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Explaining Wolfling Runs (draft)   
Malkin

Malkin
Australia  
Manager


 visit Malkin's website: Malkin's page at CWiki
  3/30/2013  1

This is another draft resource - again, I'd appreciate feedback on errors and omissions, and general usefulness and readability before I submit it to the Resource section. Thank you!


Wolflings and Ferals and IQ Tests, Oh My!

So you're confused about what a wolfling is, or a feral - these are different play styles that people use with the Creatures games.

In wolfling runs, people let the Norns do what they want after they hatch, and give them no instructions, no training. In short, people let all the eggs hatch and then just observe without interfering. Wolfling runs are named after the Uplift novels by David Brin, and were first mentioned on alt.games.creatures in about May 1997. The world has no extra COBs or agents in it, aside from game patches/fixes, the hand cannot interfere, and you cannot teach your creatures. The time is determined by the player, but commonly people leave the game running overnight or while they are at work, and check on them later. The hope of a wolfling run is that it will produce very hardy, independent, creatures.

Variations on a wolfling run include a 'relaxed' wolfling run, where additional COBs, agents, metarooms or worlds are added, but the norns are uneducated, and you cannot intervene in their lives until the run is over. A "Forum Wolfling Run" is where members of the Creatures Community donate entrants and the gamemaster updates a forum thread with their progress. A "Global Wolfling Run" is a Docking Station-only variant, with a team of players with commonly-agreed-on rules and only warp norns to each other.

The Wolf Control utility was introduced in C3 which allows you to increase the speed of the game to 'fast ticks', and enable or disable autokill for agents, allowing you to tweak the efficiency of your wolfling run.

Common outcomes of wolfling runs include returning to a pile of corpses, returning to a pile of immortal norns, or returning to a pile of norns who hate traveling, as staying near food and mates is encouraged.

A feral run is like a wolfling run, but the first generation is educated, and additional COBs and agents may be added to the world - creature comforts such as more food or a medicinal herb, or preventatives against drowning. More suggestions for additional COBs and agents can be found in the C2 Must Have and C3/DS Must Have resources.

An IQ test, developed for Docking Station undocked, is where norns are deposited in the bottom of the Workshop and are expected to navigate back to the comfort of the Norn Meso. If they can't do that within a reasonable amount of time, they are considered unfit, and exported. The IQ test can be made easier by locking the doors so that a one-way path is created, adding a small amount of food halfway, instructing creatures on what they need to do next, testing males and females separately to prevent a baby boom, and changing the Training Dummy to a different, not-so-attractive, species so that creatures don't feel it can sate their loneliness. Adding Macrobacteria or the Bubonic Bugle to the Workshop can make the IQ test harder, as it will infect the norns that remain there too long.


My TCR Norns
 
RisenAngel
Sanely Insane

RisenAngel

Manager


 visit RisenAngel's website: The Realm
  3/30/2013

I have a different definition of a feral run then what is shown here. My definition is "similar to a wolfling run, but with limited hand involvement." For example, a feral run would allow the hand to save creatures who got hit with Eat Elevator Syndrome or are otherwise stuck.

I was going to bring up the Ovicidal Agent, but this apparently is meant to just tell readers what wolfling and feral runs are, rather than provide tips as to how best to do them. Though, it might not be such a bad idea to turn this into a full-blown "Wolfling Runs 101" article and include not only the definitions, but also have tips and examples.


~ The Realm ~
Risen Angel's Creatures Blog


 
Laura
Tea Queen

Laura

Administrator


 visit Laura's website: CC Chat
  3/30/2013

Grendel_Man wrote:
I was going to bring up the Ovicidal Agent, but this apparently is meant to just tell readers what wolfling and feral runs are, rather than provide tips as to how best to do them. Though, it might not be such a bad idea to turn this into a full-blown "Wolfling Runs 101" article and include not only the definitions, but also have tips and examples.

Grendel Man's suggestion is pretty much what I was trying to suggest earlier, just worded better! A Wolfling Run guide with tips of how conduct a successful one, recommended agents, etc. :)

 
Malkin

Malkin

Manager


 visit Malkin's website: Malkin's page at CWiki
  3/30/2013

I guess I don't optimise my wolfling runs as much as you do - what kinds of tips and agents do you recommend?

My TCR Norns
 
Laura
Tea Queen

Laura

Administrator


 visit Laura's website: CC Chat
  3/30/2013

I'm sure all of us can collectively come up with some suggestions. :) I find that any strategically placed vendors and edible flora (with emphasis on 'strategically') are always a good starting point when setting up a Wolfling Run.
 
Nutter
Senior Wrangler

Nutter



  11/2/2013

It varies between C1 and DS as well, because the norns themselves are so different - e.g. I use vendors in C1 but plants in DS, partly because norns in the latter won't use vendors but also because DS is optimised for ecology, whereas too many scripts slow C1 to a crawl. In fact, there's debate about whether or not you can have a "true" wolfling in C1 because the infections are so severe, although some people seem to be remarkably successful (I wonder how they do it?)
 
VioletGrendel

VioletGrendel



  11/2/2013

In my most recent Wolfing Run, I ended up with a pure bloodline of c1-ds Santa Norn, Trident Norn, and Bengal Norn mix, which, living in a world stuffed with grendels, became almost immune to death by thumping. They are amazing. They can be bullied to the point where they are running around holding their heads and when an ordinary norn would be dead, and when they get away from the grendels, they are just normal again!

What is the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything?

42!

 
CeruleanSilver

CeruleanSilver



  11/21/2013  1

I actually had to look up eat elevator syndrome, and now I feel bad cause I had a norn in the ettin terrarium who always wanted to eat the "ettin home", and I just assumed he was stupid and left him there. He took almost six hours to kick it, all the while complaining about how he couldn't fit the ettin home into his mouth.

Back to the point, I think these are good definitions, and helped with my confusion over the terms.

 
Siinamon

Siinamon



  11/21/2013

I was JUST thinking of how to better do one of my wolfling runs, as mine always fail for some reason. :D So glad to have stumbled on this.
 


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