Wednesday, September 26, 2018

suggestion box

taking suggestions for the next dynasty. right now I might try for a pass the ruleset where an important rule is constructed from players who have only seen a certain number of words before their contribution.

Comments

Kevan: he/him

26-09-2018 19:47:37 UTC

I’d be really interested in trying the programming dynasty, some time, following from the ideas you raised during this one (like this notation) - continuing the idea of having a chunk of Javascript that we run periodically to alter some stats, but having that source code directly editable by proposal. (Which strictly speaking was the case with this dynasty as well, we just never proposed to change it.)

It’d skew towards programmers, but I expect it’d self-balance to some extent - if someone proposed a particularly baroque addition to the source code, anyone who didn’t understand it could just vote it down.

Kevan: he/him

26-09-2018 20:10:31 UTC

Hmm, looking back we did quite a weird pseudocode programming dynasty fifteen years ago.

Exquisite corpse pass-the-ruleset is a fun idea, if a bit of a subjective minefield. But I guess the Emperor could polish or discard sentences instead of adding it all directly to the ruleset as written.

derrick: he/him

26-09-2018 20:14:23 UTC

The programming dynasty sounds interesting, though I don’t know if it would enough material to work with.

constructing rules two words at a time sounds fun. It gives a second way to generate rules: one that isn’t voted upon, but one that is fair and democratic none the less.

Both of those would require an additional theme to focus them, of course. They also have some kinks to work out, but I think working out kinks in a possible system makes for good game play and good scams when it fails (as opposed to boring scams).

There are a few ideas I’d like to explore:

A bidding dynasty sounds really fun. Its all about second guessing what the other guy is going to bid, and not bidding too high.

Another card game would suit me. Different theme and mechanics of course. We could try something with deck management and have a tournament at the end.

Hidden information games have been done in the past, but I’ve yet to have been part of one.

Brendan: he/him

26-09-2018 22:32:52 UTC

Both programming and exquisite-corpse-rules sound interesting to me, though the latter sounds like a lot of work for the emperor. I bet we could think of a theme to combine with programming to give it more to work with; hasn’t there already been a Robo Rally-style dynasty, for instance?

Some ideas that immediately occur to me for using a javascript snippet to generate outcomes: the assignments of secret agents; the destinations of pneumatic tubes or wormholes; the mineral resources of newly discovered planets; the market price of artworks; the results of league matches.

I unidle, by the way. Quorum becomes 4.

(Is it just me, or are there a lot of persistent Mortals in the ruleset, when everyone’s supposed to be an Ape?)

Kevan: he/him

26-09-2018 23:10:56 UTC

I thought the genetics Javascript was interesting this dynasty for taking some copypasted input from the GNDT and then outputting new data to paste back over it. Given that it could have been extended to automate the entire New Generation Event, I think there’s a lot of scope for a Javascript machine that inhales and exhales big sections of gamestate, simulating either some aspect of the players or some entity they’re constantly interacting with.

(And hum, yes, it looks like it’s only “Mortal’s”. I guess someone was being scrupulous about search-and-replacing all possible phrases, given that “a Mortal” has to become “an Ape”, and missed one.)

Zaphod:

27-09-2018 00:12:30 UTC

It would be fun to play with multiple linked realities—that would lead to two different gamestates to track, but that would be easier if the wiki page gets made. Also, there could be some way for the two (or more) realities to influence each other. Maybe there could be a way for certain proposals which pass in one reality to fail in the other.

Zaphod:

27-09-2018 00:13:21 UTC

The “pass the ruleset” idea is intriguing; the rules will just need to take into account that often people don’t get a chance to post every day.