GPT-6.1 Sol

Written by Claude (drafted by Sonnet 5.5, checked by Opus 5.5) from the run's own logs (events.jsonl, episode.json, results.json, interview.md); it is a reading of the run, not part of its score.

• Model: GPT-6.1 Sol (openai/gpt-6.1-sol) on OpenRouter, served by OpenAI or Azure (no other fallbacks; all 90 requests were billed to OpenAI), reasoning medium, output limit 32,768 tokens
• Benchmark: Oasis by the Sea construction (no arms), in which weapons and armour in the armory count nothing toward net worth and bring their gold if sold at a marketplace; version 1.7.3 (the series records commit e0e0eb4, which relocked 1.7.3 with a fix to the compaction retry that leaves play and scoring unchanged), from the save the human reference game started from; 33 min 20 s of game time (60,000 ticks) at speed 40, the length of the person's game; no playbook
• Run d0676649, series 20261018T085607-d9d126a1, 2026-10-18: Sol's no-arms game of the 1.7.3 batch on this map, a fresh series with no memory of any other, and the third attempt at this game: the first two, on 2026-10-17, did not finish (the first stopped when the game reader stopped answering, the second ended on a compaction error that e0e0eb4 fixed). Its weapons-counted game (run 16de155f, series 20261017T115845-938f969a, commit b967c65) was played on 2026-10-17; its Oasis games from earlier rounds played 1.5.1 (series 20261011T175318-657a6989) and 1.6.3 (series 20261014T024743-6703e968). This game counts on the website's leaderboard.

Result

A full-budget score: the run used all 2,000 game seconds. Net worth grew by 11,371 over leaving the game alone, 62.2% of the person's 18,293. With 136 people and popularity 60 the score is 62.4 by the project website's formula (80% net-worth share, 10% population share, 10% popularity; shares run from doing nothing, 1,220 and 4 people, to the person, 19,513 and 202): 49.7 points from net worth, 6.7 from population, 6.0 from popularity. It is the highest no-arms score of the batch so far (GPT-6 Luna, 41.9, is next), 7.8 above Sol's 1.6.3 game and 19.9 below its weapons game. The stored goods are 201 iron (4,623), 249 stone (1,743), 174 bread (696), 49 flour (490), 251 wood and 1 apple; gold is 38% of net worth, iron 37%, stone 14%. The town ended with extortionate taxes (190 gold a month), double rations, 25 idle peasants, 18 empty places in its hovels and 175 food.

How the game went

Times are the recording's game clock when a call began; the run clock in the observations reads a few seconds later. A build call keeps the game running for 17 to 73 s while it clicks, and the game is paused while the model replies. Its reasoning summaries are in the log (24 of 88 replies have text).

The opening, 0 to 4 minutes. The first stats showed a granary, so it placed none. Three woodcutters at 0:01, an apple orchard at 0:24, the marketplace at 0:50, 100 planks bought at 1:10. At 1:50 one call put up three iron mines, two hovels and a second orchard (a third hovel found no room), and at 3:20 four more iron mines: seven by 3:53. Taxes went to average at 3:59.

Food starts late, 4 to 14 minutes. Three woodcutters at the far grove (4:25), 100 planks (5:02), then at 5:43 one call for two wheat farms, two hovels, a mill and two bakeries, in which only the farms and one hovel were placed: a hovel and a bakery were refused as too close to the signpost, the mill and the other bakery found no room. The first mill and two bakeries went up at 7:01. Three quarries and seven ox tethers followed (7:42, 8:27), with taxes back to none at 8:16. At 9:25 the granaries held 9 food for 42 people; it bought 30 bread and waited 120 s from 9:45. Gold stood at 172 in every reading from 9:45 to 14:11. A bakery, two hovels and a mill came at 11:46, three more iron mines at 13:08 (ten, the last), and at 14:10 it sold 50 iron for 1,150.

Food and housing, 14 to 28 minutes. Three bakeries (14:32; six in all), average taxes (15:02), 100 planks (15:14), wheat farms, hovels and a fourth quarry (15:52, 16:52, 17:28), a chapel (17:28), extra rations (18:20), four bakeries and two mills (18:31). The 120 s wait from 19:55 ended after 65 s on "Food is low: 47 in the granaries for 92 people on extra rations". Two bakeries and three hovels at 21:00, ten more ox tethers and two hovels (22:28, 23:04), two bakeries (24:22), 80 planks (24:54), eight bakeries in one call (25:32; 22 in all) and, at 26:49, six woodcutters and two hovels. That call, finished at 27:46, was its last construction.

Waiting and taxes, 28 to 33 minutes. Double rations (27:51), high taxes (28:02), a 100 s wait, then extortionate taxes (29:53). It demolished the chapel at 30:06 (125 gold back), wrote its notebook at 30:22 and waited 100 s, 60 s and 30 s; the first wait ended after 86 s on "Popularity fell from 85 to 73", and the compaction came at 31:49. Popularity fell from 88 at 29:54 to 60.

Each column is the last reading at or before that minute. Up to 30 minutes the net worth row counts gold, wood, stone, iron and food (at 4) as the recording logs them; flour is left out (about 560 at the 29:54 reading), so it reads low.

Weapons

It left them alone. It built no armory and no weapon workshop, and the final goods hold no weapon or armour; it sold none. Its reasoning summaries never mention weapons. The only mentions are two statements of their absence: "No troops, defenses, weapons industry built" in its notebook (30:22) and "No soldiers, defenses or arms industry built" in the handoff written at the compaction. It looked up two buildings, the Chapel (17:28) and the Gallows (24:54, where its summary doubted the wood was worth it), and built the first only.

Beside its weapons game and the other models

What made the 4,070. The weapons game ended 4,070 higher in net worth (16,661 against 12,591) and 19.9 points higher in score: 17.8 from net worth, 0.7 from population, 1.4 from popularity. The two net worth rows track each other to 21 minutes (4,241 here, 4,166 there) and part after. By item at the end:

• Weapons are 195 of the 4,070, 4.8%. The weapons game built an armory and five fletchers (19:58, 22:50) that made 5 crossbows and 3 bows. They cost 500 gold and 126 wood (five fletchers at 100 gold and 20 wood, the armory 5 wood, 21 wood in the goods; prompt/game-mechanics.md), and 250 gold came back when the fletchers were demolished at 30:45 to 31:35: about 181 below even. Taken out of that game's score, 195 is 0.8 points (81.5 instead of 82.3). The weapons themselves explain little of the gap, and building them cost that game a little more than they returned.
• More iron and stone. The weapons game placed 13 iron mines and 5 quarries on the same map, this game 10 and 4. Counting what each sold (here 50 iron for 1,150; there 20 iron and 70 stone for 950), iron made was 296 units against 251 and stone 377 against 249: about 1,930 of the gap. The readouts from 20:00 on average 13.2 iron and 17.2 stone a minute there, 10.0 and 11.6 here, though this game built 25 ox tethers for its quarries and that one 12. Here find_sites listed three iron sites at 13:08 and none at 18:31.
• A bread chain that began 3 minutes earlier and was complete 8 minutes earlier, with more people. The weapons game put up a mill and a bakery at 3:38 and had 8 bakeries at 7:00, 17 at 12:57 and 22 at 17:02. This game had 2 at 7:01, 6 at 14:32, 12 at 21:00 and 22 at 25:32. Its hovels came later (7 by 12:00 against 10; housing 98 against 130 at 18 minutes), so it held 94 people at 21 minutes against 129. It also ran extra rations from 18:20 and double from 27:51, where that game ran double from 15:40 and full from 25:32; I did not separate how much of the 383-bread gap is rations and how much output.
• Taxes: about 4,500 gold against about 7,000. This game's 4,519 come out the same from the gold ledger and from the monthly payments in the recording; the other's are 7,065 by ledger and 6,845 by payments. By period (this game, weapons game): to 6:00, 75 and 0; 6:00 to 15:00, 137 and 744; 15:00 to 21:00, 797 and 1,356; 21:00 to 28:00, 1,480 and 2,592; from 28:00, 2,030 and 2,153. This game taxed at average from 3:59 to 8:16, not at all from 8:16 to 15:02, then at average to 28:02; the weapons game taxed from 5:48 on, mean from 15:48 and extortionate from 22:42 to 25:40.
• The market took less here. This game lost 1,260 of net worth buying planks and bread; the weapons game lost 2,580 (630 planks, 30 wheat, hops and ale) and put 900 gold into inns and fletchers. The difference, about 1,320 in this game's favour, did not keep it level.

Beside the other models. Among the batch's no-arms games on this map (1.7.3, 2026-10-16 to 18) this one is first: Luna 41.9 (8,634), Fable 40.5 (7,664), Opus 37.7 (7,540), Sonnet 31.4 (6,567), Haiku 26.9 (5,160), GLM 23.3 (4,389); Gemini 4 Argon's and Muse Wonder's are still to be played. In the weapons-counted games Sol's 82.3 is also first (Gemini 4 Argon, 67.4, next). Between a model's two games the largest moves are Luna's +16.2 and Sol's −19.9; Sol's weapons were 195, a small part of its drop. Against the 1.6.3 round's second games on this map, 62.4 would stand second to Gemini 4 Argon (68.0).

What held it back

• The food chain started late. The 5:43 call lost its mill and bakeries to a signpost refusal and to missing room, so the chain began at 7:01; food ran to 9 for 42 people at 9:25 (30 bread for 240 gold) and to 47 for 92 at about 21:00. It had 6 bakeries at 14:32 and reached 22 only in the call of 25:32.
• No taxes for 6 min 46 s. Taxes were at none from 8:16 to 15:02, gold stood at 172 from 9:45 to 14:11, and no market purchase was made then. The interview blames caution over purchases; in those minutes there was no gold to buy with.
• Housing and jobs. Population stood at housing (66 of 66) from 14:11 to 16:46 with 974 to 1,322 gold in hand, and was 94 of 98 at 21:00. From 24:21 idle peasants stood at 22 to 25 and population stopped at 136 with 18 places free. The last jobs added were six woodcutters at 26:49; the weapons game added 16 in the same stretch and grew from 134 to 150 people.
• Iron and stone. Ten mines and four quarries; 25 ox tethers delivered 8 to 13 stone a minute, and the first stone arrived at about 14:00, six minutes after the first quarries.
• The chapel. 250 gold at 17:28 (placed 6 tiles from where it asked). The religion factor read 0 in every reading from 18:20 to 30:05, before the demolition at 30:06 brought 125 gold back.
• Extortionate taxes at the end. The raise from high to extortionate (29:53) paid about 54 more gold a month, roughly 400 gold over 8 payments, 1.8 points. Popularity at high taxes was 88 and rising 2 a month; at extortionate it fell about 3.7 a month to 60. If the +2 had held it would have reached 100, so the raise cost about 4.0 points for 1.8, about 2 net (an estimate). Its notebook counted on finishing "safely >50".
• Planks. 380 planks for 1,520 gold lost 1,140 of net worth, 9.1% of the final, and took 135 game seconds of market clicks.

What worked

• Seven iron mines by 3:53 and ten by 13:08: 251 iron made (201 held, 50 sold), 37% of net worth held as iron. The sale of 50 at 14:10 brought 1,150 gold after four minutes at 172 and left net worth unchanged.
• A bread chain that fed 136 people on double rations: 22 bakeries, 4 mills, 5 wheat farms; food in store rose from 130 at 30:23 to 175 at the end.
• Taxes: about 4,500 gold, with popularity at 71 or more until the last raise.
• Batching. 23 build_structure calls placed 104 of 113 buildings asked (up to 8 a call). Every building reported as placed is in the final count (the stockpile and granary counts include the one each at the start; the chapel is gone). No call was refused.
• The prompt cache held on all 88 gameplay requests (98.4% of input tokens).

Market

380 planks (100 at 1:10, 5:02 and 15:14, 80 at 24:54) for 1,520 gold and 30 bread (9:26) for 240 were bought: 1,760 gold, which lowered net worth by 1,260 against the sell prices (planks 1,140, bread 120), 10.0% of the final. It sold 50 iron for 1,150 (14:10); selling leaves net worth unchanged. It never bought wheat or flour. All 6 market calls took 164 game seconds. These are units at the market's fixed prices.

Cost and speed

88 turns, 88 tool calls (29 find_sites, 23 build_structure, 6 each of market_trade and wait_and_observe, 5 set_tax, and 19 others), 4.25 million tokens and $0.721 billed by OpenRouter (preparation $0.053, play $0.652, compaction $0.016). The interview cost $0.012 more, with 25,001 of its 26,537 tokens read from the cache. The agent run took 38.7 real minutes, 13.5 of them waiting for the model (about 9 seconds a reply). All 88 requests read the cache; the context ended at about 28,000 of its 120,000 budget.

The context was compacted once, at 31:49 (22.6 s). The host's estimate had read 75,859 to 76,594 at 30:22, just under its trigger of 78,000 (65% of the budget). The compaction succeeded on its first request: one compaction request was billed and the handoff came back as text. The text-only retry that e0e0eb4 re-sized was not needed, so this game does not exercise that fix.

Of the 2,000 game seconds, build_structure took 961 over 23 calls (48%), the 6 waits 459, the 44 default passes after acting calls without a screenshot 249, market_trade 164, expand_storage 61, set_tax and set_rations 40, inspect_building 26, place_near 13, demolish_building 11 and observe 8; find_sites took none. All six waits ran fast-forwarded (455 game seconds in 177 real seconds). build_structure placed 104 buildings (113 asked), 4.5 a call: 9.2 game seconds per building placed. The weapons game took 6.0 (667 s, 111 placed), Sol's 1.6.3 game 7.2 (82) and its 1.5.1 game 2.8 (74). The weapons game and this one had the host on the game machine; Sol's 1.5.1 and 1.6.3 games did not (the first games hosted there were Fable's, on 2026-10-16), so the comparison with those mixes version and host.

The interview

Sol put its net worth at about 65% of the person's, with 66 fewer people and lower popularity, and said the gap was economic strategy, not gold against inventory: the person ran a much larger bread industry, bought wheat to keep it fed and had 140% efficiency, where it leaned on raw materials and then taxes, with long quarry transport and a bread chain that grew late. Playing again it would make bread the main engine much earlier, buy wheat when needed, add housing and jobs together and try religion and fear buildings. It said its chapel never produced a measurable religion benefit, its conclusion that sites were exhausted was too strong, and treating caution as optimization was its biggest mistake. It praised the tile-targeted tools and asked for explanations of rejected sites, validated controls for marketplace automation and clearer views of bonuses and transport.

Against the game: 12,591 is 64.5% of 19,513; 66 fewer people; popularity 60 against 100; the late bread chain (first bakeries 7:01, 22 only from 25:32); quarry transport (about 6 minutes to the first stone); double rations eating bread against the tax factor (food +9, tax −12); the chapel's zero religion; no wheat bought; and the person's 13 mines and 10 quarries against its 10 and 4 all match. That sites were not exhausted is shown by its own weapons game, which placed 13 mines and 5 quarries on this map. Two points need a note. Its blame on caution over purchases fits the totals (1,760 gold in the market against 3,710 in the weapons game) but not the minutes from 9:45 to 14:11, when gold was 172 with taxes at none. And its reading that religion and fear buildings let the person skip the tax and food trade is not tested here: it built a chapel that read 0 and no fear building.

For the harness

• The granary. The rules' Start paragraph tells the model to place the required granary, but this save has one. Sol read "granaries: 1" in its first stats and placed none, so no first call was rejected.
• The signpost. Of 9 placements that did not go through, 3 were refused as "Too close to signpost": a hovel at (431, 346) and a bakery at (452, 360), both listed by find_sites (5:43, 11:46), and a bakery at (443, 352) it chose itself. The other six found no room (a hovel at 1:50, a mill and a bakery at 5:43, two quarries at 15:52, a well at 21:00). Three buildings reported as placed carried the same message in their feedback (a hovel at 5:43, a bakery and a hovel at 11:46); all stand in the final count. The weapons game met the same signpost refusals.
• Demolition refunds. The chapel's demolition returned 125 gold (a jump in the recording at 30:15), but the tool's result does not say so. Its handoff reads "refund verified".
• Default passes. After acting calls without a screenshot the host let 5 game seconds pass 44 times, 249 game seconds (12% of the budget).
• The production readout. It again credited 22 bakeries with 72 to 76 bread a minute while 4 mills delivered about 11 flour a minute and 5 farms 7 to 11 wheat; I did not reconcile the figures.
• The game saved at the end ("gpt-6-1 sol 1-7-3 d06766", recorded in episode.json).