
Age of Empires 2 Scenario Editor Is Turing Complete - sunaden
https://ecc-comp.blogspot.com/2018/02/age-of-empires-2-scenario-editor-is.html
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stanlarroque
I can only think of one of the greatest videos[0] on Youtube when I read about
unusual Turing complete systems.

[0]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNjxe8ShM-8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNjxe8ShM-8)

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baldfat
This might be the best thing I've ever watched.﻿

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Kayou
Why did you copy paste the first comment on the youtube page? Video is funny
though, worth watching.

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Gormisdomai
I don't think this is what they did - but this sounds like a good way to build
a karma bot. Whenever a youtube link is posted automatically reply with the
top YouTube comment.

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golergka
After writing a lot of tools for game designers, I've found a simple rule: if
a system you're creating is Turing complete, throw it out and just give them a
normal scripting language.

Rationale is simple: game designers will ALWAYS find ways to use the system in
the most insanely complicated way, and it's far easier to debug and fix things
in a normal programming language rather than another system full of ad-hoc
conditions, weird triggers, global variables and other complexity that starts
small but always snowballs throughout development.

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mapt
Or, better:

Give them this nice graphical scripting mechanism on one tab.

In another tab, give them a small IDE labelled "RESULTING PYTHON CODE"

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nhaehnle
I feel like the challenge with stuff like this is that once you edit the
resulting code, the original graphical input is no longer in sync. I wish
there was a good solution to this.

There are many tools that come close (graphical GUI designers come to mind) by
not actually giving you resulting code, but letting you write code separately
that interfaces with the graphically designed parts in a well-defined way.

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TremendousJudge
the quick and dirty solution would be that editing the resulting code is a one
way street. so, once you edit the code you can't use the graphical interface.
it's not a _good_ solution but I guess it's better than not giving the option
to users at all

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drharby
Id use that for baseline boilerplate generation

Id buy that for a dollar

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robertelder
This was literally how I learned the basics of programming, before I ever
encountered a real programming language (I was probably ~13 at the time). I
used to spend hours creating elaborate scenarios with tons of complicated
triggers and effects, and then never play them.

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aaavl2821
I did the same thing, then started writing random map scripts, none of which
were ever playable

The only scenarios i ended up playing were things like 500 villagers vs 10
elephants and stupid stuff like that

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edf13
Cool - but... some people do have too much time on their hands :)

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paulsmal
I believe they just do what they like and having fun.

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candleofhope
Would be great to see a vid where someone used this.

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TheSpiceIsLife
Would it be possible to simulate Conway's Game of Life inside Age of Empires
2??????

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unixhero
Anything is possible with a Turing Complete solution.

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toxicFork
Even the solution for the halting problem?

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gfredtech
well, since the halting problem is undecidable, then no. One thing I still do
not understand is how languages like Coq and Idris can almost always ensure
that programs written in them terminate.

