Monday, July 11, 2022

Proposal: Big Flipper

Reaches quorum at 7-0 and is enacted.

Adminned at 12 Jul 2022 05:19:35 UTC

If Proposal: Start Your Engines and Proposal: Scrapheap Challenge were not enacted then this proposal has no effect.

In the rule The Arena, add the following:

Relative to each Bot’s Script, the Bot who is performing the Script may be referred to as the Actor, and any other Bot participating in a Bout with the Actor may be referred to as an Opponent.

In the rule BotScript, add the following as a new Trigger:

* “If [the space / any of the X spaces] in front are occupied by an Opponent…”, where X is a number from 1-13.

In the same rule, add the following as a new Reaction:

* “...use the following System:” followed by the name of a System that the Actor has.

Add the following to the end of the same rule:

When a System is used as part of a Script then, provided that any criteria specified in that System’s Effect or elsewhere in the ruleset are all met, its Effect is applied to the Opponent in its current Bout.

Add the following Systems to the rule Systems:

|| Ram || ₩1,100 || 85 || 3 || The Condition of the Opponent’s Chassis has 25% subtracted.
|| Flipper || ₩1,600 || 185 || 1 || If the Actor is Flipped, it ceases to be Flipped. Otherwise, the Opponent becomes Flipped.
|| Axe || ₩2,200 || 250 || 5 || The Condition of the Opponent’s Chassis has 25% subtracted, and the Condition of the Opponent’s Engine has 10% subtracted.

Add a new rule called Statuses:

When an Actor is Flipped, any step in its Script that results in it moving or using a System is ignored, unless that step would also result in them ceasing to be Flipped.

Comments

SingularByte: he/him

11-07-2022 09:23:02 UTC

There’s the text “[...] that any criteria specified in that System’s Effect or elsewhere in the ruleset are all met, its Effect is applied to the Opponent in its current Bout.”

As written, does this apply all criteria irrespective of whether they’re intended for that system or not? (e.g. if there’s criteria on when you can enact a proposal for example, I’d read this as applying that same criteria to the use of a system.)
Or is this too outlandish an interpretation?

Josh: Observer he/they

11-07-2022 09:44:00 UTC

I think that would be a tough read; if you take out the middle clause then the sentence is “When a System is used as part of a Script its Effect is applied to the Opponent in its current Bout” - the ‘its’ in ‘its Effect’ is clearly grammatically pointing at the ‘a System’ that is the subject of the sentence.

Kevan: he/him

11-07-2022 09:51:47 UTC

Not sure I see the need for the “provided that any criteria”, either. If a rule just said to apply the Flipper, its “If the Actor is Flipped” is already part of that application. If we want future Systems to have “must be within range” criteria they could go in the same place.

“reduced by 25%” is ambiguous: does a Chassis at 40% get reduced by multiplication to 30%, or by subtraction to 15%?

Josh: Observer he/they

11-07-2022 10:36:07 UTC

% reduction language changed.

Re the criteria clause - that’s there because I assume that, at some point, we’re going to want a general purpose “Systems don’t work if power requirements outstrip supply, or if Engine Condition is 0%” mechanic somewhere in the ruleset, or environmental effects (EMP tiles in the arena? Sure), or something else. A bit of future-proofing belt-and-braces can’t hurt.

Kevan: he/him

11-07-2022 11:09:09 UTC

For what it’s worth Scrapheap Challenge is adding a general rule of “If a Bot has Systems and a Chassis whose combined Consumption exceeds its Engine’s Effective Power Output, the Bot is considered to be Defunct. The Script of a Defunct Bot is always considered to be blank.”, which gets in first by saying that the Script isn’t even run.

Additional complexity can sometimes hurt, since you’re introducing more things that could go wrong. I’m not sure whether SingularByte’s interpretation would stand up, but it’s certainly a nucleation point for a possible scam.

SingularByte: he/him

11-07-2022 12:37:10 UTC

for

Kevan: he/him

11-07-2022 12:46:49 UTC

for

Snisbo: she/they

11-07-2022 17:22:38 UTC

for

Brendan: he/him

11-07-2022 19:56:21 UTC

for

Darknight: he/him

11-07-2022 20:10:17 UTC

for

Trapdoorspyder: he/him

12-07-2022 05:06:38 UTC

for