User:Xylthixlm

Natural Action Resolution

This is a summary of the system used by XylBot, adapted for human use. It should not be taken as authoritative on how XylBot will actually behave.

The Golden Rule

If an action might modify another action's effect, that action happens before the action it modifies.

The Golden Rule in Three Easy Steps

1. Find an action where its effect couldn't possibly be modified by any other action.
2. Resolve it.
3. Repeat from step 1 until all actions are resolved.

Paradox Breaking

Sometimes the actions that might affect each other form a cycle, so that there's no action to pick in step 1. In other cases, the order of two actions matters but it isn't clear that one affects the other. When that happens, pick an action to resolve in this order:

1. Copy
2. Hide
3. Bus
4. Block
5. Redirect
6. Protect
7. Anything which changes your own role
8. Miscellaneous
9. Kill
10. Anything which changes someone else's role
11. Inspect

Minor modifications of the actions listed above are counted the same as the basic action (e.g., randomize would be the same priority as redirect). Actions which combine two of the listed actions use the first one listed.

If the list still doesn't narrow it down to a single action, pick one of the best candidates using any fair method. The bot uses the first action submitted.

Resolve the action you picked this way, then go back to the golden rule until you get another cycle. Usually one or two picks are enough to make everything work.

Roleblocking

It can be hard to decide what can, and can't, be roleblocked. XylBot has four basic classes of ability.

Normal actions are the ones you explicitly submit. You can only submit one normal action per night phase. They can always be roleblocked.

Automatic actions are like normal actions, but you don't get any choice in how they're used. Actions that happen when you fail to submit a night choice, or choose to do nothing, are also in this category. Automatic actions can be roleblocked.

Triggered actions happen when certain circumstances are met. One common circumstance is being targeted by another action, but the trigger can be anything. Triggered actions can't be roleblocked, and don't trigger other triggered actions.

Static abilities are always "on", and don't involve actions at all. They can't be roleblocked.

Triggered Actions

A triggered action fires as soon as the condition is met. If the condition happened during normal action resolution, it goes in with all the other actions, and the golden rule applies normally.

In the special case of actions that trigger when targeted by another action, the trigger goes off just before the triggering action would take effect, between steps 1 and 2. The triggering action is interrupted, and the golden rule is applied again. That gives the triggered action a chance to modify the triggering action.