scrape_r_rational/data/cache2/5kp1e9.md

Desired features in a rational investigative textual web-game?

• Author: u/seylerius Lord Inquisitor*

• URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/5kp1e9/desired_features_in_a_rational_investigative/

• Score: 8

• Created: 2016-12-28T07:27:27

Post:

[removed]

Comments:

u/vallar57 [+3] Unseen University: Faculty of High-Energy Magic (8 hours later)

encourage rationality

player will be an Inquisitor in 40K

A central part of being an Inquisitor is a blind, unshakeable faith though...

u/seylerius [+1] Lord Inquisitor (10 hours later)

Lulz. So you're a radical inquisitor.

u/vallar57 [+2] Unseen University: Faculty of High-Energy Magic (11 hours later)

Inquisitor Aul, Ordo Xenos, at your service, albeit that's the first time I was called a "radical".

Now, we are gonna have a nice, looong chat...

u/seylerius [+1] Lord Inquisitor (12 hours later)

Seriously, though, belief in a higher power is only irrational if said entity is unverifiable. The Emperor is probably one of the most verifiable higher powers in all of fiction. For the average imperial citizen, not getting eaten by a daemon on the way to work today is directly attributable to the Emperor's continued survival and adamantium will.

Inquisitors are more aware than most of both the Emperor's power and limitations, and thus have a more rational belief in the Emperor than just about anyone in the galaxy.

u/vallar57 [+3] Unseen University: Faculty of High-Energy Magic (13 hours later)

Erm, no. Nothing specifically attributes any of the known phenomena to the Emperor.

Anyway, we are talking about magic system that kinda works on faith. More accurately, the Warp reflects emotional state of present psy-active creatures, such as humans or orks. And emoional state of the majority of humans is religious hysteria. There is nothing rational here.

Espetially if you are an Inquisitor. Trying methods of rationality to find chaos cults won't work, at best. At worst... you quickly gain 100 corruption (sorry for using Dark Heresy terms), and hello new chaos cult. Why? Because Chaos is called Chaos for a reason, it's inherently un-rational.

u/seylerius [+1] Lord Inquisitor (14 hours later)

First of all, a fair bit of the fluff attributes the chaos gods being held off from spreading the eye of chaos to the emperor's influence. Second, the astronomican. Third, soul-bound psykers are safer for the share of the emperor's power they're tied to.

Regarding rationality in 40k, yes, there's magic, and yes, chaos can be absurd, but cultists have goals and use knowable and measurable means to achieve them. Look at the Eisenhorn and Ravenor series by Abnett. The protagonists use rationality, information, psyker examination (of the scene, the "memory" attached to an object in the warp, or an interrogation), and the occasional hunch (which could easily be subconscious realizations from knowing their quarry). The only way the setting would be anti-rational is if trying to understand the cultists' goals corrupts you, and there are plenty of examples contradicting that.

u/NovaSr [+2] (an hour later)

That's quite the feature set! I would love to play it one day. Since you're taking suggestions though, I'll add that a conversation feature that requires players to identify and/or refute common logical fallacies (perhaps from their superiors) would be really neat. That could be a whole game unto itself though.

[edit, I re-read your post and noticed that you're looking for comments on your current planned features, so I'll amend this to say that the "Orders from Superiors" section would be a great place to encourage rational thinking! A system similar to, or expanding on, the close reading of passport descriptions from "Papers, Please" would be really interesting.]

u/seylerius [+2] Lord Inquisitor (2 hours later)

Okay, I like this. I could allow the AI behind both minions (who help your analyses and investigations) and superiors (who give you orders) to make faulty conclusions depending on their stats, and reveal the mistake when justifying decisions. It'd be up to players to decide the following:

• What confidence to assign a theory
• Whether to follow a plan
• Whether to correct a mistake (can train mental stats)
• How to justify not obeying orders (can train superior's stats or influence likelihood of punishment)

I really want to avoid breaking immersion, though.

u/gbear605 [+2] history’s greatest story (7 hours later)

My only suggestion would be making it playable for people (like me) who have never read/played/etc. anything to do with 40k.

u/seylerius [+1] Lord Inquisitor (10 hours later)

Good plan, I'll try to make the necessary assumptions minimal.

u/embrodski [+2] (13 hours later)

Holy Moses, that's ambitious! I think my most desired feature would be actual existence, so... maybe a greatly reduced feature set for the initial launch? Dwarven Fortress has been the result of years of continual building, it started out much smaller than it is right now.

u/seylerius [+1] Lord Inquisitor (13 hours later)

Yeah, it's definitely going to be launched in a much-reduced alpha state. I'm going to probably start with a single subsector (maybe Helican, given how well I know it) and vastly reduced plotting.

u/seylerius [+1] Lord Inquisitor (13 hours later)

Holy Moses Emperor

FTFY

u/chaosmosis [+2] and with strange aeons, even death may die (16 hours later)

Modular text inputs that can be easily understood and used, rather than ad hoc inputs often seen in text games.

u/seylerius [+2] Lord Inquisitor (16 hours later)

Hell yes. Not going the MUD or text adventure route. Options, menus, and the ability to build conversational interactions from parts.

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