Mission Specific Software Question

[qoonpooka]

Redrobes, while I'm about as useful at coding as a TI-85 is for gaming, I'm happy to help out with any beta testing you'd like. Supporting your efforts in any way I can sounds like my best bet to get what I need.

The answer to your question about the autociv model and how many rules it would need is this: However many you care to add. Human behavior is, at best present estimates, infinitely complex.

I'm capable of adding cities and whatnot on my own, though. Terrain is a proper focus for your software as that's much harder to believably generate with any degree of speed.

[Redrobes]

GTS is not easy to use and is command line driven. Its using make files, some Perl and scripting so its not a neat and easy UI. Its very flexible and none of us at MeDem know exactly what we need from it yet so I think if there is a GUI then that will come later in the day. Maybe it will drive it to select preset scripts that work well. I don't know yet but it is a kinda programmers interface.

ViewingDale is all GUI based and mouse / keyboard driven so its much better for what you need in 2D.

I would use Google maps in their new terrain mode and find some Siberian outback areas and use that for your gaming. This isn't published material here is it ? L3DT will be able to create that kind of stuff too in any case.

Human behavior is complex - maybe infinitely so in detail but its predictable to a certain degree or else nobody on this forum could make any kind of map. What meal a character eats for tea is not relevant to whether he builds a farm close to the river or in the hills. Its complex alright but I don't think infinitely so that the rules could not be captured enough to determine where a computer generated peasant would build his farm. Playing RPGs, the GM makes those kinds of assessment all the time and there are tutorials on this site detailing some of those rules. A GM would naturally balance them - a small village on the side of Orc metropolis isn't going to work. Getting the computer to balance the rules is what I think would be the hard part. For example, say your woodcutter became fabulously rich. Would he still cut wood ? If you don't program robbers & thieves, kidnappers and taxation then it could get that way. For sure, real people are infinitely cunning ! Perhaps it is this aspect that would be too difficult to program. Theres always somebody trying to exploit a loophole. Maybe programming something to search for loopholes is the key to generating that correctly balanced universe. Maybe every NPC should be born a hacker and their chosen profession is merely the result of the exploit search. Crazy !

[Midgardsormr]

Heh. I think you'd have some AI researchers knocking on your door if you managed to accomplish that!