The Factory Floor

12:00 AM

@spicklesandwich So you roll dice to get these values?

As for Civilization:

- Era and Power Source (Like, cultural development era times magic or tech level. Pretty specific to my game.) // Fade and Chaos (Plot variables. Meh.)

Aye.

Or can just choose, whatever.

HDE 226868

@spicklesandwich Sounds pretty cool, and useful, too. The one catch is that some of these variables are related to one another. For example, ecology is related to climate, and in pretty complex ways.

spicklesandwich

I also like to do it for random landscape speed-paining.

Right, so I have to weight them and make adjustments, or make some kind of justification. Can come up with some cool results.

Samuel

@spicklesandwich Is there a specific problem you're having with it?

spicklesandwich

Most of the civilization variables, I have to come up with sublists, so it gives me a better idea of how it fits in. I'll break those down individually into questions. For now Ijust want to see if anyone sees any reality-breakers or the like.

Samuel

12:06 AM

@spicklesandwich As HDE pointed out, if you're trying to make this into a system that anyone can use to generate an encounter, it needs to not rely on that person just trying to figure something out if there is a conflict. There either needs to be a consistent priority or no overlap.

spicklesandwich

Civ variables that matter:

- Economy (wealth? devpmt? Sources?) // Population (humans or domesticated animals and the like)
- Development (access and quality of basic needs - Shortage-/-Excess; I have a list of sub-var's here.) // Structure (Type and 'decay' of government? I guess? Goes from Dystopian-/-Eutopian.)
- History (Archaic-/-Frontier; basically how old, how many 'periods') // Culture (level of tradition and expression - I have a few sub-variables here)
- Ethics (Like, level of? From depraved to too strict. Solidarity. Equality. Etc.) // Alignment (Isolated-/-Open borders; and/or …

Hm. True. Would you suggest I go about that? Like, weighting them?
As far as it's been, it's only been necessary to do enough to generate an idea.

Samuel

@spicklesandwich I'd do priority from the top down. Like pick a climate, then within that climate, several ecologies are chosen from.

spicklesandwich

As far as ecology and climate goes, I'm mostly using those terms to mean 'amount or complexity of life' and 'relative temperature and sometimes moisture'. So there's not much overlap there methinks.

So as you stated, the /type/ of ecology would differ based on where it was.

But that also depends on water sources, altitude, most any other factor.

Samuel

@spicklesandwich Ok, well, I'd use that structure at least. The mutually exclusive items on the outside, then down to dependent items.

spicklesandwich

Do you still see there being overlap then?

Samuel

12:16 AM

@spicklesandwich The important thing is that you don't end up assigning totally incompatible things.

spicklesandwich

Would it work to list them in order of dependence, and then rate them /according to that environment/? So a high ecology for a frozen tundra at high altitudes would have really high ecology, but only for that terrain.

And maybe might not be compatable with much animal life, but lots of shrubs and such.

Samuel

Some sort of weighting system like that could work well.

spicklesandwich

So I'd have to weight the dependents on the other variables in general terms, so it'd be clear that high altitudes mean low life, etc.

Samuel

@spicklesandwich Yeah, you're going to have to simplify a lot of it to get it to work together like that. You'll have to balance how much structure you're providing and how much detail the user has to come up with.

spicklesandwich

Hm... I'd probably say it's better, at least for this game, to specify it as an idea-generation tool; not a completely prescriptive one. And then explain how each variable, in basic terms at least, will effect the environment. Incompatibilities might have to be a special modify-or-justify weighting 'clause' in there, too. But I think that would work pretty well.

If It were to be put in a video game... well, then the open-ended result would have to be completely defined, and I can see that being more important.

mico villena

12:28 AM

1

Q: with $2million what kind of survival kit would you bring to a prehistoric earth like medieval world with dragons, dinosaurs and uneducated populace?

what items would you bring with you to another world with the budget of 2million dollars. You were given the information that they are not technologically advance and they have magic. On top of it you deducted upon questioning that it is a medieval-like age as well! You are asked to save the ot...

this clear enough?

Samuel

Yeah, procedural generation style.

@micovillena Nope. The list of possible problems one might face are seemingly examples of randomness. I might add "In-laws will visit and might demand to stay the night"

mico villena

damn... i thought that was it

Samuel

@micovillena It also doesn't clearly state how you will choose the best answer.

spicklesandwich

Any feedback on the Civilization variables? For most of those, I'm going to have to break them down and do some research individually for more specifics.
I'm working on the Structure right now. I'd like a variable or two to define what KIND of government, if I want, instead of just how decayed/integral it is.

There are so many ways to define governments that it's hard to tell what's a good way to 'build' one.

Samuel

12:48 AM

@spicklesandwich How important is the type of government to the encounters?

spicklesandwich

Not hugely. At least, not until I build in a more robust social encounter engine.

But for flavor's sake, I think it'd be nice to not have all-feudal medieval or all-democratic modern societies.

mico villena

1:32 AM

need help...

do we have portable nuclear reactors that can fit in 50x50 sq meters? Under the cost of 2million dollars

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