okay!! so, this guide is aimed at people just starting out and haven't paid for the creatures 3 add-on (which is $6 if you want it, but totally optional especially when you're still learning the game). it's also light on the mods, to make things less overwhelming-- if you want to do a deeper dive later, this page is a good place to start).
This guide also only talks about norns, which are the main creatures people raise. There are also Ettins (weird little guys who love to steal electronics) and Grendels (mean little guys who will fight with your norns), but most creatures stuff is about the norns!
First, grab the free "Breed Packs" DLC off steam, this gives you more types of creatures to care for
Install the game and find the source folder in your computer files. For me, this is " C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Creatures Docking Station\Docking Station "
From here, you'll want to unzip your mods from the recommended list. Mod files with the type ".agents" go in "My Agents"-- this should cover everything in this quick startup guide!
Once all the mods have been placed in the My Agents folder, you're good to open up the game!
A Modded Genome for Creatures: there are a number of modern modded genomes that make creatures smarter, more reactive, and more interesting to care for. For beginners who don't want to mess around with other game files too much, I recommend the Creatures Full of Edits (CFE) genome, found HERE. Download one of the egg packs and unzip the files into your My Agents folder.
Extra Maps: Docking Station, being free, has a pretty small space, with only one room appropriate for raising your creatures in. Luckily, the community has made tons of free rooms for you to use! Some favorites for beginners are:
--the Banshee Arc, a series of 4 connecting rooms with unique ecosystems, toys, and food (found on github here)
--C12DS, a remake of an older game in the series in docking station's engine, if you want to feel more like you're raising them planetside instead of on the ship, lots of functionality (found on a creatures archive here)
--the Norngarden, a classic room with a bunch of fun animals running around (found on the creator's website here)
Fixes: this is an old game, so there are some hiccups the modding community has worked out. for very basic docking station use, I recommend the following:
--modified HLM: stops creatures from spamming the machine that teaches them language (found here)
--critter and bug smells: lets creatures that want to eat bugs find them by smell! not useful for all breeds but good to have (found here)
--toy smell: similar, but for creatures looking for toys (found here)
--bramboo fix: keeps creatures from staring helplessly at fruit that's not yet ripe for ages (found here)
--snap out of it: a fix for an issue in brain coding (found here)
Useful Tools: these are a little less needed, but I definitely don't play without them lol
--Amulet of Teaching: teaches your norns their full vocab list without needing to take them back to the learning machine (found here)
--Advanced Muco: makes it easier to scroll the breed list when making a new creature egg (found here)
--Protective Tub: an auto-namer for creatures that uses goofy names by combining from a list of adjectives and nouns (found here)
Before you create your first creature, you have to inject which mods you want in this world! You can pick and choose based on what works for your current project. The starting ship only has four rooms, so explore until you find something that looks like this:
From here, select each mod you want and click the green check mark to inject it into the world. You can also find extra toys and other tools that were packaged with the game on this list!
Once you've got all your mods set up, you're ready to create your first norn! If you use Advanced Muco, the egg-laying screen can be expanded by clicking the circle shown below.
Make sure to select a breed with CFE in front of the name if you're using the genome I recommended above.
That should get you started! My stupid frog adventure is actually in a way more broken mod than the ones I listed above, so not for beginners, but if you want to create frog hell, it's over HERE.
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