uglycow

Join Date 07/2004

Epic generator is going to need more than typo fixes

I've played two games and both epic stories were exactly the same except different names were inserted. And it left important events out. They were both extreamly vauge on what was going on. I think this is a cool feature but it's obviously going to need more than typo fixes. I can't post them becuase we were told not to,(and I wouldn't even if I could) and because they aren't created as a file seperate from the game. It is only possible to read it on the summary pages after the game is over.

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That was something Brad had said was barely operating at this point, so it will improve drastically I would think. It does output to an html file in MyDocuments/MyGames/GC2DarkAvatar/Storylogs.

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Oh.. I had just been looking in the DA directory. Makes sense it would be in the mydocuments foler.

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Yea hopefully they will get it fixed soon, cause it really does sound like one of the best features of the expansion.

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I'm also very interested in this feature. I'm especially interested in what might be up for those of us who play long games that we might not finish for a few weeks, or given the winter holidays, not finishing until sometime decently into January.

How will releases during the beta process affect long-game players? Can we expect a game we start now to reflect the near-RTM version of the epic generator if we are working with a game settings:play-time ratio that means several weeks to finish?

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ScottTykoski

Join Date 03/2001

+132

Uglycow: Could you send those two saved games, along with their coorisponding *.eventlog files (from the StoryLogs folder), to Scott@stardock.com? Like Brad said, the Epic Generator still has a way to go (the generator we have in is a simplified version of the bloated original, so we need to make sure that the story stays interesting despite this streamlined approach).

Actually, anyone that wants to can send those files my way, it'd be much appreciated. The more data I can pull from different play styles, the better these storys will be.

Also, if an big event goes by without being talked about, make a note of it so I can make sure that
a.) the proper paragraph is being written for that event and
b.) that event is being weighed correctly when the writing occours

Thanks for your help. We're really tredding new waters with this thing (I foolishly thought it was going to be an easy task, but it's really become a monsterous challenge). Be sure to send your good stories as well as the duds so we can see how the generator is functioning in the real world

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An epic generator. That's just wow. Whoever thought that up is brilliant. I'm very interested in seeing what the finished product will look like. Good luck to all working on that thing.

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Neilo

Join Date 04/2006

+128

Has something like the Epic Generator even been done before?

It has to be one of the best ideas in a game for a long time.

A pat on the back to whoever thought that up!

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ScottTykoski

Join Date 03/2001

+132

I don't think an epic generator has ever been done before, and looking back, I can't blame everone for passing on the task. It's journey will make an interesting write up for a post-mortem

In all honesty, the stories we've gotten in the office have been pretty accurate, nailing most of the major events that come up (tag errors aside, of course). However, I have gotten a few stories that completely miss the mark, so it's going to take some work to make sure each game generates something worth reading.

Until then, it's back to writing

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BoogieBac, I played a game a very short game as Yor where I decided to retire early by 15th Mars 2225. I got an epic report with lots of errors in it.

In the report, they were talking about my first combat ship (I never built any combat ships), it says that the Pirates are the mightiest major race in Feb 2225 and that all habitable planets were colonised (not true). It finally says that I lost a battle and my last planet and therefor lost the game (not true. like I said, I never fought once and retired the game). There are also lots of [...] in the report.

I'm sending the endsavegame, logs and html-report over so that you can take a look at it if you want.

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There are two things about the Epic Story Generator that are going to take a lot of time. The first is the actual coding and debugging, and the second is the creation of all the flavour text. I don't know how you're going about the latter, but I'm sure a lot of players would be interested in helping you. I assume they would need a list of events that create parts of the story.

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