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[s-b] [auto] Peter amends p280


Peter has amended p280.

---------------------------------
Motion 280/3: Grand Reunification Of All Nomic Game Objects
A Proposal by Peter
Last modified on nweek 100, nday 8

[[Acronym: GROAN GO]]

[[
This makes all Game Objects into basically what are now tools. We have
talismans and rooms affecting the game, but the precedence and
ordering between them and the rules seems poorly defined at times. It
seems to me that this prop unifies everything and makes everything
clearer. But maybe it's just me.

Eventually, I'd also like to change all Game Actions to be activated
abilities. We can have voting just be an activated ability on a prop,
for example. We could have the Game holding the House, which holds
Rooms, which holds players, and the picking-up and using objects in
the house just becomes an inherent part of the game. Or something like
that.

Please provide feedback on what you like and don't like about this
proposal. In particular, I'm not sure exactly how the precedence stuff
should work. (But I'm not sure how it currently works with non-rule
objects affecting the game, so I suspect that this attempt to define
it will be an improvement.)

Then again, this may horribly and irreparably break the game. :)

Revison History:
/0: First Draft
/1: Minor corrections based on Wonko's feedback
/2: More minor revisions, changed object name to be object type, added
    Type Specifications, clarified precedence between objects of
    different types
/3: All this time, I've been trying to *avoid* paradox. In true
    Suberian fashion, let's just *reward* it, and try to recover as
    best we can by pretending it isn't there. Also, added that
    permissions defer to restrictions.
    Defined that a tool's abilities text is called its Effects, for
    backward compatibility.
    Clarified Type Specifications.
]]

Delete Rule 9-10.

Change Rule 1-2 to have the following text:
{{
=== Game Objects ===

The game of B Nomic consists entirely of Game Objects, which may be
known simply as Objects. Anything that exists in the game is an
Object, and anything that is not an Object is not in the game.

=== Outsiders ===

An External Force is anything which exists independently of the
game. That is, it would still exist if the game stopped existing, and
would still exist if the game had never started existing.

An Outsider is an External Force which is also an Object. [[ i.e.,
something that exists outside of the game but is also acknowledged by
the rules as influencing the state of the game, and thus exists within
the game as well, such as a player.]]

=== Game Documents ===

Some objects are known as Game Documents. Each Game Document includes a
body of text.

In each Game Document, with the exception of this paragraph, text between
doubled square brackets (that is, text between "[[" and "]]") shall be
deemed Comment Text. Comment Text has no direct effect on the state of
the game, although Game Objects can read it.

=== Possessions ===

Each object has a set of objects that it is said to hold.

=== Abilities ===

Each object has a set of abilities. There are three types of
abilities, which are triggered, activated, and static.

The use of the 2nd person (i.e., 'You', 'Yourself', 'Your', etc.) in
an ability is assumed to refer to the entity which holds that object,
except when describing activated effects, in which case it refers to
the object which activated the effect.

==== Triggered Abilities ====

Triggered abilities start with one of the words "when", "whenever", or
"at", in the format "When X happens, Y happens". A triggered ability
continually watches the game, and causes Y to happen whenever X does.

==== Activated Abilities ====

Activated abilities are in the format "{cost}: {effect}". An object
allowed to play an activated ability may do so as a Game Action by
paying {cost} to cause {effect} to happen. A {cost} may include one or
more Objects, and paying the cost means that those Objects are
destroyed unless otherwise stated. A {cost} could be 0, in which case
there is no cost to perform the action.

An object which holds an object with an activated ability is allowed
to play that ability.

==== Static Abilities ====

All other abilities are static abilities. Static abilities describe
how they affect the game.

=== Other Attributes ===

Objects may also have other attributes, as described in the definition
of each object.

=== Type Specifications ===

An ability that defines a new type of object is known as a Type
Specification. Each object has a type given by its Type Specification.
}}

Change the text of rule 1-4 to be
{{
A Forum is any External Force that allows Outsiders to communicate.
Each forum may be designated as one of the terms Private, Public, or
Discussion. All Fora are initially Private.
}}

Change the text of rule 2-1 to be
{{
There is a unique Game Object knows as the Ruleset. The Ruleset holds
Game Objects of type Section. Each section holds Game Objects which
are of type Rule.

Each section has a uniquely identifying number, often represented as a
Roman Numeral. If a section is created that does not have such a
number, it is assigned the number one higher than the current highest
such number. Each section may also have a title.

Each rule has a number given by the number of the section which holds
it, a hyphen, and a number which is unique within its section. If a
rule is created that does not have such a unique number, it is
assigned the number one higher than the current highest number in the
section which it is in, or 1 if there are no others. Each rule may
also have a title.

Rules are Revisable Game Documents. The text of each rule defines that
rule's abilities. [[Most rules consist entirely of static abilities
that define how the game is played.]]
}}

Change the text of rule 2-2 to be
{{
Should it happen that the text of one ability contradicts or otherwise
invalidates the text of another, the two abilities are in conflict.

Follow these steps in order to determine the precedence of conflicting
abilities:

 * If one of the abilities explicitly states that it takes precedence
   over or defers to the other, and the other does not make a contrary
   claim, these claims are used to determine which shall take
   precedence.

 * If one ability permits an event to happen, and the other ability
   prohibits that event, then the ability prohibiting the event takes
   precedence.

 * If both of the abilities are on the same object and defined within
   the same body of text, then the one defined by later text will take
   precedence over the one defined by the earlier text.

 * If one of the abilities is on a Rule, and the other is not, then
   the one that is not on a Rule takes precedence.

 * If both of the abilities are on a Rule, and those Rules are held by
   the same Section, then the Rule with the lower unique number within
   that section takes precedence over the Rule with the higher number.

 * If both of the abilities are on a Rule, and those Rules are held by
   different Sections, then the Rule within the section with the lower
   section number takes precedence over the other.

 * If neither of the abilities is on a Rule, and the abilities are on
   different types of objects, the ability that has precedence is the
   one on the object defined by the Type Specification that would have
   precedence over the other object's Type Specification if the Type
   Specifications were in conflict.

If two abilities are in conflict, and one has precedence over the
other, the instructions of the ability without precedence are only
followed as much as they don't conflict with the ability with
precedence.

If two abilities are in conflict, and neither has precedence over the
other (that is, the list of above steps does not cover the case), then
the abilities are said to be in paradox. The instructions of neither
ability are followed at all. If it can be determined which player
performed the most recent game action before the first paradox in an
nweek, that player gains 100 Amplitude.

The abilities of this rule take precedence over all other abilities.
}}

In rule 2-5, change "rules" to "abilities" and "rule" to "ability".

[[How we could start changing things into activated abilities:]]
In rule 3-15 change
{{
A player who has a Clock Key may as a Game Action change eir Clock
Key's value from Off to On or from On to Off. This Game Action may be
performed regardless of the Clock state.
}}
to
{{
Clock Keys have the ability {{0: Change this Clock Key's value from
Off to On or from On to Off. This ability may be played regardless of
the state of the Clock.}}.
}}

Change the text of rule 9-13 to
{{
Certain objects may be designated as Tools. Each Tool has a body of
text associated with it called its Effects which define its abilities.

Each Tool also has a Game Document associated with it called its
Appearance; this may be an empty text (and is if no Appearance has
been specified for that Tool), but in general it should be a
description of what the Tool looks like, either in plain text or via a
link to an existing image outside of the game (such as the url of an
image).

No Tool may ever be created that has the same name as an existing Tool
but a different sot of abilities (however, this does not limit the
number of identical copies of a given Tool that may exist).
}}

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



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