How c2e Creatures Work
From ccdevnet
Welcome! This is a document designed to help people interested in c2e genetics to understand how creatures work technically, helping them to make advanced genetic modifications. It isn't, however, intended to give an overview of how the existing Creatures genomes themselves work - but should give you enough knowledge to work it all out yourself, and perhaps even to allow you to create your own.
c2e refers to the Creatures Evolution Engine, the game engine used in many Creature Labs games - such as Creatures 3, Docking Station, Creatures Village (Playground/Adventures) and Sea-Monkeys.
If you're interested in working with Sea-Monkeys, you should bear in mind that, while the game engine supports the full c2e genetic model, the scripting of the game itself deliberately turns off the majority of the functionality and instead controls the creatures via scripting.
Contents |
Introduction
c2e genomes are simply sets of genes, generally contained in .gen files. You can edit these using various tools, but the best tool to use is currently the official Genetics Kit, which you can download for free from the official Creatures Development Network.
Genomes are used by the Creatures game engine to create creatures, specifying details of their appearance, their biochemistry and their brain structure. They then mutate over generations to change these details, hopefully in a productive way.
The default genomes used by the Creatures games are stored in the Genetics folder under the game folder. The genome called norn.chichi06.ex47.gen, supplied with Docking Station, will be the one I'll be using for examples. A good thing to do is to open that genome in an editor and have a poke around.
Exported creatures - generally .creature files - also contain a genome inside them (the genome of the creature in question), but to access it you need to use a specialised tool such as RELEVATION to extract the .gen file.
Monikers
When a genome is loaded into the game, it is given a unique moniker which identifies a specific instance of the genome. When the genome is used to create a creature, the moniker also identifies the creature, and in C3/DS you can view it in the creature information dialog.
Monikers look like this:
001-aqua-hgru4-5fevv-aaz32-7npj8
002-wind-trvxn-afcx4-5k2k6-7en76
The 001 or 002 bit describes the generation number - 001 is first generation, 002 is second, etc.
The aqua or wind bit is the "friendly name", which allows you to quickly tell monikers apart, and also the species of the genome in question. The catalogue tags beginning with "Moniker Friendly Names" (in Genome.catalogue or DS Genome.catalogue) define which friendly names to use for which species.
The hgru4-5fevv-aaz32-7npj8 or trvxn-afcx4-5k2k6-7en76 bit is just a bunch of random bits designed to be unique, so that two monikers are never identical.
Gene Basics
Each gene consists of a 'header', containing information about the type of the gene, how to control mutation, the lifestage at which it is made active, and optionally a specified gender.
Talk about how later genes override earlier ones, here!
Medical Necessities
There's only one thing a genome needs to have in order for it to work, and that's a Genus gene. If you make a new genome using the editor, it will automatically make one for you.
Obviously, in order for the biochemistry or brain of a creature to work, the genome needs to contain some genes relating to those.
For biochemistry, the first thing you need is a gene containing chemical half-lives. Without that, all chemicals in the bloodstream of a creature will simply decay instantly into nothing. After that, you can add initial concentrations to supply some initial chemicals in the creature bloodstream, and then to define the biochemistry processes themselves, organs containing reactions, receptors and emitters.
In order for a Creature brain to work, you need just include at least one brain lobe. However, in order for the brain to be able to receive full information about the environment from the game engine, and to be able to make choices about attention and decisions, it needs to contain specific lobes, which we'll talk about later.
Genus
(Should this gene be the first in the genome?)
The only important part of this gene is the genus itself, which specifies the species of the genome - ie, whether the genome defines a Norn, Grendel, Ettin or Geat. (Actually, as far as the engine is concerned, it really just defines whether the genus is 0, 1, 2 or 3.)
This influences, among other things, how the resulting creature will be dealt with by scripting, the voice used for the creature, and also the species of sprite used for the appearance of the creature.
It also contains the monikers of the mother and father genomes, which are only useful for keeping track of mutations over time - ie, they don't matter to the game engine, so you can fill in any kind of nonsense you'd like, I think.
Appearance
fuzzie knows nothing about creature appearance (may be a lie). Someone should fill this in, sometime.
Appearance Genes
Bla bla about appearance genes.
Pose
Bla bla about poses.
Gait
Bla bla about gaits.
Pigment/Pigment Bleed
Bla bla about stupid tinting.
Facial Expressions
Phft, who needs them? Not CL, apparently.
Biochemistry
Bla bla biochemistry. Simulated delicious blood!
Half-lives
Half-lives. Equations galore! Also sense.
Initial Concentrations
Initial concentrations make the bloodstream delicious from birth! And maybe from lifestage change, who knows.
Organs
Organs contain genes.
Reactions
Reaction genes describe how chemical reactions happen in the bloodstream of the creature.
They specify two "input" chemicals, and two "output" chemicals, together with ratios for each.
If you don't want to use a chemical option, you can just select the "Nothing" chemical from the list - obviously if you set both output chemicals to "Nothing", then the input chemicals will just be removed from the bloodstream. If you set both input chemicals to "Nothing", then the reaction will never happen, of course!
Notice that you can specify a chemical as both an input and output chemical, meaning that (if the ratios are the same) the chemical is just a catalyst for the reaction - the chemical is needed for the reaction to take place, but isn't used up or produced by it.
Talk about the reaction time here?
Talk about ratios here?
Receptors
Receptors tweak loci.
Emitters
Emitters react to loci.
Brains
SVRules
SVRules are full of magical opcodes.
Lobes
Lobes contain neurons!
Environmental Input
The smell, vision, verb and noun lobes.
Decisions/Attention
The decn and attn lobes.
Other Important Lobes
The forf and driv lobes, at least.
Tracts
Tracts connect lobes!
Dendrite Distribution
Dendrite Migration
Instincts
Instincts teach the brain during birth and sleep. Yay!
Stimulus
Fuzzie's temporarily forgotten what these are/do. Bad sign.
