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Creatures IQ test

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Revision as of 07:40, 6 August 2005 by Furrykef (talk)
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Taken from the Gameware development forum (posted by Danikat):

"Overall, yes norns can learn on their own. Whilst telling them to do things will shorten the process (by making them focus on constructive actions) and rewarding/punishing them will increase the reinforcement the direct reinforcement from the action (like not feeling so hungry becuase you ate something) will do the job.

It is possible to selectively breed norns for intelligence, I'm pretty sure brain structure is one of the things passed on from parents to children, so if you breed two norns who are quite intelligent (show a lot of good decisions and avoid things like 'eat elevator') their children should show the same capability, although they will still go through some experimentation and need to learn for themselves.

A few years ago I invented a trick I called the creatures IQ test, which is basically a form of wolfling run designed to select for intelligent norns, as well as selecting against 'harmful' mutations, like norns who do nothing but breed or ones unable to walk.

Basically the norns begin in the bottom of the workshop. There is no food or toys in the workshop, comms room or corridor, so they have to find their way into the meso in order to survive.

The idea behind it being that intelligent norns, ones capable of taking care of themselves, will realise that they're hungry and go in search of food, ending up in the meso. Unintelligent ones will still feel hungry but won't do anything about it, so they stay in the workshop until they starve or I remove them.

I've had a lot of success with it over time and I have noticed an improvement in their progress over successive generations (with occasional, frustrating throwbacks). It's also produced some interesting side effects, like favouring norns who go left more than right."