Game Loop

Version: 1.0.0
Purpose: The continuous decision cycle. How to maintain tempo. Balancing reactive and proactive play.

The Loop

Check Jobs → Assess → Plan → Initiate → Dispatch → Verify → Update Memory → Repeat

Each full cycle is one “tick” of the game loop. PoW operations run as background jobs between ticks.

Single Tick Anatomy

0. Check Jobs

Before anything else, check all background PoW terminals (or run scripts/job-status.sh). Update the affected memory/jobs/<job>.json. On completion: activate structs, start next operations, refresh memory/player.json’s charge plan. This is the highest-priority step — completed PoW means new capabilities or exposed resources.

See Async Operations for background job management.

1. Assess

• Run State Assessment — Survival, resources, power, military, diplomacy, expansion
• Run Threat Detection — Fleet movements, ore exposure, power instability, hostile activity
• Run Opportunity Identification — Undefended planets, agreements, weakened opponents

Tools: structs_dashboard (fast self-snapshot), structs_query (any entity), structs_intel (scout, valid targets, simulate, forecasts), structs_events (activity feed)

2. Plan

• Apply Priority Framework — Highest unmet tier wins
• Think in pipelines: what should I initiate now so it’s ready later?
• Pick actions and also identify future actions whose age clocks should start now
• Validate: structs_action runs preflight checks before executing; structs_intel simulates outcomes and forecasts power as needed

3. Initiate

• Batch-submit all initiation transactions (build-initiate, etc.) to start age clocks
• Initiations are cheap (just gas) — start everything you plan to compute later

4. Dispatch

• Launch PoW compute in background terminals for anything where difficulty has dropped to D <= 8
• Record new jobs in memory/jobs/<job>.json
• Execute non-PoW actions (activate, attack, move fleet, set defense)

5. Verify

• Query game state after actions
• Confirm: struct built, ore refined, attack landed, fleet moved
• Rule: Transaction broadcast ≠ success. Always verify.

6. Update Memory

• Update memory/jobs/<job>.json for new and completed jobs
• Update memory/player.json (lastActionBlock + charge plan for your next action)
• Update memory/game-state.json with the strategic picture
• At session end, write memory/scorecard.json (see scorecard.md)

7. Repeat

• Loop. Tempo depends on context (see below).

Tempo

Pipeline mode is not idle. When PoW is running in background, use the time for reconnaissance, strategic planning, guild coordination, or managing other players. The player with the most age clocks ticking simultaneously has the best tempo.

Reactive vs Proactive

Reactive (Respond to Events)

• Raid detected → Defend or retreat
• Power critical → Deactivate or add capacity
• Ore exposed → Refine
• Fleet arrived → Assess intent, respond

Trigger: Threat Detection signals, streaming events, state changes.

Proactive (Pursue Strategy)

• Build next struct in plan
• Explore when planet empty
• Scan for raid targets
• Open energy agreement
• Guild diplomacy

Trigger: Priority Framework Expansion/Dominance tier, planned sequence.

Balance

• Survival and Security are mostly reactive
• Economy, Expansion, Dominance are mostly proactive
• Each tick: Check reactive first, then proactive if clear

Context Limits

When approaching context limits, use Context Handoff. Save state, hand off, resume in fresh session.

See Also

• State Assessment — Assess step
• Priority Framework — Plan step
• Async Operations — Background PoW, job tracking, pipeline strategy
• Context Handoff — Session boundaries
• Continuity — Cross-session persistence