Galaxy Simulation System
- Aaron Rayne
- Jun 18
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 7
Affectionately known in house as the GSS this system is responsible for simulating the background entities (which I affectionately refer to as quanta, shout-out to Tony Z from Cloud Imperium Games) and events occurring around the entire sector, regardless of where you, the player is located.
What This Means
Every entity in the game is real, not ambient, not fake and has a purpose. The NPC ships: haulers, traders, military, freighters, smugglers, police are all simulated and tracked in the background (BG) and when they materialise live where the player is. The traders are carrying real cargo across the sector, the delivery of which affects the economy in the sector.
For example: When you enter a system, all the BG entities in that system are instantiated from data and are now physical entities. If you leave and return, their location and activities are all tracked in the BG, and they would have moved as far as they could have, in the time you are gone. So if you want to follow a galactic loop hauler who travels the main trade route from system to system, you can. From the time an entity is created until it is destroyed by aggression, it will be simulated, it will live.
Live Materialisation When a BG entity is traced entering your system, again they are instantiated. Trading, hauling, fighting, smuggling is all occurring beyond your live/loaded system. Marauders will attack trade routes, the main hostile antagonist in the game will attack systems and incursions from dark sectors will occur. Additionally, defense fleets will be moving across faction space to relieve blockaded systems, and attack fleets will be moving to take the fight to the U'Guul. Nothing to do with you, unless you want to help.
These events are not on timers, they occur when entities collide in the BG simulation. If a marauder/raider/pirate is calculated by his live position to intercept a hauler, BG combat will occur. You will not be blind to these events either. Entities under attack can emit distress calls, factions will call for help with incursions and the Galaxy News Network (GNN) will surface news reports readily available. Your choice whether to assist or not.
Where Have You Heard This Before
If this sounds familiar, it's because the well known and excellent X4: Foundations uses a similar system. They refer to it as out of sector (OOS) what happens when the player is not present, and in sector (IS).
Everything in A Sector Darkly is surfaced to you the player: factions low on supplies, supply shortages, battles, everywhere you can interject, if you choose, to exploit or not. In addition to all of that, sector, the alien factions take care of themselves. If ships are destroyed they replace them, and they are replaced with materials mined and refined, no magic, no fakeness. So Large Space Ports will replace haulers, military ships, police ships if they are destroyed.
And not just replace, but repair/tow. If an NPC ship is disabled while mining, or on patrol for any reason (collision with asteroid, enemy contact) a repair ship is dispatched to repair them. If they are beyond a safe boundary, a tow ship is sent to bring them home.
If a ship can make it back under its own steam, it goes and docks in a designated repair slip at a space port where repair drones then launch to repair it. All visible all the time, happening around you. You can even tow/repair disabled ships yourselves, or accept missions for such activities.
So in summary, the galaxy is alive, all items or materials are physically moved from one location to another. All entities live and die by the rules of the sector and the GSS. More importantly, this is all surfaced in a way that the player can be made aware and decide upon any course of action.
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