Some Minor Changes

When I played Docking Station for the very first time I had read in the online manual provided by Creatures Labs all about how to care for a norn and interact with a norn. This included talking to norns and verbally communicating. I had tried, you know, "no", "yes", "left", "touch lift", all of the commands after teaching my norns the language with the learning machine and quickly grew frustrated that they still didn't listen to me most of the time. I ended up slapping a few norns to death because slapping was my last restort try to get my norns to pay attention to me. It didn't work.
This was many, many years ago. I gave up for good on trying to play DS this way.

Since then I have resorted to playing the way that is fun for me, which is using limited verbal commands with mostly letting the norns do what they want. The survivors would learn everything on their own and tactics to survive all by themselves. Hearing suggestions from one norn to another such as "Maybe left plant", "maybe retreat norn" or "maybe rest waste" were comman from norns when others complained of friendliness, hunger or cold; Things that didn't even make sense to use as a remedy. Also, behaviors such as eating doors, constantly staring at buttons or food, or obsessions with approaching other norns are all too common. All of these because I could not figure out how to use vocabulary to teach my norns what is good for them and what is bad for them.

After watching Lusewing's C2 videos very recently (a few days ago!) I realized... I had been doing it all wrong! What have I been doing wrong exactly? Concentrating too much on detail! I would slap the norns for every tiny thing they did that I didn't like (turns out most of the time the norn had no control over the things I punished them for, such as sleeping when I didn't want them to sleep, or walking left when I wanted them to stay on my screen so I could watch them as well as the other norns.) and tickle them "just to be nice" (not realizing that it encouraged them to continue doing whatever they were doing at that time). Because of my own mistakes with these two things.. no wonder my norns wearn't obeying me, they were confused to death!
Thanks to Lusewing's C2 videos I regained the passion to communicate with my norns verbally and teach them again!

You may remember in my previous posts about how I helped Xenia snap out of her obsessions and taught her how to take care of herself mostly when it seemed nearly impossible. And how I got Arethan to eat again! These things would have been nearly impossible for me had I not learned how to praise, punish and speak with them correctly. I tested my new found knowledge on these two norns and was met with great surprising success! This only proved my theory that it was all my fault from the beginning.
So, Thank you so much for your videos Lusewing where you showed how to properly raise a baby norn. I had no idea I was doing it wrong, haha!

That's the first change to the way I will be playing my game. This is the second:

When I first began playing my Nyrn tribe back when it was still called Kono Sekai Ni Wa over a year ago I had decided to play by breeding only for intelligence. I backed this up by choosing the "smartest" norns in my genetcis folder, the creatures full of edits and advanced chichis, over how boring they looked.  As i've progressed and the game has continued i've grown more and more knowledgable with genetics and as my knowledge grew so did my enjoyment! So now, instead of playing for smart norns, i've decided to play for genetically advanced or interesting norns... excluding mutations that make it difficult or impossible for the norn to live a fruitful life.

Also, belated happy birthday Nyrn tribe! The Nyrn genetic line was founded by Peni before written record. For the books, though, The very first post of this blog was made on September 15, 2010, so technically that is when this genetic line was founded. Anyways, belated happy birthday yay!

Four Norn Invasion

 The warp chamber suddenly buzzed to life as a single, curious little norn popped into existance in it. My attention was distracted away from my norns to this event via a warp icon at the top of my screen and brought me to the warp room. I was excited to see a cute little neko ettin norn sitting in my chamber just waiting to be let out! I happen to quite enjoy neko ettins because of their feline qualities. I set the poor little guy onto the bottom level of the warp room floor and began checking him over, but hadn't even finished when a second norn looking much like him warped in behind him! Before I could even pick him up and put him next to his brother a third and immediately following, a fourth beamed in too! I began to feel overwhelmed and was worried to find one of the norns was sneezing!

Immediately I rushed them all back into the chamber and smothered them all with anti-bacterial spray, and was thankful the norn wave had stopped. In the end when I finally got them all fumigated I set them all back on the floor outside the chamber to begin their IQ test while I thoroughly checked them all over. They all looked the same except for the last one which is related i'm sure but obviously got some mutations in color. They all look beautiful! All of my rushing about with them seemed to amuse them and I could almost hear them all giggling at me. Teehee! Good luck guys!

Hallows and Arsyn became the parents of an adorable little boy I named Aryon. Aryon hatched into the world and like all of my baby norns now, set to work hugging the nearest hugging trees to get his dosing of anti-crowdedness feeling. I never thought these trees would be anything more than amusement and am glad now that I set them out there.

Like I was warned I found Arethan not eating and was horrified when I checked his vital signs! Due to his lack of proper nutrition all of his major organs (and some i'm not knowledgable about) had dropped below 50% healthy. Immediately I began investigating, expecting to find the reason to be that he simply prefers to look rather than eat, but little did I know the answer would be a little more complicated then that. When I checked his hunger levels I found that hunger for protein (fruit) was relatively normal, it was the hunger for fat and starch that weren't, which meant he was hungry for food. This makes sense since he is surrounded by fruits in the form of mushrooms. The little plants he was tending were supposed to be his source of food, but it looked like they weren't growing and I'm not quite sure why. They had stayed in their immature state for hours.

I feverishly spent a good minute or so scouring the world for a form of replenish-able food that he could eat!

As soon as I found and dropped a honey jar in front of him he immediately hurried to it and began drinking hungrily from it! I let out a great sigh of relief when I checked his hunger signs next and found that they were returning to normal. I've never had a norns health drop so badly so quickly before just because they wearn't eating food. Starch, also was scarce where he is currently located but the honey also replenishes some of that as well. Oddly enough, as soon as his health was back to normal the plants in the ground began growing again and I watched in bafflement as he casually began eating them as they matured....

Xenia on the other hand, is happy. There's no two ways about it! Xenia enjoys smiling wide at me and expressing her happiness as if in gratitude whenever I cam over her. I began to grow concerned when she would not do anything else for several minutes, but uniquely, whenever I checked her hunger levels they were all remaining very low. As long as she's healthy and happy i'm happy.

Akka successfully passed the IQ test in an average amount of time and I was very pleased to be able to drop him into the midst of the tribe. They all welcomed him and he shot me an ecstatic grin such as when one is announced they won the contest!

Aku also passed, and took the success more casually than his brother. He decided the first thing to do in his new home would be to explore his immediate surroundings and sample some of the cuisine.

Xenia reached old just around 3 hours and 44 minutes. Her spots and colorings have dulled and become lighter but she still hasn't lost any of her charm. It won't be long before she'll be moving on and leaving room for a new queen to enter Nyrn. Until then, she'll continue to keep herself happy and explore new lands! Her age doesn't slow her down one bit!

Current norn population: 21

Accomplishments

Hallows and Anruin coupled up to create yet another child. I was very happy to get my wish and see a little boy hatch! I named him Arvs. I am also pleased to find that he was born cute like his sister Athesie, with a norn head and a pumpkin body. Arvs hatched into a world bustling with norns on all sides of him and was immediately overwhelmed. The first thing he did upon hatching is become fearful and begin a repeated session of "retreat norn". I attempted to snap him out of it with a slap to his bum and lead him over to the hugging tree. It was a little bit of a challenge I admit getting him to turn his attention away from the other norns and to the tree, but after a short time I was able to convince him to pay attention to the tree just long enough to get a hug or two in. Then he was all set and happy again!

After Arvs learned that the tree was friendly and would help him cope with his crowded feelings he loved them. Arvs then happily walked from one tree near the treehouse to the one by the bees nest and began hugging it too. Arves is all content and happy again, yay!

I had been watching Arethan for some time now in his little garden. He was so joyful with the new plants i'd given him to plant that he would do nothing else. His hunger levels were out the roof and there was no way I could convince him to eat anything. I slapped him several times but had to stop lest I slap him to death. I tried clicking on the mushrooms to get his attention, picking one and waving it in front of him, telling him to eat fruit, checking repeatedly to make sure he knows the words "eat fruit" and still nothing! I even combined some of these tactics and tried them at the same time. Eventually I gave up and with a huff picked Arethan up and plopped him on the level below where he was, where only mushrooms grow. There he wasn't distracted by the planted plants any longer and with a slap and me showing him the mushrooms once again he finally got into his head that eating them was a good idea! As soon as he ate one and learned this, he couldn't stop! I was so happy to see this! As soon as he had stuffed his belly with mushrooms even beyond what he needed I was convinced he was ready to be returned to his original spot and did so. The plants were there but he no longer took interest in them obsessively and continued to happily eat the mushrooms! I felt like I had suddenly overcome an overwhelmingly impossible challenge and took a moment to congratulate myself!

Impowered and encouragedby my previous success with Arethan I went to Xenia to take up the challenge of her obsessive personality again! I found her spending her time banging on the drums on the ocean dock where she had been for an hour or two now (*sings* I don't wanna work...I just wanna bang on the drums all day!), without eating anything. It was a long, frustrating process but I eventually convinced her to step away from the drums and push some other toys, or eat some seeds. I could not get her to eat any fruits while she was around the drums but found she would happily eat the mushrooms in the desert if I lead her half the way to them. I would expect her to be able to smell them from her position, since a norn can smell fruit from the warp room, but apparently her senses are limited. Here is a picture of her finally being happy and content. This is one for the record books!

 I had downloaded the new agent at naturing:nurturing that allows you to teach your norns verbs and excitedly went to work teaching all of the ones that are used most often to the norns in the main area of the tribe under the tree house! I was so excited! I then went off to check on the other norns that were around in the world, but returned to find a likefest on my hands! I know from past experience it's impossible to get them to stop doing this without separating them completely from each other. What have I done?! I was about to pull my hair out! Once my norns learned how to talk they won't shut up. Now I can't stand to spend more than a few minutes watching them with the constant speech bubble pop ups before I have to leave for another part of the world. Hopefully they'll grow tired of this sometime.

As you can see from this picture, upon checking up on the cute little Arvs, I found while he was still a baby that he is having trouble with his Liver A organ. This organ stores excess energy. Correct me if i'm wrong but this can be compared to how a human body stores fat for later use, in case there is no food available. I will be watching this in Arvs to see if the organ dies completely during his lifetime, which I hope it doesn't. If it does it doesn't mean the end of this norn, it just means he will need a steady supply of food available to keep his energy up. If a famine ever hits Nyrn Arvs will be the first to starve.

Once again Hallows has become friendly with a male norn, which I'm glad to see her getting along with everyone so well. She has bared another son by Arsyn and his name is Arvyn. Arvyn hatched and immediately appalled me (i'm a little ashamed to admit..). I know it's hard to tell, but Arvyn has chichi norn arms, a predator norn body and the rest is pumpkin, meaning pumpkin vines that he walks on and two large eyeballs floating above his empty neck. This is one ugly norn. I believe this is the ugliest norn i've ever had in my tribe. Still, he intrigues me with his look and I will enjoy watching his life unfold.

Aren met his end sorrounded by family. I believe Aren died like so many other norns, self starvation. I never like to see a norn go this way, but there's not much I can do about it aside from force feed them. The norn in the picture stayed by his side the whole time until he disappeared in a puff of sparkles. When I tried to pull him away for a better picture he resisted me and immediately went right back to him... Yet he wears a smile just like his friend. Rest in peace Aren.

Xenia's success with trying other foods carries over to the bramboo growing in the desert. A little while back I dropped one bramboo fruit on the sands in the hope of feeding it to her and needless to say, back then, it was entirely ignored. I never expected it to take root and grow, and begin to multiply. I am very happy to see that the desert now has more food for any norns that happen to get lost in it, but am a little confused because I thought that the desert would be way too hot with far too little moisture to ever grow something that's meant to grow in a swampy environment. Yeesh.

Aldobrando, one of the banana brothers, managed to discover the very top of the scaffoldings. I was happy when I first found him up there, but as I watched I discovered he no longer wanted to be there, and wasn't very happy. Aldobrando was lost and had forgotten how to go down. He tried many things, walking one way, then the other only to reach a dead end. He tried pushing the button, eating the button, eating the lift, eating the toy, pushing the toy and even watching all three! I attempted to show him that he is meant to push the lift but every time I tried to tell him, he applied "push" to everything but the lift. It seems he has an aversion to pushing the lift. Perhaps i'm partly to blame for that. It was only minutes before, perhaps twenty or fifteen.. that I slapped him a few times for repeatedly riding the lift up and down the first level of the scaffolding. Because of my guilt with this, I picked him up and gently placed him down on the second level where there were many interesting toys for him to play with, so that he no longer would be unhappily stuck at the very top. Here he happily played with the toys around him and wore a smile once again!

Spring turned into summer in Nyrn and it was being a very cold, cold summer. The temperature hovered in the teens nearly all the time and snow occasionally falls from the sky. In spite of this all of the flowers have bloomed and the butterflies and bees are about. This means an abundance of honey! When the hive began producing copious amounts all of the norns gathered around to feast! You can't see it very well in this picture because they're all standing in the one spot but there are at least five norns there!

I returned to check on Xenia again and was mildly alarmed to find her sitting in a small pile of purple fruit (bad, poisonous fruit). She wasn't moving and appeared to be lethargic, laying down a lot, and so I quickly checked her over and found out (as you can see in the bottom left of this picture) that she had contracted a mild amount of sleep toxin from the fruits. I felt too bad that she was feeling sick to punish her for getting into the fruits, so I watched to see how her body was coping with it. To my surprise and amazement the 34 sleep toxin was completely gone from her system within seconds after having eaten a single berry without her even falling asleep once! This must be due to some sort of superior genetics! 

I don't remember seeing anything that stood out in her genetics when I first looked at them, but that doesn't mean I missed something. I'm so happy for you Xenia! Now if only you could rejoin the rest of the norns and pass those genes on some more.

Current population: 16

Hallow's Children

It wasn't until I moved the spring toy from the bridge to an unreachable location that Xenia decided to move on. The reason I moved the toy was so that she would not starve to death. While I prefer to leave my norns alone and let them fend for themselves most of the time, I tend to have a weakness on occasion for helping them out. Xenia continued forward to the fruits growing on the bush on the other side of the bridge. She ate some and then moved on.

I was sad to find another premature death in the tribe. Arrinis, who had been so tender to the butterflies and gentle with the plants had passed away with a peaceful smile on his face. 

As usual with a norn death that isn't obvious, I checked him with the hoverdoc and found his death is most probably brought on by starvation. As you can see all three food needs are extremely high. Arrinis apparently had become not only a vegetarian, but a foodatarian. It is as if he grew a fondness for all life that he could not bear to eat any of it. I can't help but be a little grumpy at this, as saintly as it sounds.

Surprise surprise! Benkei has passed the IQ test much faster than I expected him to! He looks to be an intelligent norn indeed. Benkei's first interest when plopped into the middle of Nyrn was the many fruits and plants around him. He quickly went to stuff his belly with the abundance of foods! I guess the IQ test was hard on his tummy.

As some clouds roll by creating a fog affect Xenia determinedly crossed the bridge back toward the desert. As she did, I remembered that's where the honey jar was waiting and I hoped she wouldn't again find it and become addicted. I didn't want her to live life glued to that thing in one spot. She didn't look happy last time. I could only hope as I watched her that she would not do it again.

It proves challenging to keep Adalhard's attention away from the seeds nestled up against the volcano door. The seeds themselves aren't harmful, but every time he attempts to get them he ends up banging his head on the door severely. This, if left untreated and undeterred, could lead to his death. Luckily I distracted him with a jar of honey and continually to point him toward the mushrooms growing. He still threatens to turn back toward the seeds with thoughtful looks every now and then.

I was sad to see Benkei had died not long after he entered this world. It puzzled me, he had arrived so happy and was eating well when I dropped him off! Now he is crouched down in the norn's tree house. I have no idea exactly what happened to him. Poor Benkei. Oh well, I guess not all norns can live long in this world.

Near the swamp bridge a group of males hang out. All of the santa norn heads caught my attention and I decided it's picture worthy to have them all in one place! I never noticed as much how each norn looks so similar until they were all together like this. This is Fiken's doing for sure, but the future generations with Xenia and Hallows promise to pepper the tribe with more diversity soon enough!

Arver, one of the many males with a santa norn head, pauses to shiver in the cool spring air while his friend rests next to a carrot. This years spring is turning out to be a pretty cool one. I've often caught many norns shivering now and then, and when checking the temperature they're in the low 20's. 

And here we have Hallows first pregnancy! The father of her unborn child is Arius and I couldn't wait to see what the baby would look like! Despite being a halloween norn with spooky floating eyes, Hallows is actually very cute and not scary at all! All of the tribe accepts her as a full fledged member and everybody has been nice to her. Hallows has almost an innocent air to her.

I watched closely as she walked around, her little pumpkin belly wouldn't grow I knew, but when the time to lay came near she settled down next to the bee hive and layed a speckled egg. Here the baby will most certainly hatch with a good source of food on all sides, surrounded by the promise of being well fed! Oh, and also a friendly hugging tree so it also feels loved!

Soon enough the egg began to shift and crackle as the baby stirred inside, ready to come out. After a few seconds from the egg came a little girl I named Athesie! I gasped at her adorableness! She didn't look deformed at all, which is what I was a little worried about. In fact, she looks positively cute! She has a little santa norn head from her father, chichi arms, apple norn legs and a pumpkin for a body!

Not long after, Athesie's sister was born. Unlike Athesie, Aumsi isn't quite as cute. Aumsi has her mothers everything except for what appears to be an apple norn tail or something. It's a little hard to tell. Aumsi hatched on her feet and immediately began moving around, I found it extremely difficult to get a good look at her. I was also surprised how soon Hallows had decided Arius would make a good father for the second time.  I'm still hoping for some boys from Hallows.

Current population: 14

New Lands

Today started with an unusual death. I followed a gravestone icon atop my screen to Arrille who was laying, dead, ontop of the tube that lead from the tree house to the shee computer room. The first thing that puzzled me was how he got there. I had no idea he had wandered anywhere far enough where he could fall from a height onto the tube, yet that's the only explanation my mind could come up with! Still, I have no proof that a fall was what he died of at all! He didn't seem to be starved though. The idea of him dieing from a great fall leaves me feeling slightly disturbed and a little horrible. Such a death is sure to cause pain, but maybe it was instant with no pain. I can only hope. Unable to solve this mystery I left him alone to rest in peace.

Arethan was also following the fruit seeds that pop out and fly all over the place. How he got out of the little tube thing I have no idea! This is some sneaky norn! The spikey shells of the seeds fascinated Arethan but the seeds always seemed to disappear before he could satisfy his curiosity! Arethan's disjointed legs didn't slow him down, fueled  by his passion to figure out those seeds! It seems like Arethan is another norn who has somewhat of a scientific (or just curious) mind.

Angaredhel passed away, failing the IQ test with flying colors. He was the last norn left in the warp room (save for Wanic in the chamber) and died alone. But I can only imagine he was met with all of his fellow norns on the other side to greet him!

I found Xenia still in the desert doing nothin but sipping on that honey and looking a little bit miserable (look at that ear and mouth, honey overdose?). Desperate to get her to do something else I slapped her a few times to get her mind off of honey, which only works for a few seconds. I took advantage of those few seconds to lead her over to the drums and show them to her. I was very pleased to see her take an interest in them and begin playing with them. Little did I know that this too would become an obsession. She developed an obsession with toys! Try as I might I could not get her to stop playing the drums long enough to eat anything, and she was hungry! As I watched her as time went by, I developed the idea (nothing more than an educated guess) that maybe she is confused and attempting to satiate her hunger with pushing toys now that I deterred her from the honey.

I left Xenia to play with the drums a little bit, maybe she would get bored with it eventually, and decided to check on the next norn. I found Adalhard riding the lift with his banana norn friend. I watched them and discovered they were lift happy like so many norns can become. They rode up and down, up and down, all the while with Adalhard clutching his honey jar. I guess there's nothing wrong with a snack along the way.. The lift happy button pushing mostly belonged to the banana norn and I decided to stop him before he "lifted" himself to starvation with a couple of slaps!

Worried about Xenia I returned to her to find her still pushing the drums. I gave her a few slaps and showed her the seeds when she began complaining about hunger again. I had to wave some in front of her face a couple of times, and point to them before she finally decided they were worth paying attention to. But when she finally ate one, there was no stopping her! Xenia goes for all or nothing apparently!

Well now that Xenia was eating and mostly fufilled I went to check on the main part of the tribe. Nyrn was filled with many young faces and the sounds of happy norns! There was the occasional slap but that never lasted more than once or twice and all of the norns were smiling all the time! I watched as Arsyn busied himself with playing with the hugging tree and had to chuckle at the sight of the little girl norn using the didgeridoo as a telescope! I know she was actually playing it, but it looks hilarious how she was holding it! What did she think she was looking at?

I'm happy to announce that the lift happy banana norn has stopped being lift happy! My disciplining worked. I now found them what appeared to be trying to get into the volcano. After watching them for a minute though I discovered they were merely interested in the small seeds against the volcano door. What is it with norns and these particular seeds?  The banana norn kept trying so hard to get at them that he kept bonking himself into the door. I gave him a few slaps and tried to lead him away, to convince him that running into the door wasn't a good idea no matter how much you want those seeds.. but he wouldn't listen to me. Even his friend Adalhard couldn't convince him.

Arethan had found the little grove of mushrooms to the left of the waterfall and was happily plucking up, eating and playing with them. There is nothing here in this specific little area except mushrooms and I kind of felt bad that Arethan had nothing else to pay attention to. 

So, to fix this I plopped a few of those purple fruits on the ground for him to eat and plant. This he did happily! He was very excited to see something new to put his attention to and thanks to me took up gardening! I don't know how long this will keep him happy, but I won't be upset if he decides this is his new passion or obsession. It certainly is better than a lift obsession.

Arrinis was not far away from Arethan, and yet the two norns never knew the other was there. Arrinis is still among the roots of the seasons tree walled in by bricks of the old ruins holding the tunnels up. His attention had been on the fruits all this time but now as he rests on the rich, dark earth, he couldn't help but admire the beauty of the delicate butterflies fluttering about his head and admire the pretty colors. I was very happy to see that, unlike the norns of the past, he was not attempting to harm these little creatures. Last summer I had failed in keeping the norns away from the insects and before I knew it all of the caterpillars and butterflies had gone extinct due to being eaten! Thank you for being gentle Arrinis.

Xenia didn't become obsessed with the food like she had the honey, which is good I guess, but I found her wandering the desert in search of more toys. All she could think about now were toys. When I got back to her and found her wandering toward the toy car, she was also complaining of hunger yet again. Again the idea that she was confusing pushing toys with eating crossed my mind. This time, as much as I tried to convince her that eating fruit and seeds would get rid of her hunger pangs she wouldn't buy it.

I watched with mild annoyance as she walked to the toy car, and then my annoyance changed to curiosity and surprise when she passed it and continued walking. My mind reading agent said she was approaching toy, yet there was no toy in sight! Still, she seemed very intent on where she was going and very determined. 

????

Just then I got a visitor through the warp and was tickled at how cute he looked. Course, most norns look cute at this stage of life! This is little Benkei. Benkei is special because he is a generation 2 (usually I get gen 1's through the warp) and curiously, the world he came from was named "ccsf-cp". I know what the CCSF is, but what does the CP stand for? Is this a norn who came from a world specifically for breeding that has to do with the ccsf? If anyone can tell me please let me know. For now, Benkei is left to try his hand at the IQ test. He appears to be a very competent norn though, and so I have high hopes that he'll pass.

Back at the roots of the seasons tree Arrinis holds in his hands a single one of those fruits he'd been spending so much time studying. He did nothing but gaze at that fruit for such a long time. My mind reader agent just said "watch fruit" so i'm sure that he was studying it as hard as he could, perhaps trying to find some miraculous discovery from the fruit, or like he was trying to communicate with it!

Xenia was still walking and had never even taken a rest when I returned to her. When she reached the bridge though, a toy finally came into view and her sights immediately set on it. My hopes that she had stopped being obsessed with toys were dashed as her one track mind brought her to the little spring that rests on the bridge. Because she wasn't in danger of starving to death, even though she was a little hungry, I let her indulge herself in the spring toy while I watched with mild amusement.

POP goes the weasel!

Silly Xenia...





Current norn population: 16
The population is lowering! How low can it go?