Hmm. Anyone have any suggestions for good primers on knowledge representation? I have a relatively complicated web of knowledge I want to write up for my games procedural generators and feel my current methods leave something to be desired. :/

@Angle
What kind of knowledge are you trying to represent, specifically? (Like, predicates? Relations? Sets of possible details?)

@natecull is more likely to have specific recommendations for texts than I am, I think.

@enkiv2 @natecull All of the above. For example, here's my storage of data for elements, like fire, earth, air, water:

ArrayList<CharacterTree.Focus> focuses;
ArrayList<Ability.Detail> targetDetails;
ArrayList<Ability.Detail> effectDetails;
ArrayList<Ability.Detail> costDetails;
ArrayList<Ability.Detail> scalingDetails;
ArrayList<String> relations;
ArrayList<StatDescriptor> primaryAttributes;
ArrayList<StatDescriptor> secondaryAttributes;
ArrayList<StatDescriptor> debuffAttributes;
HashMap<String, Float> resistances;
Obviously, it's a fucking mess. :/

@Angle @natecull
I'd start with a system like triples, probably. (Triples are what RDF uses, in theory, and a lot of stuff decomposes into triples.)

A triple is a relation between two things, so it's basically just a 3-tuple of IDs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_triple

I don't recommend actually using RDF. But, for instance, CMU NELL just stores all its knowledge as a 3-column TSV of unique names.

@enkiv2 @natecull Hmm. Are there any good libraries for this kind of thing for Java? Or is that massive overkill? :/

@Angle @natecull
Depends on what exactly you're trying to do.

If you're going to use a planner on these associations, I'm pretty sure there are planner libraries, and there's a Java binding for Swi-Prolog & vice versa if you really like overkill.

If you plan to traverse a tree & choose a random valid value it's overkill and you should just roll your own triplet store with fast lookup.

@enkiv2 @natecull Not sure what a planner is in this context? But I'm mainly going to use them for procedural generation. Making skill trees with random weapons, techniques, stats used, etc. But I don't just want it to be random, I want there to be a certain degree of cohesiveness. So the stats fit the weapons fit the techniques, etc. But still have a chance for variation and oddball stuff. :/