Sorry for the walls of text; if you don't understand anything, I'll be happy to clarify.
About it being rushed - A reform that could singlehandedly determine the (un)balance of Agora will never be prepared enough, if we want to release it in a (kind of) timely manner. That's why we should partially leave it to the Agoran legislative process, fixing it as we go. After all, it is impossible for this law to introduce a complete economy, as that depends on all the assets one can buy, and not only would the reform get bogged down by writing out every asset to be available for purchase, it will also be easier to imagine how will a new asset interact with the rest of the economy if one can see that economy in practice. Anyways, here are my thoughts: On 11/19/17, Reuben Staley <reuben.sta...@gmail.com> wrote: > This is still pretty rough around the edges with the new mechanics. > > Title: Putting Agora on a Map v3 > Author: Trigon > Co-Authors: Aris, ATMunn, G., o, VJ Rada > AI: 2 > > [ Version 3: So this is Go + Settlers of Catan + some RPG mechanics now. > It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out. Also: two drafts > in one day YEET! ] > > [ PART I: Removing and Changing Stuff ] > > Repeal rules 2488, 2489, 2490, and 2491. > > [ I honestly tried to keep the estates, but these changes are so radical > that it wouldn't be compatible. ] > > Repeal rule 2500. > > Amend rule 2445 by replacing the second paragraph and subsequent list > with: > > Any player CAN flip a specified proposal's imminence to "pending" > by announcement by spending 1 paper. > > Amend rule 991 by removing the first two items of the list directly > following the first paragraph, and replacing them with the following > list item: > > a) by announcement by spending 1 paper, OR > > [ Everyone wants to get rid of these so okay, let's do it. ] > > Repeal rules 2483, 2487, and 2497. > > [ No more shinies, everybody! ] > > Amend rule 2516 by replacing it in full with: > > At the beginning of the Agoran week, the Treasuror CAN and SHALL > cause Agora to create in: > > 1. every player with an amount of papers less than 2 an amount of > papers so that eir paper balance is equal to 2. > > 2. every player with an amount of apples less than 4 an amount of > apples so that eir apple balance is equal to 4. > > [ This makes it so that impoverished players can move a little each week > and make some proposals. ] > *I'd wager that players will set up contracts, allowing them to receive state aid even when they are fabulously wealthy, and it's not like you can just raise the price of contracts, which should be cheap. To avoid cluttering up reports with such contracts, you might as well give every player a flat 2 paper & 4 apples/week. It is never a bad thing to have more poverty/powerlessness prevention mechanisms, and one occured to me, "scavenging for apples": A player can, on any Land Unit, start scavenging for apples by announcement. While scavenging for apples, e gains one apple after every 24 hours of scavenging. A player ceases scavenging if: -E changes location or takes any other map-altering action (building facilities etc.) -E has been scavenging for 7 days (to discourage idling). Maybe there should also be an indestructible lv1 mine or orchard at 0,0 so that impoverished players can get lumber/stone, with which they can build a facility to create the other.* > Amend rule 2599 by replacing the second paragraph with: > > When a player receives a Welcome Package, Agora creates the > following assets in eir possession: > > 1. 20 coins > 2. 5 lumber > 3. 5 stones > 4. 10 apples > 5. 5 papers > > [PART II: Making Land] > > Re-enact rule 1993/1 (Power=2) "The Land of Arcadia" with the text: > > Arcadia is a land entirely defined by the Arcadian Map (the Map). > The Map is the term for the set of all Land Units. > > The Map divides Arcadia into a finite, discrete number of Units of > Land, or simply Land. Each Unit of Land is an indestructible asset > specified by an ordered pair of integers known as its Latitude and > Longitude. > > Every unique ordered pair of integers within the limits defined in > the Rules for Latitude and Longitude signifies an existent Unit of > Land. No other Units of Land exist. Units of Land CAN only be > created or destroyed by changing the limits of Latitude and > Longitude defined in the Rules. > > All values for Latitude and Longitude MUST lie between -9 and +9, > inclusive. > > The Total Land Area of Arcadia is the number of existent Units of > Land defined by permissible Latitude and Longitude pairs. *That is _361_ ! There is a reason why Go is often played (when practicing) on smaller boards - this is huge for just 10-20 players, even if half of it is Æther. There are 2 issues I see: 1) It takes 18 moves to get to a corner from the center, assuming no obstacles. Unless more movement abilities are legislated soon, I'd fix this by allowing the players to walk diagonally, this also allows for more manoeuvrability - if you can move just to "adjacent" points, are moving straight west and a single-point obstacle is in your path, you have to move north-west-west-south to avoid it, using 2 extra moves. 2) Players, IMO, should have to compete over land. This way, everyone can just go to eir own part of the world, and have enough space for all the facilities there. This is a part of what I think is the biggest issue overall - hardly anybody will want to buy land. With comfortable distances between players, players will just build on public land, because it's cheaper and going to another player's facilities to steal eir $$$ will cost more (apples) than just producing it yourself. Also, if everyone has space to build all kinds of buildings, they need not trade for anything. This could be fixed by introducing traversable Land Types (e.g. "wasteland", "ocean"...) that cannot be built on, or by allowing facilities to be built only on resources - either Land Types (which would ruin the Go part) or fixed coordinates - e.g. the north has lots of metal veins, and the south has fertile land, so they have to trade lumber for coins* > > Re-enact rule 1994/0 (Power=2) "Ownership of Land" with the text: > > Any existent Land for which ownership has not been explicitly > changed belongs to Agora. > > Land belonging to Agora is called Public Land. Land belonging to > a contract is called Communal Land. Land belonging to any other > entity is called Private Land. Together, Communal Land and Private > Land are called Proprietary Land. > > Re-enact rule 1995/0 (Power=2) "Land Types" with the text: > > Each Unit of Land has a single Land Type. Changes to Land Type are > secured. In addition to Aether, the Land types Black and White are > defined. > > The phrase "Units of X", where X is a Land Type defined by the > Rules, is considered a synonym for "Units of Land that have Land > Type (or Subtype) X" > > When existent Land has not had its Type changed as explicitly > permitted by the Rules, or has a Type that is not currently > defined by the Rules, it is considered to have the Land Type of > Aether. Rules to the contrary nonwithstanding, Units of Aether > CANNOT be transferred from Agora, or owned by any entity other > than Agora. If Proprietary Land becomes Aether, the Cartographor > SHALL transfer it to Agora in a timely fashion. > > When an act specifies an alternating Land Type, the Land Type > chosen will be based upon the Land Type used as the previous > alternating Land Type, so that consecutive alternating Land Types > alternate between Black and White. In a timely fashion after a > Player notifies the Cartographor of an act that specifies an > alternating Land Type, the Cartographor MUST announce which Land > Type was used for that act. *Also, players should specify the assumed Land Type in their message (and the next alternating LT?), because so many actions depend on this that it would be burdensome to stop the play and wait for the Cartographor every time - players should continue under the assumption that the creating player was right about what Land Type e had created, and the Cartographor should just retroactively confirm the types. And what if the players were wrong about the Types used in their actions? Either it would be ILLEGAL to make a move based on a mistaken assumption of the current Alternating Land Type, and cards would be issued, or it would be IMPOSSIBLE, and the whole map would be rolled back... probably the first one.* > > Re-enact rule 1996/3 (Power=1), renaming it to "The Cartographor" with > the text: > > The Cartographor is an office; its holder is recordkeepor for the > Land of Arcadia. > > The Cartographor's Weekly Report shall include: > > 1. the ownership and land type of all existing land; > 2. all changes in the ownership and land type of existing land > since the most recent report; > 3. the location for the previous week and the current week of each > entity or instrument with a defined location; > 4. all patches and their constituents; and > 5. all facilities and their parent patches. > > [ I renamed this from "Mapkeepor" to "Cartographor" because that's not a > good name for a thing. Yes, I know that the Cartographor existed > before as part of a different system, but it's unlikely any of that'll > be coming back. ] > > Re-enact rule 1998/2 (Power=1) "Land Topology" with the text: > > Two Units of Land are Adjacent if they have the same Latitude, and > their Longitudes differ by exactly one; or they have the same > Longitude, and their Latitudes differ by exactly one. > > [ Penguin Distance is never referenced again, so I got rid of it. ] > > Two Units of Land are said to be Connected by a specific Type of > Land if it is possible to travel from the first Unit to the second > by only travelling over Land of that specific Type. *Travelling should be rigorously defined. If players acquire pegasi to be able to travel over Æther, this should not affect connectivity. Also, situations may arise (one-way wormhole etc.) where travelling is one direction only. A more flexible definition would be: Land Unit a,b is said to be connected to Land Unit c,d if it is possible, to reach c,d by moving an imaginary entity to adjacent Land Units of the same color, starting at a,b. Wait a moment, how did you intend this to work? Can two White Land Units be ever connected by Black Land Units, or can LUs be connected only by their own color?* > > Re-enact rule 1999/0 (Power=1) "Entity Location" with the text: > > Every Player has a single defined Location corresponding to a > single Longitude, Latitude pair. > > No other Entity can have a location unless it is defined in a rule > other than this one. Changes to the Location of an Entity are > secured. If an Entity is specified by this Rule as having a > defined Location, but its Location has not been explicity set or > changed, its Location is set to (0, 0). *Typo: explicitLy.* > > Re-enact rule 2003/11 (Power=1) "Actions in Arcadia" with the text: > > Players CAN destroy: > > 1. 1 apple to move from one Land Unit to an adjacent Unit if their > Land Types are the same and the destination is not Aether; > > 2. 2 apples to move from one Land Unit to an adjacent Unit if > their Land Types differ and the destination is not Aether; > > 3. 2 apples to set Land Type of a Land Unit which e owns to any > Land Type other than Aether, whether or not e is located at > that Land Unit. *Also, a contract's Land Unit, if e has been permitted by the contract to do so? Also, there may be strategic reason for turning one's own land into Æther, such as creating a supporting Æther LU for your other LUs, preventing their "capture", so why not allow it? While you can't remove your stones in Go, you can't capture your opponent's "living" formation by plugging up one of its "eyes" with a stone of eir color either.* > > 4. 3 apples or 1 corn to set the Land Type of a random Land Unit > that is adjacent to the Entity's current location, is of type > Aether, and is owned by Agora, to an alternating Land Type. The > Cartographor SHALL make the random determination. The > Cartographor CAN and SHALL in a timely fashion, announce which > Land Unit, if any, is changed by this action. This action has > no effect if there are no qualifying Land Units. *Why in the name of the Nine Hells is this random? It will introduce day-long delays, enable the Cartographor to cheat, and, more importantly, create ambiguities as to whether one can move there etc. until the Cartographor generates the result. If you think it would be OP if not random, just make it more expensive. Also, it's probably one of the most important & frequent actions in the game, given that land will turn to Æther every month* > > 5. 4 to set the Land Type of eir current location to any Land Type > of eir choice other than Aether, if and only if the Unit is > owned by Agora. > > 6. 6 to set the Land Type of any Land Unit that is of type Aether > to an alternating Land Type. *This much power projection feels scary. It would suck to have a level 4 facility on a dearly bought Land Unit just to have it nuked by you, while sitting comfortably in your base. Perhaps the cost should scale with distance? More importantly: the amount of destruction you can lay to your fellow players' land & facilities (by turning the Æther around them to Black/White) is directly proportional to the number of apples you have, which depends on your economy, which IMO creates a strong feedback loop.* > > Re-enact rule 2004/3 (Power=1) "Land Auctions" with the text: > > Every Agoran Week, if the number of units of Private Land is less > than one half the total number of units of Land, an auction SHALL > be initiated. For this auction, the announcer is the Cartographor, > the auctioneer is the Cartographor, the lots are chosen as such: > > 1. if there exist at least 3 Units of non-Aether Land in the > possession of Agora: any 3 such Units of Land, to be chosen by > the Cartographor; > > 2. if there exist fewer than 3 Units of non-Aether Land in the > possession of Agora: all such Units; > > and the minimum bid is 1 coin. *I'd say we want to encourage proprietary land ownership, because that's the point of having land ownership in the first place. I'd put up 5 units for auction every week. It's not like it'll be a disaster if all land becomes proprietary, it will eventually get Ætherified, and players will trade anyways. Actually, I think 0,0 should always belong to Agora, as it's indestructible and a respawn point.* > > Re-enact rule 2022/5 (Power=1), renaming it "Land Transfiguration" with > the text: > > During the second week of each Agoran Month, the Cartographor > SHALL perform the following actions in sequence, and report these > changes in a timely fashion: > > 1. Every Land Unit, excluding (0, 0) that is not directly > connected to a unit of Aether, or is not connected by its own > type to a unit of Aether, shall be transformed to Aether. > > 2. Any entities whose locations are on land units so transformed > shall have their locations set to 0,0. *This could be more general (to allow for easier implementation of actions that might move players/change Land Types), e.g. Whenever a player's location is a Land Unit of the Æther Type (or outside any defined Land Units), eir location is set to 0,0 immediately* > > 3. If any land unit so transformed is not property of Agora, it > becomes property of Agora. > > [PART III: Creating Facilities] > > Create a new rule (Power=2) "Facilities" with the text: > > Facilities are liquid assets tracked by the Cartographor. In order > for a facility to exist, it MUST be built on a Land Unit. Only one > facility is allowed per Land Unit. > > A player CAN create a facility by announcement by specifying which > Land e wants to build it on, specifying which type of facility e > intends to build, and paying the corresponding build cost. *Mistake: Land _Unit_ e wants to build it on. I'd allow building only in your current location, and forbid building on proprietary land without permission. And to discourage from building facilities on public land (which would be too easy, and, again, makes owning land kind of moot), I'd have the Cartographor charge rent fees every month for facilities built on public land* > > If a player owns any facilities with upkeep costs, e shall pay > them before the first day of the next Agoran month. Failing to do > this destroys the facility. In the second to last week of the > Agoran Month, the Cartographor SHALL issue a humiliating public > reminder to all those who have not paid upkeep fees on any of eir > facilities. > > Create a new rule (Power=2) "Asset Generation with Facilities" with the > text: > > When facilities create assets, the assets are added to the > facility's possession. The rule that creates a facility CAN > specify a carrying capacity for assets. If, at any time, the > amount of an asset in the possession of a facility exceeds that > asset's carrying capacity, an amount of that asset is destroyed > until the amount of that asset in the possession of the facility > is equal to its carrying capacity. > > Each facility is either a production facility or processing > facility, to be specified in the rule that creates them. At the > end of every Agoran Week, Agora creates a number of assets in a > production facility specified by the rule which creates the > facility. > > At the end of every Agoran Week, Agora destroys any refinable > assets in the possession of each processing facility that that > facility can change into refinable assets and replaces them with a > corresponding number of refined assets to be specified by the rule > that creates the facility. > > A player can take a number of assets from a facility's inventory > by announcement if eir location is the same as the facility's and > the following criteria are met: > > 1. if the facility is built on Public Land, none. > > 2. if the facility is built on Communal Land, e must be a party to > that contract and the text of the contract cannot prohibit > doing so. > > 3. if the facility is built on Private Land, e must own the > facility. *Or e could have permission (by announcement) from the owner?* > > Create a new rule (Power=2) "Facility Ranks" with the text: > > Rank is a facility switch tracked by the Cartographor defaulting > to 0. Its possible values include all integers between 0 and 4, > inclusive. > > A player CAN increase the rank of a facility e owns by > announcement by paying any upgrade costs of the facility for that > specific rank. > > Create a new rule (Power=2) "Varieties of Facilities" with the text: > > For the purposes of this rule, the variable n is equivalent to the > rank of the facility, plus one. *Wouldn't it be more intuitive if facilities started at lv1 and n was the facility level?* > > The following facilities are defined as production facilities: > > 1. Mines > - Build Cost: 5 lumber > - Upkeep Cost: none > - Production Details: 3n stones and 2n ore. > - Upgrade Costs: > - Rank 1: 3 coins, 2 lumber > - Rank 2: 4 coins, 4 lumber > - Rank 3: 5 coins, 4 lumber, 3 stones > - Rank 4: 6 coins, 6 lumber, 6 stones, 2 fabric > > 2. Orchards > - Build Cost: 5 stones > - Upkeep Cost: none > - Production Details: 2n apples and 4n lumber. > - Upgrade Costs: > - Rank 1: 3 coins, 2 stones > - Rank 2: 4 coins, 4 stones > - Rank 3: 5 coins, 4 stones, 3 lumber > - Rank 4: 6 coins, 6 stones, 6 lumber, 2 fabric *Why does this produce so few apples, which are essential even for just walking around facilities and collecting stuff? I think 3n apples & 3n lumber would be better.* > > 3. Farms > - Build Cost: 3 lumber and 4 stones > - Upkeep Cost: none > - Production Details: 4n corn and 3n cotton. > - Upgrade Costs: > - Rank 1: 4 coins, 2 lumber, 2 stones > - Rank 2: 5 coins, 4 lumber, 2 stones > - Rank 3: 6 coins, 4 lumber, 4 stones, 2 fabric > - Rank 4: 7 coins, 6 lumber, 4 stones, 3 fabric > > The following facilities are defined as processing facilities: > > 1. Refineries > - Build Cost: 4 lumber and 8 stones > - Upkeep Cost: 2 coins > - Processing Details: 1 ore to 2n+5 coins. > - Upgrade Costs: > - Rank 1: 5 coins, 2 lumber, 3 stones > - Rank 2: 6 coins, 4 lumber, 4 stones > - Rank 3: 7 coins, 4 lumber, 3 stones, 3 fabric > - Rank 4: 8 coins, 6 lumber, 6 stones, 4 fabric *Surely you mean 1n ore?* > > 2. Mills > - Build Cost: 6 lumber and 6 stones > - Upkeep Cost: 2 coins > - Processing Details: 1 lumber to 5 paper. > - Upgrade Costs: > - Rank 1: 6 coins, 3 lumber, 3 stones > - Rank 2: 7 coins, 4 lumber, 5 stones > - Rank 3: 8 coins, 5 lumber, 5 stones, 3 fabric > - Rank 4: 9 coins, 6 lumber, 7 stones, 5 fabric *Don't forget your N's - 1n lumber to 5n paper, right?* > > 3. Looms > - Build Cost: 8 lumber and 4 stones > - Upkeep Cost: 2 coins > - Processing Details: 1 cotton to 5 cloth. > - Upgrade Costs: > - Rank 1: 6 coins, 3 lumber, 2 stones > - Rank 2: 7 coins, 4 lumber, 3 stones, 3 fabric > - Rank 3: 8 coins, 5 lumber, 4 stones, 5 fabric > - Rank 4: 9 coins, 6 lumber, 5 stones, 7 fabric *1n cotton to 5n _fabric_, as you refer to it elsewhere. Also, the processed materials seem weirdly abundant. With a rank 2 loom you can make 10 fabric/week, probably enough for upgrading all your facilities to rank 4. Also, I think upkeep should definitely scale with rank, perhaps even polynomially, because that would make choosing whether to upgrade or not interesting - upgraded facilities take up less land than multiple low-level facilities (you spend less apples running aroud collecting and have to protect less LUs from being "captured"), on the other hand they would have more upkeep per unit produced. Finally, upgrading feels too passive, you just wait and run around collecting resources, not interacting with other players much. What if, for example, upgrading to the final level of a facility required an Energy Crystal, of which there would always be 30 instances. It would be initially distributed or auctioned off to players, and building any lv 4 facility would cost one. When such a facility would be destroyed (by turning its Land Unit into Æther), the crystal would be given to the nearest player. - This would necessitate trading or raiding to create (more) lv 4 facilities. > > [ All the values in this section are experimental; feel free to contest > any or all of my decisions. ] > > Create a new rule (Power=2) "Economics" with the text: > > The following currencies are defined, and are tracked by the > Treasuror: > > 1. ore > 2. stones > 3. lumber > 4. apples > 5. cotton > 6. corn > 7. coins > 8. papers > 9. fabric *TBH, most of the currencies (except apples) feel kind of the same, like, every building costs some of each resource, and you have to produce/trade everything roughly equally, and you don't need to trade much, because you can build any type of facility anywhere. I'd like if it were more like e.g. Catan, where you build lots of cities if you have good access to rock and straw, and focus more on villages otherwise. On the other hand, the resources will probably be differentiated enough by the other things one will be able to purchase.* > > [ Probably not all of these will be managed by the Treasuror, but it all > depends on where the discussion takes us over the next few days.] > > Stones, apples, and corn are considered unrefinable currencies; > ore, lumber, and cotton are considered refinable currencies; and > coins, papers, and fabric are considered refined currencies. > > Coins are the official currency of Agora. > > [ TODO: Remove references to shinies in the ruleset and replace them > with the new currencies. ] > > Set the land type of all land units that lie withing the region from > (-2, -2) to (+2, +2) to White. Create the following facilities: > > - Four mines at (-2, -2), (-2, +2), (+2, -2), and (+2, +2). > - Four orchards at (-1, -2), (-1, +2), (+1, -2), and (+1, +2). > - Four farms at (-2, -1), (-2, +1), (+2, -1), and (+2, +1). *Specify that these belong to Agora. (And that Agora doesn't have to pay upkeep to itself for facilities it owns?)* > > Set the locations of all players to (0, 0). > > Make Trigon the Cartographor. > > [ Someone else can take this job if they want. I just put my name in > because I know that I will indeed take the job. ] > > -- > Trigon >
