Alright, already! I give up!
It’s a fucking puzzle!
I’ve been wringing my hands for a week now, trying to figure out how to make the storyworld work, and after much creative agony, I have decided that (as always) I’m aiming too high. I’ve been trying to build a general-purpose simulation of dramatic interaction, and that’s beyond my capabilities as yet. So instead, I’m greatly narrowing the scope of the interactions. Whereas previously I aimed to produced general algorithms that would calculate all aspects of any character’s reaction to events, I am now going to greatly simplify the handling of the interactions.
Each character will have some “soft spot” or “primary concern” that Arthur must figure out (here’s where emotional intelligence comes into play) and cater to. For example, Tristram is the youngest of the kinglets and is perpetually concerned that he’s not up to the responsibilities. Arthur’s task is to recognize this and reassure Tristram that he is learning at an honorable pace. I have to weave this into the encounters. Bors has related concerns, but his problem is that he has the smallest realm and the smallest number of troopers. And so on.
This will make the storyworld much easier to figure out. Of course, it still requires some emotional intelligence from the player; the options available to the player will still require sensitivity and judiciousness.
Ironically, this will be just fine for most people. They couldn’t figure out any of my previous games, why should they be able to figure this out? I’m sure that, with enough trial and error, they’ll figure it out, but I’m aiming too high looking for a pure algorithmic solution.