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Step 7. Add seasons

1. Winter is coming

Now that you have worked on the important bases for the Game of Thrones model, it's time to have some fun with seasons and the inevitable whitewalkers that come with winter.

​

In this step, you will change the landscape a bit by adding snow north of the wall (which will reduce the productivity of the patches), as well as introduce erratic seasons using random values.

​

You will then create a breed of whitewalkers who kill any living being they encounter and transform them into new whitewalkers (yes, I know, technically, they would be wights, but remember... this is a model). In unchecked environments, they can multiply quickly. Will the realm survive? For how long?

​

First step first: Create a new global variable for season and set it to "summer" in the setup procedure.

globals [

  max-sheep  ; don't let the sheep population grow too large

  land-patches  ; keeps track of the patches that are on land

  players   ; records who will play the prisoner's dilemma

  average-household-strength   ; calculates the average throne score

  season   ; record the current season

]

globals [

  max-sheep 

  land-patches

  players

  average-household-strength

  season

]

to setup

  clear-all

 

  setup-world   ; call the setup-world procedure to import GIS data

  setup-wall   ; call the setup-wall procedure to import the Wall vector

  setup-houses   ; call the setup-houses procedure to identify the kingdom in which each patch falls

  setup-cities   ; call the setup-cities procedure to create cites

  setup-roads   ; call the setup-road procedure to create roads

  

  set season "summer"  ; the model starts in summer, like the books

to setup

  clear-all

 

  setup-world 

  setup-wall

  setup-houses

  setup-cities

  setup-roads

  

  set season "summer"

2. Reporter to change seasons

Create a reporter procedure called change-season that changes the season. Here, fall fill follow summer, and winter will follow fall, but spring will never come because... well, we're still waiting for that book!

​

Every time the season changes, the grass will take longer to regrow to show reduced productivity of the land.

​

After writing that reporter, go to the Interface and create a slider called season-change-rate with values 0-100.

​

Then, in the code, call the reporter you just created at a random time with max value set by the season-change-rate slider. This means that seasons will change at a random rate, controlled by that slider.

season_change_slider.png

to-report change-season [ current-season ]   ; observer procedure

  ; if the current season is summer, it becomes fall and the grass takes longer to regrow

  ifelse current-season = "summer" [

    set grass-regrowth-time ( grass-regrowth-time + 10 )

    print "Fall is here. Winter is coming." 

    report "fall"   ; changes season to fall

  ][  ; if it is currently fall, it becomes winter and the grass takes even longer to regrow

    ifelse current-season = "fall" [

      set grass-regrowth-time ( grass-regrowth-time + 10 )

      print "Winter is here."

      report "winter"    ; changes season to winter

    ][   ; if it's already winter, it stays winter, but the grass does not change anymore

      report "winter" 

    ]

  ]

  

end

to-report change-season [ current-season ] 

  

  ifelse current-season = "summer" [

    set grass-regrowth-time ( grass-regrowth-time + 10 )

    print "Fall is here. Winter is coming." 

    report "fall"   ; changes season to fall

  ][  

    ifelse current-season = "fall" [

      set grass-regrowth-time ( grass-regrowth-time + 10 )

      print "Winter is here."

      report "winter"   

    ][ 

      report "winter" 

    ]

  ]

  

end

to go

  [ ... ]

​

  ask land-patches [ grow-grass ]

  

  if random season-change-rate < 1 [   ; roll the dice with max set by slider

    set season change-season season   ; if the value is below, this calls the reporter that changes the season

  ]

to go

  [ ... ]

​

  ask land-patches [ grow-grass ]

  

  if random season-change-rate < 1 [  

    set season change-season season   

  ]

3. Let it snow!

While adding seasons is great, we know that the land north of the wall is usually pretty wintery already.

​

So, let's now set the land north of the wall to be snowy, with lower resources for sheep and men.

​

To do so, create a new snow? patch variable and add some code to the setup procedure so that patches north of the wall have snow and set their color to white.

patches-own [

  countdown   ; used to trigger grass regrowth

  land?  ; boolean that identifies is a cell is land

  wall?  ; boolean that identifies if the cell overlaps the wall (and thus is part of the wall)

  house   ; identifies which house owns the cell

  house-color  ; to show the extent of each house's territory

  road?  ; identify if the patch is part of a road

  border?   ; identify if a patch is at the border between two house territories

  resources   ; records how much resources there are on patch

  snow?   ; records the presence or absence of snow on the patch

]

patches-own [

  countdown  

  land? 

  wall?

  house 

  house-color 

  road?

  border?  

  resources

  snow?

]

to setup

  [ ... ]

​

  ask land-patches [   ; ask only land patches to do what's between the square brackets

    set snow? false   ; by default, patches do not have snow

    ifelse road? = true [

      set pcolor black ; roads are black and do not have resources

    ][

      set road? false   ; default value 

      ifelse house = "Wildlings" [   ; quick way to identify patches north of the wall

        set snow? true

        set pcolor white 

        set countdown grass-regrowth-time * 1.5   ; grass takes longer to regrow

        set resources sheep-gain-from-food / 2   ; grass also has less nutritious

      ][

        set pcolor one-of [ green brown ]   ; each patch chooses a color between the two

        ifelse pcolor = green [   ; if they chose green...

          set countdown grass-regrowth-time   ; they need to set their countdown for when they'll get eaten

          set resources sheep-gain-from-food   ; each grassy patch starts with enough resources to feed one sheep

        ][

          set countdown random grass-regrowth-time   ; initialize grass regrowth clocks randomly for brown patches

          set resources 0   ; brown patches have no resources

        ]

      ]    ; closes the ifelse Wildlings statement

    ]

  ]

to setup

  [ ... ]

​

  ask land-patches [ 

    set snow? false

    ifelse road? = true [

      set pcolor black

    ][

      set road? false 

      ifelse house = "Wildlings" [ 

        set snow? true

        set pcolor white 

        set countdown grass-regrowth-time * 1.5 

        set resources sheep-gain-from-food / 2  

      ][

        set pcolor one-of [ green brown ] 

        ifelse pcolor = green [ 

          set countdown grass-regrowth-time

          set resources sheep-gain-from-food

        ][

          set countdown random grass-regrowth-time 

          set resources 0 

        ]

      ] 

    ]

  ]

4. Make the appropriate changes everywhere

If you click setup now, you should see that the land beyond the wall is all white. Isn't that neat?!

​

But what happens when you click go? Automatically, the patches change to green as if nothing you coded actually happened. Why is that?

​

Well, you haven't yet integrated how snow affects the way that grass grows back and how that affects the patches colors. To do so, you need to make a few changes to the grow-grass and the go procedures as seen below.

​

to grow-grass  ; patch procedure

  ; countdown on brown patches: if you reach 0, grow some grass

  if resources = 0 [   ; if there are no more resources

    ifelse countdown <= 0 [   ; and the countdown reached 0

      ifelse snow? [

        set resources sheep-gain-from-food / 2   ; if the patch has snow, it has less resources ...

        set countdown grass-regrowth-time * 1.5   ; ... and the countdown is longer to regrowth

      ][

        set pcolor green

        set resources sheep-gain-from-food   ; regain resources

        set countdown grass-regrowth-time

      ]

    ][

      set countdown countdown - 1

    ]

  ]

 

end

to grow-grass 

  

  if resources = 0 [

    ifelse countdown <= 0 [ 

      ifelse snow? [

        set resources sheep-gain-from-food / 2 

        set countdown grass-regrowth-time * 1.5

      ][

        set pcolor green

        set resources sheep-gain-from-food  

        set countdown grass-regrowth-time

      ]

    ][

      set countdown countdown - 1

    ]

  ]

 

end

to go

  [ ... ]

​

  ifelse display-house-ownership? [

    ask land-patches [   ; Only the land patches

      set pcolor house-color   ; Change their colors to the house that just conquered it

    ]

  ][

    ask land-patches [

      ifelse snow? [

      set pcolor white   ; snowy patches remain white

    ][

        ifelse resources = 0 [

          set pcolor brown   ; depleted patches are brown

        ][

          set pcolor green   ; patches with grass are green

        ]

      ]

    ]

  ]

to go

  [ ... ]

​

  ifelse display-house-ownership? [

    ask land-patches [ 

      set pcolor house-color 

    ]

  ][

    ask land-patches [

      ifelse snow? [

      set pcolor white 

    ][

        ifelse resources = 0 [

          set pcolor brown

        ][

          set pcolor green

        ]

      ]

    ]

  ]

5. It's a winter wonderland. But, is it?

While I do love snow as it is peaceful and quiet, I also know that snow is not a good omen in Westeros. You know what comes with the cold and the snow: Whitewalkers and their army of wights!

​

In the next step, you will create a new breed of whitewalkers. But, as this model was originally designed to teach our students to work with NetLogo, you will do so in a slightly different way this time.

​

Here, you will use an nls file, which is a way to keep parts of models on separate physical documents. 

​

To do so, open the text editor that is available on your operating system, save an empty file with the name "Whitewalkers.nls" and place it in the same folder as your model. Pay close attention to the extension, it has to be "nls" to work. If you cannot save the file directly in that format, simply save it as a .txt and change the extension manually in Finder/File Explorer.

​

Then, in your model, go to the code tab and add a call to that file at the top of the code, using the lines shown below. 

__includes [

  "Whitewalkers.nls"

]

 

extensions [ gis nw rnd profiler ]     ; load the gis, nw, and rnd extensions to the model

__includes [

  "Whitewalkers.nls"

]

 

extensions [ gis nw rnd profiler ] 

6. Using nls files

If you click on the checkmark, it will show a new tab in the window or it will call an error and open a new tab called "Whitewalkers.nls" with some text in it. If that is the case, simply delete all text in that tab and save. This should fix the error.

​

The nls file allows you to keep some code in separate files. Every line of code you write in this new tab within NetLogo will be saved to the text file you created (only if you save it manually, however, so keep that in mind).

​

In nls files, you can write your own additional new variables as well as new procedures.

​

Let's start this process: in the Whitewalker.nls tab, create the new breed of Whitewalkers.

​

Then, create a new procedure that create icy blue white walkers North of the wall when winter is here.

​

You will need to set the turtle shape to "whitewalkers," which is a shape we created. You can import it from this model.

​

Finally, let's call that new procedure from the go procedure, when the season changes from fall to winter.

New_tab.png
Error_Whitewalkers.png

breed [ Whitewalkers whitewalker ]   ; breed of whitewalkers, as they are not human

breed [ Whitewalkers whitewalker ]

to winter-is-here   ; observer procedure

  ; at the beginning, there are only 10 whitewalkers

  ask n-of 10 patches with [ snow? = true ][ ; only snowy patches can create whitewalkers

    sprout-whitewalkers 1 [

      set size 6   ; they are slightly bigger than humans

      set heading 180  ; as soon as they start, they are heading south

      set shape "whitewalker"

      set color 98 

    ]

  ]

  

end

to winter-is-here

 

  ask n-of 10 patches with [ snow? = true ][  

    sprout-whitewalkers 1 [

      set size 6  

      set heading 180  

      set shape "whitewalker"

      set color 98 

    ]

  ]

  

end

to go

  [ ... ]

​

  if random season-change-rate < 1 [   ; roll the dice with max set by slider

    if season = "fall" [  ; if it is fall, but about to change to winter, this triggers the creation of whitewalkers

      winter-is-here

    ]

    set season change-season season   ; if the value is below, this calls the reporter that changes the season

  ]

to go

  [ ... ]

​

  if random season-change-rate < 1 [  

    if season = "fall" [ 

      winter-is-here

    ]

    set season change-season season  

  ]

Winter_is_here.png

7. The march of the dead

Congratulations on creating your own whitewalkers. You can make sure the procedure works by pressing setup and then writing winter-is-here in the command center to call the procedure even if it's still summer. Do you see icy blue scary creatures in north of the wall now?

​

Now, you need to make them start their southern march. They are already all facing South, and just need a move procedure to start marching towards it.

​

Spoiler alert: As whitewalkers will eventually start walking past the wall, they should bring snow with them. So any patch a whitewalker walks on should become snowy and thus less productive.

to others-move   ; whitewalkers procedure

  

  rt random 10  ; they wiggle a bit (turning right by up to 10 degree)

  lt random 10  ; they wiggle a bit (turning left by up to 10 degree)

  ; same as for other agents: they stay on land

  ifelse patch-ahead 1 != nobody [

    ifelse [ land? ] of patch-ahead 1 = true [

      fd 1 

    ][ 

      rt 20 ; when they encounter a patch that is not land, they turn 20 degrees to their right

    ]

  ][ 

    rt 20  ; when they encounter the boundary of the World, they turn 20 degrees

  ]

  ; when they step on a patch that does not have snow, it becomes snowy

  if snow? = false [

    set snow? true 

  ]

  

end

to others-move 

  

  rt random 10

  lt random 10

  

  ifelse patch-ahead 1 != nobody [

    ifelse [ land? ] of patch-ahead 1 = true [

      fd 1 

    ][ 

      rt 20

    ]

  ][ 

    rt 20  

  ]

  

  if snow? = false [

    set snow? true 

  ]

  

end

8. Integrating the march to the rest

As before, you have now created a move procedure, but it is not called anywhere, so the whitewalkers will not start walking just yet. To make sure they do, you have to create a new procedure that will call the others-move procedure, but will also allow whitewalkers to kill any other living beings they encounter.

​

After you create that procedure, edit the go procedure to call it.

​

Finally, just for fun, let's add a user message in the go procedure. If the whitewalkers are the only agents left on the land (remove "turtles" as is shown in red italics below and replace it with the temporary turtle-set), the model stops and it prints "The Night King has won!" Let's just hope this never actually happens...

to winter-advance  ; observer procedure

  

  ask whitewalkers [

    others-move ; calls the others-move procedure

    let living-things ( turtle-set wolves sheep humans )   ; agentset of all living beings

    if any? living-things in-radius 1 [ ; if there are any living beings on the same patch

      ask living-things in-radius 1 [ die ] ; they are killed and

      hatch-whitewalkers 1  ; a new whitewalker takes its place

    ]

  ]

  

end

to winter-advance 

  

  ask whitewalkers [

    others-move

    let living-things ( turtle-set wolves sheep humans ) 

    if any? living-things in-radius 1 [

      ask living-things in-radius 1 [ die ] 

      hatch-whitewalkers 1 

    ]

  ]

  

end

to go

  [ ... ]

​

  if random season-change-rate < 1 [   ; roll the dice with max set by slider

    if season = "fall" [  ; if it is fall, but about to change to winter, this triggers the creation of whitewalkers

      winter-is-here

    ]

    set season change-season season   ; if the value is below, this calls the reporter that changes the season

  ]

  

  if season = "winter" [

    winter-advance   ; during winter, whitewalkers move and kill

  ]

to go

  [ ... ]

​

  if random season-change-rate < 1 [ 

    if season = "fall" [  

      winter-is-here

    ]

    set season change-season season 

  ]

  

  if season = "winter" [

    winter-advance 

  ]

to go

  ; stop the model if there are no more wolves, sheep or humans

  let living-things ( turtle-set wolves sheep humans )

  

  if not any? turtles living-things

    user-message "The Night King has won!"

    stop 

  ]

to go

 

  let living-things ( turtle-set wolves sheep humans )

  

  if not any? turtles living-things

    user-message "The Night King has won!"

    stop 

  ]

Final.png

9. Congratulations!

Congratulations on completing another step in the creation of your own Game of Thrones ABM! You now have most of the elements necessary to study the dynamics of Westeros politics as well as their potential impact on the success of the whitewalkers' conquest of the land.

​

Right now, whitewalkers cannot be killed. They do not need to eat, so their level of energy never goes down and they never die. But, they do turn everyone they encounter into whitewalkers. This is pretty scary.

​

If you want, you can play around with running the model using different parameter settings and see which ones delay the whitewalkers' march and which ones help them. For example, is conflict useful in resisting the dead or not? Have fun with it and don't despair too much with the fact that whitewalkers always win because in the next step, you'll introduce a weapon that men can create and exchange to kill the Night King and his associates.

 

See you there! If you want to see the finished model for this step, download it here​​.

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