Tuesday, September 03, 2024

Proposal: Just in case

Exceeded quorum, 4-0. Enacted by JonathanDark.

Adminned at 05 Sep 2024 02:07:16 UTC

In the rule “Doubloons”, replace

an integer number of Doubloons

with

a nonnegative integer number of Doubloons

Update the gamestate as if this proposal were enacted at the time it was proposed (so that any actions resulting in negative Doubloons are treated as illegal).

While the Appendix says that “If a set of valid values is not specified in their definition, game variables defined to hold numeric values can hold only non-negative integers,” I would argue that “integer number of Doubloons” does in fact specify a set of valid values, allowing for negative Doubloons. I think I saw a similar argument in a previous dynasty being met with some opposition, so I don’t know how this would actually shake out if someone tried to use it.

posted by Lukas at 03 Sep 2024 20:11:00 UTC Comments (5)

Comments

JonathanDark: he/him

03-09-2024 20:46:08 UTC

Yeah, there was definitely some debate around this sort of wording before, so being explicit will help.

Kevan: he/him

04-09-2024 12:33:45 UTC

I think past consensuses have always been that saying “integer” clearly is enough to define a set, once the mathematicians get their chalkboards out and explain it - it’s certainly been used to win a dynasty before.

A proposal was made to make the rule more intuitive back in April 2023, but some mathematically-minded players didn’t like the idea of saying that a variable declared as an integer could “only hold” non-negative integers. There was maybe some compromise in saying that they could “not be set” to non-negative values, but the idea was never reproposed.

JonathanDark: he/him

04-09-2024 14:47:00 UTC

for

Darknight: he/him

04-09-2024 17:11:24 UTC

for

Clucky: Puzzle Master he/him

05-09-2024 01:29:19 UTC

i thought we had fixed it so that unless you specify something can be negative its assumed to be just positive. guess not for