Flammable Penguins Blog The internet home of Claire Blackshaw

Splash Damage

Splash Damage

Okay some actions can affect multiple targets, my old model ignored this and hence broke in a few places. I’ve now fixed this. This resolves a few graph query issues I was having.

Containers

Aaah yes arbitrary containers are extremely useful in a graph systems. They give information based on context. I was using them in all my drawings and notes, but not in code. This has now been fixed and cleans things up.

Multiple Children

I started with a query as a single path in the graph. Then I got lost a bit and thought, of course multiple children are needed. So the query changed from a path to a sub-graph.

The confusion arose because the response is multiple nodes.

This is messy and muddies the model. After trying to handle the sub-graph query I decided it adds nothing, as multiple paths can be submitted consecutively.

So now the query is path, response is a node list. 

Query Graph

Okay so loads of code written, which has really found holes and helped smooth out the model.

Query Graph

Okay so the most basic Query format is a Graphed Query.

Pop-able Context

Any item which is pop-able can throw away it’s parents without loss of information. You may want to keep the context if you want to use a “previous topic” action. If the depth is becoming unmanageable however you can slice off the top at Pop-able joints.

Items which are not popable require their context to make sense.

Current Context

The current context is the Query which was passed in, we can then pass out the response nodes.

If you have a general query then an outline will be provided on the context item. 

If you have a specific query, for instance the above query could be expressed as.

Object(Knife) -> Event(Stabbing #2) -> Actor( NULL )

Agent Data

What data does each agent hold, well coding really shone light on the dark places and showed up the cracks.

Atom

The Atom element indicates time-sensitive data. It can be attached to anything, to contain a time sensitive element. AtomCollection was a break through, it smooths out the accessing of Time Sensitive data.

Atoms cannot be a child of Event Node.

Talk Base

Person, Place, and Event all inherit from Talk Base.

Talk Base has a list of status which allow generic attachment of time-sensitive data.

Data Groups

At first I was look at expanding the data model but then I thought of data groups. So the Graph provides context.

Verb

I’m still not happy with the verb declarations, the model needs some revision.

I’m thinking of having a dictionary of possible game verbs.

Query Response Format working

Sadly no pretty pictures, but loads of progress. That’s the sad truth of programming, loads of boring text before anything cool happens.

So what are you seeing

• Query Response Format working
• People, Locations, Objects populating with random generator
• No Events Yet
• Generic Time Atom System in place for storing time sensitive data

Next steps are to intelligent filter choices based on context.
Also I want to add an output to a file so conversation is visible. 

Query & Response format Cemented

Almost missed last bus home.
Really good progress has been made. Lots of clean up and refactoring making good headway.
Query & Response format cermented.
Basic test bed in.
Hard coded a random populator to fill values.
Unified time sensitive atom structure.
More tomorrow (^_^)

Tumblr Fail

Tumblr Fail

So I wrote this long article about how I switched to an Atomic data model.

How this is one possible implementation of the proposed model. Different code would be written based on language, memory and cpu restrictions. The implementation is a proof of concept. It does not define the model.

Atomic Model

The atomic model uses a damage protocal. It stores a value and the time that value was set.

• Testing point before any atom returns unkown.
• Testing between or at an atom returns last value change
• Testing past last atom return last known value

Blind Spot & Discovery

This system means if a value change occurs and then is changed back before an agent observes it again then they are unaware of event. If however the observed value is different to the last known value then they agent knows an event has occurred and can inquire or investigate.

Anyway I got to run and catch the bus, sorry for short version.

Concrete Examples of Conversations

Not much progress tonight. Looking at examples and the refrence scenario, getting bogged down in detail.

Will look at a code implementation of Thursday

Dissertation: Atomic Structure

Dissertation: Atomic Structure

A sample atomic structure laid out in a document.

Query and Response forms also discussed.