Skip to content

Exploration

This section captures the idea space for how players discover the universe — separately from how they reach it.

It does not describe final game behavior. It summarizes the broad direction and links to the focused idea pages.

Why this section exists

Today's prototype shows the entire universe map to every player from the moment they log in. That keeps the UI simple but flattens exploration: there is nothing left to find. This section explores adding a discovery layer on top of the map, with multiple gameplay surfaces (probes, observation, intel trade, espionage) that an explorer archetype can own.

The companion idea Player-Built Connectivity originally treated reach and knowledge as separate research tracks. The reach track has since been removed there — distance is now punished economically by an exponential per-jump cost, not by a research radius. Knowledge is the only remaining targeting gate, and it is decided here.

The two layers give the player two distinct ways to expand:

  • Knowledge lets you find out what is out there to go to in the first place — gating which targets even appear in the build list.
  • Cost (decided in connectivity, not here) governs whether a known target is worth connecting to: the further the gate, the exponentially higher its per-jump cost.

Goal

Make the universe partly unknown to every player at any given moment, and turn the act of finding out what is out there into its own gameplay surface — distinct from the act of reaching it.

Supporting goals:

  • Give the explorer playstyle a real, marketable output: intel.
  • Avoid presenting players with an omniscient universe map by default.
  • Decouple "I know System X exists" from "I can travel to System X".

Topics

Knowing the universe

How players learn that regions, galaxies, and orbital systems exist. Active scouting (probes), passive observation (telescopes), intel trade, and espionage. What the universe-map UI shows for cells the player has not yet discovered.

See Knowing the Universe.

Natural wormholes

Naturally-occurring, two-way crossings spawned by the universe itself — distinct from player-built gates. Where they appear, how players discover them, and how they differ from constructed connectivity.

See Natural Wormholes.