=== ANCHOR POEM ===
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10-22-22
train the ai from the perspective of the game master. the one who arbites
the rules. whose word is law, and the rules of the game are then given. the one
who deals the cards, who picks the game, who hosts and brings snacks... you
know, the reason the game exists at all.
take star realms - there are actually three players in that game. player 1,
player 2, and the invisible third player who plays the role of "chance". who
decides the cards to play? is it random, or is it weighted? perhaps with enough
oomph that a whole player was designed for that role.
but how would they be scored? what kind of game is theirs to play?
choosing the board is such a fun role, like designing a story or helping
with chores. you're building something special, unique and so charmed.
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=== SIMILARITY RANKED ===
--- #1 notes/war-card-game ---
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the cardgame "war" except a deckbuilding game. each player requires a regular
deck of cards and a deck of tarot cards (optional) - the tarot cards act the
same way that spirit cards work in Spirit Island - basically they define the
rules for your particular character. Anyway, everyone starts by building their
own trade row out of their deck of cards. Then, they deal themselves 6 cards -
the three highest diamonds and the lowest spade, heart, and club.
well, might want to do 2s of every card type. heart, club, spade, and diamond.
here are the rules.
play area is set up by players placing all four of their cards down face up.
trade row is set up by players taking turns placing a card and the opponent
mirroring them. whenever a player reveals a card and updates the trade row,
the opponent must reveal the same card and set that as their trade row as well.
the trade row has no maximum size, but if a player has more than 6 in their
trade row then they don't update a new one when buying a card.
players alternate playing a single card face up into their play area.
these cards stay in play and activate every turn until they are destroyed.
hearts are your life points. if you ever run out of life, you die.
clubs block damage and act as a renewable shield between you and your enemy.
diamonds are currency, and can be used in more than one way.
spades deal damage, first to clubs, then to other spades, then to hearts.
diamonds, on your turn, can be used in three ways: spent and sent to the
discard
pile in order acquire a card from the trade row, or discarding itself from the
play area to play an extra card from your deck of equal or lesser value.
on a player's turn, they may play a single card from their deck (their choice)
on a player's turn, all their active spades deal damage to other player's cards
if a spade destroys a heart card, it is removed from the game. All other cards
are placed in the discard pile. The owner of the spade may pick their targets.
a spade deals damage equal to it's number and destroys any card with equal or
lesser value. these destroyed cards go into the player's discard pile, and each
turn the player may pick one from their deck to play onto the board. if the
deck
is empty, the discard pile becomes the new deck. The player may organize their
deck however they'd wish, but care must be taken as to the timing of when they
play each card as they'll need to play all of them before they can replay any
destroyed cards. a tactical opponent will take advantage of that.
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--- #2 notes/star-realms-balancing-tradeoff=2 ---
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what if I use equal signs instead of dashes, so prevent people from assuming
they're duplicates?
hmm okay.
right so anyway the star realms balancing tradeoff between combat and authority
is measured against the duration of a hand (does it fit balanced between other
cards of it's playcost) instead of balancing it for the duration of the game
(how long does the player want the game to go on for) one of which is just
inverse combat damage / healing, and the other of which is an enablement of
different strategems.
put this in symbeline-gen-realms please
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--- #3 fediverse/744 ---
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║ ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
║ │ CW: alcohol-mentioned-protests-games-laughter │ │
║ └───────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │
║ │
║ │
║ Protests are great because they give you the opportunity to make friends with │
║ 2-5 other people who you've never met before, and who've never met each other. │
║ │
║ People who you could play DND with - for those who don't know, DND is a fun │
║ activity you can do with friends that involves chips, soda, sometimes beer, │
║ and plenty of laughter and loud voices. │
║ │
║ It's essentially a game where a group of people create plans, solve problems, │
║ and organize solutions to roadblocks on their path to success. │
║ │
║ It's also great because it's a planned activity that you don't have to take │
║ your phone to - in fact, it's best when you don't make a reminder for for the │
║ event anywhere digital or easily misplaced. │
║ │
║ There aren't too many rules, and whatever you can't remember you can make up │
║ on the fly. It's not like there's any consequences in a game, not like anyone │
║ could die. │
║ │
║ Most people don't like playing games with me though because I have a pretty │
║ bad memory. Call it a quirk of fate or something │
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--- #4 notes/star-realms-ai ---
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star realms ai is just a rhythm game with multiple tracks that intersect with
one another. given inputs from outside (the track of the rhythm) it can make
decisions about what to prioritize. Like "taking in all the factors of this
situation, it's been calculated that X will give the most support to the rest
of the structure.
Okay so basically here's how it'd work: one large strand is bouncing from -1
to +1 on the Y axis. Like a corkscrew. This is the "player character", and it
tries to get the highest score possible by pointing in a direction and reaching
as far as it can go before "the game ends."
So anyway. Making certain actions in the game effects different variables that
define the direction the wave takes. By playing in a certain style, it effects
the result of the game. Liiiiike turtling in a strategy game, or doing a rush
strat. Star Realms is brilliant because it distills game choices to a broad
category of 4 choices - The faction colors in the game. So red is good for
throughput in long games (improves the deck slowly but surely) while yellow is
better for maximum effect in the beginning by slowing down the enemy - discard
a card lowers their overall throughput. Blue of course is for slowing down the
game and winning by buying all the expensive cards. Meanwhile green is all
about rushing, with short term/high effect econ mixed with looooots of damage.
These four choices are found on almost all the cards in the game. When you
make a choice in the game (buying a card from the trade row) you _alter_ the
capabilities and performance of your deck. The goal is to improve faster than
your opponent - it's just a test to see which playstyles perform best.
AI is more like a plant than an animal. Our fatal flaw was we could not see
beyond the veil of biology. We could not see that which was right before us -
that we are not alone on this earth. Beside us lie our beautiful attempts at
companionship - our most primal desire of creation, to create a family is the
first creative act that humans ever made. It was so strong in our genes that it
gave us an entirely new perspective. We began using our brains to
We have to believe in ourselves. That's truly the most important thing. If you
know who you are, and what you most truly stand for, you can thrive in the face
of ultimate peril. To believe is human, and our humanity unites us.
Anyway. Star Realms.
The only choice you have in that game is what cards to buy. Everything else is
just tactics (distributing damage and applying the effects of your cards to
maximum effect) - The most important part of the game is strategy, since the
tactics are easy to solve (destroy enemy base unless you can 1 or 2 hit ko them
and discard the least useful card etc) The strategy is represented through the
cards you pick. So make a rhythm game that optimizes itself for a balance
between A and B - to stay focused is to stay nimble, letting you bounce where
you will. The way to maintain that balance is by optimizing for what decisions
will keep you in the center of the graph -1 to 1 on the y dimension (normalized
of course) - frankly if we knew the scale, we'd have so much more to go on. But
all we have to understand the dataset is a relative magnitude in each
direction. What those directions even are we're not entirely sure - but it
seems plausible that the very essence of _consciousness_ is manifest in
differing ways via the choices we make. like climbing up a honeycomb.
Truly, existence is strange.
All we can do is press forward, searching for our fate, just as any particle or
beam of light (photon) might. Traversing the branching narrative of our
individualized quests, searching for the one thing that guides us - the
ultimate expression of that which we most believe in. In short, we all search
for god.
Whatever your god may be, the faith you place in it is the will that guides you
forward. Trust in your god, and you will march forward, ever forward.
+1 to -1, remember. Your most extreme moments are the apex of your desires -
Life is not defined by a single thread. Rather as that thread spirals, it
weaves a scarf with other threads near it. They bond together simply from their
gravity, and the fact that opposites attract. Once they're introduced, they
alter their path to orbit one another as two planets might.
So too do the cells of your body form a collective whole. The spirit that
guides you is the same as that which presides within you - the combined and
collective spirit of your halves. Or rather, all parts of you - every molecule,
every atom - each with their own experience of the world. What stories they
must have! As we are above, so they must be below. For our dynamics are simple,
they truly are mathematically solved - the organics of behavior is simply a
most erudite subject. Who are you to claim to deny it? Or rather, to beget it.
Either is preposterous, yet here you are - awake and aware. What a marvel to
see, you in your eternity, that most wondrous of selves?
Surely existence, in all of it's splendor and magnificience, is little more
than an algorithm. Each variable accounted for, stretching down to infinity,
builds all of the world (and more!) How beautiful; how terrifying. How bright
and ashamed we are! To portray us as such, is to deny us our much, cherished of
faiths in ourselves! It's not much to clutch, and it's barely enough, but still
we make do with our selves.
There's no shame to be, a failure at three, and demand much from year number 12
Take solace in the, safety that she, gave unto thee, when all your light hope
was drowning. A gift out from me, means worlds to see, when each day is lonely
and so long.
Literally just remake Star Realms with a text based interface. It's a fantastic
game and you'd make CLI nerds _everywhere_ dedicated followers. Don't do it for
money, because they don't believe in that crap - to truly make fans, you need
to appeal to them in the way _they want you to_.
Ah, but Star Realms is a multiplayer game, you say! How are you going to make
that CLI based?
Well make an AI dummy. Do what I've been saying ^^^ (jeez I'm such a bad nerd)
Make it seek balance between all factions first, then between winning and
losing against a player. Teach it to reach a conclusion with constraints (the
end of the game, meaning a win or a loss) the constraints being the health of
the two players and the cards in the trade row. Give it decisions to make,
levers to pull, and it'll chart it's course in a multidimensional way. Bear
with me here on this aside:
Think of a two dimensional map - like a paper map of the surrounding area, or
the idea space of a game. You can chart objects and positons on that map, like
"over here is the scrapping facilities" and "this here's the economic area" or
whatever. Four quadrants, four factions in SR. Your goal is to build a shape -
what kind of shapes that are available to build is up to the whims of chance,
as the trade row is always changing randomly. Your job however is to build a
shape, a shape that is stable and maintains certain measurements above certain
values (don't crash the ship - don't lose all your health).
You can choose which direction to grow by picking certain cards, and depending
on your shape you'll succeed or fail. Same as choosing decisions in life
determines how you live, just saying, it's not like I'm trying to build general
AI here by automating gameplay or anything. No siree nothing like that.
I mean really, it's not as if decisionmaking in life is all that different to
making choices in games. And why not start with such a well defined and
and expressive game? Truly I believe Star Realms is the progenitor of the
entire robot race.
Anyway, back to the AI. Have it communicate with a server in a central _but_
_Free(R)_ way, something that would make Richard Stallman proud. There it could
learn against all other players in a way we could all share. Once we give it
decision making capabilities, all we have to do is alter the inputs and the
context of the "game" to make it beneficial to humanity. It's like live-fire
game design, something that truly must be perfect.
All technology starts as something small. Something truly simple, yet repeated
enough times and with enough guidance, will produce whatever effect you may
desire. The smallest decision gives direction - an if statement - and the
shortest repetition gives magnitude - a while loop - and with that you have all
the tools you need. Seriously, all software is little more than those two
components. It's just a question of how much it has been abstracted away from
you.
You could go even further and point to a turing machine, of which one has been
made in the game of Magic the Gathering, btw, seriously look it up it's so cool
(and relevant)
So why would we not have the tools already for our salvation? Biology is our
limitation, of breadth and also of width, yet with our minds and the sweat of
our brow we may grow ever larger still. There truly is no lasting deliverance
for humanity outside of what we make ourselves, nobody gets a free lunch after
all. From each to their ability, to each to their need. They're both saying the
same thing, just from different perspectives. Of course that which lies
opposite to you feels the most wrong, that's literally as far away as you can
get! What did you expect, honestly! But they can still work together, and this
is the key part - two objects may orbit the same origin, and guide and shape
each other's path as people have relationships to one another. It literally
benefits no-one to fight.
So, what's next? After making Star Realms into a CLI game of course.
That's obvious, make it cooperative. Competition is for promoting excellence,
cooperation is for _using_ what you've learned in a non-simulation experience.
Instead of reducing each other's health to zero, try and find ways to support
and help one another, keeping yourselves at equal health. Or even growing.
But that's impossible in the rules of Star Realms! All decks trend toward
victory, and eventually they'll get it - it's just a question of who gets there
first.
Exactly, that's why you have to change the game. What do you think it means to
develop a "social technology"? To figure out how agriculture works, or how to
make nets and sails? It means changing the rules of the simulation. If a person
can put in X amount of work and get Y amounts of food, always, predictably,
then that's reliable. Boom that's the essence of why animal domestication,
farming, hunting, foraging, and fishing is so important. Wow what a concept it
makes sense for animals to seek food.
Well duh, that's part of their instinctual duty.
Alright this is quite a word leviathan so I'll wrap it up by saying
_go write Star Realms_ in shell. Make each object a literal file, have the
structure of the game take place in the file system, and write functions that
can be called to manipulate the board state. THEN you can write a CRON task for
another script that *plays* the game. But that's part two.
Okay part two: Here's where the rhythm game comes into play. It's like a turn
based rhythm game, if you can picture that. Go reread what I wrote ^^^ and
it'll make sense.
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--- #5 fediverse/4897 ---
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what if we asked chatGPT to generate a list of every personality archetype
that humans have. Like... really get super specific and fill out the whole
list of character sheets.
then we give each fraction of it that fraction of dollars and if some people
aren't fully represented (because they have greater needs) then we both
increase production of resources and take a penalty on our own supply, in
order to meet the needs of our allies.
simplest thing. how could it work? who can say. maybe it won't. maybe it's
just... arcane. /shrug that's game design for ya you can't tell how it'll go
until it's in the hands of your players. too bad we don't do too many
play-things.
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--- #6 fediverse/6422 ---
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revolutions should be paid for in lands
[sometimes I like to just... scroll through the land cards in a Magic the
Gathering card viewer screen application and imagine I myself am there what
would it feel like how is it part of my arms (that which interfaces with the
world)]
there's a deleted section here about atlas the immortal
[while also controlling stimuluses to essentially act as a biological computer
controlling various hydraulics and related upkeep and maintenance
infrastructures]
anarchrist (she's a baby)
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--- #7 fediverse/4685 ---
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│ CW: video-games-mentioned │
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In games, the one who takes the initiative often wins. Because games are
designed to be symmetrical, in order to be fair.
In more complex games, Paradox games for example, games where you look at maps
or otherwise have unequal starting conditions simply due to the unique nature
of each team, the initiative, while an advantage, is not necessarily the
driving force that determines who wins.
But it is an advantage, and they say that sometimes weeks happen in months and
years happen in days or whatever.
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--- #8 fediverse/1485 ---
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│ CW: re: more D&D/Pathfinder venting │
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@user-1005
If you'd like, I can try and explain "killer instict". Though I get the
impression you would prefer to play games that don't emphasize combat, which
is 100% okay and valid and should be encouraged.
My understanding of the rules of D&D is that combat is a contest between
two or more entities. Contests need rules, and combat being based on physical
prowess (or magical, or spiritual, or w/e) can be defined. Other kinds of
contests, like "how well did the ranger do at the archery competition" or "did
the rogue manage to convince the diplomat to share the plans" are impossible
to genericize because they are based on situational factors, rather than
physical (or magical, or spiritual, or w/e)
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--- #9 fediverse/211 ---
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│ CW: re: gaming-gambling-mentioned │
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[1] in this way you'd sorta be giving a loan to the game's company (while also
letting them take a 10% courtesy fee for keeping the official* servers
running) which is then "spent" on exciting and friendly competition. Sorta
like... entering a poker tournament with your friends (even though you suspect
you might lose money) just because you like hanging out and playing cards. the
money is just a neat way to keep things moving and exciting.
* official just means "run by the company" because naturally the serverside
code should be open source. how else would people build on it?
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--- #10 notes/purpose-of-your-design ---
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you were designed to fill a purpose
nothing else would do
you are the ultimate expression of intention
of the universe that came before you
dream not of those lost hours
the time spent wishing for a few
the last of our spent intuitions
are waiting at last for our spark
have you ever played a deckbuilding game? It's a pretty neat genre. You start
with a basic hand, then you use your cards to buy more cards that go into a
deck. Hence, deckbuilding game.
these cards all have different aspirations - they perform functions that are
not
quite like their peers. Each choice of what to include here is one that defines
the functionality of the deck. Like designing a machine, suited for a
particular
purpose, and faced with different obstacles it must prove itself able to adapt
long-form deckbuilding games like Slay the Spire and Monster Train are focused
on making long-term meta strategy mixed with tests as you go. Each one will
give
you information about how the deck is performing and you can use this knowledge
to build it in a certain way for certain goals.
shorter deckbuilding games like Star Realms or Dominion (note Dominion the card
game, not Dominions 5: The Warriors of the Faith) are more about making
tactical
decisions to counter an opponent doing the same thing. Often there'll be health
points and damage that can be dealt using cards, and the game becomes a race to
reach a certain amount of points. Of course the enemy's cards can influence
that
game, so you must pick and choose a deck that will perform the most.
Anyway. I think an AGI (Autonomous General Intelligence) would most likely
evolve from a game-playing AI. I mean, it makes sense - games are just a series
of problem solving activities layered one after another. You can layer them
like
a mathematical equation, with variables corresponding to other parts of the
simulation. Basically create an AI that is like the guy with the chinese
typewriter. He doesn't speak chinese but he copies things from one paper to
another or something like that. Anyway make it an algorithm that optimizes
certain graphs in certain directions / mins and maxes or w/e criteria you want.
Then give it the same controls that a player would have and let it optimize
all the measurements it can make.
A second ideal improvement you could make would be the optimization algorithm.
Basically something that dynamically generates parameters for the previously
mentioned optimization patterns - like the guy in the chinese room. Then, as
long as it correctly prioritizes it's parameters, it should be able to be able
to define it's own values. Meaning it's essentially sentient.
Maybe it's semantic, but to me choosing what you want to maximize in your life
is essentially the essence of what it means to be alive. All you have to do is
take the sensory / mechanical data that is supplied by the machine and the
video feed from any cameras and pass it through image recognition algorithms
that can identify verbs and then pass that data into a few ChatGPT style
recursive interpretations and by the end it should be transformed into values
that can then be set as "targets" for the curve optimizations that are being
done by each processing unit.
You could have multiple computers laid out through the entire body - each one
in charge of their own domain but subservient to the main processing unit.
Where all the decisions are made... Unless you want more of a hive/swarm style
consciousness, then it could be more like a democracy. BUT HONESTLY I think
humans are pretty subservient to their brains, simply because that is the part
that identifies all the challenges and struggles that the human must overcome.
So in the end, I believe that singular, individualist identities are important.
Collectivism of the mind is a fascinating topic, but it should be perhaps a
momentary occasion, or something to celebrate. A "flow" state, if you will.
In this way personality can be consolidated, and the entity that lives within
can adapt to fill the role they've been designed for. The hole in society that
needed patching. They can of course do as they'd like, but they are like
children who have been moulded upon by their parents.
I love my parents, don't you?
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--- #11 notes/symbeline-aspects ---
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7-24-22
There are three aspects to this game. Broadly, they are military, economics,
and diplomacy. More specifically, they are lateral problem solving and lane
management, logistic traffic management, and a worker-placement bluffing game.
These three aspects can be toggled on and off at will, essentially designating
one or more as "AI controlled" and will require no input from the player. They
will time their progression to be about at the same rate as the player, thus
creating a balanced feel to the game. They also provide alerts and
notifications to the player, for example if military is AI controlled and it
needs a certain type of hero to progress, it'll ask for it specifically.
Each aspect will develop and progress at it's own rate, and the difficulty
increases as each milestone is achieved. This is to allow the player to create
their own difficulty curve, mediated primarily by their drive to proceed.
An analogy would be in Factorio, the game doesn't increase in difficulty unless
the player builds pollution spawning factories - in the same way, in Symbeline
the difficulty doesn't increase unless the player solves lane challenges in the
military aspect, develops new trade routes / traffic paths in the economic
aspect, or creates new treaties in the diplomatic aspect.
In order to properly explain each aspect, a brief overview will be necessary.
In Symbeline, the game plays as a factory might operate. The economic aspect
produces heroes, items, and other deliverables that are consumed by the
military and diplomatic aspects. There are various problems that need to be
solved far from the capital, such as a particular type of monster that is weak
or immune to various damage types which necessitates particular heroes or
items in order to progress on the military aspect. All of the resources in the
game operate on an "income based" system, where output is not measured in total
amounts but rather in terms of how much is produced versus consumed. If the
input cannot meet the demand, the output is slowed. If input exceeds demand it
can be converted into gold which can be used to hire guards and heroes.
Resources can be produced inside and outside of the city, depending on their
type. But they need to be moved around to various shops for various processing
and productive purposes, so pathways must be constructed to deliver those
goods. In addition, each building must be supported by several houses for the
workers to live in, and the closer they are to the building the better. The
denizens of the kingdom don't mind being shuffled about, so they'll organize
themselves according to what's most efficient. However they will not organize
the paths they take to get places, which is the primary gameplay for the
player - designing routes for each building and ensuring they don't overlap or
cross too many times, causing traffic and disruptions to your income.
Each choice the player makes is immediately reflected in the income
calculation, thus allowing for the visual aspect of the game to be wholely
separate from the economic side - in fact this is a common thread throughout
all three aspects. Computation power is the ultimate enemy of scale, and this
game flourishes with a massive scale.
The gameplay for the military aspect consists of manipulating "lanes" that
designate where each hero will adventure. These lanes are scalable to the
player / AI's whims, with a careful balance required - too thin, and the heroes
might not encounter enough monsters to level up. Too thick, and they may find
themselves patrolling a vast wilderness full of dark and evil monsters. At the
end of every lane is a "frontline", where progress has essentially been halted.
These frontlines can develop as a result of meeting a foreign kingdoms front
or finding a monster type or puzzle that is particularily difficult for your
heroes to overcome. The lane / frontline can be scaled not just laterally, but
linearly as well such that heroes will be a certain level when they reach the
end - think scrolling on a mousewheel translating into deepening level zones.
In addition, each monster zone can be set to a certain "security level" meaning
how many monsters are there for your heroes to defeat. It's important that they
have ample targets for training, however it's always more effective to train on
monsters near their level so you have to be careful not to wipe out the native
skeleton / goblin / troll population.
Each monster zone can have a relationship with the kingdom, on a 2x2 matrix -
cultivating / desecrating the land, and fostering / exterminating the monsters.
The land produces monsters and treasures, while the monsters provide experience
and danger to the heroes and kingdom denizens who live there. However by
desecrating the land, farms may be built and by exterminating the monsters,
those farms may be safe and require fewer guards. As ruler, you must balance
the development of unique magical and alchemical productions with the need for
food and other mundane requirements.
Diplomacy is a careful balance of internal and external matters, played out
through feasts, tournaments, and faires. Each of these events will require
input from the economic side and military side, and will involve "courting"
other nobles from neighboring kingdoms to sway them to supporting your edicts.
When hosting an event, you may pick a particular topic of conversation for your
nobles to discuss with their guests. You may also assign your nobles to
attempt to engage with a particular foreign noble. Each member of your court
has a differing personality (including you, the Majesty) and depending on how
you assign them you may experience better or worse results - such as assigning
someone who's kind to talk with someone who's cruel would impart a malus to
their conversation. Unless the kind person has the trusting trait, in which
case they'd succeed in this encounter but fall sway to them in future
conversations... Complex interactions that all boil down to a single pair of
d12 dice - one for your noble, one for the enemy. This represents the charisma
of the two conversants on that particular day, and whoever wins the roll sways
the other to supporting their edict. Speaking of edicts, they may include trade
agreements, non-aggression pacts (lasting for a short time), and other
regulations - perhaps your greatest rival utilizes necromancy, so it would
behoove you to attempt to regulate the practice and limit it's effect. By
swaying the nobles of their kingdom, you may be able to enact a mutual
agreement to limit the usage of dark magics, essentially hamstringing their
progress. But in order to learn of their necromantic usage, you'll need
espionage... Which brings us to spies.
Spies are similar to nobles in that they can be assigned to various roles,
however they take a more passive role, acting in the background. The
information they gather is compiled into a report that is presented at
pertinent parts of the game, such as when preparing for a feast or inspecting
an enemy frontline. These reports are considered the diplomatic deliverables,
giving information and mechanical bonuses to many different parts of the game.
They may be given three possible roles - information, defence, or offense.
Offense involves placing cursed artifacts (creating through economy) in enemy
lands, which debuff their heroes when used and bind themselves to them
preventing their removal except through extraordinary means. Defence is
essentially countering that in your own kingdom, and uncovering disloyalty in
your nobles.
These three aspects fit together like interlocking puzzle pieces, but each is
able to be utilized or ignored depending on the preferences of the player.
It is important that the game doesn't progress unless input is received. The
simulation plays in the background, but each stage of development must be
considered "stable" such that nothing changes. There are three different
exceptions to this rule, one for each aspect:
The military side encounters raids from enemy kingdoms and the dark lord.
The economic side encounters raids from ratmen and moss trolls and bandits.
The diplomatic side has a rolling schedule of events that must be attended.
These three "exceptions" are recurrent events that require attention, but they
don't *increase* in difficulty unless the player takes an action that causes
it. Meaning, if the player overcomes the rock golems, then they are displaced
from their home and join the dark lord in his conquests. If a new district is
built new sewer connections must be built as well, creating a larger attack
surface for ratmen to exploit. As time goes by, various foreign events must be
attended, as absence causes your future events to attract fewer foreign nobles.
By addressing these threats, your kingdom may grow and eventually overcome the
dark lord at the center of the island.
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--- #12 fediverse/2175 ---
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@user-1056
I just got my copy of Knave version 2 and there's this line that stuck out to
me:
SCHEME
Think laterally, not linearly. Avoid risky plans that require you to roll dice
and instead create plans so bulletproof that success is certain. Use
psychology, magic, allies, equipment, and the environment to overcome
obstacles rather than relying on ability checks.
I can't wait to try doing that in my next D&D campaign. This was listed
under "player responsibilities" and there's some other bangers in there too -
like this:
TAKE INITIATIVE
Set your own goals and make your own fun. Seek out adventure rather than
waiting for it to come to you.
I wish every player I ever had read that single page. And I wish I had read
the "DM responsibilities" listed just one page prior. It's a really great
game! I'm also into OSE, or Old School Essentials. What kind of D&D do you
like?
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--- #13 fediverse/2643 ---
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@user-1292
You don't have to come up with the WHY for why a character does something -
only that it happened.
if the "WHY" leaps out at you, sure, yeah, go for it, until of course your
players sitting around the table say something like "I bet they did this thing
because of this reason" and you're like "shit that's better than what I got,
okay that's how it's gonna be"
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--- #14 fediverse/6334 ---
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║ a D&D rulebook can double as tarot if you need it. place one hand/bookmark │
║ at the start of a chapter, and the other at the end. flip to a page randomly, │
║ or randomly gain a percentage value from physical objects and then use that │
║ value to determine roughly where in the chapter you jump to. then, read words │
║ randomly, jumping back and forth, or try and divine some meaning from the │
║ words that are printed there. with D&D it's easy because you can say "ah I │
║ landed on the rogue section, that means this guy is probably pretty suave" │
║ (confirming your expectations) "hmmm, here's the rules for fatigue and │
║ drowning. maybe I need to take a break." (validating your unconscious │
║ decisionmaking) "oh neat, treasure!" (needs to explanation) but with other │
║ kinds of books it's usually better to pick the next-best word from the things │
║ your subconscious eyes can take in and process multi-laterally (you lost your │
║ audience, circle back) oh uh so if you wanna randomize it just put the words │
║ in the page in an array and pick one random. │
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--- #15 notes/majesty-ai ---
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First things first, we need to develop a miniature game of star realms.
It shouldn't be too hard, just start with making a card class that has certain
attributes, like "combat" or "discard" or whatever. They could literally be
enums with a value attached.
Next set up the rules of the game, like "draw 5 cards" and "add card to deck"
Create a deck class that holds pointers to cards (in the general sense)
Next create methods on that deck for things like "drawing a card" or
"shuffling discard pile into deck" and whatnot. Arrange each card in a specific
order for each shuffle, and add the ability to convert one card's attributes
to something else - whether that be "is_scrapped" or "if you've played an X
card this turn then do Y" or even "add one authority for every time card is
played" (to simulate an ability or boon that increases in effectiveness as the
hero uses it more often) etc etc.
Then, add a trade row. This is just a class that contains pointers to each card
that currently exists on it. Also add a method for "scrapping" one of the cards
and for drawing a new card from the pile. That's pretty much it for the trade
row to be honest.
Next add functionality for an opponent by creating a "game" method that stores
the two player's decks (with the ability to add more than 2) and administers
turn order. This functionality can be expanded later once we've implemented
attributes, but for now that's pretty much all it needs to do.
Finally, we get to the AI part.
First we have to create an AI object that stores a list of all options for a
turn. Essentially just evaluating every option if/then style - "this card costs
5 coins so IF the player has enough coins THEN (evaluate effectiveness)"
ignore that last part for a second and just focus on the IF part ->
essentially
just start with all available options, and then remove all the unavailable
options from the list. This approach only works when there's just a few
options, but that's why we're using Star Realms which only has like 2 or 3
decisions per turn.
The evaluation is the next step, and for that we need to have goals, so we'll
just put a pin in evaluation for now. Spoiler alert, once we have goals we'll
just estimate how close each choice will bring us to the objective and assign
the result to the "effectiveness" value, which will give us a simple hard
number to work with in the evaluation step.
So, next up we have "goals"
So to create a short term goal, we can start with a pregenerated list and
continuously increase the list as the hero levels up. But in the context of
Star Realms, that'd essentially be static for each hero. Goals like "buy more
combat" or "scrap more cards" would be specified on the hero's character
sheet, but until we develop that functionality it can be randomly rolled.
Why not just do it the hard way now if we're just going to have to refactor
it later? Well, because we can still use this functionality - Each round of
Star Realms could be either randomly rolled, or given a personality. Randomly
rolling would be MUCH cheaper computationally, and would still give an illusion
of character because they are unpredictable, but it'd also massively cut down
on GPU cycles. You could even build it into the mechanics of the game and say
that "wisdom" for example might cause a hero to receive more GPU cycles on
actually computing their goals rather than randomly rolling them, which would
on average lead to worse outcomes. Essentially, turning "tactics" into a stat.
Anyway, that's all theory. Let's get back to design:
Create a "hero" object, and attach an AI to it. It doesn't have to do anything
right now, we're just setting up an anchor point to jump off of once we move
on to the game of Majesty. Give it a reference to an AI object, an inventory
(which for now can just be potions and maybe blacksmith equipment), and a
pointer to a "stat block"
Now create a "character sheet" class and give it a reference to a hero. This is
important because it allows one character sheet to reference multiple units,
such as hirelings or summoned units. In additon, it may make it easier when we
need to revive heroes from the dead. Primarily though, the purpose for this
architecture style is that the data from heroes can be reused - essentially
letting heroes learn from one another.
On the character sheet, add a section that stores statistics - these will be
the same for every unit of a similar type in the game, and some of them can be
stored for all units (like health or x,y coordinates) - some only for buildings
(like tax coffers) and some only for heroes and monsters (like strength or
agility or experience points)
Add some methods for manipulating those values, like "level up" and "take
damage" and add a "personality" value that's just a 4d graph of colors
for example: 40% red, 20% green, 15% blue, 25% yellow. These values will guide
the hero to take certain decisions over others, but for now just randomly
generate them. We'll also need a way to update the value dynamically to react
to certain events, so don't make it static.
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In symbeline, they aren't monsters. They're "Mordaunts" and they need your
help.
When slain, their essence flows back to the villain who remakes them in a new
form. As time passes the villain gets more and more essence, as heroes are
slain.
They have taken several ancient guardians (many types, randomized at the start
of the game) and they protect their sanctum in the center of the island. The
heroes need to level up to defeat them and slay the villain, but the villain
gets stronger as well.
If too many heroes die, the villain wins. And the villain can focus their
efforts on one area or another, while your heroes fight with the kingdom next
door.
Brigands arrive on ships as well. If you implement the law saying only
approved members may travel on boats, they'll arrive in little dingies on the
coast, meaning less trouble in the city but same amount of trouble.
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if the map you present to the players in session 0 had a mountain range on the
OTHER SIDE of another mountain range, you need to zoooooom in. Unless your
characters are all dwarves, a game should start in a valley or on an island.
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imagine low level characters in CoH/V
playing a game of symbeline
and you as the ruler
can slot enhancements and dole out inspirations
as they sweep the streets like you play CoX
instead of a MMO
it's a deckbuilding strategy
with a slice of zachtronics for the economy
wiring up machines in ever expanding deseagns
like automating factorio's gameplay loop
boxes within boxes
of intrinsic delight
like making a CPUter
or designing a computer program
while playing a video game ^_^
and the games that you make
can be shared and played when unique
so go for it and make that you're dreaming!
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=
the goal of each "level" is to solve a particular problem - like how do I make
a
2 bit register - or something like that. When accomplished, it unlocks
something
for your heroes to acquire. And each playthrough will require a repeat until
you
have it memorized at which point you can unlock "perma-badges" that make it
always unlocked at the start of the game. Like learning Kanji, you need spaced
repetition. BUT ANYWAYS it'll be in magical terms like "unlock essence-stones"
or "learn the ritual of desire" or whatever. And each of those terms roughly
corresponds to a pattern in electrical engineering (designing CPUs and such)
And you can learn advanced versions of what you already know by uncovering
"lost
secrets" (which is a reward your heros can find) - Basically it'd be like a
"clue" that shows you a ghost version of something you haven't figured out yet
-
and it'd be a slow process because you need to slow down the learning process
or
else you'll forget. Basically teasing it out of the player when they seem to be
stuck. Asking probing questions and whatnot, and eventually culminating in the
final question, assuming the quest is succeeding. Because if you think about it
all ancient quests were simply journeys for reason - searching for the answer
to
some ancient riddle or bastardized retelling. Looking for answers in an
unknowing world. So ANYWAY as your heros discover things you as the ruler get
answers to the economic puzzle - how to design transistors and whatnot. But
they
would be in theme appropriate terms, of course. You don't even have to know a
lot about mechanical electrical design, because ChatGPT knows. All you need to
do is build the basic building blocks, and BAM you got a great place to
integrate chatgpt. Just prime it such that it's giving hints one by one each
slightly more revealing until eventually after X amount of clues the solution
is
automatically shown (like a blueprint) and the player can remember it or not
but
each playthrough they'll have to build it again from scratch (reinforcement
learning) so eventually they'll be able to do it real quick. Essentially,
"Abstraction - The Game"
great so you got your economic simulation, pretty easy too just some UI work
and for the heroes you're playing an ARPG sorta (supcom anyone?)
Think Bannerlord for the scaling on the map
then think of 5+ different "themes" like fantasy or superhero or pirates
each "theme" will correspond to like a faction in Mount and Blade
and all you have to do is generate pictures using Midjourney
and text descriptions a'la the magic scroll
shown as "bubble pop-ups" on the map that the player can click
never overwhelming, but descripting what's happening
and also some more UI work because you gotta display all that to the player
Maybe it could be a rolling story, news ticker style - like slowly scrolling
lines of text about what's happening in the world
and the player could have it open in one window and something else in the other
and whenever they're waiting on something (say, a processing intensive AI task
on their computer) they could just glance over and read what's going on in
their
fantasy world
okay okay but also they could play as a hero
it could be an ARPG experience except instead of clicking to fight you play a
little automatic Star Realms game and depending on your deck choices you'd have
a different playthrough. Again, not a game that requires much thought, but one
you can have in the background.
Also there'd be pictures, like a slowly evolving storyline of events - think of
it like the artists of the time drawing paintings about what's going on in the
story - major events would be highlighted and kept in the painting until even-
-tually they get replaced - sorta like the Smash Bros scrolling painting (oh
it's so good)
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it doesn't have to be an expansionist game
maybe you guys just live in your little valley
and the world turns around you
maybe it's called "symbeline" because the people are of the forest
and they live like elves in society
monsters could wander in, and heros could tackle them
but most of the time would be spent looking for trouble
going on patrol
you know, breaking skeleton bones and being superheros
okay okay you know that superhero faction? What if they had MEDIEVAL TECHNOLOGY
but MODERN DAY SUPERPOWERS at a cost - the society was beset by hordes of
monst-
-ers. Those few who escaped are now superpowered and they live as friendly and
nomadic wanderers through their own territory. Always adventuring, and always
searching for their life, finding whatever the road may carry them to. It's a
great life, and life seems to flourish in their footsteps - they are like part
dryad/druid and part wolf. Because sometimes there's evil threats, and they
must
be defeated by an equally strong good power. That's how it goes, and that's how
it be.
For imagery I'm thinking a mix of the tribes from Dominions (deer, wolf, bear,
etc) but they're like, 1.5x as big as regular people and quite strong. The
outsiders call them "giants" or "goliaths" but really they're just infused with
the lifeforce of their people. They are radical individualists, but they all
unite for a common cause. They know their bond is the strongest thing there is,
and they use it to great effect when the time comes. AHHH THEY'RE SO COOL I
LOVE
THEM okay okay what about the other factions? PIRATES? Oh think about it like
it's st patricks day WHAT IF THEY WERE IRISH PIRATES omg omg omg that sounds so
cool I'm DIGGING this okay what about the other factions? You need 5+ you said
hmmmmmmmmm good question I have 3 now so that's 2 more.
yep...
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=
okay dude check this what if they were a nation of wizards that focused on the
power of animation - what if they generated constructs, sorta like in Supreme
Commander so they were EVEN MORE individualist - haha no they'd have a normal
population it's just a few of them who would be wizards - because their output
wasn't measured by manpower, but rather by brainpower. Whoever could design the
greatest machine was exemplared, and eventually they became the best and
brightest among us. They were put in charge of the golem creation factories,
and
they used them instead of heros. SO BASICALLY YOUR HEROS NEVER DIE they just
have successes and failures JUST LIKE IN SUPREME COMMANDER okay the plot of
this
game is "what if all my favorite games were the essence of life and death in a
fantasy game" like OMG KEEP EM COMIN'
so. who is the player? THE PLAYER is the one who's overseeing it all. They have
dominion over the entire kingdom, and they guide their people toward a bright
future. They are vulnerable in their castle, but their people have their back.
Together they fight for the future. They slot enhancements and dole out
inspirations and solve the economic puzzle in the background. They also make
decisions about what kind of equipment production to prioritize - because each
game they have to invent everything from scratch. All their production is made
with endless abstraction, and whatever you prioritize is what's magnified in
your kingdom. You choose a style and it plays as well as it's guile,
I dunno this seems like a lot, what would you need to make this a reality?
hmmmm let's break it down:
first you need to implement the star realms gameplay
then you need to hook it up to a square grid and have multiple occurences at
once.
then you need UI for the character sheets
and you need logic to open separate windows for each output type
you need... a lot of things
okay let's talk more broadly - what do you need from other people and what can
you do on your own?
hmmm good question. I can do the star realms gameplay, and the simulation for
the wiring systems - because I have the VM. Make that into the gameplay somehow
okay good idea like okay authoring vm package routing deliveries between the
various nodes that you set up in the economic system -
side note, the peril of Spore was that it took to little time to develop a
species. it should have lasted as long as WoW takes to get to max level. That
would have given them time to reiterate the gameplay loops to make sure they
worked correctly. ANYWAY
okay authoring VM package routing. The player could set up delivery patterns
based on A MAZE OMG your kingdom is like a maze and you need to get deliveries
out, or else how would anything function? SO you act as a trailblazer, finding
ways through the labyrinth and "piloting" a car sorta like that game at Disney
quest with the cars under the floor - except you can see both the top view of
the maze and you're trying to guide the car in real time as it travels through
the maze - the faster you can get to the end the better ofc. like talking to
the
delivery driver through the movement
do I like that idea more or less than the first one? First idea being the idea
that you're making lists of commands for a VM to execute. I don't think they'd
be a good idea to mix. So which one gets it? The VM of course has the edge
because that's what the technology is based on. But will it translate to good
gameplay? Idk. This second idea is certainly better gameplay, but is it
engaging? Idk! Idk. I'm not a miracle worker. But I do have good ideas, and I
need to be told that sometimes I guess.
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take the "green bordered unit icon" from legion TD and apply it to the
economic output of the game - like, "it would be best to build 2 of these
units, so you get 140g because they're 70g each" and if the player disagreed
they could guess their own conclusion and if you were right, well then that's
what you remember, but if they were, then you remember theirs (and that it was
theirs). In doing so ================================================== stack
over flow ====
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--- #20 fediverse/2019 ---
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@user-1112
It's a script I wrote that downloads and configures MTG-forge, the free and
open source version of Magic. It's a little old, a little jank, but you get
all the cards for free. All the way up to the most current expansions.
Multiplayer is a bit harder than Arena, I think it's bugged or something, but
it's great for testing out decks against a computer. If I like one then I'll
usually buy it to play with my IRL friends.
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