jpmschweitzerandClaude Opus 4.6
3005294c98
Updated in-universe "Commonwealth" references to "the Settled Reach" in decisions, architecture docs, design docs, workshop outputs, README, and wiki. Kept all references to Hamilton's books as inspiration/comparison in historical discussions and wiki-review workshop rounds. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
3.8 KiB
3.8 KiB
Rejected Alternatives
Alternatives considered and rejected, with rationale preserved for future reference.
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), 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) and information boundaries (D-010) 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 client-server. Seedocs/architecture/risk-godot-rust-bridge.mdfor 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). MessagePack's schema-optional nature fits better.
10 rejected alternatives. Last updated: 2026-02-11