Docking Station Gameplay Hints and Tips

Q : How do I keep my Norns warm?
A : The Docking Station Capillata is always kept at a nice warm temperature. Any temperature variations in your Norns are most likely due to genetic mutations or illness. The effects of mutations could affect your Norn severely but illnesses can usually be fought if your Norn is kept well fed and happy. If you have a Norn with an illness you may want to keep it away from other Norns in case there is a cold going around.

Q : My Norns keep dying, what can I do?
A : You should use the Hover Doc to inspect your Norns for bacteria. If you find some bacteria on your Norn use the Kill bacteria button (on the Hover Doc) to release an antibacterial spray. You can also use the toxin control button to find out if your Norn has any toxins. The Hover Doc is the one stop shop for ill Norns in Docking Station. Even so, you need to remember that death and dying are part of the game. Without death you would find no new Norns as eggs won't hatch until there is space in the world for them.

Q : The Hover Doc is getting in the way - what can I do?
A : Click on the Hover Doc's body and the Creatures Care Kit window will be minimised. Click again to maximise the display window.

Q : There are too many warnings and/or life events displayed on the screen. A : Go to the Control Room and select Options. You will then be able to change the number of warnings and life events displayed.

Q : I'm having problems identifying which portal is which.
A : Try giving your portals descriptive names like incoming_any or outgoing_friends. Then when you move the hand over a portal, you'll easily be able to tell which portal is which.

Q : I've raised the limits on Norns and Breeding populations and now my PC runs very slowly. What can I do?
A : Both Docking Station and the Norns require a lot of processing power. To regain speed, lower the limits and export some Norns (they'll go into suspended animation on your hard drive). This will ease the load on your PC and speed will increase. With a bit of trial and error, you'll soon find a comfortable setting for your Norns.

Q : How do I go online?
A : You need to click the small green button which is near the Creature name panel, if you hold your mouse over it a tool tip will display, "Connect to Creature Labs."

Q : How do I dock the game?
A : When you create a new game you get the option of it being Capillata only, (which is Docking Station on it's own), or Docked (which is with Creatures 3 docked with the Capillata). The button is in between the confirm (tick) and cancel (cross) icons. It is a toggle button which allows you to select which type of game world you create.

Q : Some Norns I have sent are classed as still 'in warp' - why is this?
A : When you send a Norn to another player it is delivered the next time they come online. If they don't come online for a while then it is possible that your creature is waiting to be delivered. Once a creature is delivered though it is still possible for it to be classed as 'in warp' if there is no room in the new world for it. Within the Docking Station folder you will find a folder called 'User', open this and it contains a list of all the users who play DS on your machine. Within each users folder there is a folder called 'Warp In'. This folder will show you all the creatures who have been delivered to you, and are waiting for entry to your world. If you have a full world, and lots of creatures in your 'Warp In' folder then the only way you can get these new creatures into your world is to remove some existing creatures (send them to other players or export them) - or increase your creature limit.

Q : I've just started and lots of Norns have arrived in my containment chamber, it's too much too fast - how do I make it stop?
A : By default the containment chamber is set up to receive from any other player. If you don't want this you will need to configure the chamber to receive from specific people, or no-one at all. Alternatively, don't go online until you are ready to receive creatures.

Q : I downloaded Docking Station from the site, so I didn't buy anything at all. Does Muco the egg layer only lays Norns? Will he ever lay Grendels or Ettins? Or do I have to buy the other stuff first?
A : Muco will lay Norn eggs and nothing else if you do not have Creatures 3 or other Norn breeds installed on your computer. If you install Creatures 3, or any of the (soon to be released) Norn breeds, you can lay all the different Norn breeds through Muco the Egg layer. Ettins and Grendels will be handled in the same way as in Creatures 3. The game engine will lay Ettin eggs automatically to ensure that some of those creatures exist in the game world.

Q : I have a creature who looks very different in the 'photo album section of their history. They just look like a ChiChi in my world.
A : The appearance of a creature is dependent on the images you have on your machine. If you have purchased Creatures 3 (or extra breeds) then you will be able to create Norns of vastly different appearance, but if they travel to a player who doesn't have these images they will revert to an image set that they do have. The only way to see a creature in all its glory is if you have all the extra breeds!

Q : I was editing some text in a message and I pressed END expecting to go to the end of the line ... now I am somewhere else in the ship. What happened?
A : HOME, END, PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN all have particular uses in Docking Station that are not text editing functions! These keys all control the movement around the ship. The only keys you can use for editing text are the cursor keys, backspace, delete, cut and paste.

Q : How do I make my Norns have triplets or multiple births?
A : There is a chance that any Norn can have multiple pregnancies, you don't need to do anything, just get your Norns mating and hope for the best.

Q : My Norn is pregnant but she will not lay her egg.
A : If your game world is docked you can take your Norn to the medical bay and inject her with some Progesterone, this may help her to lay the egg. If the game is not docked you can try this bit of CAOS code and see if this helps. Drop down the CAOS command line by holding down Shift + Ctrl + C and type in the following:
targ Norn chem 48 1

Q : When I press Ctrl Shift E it brings up ICQ?
A : This is because ICQ maps those specific keys. You'll have to disable ICQ to use the Ctrl Shift E combination when playing Docking Station.

Q : I want to import a Docking Station Norn into Creatures 3 but I can't see the Creature to import into my game world.
A : This is due to the serialisation differences in Creatures 3 and Docking Station. Some required changes to the Docking Station (DS) engine means that a DS Norn export file would not be readable to Creatures 3. You can load Creatures 3 Norns into Docking Station though.

Q : I have had my eggs in there for guite a while and they still have not hatched! Is something wrong.
A : If you have reached your creature breeding limit (as set in your Options Menu) then you will find that eggs wont hatch until there is 'space' for them. Either increase the amount of Norns allowed in your game world or export some Norns to make way for the new eggs.

Q : Is there a way to take an object room to room without having to pick it up, take it to the door, drop it, open the door and try to pick it up before the room door closes. It gets very annoying!
A : Put it in your inventory! Alternatively scroll through the favourite places with the page up & page down keys, or your scroll wheel if you have one.

Q : Anybody got any hints or tips on how to get your generations up in the thousands? Is it done by simply waiting patiently in your game, or letting your creatures roam the warp?
A : If you get a creature of generation 1000 arriving through the warp from someone, and then it breeds with one of your (lower generation) creatures then the offspring will be generation 1001. Letting in some of the creatures in the warp can certainly help boost your personal genepool - colours, longevity and generation are just some of the 'boosts' you can get. Of course, there could be some particular genetic variations you *don't* want in your world, but that's where personal choice comes in.