Public systems case study: low-latency coordination for large real-time battles. The game setting is a forcing function; the engineering questions are consistency boundaries, queuing, split-brain handling, latency budgets, simulation ownership, and benchmark design.
- FLAT-1 ACTION COST
- RARITY SETS THE COOLDOWN
- TIMERS RUN OFFLINE
- 2 Hz SIMULATION TICK
- 1,000+ TEST METHODS
One shared galaxy. Every move a card. Every card on its own clock.
A real-time tactical card game: one captain, one ship, a named crew, and a persistent galaxy shared with every other player. Abilities, modules, missions, locations, all of it cards. Every action costs exactly one; rarity sets the cooldown; the timers keep running whether you are logged in or not. No energy bar, and the daily clock rotates missions, never your strength. Ten minutes is a real session: pull cards, advance a crew objective, run a mission, and the galaxy reacts. Defeat costs options, never your captain. And when ten thousand captains show up to the same battle, the fight does not slow down.
Basic Gun
Small attack slot. Fire costs one ready card and comes back in two minutes.
Rally
A captain's order that buffs the crew. Ready again in one minute.
Aerogel Screen
Stays slotted. Spend a ready card to spray an aerogel blocker. Six minutes between sprays.
Emergency Beacon
Call Tow. Hauls you to the nearest safe starbase, so you are never stranded. One hour.
Charted Horizons
Your lifetime goal. No actions, only bonus XP for systems you discover, and exploration missions unlock.
EVERY ACTION COSTS ONE READY CARD · RARITY SETS THE COOLDOWN · TIMERS RUN OFFLINE
Steady morale, no penalty. Her repair directive sits in your action menu while she is aboard.
One role slot, two ability slots, one personal objective she is chasing.
Strained. Her cards still play; crew actions ready a quarter slower.
Shaken. One ability starts every combat unavailable until his morale climbs.
Hire at a starbase cantina, rescue from an event, or train a green recruit. Five seats at most.
NO PERMADEATH · DOWNED CREW GO UNCONSCIOUS, NOT DEAD · MORALE GATES THEIR CARDS
The claim above is a design target with a pre-registered benchmark plan, not a measured result. Every mechanism behind it is documented, tested, and tagged with what would falsify it. How it's built: the architecture series at jeffrey.blog →