creatures caves welcome, guest
downloads   gallery   dev   community   creatchi   forum   mycaves
bookmarks | search | post new topic
Development Forum
old
How do Norns sense Norn Home?   
Ghosthande
Prodigal Sock

Ghosthande
United States  

 visit Ghosthande's website: Breeders Beware
  8/3/2009

This may seem like a dumb question, but I haven't been able to figure it out. Norn Home Smell doesn't seem to penetrate the lower Meso, but female Norns manage to find the incubator pan without difficulty anyway. Do they just wander randomly until they catch a whiff of Norn Home Smell, or do they somehow know where to go even if they can't smell it?


 
Malkin

Malkin

Manager


 visit Malkin's website: Malkin's page at CWiki
  8/3/2009

I think norns can sense smells at pretty low levels - I've had Butterfly Norns that have shown a distinct preference for planted areas, even though the levels of 'flower scent' have been really low. (0.3 on the Room Changer or less) Norns might also have instincts to travel when they're homesick? (so they can pick up a whiff of home scent and go there)

My TCR Norns
 
Gumbo

Gumbo



  8/4/2009

i think they "smell" or sense smells through their feet, not sure just heard about it somewhere. maybe thats why aquanorns are usually homesick. I think the lower meso gives off another scents, and that "homesick" can also mean pregnant.


in the spring you gotta let the flowers fully blossom

 
Amaikokonut

Amaikokonut


 visit Amaikokonut's website: Naturing :: Nurturing
  8/4/2009

You say norn home smell doesn't get to the lower meso, can I ask why that is or what caused you to draw that conclusion? The CA linkers should allow the smells to travel through the elevator shaft just fine, so unless those have been found to be buggy, I don't see why the smell shouldn't be able to get to the lower meso. Or have tests proven otherwise? Granted, my understanding of CAs is limited so I may be way off.

My norns rarely ever bother traveling to the heatpan anyways, heh.


[Naturing :: Nurturing]
 
Moe

Moe


 visit Moe's website: Creatures 2 to Docking Station
  8/4/2009

At a quick first glance, I’m seeing plenty of Norn Home smell in the lower Meso. About 6-7 on the Room Changer. Be sure you’re measuring near the ground, as apparently Norn Home smell doesn’t travel through air, and upper level lower Meso rooms are labeled as Air, so naturally if you run Room Changer over those rooms, you won’t see any smell.

I’m not positive in how Norns navigate, but I am familiar with the CAOS codes that complex critters (and I *believe* Norns also), use. If I am correct, Norns generically “scan” nearby adjacent rooms for levels of CA’s when choosing where to navigate. In the case of Norn Home, they will “look” for nearby rooms that have the highest levels. Norns on the lower meso are likely to simply lay their eggs right there, as they cannot, by any means I perceive, detect the higher levels present near the heating pad, since rooms of air, with the CA Norn Home at 0, block their senses. (Unless Norns scan several rooms adjacent within their proximity, which I am not certain they do.)

This means that norns on say, the upper meso area, are likely to lay their eggs just to the right of the Justanut pod, where CA levels for Norn Home are 7. Norns on the lower meso are likely to lay their eggs to the left of the elevator button. Norns in the middle will of course, move to the heating pad (or as far as they can until the egg is ready to come).

Given the fact that both of the positions for the highest CA level for Norn Home is near the lift call buttons in both the lower and upper meso, it is very likely that Norns are programmed in some way to use the lift to go to the middle meso, or can somehow “see” what lies several rooms above or below them. Without cracking the genetics kit, I can’t tell you for certain, or if anything I have said is right for that matter, but it seems likely and may help you understand it in some way just the same.

 
Ghosthande
Prodigal Sock

Ghosthande


 visit Ghosthande's website: Breeders Beware
  8/4/2009

You're kidding.

The reason I asked was because I checked it with the Room Changer. All over. Multiple times in fact. The reading in the lower Meso was always 0.0 --which seemed strange to me, but the reading is 0.0 every time I check it, even though the reading in the middle level is 6-7.

Maybe there's just something wrong with my world, although I've never noticed Norns failing to head toward the heating pan when they're pregnant. In fact I don't ever remember seeing a Norn hatching on the lower Meso unless I've put a barrier in place to stop them from going anywhere, the females always make their way to the heating pan.

How odd.



 
Moe

Moe


 visit Moe's website: Creatures 2 to Docking Station
  8/4/2009

Well then there’s definitely something strange going on in your world, because the Norn Home smell I believe, shouldn’t be 6-7 in the middle, but roughly 7-8. Are you sure you’re not looking at the CA, “Norn Smell” rather than “Norn Home”?

I have had a few eggs laid in the bottom or top Meso, but generally they do indeed navigate to the middle. It’s possible, as I said, that there is some mechanism allowing them to “see” rooms with higher CA levels for Norn Home beyond the rooms directly adjacent to them. Indeed it is curious that the highest concentration of Norn Home CA [in my world, haha] always occurs around the lift call buttons, as if to “lead” Norns to the heat pan.

[Norns are essentially, much to many people's dismay, just considerably complex and refined, highly integrated agents.]

 
Ghosthande
Prodigal Sock

Ghosthande


 visit Ghosthande's website: Breeders Beware
  8/4/2009

Yep, it was definitely Norn Home. I double-checked it to make sure.

Something odd though--2 AM this morning I noticed that Heat and Light seemed to be gradually decreasing, and Norn Home Smell wasn't to be found anywhere. Why this is happening is a mystery. I'll assume it is just my world though.



 
Moe

Moe


 visit Moe's website: Creatures 2 to Docking Station
  8/4/2009

Tried creating a new one to test?
 
Malkin

Malkin

Manager


 visit Malkin's website: Malkin's page at CWiki
  8/4/2009

I wonder if Danikat's Creatures IQ test might shed any light on this?

My TCR Norns
 


downloads
cobs
adoptions
creaturelink
metarooms
breeds
 
gallery
art
wallpaper
screenshots
graphics
promos
sprites
dev
hack shack
script reservations
dev resources
active projects
dev forum
 
community
links
advice
chat
polls
resources
creatchi
 
forum
bookmarks
general
news
help
development
strangeo
survivor
mycaves
log in
register
lost pw
0 online
creatures caves is your #1 resource for the creatures artificial life game series: creatures, creatures 2, creatures 3, docking station, and the upcoming creatures family.

contact    help    privacy policy    terms & conditions    rules    donate    wiki