Friday, September 27, 2013

Off to Work I Go

This Dwarfin is Clearly Proud of His Offspring.
He and His Mate Just Carved it from a Large Rock.
Sweetie's Touch Will Create a New Dwarfin.
Think She'll Finally Get Her Mutation? Naah!


When I logged into Second Life Thursday morning, all of Sweetie's dwarfins had turned to stone.

I say Sweetie's dwarfins because I had only one on the land. Sweetie is determined to get a mutation, so she has three or four mated pairs. So far, no mutations, even though she keeps them busy reading and mining.

The little creatures had turned to stone because of starvation. They ran out of food while she was away. So too, nearly, did her cats, who helped themselves prodigiously to kibbles and bits during her five-day absence.

The coding for the dwarfins is just amazing. They engage in dozens of activities, and produce implements for each purpose-- weapons, hoes, books, steins for holding ale, adzes, hammers, planes-- you name it. Apparently a single prim is repurposed for each activity. That means the script sets the size, shape, and texture of the tool, moves it to the proper orientation, and causes the dwarfin to move its body in a way that causes it to use the tools.

Dwarfins creator Judy was kind enough to give me a hut and a couple of garden plots. When I set out the hut it consisted on piles of straw, wood, and stones. Over a period of perhaps a week the dwarfins would consult blueprints, measure, hammer, cut, and chisel, and soon there was a completed building with a fireplace. It is clever, clever work!

To use the gardens one buys seeds, waters them, and grows them to maturity. They resulting fruit, berries, and vegetables are then harvested and can be turned into dishes ranging from salads to pies. It's a little less expensive to feed them from the garden than it is to keep supplying them with ham.

Yes, the dwarfins, like all breedables, require a continued investment to keep them fed.

That said, they're heads and shoulders above any other breedable I've seen in Second Life. 

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