New NESes, ideas, development, etc

[Birdjaguar]

I had no idea where to ask this question, even after a few hours of reading the NES forums and the Wiki, so here it is:

Is there a general ruleset that Mods use in assimilating the orders they receive? Is it just up to the Mod to decide the outcomes of gambits/strategies/battles? I guess what I'm asking is if the NESverse has anything like a "Dungeon Masters Guide," and, if not, how mods decide in cases of conflict.

There seems to be a clear favoritism towards well written, clear orders succeeding over poorly communicated, illogical orders, but other than that, it looks to all be "black box-ed" and at the (always, of course, benevolent, well-informed, and fair) whim of the Mod. Am I missing something?

No you seem to be right on track. Each mod has their own way of figuring out how to read and interpret orders to arrive at an outcome. Few mods seem to talk about how they resolve their updates. There certainly is not manual to guide you. Given the wide variety of orders that I get, I cannot imagine being able to standardize outcomes. Some of the outrageously foolish efforts, I just ignore; other times I turn them into events that highlight the failure of the orders to communicate. I do tend to reward well thought out (even if short) orders. Because player actions are usually timed very differently in a turn, few if any rarely work out exactly as planned. for me working out a timeline of important events is the most time consuming and complicated part to do well. That and defining an interesting context to tell the story.

 

[North King]

It is almost impossible to list the kind of factors that go into moderating decisions. Since NESes try their best to emulate the real world (at least, in most cases), the results of conflicting orders have considerations roughly overlapping the forces behind real world clashes. Just think of it as a historical event with the players taking the part of the monarch and or general/bureaucracy. That's more or less how I deal with it, anyway.

I hope that answers your question. If not, feel free to clarify.

 

[Thlayli]

For examples, the Orders thread is great. But...

1. What a nation can accomplish depends on its' resources. An African nation in 500 AD with an excellent, well-written plan to dominate Australia will ultimately fail.

2. Of course, an African nation with an excellent, well-written plan to repel colonial invaders will, with some luck, stories, and general incompetence on the other player's end, succeed.

3. Usually a synthesis of orders, stories and stats in equal measure goes into a successful nation, and most mods recognize the value of this combination.

 

[Disenfrancised]

For examples, the Orders thread is great. But...

1. What a nation can accomplish depends on its' resources. An African nation in 500 AD with an excellent, well-written plan to dominate Australia will ultimately fail.

2. Of course, an African nation with an excellent, well-written plan to repel colonial invaders will, with some luck, stories, and general incompetence on the other player's end, succeed.

3. Usually a synthesis of orders, stories and stats in equal measure goes into a successful nation, and most mods recognize the value of this combination.

Well I don't know, it is pretty hard for a nation to beat an Outside Context Problem even with an excellent plan and stories...

 

[jalapeno_dude]

For examples, the Orders thread is great. But...

1. What a nation can accomplish depends on its' resources. An African nation in 500 AD with an excellent, well-written plan to dominate Australia will ultimately fail.

2. Of course, an African nation with an excellent, well-written plan to repel colonial invaders will, with some luck, stories, and general incompetence on the other player's end, succeed.

3. Usually a synthesis of orders, stories and stats in equal measure goes into a successful nation, and most mods recognize the value of this combination.

Agree with most of that except for Part 3. While I will give stories small stat bonuses, I don't take them into account when resolving things (except insofar as the stat bonuses affect things).

 

[Head Serf]

I know that as a mod I have a reluctance to allow terribly unlucky things to happen to players who write stories. Is that fair? Not really, but it's nice to have stories in my NESes, and eliminating those players WILL reduce that.

 

[Mknn]

I know that as a mod I have a reluctance to allow terribly unlucky things to happen to players who write stories.

This implies that there is some sort of RNG happenign behind the scences--like, you decide there is a 3% chance of the volcano erupting, then roll dice/generate a random number from a spreadsheet/whatever. Do you? Do others?

 

[Birdjaguar]

This implies that there is some sort of RNG happenign behind the scences--like, you decide there is a 3% chance of the volcano erupting, then roll dice/generate a random number from a spreadsheet/whatever. Do you? Do others?

I sometimes roll dice to see what/if something happens.

 

[Head Serf]

Yes, I use an RNG to some degree.

 

[The Farow]

When I modded I just did what I thought was best. I give nations breaks sometimes but mostly I just go with the situation that is most likely to happen. I never used but I did use my calculator's RNG for the most recent update that I have to yet to posted. Probably should not say what I used it for yet...

 

[North King]

This implies that there is some sort of RNG happenign behind the scences--like, you decide there is a 3% chance of the volcano erupting, then roll dice/generate a random number from a spreadsheet/whatever. Do you? Do others?

For myself, and though it seems somewhat evil to say -- I never used a random number generator. I also got accusations of moderator bias in several NESes.

Draw your own conclusions.

 

[Birdjaguar]

For myself, and though it seems somewhat evil to say -- I never used a random number generator. I also got accusations of moderator bias in several NESes.

Draw your own conclusions.

There is no way to mod and not let some bias creep in.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

I like nations that write stories more than nations who don't write stories. Thus, I am slightly biased (not severely, however), to the survival of the nations of story-writing players. However, with most things I moderate, I just do what feels most realistic or alternatively whatever feels best for the narrative of my NES.

As for natural events, I wrote a list of them and dates at which they would happen when I started the NES.

 

[flyingchicken]

Speaking of stories: It will be interesting to have a NES where everything and anything the players write become canon, the moderator demoting him/herself to something more of a secretary, summary-writer, and turn-mover. I'm wondering how long people can play it straight before things degenerate and fall into chaos.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

The second someone starts metagaming or making other characters do stupid things.

 

[Terrance888]

Bah! When you have that, chaos rules! Just look at the forum game 'War at CivFanatic' lolism!

 

[Dachs]

The second someone starts metagaming or making other characters do stupid things.

...I think that that was implied by flyingchicken's original post. I give it ten stories at the most before a continuity error and/or ridiculous, Civilization style conquest or metagaming.

 

[Shadowbound]

...I think that that was implied by flyingchicken's original post. I give it ten stories at the most before a continuity error and/or ridiculous, Civilization style conquest or metagaming.

So maybe the mod's main job should be to throw a wrench into these things, either by introducing new stories of his own or putting his foot down on nutty stuff like Flying Aircraft Carriers*. I'd give this a whirl.

*Was Flying Aircraft Carriers on this forum or another one? I can't seem to remember.

 

[Dachs]

So maybe the mod's main job should be to throw a wrench into these things, either by introducing new stories of his own or putting his foot down on nutty stuff like Flying Aircraft Carriers*.

That sounds like a lot of work, and by that point the mod would just be another player.

*Was Flying Aircraft Carriers on this forum or another one? I can't seem to remember.

This is not a new idea.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

GeneNES

With a snapping sound, lights crackled on in a large, enclosed space. A large group of penguins and polar bears could be seen taking part in civil discussion, and several uncivil acts of miscellaneous violence. A coalition of assorted pandas, otters and Safavid Persians made up the NAO delegation. Various Owls, Leperchauns, Vegetable Overlords, Hedgehogs, Hamsters, Moose and Walrii were also to be found in the area.

“But yes.” Noted Penguin Technician Pikt, “NESLife has been updating a little slowly lately.”

“Though the artwork is fantastic...” quietly noted one Otter.

“Stop whining, Daftpanzer has a life too!” noted one Hamster, reaching for his death ray. His intentions may never be known, as a polar bear stepped on him a second later.

“Anyhoo,” resumed Pikt, “I had a thought. What if we ran an inverted NESlife? Horrible artwork, but quick updates?”

“I thought that we were parts of an NES, not running a NES.” Grunted one larger polar bear.

“I know, it’s like... meta2. Weird.”

“But still an interesting idea.”

“Indeed. And that is why I brought you all here- To start a genetic NES!”

“Isn’t it a ripoff of Spore the NES as well?”

“No, our artwork is worse. Tekk!”

“Yes?”

“Start the life processes!”

“Affirmative.”

Lights focused on a large tank of nutrient-rich water in the center of the building.

“Initiating time field.”

A bluish hazy field buzzed into appearance around the tank.

“Electrical stimulus initiated. Hydrogen/Carbon/Oxygen/Nitrogen/Phosphorus/Sulphur Compounds: Check. Complex molecules: Check. We have nucleotides. We have phospholipids. Amino Acids: Check... We have membrane formation... we have proteins... we have... LIFE!”

Applause echoed throughout the chamber. On an overhead screen, a magnified picture appeared. It was...

“It’s a... bubble.” Noted a hedgehog.

“It’s a cell! Isn’t it magnificent?”

One of the circular things started to break in half. Half of the audience applauded, the other half stared confusedly.

“Let the evolutionary wars begin!”

The idea is that people would make evolutions, and I would make very simple diagrams showing it. They can't possibly get more simple than this, however. People could evolve things by adding one trait to a creature, like 'Cell Wall', Flagella, 'Digestion', etc. 1 Trait and One Evolution Per turn.

Question: Would people like to start with Prokaryotes or Eukaryotes?