So many things done…

First, the server is now split in Zigs, which handles players IO and “grid physicality”, and Zion, which runs the world. Zion is some special breed of scheduler, chill, that runs many simulations at once, each at a different pace. It will end up simulating everything from the solar system to the ship’s hardware, drones, industry, down to Cyberland and Open City. It’s a big one.

I’m considering options for persistence, but will probably be using SQLite.

I was also wondering what would the buildings look like. I didn’t want something obvious, but not too alien. I’m going for a kind of big cube design, where edges of the cube look like 7 segments digit display, except in 3D. I’ll probably add something though, like angled wall or something.

The past few days have been a long tunnel at full speed, creating and implementing a full programming language from the ground up, interpreted in Rust, Pretty happy with the result. It looks like this:

'factorial [
  'param [n]
  'body [
    't [1]
    'f [ * n fact - n 1 ]
    <= n 1
  ]
]

Everything is a frame, even a simple function (which is just a frame with a param slot and a body slot). It’s sharp, powerful, unforgiving, and fast as a supercar. Those script-crafters *will* earn their stars… but they’re gonna love it.

Of course, not everyone is a crafter, especially when it’s a real skill. Most players will just use scripts, which is just fine: they’re used as tools, keys, weapons, …etc. The game will provide everything needed, but with this additional depth, that players can craft scripts too.

And then, there’s shell scripts. Does what it says on the tin: good old shell script, (neo)vintage as everything else here: perfectly functional but minimalist.

So the soul of the game is beginning to appear. I can’t believe the number of hours I’m putting into this. (the human body is a surprising machine). I’ve never worked that fast. It’s maybe why I didn’t write an article before, but it’s normal I guess. Nobody’s following anyway, for now.