The Design Components of

Time Frame

The Impact of History

• Newspapers: The simulation will track events in the 1880-1886 time frame. As events happen in the nation and around the world, they will be reported in "Special Editions".
• Economic Trends: The simulation will reflect the impact of western expansion, the advance of the railroads, and the discovery of silver deposits, in terms of fluctuations in population. This will have immediate and discernible effects on player's businesses as demand (and prices) rise and fall.
• Weather records could be researched in order to be more authentic about farm yields.
• Atmosphere Agents: The simulation will attempt to support a range of software agents to lend "color" - many of these ideas are outlined in the Preliminary Research Plan.
• Other ideas are welcome.

Software Agents

• Customers
  Customer agents will be defined on the Dollar Bay model. Each will represent a cluster (consumer) group from a particular neighborhood, and each will have two defining data structures:
  1. an "attractiveness" list, where vendors are ranked according to a complex formula determining the level they "attract" each shopper; and
  2. a "maximum demand" list, where each of the product types (see below), are associated with a demand value; this list is copied into a "shopping list" at the beginning of each turn, and a virtual week is ended when all customers have exhausted their shopping list

  The preliminary list of cluster groups in Blackwood will be:

  • Farmers, Ranchers, Railroad Workers (by year two), Soldiers, Lumbermen, Transient Settlers, Riverboat Workers, Teamsters, Miners (by year three), and White Collar Townspeople. Others may be added.
  • Merchant Class Townspeople will be a special class of cluster group because they will represent the demand of agents who run businesses in competition with human players. See Player Roles, below.

    The preliminary list of merchant agents in Blackwood will be:

    • blacksmith, cartwright, wheelwright, dry goods store operator, tailor, and wood lot operator. Others may be added.

• Employees
  Employee agents will also be defined on the Dollar Bay model. Each will see to the daily operation of retailing outlets (see Player Roles, below) and will conduct the actual transactions with the customer agents. However, these agents will be general and will not require specialization according to player roles.
  As in the Dollar Bay game, there will be a range of employee proficiencies - at least three levels:
  • novice, reports that inventory is gone after supplies have run out
  • intermediate, reports that inventory is low before it's too late
  • experienced, attempts to order more supplies when inventory is low
  
  Conceptually, employees also do the actual producing of goods; for example, the employee agent in a blacksmith shop does the actual "smithing".
  Employees will also board with players. All levels will complain if food supplies or fuel begin to run low.

• Bankers
  Banker agents will be defined on the Dollar Bay model. Each will write loans depending on the player's ability to pay. Banks will target specific player groups, and there might be Bank failures written into the simulation.

• Teamsters
  Teamster agents will deliver goods from the Riverboat landing and the Railroad depot. See Suppliers below.

Player Roles

• blacksmith:
  • produces: horseshoes, nails, wheel rims and metal strapping
  • sells: sells wheel rims to wheelwrights, sells strapping to cartwrights, sells nails to dry goods stores, in addition to customer agent sales
  • buys: buys metal supplies and raw materials from catalogs, buys groceries and household good from local merchants
• cartwright
  • produces: wagons
  • sells: wagons to teamsters, travelers, railroad, everyone
  • buys: machined metal parts from catalogs, buys wheels from wheelwrights, buys metal strapping from blacksmiths, buys groceries and household good from local merchants
• wheelwright
  • produces: wagon wheels
  • sells: wagon wheels to cartwrights
  • buys: machined metal parts from catalogs, buys metal rims from blacksmiths, buys wood materials from lumbermen, buys groceries and household good from local merchants
• dry goods store operator
  • produces: supplies (i.e. a week's worth of food and essentials)
  • sells: sells supplies, cloth, tools, and sundries, to travelers and townsfolk, sells clothing to travelers and townsfolk
  • buys: bulk salt, coffee, flour, sugar, saltpork from catalogs, buys cloth and tools from catalogs, buys nails from blacksmith, buys garments from tailors, buys groceries and household good from local merchants
• tailor
  • produces: garments
  • sells: garments to travelers and townsfolk, sells garments to dry goods stores
  • buys: cloth from catalogs, buys cloth from dry goods stores, buys groceries and household good from local merchants
• wood lot operator
  • produces: firewood and charcoal
  • sells: firewood to townsfolk, charcoal to blacksmiths
  • buys: wood from lumbermen, buys groceries and household goods from local merchants
• perhaps several more

Players will be required to procure food and fuel in order to run their households and keep their employee warm and fed. This is expressly intended to promote player interaction. We are very interested to see whether collaborations arise from this.

Locations

• neighborhoods are defined in terms of cluster groups and their population. These population values will change over time to simulate the various ebbs and flows of the demographic landscape. The preliminary list of neighborhoods (see the map of The Town of Blackwood) will be (better names must be chosen for some of these):
  • the Town Square neighborhood, the Old Business District, the Middle/Working Class neighborhood, the New Business District, the Wagon Train Staging Area, the Riverside neighborhood, the North Shanty Town, South Shanty Town, the Government/Financial District, the Wealthy neighborhood.
  • In addition, the following outlying areas will be treated like neighborhoods
    • the Lumber Town, the Western Outpost, the Fort Wood Trading Post,
• stores are where business is transacted. Each store will be built on the same model (front room, back room, basement, and upstairs living quarters, backyard, outhouse):
  • a front room where customers visit and transactions are accomplished. Each has an exit to the street, and an exit to the back room
  • a back room for storage and/or production of goods. Each has an exit down to a basement and an exit to living quarters, either up above the store or back behind the back room
  • the basement is where firewood is stored, although it could have other uses
  • the living quarters should have at least two rooms: a living/cooking/dining area and a sleeping area. Note that every store must somehow make accommodations for a live-in store employee who works for wages plus room, and board.
• public places include the town square, the government/financial district, and all the road (MOO exits) built into the simulation. North/South roads are "Streets"; East/West roads are "Avenues"; and diagonal roads are either "Boulevards" or "Roads". The roads leading to outlying areas should be descriptively named "roads"; i.e. "Silver Mine Road" and "Fort Wood Road".
• wide open spaces include the ranchland, farmland, hills country, and forestland. There will be opportunity to build small outposts of business at the crossroads in these areas. For example, the Western Outpost and the Lumber Town, will be magnets for local Customer Agents, and other such locations might spontaneously spring up from time to time.
• the netherworld: in the middle of the Town Square is a Park, in the middle of the Park is a Wishing Well. The Wishing Well is an exit to the Programmer's Netherworld which will be a broad expanse of tunnels and sewers connecting the individual homes of the the Blackwood software developers. The Netherworld will be closed except to programmers. Programmers are encouraged to make their personal spaces as homey and comfortable as they wish.
• other locations will be considered and discussed. For example, although not central to the operations of this game, some very interesting projects would include the authentic simulation of: a small farm, a so-called Bonanza farm, a silver mine, a sawmill, a grain mill, and so forth.

Products

• groceries and household goods,
• lumber, firewood and charcoal,
• cloth and garments,
• tools,
• supplies (salt, coffee, flour, sugar, saltpork),
• wagons and wagon wheels,
• horseshoes, nails, wheel rims, and metal strapping

Suppliers

• by wagon: the slow and cheap method, deliveries will take 6 (virtual) weeks, or approximately 2 full human days.
• by riverboat: the somewhat faster and more expensive method, deliveries will take 3 (virtual) weeks, or 1 full human day.
• by train: (after the Fall of 1881) the fast and expensive method, deliveries will take 1 virtual week (approximately 8 human hours).

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