Creatures 3 Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some Frequently asked questions - that are things that are newbies to Creatures or the Creatures' community often want to know. There's convieniently broken into categories, so click on the link of the category most likely to have your question and you'll be taken directly to it.

In C3, my Norn found the power pickup that lets me 'hold' norns. How do I do this??
Yay! You found the 'pick-up norns' power-up. To use it, just hold down SHIFT and hold down the mouse on your norn to carry it around the terraniums.

Is there a way to insert or convert Creature 2 norns into Creatures 3?
Nope. There is a way to convert C1 norns to C1 though, but C3 is so advanced no program can do that.

Hi, How do you make att's

How do I get my Norns into lifts?
Well norns very rarely do what they don't want to do, but often by putting a toy they are playing with or waving your hand near the lift and calling their name will make the Norns come over to the lift. You can then quickly scroll up and hit the call button on the level you want to go to before the norn moves away.

Is there a way to make certain a female will become pregnant?
There is no way to make certain a female will become pregnant when she mates. If the female is to be pregnant, she must have a certain level of fertility, lifeforce, progesterone and sex drive. If these levels are lower than they should be she will not be pregnant.

Is Norn inbreeding a problem?
Not really. Because Norns only have haploid genes it makes no difference whether a Norn's mother is closely related to it's father. In fact in a such a closed breeding circle (you can't have more than 12 Norns at once) having diploid genes and all of the problems of inbreeding that come with diploid genes, would probably be a disadvantage.

Do Grendels Dance?
Yes, Grendels can dance too! Their favourite is the honey wiggle.

Do Norns Dance?
Yes, Norns can do a little dance sometimes. The most popular is the Choo Choo, in which the Norn faces the camera and stomps his foot on the ground, going round and round. They Sometimes moves their arms too.

What's a Wolfling Run?
A Creatures game where the Norns run wild and are not looked after or taught. Sometimes there are Wolfling competitions that see which Norns survive the longest

How can i send you a norn for others to download on your website?
Go to the Norn submit page and fill in the form. Then attach your creature to an email addressed to helen@frimlin.co.nz.

Are there any other types of Norns?
Yeah, if you look around on the internet you'll be sure to find some new breeds for any of the games.

What is the different between genomes and sprites?
A genome is the genetics file for a norn. It contains all the genetic material for a norn. Sprites are the norn's pictures for the game. Norns that look different from normal norns come with the sprite files that Creatures needs to make them look like that. Without these files Creatures just makes them look like an existing breed of norns.

How do you get mernorns or scorpion norns for C3?
You can't. They are both C2 breeds.

What's a geat?
A creature that isn't norn, ettin or grendel. It's a spare slot in the creatures scriptorium for developers to create new creatures.

How do I select my Grendels and ettins?
You need to find the 'powerup' (spinning yellow button) with the grendel and ettin face on it and get your norn to push it. Then you can name your grendels and ettins and treat them just like other creatures, except you can not enter them into the graveyard when they finally pass on.

This question is actualy about Docking Station. Anyway,I've got the norns,where are the Grendals & Ettins? Their doors aren't locked.
You need to buy Creatures 3 to get Grendels and Ettins. Only the chichi norns come with Docking Station.

What's A Shee?
The Shee were the the race that looked after the Norns, they Left Albia in search for a new, more Spherical home.

What is the CDN?
The CDN is a forum for Creatures and Creatures 2 add-on developers. There are special documents available there and a set of fabulous newsgroups that you can use to pick more experienced developer's brains when you run into problems.

how do you know what the Unknownase shots are
The Unknownase shots are empty chemical slots. Kind of like empty breed slots. This makes it possible to add 3rd Party Chemicals, and CL can also add chemicals if they wish later on. Unknownase is in other words, nothing.

What's the difference between a cob and an agent?
Agents are the fancy name for C2 cobs. All C1 cobs, and most C2 cobs are just called cobs by most people in the Creatures community.

What's a cob?
A cob is a Creatures OBject. An accessory that you can import into Albia for your Norns to use. These can be useful implements like seed launches or teaching tools, toys like dolls and trains, food like icecream or any other sort of object that is already in Albia.

Cobs are new objects for Albia (often made by people who aren't from cyberlife). Creatures 2 comes with a special applet to bring them into your albia called the object injector. You can download new cobs from all over the internet and expand and add to your Albia.

What's CAOS?
CAOS (creatures object/agent scripting language) is the language cobs are created in.

Is there a limit to the species number I can give cobs?
The species number needs to be under 65535. Unless you are creating cobs for CDN you need to keep your genus numbers between 20000 and 65535.

What program do you use to make c3 or CA cobs?
You write the cos file (with the code in it) and the pray template in notepad. Then you bundle them up together using a praybuilder program which you can download from the CDN. For more information, look at the help files on the subject at the CDN.

Is there anywhere I can find a listing of all cobs for download?
Yes! You need to visit Where's the cob, a brilliant page that has a link to every known cob on the internet. It's the perfect place to find something new for C2 and an even better place to track down the URL for those indispensible cobs you lost off your harddrive.

Why won't my cobs install properly?
First check you've extracted all the files to the right directories. You can find out which directories the files should go in by reading the text file of the cob you are installing.
Make sure the cob you are trying to inject was created for the game you're trying to inject it into. C1 cobs are for C1, C2 cobs are for C2 and C3 cobs are for C3. Cobs will only work in the game they're designed for.
Make sure the cob has been unzipped. If the file you are trying to import has a .zip extension, it needs to be unzipped.
For more information visit the C1, C2 and C3 cob installation pages.

Is there a limit to the number of cobs I can have in Albia?
Yes there is. It takes a very large number of different types of cobs to reach that limit though.

How do I reserve a range of classification numbers for my cobs?
There is a very good FAQ on the creatures newsgroup (alt.games.creatures) that allows you to 'stake out' a set of classification numbers to ensure other cobbers do not use the same numbers. There is also a page called Bibble's Creatures world that has a list of cob authors and the classification numbers they use.

Is Docker just going to be the C3 demo?
Not really. It is in the sense that it is a "smaller version" of C3 that people who don't own the original game can play. However, it's much more than that as well. Docker allows online play of Creatures 3. You can swap norns, chat to other breeders and connect your spaceship to other spaceships around the world. It really is a neat concept and should allow lots of other people to join in the vibrant and exciting online Creatures Community.
For more information about docker, visit the official site.

Can you download eggs?
You can't download new eggs to import into creatures 2 like a cob, but you can download some to add some new types of norns to your hatchery. Some norn types that come in eggs include the Nova Subterras from the Norn Underground

If a Norn's head is above the water, can the Norn still drown?
Yes. The game checks if a the norn is in a room of type "water" and if it is, the norn starts drowning. This means it will drown if any part of a norn is in the water regardless of whether it looks like its head is above water or not.

How do I make egg files?
You make an egg file the same way you make an agent file. For more information visit the CDN where there are instructions on how to do it.

Does a norns genetics dictate whether or not it is attracted to norns of the opposite gender, is that scripted into the world?
It's scripted.

Why is it that Bengal Norns are more agressive and those cow norns are really sickly and weak?
I don't think there's actually that much difference between the different breed of norns. I'm pretty sure they're all based on the same genetics, so they should all be about the same when it comes to strength and immunity and stuff like that.

Where do I buy Creatures?
You should be able to buy it from your local software store, but if this fails, you can buy it online from the offical Creatures' site.

Do ettins dance?
I'd say so. :) If they're in a good enough mood.

Where do norns go when they die?
LOL! Who knows!? The recycling bin?

Is there a demo of Creatures?
No. Cyberlife never released one, and isn't intending to. If you want to play Creatures you need to buy it I'm afraid.

Do I have to pay anything to have an Albia or a Norn?
Yes, you need to buy the a game called Creatures. You can buy it from most software stores or from the official creatures' site. There are three games in the series.

How do I change the name of the hand?
Go to the game options slide out blue panel (the middle one with the picture of a question mark on it). Click where it says 'hand', delete what's there already and type in your own name or whatever you want your norns to call you. The teaching computer will then teach your name rather than "hand" to the norns.

What is the "honey wiggle"?
A grendel dance! :)

do you need to have C1 and C2 to run C3?
No, they're all seperate games that run by themselves.

Creatures runs really slow on my computer.
Creatures is a big memory and CPU hog. It usually runs best on newer machines (with over 32 meg of RAM and a CPU speed faster than 200mhz). If you find your Creatures running really slowly, you can download another version of the world with fewer objects in it which should run a lot faster on older machines.

Why can't I import my Norns?
After you reach the limit of Norns, you can't import any more. This is so Albia won't get overcrowded and that's about all an average computer can handle.

How many Norns can I have in Albia at once?
Only 16. After that new eggs will not hatch.

How many Norns can I have on my hard drive?
You are limited only by the space on your hard drive.

Is there an easy way to name my norn when it's born?
Yes. If you double click on the black bar where it's name will go the owner's kit will be brought up and you can fill in the norn's name and details there. The same thing will also happen if you right click on the norn while you've got the hand with the question mark on.

My norn has "unlearnt" it's name. What do I do?
Just go to the owners kit and reregister the Norn.

How do I rename the hand so my norns call me my name?
To rename the hand in Creatures 3, you need to go to the middle slide out panel, click in the space next to the hand icon and type in what you'd like your norns to call you.

I can't use the pointer the scroll the screen in C3 anymore. What can I do?
Sounds like an important script has been accidently deleted. I think you'll find if you use the mouse keys you can navigate like that. However, if this is not effective enough for you, perhaps it's time to evacuate your norns and start a new world.

How do you splice? I found the machine but i can't get the eggs in the pods.
You can't splice eggs, you can only splice full grown norns.

In the docking station I have a stinger problem, how can I get rid of them? They are stinging my norns :(
If you click on them they're squashed :) Just try not to let any more into your world.

How can I talk to my norns?
You just type while you're in the creatures window and press enter when you're done and it comes up on the screen and the norns can 'hear' it.

Is there any way to get more Rooms?
Yes. You can download them from the internet. Rooms you can download include the infirmary and Mt Threstle.

What can I do about stingers in DS?
If a nest of stingers pops up in your game, look for those plants that eat bugs (they have open mouths, you can feed the stingers to them when their mouths are open). Those plants have little blue seeds that you'll find near a parent plant. Pick up a seed, and drop it in front of the stingers nest. The plant will grow on that spot, and when it reaches full size, the nest will vanish. Thanks to Carol for this tip.

How do you get those ettin/grendel/norn mixtures?
To get the ettin/grendel splices, you use the genetic splicing machine in Creatures 2 or Creatures 3. It's in the space ship under the creator in Creatures 3 and it's in the room under where the cheese dispensor is in Creatures 2. There's a help file on this site about activating the machine for Creatures 2 if you need some help.

How do I get a genetically colored norn?
There are several ways. You can download a coloured Norn that someone else has breed and breed it with your own Norns in the hope of getting some coloured ones. Alternatively, you could play with an existing Norn's genes with one of the genetics program (eg. GEL or EGFB) and make them like that.

Where can I get a genetic editor?
You can buy the official genetic editor from the offical creatures' site.
You can download a free editor called GEL from Mike's Creatures for C2 or a C2/C3 editor from Chris Double's site.

What's a moniker?
The moniker is the alphanumerical name Creatures assigns to each Norn when it is born. Each norn has a unique moniker and Norns with the same moniker have the same genetic material (unless they've been altered with a gene editor). Creatures just uses this to tell one Norn appart from another.

I made my 1st norn who had a nice pigment. But then as it grew it lost all of its pigments. How do I make the pigments stay for its whole life?
You need to make a pigment bleed gene for each life stage. If you don't, then the norn will just revert back to normal. It's really neat, actually, your norn can be a different colour each lifestage if you want.

Why do some of the norns I splice in the gene machine die when they hatch?
Chances are you're splicing norns with incompatible genomes. Some different types of norns (ie. canny norns and original norns) have different brain and chemical structure so a baby that is half canny and half original may end up with chemical reactions or brain lobes that aren't fully functional.
The spliced baby norn is born with the same scripts that a naturally born norn is born with, so the fact it was spliced rather than conceived naturally should make no difference.

Can you affect genes using the genetic splicer?
Nope, the genetic splicer simply combines two genomes (as if the two norns have mated). However, you can download a genetic editor and create a norn with the attributes you want.

How do I change the colour of my norns?
There's a tutorial about it on the Docking station site

How come ther aren't any Mer and scorpio norns in C3?
BEcause they're a third party breed and the creator, Wafuru, hasn't made a set for C3. However, you can find new breeds of norns especially for C3 on the internet if you search around.

Why do some cobs and breeds have 555 and 565 sprites available?
This means that creatures can be played on a wider range of video cards, older ones that support the 555 encoding and newer ones that use 565. If you're not sure which you use, download both sets and then use one. If the object or norn looks green and strange in your world, you need to use the other lot. If they look fine, then you've got the right sprites and you know which ones to download next time.

where can I get a sprite editor from?
either the CDN page or from Mike's Creatures

What are Sprites?
Sprites are the pictures for Norns and cobs. Norns and cobs are sort of two layers thick, like a piece of cake. The .exp file is a bulky layer is the special A-life programing that makes your Norn run in Albia. The sprite is like the icing, it sits on top and is what you see. If you do not have the right pictures for newer types of Norns (such as Mernorns and Albian greys) they will not import into your game as a mernorn or Albian grey. They will import as a different type of Norn that your computer all ready has the pictures for.

How can I put COBs in my web page?
Put all the files you need in a zip file and then upload it to your server. You do this the same way you put html pages and images on your server. Next you need to link to your cob files on your page. You do this exactly the same way you would link to another website. In HTML it would look like <A HREF="myFile.zip">Download my file</A> Finally, if it's not your cob file you are required by the copyright laws to ask permission from the author to post it. Doing this before you post any cobs will save you problems later as some authors don't like other people posting their work.

What is "autokill", and why would I want it enabled? It shows up in the wolfling screen (Ctrl-Shift-W), and I haven't found any explanation.
Auto Kill is a mode in Creatures 3 and Docking Station that Automatically Kills any agent that is stuffing up or not working properly. If you take C3 off Autokill, you'll be faced with a window telling you that such and such agent of such and usch family and genus is not working, and you can select whether you want to continue, Kill Agent, Brutal Ignore etc. Sometimes its easier to leave it on in wolfing runs as if you turn it off, the whole game pauses at every error.