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 Geat_Masta   |
I'm wondering how much use the connectible gadgets actually got, I don't remember many agents that had IO ports on them, and I certainly never used them when playing Creatures 3. |
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 jcnorn |
I never used them in c3/ds, because I could never figure out how they worked when I started playing c3 and then I just ignored them. Let the ettins hoard them in the desert. |
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 FaerieHawk |
That's pretty much my relationship with the connectibles too. I don't use most gadgets either, though. I don't quite grasp the use of most of them! Between my love of cookies, tea, and the observation of genetics in nature I'm practically a Shee. ![[ngrin]](/images/smilies/emot_grin.gif "[ngrin]") |
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 Sanely Insane RisenAngel Manager  |
I use a bunch of connectable gadgets to make an "Ovicidal Machine" for wolfling runs (a setup of gadgets that constantly removes older eggs, greatly speeding up the progression of generations). Beyond that I don't usually bother with them. Risen Angel's Creatures Blog |
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 BlueLeafeon |
Grendel_Man wrote: Just curious, but how do you do that? O_o I usually play DS standalone, so I don't often have access to all the gadgets. I did download the Timer (DS) agent in order to hook it up the Super Food Vendor in order to provide my toxic norns with manky, but the problem is that I have to keep the super food vendor out of their reach or they'll change it to something else. (And I end up with 50 grapes sitting around) |
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 KyAnn |
The main connectable I use is the Timer, because there are some agents that I would like to go off after an interval of time. Typically I hook it up to the Vocabulizer, and the Egg Finder. Aside from that, I've tinkered with other connectable agents, but didn't really have a use for them. |
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 Peppery One Papriko |
I barely use them either, for one because DS really dropped the ball on the ports, despite having the potential to do so much more with them, and also because I am not too keen on the pulse-based system. Consistent states would be nicer to work with, e.g. for some more advanced logic systems like ALUs. Take the empathic vendor for example. The stationary one near the meso/corridor door. You could slap a whole bunch of ports on there! Maybe give it 3 input ports, 1 for each food item. Or make it 1 input which spits out stuff based on the value passed. The output could use a similar numeric code to inform other agents what has just been vended or about the number of objects of this food type that are already vended nearby. Lift buttons and doors in C3 can be wired up too. Not even that is in DS. How about giving the teleporters connection ports? That would be yet more possibilities. But nooo, the idea had to be ditched altogether... I am not sure how realizable it would be in something like the creatures engine, but I quite like how minecraft's redstone deals with everything. Sure, signals are limited to 0 to 15, unlike creatures' -255 to +255, but at least you can grab the signal whenever the heck you feel like. Creatures only sends a brief pulse. Missed it? Well, too bad. For something like logic gates, the gate itself has to memorize the signal for a while in the hope that another signal arrives on the other port in time. That is where another problem lies: the arbitrary time signals are stored for. Every dev does something else, causing massive timing inconsistencies that you constantly have to deal with. Something like an RS-NOR-latch is practically impossible in this system and has to be coded separately, which completely defies the purpose. Not that it'd be very useful. A NOR-latch is supposed to remain on or off which, again due to the pulses, would be pretty useless. tl;dr: good on paper, poorly executed. Lets play plants! Photosynthesis... Photosynthesis... Photosynthesis... |
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 BaffleBlend |
I always just forget that they're there. They just seem... out of place to me. Things like that are great in something like, say, LittleBigPlanet 2. But in a virtual pet game, what are they even doing there? I generally don't want things do go off automatically, and when I do, only when it's explicitly built into the agent already. I generally want my Norns to toy around with things on their own or I want to just activate things manually. |
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Peppery One Papriko |
They could be nifty for setting up mundane tasks during wolf runs. Lets play plants! Photosynthesis... Photosynthesis... Photosynthesis... |
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 Lodestar Doringo |
I hardly used the inputs/outputs, especially due to their limitations. However using a combination of C3 gadgets, some from Clucky and some from Mirality I managed to make some weird contraptions such as one that randomly puts norns through one teleporter or the other. (And then I noticed I forgot about the rainbow function on the interporter) |
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 GrayDragonEmily |
I very rarely use connectable gadgets for utility purposes, but I sometimes mess around with them for fun. Maybe I should try to make a really elaborate but useless machine one day when I'm really bored. -GrayDragonEmily |
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 Arnout |
I do not ever use the connectable gadgets in Creatures 3. Surely there is some handy machinery (and some stuff that isn't so useable) stored among the Ark's stock, but Ettins and Grendels are so quick at severing the connections or stealing the gadgets that there's not really a point in setting anything up. |
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 Lollipop Lord C-Rex |
I had that same problem too, Arnout, but I managed to solve it by setting up a teleporter that transported Ettins back to the medical bay when they get too close. The machine in question was a creature detector hooked up to a sludge gun that killed any Grendels trying to gain entry to the Norn terrarium. |
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Geat_Masta |
Or by only setting up things in the ettin terrarium. I set up a thing once to keep the population of whats-its fed with volcanic rocks. But that was the only usage I really ever found. |
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Lollipop Lord C-Rex |
I also once set up a mechanism to spray any creatures journey to/from the ark/capillata with antibacterial stuff to try and reduce a risk of infection. |
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 the1whoscreams |
I use the gadgets a lot in C3. Mostly in the form of creative ways to mercilessly butcher Grendels and Ettins, and to keep the fish population in the aquarium stable. |
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 xan |
I would use them more if they did more interesting things, or were more central to gameplay. Since ports didn't catch on early, most later third party agents didn't have them, restricting my options even further. |
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 Patient Pirate ylukyun Manager |
Geat_Masta wrote: Gnarlers? Yes, that's probably the most useful thing you can do with connectable agents, along with rigging up machines that monitor the population and activate the seed banks etc. The number of scenarios where you'd actually want to build a "machine" (as they were called) dwindles once you patch the ecosystem. In fact, it would probably have been better to spend more time on the ecosystem and just leave connectable agents out altogether.  The only other thing I've regularly seen them used for is when people hook up creature detectors to things, usually to kill/teleport Grendels/Ettins. Clucky is the only developer I'm aware of who regularly included connecting ports in their agents. His stuff is useful with or without the ports (and arguably more useful than most of CL's connectable agents). |
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 Uzag |
I used them a tad bit but usually creatures would just come by and ruin things. Eventually I stopped bothering and let them become mere items that entertain creatures. I'd may still give them a go if it wasn't because I also really, really dislike the way the connections visually look. Their graphics do not fit it and prod you further with blinking & bright colors. Some things I used them for was to feed gnarlers, set up grendel defenses and maintain the aquatic C3 ecosystem. Catch sick creatures. Spray creatures with antibacterial stuff. Teleport creatures around. Ones could also do funneh things like having it count how many creatures used certain doors and things but... yeh. Why put in all that effort just to have an ettin run away with a component or have a grendel kick the connections to oblivion 2 minutes later. Literally. I'd say they have/had potential but I wouldn't really miss them either. |
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 The Mossy Shee Jesseth |
I never use them. I'll pick some of the default c3 ones up, wire a few things together and then decide it's not worth the effort and forget they exist again. I usually opt for agents that can perform the same specialised tasks. An example might be something that gets rid of bacteria in a room/area automatically instead of hooking up a bunch of sensors to an antibacterial spray or something like that! Also I'm more of a 'lock grendles out of areas' than a 'kill grendles' person so I never really used the sludge guns or anything like that. All this said, I really SHOULD get around to learning how to use them to monitor critter populations and whatnot. Again though I generally try to install fixes so that they're less likely to die out in the first place! Hope that helps QvQ. Perhaps a more simplified setup of more interesting pieces could be in place in Kreatures, or just settings or buttons so you can choose if certain things are monitored or not? The Mossy Shee & Co |
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 Fuzzy Dragonhat Pilla |
I didn't use them. They were either ruined too easily, either didn't have enough range, either.... nah I didn't use them. Too bothersome. What might be more interesting, though, would be some kind of window with a global map with all the currently viewable/accessible objects available, which each have their own range. If the object ranges allow it and if you are allowed to access the objects, there could be a script-like or node-like interface to connect their input/output ports. Nothing that shows in the 'real' world (or only on hovering, or a small icon that collapses with details when you hover, dunno) but still connects them wirelessly. Visit my Creatures blog/website - Pilla's DS Agents Join us on Discord - Caos Coding Cave Visit/contribute to the Creatures Wiki |
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