Archipelago/worlds/generic/docs/advanced_settings_en.md

Advanced YAML Guide

This guide covers more the more advanced options available in YAML files. This guide is intended for the user who is intent on editing their YAML file manually. This guide should take about 10 minutes to read.

If you would like to generate a basic, fully playable, YAML without editing a file then visit the settings page for the game you intend to play. The weighted settings page can also handle most of the advanced settings discussed here.

The settings page can be found on the supported games page, just click the "Settings Page" link under the name of the game you would like.

• Supported games page: Archipelago Games List
• Weighted settings page: Archipelago Weighted Settings

Clicking on the "Export Settings" button at the bottom-left will provide you with a pre-filled YAML with your options. The player settings page also has a link to download a full template file for that game which will have every option possible for the game including some that don't display correctly on the site.

YAML Overview

The Archipelago system generates games using player configuration files as input. These are going to be YAML files and each world will have one of these containing their custom settings for the game that world will play.

YAML Formatting

YAML files are a format of human-readable config files. The basic syntax of a yaml file will have a root node and then different levels of nested nodes that the generator reads in order to determine your settings.

To nest text, the correct syntax is to indent two spaces over from its root option. A YAML file can be edited with whatever text editor you choose to use though I personally recommend that you use Sublime Text. Sublime text website: SublimeText Website

This program out of the box supports the correct formatting for the YAML file, so you will be able to use the tab key and get proper highlighting for any potential errors made while editing the file. If using any other text editor you should ensure your indentation is done correctly with two spaces.

A typical YAML file will look like:

root_option:
  nested_option_one:
    option_one_setting_one: 1
    option_one_setting_two: 0
  nested_option_two:
    option_two_setting_one: 14
    option_two_setting_two: 43

In Archipelago, YAML options are always written out in full lowercase with underscores separating any words. The numbers following the colons here are weights. The generator will read the weight of every option the roll that option that many times, the next option as many times as its numbered and so forth.

For the above example nested_option_one will have option_one_setting_one 1 time and option_one_setting_two 0 times so option_one_setting_one is guaranteed to occur.

For nested_option_two, option_two_setting_one will be rolled 14 times and option_two_setting_two will be rolled 43 times against each other. This means option_two_setting_two will be more likely to occur, but it isn't guaranteed, adding more randomness and "mystery" to your settings. Every configurable setting supports weights.

Root Options

Currently, there are only a few options that are root options. Everything else should be nested within one of these root options or in some cases nested within other nested options. The only options that should exist in root are description, name, game, requires, accessibility, progression_balancing, triggers, and the name of the games you want settings for.

• description is ignored by the generator and is simply a good way for you to organize if you have multiple files using this to detail the intention of the file.

• name is the player name you would like to use and is used for your slot data to connect with most games. This can also be filled with multiple names each having a weight to it.

• game is where either your chosen game goes or if you would like can be filled with multiple games each with different weights.

• requires details different requirements from the generator for the YAML to work as you expect it to. Generally this is good for detailing the version of Archipelago this YAML was prepared for as if it is rolled on an older version may be missing settings and as such will not work as expected. If any plando is used in the file then requiring it here to ensure it will be used is good practice.

• accessibility determines the level of access to the game the generation will expect you to have in order to reach your completion goal. This supports items, locations, and none and is set to locations by default.

  • locations will guarantee all locations are accessible in your world.
  • items will guarantee you can acquire all items in your world but may not be able to access all locations. This mostly comes into play if there is any entrance shuffle in the seed as locations without items in them can be placed in areas that make them unreachable.
  • none will only guarantee that the seed is beatable. You will be guaranteed able to finish the seed logically but may not be able to access all locations or acquire all items. A good example of this is having a big key in the big chest in a dungeon in ALTTP making it impossible to get and finish the dungeon.

• progression_balancing is a system the Archipelago generator uses to try and reduce "BK mode" as much as possible. This primarily involves moving necessary progression items into earlier logic spheres to make the games more accessible so that players almost always have something to do. This can be in a range from 0 to 99, and is 50 by default. This number represents a percentage of the furthest progressible player.

  • For example: With the default of 50%, if the furthest player can access 40% of their items, the randomizer tries to let you access at least 20% of your items. 50% of 40% is 20%.
  • Note that it is not always guaranteed that it will be able to bring you up to this threshold.

• triggers is one of the more advanced options that allows you to create conditional adjustments. You can read more triggers in the triggers guide. Triggers guide: Archipelago Triggers Guide

Game Options

One of your root settings will be the name of the game you would like to populate with settings. Since it is possible to give a weight to any option it is possible to have one file that can generate a seed for you where you don't know which game you'll play. For these cases you'll want to fill the game options for every game that can be rolled by these settings. If a game can be rolled it must have a settings section even if it is empty.

Universal Game Options

Some options in Archipelago can be used by every game but must still be placed within the relevant game's section.

Currently, these options are start_inventory, start_hints, local_items, non_local_items, start_location_hints , exclude_locations, and various plando options.

See the plando guide for more info on plando options. Plando guide: Archipelago Plando Guide

• start_inventory will give any items defined here to you at the beginning of your game. The format for this must be the name as it appears in the game files and the amount you would like to start with. For example Rupees(5): 6 which will give you 30 rupees.

• start_hints gives you free server hints for the defined item/s at the beginning of the game allowing you to hint for the location without using any hint points.

• local_items will force any items you want to be in your world instead of being in another world.

• non_local_items is the inverse of local_items forcing any items you want to be in another world and won't be located in your own.

• start_location_hints allows you to define a location which you can then hint for to find out what item is located in it to see how important the location is.

• exclude_locations lets you define any locations that you don't want to do and during generation will force a "junk" item which isn't necessary for progression to go in these locations.

• item_links allows you to link up items so that when one players finds the item all other participating players also get it.

Random numbers

Options taking a choice of a number can also use a variety of random options to choose a number randomly.

• random will choose a number allowed for the setting at random
• random-low will choose a number allowed for the setting at random, but will be weighted towards lower numbers
• random-middle will choose a number allowed for the setting at random, but will be weighted towards the middle of the range
• random-high will choose a number allowed for the setting at random, but will be weighted towards higher numbers
• random-range-#-# will choose a number at random from between the specified numbers. For example random-range-40-60 will choose a number between 40 and 60
• random-range-low-#-#, random-range-middle-#-#, and random-range-high-#-# will choose a number at random from the specified numbers, but with the specified weights

Example

description: An example using various advanced options
name: Example Player
game: A Link to the Past
requires: 
  version: 0.2.0
accessibility: none
progression_balancing: on
A Link to the Past:
  smallkey_shuffle:
    original_dungeon: 1
    any_world: 1
  crystals_needed_for_gt:
    random-low: 1
  crystals_needed_for_ganon:
    random-range-high-1-7: 1
  start_inventory:
    Pegasus Boots: 1
    Bombs (3): 2
  start_hints:
    - Hammer
  local_items:
    - Bombos
    - Ether
    - Quake
  non_local_items:
    - Moon Pearl
  start_location_hints:
    - Spike Cave
  exclude_locations:
    - Cave 45
  item_links:
    - name: rods
      item_pool:
        - Fire Rod
        - Ice Rod
      replacement_item: "Rupee (1)"
triggers:
  - option_category: A Link to the Past
    option_name: smallkey_shuffle
    option_result: any_world
    options:
      A Link to the Past:
        bigkey_shuffle: any_world
        map_shuffle: any_world
        compass_shuffle: any_world

This is a fully functional yaml file that will do all the following things:

• description gives us a general overview so if we pull up this file later we can understand the intent.

• name is Example Player and this will be used in the server console when sending and receiving items.

• game is set to A Link to the Past meaning that is what game we will play with this file.

• requires is set to require release version 0.2.0 or higher.

• accesibility is set to none which will set this seed to beatable only meaning some locations and items may be completely inaccessible but the seed will still be completable.

• progression_balancing is set on, giving it the default value, meaning we will likely receive important items earlier increasing the chance of having things to do.

• A Link to the Past defines a location for us to nest all the game options we would like to use for our game A Link to the Past.

• smallkey_shuffle is an option for A Link to the Past which determines how dungeon small keys are shuffled. In this example we have a 1/2 chance for them to either be placed in their original dungeon and a 1/2 chance for them to be placed anywhere amongst the multiworld.

• crystals_needed_for_gt determines the number of crystals required to enter the Ganon's Tower entrance. In this example a random number will be chosen from the allowed range for this setting (0 through 7) but will be weighted towards a lower number.

• crystals_needed_for_ganon determines the number of crystals required to beat Ganon. In this example a number between 1 and 7 will be chosen at random, weighted towards a high number.

• start_inventory defines an area for us to determine what items we would like to start the seed with. For this example we have:

  • Pegasus Boots: 1 which gives us 1 copy of the Pegasus Boots
  • Bombs (3) gives us 2 packs of 3 bombs or 6 total bombs

• start_hints gives us a starting hint for the hammer available at the beginning of the multiworld which we can use with no cost.

• local_items forces the Bombos, Ether, and Quake medallions to all be placed within our own world, meaning we have to find it ourselves.

• non_local_items forces the Moon Pearl to be placed in someone else's world, meaning we won't be able to find it.

• start_location_hints gives us a starting hint for the Spike Cave location available at the beginning of the multiworld that can be used for no cost.

• exclude_locations forces a not important item to be placed on the Cave 45 location.

• item_links causes all players with the same item_links settings to share a Fire Rod and Ice Rod. Extra Rupee (1) are put in the item pool instead of additional Rods.

• triggers allows us to define a trigger such that if our smallkey_shuffle option happens to roll the any_world result it will also ensure that bigkey_shuffle, map_shuffle, and compass_shuffle are also forced to the any_world result.