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Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I would end up with the CFE when I decided to do some modifications. I wanted to make the next wolfling run a bit more interesting than the last, and I surpassed my expectations. I tried using ettins for the second time, but since they reach adulthood so early, they ended up breeding before needing food. I'll eventually fix this, but for convenience and diversity, I decided on norns this time around. Setting the wolfling run up, I used all the fixes from this site, changed the default ettins and grendels to CFE, and set the maximum amount of creatures to twenty. I hatched a couple of norns, and added a timer to move the eggs. After I left them over night, only two females were left. Mother and daughter. It turned out that a grendel had found the egg stash, and killed every young norn. They were later added the second colony, which is more successful. The second colony was started with just norns, and no timer. I hatched a Bengal, Bruin, Astro, Harlequin, Hardman & Toxic norn. The Toxic norn was quite good at surviving, but most of his offspring died, except for one. I'm not sure what happened after that, but the next morning everyone looked like an Astro/Harlequin mix, with some Bengal, Bruin and Hardman in them. This world is a lot faster than the last one was, so I'll be skipping generations here and there, as I really can't keep track of it all :) [TOP]
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Soon after setting up the colony, it became apparent that fat sources are a problem. Every norn had moved to the meso, as it's the only place with a fat source that replenishes itself. As they were all after the few tubas that spawn every so often, I decided to add the awkwood creeper, and chilli pepper plant. Not long after, almost every norn had moved to the jungle, except a few. A couple of pregnancies occured in the jungle, and one of the females left the room to find her home. I thought she would veer off into the norn terrarium, but she kept going, all the way to the Capillata. The shortest route would have been to the norn terrarium, but she was born in the meso, so maybe she had a specific home in mind. She came back to the jungle not long later, and stayed there the rest of her life. [TOP]
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Since everyone seemed to have taken up residence in the jungle, I removed the chilli pepper plant, as there now was a surplus of bramboo, and fruit never was much of a problem. Pretty soon, the colony was divided in half, as some left for the meso, some stayed in the jungle, and a stray norn can be found in either the desert or norn terrarium. I think I will change the ecology once in a while, to keep things interesting. As it is, they are already moving about a lot. Sometimes I'll see a norn in the jungle for a while, and then they turn up in the meso. Ideally, I would like to see more seasonal change in flora, but I'm surprised at how adaptable these guys are. [TOP]
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I added grendels to the mix, and quickly found out that there was stil a copy of regular Banshee grendels lingering around on my Docking Station folder, as some of them quickly died. Most of the others, however, generally live a long life. They usually end up in one of the terrariums less inhabited, but not this grendel, this grendel wanted to kill them all. He was born amidst the norns, and I'm not sure about his youth, but his adult life was very eventful. When I found him, he seemed pretty set on beating norns, especially having a taste for a certain norn he didn't like. But as the norns tried to retaliate, his hatred for the norn species grew, and he declared war on them. All this time, whenever he needed a moment for himself -to take a nap, or some much needed nourishment-, he would reside down below, where there were no norns. I think he even went there when he was hurt. In the end, he killed about a generation of norns, and died of old age, or something close to it. May he rest in peace ;) [TOP]
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The following morning, the norns had survived the onslaught by moving to the meso. Some made it back to the Jungle, but were eventually killed by the grendels. To get the norns moving again, I stopped the grendel mother from laying any more eggs, and waited. I turned the empathic dispenser off, but even that didn't help. Eventually, it caught my attention that they were all bunched up on the bottom floor. The bramboo was eaten to extinction, and while there was food on a floor higher, they hardly moved. On a hunch, I looked at the genes responsible for navigation - the ones that can still mutate. And indeed, their stimulus responsible for navigating upwards, had mutated to decrease the chemical, instead of increasing. That meant that norns were never aware of their desire to travel up a floor. While I edited these genes to not mutate, I discovered that I encountered the same problem with my CFE ettin run. I left the instinctual genes alone. hoping that their effect isn't as severe, as creatures will still be able to learn what an elevator is for. When running my CFE ettin wolfling run, I also ran into a problem where breathing out gave the ettins energy, making them virtually immortal. So this gene can't mutate either. I tested these norns, and they weren't immortal, just very lucky that the meso is so abundant in food. [TOP]
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I started with female toxic, astro, bengal and magma norns, with male bondi, hardman, and treehugger norns. This time around, I also installed the grendel update, but put the eggs in the water for now. Hopefully the norns will survive grendels in two locations, but the hardman genes seem to be spreading. While most went to the meso, the treehugger norn stayed behind, with a few others. The treehugger descendants did very well. Eventually, most norns were in the norn terrarium, and all of them part treehugger. What I didn't think of, is that treehuggers don't use elevators. While that's cute for a small group, it would be devastating for the whole colony, as they wouldn't travel anywhere. So I added the awkwood creeper and chilli peppers, so that the jungle would be abundant in nourishment. Sure enough, not long later, the remainder of the meso moved to the jungle, as well as the treehuggers capable of travelling. They started to breed there, and the breeding in the norn terrarium subsided. [TOP]
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By now, the meso was deserted, except for a young female who was the last one born there. She was quite lonely, so I told her to approach norn. Whether she took my advice or not, half an hour later she joined the rest in the jungle. By then, another young female had taken up residence in the meso. She had recently been pregnant, and although she left the egg in the jungle, I like to think she was taking a break from it all. She was visited by many norns, who eventually travelled back to the jungle. The female norn stayed behind in the meso, where shie peacefully died of old age. [TOP]
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I removed the chilli peppers, and a few scattered over the ship. But a large group was still hanging out in the jungle. I decided to add grendels to the mix, and the hardman genes in the norns proved dominant, as they killed grendel after grendel. Of course, the grendels took a few down with them. Most of norns stayed in the jungle, while some travelled to other places. Some travelled back and forth, leaving offspring on both ships. But most eggs were in the jungle, so it certainly was a popular place. The latest grendel has been killed by a norn who was recently pregnant. I found her looking angry, while carrying an egg, with a dead grendel near her. Got to love that mother instinct ;) [TOP]
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After a while, it became apparent that some females had trouble conceiving. There were successful pregnancies, but sooner or later, an egg would get stuck. It's an interesting trait, and I wonder if it will survive a few or more generations. By now, I have removed the awkwood creeper, to get them moving again. It definitely worked. Within half an hour, they all scattered throughout both ships, and except for a few adults, all the norns in the jungle have just hatched. At first, the norn terrarium seemed to be a big favorite, until they seemed to spread evenly. I couldn't find any females who had stuck eggs, so I think that has been bred out. [TOP]
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