Improvisations

Improvisations are customizations which allow complex actions to be built by the player herself out of a series of proficiencies on the spur of the moment (I think). Improvisations first become available during the second minor quest. If the animated object takes advantage of the chance to create an improvisation at that point, then those particular improvisations are available to it from that point on.

In addition, if such a improvisation was created, then improvisations become available when the animated object reaches the genius path at the Actinide Series.

This distinction (from a customization) may require bullet time to implement, so it may not be possible once we solidify the time model. Stillflame has some ideas, which I hope he will put here.

Another possibility is to divide the capabilities another way: For instance a customization could be a customized recipe, while an improvisation is a customized style.

See also Abilities, Scripts, and Customizations.

— Scotus - 03 Mar 2002

What is different about the problem solving abilities of an individual that designates hir as a master? Both you and the person in the next cubical are looking at the same problem, but they've already coded their solution, which is better than the one you take twice as long to make.

One possibly way to model a character with such increadible skill is in the ability of that individual to predict the behaviors of their solution before it has been made. At any given step in the process, they can ask themselves, "if i do A, what will happen?". Predictions of this sort can then be given to the character's controller, along with an assigned weight to help them decide how best to solve the problem.

Consider: a craftsman is given the task of creating a horseless carriage. Ze may be familiar with how pendulums work, how springs work, how steam works and how fire works, but the choice of which to use is not readily apparent to a novice, or even necessarily to a master. Pendulums generally require a stable base, not something easily found with anything moving. Springs need winding. Steam is wet, and requires the supply of water. Fire is dangerous. Somehow, the master realizes that steam is the easiest to deal with and has less potential for failure than the others, but how does ze realize this?

Possibly, an internal question and answer session may go on, using the master's ability to model those components of the problem which are important to hir. "What if i used steam?" -> "Then you would need to solve the problems of water reclaimation and heat transfer." Or, more generally, "What if i do A?" -> "Then state S will occur." The prediction is made that A implies S. For any set of actions, the master should be able to predict the next stage of the process.

Well, this is obviously the basis for a decently complex AI task. At it's simplest, just a look-ahead, but in a game like FaerieMUD, each and every skill on period 5 for each and every AnimatedObject would have it's own AI. Unacceptable costs to model improvisation.

While it would be easy enough to just provide a list of choices at each step and let some other governing force for the character choose, that is neither scalable to different levels of mastery, nor is it even capable of modeling any level of the master's ability to predict.

(to be continued...)

— Stillflame - 05 Mar 2002

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— Ged The Greys Hain - 22 Jun 2002 [Unified Knowledges and Abilities, fixed links]