Zeruko
(formerly Nualbia)

Zeruko miniature map

 (click on the picture for a full-scale map of the background)

After eight years of (non-continuous) work the new world for Creatures is finally ready.

It is based on one of Bastian's worlds and as such any adult creature can mate with each other regardless of sex or species,
and therefore ettins grendels and shee can breed in this world.

The population gap is set at 48, although the game engine struggles past thirty so be warned!

 

>>> DOWNLOAD HERE <<<

 

The world has many plants, trees and therefore plenty of edible stuff for your creatures.
This is version 1.1, and further updates will be released on this page.

 

 

-----------------

 

 

Acknowledgements

 

Sandra Linkletter (Slink)
Premium 48 Norn World
Catnip Ball

  

Slink & Lis Morris
5-in-1 Tree (used for Blue Fruit Tree)

 

Eric Leif
Teleporters

 

Chris Aliotta (aka Brood)
Island Food - Apple Tree, Strawberries and Parsnips

 

Freya
Sunflowers

 

Steve Dismukes
Coconut Crab
Lightning Bug
Fig Tree
Beer Keg
Moon Cheese Replicator
The Weed Pack
The Herb Pack

 

Mark Boehler
The Fridge

 

Jessica
Updated Carrots
Updated Lemons

 

A special thanks to the belated 
Max Jerome (SteerPike
),
whose work lives on in the form of:
The Donut Vendor
The Pretzel Vendor
Congas
Bong
Toy Hand
Eye-ball
Penguin
Lava Lamp

-

  

Sprites only

Thanks go to:

Helen for her Blue Flower sprites,
Dr§mile for the Mini Gentian,
J. Martin for the Mint,
Spirit for the Sunny Flowers.
Also to the creator of the pink flowers.
Jeff D for his Bananas

TrellyDawn for her Pizza Dough Mushroom sprite sheet
Jessica for her Red Cap Mushroom sprite sheet

 

-

 

Macro Gregoid and the Spore Ettins makes use of the following breeds, so thanks to

Don the Ambershee for her Ettin Family
Norngirl for her ettin breed, Glettins & TPSE
Snapdragon for Plague Ettins
Silvak for Leopard Gecko Ettins
Slaterbait for Flame and Desert ettins as well as Macro Grendels

 

-----------------

 

 

 

A project I abandoned a while ago has been blossoming lately, here is the latest map:

nualbia - map.jpg (32193 bytes)

As you can see there is a greenhouse complex to the west for tropical fruit & flowers, a large forest with an extensive treehouse town.
There's a small building then a lake then a couple of islands. note the sun and two moons, and general lack of water.

 

1st August 2008

Added photographic backdrops and later, soil to the world, makes the underground look warmer.
The backgrounds look pretty good and add a lot of realism. I added the Ashton Memorial of Lancaster (UK) for some local flavour :-)

 

4th August 2008

Added photographic clouds to the world. They took a lot of cutting out and tweaking but the end result was worth it.

 

7th August 2008

Last night I couldn't sleep well due to the humidity so I outlined the backstory for Nualbia, fleshed out a little in the light of day:

Extracts from Cheribidee's Journal:

Year 746 Albian date, Zune 17th
The Terra Nornia Project was a great success, we had fantastically buttery crumpets at the celebration. The problem is that our norns are still breeding, and still need more space to grow tea and suchlike. I plan to create a duplicator to solve our problem once and for all.

Year 746 Albian date, Junomber 3rd
I have managed to build my Duplicator, and have copied cups of tea, biscuits, my microscope and even my wardrobe, complete with its contents.
 
Tomorrow I shall try it on organic life.

Year 746 Albian date, Junomber 4th
There is less of a grendel overpopulation problem now, as my machine is incapable of resonating with biomorphic fields without turning the subject somewhat "mushy".

Back to the drawing board.

 

Year 746 Albian date, Junomber 12th
After the mess of last time, I tried my tweaked device on teabags, with more success. Later I'll try it on ettins.

 

...

 

Year 747 Albian date, Grendich 1st
That was a mistake!

The first copied ettin stole the shutdown switch as I was congratulating myself on success.

Then there were dozens of the blasted things swiping things left right and centre. It took a few weeks to calm them down from their klepto-mobbing - my good friend Shillianoun wrote an interesting treatise on the phenomena - and I claimed back my equipment and journal.

Tomorrow I shall move to Phase 2.
 

Year 747 Albian date, Grendich 2nd
Well the new world is there.

Greeny blue and pleasantly disc-shaped like our own, but with important differences. I realised too late that one of those blasted ettins had stowed away onboard my ship, Simulacrum, this time they stole the Random Variable Remover Device.

Thusly a few chance factors have given us a different, though happily habitable world.

Year 747 Albian date, Grendich 3rd
We landed, and I set copies of the stowaway ettin to work building a giant fort and I intend to solve the tea shortage back home, and I've started experimenting with edible plants and suchlike.

I'll get them to send some norns, microscopes and other useful knick knacks in return.

That reminds me of Shillianoun's paper on "Basic Interplanetary Economics" its an interesting idea, but it'll never catch on, it's much easier if each of us invents what we need.

 

...

 

Year 748 Albian date, Vinduary 25th
Things have gone well the past few months, though I've spotted some tiny grendels running around, they must have stowed aboard one of the delivery ships.

Ah well.

The crops have been doing nicely, and I've bred some interesting norns.

I call them YinYangs as the females are very pale and the males dark.

Year 748 Albian date, Aprich 22nd
My friend Shillianoun, using his Far Seeing Device has discovered something unusual and very upsetting...

the other worlds out there are spherical not flat!

Our world is not the epicenter we believed it to be.

There is work going on to build an Ark to take us to a likely looking one that some have named Sphericus.
I intend to join the project, I'm sure we can take samples of our life and technology with us when we go

Looks like we still have much to learn.

I must abandon my paradise to the ravishes of time, and leave my creations to do as they will.

(Last entry)

 

8th August 2008

Here is a wrapped version of the map showing how I visualise the disc-planet spinning in space:

 

9th August 2008

Currently I'm flummoxed by faulty lifts whilst using Slink's lift installation cobs.
I plan to solve this by making my own based on the ones I made for The Treehouse

I have decided I will be using Slaterbait's Macro Grendels hatched from a modified version of my Macro Gregoid that will live under the eastern island and keep the grendel population above six or so.

I will also have an Ettin Mother of somesort, probably organic, and using Gaz's & Norngirl's Ettin sprites along with the Ettin Family, Plague Ettins, C3 Ettins and Glettins.
This will give me six ettin breeds to play with. (this is what ended up being released as The Spore Ettins)

16th August 2008

Today I finished the images for the basket lifts.

They are based off the original Albian ones, but shorter and more bambooey

 

7th November 2016

I have modified and installed the new Spore Ettin Mother!

 

10th November 2016

I put a lot of work into the background as you can see below.
It is a complex composite of photos and has Europa and Titan as moons.

 

13th November 2016

I updated and improved the Coloured Shrooms cob for Zeruko.

 

16th November 2016

I edited my new mushroom sprites based on Jessica's Red Cap Mushroom sprite sheet and the Pizza Dough Mushrooms by TrellyDawn

 

18th November 2016

Today I fixed the strange colouration of Slink's catnip ball

 

21st November 2016

Today I worked hard on foreground objects and made fore.spr

 

It is mostly tree trunks, & roots, wooden structures, stalactites and stalagmites and pond weed.

 

14th August 2017

I did some more work on the background.

 

24th March 2018

I finished the second foreground objects sprite for2.spr
 
It includes several elements from C2 & C3 and is mostly plants, rocks and pillars.

 

25th March 2018

I converted the background to the Creatures palette, which I wish I had tested earlier as it messed up some fo the clouds!
Then I blended some of the sharper edges to make it a more cohesive picture.

 

18th March 2021

I noted a few days ago that Zeruko will not work, so I'm trying to recreate it from the sprites and cobs I have lying around.
Thank the gods that I keep all my old project files!

21st May 2021

I started work on the third foreground sprite set. It will be mostly trees and rocks.

 

25th May 2021

Today I converted and playtested a great many cobs to work well in Zeruko, mostly food and living things.

 

7th November 2021

More playtesting and editing of cobs.