Wolfling / Feral Runs

Posting-frequency: every 14 days
Last-modified: Mon Mar 15 1999
Copyright: See Section 4

Wolfling/Feral Runs
Denise Voskuil
grendenise@hotmail.com

[The latest version of this FAQ can be obtained via the web at <http://www.enteract.com/~dvoskuil/faqs/wolfling.html>. Versions posted to other websites might not necessarily be up-to-date. For links to this and other FAQs for Creatures and Creatures 2, visit the alt.games.creatures FAQ collection at <http://welcome.to/creatures.newbies/>.]

Changes: Changes about the location of the a.g.c FAQs.

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Subject: 0. What is this document?

The purpose of this FAQ is to provide information to players of the games Creatures (also called "Creatures 1" or "C1") and Creatures 2 (also called "C2") about what wolfling runs and feral runs are, and how to do these runs. Information in this FAQ should be applicable to both games, except where noted.

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CONTENTS

1) Wolfling Runs
1.1) What is a wolfling run?
1.2) Why do you do them?
1.3) Isn't that cruel?
1.4) Why do you call it that?

2) Feral Runs
2.1) What is a feral run?
2.2) Why do you do them?
2.3) Isn't that cruel?
2.4) Why do you call it that?

3) Acknowledgments

4) Copyright/Disclaimers

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Subject: 1. Wolfling Runs

1.1) What is a wolfling run?

A wolfling run is what participants in alt.games.creatures call it when you hatch a bunch of norns of both genders and then just let the game run by itself. The world has no extra COBs in it (aside from any game patches/fixes), you do not interfere until it is over, and the norns are not taught by you. In C2, it helps to turn the hand invisible. The time may last anywhere from an hour to a day or so; most frequently, people seem to leave the game running overnight and check on them in the morning, or while at work and check on them upon returning.

1.2) Why do you do them?

Generally, this is done in hopes of breeding very hardy norns who are resistant to disease, good eaters, and so forth. Problems may occur, though.

In C1, you may possibly end up with a number of norns who have various mutations that make them immortal or nearly so. This might sound like a good thing at first, but remember that normally you can only have 12 norns running around Albia. If they live for far longer than normal or don't die at all, this leads to an elderly, stagnant population that is unable to breed, and hobbles around Albia. You get new norns only rarely, if one happens to die, and your genetic pool is not improved very much. Try to remove these near-immortal norns after a run. Also, they may wander into the areas that do not have food - which is nearly all of Albia except for the garden and kitchen - and starve. This basically discourages the reproduction of norns who travel.

In C2, the norns don't tend to explore very much on their own (unlike C1 norns, who would often play on lifts endlessly). They may all end up clustered on the incubator level, hitting each other because of crowdedness and picking up eggs (which will then not hatch). If your norns actually do move from the incubator level, they may fall into the ocean and drown.

1.3) Isn't that cruel?

It depends on how you look at it. This encourages the development of norns who are hardy and self-sufficient. Is it better to have norns who need to be watched over constantly so that they will eat, or to have bred ones that can take care of themselves?

1.4) Why do you call it that?

The first mention that I have found was in a post on May 24, 1997 from "Magic Hacker" in response to a post by "Aznin" which was not archived by Deja News. The title of thread was "Wolfling norns". Aznin asked if anyone had let the norns just do what they want after hatching. It appears to be the first mention on a.g.c of what we now call wolfling runs. Magic Hacker reported that he or she had done one, but the offspring did not seem intelligent.

In a post from September 18, 1998 (subject: "Attention helpful experts....What is....."), Aznin describes the inspiration for the term, saying, "The term wolfling derives from science fiction, more precisely from the Uplift novels by David Brin - where humans are wolflings."

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Subject: 2. Feral Runs

2.1) What is a feral run?

A feral run is rather like a wolfling run, in that you hatch norns of both genders and let them fend for themselves, but you also teach the norns words, how to eat, etc., before letting them go off on their own. You may also include certain COBs (usually some extra food or food vendors, or the occasional medicine plant or vendor), as certain areas of Albia are short on these items, and you probably do not want to select against the urge to roam. You may also wish to encourage them to roam a bit before beginning, to spread them out.

In C2, you can add COBs like puffer fish or electric gates, to save drowning norns. There is a COB called the Underground Sweepers, made by JayD, available at Jimbo's Creatures Page. It solves the problem of objects or norns falling through "holes" in the garden level or incubator level by bouncing them back to the surface. (However, remove CyberLife's Underground Critter COB first if you've injected it, as it will get booted to the surface as well!) Also, since norns seem to regularly pick up eggs, you may wish to add the Egg Sitter program (it is not a COB), from PGumby at the site The Lair of the <Unnamed> Norn, during a feral run. It bumps eggs that are underwater onto dry land and restarts eggs that have been disturbed. This can extend the length and number of generations of your feral run. (People may also consider this "allowable" in a wolfling run, since it does not directly benefit the norns that are wandering around in the game.)
Jimbo's Creatures Page:
<http://surf.to/jimbo123/>
The Lair of the <Unnamed> Norn:
<http://www.mtco.com/~ejulyan/lair/>

2.2) Why do you do them?

These will hopefully produce offspring that are hardy, good eaters, and generally self-sufficient. The advantage of the feral run over the wolfling run is that you have educated parent norns who may be able to teach their offspring, and may also have extra food or other useful items available for them.

2.3) Isn't that cruel?

As with wolfling runs, it depends on how you look at it, and surely these are less "cruel" than wolfling runs due to the education and possible added COBs.

2.4) Why do you call it that?

The first mention that I have found was in a post on September 1, 1997 from Drax (subject: "Feral Norns are ready"), explaining how he did a wolfling run but educated the first generation, leaving any teaching of offspring up to those parents. Since that time, the definition has expanded to allow the possibility of the use of a few COBs.

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Subject: 3. Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the following individuals who have helped and contributed to this document:

Aznin, for coining the term "wolfling" within the a.g.c community and for most likely being the first person to post the idea of the wolfling run to a.g.c.

Drax, for coining the term "feral" (as used by us, that is) within the a.g.c community and for most likely being the first person to post the idea of the feral run to a.g.c.

JayD (Jay Dino) <jdino@ix.netcom.com>, for creating the Underground Sweepers C2 COB (and many other COBs for C2).

PGumby <ejulyan@mtco.com>, for developing the Egg Sitter program for C2 to help extend wolfling/feral runs.

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Subject: 4. Copyright/Disclaimers

Copyright (C) 1998, 1999 by Denise Voskuil, all rights reserved.

This FAQ may be posted to alt.games.creatures, or to any on-line service or BBS as long as it is posted in its entirety and includes this copyright statement. It may be posted to webpages as well, but the page maintainer should try very hard to keep up with any revisions/changes, so that an outdated FAQ will not be archived. If this is too difficult, a link may be made directly to it at the location specified in the first paragraph of this FAQ.

This FAQ may not be distributed for financial gain.

This FAQ may not be included in commercial collections or compilations without express permission from the author.

The author of this FAQ has merely compiled this information for use by others, and is not responsible for any harm to your creatures, game, or computer through usage of any of the above-referenced information, addons, or programs. If you are having problems with any of the COBs, norns, or programs, please contact the item's creator and not myself. Corrections/additions graciously accepted.

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