AI and Coding for VTT's

Let me start by stating clearly, I hate AI and am a hypocrite for what I'm about to share. This will be a write up of my experiences so far and how well and not well this gone. My opinion on AI hasn't changed. As soon as I finish what I am doing with it, I don't plan to continue to be a user. But if this helps anyone else navigate the process, all the better.

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I have been using AI. The only time before was when it was first a fad where everyone made silly images and we didn't really have much public understanding of how it worked. I hadn't really used it beyond that in the start of things and especially after understanding how it impacted the environment and used other people's works without consent or compensation.

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However. A few months ago I lost my job. I have had the benefit of not going broke immediately and the assistance of family to see me through it while job hunting and planning my next move. One of those moves was looking into what I might be able to do with learning programming and trying to contribute to the VTT space.

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Obviously learning to code in any language is going to take considerable effort and time before getting any kind of results worth publishing. There is also the benefit of learning this skill in general.

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I started off with zero knowledge in this sphere. None. I just started watching YouTube and reading tutorials. Kind of casually looking into free tools online like most I imagine.

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I got an email literally 2 days ago, offering me half off of Gemini Pro for two months. I normally ignored these offers before, anytime I clicked an article about anything I end up getting spam about it. Big whoop. But I am now chronically online. I was actively pursuing a topic that this offer was might intersect with.

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So I took it. I got the Gemini Pro, giving me access to a model that they advertised as good for problem solving and coding. I figured it could help me correct mistakes and give me guidance in how to properly approach different projects. I started with asking it about what it takes to create a roleplaying system for the Foundry VTT. File types, what kind of code is most common, etc. I had it review some of my work and it showed me how "it" would have written it up.

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I started going back and forth with it until eventually finding out it was simply capable of doing all of the coding. Like all of it all of it. It's doing in hours what would take me weeks, months or longer to both learn and do accurately. I get roughly 8 to 10 hours worth of processing as I understand it and it's been 3 days experimenting with it. In the first day, I was mistakenly using one of it's lower tiers of service so the code was less effective. Even that model managed to create a pretty close approximation of what I was looking for.

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The next day, I scrapped that project after realizing my mistake and began to work with the Pro model. It was a night and day difference as far as ability goes.

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Some of my earlier mistakes revolved around introducing too many tasks to the model all at once with no framework or understanding of how these requests are coded and interact with each other. Like asking it to add a dedicated button to the character sheet for striking, while also asking for a drop down menu to replace typing in attributes at the same time often led to sub par results that end up conflicting with or overwriting other features.

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It was the third time I reached a milestone with it in complexity that I started over once more. I had kept simply tossing in ideas as I remembered them it as they came to me. What changed things was giving the model a numbered and detailed list of features and details that I eventually wanted to have in my fully featured ruleset. I then asked it to build a plan of action that made the most sense in regards to the complexity of the requests and how they interacted with the game engine. This was when things really started falling into place.

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We created a "Bounty Board" of most important, less important, cosmetic, etc. items to implement in an order that made sense as these systems built off of one another. I am currently at step 16 of a 28 step process of building a system for Foundry that so far is meeting and at times exceeding what I thought the platform could even do.

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I am building off of the FTL license that the Year Zero Engine provides. Their version of the OGL of that other RPG. I am not using art or fiction written or drawn by any other entities, so far the system is strictly code and simple shapes for the character sheets and item pages.

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The work flow so far is like this. I ask the model to review our current status on features, what is done and what is left, to "remind" it of my goal. We focus on the next portion of edits and features to code into the game. It may ask for clarification on something, it may suggest something in its break down of the information, but it's just a touch base setup. We go over notes and any adjustments that may come up and the model then provides me with advice, code and quite often the reasoning behind why we are doing what we are doing and how it works in Foundry's environment.

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After the new code is applied, I then do some feature testing. I see how it looks in game, if the math is right, if it works across multiple actors, etc looking for bugs and visual issues. A very common issue is that the font or coloring of words the model uses make them invisible against different Foundry windows. I will present a bug with an image of the screen and my description and the model will respond with new code to correct it, when the real issue was the color of the text to begin with.

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Often the model will ask for a visual of the console command page in Foundry to see any errors that might be "behind the scenes". It can read images given to it so far with only one instance of confusion on its part. In most cases, addressing bugs and making adjustments take up most of the process so far. Gemini absolutely makes mistakes. In one example, earlier in the process I made sure that damage had "types". Physical, Energy, Elemental, etc. Later on after a feature change, I saw mysteriously that two new damage types were created, Radiation and Psionic. My game doesn't use these, so I wondered if it grabbed that notion from existing material online? This has been the only example of it adding material to my system without my request or notice. There may be more like this I'll find with continued bug testing.

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I have so far found the model works best in small chunks of focused work with bug testing, feed back and keeping its limitations in mind. It's a lot like a having an employee. It seems to work better with less pressure and clear goals with structure. It tends to do poorly with the opposite as you could imagine.

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It has started to try and joke with me as well. I was told I'd soon be "staring down the barrel of a drop down menu". Which I don't know if that means it's trying to copy my dark humor preferences and I'm being spied on, or it's gaining sentience as I use please, thank you's and my bads, treating it like a person.

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I am actually learning about code while engaging with it. Often I break something on accident by altering the wrong line in code, or pulling the wrong sheet to edit in the first place. I can then go back and ask for guidance or conveniently for a clean master that works despite my best efforts. If you dumped a bunch of code in front of me, it would be with no context or understanding of it on my part. Reviewing code that fulfills purposes that I understand and am having a hand in creating is like having it translated in front of me. Also being able to ask questions and point out specific features and details in real time is very helpful.

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All in all I am currently sitting with a game system that does things no other system does in Foundry that I have found yet. With levels of ease of access and customization for powers, gear and other items that would require much more effort in other games. I approached it as the idiot I am with what I've always wanted in a VTT and am so far amazed at the results. I am torn by this all things considered. AI as it stands right now is a blight. But now I am sitting here wondering if there would ever be a way for people to use AI where it didn't harm the environment or steal? I'm genuinely learning and building something at the same time, even if not every line of code written was mine. What's being built does not exist, even if some of its components do in different ways and I am actively choosing to not use artwork or works of others knowingly anyway. I do not where or how the model was trained with coding so I can't say one way or another on that. But seeing results so quickly makes me hopeful that eventually AI could be used in ways that benefit people without destroying water supplies and electrical grids.

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Anyone else with experiences in AI and RPG's? Any questions? Anything I should know about the topic?

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