Friday, May 28, 2010

A little local flora

Just thought I'd quickly pop by with some new images for everyone to admire! I've been volunteering a little of my time to help out with some of the less interesting parts of the conversion. You'll be seeing some of my work in the not too distant future, no doubt.

Moe has been hard at work on Albian flora, so here we have a number of plants and fungi, some new, some old!



And because I can, here's the norn burrow and incubator, with an adult Civet lurking in the tomatoes!



Moe's really got some exciting things in the game, so keep checking back for regular updates!

And lastly, a question: what was your favourite part of C2, apart from the norns, and why?

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Motivational Speech

Someone mentioned my motivation- what drives me to work on C2toDS. I want to address that briefly.

I want this community to grow, prosper, and last. What inspires me the most is seeing other people working on projects. Watching them learn and apply their skills- be it fiddling with code, painting a new breed, or boxing out a model in 3D software- all the while making others and themselves happy in the process…that really gets me moving.

I want to see the community bustling with excitement and development! I have not seen this in a long time…

My biggest fear is that I’ll end up developing something for a community that isn’t there. Although I enjoy working on it, the project isn’t made for me- it’s made for you, players, fellow developers, and the community as a whole. Creatures cannot last without you. All my work, all my effort, it’s all in vain if you’re not there.

You want to see this project move like none before it? Go pick up Blender and make something, anything. A toy wheel, a beach ball, a block of cheese or a blueberry muffin, anything! Or grab your digital camera, snap some shots of the fruits on your kitchen table, put ‘em in Gimp, make some sprites, and code an agent of them! Can’t code? Learn, or find someone who can! If Genetics is your thing, go make a new genome, a smarter Norn, more vicious Grendel, or a more kleptomatic Ettin. The more active the community, the happier, and more productive I become.

Gameware has all but abandoned the Creatures series. You are its only Public Relations agents, it’s only form of Marketing, its only members, and its only developers. You, we, are its only chance for survival.

Thank you.

-C3/DS Style Hebe, © Moe 2010

Moe

“Base” Release

Taking a new approach to development, such as I already have by making this development blog, I’ve decided to release C2toDS in parts! If only to give you all something to do other than wait on me to update the blog! XD

Click to Download

INSTALLATION

1. Unzip the files.

2. Put the agent file in your My Agents folder.

3. Put the c2tods.mng in your Sounds folder.

4. The Agent will be called "C2toDS Base" in the injector window.

Inject it like you would any other agent, but be aware that C2toDS is LARGE. It could very well freeze the game for several minutes or more just by clicking on it! There is no conventional door at the moment. You'll have to ferry Norns to the world yourself, but there is a Favorite Place icon. :)

DESCRIPTION

The first release! This is everything you need to get C2toDS in your world for the first time. It puts the world in and sets all the basics up. Emitters, sounds, overlays, weather, lifts, and of course, cheese, are all implemented...and you'll find a little surprise when the hand moves into C2 Albia! There is one small bug with the sub bay door, as long as you close it first and open it back up, you should be fine. :)

Since emitters are in place (though it may take a few minutes for everything to propagate correctly), you're perfectly able to begin habitation procedures. I recommend grabbing some agents like JayD's Superfood vendor over at Creatures Caves, and/or the plants from Terra and Terra Reborn, both of which contain C2 converted flora and fauna. Edash also coded in many of the Creatures 2 critters and those can be found at Edash's old Creatures webspace. The soils of Albia are quite fertile, so you shouldn't have a problem seeding the land with all kinds of 3rd part plants. (Tubas in particular grow well and can get around. C2toDS was the reason I invented the Tuba Collector/Mover/Killer. XD)

Also, the clouds will seem to mob across the skies for the first ten minutes or so due to the way and timing at which they are created, and how they behave in high pressure areas, but after that they should start scattering nicely across the skies. :) It might also snow a bit more than you'd expect at first for a couple reasons:

1, I haven't fine tuned the temperatures yet. 2, the heat emitters will take a few minutes to propagate the rooms, and 3, it's a spring morning when you get to Albia, a little snow is to be expected! Seasons are fully implemented, but the classic GUI is not, check the calendar on the world tree to see what season you're in.

Also, it's very cold at night in Albia! (Another reason it might snow a lot.) Get your Norns into the burrow or near a fire if they can't stand the cold. Currently, without the UI, you can't really tell it's night, but you'll know when Norns start shivering, and the clouds start falling.

The volcano is not currently dangerous with radioactivity. You're free to place your creatures in it, but conditions are not favorable for growing things, so place vendors in there. Oh, but it is quite hot... Magmas will love it!

Macintosh computers have a problem with the world wrapping skipping a bit, and this is beyond my control, but it's nothing serious. Comments and bug reporting are highly encouraged!!!

DISCLAIMER:
THIS ADDON IS GIVEN "AS IS". IT HAS NOT BEEN BETA TESTED THOROUGHLY BY ANY MEANS. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. I DO NOT ADVISE USING IT IN A WORLD WITH CREATURES YOU ARE FOND OF.

I say that because I have too. However, It should be pretty safe. There's nothing in this release too intense that it could cause problems, but be on your guard. WATCH YOUR CREATURES. The map is large, and has not been thoroughly walked yet. A Norn could get stuck someplace it shouldn't be and die! Just saying…

---

The Latest Upload SHOULD have made the following unimportant, but in the event the agent returns an error about not being able to find a room at such and such location, follow these steps and try again:

PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOUR MAP HAS BEEN EXPANDED PRIOR TO INSTALLING THE AGENT. TO DO THIS, PRESS CTRL + SHIFT + C TO OPEN THE COMMAND WINDOW AND TYPE "MAPD 50000 50000" AND PRESS ENTER. THE AGENT WILL RETURN AN ERROR IF YOU DO NOT DO THIS CORRECTLY!!!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

The Day of the Triffids!

Here’s just a snapshot of one of the crazy things that can happen when developing!  The maker of C2toDS brings you…

Fun Fact: The Triffid plant in Creatures 2 is believed to have gotten it's name from the novel "The Day of the Triffids" by John Wyndham.

Lack of Updates!

Sorry for the lack of updates.  It’s a major pain to be running Creatures 2 on a virtual machine, so that slows down development a lot!  If anyone wants to buy me the GoG version of The Albian Years, you go right ahead! lol

That minor obstacle aside, I have been working diligently on a couple of things, namely the plants of Albia.  Did you know the Spinnomosa Aridus cactus only blooms at night, and doesn’t grow during winter?

Morever, did you know many of the flora and fauna from Creatures 2 got their “latin” names from Creatures players? 

For example, the glow worm is Ali, from Albia2000: “Solarvermes alimaggsii”

Helen, from Helen’s Bibble Directory, got the snail: “Cepaea helenii

But here is something particularly interesting!

The Capillata (the ship on which Docking Station takes place), got it’s name from “Cyanea capillata”, a jellyfish in Creatures 2, and a real jellyfish species.

Want to know more about the ecology of Albia?  Check out the Creatures 2 species list!

Saturday, May 8, 2010

The Windy City.

C2toDS reintroduces wind into the C3/DS game. Using CA 19 as a diffusion system for pressure, “wind” is created. Clouds move in the opposite direction of high pressure areas, as do any other sockobjects from C2 that responded to wind, such as the spinnoseedSpinnomosa  cactus seeds, and wind sock.

While we’re on the topic of wind, here’s a special feature on one form of weather unique to C2toDS:

Water, Water, Everywhere

And Norn’s don’t drink a drop…

dailybibbles fountain Let me begin by expressing my greatest displeasure with Creature Labs for excluding this functionality in Creatures 3/DS. –_- If Norns are supposed to be the most advanced biological/artificial life simulation in the world, why on earth don’t they need to drink water? In fact, they completely removed potionthe “drink” classifier from Creatures 3/DS, it’s closest equivalent now being “potion”.

lemoncarrotcheeseapple Ok, sure, some animals get their water demands from eating fruits and such, but Norns eat cheese, carrots, and the occasional lemon or apple. They certainly shouldn’t get enough water from these!

So what am I to do with all these water pumps and fountains in pumpCreatures 2? Make them “potion”? Does C3/DS creature biochemistry even require water? What purpose will they serve if not? I guess I’ll decide when the time comes…

Daily Bibbles: Engine Speed, and other Velocities.

dailybibbles_thumb[2]

Creatures 2 and Docking Station are two very different games, and through the development, I find myself constantly discovering dissimilarities.

One of the first things I noticed is the speed of the engine! Ticks in Creatures 2, and the engine in general, run much slower. When I tried to match lifespans of plants from Creatures 2 to Docking Station, for instance, I found them growing too fast!

ballhand[1]Another thing that’s dissimilar are the physics. They are completely different, though much improved. The red and white stripped beach ball for example bounced to the ceiling with C2 physics settings in DS! But on the flipside, you’re actually able to throw the ball a substantial distance. Creatures 2 left something to be desired in this respect. Mind you, anything was an improvement on Creatures 1’s instant falling!

oceancheese[1] Another thing to note, is Creatures 2 gravity system is far superior to Docking Station in one respect: water. Objects in water actually fall slower in Creatures 2. It’s a shame this wasn’t carried over in Docking Station.

Welcome!


Hi, I’m Moe. Welcome to the Creatures 2 to Docking Station development blog. Through this blog you’re going to get a chance to follow the development of Creatures 2 to Docking Station- the largest 3rd party project ever undertaken.

I’ll take you behind the overlays and through the scripts, to show you how I’m bringing Albia to life in Docking Station.

To answer a few quick questions:

What is “Creatures”?

Creatures is an artificial life series. For more information, visit the Creatures Wiki, or Gameware Development.

Is this a derivation of other C2 to DS projects?

No. This project is entirely new, created from scratch.

Will it include breeds?

At the moment I do not plan to port the breeds. Many have already been converted however.

How faithful does it remain to the original game?

Very, but with enough added content to make it an entirely new experience.

When will it be released?

It’s just me developing for now (and to be honest, I rather prefer it that way), so it’ll take as long as it takes. I will say however, that I’m making good progress!

I will answer more questions as they are asked. Please, enjoy the blog.

tom2