Proposal Archive: Current Proposals

Due Saturday

Proposal 3625: Funnel Clouds Wait For No Man
Proposal 3626: Reorg VI

Due Monday

Proposal 3627: Pragmatic Precedence
Proposal 3628: Bow to their Might
Proposal 3629: Governments changes
Proposal 3630: Puzzle Pieces Ahoy!

Due Friday

Proposal 3631: Frog, Frog, Frog, Mouse
Proposal 3632: Caste Fix
Proposal 3633: The Sleep of the Just
Proposal 3634: Another Rule that Annoys Me
Proposal 3635: It isn't you know
Proposal 3636: Resolving Conflicts

Proposal 3625 - Sat 26 Sep 1998 23:25 EDT
Funnel Clouds Wait For No Man
Alfvaen (Aaron Humphrey)
Due: Sat 03 Oct 1998 23:25 EDT

This is a Modest proposal.

Amend Rule 230, "Random Things", by replacing the text(delimited by ALEATORIC):

ALEATORIC
II. An event that depends on a random determination for its full specification shall not occur until the random determination is publicly knowable.
ALEATORIC

with the following text(delimited by NONDETERMINISTIC):

NONDETERMINISTIC
II. An event that depends on a random determination for its full specification shall not occur until the random determination is publicly knowable, unless it is a regular event whose time is specified by the Rules(i.e. the distribution of the Magic Potato, or the score redistribution caused by a Tornado).
NONDETERMINISTIC

{{[ This is closer to what I originally intended. What I wanted was to pin down the timing of things like Ackanomicon visits, Spell Book of Chorg readings, etc. Not Tornados and Potatos. ]}}

Proposal 3626 - Sat 26 Sep 1998 23:26 EDT
Reorg VI
saaremaa (Randy Hall)
Due: Sat 03 Oct 1998 23:26 EDT

This is a Modest proposal.

{{[I'm not sure what number reorg I'm on, but some of the higher-numbered rules could use to be shuffled a bit (well, they could use more than that, but that is another kettle of fish altogether :-))

This creates two new centuries, one for loophole surfers in the 1400s, moving that stuff out of the harf section, and it moves the miscellany to the 1500s, out of religion/physics/nature.

There is more reorging to do in the lower rules too, but that is more complex, so it will have to wait.]}}

----------------------------

[I. new section for scams strong enough to control the game state]

Create a rule titled "The Mithril Grapefruit", numbered 1401, with this text:

"
The Mithril Grapefruit is a unique, non-tradeable, prestigious entity.

{{If the player known as K 2 when the proposal that created this rule was distributed voted YES on that proposal, then the Mithril Grapefruit is transferred to that player, otherwise this rule is amended to append a space character, followed by the date that this rule was created (in a consistent format with the rest of the rule) directly after the final occurrence of the word "until" in this rule}}

[
Vulcan held the Mithril Grapefruit from 05 Sep 1997 until 14 Jun 1998. K2 held the Mithril Grapefruit from 14 Jun 1998 until
]
"

-----

Renumber rule 1150, "The Evil Overlords of Ackanomic (retired)", to 1402.
Renumber rule 1151, "Former Emperor of Ackanomic", to 1403.

---------------------------------

[II. renumber the harf rule to an 01 for consistency]

Renumber rule 1112, "Let there be Harf!", to 1101.
Amend rule 540.1, "Characteristic: Harf" to replace "1112" with "1101".

---------------------------------

[III. create a new century for the miscellany -- doesn't belong in the 1300s. Not sure whether to break it out of the rule suite; bury it there for now ;-) This also moves a couple of these things out of the misc section altogether]

Renumber rule 1390, "Miscellaneous Rule Suite" to 1501
Renumber rule 1390.1, "Wibble", 1501.1
Renumber rule 1390.2, "Royal Frinks", to 1501.2
Renumber rule 1390.3, "X", to 1501.3
Renumber rule 1390.5, "Grease is the Word", to 1501.4
Renumber rule 1390.7, "I Am Not the Only Dust My Mother Raised!", to 1501.5
Renumber rule 1390.8, "Silly Little Holiday", to 1501.6
Renumber rule 1390.9, "Ready, Aim...", to 1501.7
Renumber rule 1390.10, "The Haiku Limit", to 1501.8
Renumber rule 1390.11, "Holotapes", to 937 [I'm not sure why this failed in P3601; perhaps I will be luckier]
Renumber rule 1390.12, "Ackanomic Unity", to 319.1 [another rule of this ilk is at 319...]

------------------------------

[IV. Merge game misconduct into the main G&C rule. Its a shame we even need this rule. IAC, I'd like to reduce its prominence and it belongs in the G&C rule anyway]

Amend rule 1250.1, "Games & Contests", to add the following text to the end of it:

"
XV. Game Misconduct

If a player of Ackanomic deliberately interferes with the play of a sub-game, even if he is not a participant in that sub-game, he has committed the Crime of Game Misconduct. Interference, in this case, would be doing something that makes it impossible to play a sub-game as its rules and game spirit intend. [Examples include: Revealing the definition of the Ing word of a game of Fictionary. Providing lists of possible Ghost or Double Crash words.] Cheerleading, jeering, and even providing advice to a sub-game player, are permissible so long as they do not violate the above clauses.
"

Repeal rule 1205, "Game Misconduct"

Proposal 3627 - Mon 28 Sep 1998 10:24 EDT
Pragmatic Precedence
saaremaa (Randy Hall)
Due: Mon 05 Oct 1998 10:24 EDT

This is a Modest proposal.

{{[it seems that the pragmatism clause does not have the necessary precedence to work in all cases. In particular, it will never override the handling of cheeses in rule 611, and may or may not fail in other cases. This proposal proposes to fold it in with the retroactively clause, and give both the necessary precedence by moving them into rule 101. This also addresses the concern that rule 103 could be overridden by things other than the pragmatism clause. Now it cannot be without being blatantly obvious.]}}

--------------

Amend rule 101, "The Game of Ackanomic", to add this as a new paragraph directly after the third paragraph:

"
No rule may generate any effect that applies retroactively to a time before the generation of the effect, except when the illegality or impossibility of a publically knowable change to the game state goes unreported for at least 14 days, in which case the change is deemed to have occurred retroactively to the time of the attempt. The preceding does not apply to the case of events which occur automatically, but whose occurrence is not (or erroneously) reported.
"

------------------

Repeal rule 103, "Retroactive Effects"

------------------

{{[keep what caused the error a crime, but remove the pragmatism clause and the precedence claim over rule 103 from rule 701]}}

Amend rule 701, "Crime", to replace the third paragraph with this:

"
The Crime of Time Surfing occurs when a player's (otherwise illegal) action (or inaction) leads to retroactively changing the game state as if the action (or inaction) occurred [via the pragmatism clause in rule 101].
"

Proposal 3628 - Mon 28 Sep 1998 10:25 EDT
Bow to their Might
Anathema (Gabriel Drummond-Cole)
Due: Mon 05 Oct 1998 10:25 EDT

Amend Rule 1030 by replacing the following CALCIUM-delimited text

CALCIUM
The Worker Caste, the Warrior Caste and the Religious Caste are Unique Organizations. There are no other Castes.

When a player ceases to be a Newbie, e becomes a member of one of these Castes by random determination. The chances to join a Caste are equal to the number of members in the other two castes divided by twice the number of members in all three Castes.[This adds up to one.]

No player may leave eir Caste. However, it is possible that two or three players agree to swap Caste membership, provided that the players swapping membership have all been in the Player State of Voting for at least 3 weeks, and none of them swapped Caste membership within the last 3 weeks.
CALCIUM

with the following SCANDIUM-delimited text,

SCANDIUM
The Worker Caste, the Warrior Caste, the Religious Caste, and the Ruling Caste are Unique Organizations. There are no other Castes.

When a player ceases to be a Newbie, e becomes a member of one of the Worker Caste, the Warrior Caste, or the Religious Caste by random determination. The chances to join a Caste are equal to the number of members in the other two castes divided by twice the number of members in all three Castes.[This adds up to one.] The Ruling Caste should be ignored in this random determination.

No player may change eir Caste, except as defined within the rules. A member of the Ruling Caste can change into the Caste with the least number of members, provided that eir Caste has not changed in the last 3 weeks.
Any former member of the Ruling Caste can rejoin it, if eir Caste has not changed in the last 3 weeks.
A group of two or three players may agree to swap Caste membership, provided that the players swapping membership have all been in the Player State of Voting for at least 3 weeks, and none of them swapped Caste membership within the last 3 weeks.
SCANDIUM

amend Rule 1031 by replacing the following TITANIUM-delimited text

TITANIUM
The Grey Council is an Office with up to nine seats. It is also a Unique Organization.

Each Caste (Worker, Warrior, Religious) has the right to fill 3 seats in the Grey Council.

The rules for nomination, election and impeachment apply with the restriction that only a member of a Caste may

a) nominate emself for a seat that this Caste has the right to fill,

b) vote in the election for seats that this Caste has the right to fill,

c) vote on the impeachment of a Grey Council member of this Caste. In this case, the procedure followed for impeachment is the same as that outlined in Rule 404, except that the IP will be ACCEPTED if at least 1/2 of the members of the Caste voted on it, and 2/3 of those voting on the IP voted YES.

When a member of the Grey Council changes Caste membership, eir seat immediately becomes vacant. When a player who has nominated emself for a seat in the Grey Council changes Caste membership, eir nomination is considered to be withdrawn.
TITANIUM

with the following VANADIUM-delimited text,

VANADIUM
The Grey Council is an Office with up to ten seats. It is also a Unique Organization.

Each of the three lay Castes (Worker, Warrior, Religious) has the right to fill 3 seats in the Grey Council.

The Ruling Caste has the right to fill 1 seat in the Grey Council.

The rules for nomination, election and impeachment apply with the restriction that only a member of a Caste may

a) nominate emself for a seat that this Caste has the right to fill,

b) vote in the election for seats that this Caste has the right to fill,

The member of the Ruling Caste on the Grey Council is the nominal head of the Grey Council, and only votes in the case of a tie.
VANADIUM

and amend Rule 441(Dungeon Master) by relacing the following CHROMIUM-delimited text

CHROMIUM
whose privileges are:

(i) to change eir Caste as a public action.
CHROMIUM

with the following MANGANESE-delimited text.

MANGANESE
whose privileges are:

(i) to change eir Caste to a Caste other than the Ruling Caste as a public action.
MANGANESE

{{All Evil Overlords of Ackanomic (retired) and K2 have eir Caste changed to Ruling for an infintessimal amount of time, and then eir Castes are changed back to what they were before. This does not remove em from eir Grey Council seats, if they would be otherwise removed. This is not considered a change in Caste for purposes of determining whether it has been three weeks since a player has changed eir Caste.}}

Proposal 3629 - Mon 28 Sep 1998 10:27 EDT
Governments changes
Anathema (Gabriel Drummond-Cole)
Due: Mon 05 Oct 1998 10:27 EDT

{{[Rebellion now dependent on *voting* players, not just players, Characteristic inconsistency fixed, spelling error fixed]}}

Amend Rule 320 (Governments Rules Suite) by replacing the following IRON-delimited text

IRON
All players have a rebeliousness characteristic which may either be "on" or "off" (the default value is off). A player may freely change the value of this characteristic by publicly stating that they are doing so, and what they are changing it too.

If ever over 50% of all player have a rebeliousnees characteristic of "on" and any player points this out publicly then a Revolution shall begin. During a Revolution the folloing events will happen:
IRON

with the following COBALT-delimited text

COBALT
All players have a rebelliousness characteristic which may either be "on" or "off" (the default value is off). A player may freely change the value of this characteristic by publicly stating that they are doing so, and what they are changing it too. For the purposes of this rule, "on" and "off" are numerically representable by 1 and 0 respectively {{[this is necessary because characteristics are explicitly defined as numbers by Rule 540]}}

If ever over 50% of all voting players have a rebelliousness characteristic of "on" and any player points this out publicly then a Revolution shall begin. During a Revolution the following events will happen:
COBALT

{{replace all instances of the string "rebeliousness" in the rules with the word "rebelliousness"}}

Proposal 3630 - Mon 28 Sep 1998 10:28 EDT
Puzzle Pieces Ahoy!
Slakko (Duncan Richer)
Due: Mon 05 Oct 1998 10:28 EDT

[We have them defined, but not used. The lack of a Puzzler is why.]

This is a Modest Proposal.

Append to the end of Rule 1270 the following sentence:

If there is no player with the title of Puzzler, then any player may, as a public action, assume the title of Puzzler.

Proposal 3631 - Fri 02 Oct 1998 08:14 EDT
Frog, Frog, Frog, Mouse
/dev/joe (Joseph DeVincentis)
Due: Fri 09 Oct 1998 08:14 EDT

Create a new rule as a member of the Games & Contests Rule Suite entitled "Frog, Frog, Frog, Mouse" with the following GOOSE-delimited text:

GOOSE
{{[ This is a conglomerate of a number of ideas I have wanted to introduce to Acka - including a shortened Eleusis-like game that is actually playable in a reasonable time, a puzzle that appeared on rec.puzzles, and the old Micronomic chemistry scoring system. It also includes the return of the Mad Scientist to Acka in a new role. ]}}

1) General Equipment
Optionally, an Ackanomic IRC server.
Gamepoints as required.

2) Number of Players
At least 3 players are required. The maximum number of players is the number of players in Ackanomic.

3) Number of referees
This game uses no referees.

4) Starting the game
The game begins when one of the players posts a randomly-arranged list of the players in the game. This list serves as the order in which players become the Mad Scientist. When the list is posted, the first player on the list becomes Mad Scientist. In each successive round, the Mad Scientist is the next player on the list (or his replacement) after the previous round's Mad Scientist.

5) Joining and Leaving a Game in Progress
Players may not join games in progress except to fill in as replacements for players who have left the game. If a player leaves, his seat remains vacant until somebody fills it. Vacant seats automatically pass any time they have a move left to make, but if a vacant seat is filled before the round ends, its new occupant may override that pass with any legal play. If it becomes a vacant seat's turn to be Mad Scientist, it is immediately treated as if the Mad Scientist was delinquent. If the Mad Scientist leaves the game, e is considered delinquent and the current round immediately ends.

6) Rules
I. Starting a Round
The game consists of a series of rounds. Each round begins when the Mad Scientist chooses rules for the two transformation machines, a target zoo (a collection of at least one and no more than 9 animals), and a zoo of 5 randomly chosen animals for each player, and publicly announces the target zoo and each player's zoo; e keeps the rules for the machines secret. However, if the zoo chosen for any player matched the target zoo, then before the information is posted, that zoo is replaced with a new zoo created in the same manner. This process is repeated until no player's zoo matches the target zoo exactly.

II. Starting a Turn
Each round consists of at most 10 turns. The first turn begins when the Mad Scientist has posted the necessary information to begin the round. On each turn, each player privately submits a move to the Mad Scientist. Invalid moves are ignored, but the once a player has made a valid move in a turn he may not change it, except for overriding a default pass made by a vacant seat. When a turn has been going for 3 days, all players who have not yet submitted a valid move pass and the round ends. A round ends earlier than that if all players have submitted a valid move.

III. Ending a Turn and Ending a Round
When a turn ends, the Mad Scientist posts the moves each player made, the results of those moves, and the current zoos for each player. At this time, the round ends if it was the 10th turn, or if any player's zoo matched the target zoo; otherwise, a new round begins immediately. When the round ends, the Mad Scientist posts the scoring for the round and the cumulative scores; when e does so, the next player in the list becomes the Mad Scientist, or the game ends if this was the last round.

IV. Scoring a Round
At the end of a round, each player's zoo is divided into two parts, a bag and an excess. For each species, if the player has more animals than there are of that species in the target zoo, then as many as are in the target zoo are placed in the bag and any leftover animals are placed in the excess; otherwise, all the player's animals of that species are placed in the bag.

Then, the player scores a number of gamepoints equal to (10*N/T) - (2*K), rounded down to an integer, where N is the total number of animals in the bag, T is the total number of animals in the target zoo, and K is the total umber of animals in the excess. [In other words, he scores a fraction out of 10 points for the animals he has that match the target zoo, and loses 2 points for each extra animal.] However, if this number is negative, the player instead scores zero gamepoints that round. In addition to this, each player whose zoo matched the target zoo exactly receives 5 gamepoints.

The Mad Scientist does not have a zoo and does not score this way; instead, he receives a number of gamepoints equal to the difference between the smallest and largest scores the other players received for the round.

V. Delinquent Mad Scientist
If at any time the Mad Scientist fails to post the info for the start of the round within 3 days of gaining the title, or fails the results of a turn within 6 days of the turn beginning (3 days to wait for submissions and 3 days to post the results), and any player points this out publicly, then that Mad Scientist is deemed Delinquent. If the Mad Scientist posts the info late, but before any player points it out publicly, he is not Delinquent and the round goes on.

When the Mad Scientist is deemed Delinquent, the round ends immediately and the Mad Scientist loses 5 points. If the Mad Scientist ever posted the target zoo and info on the zoos players had, then the other players also receive score as they usually would at the end of the round, based on the last posted zoos. When any player posts the scoring for that round and the cumulative scores, the next player on the list becomes Mad Scientist (or the game ends, if e was the last player on the list).

7) Other information needed to play
The animals used in the game are the following: cat, dog, frog, mouse. The first letters of these animals' names may be used as shorthand in describing moves, results of moves, and zoos.

I. Transformation Rules
The rule for each transformation machine consists of one or more transformations. Each transformation consists of a pattern to match and the replacement for that pattern. The patterns may only depend on the number, species, and arrangement of animals being fed into the machine for a single move. The replacement may be absolute, or depend partly or completely on the animals matched by the pattern. It is permissible for a transformation to change the number of animals, and it is recommended for some of them to do so, so that a target zoo with a number of animals other than 5 can be reached. All transformations must be deterministic, i.e., if the machine turns dfmc into dfdd once, it should always do so for the rest of the round whenever dfmc is fed into the machine.

II. Example Transformations
["The last animal is transformed into a dog" converts dfmc -> dfmd "The last two animals are transformed into duplicates of the first animal" converts dfmc -> dfdd
"Whenever a cat is immediately followed by a mouse, those two animals are replaced by a frog" converts dfcmmcm -> dffmf
"Every dog is replaced by a cat followed by two frogs and then a mouse" converts cdmdfc -> ccffmmcffmfc]

III. Applying Transformation Rules
When a transformation rule is applied, each transformation in the rule is applied, in order, to the current list of animals in the machine. The animals in the machine are changed before the next transformation is applied, so the rule consisting of the three transformations "All dogs become cats. All cats become frogs. All frogs become mice." would turn all animals entering the machine into mice.

IV. Moves
Each turn, each player submits one of the following moves:

A. Pass. No change occurs in the player's zoo.

B. Restart. The player's entire zoo is replaced by a new collection of 5 randomly-chosen animals, again with the provision that if the chosen zoo matches the target zoo exactly, it is replaced with another newly chosen zoo, repeatedly, until it does not match the target zoo.

C. Transformation. Along with this move, the player submits an ordered list of animals to be fed into one of the transformation machines, and specifies which machine (A or B) they are fed into. The list of animals must only contain animals from that player's zoo, and no more animals of any one species than are in his zoo. Those animals are removed from his zoo, fed into the machine indicated in the order specified, that machine's transformation rule is applied to those animals, and the resulting animals are returned to his zoo. This is the usual move, and may be specified by just stating the machine and list of animals.

8) Conditions for winning the game
When the game ends, whoever has the highest score wins. If there is a tie for highest score, all tied players win.

9) Trophies
The winner receives a standard trophy.

10) Ending the game
When the last Mad Scientist posts the results and final scores, the game ends. If the last Mad Scientist becomes Delinquent, the game ends when any player posts the scoring for the truncated round and the final scores.

GOOSE

Proposal 3632 - Fri 02 Oct 1998 08:17 EDT
Caste Fix
JT (JT Traub)
Due: Fri 09 Oct 1998 08:17 EDT

Amend rule 1030 by replacing the following BLEAH delimited text
BLEAH
When a player ceases to be a Newbie, e becomes a member of one of these Castes by random determination. The chances to join a Caste are equal to the number of members in the other two castes divided by twice the number of members in all three Castes.[This adds up to one.]
BLEAH
with the following MUCH_BETTER delimited text
MUCH_BETTER
When a player either ceases to be a Newbie or ceases to be On-Ice, e becomes a member of one of these castes by random determination. The chances to join a Caste are equal to the number of members in the other two castes divided by twice the number of members in all three Castes. [This adds up to one]
MUCH_BETTER

{{Saaremaa becomes a member of a random caste as if he just ceased to be On-Ice.}}

Proposal 3633 - Fri 02 Oct 1998 08:18 EDT
The Sleep of the Just
Slakko (Duncan Richer)
Due: Fri 09 Oct 1998 08:18 EDT

This is a Modest Proposal.

[The Justices Rock powers are out-dated and rather irrelevant. The President's decisions these days are pretty much limited to appointing Functional Officers. The Senate's decisions, as the Senate, are non-existent (Calls are privileges of the Offices, not the Senate).

Previous Supreme Court decisions could only be overturned within 7 days - I can't see 2/3rds of the Supreme Court voting one way, and then enough changing their minds within 7 days (especially given the amount of negotiation required to get a verdict in the first place).]

Repeal Rule 417, "Justices Rock".

Append the following RELOC-delimited text to Rule 217, "Overturning Judgements":

RELOC
VI. Declining Appeal Judgement

When a CFJ is assigned to the Supreme Cortex that a Justice or Acting Justice owns, that Justice or Acting Justice may, as a public action, decline Judgment on that CFJ. In this case, an Acting Justice is selected to act as an owner of that Supreme Cortex with respect to that CFJ only, in the original Justice's or Acting Justice's stead; the procedure used to select the Acting Justice is in this case the same as if the original Justice or Acting Justice had gone on Vacation.
RELOC

[This text was at the bottom of Rule 417. It really belongs with the rest of the rules regarding selection of cortices.]

Amend Rule 217 by replacing all instances of "under rule 417 (Justices Rock)" with "under Section VI of this Rule".

[Pointer realignment.]

Proposal 3634 - Fri 02 Oct 1998 08:19 EDT
Another Rule that Annoys Me
Rambo R Minuteman (Tom Walmsley)
Due: Fri 09 Oct 1998 08:19 EDT

This is a modest proposal.

Delete the second sentence of rule 206 [Any player whose score reaches exactly -60 has their score changed to 20. ]

Proposal 3635 - Fri 02 Oct 1998 08:20 EDT
It isn't you know
Rambo R Minuteman (Tom Walmsley)
Due: Fri 09 Oct 1998 08:20 EDT

In rule 1155 replace "azure; black; blue;" with "azure; blue;".

Proposal 3636 - Fri 02 Oct 1998 08:21 EDT
Resolving Conflicts
K 2 (Kelly Kelly)
Due: Fri 09 Oct 1998 08:21 EDT

This is a Modest Proposal.

Warning: Attempting to break the game

Amend Rule 102 (Resolving Conflicts) to read in full:
"
Wherever the rules conflict on a particular issue, the shortest rule which is written in a poetic style suitable for a hosed player shall guide play with regard to that issue. In the event that the previous sentence does not resolve the conflict, the text of the conflicting rules is changed to "Am Not!!".

If two statements in the same rule conflict with each other then the statement which contains the silly phrase, as defined by rule 207.1 (That's just silly), takes precedence. If neither of the conflicting sentences contains the silly phrase then one of those sentences shall be selected at random shall have randomly determined three word phrase replaced with the silly phrase.
"

Create a rule numbered one with the title "Are So!!" and the text "Are So!!".

Proposal 3637 - Fri 02 Oct 1998 08:22 EDT
Resolving Conflicts
K 2 (Kelly Kelly)
Status: removed (invalid by Rule 309)

This is a Modest Proposal.

Warning: Attempting to break the game

Create a rule numbered one with the title "Are So!!" and the text "Are So!!".

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