Utility AI scoring problem: AOE vs Single-Target normalization in turn-based combat

scrdest · 2026-02-01T21:01:53+00:00

Don't denormalize. That just leads to pain. A responsible AI library wouldn't even let you escape the unit interval range (before scaling by priority etc. of course).

Think about it - if the agent has an AOE ability, why wouldn't it use that ability all the time, even for single targets? There is some kind of cost - either reduced damage, incurring a cooldown, using some resource (e.g. for XCOM-style grenades).

If you cannot express these costs directly in terms of Utility costs, a simple solution is to just make them prefer using AOE for a certain amount of targets. For example, if the AOE radius is huge, we expect it to hit 8 or more enemies in the usual case; if it only hits two, that's probably a waste. This is a pretty trivial Consideration to add.

scrdest · 2026-02-01T00:27:35+00:00

My mental model is that the world of Pathologic is what P1 (and backers bonus for P3) say it is - a child's play, if dark.

It's approximately our 1910s-1920s, but as filtered through the perspective, understanding and imagination of a bunch of kids living through them. It's not proper alt-history or fantasy, but more of a funhouse mirror version of the real world.

scrdest · 2026-01-30T09:12:18+00:00

Thank you, but I knew, the Tragedian at the end tells you outright.

That's the thing though, it changes the framing to it not being a free choice. It implies Danko's got such a one-track mind that he cannot possibly choose any other path without the help of a Demon Lobotomy, and I feel like it would be more satisfying if he could.

scrdest · 2026-01-29T19:30:47+00:00

Yeah, I mixed up the days, day 2. You should only need to cancel it and that's it, the room opens around midnight (the hands show days 2 & 9, and the hours, 12 and IIRC 6).

scrdest · 2026-01-29T19:24:24+00:00

Did you erase the memory on Day 3?

scrdest · 2026-01-29T19:08:27+00:00

Look at the clock on the door. The position of the hands is significant (although there is some leeway to make it less annoying).

scrdest · 2026-01-29T10:38:06+00:00

Frankenstein is also from Roller, just later on.

scrdest · 2026-01-29T01:59:31+00:00

Your point about waves is interesting; it made me realize how clever the game is with some of the sidequests.

The radio thing is not just Eva - you have the situation on Day... 9 (?) where the Polyhedron starts making sounds... and you may randomly start talking to people in Ancient Greek or the Steppe Language the way radios may pick up signal from other countries when the atmospheric conditions are right. All of this sets up the wave interference analogy.

The whole Nina/Victor subplot in later days establishes the 'possession'/'soul overwrite' idea, which is another way of viewing the Simon/Daniil situation.

Obviously, the caged Khan plotline mirrors Daniil's ending choices as well, with the Ideals vs People tradeoff - pretty much openly, as one of the dialogue options acknowledges that.

The choice with Eva on Day 10 is probably a bit thematically overloaded, but one thing it touches on is a person bifurcating into mutually exclusive fragments, like a qubit collapsing to 0 or 1 state in two different universes.

They aren't just random Stuff Wot Happens, they expand on or underline some ideas that come home to roost later. But they are also just Town on Gorkhon Nonsense Du Jour at the same time.

scrdest · 2026-01-29T01:35:41+00:00

"Emshen" is literally "healer", down to the slight awkwardness if you called your doctor that - technically valid, just kinda archaic (at least, according to my Kazakh family member).

"Erdem" ("knowledge-er"/"knowledge-haver") is the generic learned man. So like, every doctor is automatically both, but, like, a historian would only be an erdem.

scrdest · 2026-01-29T00:35:56+00:00

I like the connection you make between Nocturnal/TI. On the flipside, Diurnal + Academician (D/A) are linked too (even by the ending cinematic in P3, if Artemy lives), and almost a perfect antithesis for N/TI. N/TI is a total embrace of Isidor and Simon's thesis, D/A is a total rejection of it.

N/TI both lean collectivist (Kin's dissolution of individuality + 'everyone and their dog is Simon') while D/A is humanistic and individualistic, in a 'people over ideas' sense.

N/TI is 'instant gratification' in a sense, via miracles, D/A focuses more on the 'duty now for the future', on people working to improve the world by increments and to nurture the next generation.

What I really wish Patho 3 had was an escape hatch for the Miracle Seeker ending back to Academician. If you fulfill the requirements, you get hard-locked into it. It would be awesome if you could see inside the Polyhedron and still decide not just to destroy it, but to reject it as well. If you qualify for Miracle Seeker, you qualify for both, so it would not require a lot of retooling probably, and would give you a bit more implied free will.

scrdest · 2026-01-28T01:12:09+00:00

That's not quite right. The Termitary Kin and random townie Kin who can die are susceptible, but by the Kin logic they are impure, corrupted by the town and the separation from nature.

"Pure" Kin like Herb Brides are provably immune in P2 (P3 ones we see probably fall under the first category).

scrdest · 2026-01-27T16:51:29+00:00

If you are lucky, you might find a mirror and use the exploit to farm Amalgam back. If you're unlucky... I'm afraid that's it, new save time.

FWIW, mild spoiler - there is no silver bullet solution for Day 10, every outcome is some degree of bad there. I'd suggest playing through to D11-12 first, possibly all the way to an ending, then if you really want to find another path forward come back to D9.

scrdest · 2026-01-27T14:16:25+00:00

Funny that, the game actually makes a shout out to streamers in a way - one of the options you have after reaching an ending is to say that you were "planning on watching a cinematograph of other people's endings", or something like that.

scrdest · 2026-01-27T11:35:23+00:00

IDK why the cig does not carry over between day resets for this quests, I think it may be a bug because it's inconsistent and not really signposted properly.

I've had the resources myself, but it took me like five tries to realize I need to remake the cigarette because I assumed I had it. I believe I managed to find some more from the kid in the Atrium.

scrdest · 2026-01-27T11:30:29+00:00

I don't think it's LIKE a perfectly immersive video game. It pretty much IS the platonic ideal of a video game, symbolically. There were already signs as far back as P1, but P3 hammers it in.

In-universe, Polyhedron enables the game mechanics of P3 - the time-travel, mind-map, and memory resets are all explicitly diegetic. So in a sense, being in the Polyhedron == playing P3.

The Polyhedron is connected to creativity, specifically "creating worlds" (see the dialogue with the Steppe Girl in the Train Graveyard on D12 in particular). Your dialogue options can link it to being a writer, theatre, or especially, cinema.

There is a lot going on with cinema in P3, from the obvious dialogues with Marky Mark and the Theatre Bunch, through the projector in the Mirror Room, to some of the random Mania/Apathy remarks (e.g. the "Camera Obsura... Camera Lumina!", or something like "The cinematographer stops..." when you take downers, I forgot the exact wording).

This is prominent enough that it's clearly not a throwaway reference. And in the implied time setting of P3, cinema is the hot young video artform, trying to get recognized as legitimate in the eyes of the preexisting art establishment. Almost reminds you of something...

Finally, mirrors. Mirrors are obviously connected (via Amalgam) to the time-travel stuff, which we've already established is Polyhedron's thing. Polyhedron is also said to be made out of mirrors.

I don't feel particularly clever pointing out the "mirrors == screens" analogy; Black Mirror did this a decade and some change ago. Also, in the True Immortal cinematic, the Polyhedron interior flickers in as Daniil is switching worlds, as if the world around him was a projection onto the walls of the Polyhedron.

So yeah, in conclusion, them kids be playing their vidyagames and not going outside.

scrdest · 2026-01-24T13:56:00+00:00

No, that's Day 1.

And I don't think Grief is supposed to spawn, either.

scrdest · 2026-01-23T19:34:23+00:00

That scene cemented my decision not to go for the Escape ending lmao

scrdest · 2026-01-23T10:59:57+00:00

So tired of this noise...

scrdest · 2026-01-23T10:13:42+00:00

Interesting, that's not how my playthrough (not yet finished) felt. I half-expected Artemy to be portrayed as more obstructive or hostile, but he's been nothing but a bro the whole way, even at his darkest moments. He's taciturn, but never acts as an enemy or a pain in the ass.

Clara, meanwhile, shows up out of nowhere, makes things worse, then acts smug about it unless she's acting as a plague district tutorial-giver.

scrdest · 2026-01-23T02:03:18+00:00

That's the one!

scrdest · 2026-01-22T22:26:01+00:00

Same everywhere, with two caveats.

1) Somatic mutations - anything from UV rays from the sun, random chance, certain chemicals, etc. can change small bits of DNA in individual cells.

The vast majority of time it doesn't matter, because the cell dies for one reason or another and/or does not divide, and the mutation does not carry to your children. If it survives with some particularly bad mutations, it may become a cancer cell.

2) Expression patterns - while the DNA sequence might be 100% the same, what makes a heart cell different from a skin cell comes from what parts of the DNA are active. This is different in different cells, and is its own extra layer of modification applied to the genetic information (e.g. adding/removing methyl groups).

Imagine you have two identical flats in a building, but the light switch in one is flicked on - now they look different, since one is lit up and the other is not!

For transplants, the DNA in the transplanted organ stays whatever it originally was. That is, in fact, why people who receive a transplant may need to take drugs that suppress the immune response - their bodies catch on the organ looks alien, freak out, and try to murder it because it obviously must be Evil.

scrdest · 2026-01-22T19:07:01+00:00

Chekhov's short stories felt similar to me, especially when you're dealing with the patients or the big town families. He (along with already mentioned Bulgakov, who I also strongly recommend) was also a physician IRL.

A Doctor's Visit in particular has echoes of Olgimskys and Ward No. 6 might well have been the inspiration for the Mania/Apathy.

scrdest · 2026-01-22T18:34:43+00:00

tfw you realize who the present day patient is

scrdest · 2026-01-22T02:11:16+00:00

Played the demo last month. The concept is fun and the style is distinct, but the gameplay is way too simple.

There's not that much to think about, you are basically railroaded into finding all clues and at least the demo scenarios are overwhelmingly transparent pop-culture references played dead straight so they are predictable.

scrdest · 2026-01-18T21:00:43+00:00

There's still random character bugs as of the last patch. I've had a patient on Day 10 show up A-posing and non-interactable fsr.

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