INTERNET PLAY

The Warp

The warp is the mechanism by which creatures can travel from one player's world to another. Every creature that travels through the warp leaves behind it a trail that can be tracked from the Docking Station Central web site. From here you will be able to find the current location of any creature that has travelled, find out where it has been, what it was doing and if it has produced any offspring! Each warp creature, and their carer, is also entered into the league ratings on DS Central, with different statistics available for all to see.

For these reasons it is advisable you don't enter personal information into any of the text areas within Docking Station or Creatures 3. For example, writing your real name and address in the description section of Creature History is not a good idea if you are going to send this creature out into the warp! It could end up anywhere and will also be visible if people investigate the history of your creature.

That said, sending and receiving creatures from the warp is a great way to expand your gene pool and you could find that your particular creatures are much in demand!

Entering the Warp via the Containment Chamber
There are two main ways for your Norns to travel to other online worlds. Both use the Warp - a subspace conduit through which your Norns are beamed as pure energy to wherever they are headed. The first route to the Warp is through the Containment Chamber in the Workshop area of Capillata. The Containment Chamber can be used to send and receive Norns from anyone in the world. By default, any Norns sent to your world automatically end up in the Containment Chamber for you to check over before entry into your world - such creatures are now classed as immigrants (see section 5.4.1.3 below) You can use the medical facilities of the Containment Chamber to vet these new arrivals' health or administer aid.

Chamber Sending
Sending a Norn to someone else is simple. Place your Norn into the Containment Chamber, and close the door by clicking on the lock icon between the screen and the chamber. Choose the 'Configure the Chamber' icon from the top of the screen and you will see a list of your contacts. Select the face of the creature from the display and click on the name of the person you wish to send the Norn to. Then click the left pointing arrow by the 'Send to' window to add them to that column. The Containment Chamber can only have one person specified in the 'Send to' column but portals are different (see next section). You can't clone Norns by sending them to lots of people at once!

Click the single green tick on the left of the screen to send the selected creature to the person specified in the 'Send to' column. Depending on the speed of your connection, the game may pause at this point until the Norn has been sent.

You can also choose to send your Norn to 'any online user'. The Norn will then be sent to any user who is online at that time. This can be a good way to make contact with other users but obviously you have no say in where your precious Norn is sent! Once the creature has been sent the screen will display the name of the player the creature was sent to, and they will be added to your contact book for future use. You can use the Docking Station Central site to follow the voyage of your creature, and see where it goes to next!

Sending your Norn to 'any friend' only works if you have already have contacts you have classified as friends using the Comms computer. If you have a number of people classified as friends then the creature will be sent to one of these people randomly. They do not have to be online for you to use this option as the creature will be waiting for them next time they log on.

Chamber Receiving
You can choose here who to receive Norns from as well. This can be useful if the Norns on a friend's computer choose to start a mass exodus! Normally, your Containment Chamber can receive Norns from any online user, but you can alter this to only certain people on your contact list if you wish. Select the contacts you want to receive from and add them to the 'Receive from' column.

Immigration
When you receive a Norn in the Containment Chamber you will receive a notification just underneath the HUD. Clicking this icon will take you to the Workshop screen. You can find out more about where your visitor came from by selecting the creature's face in the Workshop screen and clicking the immigration button. This will provide information about who raised the Norn, and who sent it. You can choose to either accept or reject this Norn using the single tick or cancel buttons at the left. Accepting the creature removes its status as an immigrant, while rejecting it will send it back through the warp to where it came from.
You are unable to open the door to the chamber while there are still immigrants waiting clearance to come in! From immigration mode you can either deal with creatures individually, by selecting their face and viewing the information before clicking the single tick, or you can grant access to everyone in the chamber by clicking the double tick. Be sure you know who you are granting access to before clicking this button!