The ship and it's ecology
Did you wonder how many creatures
are inhabitating the Ship and what's their name?
That's why I put up a list for you with their common
names but also with the latin names! I didn't invent
them, but the developers at Creatureslabs did. Some
of them are really funny, you'll smile, for sure!
I added to each creature where it usually lives
and what it needs for it's living. There is a real
food chain existing in all of the four terrariums,
a constant"Eat and get eaten".
Creature
|
Name
|
Latin Name
|
Located
|
|
Norn
|
Cyberlifogenis cutis
|
Everywhere on the ship, but
prefers the Norn-Terrarium
|
|
Ettin
|
Cyberlifogenis kleptomania
|
To be found everywhere on
the ship, doesn't absolutely need to be in
it's home terrarium (the desert) but likes
to return there, especially after having found
portable equipment...
|
|
Grendel
|
Cyberlifogenis vicious
|
Found everywhere on the ship.
It's home terrarium is the jungle.
|
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The Norn Terrarium
Creature
|
Name
|
Latin Name
|
Location
|
|
Pumperspikel
|
Pumpica spikelum
|
Meant is the Pumperspikel
tree where theses fruits grow. The seeds are
a very good food source for norns.
|
|
Apple
|
Malus albia
|
Apples grow on the apple tree.
(how smart! :-))
|
|
Waterplant
|
Yucca aquatiform
|
There are three of these waterplants
located in the pond. They don't die out..
|
|
Grass
|
Poa verdanata
|
Needs warmth, humidity and
light for growing..
|
|
Foxglove
|
Digitalis bensimpsus
|
Needs warmth, humidity and
light to grow. Can die out if there are too
less seeds disseminated. You can bring it
back by means of the seed bank. It's nectar
is food for bees and butterflies which pollinate
the foxgloves in return.
|
|
Pinky Plant
|
Dianthus statiphytes
|
This plant doesn't die out.
Food plant for bees and butterflies.
|
|
Blue Flower
|
Cynoflora morrisii
|
This plant doesn't die out.
Food plant for bees, butterflies and kolibris.
|
|
Grazer
|
Scatus harmenius
|
Peaceful, eats grass (therefore
it's name!).
|
|
Grasshopper
|
Idealus roberticum
|
Eats leaves and hoppes from
here to there....
|
|
Bee
|
Bombillius lisasillius
|
Needs nectar from the flowers
of plants, lives in bee hives. Be carful!
it stings your norns when they try to play
with them! "Ouch!"
|
|
Butterfly
|
Papillio haywardian
|
The caterpillars eats leaves,
then they will climb the plants and transform
into beautiful butterflies which need the
flowers of the plants resp. it's nectar as
food.
|
|
Ant
|
Formica saunterous albia
|
Takes care of the organic
deposits and detritus
|
|
Dragonfly
|
Flitus bhomicus
|
Eats other insects, the larvae
eat the leaves of the water plant, so dragonflies
need water around to lay there eggs in.
|
|
Hummingbird
|
Tristaniana bussia
|
Needs nectar of flowers to
survive.
|
|
Wood Pigeon
|
Columba cantellia
|
Eats different insects, fruits,
seeds
|
|
Robin
|
Charltonian albia
|
Eats insects and makes it's
nest sometimes in the apple tree where you
can see (with a little luck!) the young robings
getting old enough to fly off.
|
|
Gosh Hawk
|
Assipter stewardian
|
Eats grazers.
|
|
Kingfisher
|
Alcedo makious cristoph
|
Catches and eats the stickletrout,
that's why you can find the kingfisher always
near the pond.
|
|
Hedgehog
|
Erinaceus albia
|
Eats insects and snails.
|
|
Hoppity
|
Hoppis napes roo
|
Eats fruits. Can multiply
extremly fast if food situation allows and
your game can ge flooded with hoppities...
|
|
Stickletrout
|
Salar stikus
|
Lives in the pond and eats
(almost) anyyting what's falling into the
water, above all insects.
|
|
Snail
|
Barrus osullivus
|
Eats organic detritus.
|
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The Desert Terrarium
Creature
|
Name
|
Latin Name
|
Location
|
|
Cacbana
|
Burbania barnabicia
|
Needs lot of light and heat,
it's more succulent.
|
|
Desert Grass
|
Festuca xerophilus
|
Adapted to the desert, needs
light and heat.
|
|
Balloon Bug
|
Apterus claudinio
|
Lives with and from the Cacbanas.
|
|
Gnarler
|
Hungarius oscari
|
Eats the stones from the vulcano
once they're cooled. Strange diet, but make
sure there are enough stones laying around
so the Gnarlers won't die out.
|
|
Meerk
|
Sciurus harmanii
|
Eats Balloon Bugs and and
likes to dig into the ground.
|
|
Uglee
|
Grendomorphis vulgaris
|
Eats Gnarler eggs which it
spies during its flights.
|
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The Jungle Terrarium
Creature
|
Name
|
Latin Name
|
Location
|
|
Tendril
|
Coeloformis albia
|
Easy to grow, needs only
a bit of humidity. Can even grow in complete
darkness!
|
|
Fungi
|
Amanita albia
|
Needs humidity, but can grow
almost everywhere, also on darkness.
|
|
Purbana
|
Coleus purpureum
|
This plant never dies out.
Apart of this it doesn't play further role
in the ecosystem....
|
|
Wasp
|
Netelia davidum
|
Eats fruits and stings when
getting annoyed!
|
|
Dragonfly
|
Flitus bhomicus
|
Eats other insects, the larvae
eat the leaves of the water plant, so dragonflies
need water around to lay there eggs in.
|
|
Gnats
|
Strawcium gigantus
|
Only being seen in swarm.
They eat male Grendels! Never seen until now?
Yes, of course the do exist, watch closer
and then you might be able to catch a glimps
of them hovering between the leaves...
|
|
Rocklice
|
Jonti praticilium
|
Eats insects, drills itself
into the ground and get's nasty sometimes.
|
|
Kobold
|
Baldium mysterious
|
Eats insects, fruits and other
food which is brought into the jungle by other
creatures. The Kobold is constantly a bit
ill-tempered.
|
|
Piranha
|
Viscious fiscious
|
Dangerous! Eats every creature
that falls into it's pond and there will be
nothing left but a few bones...
|
|
Mosquito
|
Mossee darmicus
|
Ouch! Stings and very nasty!
|
|
Rhino Beetle
|
Tuffus burchiium maximus
|
Eats organic detritus.
|
|
Bacteria
|
Bhowmicoccus nornovora
|
Responsible for any kinds
of infectuous illnesses in Norns! Cannot be
seen by the naked eye, you need special tools
to make them visible.
|
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The Aquarium
Creature
|
Name
|
Latin Name
|
Location
|
|
Opal Sponge
|
Porifera opalite
|
Lives only in salt water.
|
|
Orange Sponge
|
Porifera orangeboom
|
Lives only in salt water.
|
|
Gumin Grass
|
Poa guminum
|
Lives only in salt water.
Can only grow if there's no other Gumin Grass
or Orange Sponge growing nearby.
|
|
Aquamites
|
Aquatophagoides albia
|
They filter nutrients out
of the water.
|
|
Wyst
|
Cluelesseus officiusous
|
They filter nutrients out
of the water.
|
|
Angel Fish
|
Gillium gillium
|
Eats the seeds of the Orange
Sponge as well as those of the Opal Sponge
and Gumin Grass and eats Wysts too.
|
|
Clown Fish
|
Premnas hilariousis
|
Eats wysts and seeds of the
Opal Sponge, of the Orange Sponge and of Gumin
Grass.
|
|
Handlefish
|
Ficious tobiniuos aquatonicus
|
Eats the seeds of the Orange
Sponge as well as those of the Opal Sponge
and Gumin Grass and eats Wysts too.
|
|
Neon Fish
|
Hyphessobrycon creaturelabiani
|
Eats the seeds of the Orange
Sponge as well as those of the Opal Sponge
and Gumin Grass and eats Wysts too.
|
|
Cuttlefish
|
Sushi hazardous
|
Eats Wysts and shows colour
change when annoyed.
|
|
Nudibranch
|
Rockinium silveria
|
Eats Wysts and Aquamites but
seeds of the Gumin Grass too.
|
|
Rainbow Sharkling
|
Odontaspis spectrumian
|
Although it looks harmless
showing those nice colours it devours all
sorts of fish.
|
|
Man-O-War
|
Medus chappie ferociousia
|
Eats mainly fishes.
|
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Why do some breeds die
out, some don't?
Did you wonder, why some breeds, such
as the stickletrout die out, but some which depend
on them in the food chain (like the kingfisher)
don't die out? I know that the ecology system is
only a model in the Creatures game, but I wanted
to know anyway. So I wrote to Creaturelabs, asking
that question. And I got an answer! I also put up
a few hints and tips to some of the dying out problems:
1. There are some "long living"
breeds on the ship which simply don't die out. Means
all those which don't die out even when their food
recource is really scarce. To these breeds the following
belong to: Kingfisher, Gosh Hawk, Uglee, Piranhas
and a few more. Smart explanation....:-).
2. As for the stickletrout: you have
to make sure that their food resource, the larveas
of the dragonfly are always around. If there aren't
any more in the terrarium, produce some by means
of the seed bank. Those dragonflies will lay their
eggs in the pond, the larvaes will hatch and (some)
get eaten by the stickletrout. It's a bit of a chore
to maintain a steady stickletrout population, don't
know for how long you want to go on with this...
there is also an agent, which helps in producing
food constantly for the stickletrout. You can download
"Fish
food" here.
3. The Aquarium is easier. I put up
a fish monitoring device to make sure fishes and
food resources for them won't die out so fast. I
connected the monitoring machine with a movable
seed bank which recharges automatically after being
emptied. The whole thing looks like this:
Both machines can be found in the
ship. If you want to have more of these machines
you can either inject some more or duplicate them
by means of the replicator on the bridge. But still
you have to monitor what those machines are doing,
you might have to switch the machine to monitor
other breeds to maintain a steady population of
all breeds under water. So this solution is not
fully automated...
4. Similar case for the desert terrarium.
To keep Gnarlers alive in the desert, you have to
make the vulcano erupt and throw stones in the terrarium
which are needed by the Gnarlers as food supply.
To make sure the vulcano erupts regularely I put
up another combination of machines you can find
in the ship:
This combination works from left to
right: The first machine to the left gives a constant
pulsing signal (don't forget to switch it on!),
the next machine to it's right (connected to the
first one) counts the signals the first machine
is giving. After having recieved two signals of
the first machine it will emit also one signal to
the third machine connected to it. This machine
counts 15 signals coming from the second machine
and if that happened, it gives a signal to the vulcano
to erupt. A bit complicated, that combination, I
know, but it makes sure, the vulcano doesn't erupt
all the time, there is a certain delay. If you think
that's still to fast or maybe to slow then simply
adjust the counters to the desired value!
You can also take the whole installation
to produce a constant supply of ballon bugs for
the meerks (my favorite breed!!) by connecting it
to the seed bank. Unfortunately the seed bank will
run out of energy, so you have to make sure, there's
always enough bioenergy for sustaining all the needs
of the ship! (only in C3 standalone, DS always has
enough bioenergy!) (thanks to Lisa for the tip)
Looks like the whole ship needs your
care and attention, not only the norns! That can
keep you quite busy...
I don't want to forget to mention
a special agent/creature that should care for the
ship's ecology. It's "Gaia" from Lis Morris
(site not available any more). I didn't try it out
so far. Gaia isn't just a "classic" agent,
it's more, it's even a creature which can be spliced
with other creatures! Although some results looked
more scaring than good.... I don't know if this
agent really cares for the ship, I heard more negative
reports like slowing down the game and not really
fulfilling the purpose it was tought to be made
for. But there's another tool from Lis Morris worth
a try, it's called "Spaceship
Repair Tool" and it should balance the
ecology of the ship.
And another tip: If your hoppities
multiply like crazy, most of the time it's due to
too much food (especially fruits) laying around,
e.g. from automated food vendors. If you want to
get rid of that hoppity infestation, download the
dragon
from Darcie.
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