Mod: SemiRandom AI

[Gandalf Parker]

Yes I was also pleased with how the sites came out. This is the list it selects from...

data "Bolivar's Tower of Reflections","Academy of High Magics","Animist's Hut"
data "Assassins Guild","Azure Academy","Bile Marsh","Black Tower","Library"
data "Blood Henge","Castle Arcanum","Caveman Cavern","Ebony Tower","Litter Skull"
data "Citadel of the Lore Masters","Death Mound Downs","Flower Swamp"
data "Forest of a Thousand Streams","Forest of Avendron","Grayshade Forest"
data "High Temple of the Magii","Ivory Tower","Library of Time","Mirrorlake"
data "Mirror Wall Palace","Moon Mages Circle","Moonvine Circle"
data "Navigators Guild","Poison Glades","Telesterion","The Ebony Circle"
data "Temple of the Sacred River","Temple of the Solar Bull"
data "Temple of the Turning Tide","The Crystal Academy","Whispering Woods"
data "Tower of the Golden Order","Tower of the Iron Order"
data "Tower of the Silver Order","Twice Walled Tower","Twin Spire Tower"

That was just a quick grab of some from Edi's database. I got forced that direction because I couldnt make the #startsite work with a number instead of the full name. But I like the results. Sometimes the results suck (though never quite worthless) and other times it totally kicks ASCii.
I might have to go the same route with the rest of the program. Create long lists of acceptable choices. Wide ranged but not insane. Or maybe I will export Edi's database (spreadsheet actually ) into a csv file and use it directly.

[Stavis_L]

@JimMorrison - re: cycling to get advantageous picks, I think the point is to have the AI use this, and it presumably wouldn't do that :-)

@Gandalf Parker - Interesting idea, and looks fun. Have you considered investing a little extra time into the program's infrastructure to allow some configuration a-la SemiRandom/RanDom? Where I'm going with this is to allow randomness, but within certain ranges to prioritize synergistic combinations.

Here's a totally off the cuff configuration schema that might be a way to go (note: had to use braces vs. xml angle brackets for it to be accepted into the post...)

{units}
{unit id="727"}{!-- Jaguar warrior, likes a strong fire, water, or death blesss --}
{magicpreference type="fire" minlevel="9" /}
{magicpreference type="water" minlevel="9"/}
{magicpreference type="death" minlevel="9" /}
{!-- unit synergies are with a fast or flying, blessable unit --}
{unitsynergy type="262" /}{!-- van --}
{unitsynergy type="367" /}{!-- pegasus rider --}
{unitsynergy type="726" /}{!-- eagle warrior --}
{unitsynergy type="791" /}{!-- red guard --}
{unitsynergy type="851" /}{!-- cu sidhe --}
{/unit}
{unit id="784"}{!-- Jotun Woodsman, likes cold and a Nature or earth bless --}
{magicpreference type="nature" minlevel="4"/}
{magicpreference type="earth" minlevel="6" /}
{scalepreference type="cold" /}
{!-- unit synergies are with cold resistant unit or those that
appreciate earth or nature bless --}
{unitsynergy id="831"/}{!-- ice elemental --}
{unitsynergy id="1287"/}{!-- tempest warrior--}
{unitsynergy id="1618"/}{!-- angakok --}
{unitsynergy id="1927"/}{!-- peshti axeman --}
{unitsynergy id="2001"/}{!-- seren --}
{/unit}
{unit id="304"}{!-- devil, likes blood or fire magic, heat, no particular unit synergies --}
{magicpreference type="blood" minlevel="4"/}
{magicpreference type="fire" minlevel="4"/}
{scalepreference type="heat" /}
{/unit}
{/units}

[Gandalf Parker]

Ok here is a batch of the result files so you can see how varied it is.
http://www.dom3minions.com/~mmdom3/SRAI/

And the .yab file is the program (dont laugh too hard). Its ascii and displays fine in my browser.

@Stavis_L.
The SemiRand is always on my mind. Originally there was vanilla, then my chaos stuff (maps, mods, programs all using maximum randoms). Then when people complained about it being too random there was the SemiRand project which was my original ideas but I always had too much fun with the randoms to do it. Ballbarian has done an excellent job of running with it.

Long ago I complained that a SemiRand program would do much better with a database to work off of. Now Edi has done much of that. I used to make my living programming databases but now I just dont have the attention span to carry out my initial plans for it.

I do think that it could be worked into SemiRand. Not only randomly placed logical provinces, and pre-created gods with logical scales, but toss in a few randomly created nations on numbers 77-88.

[Gandalf Parker]

OK added another file to that directory. The ChaosMod is an example of where I started. WAY too wild a result even for me to play.