Cellular Automata
A CA (cellular automata) is a virtual 'smell' that is emitted from agents, such as food and plants, in Creatures Evolution Engine games such as Creatures 3, Creatures Village and Docking Station. Often the agents are invisible so as to give the appearance an area is emitting CAs; for example, an agent in the Grendel Jungle emits Grendel Home Smell, which entices the Grendels to live there. CAs are called "scentons" in the help menu for the smell emitter. They enter through the foot of a creature, and are detected there.
The command CACL is used to link the CA to an object in the Creatures' minds, for example, that smell 18 means a gadget. In DS, this can be seen in the Bootstrap cos file z_DS agent smells.cos. In C3 this can be seen with the Bootstrap cos file z_agent smells.cos. The agent included with the Butterfly Norn associates the flower smell with plants and flowers.
They are used in Creatures Village, Creatures 3 and Docking Station as follows:
Number | Name |
---|---|
0 | Sound |
1 | Light |
2 | Heat |
3 | Water (from the sky, often used by plants to grow) |
4 | Nutrient (used by plants to grow) |
5 | Water (bodies of) |
6 | Protein |
7 | Carbohydrate |
8 | Fat |
9 | Flowers |
10 | Machinery |
11 | Creature egg smell |
12 | Norn |
13 | Grendel |
14 | Ettin |
15 | Norn home |
16 | Grendel home |
17 | Ettin home |
18 | Gadgets |
19 | (unused) |
This stub could use more information. |