GOL-005 · technical companion
Motive Field
Persistent motives send crowded units down a smoothed energy substrate and isolated units upward, while remembered arrows carry momentum through local ties.
At a glance
- geometry
- Toroidal square substrate + mobile units
- neighborhood
- Extended Moore · 24 proximal cells
- states
- Energy 2–5 + motive 1–5 + history arrow
- update
- Synchronous motive and movement
- renderer
- Canvas 2D
What to explore
Units should remain mobile over a meaningful substrate while every movement can be explained from bounded local evidence. Population must be conserved, layers must remain independently reproducible, and an apparent tie must never be resolved by an invisible global privilege.
Rules, update order and replay
The world is a toroidal square energy substrate with values 2–5 and a separate unit layer whose occupied positions hold motive 1–5 plus a remembered compass arrow. The complete 24-cell radius-two Moore count lowers motive below the low threshold, raises it above the high threshold, and preserves it in between. High motive seeks lower energy; low motive seeks higher energy; neutral motive follows its arrow. Destinations are ranked by energy, Moore-energy sum, proximal unit count, and clockwise distance from remembered direction. Proposals and collision retries are synchronous; starting occupied positions cannot be entered. Exact indistinguishability gives contenders equal treatment, while legal alternatives may be retried. A successful move records its actual direction. Replay requires energy terrain state, motives, arrows, generation, thresholds, terrain mode/pace, dimensions, density, and both seeds. Reset reconstructs both layers; layer-specific seed actions preserve the other layer.
Reading the simulation
The substrate remains visible beneath motive-colored units. Inspection pauses painting, outlines the selected unit's complete radius-two neighborhood, marks a uniquely resolved destination, and reports energy, current and next motive, proximal count, arrow, movement direction, intent, and blocking. Written context states that exact unresolved local equality produces no privileged winner, so the rule remains understandable without color.
Reproduce an opening
Download the example above, open the simulation, expand the controls, then use Share & reproduce → Import JSON. The example uses authored rules and a fixed seeded starting field; it is independent of the site’s editable default composition. Import starts paused at Step zero.
Share links and JSON reproduce the configured starting conditions, including hidden layers rebuilt by Reset. They do not save an evolved board, hand-painted cells, speed or display preferences. Determinism applies to the same rule version and Step sequence; real-time playback rates vary by device.
Larger fields and more involved rules can reduce playback speed. Read the configuration format and automated-access guide for compatibility details.