever plan ahead? Like know that they will be more hungry than lonely a minute later and eat some food while they are passing it?
Answer: No

35) Is there detailed information on how exactly a norn brain work?
Answer: {redacted 2} [B]Malkin[/B] has provided links to some good articles in his posts below.
There are also several fan articles partially describing the subject, scattered around the web.
Some info on nova subterra, canny and CFE norns is on homepages of respective authors.

Great many thanks you read through all the questions and hopefully answered some. Yay, you are awsome, thank you again!