# Rejected Alternatives

Alternatives considered and rejected, with rationale preserved for future reference.

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### R-001: Stellaris mod
- **Rejected:** 2026-02-08
- **Reason:** Character system too shallow, multi-empire assumption conflicts with the Settled Reach's single-civilization focus, wormhole-as-infrastructure not achievable within Stellaris modding. Team Leader's experience with Star Trek: New Horizons confirmed that even well-suited IPs struggle with character connection in Stellaris.

### R-002: CK3 total conversion
- **Rejected:** 2026-02-08
- **Reason:** Would require building a space map from scratch within CK3's framework - essentially building a game inside a game. The map system fundamentally doesn't support the complexity needed.

### R-003: Other existing games (Distant Worlds 2, GalCiv IV, Sins of a Solar Empire II, Victoria 3)
- **Rejected:** 2026-02-08
- **Reason:** Each captures at most 40% of what's needed. Smaller modding communities, less mature tools, and none solve the core CK3+Stellaris hybrid requirement.

### R-004: Pure Bevy (Rust) — no Godot
- **Rejected:** 2026-02-09
- **Reason:** No visual editor (level design is code-only). UI framework in flux. API breaks significantly between versions. For a solo developer who needs visual tools for hand-crafted buildings ([D-014](scope.md#d-014-v01-map-specification)), Godot's editor is a massive productivity advantage. Bevy's ECS is used — just not its renderer.

### R-005: Pure Godot (GDScript or C#)
- **Rejected:** 2026-02-09
- **Reason:** Scene tree paradigm fights ECS-style simulation. Perception queries ([D-017](perception.md#d-017-perception-modes-as-character-build-system)) and information boundaries ([D-010](architecture.md#d-010-multiplayer-ready-architectural-baseline)) map naturally to ECS component queries, not scene tree traversal. Multi-core scaling for expanded content impossible in GDScript. Kept as kill-switch fallback if Rust architecture exceeds time budget.

### R-006: Godot + Rust via GDExtension
- **Rejected:** 2026-02-09
- **Reason:** gdext is pre-1.0 with breaking API changes. Godot version upgrades break GDExtension ABI. Thread safety at FFI boundary is CRITICAL risk (`Gd<T>` is `!Send`/`!Sync`). Couples Rust and Godot learning curves. Subprocess/IPC achieves the same architecture without the FFI risk surface, and maps directly to [D-010](architecture.md#d-010-multiplayer-ready-architectural-baseline) client-server. See `docs/architecture/risk-godot-rust-bridge.md` for full analysis.

### R-007: Godot + C++ via GDExtension
- **Rejected:** 2026-02-09
- **Reason:** More mature bindings than gdext, but trades Rust's safety guarantees for C++ memory unsafety. No advantage over subprocess/IPC approach. Developer not experienced in C++.

### R-008: Fyrox (pure Rust engine)
- **Rejected:** 2026-02-09
- **Reason:** Single maintainer. ~1/50th of Godot's community. Less documentation, fewer tutorials, weaker AI training data for Claude Code. Single-maintainer risk unacceptable for multi-year project.

### R-009: Custom framework (Rust + raylib/macroquad)
- **Rejected:** 2026-02-09
- **Reason:** Maximum control but you build everything — tilemap rendering, camera, UI, audio, input, asset pipeline. Months before testing a mechanic. The game's hard problems are simulation, not rendering — don't reinvent the rendering wheel.

### R-010: protobuf for client-server serialization
- **Rejected:** 2026-02-09
- **Reason:** Schema evolution across independent deployments is a problem we don't have (one developer, client and server ship together). Poor GDScript support. Rigid schema fights dynamic HUD composition driven by perception modes ([D-017](perception.md#d-017-perception-modes-as-character-build-system)). MessagePack's schema-optional nature fits better.

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*10 rejected alternatives. Last updated: 2026-02-11*