秘密、兴趣、八卦和联系

Secrets, Interests, Gossip, And Connections

带有不完全信息的社会模拟

Social simulation with imperfect information

AXIOMS

2023年5月26日

介绍

Introduction

在我们深入讨论今天的帖子之前，需要注意的是，Axioms 中的许多非策略机制实际上可以关闭，其中包括关于八卦和连接的内容。在这种情况下，将会有一个显示各种游戏规则的界面用于操作。“魔法/平凡”是另一个游戏规则，同样能启用或关闭大量的游戏机制。无论你想要制作架空历史模组还是没有幻想元素的完全虚构世界，你都可以点击这些选项。

It is important to note before we dive into the post for today that lots of the non-strategy mechanics in Axioms can actually be turned off and that includes the Gossip and Connections stuff. There will be a screen for a variety of game rules in this vein. “Magical or Mundane” is another game rule that toggles a massive web of game mechanics on or off. Whether you want to make an alt-history mod or a fully fictional world without fantasy elements this is the button to click.

除此之外，《Secrets》最初是一个独特的Axioms概念，但最终被许多开发者融入到他们的游戏中，因为我在2015年底至2021年长期忙于政治/EVE Online。《Secrets》的工作原理类似于《星际王朝》或《十字军之王》，但仍然保留了独创的细节并融合了Axioms的标志性特征，当然，就好感系统而言，秘密所产生的影响受到大量潜在因素的调节。一个秘密可能毫无意义，也可能意义重大，这取决于了解这个秘密的角色之 "意识"（“Consciousness”）。

With that out of the way Secrets was an originally unique Axioms concept that eventually made it into games by devs both minor and major who released projects during my long politics/EVE Online hiatus from late 2015 to 2021. It works similar to the versions in Star Dynasties or Crusader Kings but it at least still retains the unique detail and integration of iconic Axioms features and of course the impact Secrets have is modulated by tons of potential factors as far as the Opinion system. A Secret could be meaningless or massive depending on the “Consciousness” of the Character who becomes aware of it.

Gossip是一个处理Axioms中各种“不完全信息”的系统。在游戏中，你并不能自动掌握所有其他角色或人口的完整信息。属性、技能、性格特征、意识形态光谱、个人兴趣和欲望。这些都是角色 "意识 "的组成部分。意识会影响角色与世界互动的方式，也会影响当你试图干涉角色使其达成你的目标时需要采取的行动。

Gossip is a system that deals with the extensive variety of “imperfect information” in Axioms. You don’t automagically have a complete breakdown on every other Character or Population in the game. Attributes, Skills, Personality traits, Ideology spectra, personal Interests and Desires. These are the many parts of the “Consciousness” of a Character that affects the way they interact with the world and the different Actions you’ll want to take to move them to your personal rhythm.

由于RAM和CPU性能限制的原因，Axioms无法单独追踪每个角色。有关角色的任何给定数据都将分为 8 个“层级”中的1层，与省份和人口的一般“情报网络”信息的划分方式相同，你将根据各种因素进行访问。

For reasons of RAM and CPU performance limits Axioms can’t track each of these individually for each pair of Characters. Any given data about a Character will fall into 1 of 8 “Tiers”, the same way the general “Intelligence Network” information on Provinces and Populations is divided, and you’ll have access based on various factors.

“连接”是一套与人际关系相关的游戏机制。角色会知道你有一些欲望，无论是公开的还是私密的，如果他们喜欢你或想要从你那里得到什么，他们会尝试利用这一点。你想要配偶吗？嗯，你不能像在某些游戏中那样简单地打开一本巨大的自动结婚候选人魔法书，然后通过详细的个人信息来过滤它们。你的父母、兄弟姐妹、密友或封臣/领主会考虑他们对你意识的了解，并推荐潜在的配偶/盟友/顾问。

“Connections” is a set of game mechanics related to interpersonal relationships. A Character will know you have some Desire, whether public or private, and if they like you or want something from you they’ll attempt to leverage that. You want a spouse? Well you can’t just roll up the giant automagical book of marriage candidates as you can in some games and filter them by detailed personal information. Your parent, sibling, close friend, or vassal/liege will consider what they know of your Consciousness and recommend potential spouses or allies or advisors.

八卦

Gossip

八卦的运作方式是，当你与其他角色进行互动或进行任何形式的休闲聊天时，你会根据其他人知道而你不知道的信息获取新信息，反之亦然。

The way that Gossip works is that when you engage in interactions and occasions with other Characters where you have any sort of casual chat you’ll pick up new information based on what the other person knows that you don’t and vice versa.

正如我之前发布的文章所述，游戏中有多种社交互动，可以为角色实现不同的目标。每个角色都有自己的技能和兴趣，因此不同的互动会依据所涉及角色的不同而达到各种效果，大多数时候是少量的技能进步和可变的小幅度好感提升。

As I’ve posted about before there are a variety of social Interactions in the game that achieve different things for Characters. Each Character has Skills and Interests such that different Interactions achieve different results based on the Characters involved. Often this is a minor amount of Skill progress and a variable small to medium Opinion boost.

然后这些交互会进一步产生不同的效果，取决于具体情况。要求另一个角色跳舞将根据两个角色的技能、他们对跳舞的兴趣、他们的性别以及场景（例如在酒馆或舞会或更休闲的音乐活动中）创建好感修正。

These Interactions can then be modified further by context. Asking another character to Dance would create an Opinion Modification based on the skills of the two Characters, their Interest in dancing or lack thereof, their gender, and the context such as in a tavern or at a ball or perhaps a more casual musical event.

在适当的互动和个性修正下，有机会获得有关一个或多个其他角色的新信息。例如，两个群居角色进行一对一的八卦互动，如果他们也经常与许多其他角色互动，则可以向两者提供大量新信息。

During appropriate Interactions and modified by Personality there’s some chance of gaining new Information on one or more other Characters. Two gregarious Characters having a one on one Gossip interaction for instance could generate a lot of new Information for both if they also often Interact with many other Characters.

你可以在八卦互动和其他一些互动中具体询问另一个角色。正如之前的设计文章中简要提到的，你甚至可以向另一个角色的朋友询问有关第三者的信息，这通常发生在浪漫的场景中。

You can ask specifically about another Character during Gossip Interactions and some other Interactions. You can even, as mentioned briefly in a previous design post, ask friends of another Character for information on a third Character. This would often be used in a romantic context.

请注意，Axioms没有你可能期待的艺术资源，视觉小说或约会游戏那种。也没有情节点和对话。因此，这种体验与视觉小说或约会模拟游戏并不相似。你可以随心所欲地在脑海中构建故事和叙述。但游戏本身相对枯燥，浪漫的互动不是主要焦点。它的存在是为了实现普遍现实性，并为非策略、非最优化游戏玩法提供动机。

Note that Axioms lacks art assets you might expect from a visual novel or dating game. It also lacks plot points and dialogue. So the experience is not really similar to visual novels or dating sims. You can build up stories and narratives in your head or not as you please, but the game is relatively dry and romantic interaction is not a primary focus. It exists to enable verisimilitude generally and to provide motives for non-minmax non-strategy gameplay.

连接

Connections

连接不是一种游戏机制，而只是我为了描述起来方便而对一组松散关联机制采取的宽泛称呼。Axioms是一款关于选择和专注的游戏。这尤其是由注意力点数系统驱动的。你不可能每回合都做所有事情。这也是Axioms拥有各种高度集成系统的原因。

Connections are not a gameplay mechanic but just a label I apply to a set of loosely linked mechanics for descriptive purposes. Axioms is a game about choice and focus. This is driven especially by the Attention Point system. You can’t do everything every turn. That is also why Axioms has a wide variety of heavily integrated systems.

当玩家选择扮演具有强烈社交焦点的角色时，体验应该与扮演将军、巫师或行政人员截然不同。当然，现实生活中的所有这些角色都有某些共同点。每个玩家都必须在一定程度上处理社交关系，但你可以自由决定是否深入其中。

When the player chooses to play a Character with a strong social focus they should have a very different experience to someone who plays as a general or a wizard or an administrator. Of course all of these roles in real life have certain things in common. Every player must handle social relationships to some degree. But you can swim in the shallows or dive to the depths.

花费注意力点数预算来发展个人社交技能以及与来自不同领域的各种人物建立亲密关系的玩家将获得相应的显着收益。更多的角色将能够为配偶或新朋友或适合特定社会职能的角色提供建议。你想成为一个注重军政改革的社会人物吗？你认识、信任的人越多，想要帮助你的人越多，他们就越能指出具有相似目标的其他角色。

A player who expends their Attention Point budget to develop their personal social skills and a wide variety of close friends and acquaintances from different spheres will gain significant benefits appropriate to that effort. Far more Characters will be able to offer recommendations for spouses or new friends or for characters to fit a specific social niche. Oh you want to be a military and administration reform focused social character? The more people you know and trust and who want to help you the more they’ll be able to point to other Characters with similar goals.

“天哪，Farnsworth不会对军事历史闭嘴。难怪他没有朋友。” 显然，游戏中没有实际的对话，但另一个角色可以了解“Farnsworth”的兴趣、技能和属性，从而能够向你推荐他。“查尔斯每天早上都会和警卫一起在军营里训练”。或者至少他非常看重自己的“训练”兴趣，而且他父亲庄园的设施是一流的。

“Oh god Farnsworth won’t shut up about military history. No wonder he has no friends.” Obviously there’s no actual dialogue in the game but the other Character will have access to “Farnsworth’s” Interests, Skills and Attributes and thus be able to recommend him to you. “Charles trains in the barracks every morning with the guards”. Or at least he has a high value on his “Training” Interest and the facilities on his dad’s estate are top notch.

当你与角色互动更多时，你通常会解锁有关角色的信息，并且他们也可能有“公开”誓言或誓言或与他们关心的事情相关的内容。另外，根据你的家人及其知识以及你的童年时光，你将获得一定程度的自然信息。

You’ll generally unlock information about a Character as you interact with them more, and they’ll also potentially have “public” oaths or vows or w/e related to things they care about. Plus you’ll have some level of natural information based on your family and their knowledge and your time as a child.

如果你有能力支持大型情报网络，你也可以参与真正的阴谋。所以金钱、封臣、头衔等等都是支撑基础。没有物质实力的角色也可以靠个人努力得到出色的信息收集能力，而不是依赖于雇佣其他人。

You can also engage in actual Intrigue if you have the capability to support a large Intelligence Network. So money, vassals, titles, and other aspects of a support base. A Character without material capacity could also have advanced personal capabilities for information gathering, rather than hiring others.

根据你的游戏设置，你在技术上可以拥有其他角色的完美信息，但当然他们也会拥有这些信息。一种折中设置将涉及仅扮演贵族并通过情报网络发现所有信息，只有公开和私密信息两个“层”。

Depending on your game settings you could technically have perfect information on other Characters but of course they’ll have that as well. A sort of middle setting would involve playing only as an aristocrat and having all information discovered via Intelligence Network with only two “Tiers” of Public and Private Information.

兴趣

Interests

我之前在 2022年4月的“Consciousness”帖子中谈到过兴趣，但那篇帖子相对简略，大部分内容只是潜在兴趣列表。我可能会大幅度修改该帖子以使其更加完整，但现在我想解释兴趣如何与连接相关的机制交互。

I’ve touched on Interests before in the “Consciousness” post from April 2022 but it was relatively simplistic and mostly just a list of potential Interests. I might go back and edit a lot of the sections of that post to be more complete but for now I want to explain how Interests interact with Connections-related mechanics.

兴趣是角色真正感兴趣的事物。有些角色会对武术事物非常感兴趣。体能训练、武器训练、战术、战略，也许还有后勤，等等。其他人会关注自然和植物。草药、炼金术、农业、林业、畜牧业、狩猎等等。通常，一个角色会有一大堆相关的兴趣，然后还有一些不同的兴趣。

Interests are things that a Character is really, well, interested in. Some Characters will be very interested in martial things. Physical training, weapons training, tactics, strategy, perhaps logistics, and so forth. Others will have a focus on nature and plants. Herbs, alchemy, agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, hunting, and such. Typically a Character will have a collection of related Interests and then a few distinct Interests.

兴趣会受到社会的影响并受到环境的影响。因此，一个拥有大量中产阶级/商人阶级的文化程度很高的社会，将会有更多的人对与文学相关的事物感兴趣。军事部落社会显然会更加关注角色的战斗兴趣。有些兴趣与性别相关。军事社会中的男性极有可能关心与军事有关的事情。

Interests will be a bit clustered by society and shaped by circumstances. So a very literate society with a large middle/merchant class will have far more people interested in things related to literature. A martial tribal society will obviously have a much larger focus on combat Interests for Characters. Some Interests will be gender-linked. A male in a martial society will be extremely likely to care about something military related.

女性角色实际上也会有一个修正，但更小。对武功荣耀感兴趣的女性主角或配角是奇幻题材中的常客，所以我想加入这一点。当然，历史上也有极少数女性因追求武术而闻名。

Female characters will actually also have a modifier here but it will be smaller. A female protagonist or secondary character who was interested in martial glory is a common fantasy trope so I want to support it. And of course a very small number of historical women were famous for their martial pursuits.

角色将根据他们的属性产生兴趣，但也考虑到社会偏见。因此，举个例子，更强大的角色将更有可能追求战斗利益。个性也会是一个因素。人格本身在出生时具有随机性，然后根据童年环境随着时间的推移而缓慢变化。性格在成年后可能会发生变化，但在大多数情况下，有一个很高的负面修饰语可以阻止快速而大的变化。性格会因情境原因而改变，比如受伤或坠入爱河。

Characters will generate Interests based on their Attributes but accounting for the societal bias. So naturally stronger characters will be much more likely to pursue combat Interests for instance. Personality will be a factor as well. Personality itself has a random aspect at birth and then changes slowly over time based on childhood circumstances. Personality can change in adulthood but there is a high negative modifier that prevents fast and large changes in most cases. Personality can change through situational causes as well like being injured or falling in love.

当你选择与某些角色进行互动以实现某些目标时，你将需要查看他们的兴趣，以确保你不会搬起石头砸自己的脚。此外，具有相似兴趣的人通常相处得更好，如果你过于积极地与意识截然不同的角色交往，你会增加你的失调。

When you are selecting an Interaction with some Character to achieve some goal you will want to look at their Interests to make sure you aren’t shooting yourself in the foot. Additionally people with compatible Interests generally get along better and you will increased your Dissonance if you too actively associate with Characters with very different Consciousnesses a great amount.

一个与你志同道合的朋友可以随着时间的推移慢慢地改变你的性格和/或兴趣，而不会让失调太高，但一般来说你要小心。

A single friend you have high compatibility with can slowly shift your Personality and/or Interests over time without raising your Dissonance too high but generally you’ll want to be careful.

结论

Conclusion

Axioms中的社交模拟是各种高级系统以有趣且可信方式工作的基石，也确实让事情看起来公平。当意外发生时，并不意味着RNG会自然地生成20或1，然后就毁了你的整局游戏。

The social simulation in Axioms is absolutely crucial to making the systems layered on top of it work in a both a fun and a believable way and indeed making things seem fair. When something unexpected happens that doesn’t mean RNG just rolled a natural 20 or natural 1 and shit on your game.

你可以对社交模拟以及其他主要系统的细节进行一定程度的控制，以定制体验。有些人可能更喜欢更传统的策略和更少的角色互动。当然，这款游戏是针对默认设置进行设计和优化的，但对于许多人来说，关闭某些游戏系统所产生的小影响很容易通过一组对他们来说无聊或烦人的机制来实现平衡。

You have a degree of control over the details of the social simulation, and also other major systems, to customize the experience. Some people may prefer more traditional strategy and less Character Interaction. Of course the game is intended and optimized for the default settings but for many people the small to middling impact of turning off some game system is easily balanced by the relief from a set of mechanics that is boring or annoying to them.

AI的设计目的是处理游戏规则修改带来的变化，即使发生重大变化也不会受到影响。改善策略游戏玩法的也是整个社会模拟，而不是次要的具体方面。因此，将合理数量的开关设置为关闭仍将提供良好的体验。你只会错过一些反斑点影响和模拟独特历史类比的能力，例如像奥斯曼帝国这样的政体的兴衰。

The AI is designed to handle the changes from modifying the game rules and won’t be crippled even by significant changes. It is also the social simulation as a whole and not minor specific aspects that improve the strategy gameplay. So a reasonable number of toggles set to off will still provide a good experience. You’ll simply miss out on some of the anti-blobbing impact and capacity for simulating unique historical analogues, like the rise and fall of a polity like the Ottomans.