Units, scale and collecting area
The solar luminosity is the IAU nominal value, 3.828 × 10²⁶ W, and one astronomical unit is 149,597,870,700 m. Collector radii map to 0.12–0.62 AU in the Solar System and 1.7–8.1 AU around the 180 L☉ red giant. The drawing uses compressed coordinates; screen distances are not a linear astronomical map.
Installed collecting area is mass divided by an assumed effective areal density of 0.20 kg m⁻². That includes representative support, radiator and control infrastructure. It is an optimistic, speculative design parameter, not a validated blueprint. The large numbered resource bodies represent regional reserves or aggregates; their drawn sizes do not encode their literal mass. The second-system remnant starts at 3 × 10²² kg.
For each band, F = L / (4πr²). Projected area is reduced by attitude and hardware availability. We sum AprojectedF / L as an optical-depth proxy τ, then estimate interception as L(1 − e−τ). This homogeneous-overlap approximation prevents double-counting all the star's light. It does not resolve band shadowing, nodes or mutual occultations in 3D.
Energy and thermal bookkeeping
“Capture” means intercepted bolometric starlight. We assume 90% is absorbed and 10% reflected. The baseline useful conversion fraction is 30% of absorbed power, modified by the efficiency protocol and network availability. Almost all absorbed energy is assumed eventually to dissipate within the represented civilisation: eventual thermal output equals absorbed power, not absorbed power plus electrical output. Sustained energy exports and long-lived storage are omitted.
The baseline heat-rejection design accepts an incident flux of 40 Earth irradiances. Replication, efficiency and resilience choices multiply that limit by 0.95, 1.08 and 1.10 respectively; the refractory redesign adds a factor of 1.30. These are game calibration values for complete designs. We do not attribute a universal temperature improvement to elemental rhenium.
Heat demand is incident flux divided by the design rating. Above the rating, projected collecting area tends towards 0.98 / demand. Protective folding reduces it further. A short response lag makes cooling visible and audible. This normalised model does not assign a physical heat capacity or a single collector temperature.
Real radiator power depends on emissivity, emitting area and temperature, approximately P = εσAT⁴ when the surroundings are cold. Collector equilibrium also depends on absorbed flux, emitting versus projected area, optical properties and conversion architecture. We use a lumped engineering limit; we do not solve separate collector and industrial radiator circuits or a spectral infrared image. The thermal overlay is qualitative, including its contextual machinery colours.
Manufacturing and conservation
Available matter, industrial capital, installed collectors, process waste, lost hardware and exported seed mass are tracked separately. Drawing a new band redistributes construction and existing mass; it does not create matter. Major autonomous extraction and infrastructure construction each use an illustrative 10⁸ J kg⁻¹ energy allowance, charged against useful power over elapsed simulation time. Early probe flight, small-scale fabrication and the setup costs of individual commands retain arcade abstractions. These energy costs and industrial growth rates are not engineering forecasts.
The game exposes successively larger regional reserves as autonomy expands. It compresses growth into minutes and changes its simulated-year rate between stages. Movement, music, material processing and orbital animation therefore do not share one literal physical clock. Matter readouts use SI prefixes correctly: an exagram is 10¹⁵ kg; a zettagram is 10¹⁸ kg.
Orbits, transfers and radiation pressure
Orbital motion preserves the inner-faster ordering and a Kepler-like r⁻³ᐟ² angular-speed law in visual coordinates. The nonlinear radius map means its period ratios are illustrative. We do not integrate mutual gravity, planetary perturbations, resonance, conjunction prediction or radiation pressure. Large area-to-mass structures would require radiation-pressure-aware attitude control and station-keeping. The omitted radial-to-gravitational force ratio depends on luminosity, stellar mass and area-to-mass ratio, not simply on getting closer: both forces scale approximately with r⁻².
Changing bands stands for managed transfers. Their propulsion budget and true transfer paths are not solved. Real mass drivers would also have to manage recoil, body spin, orbital changes, payload guidance and capture. We show coordinated industrial traffic without computing those trajectories or the changing self-gravity of the dismantled body.
Storms, autonomy and travel
CME propagation and safe-mode timing are stylised. Solar energetic particles may arrive ahead of a CME, and a flare need not accompany every CME. We don't claim a universal warning time or guaranteed protection by folding a panel.
The compute index combines abstract throughput, algorithms, memory, communications and control capability. Its threshold is a gameplay choice. The game does not establish recursive self-improvement as inevitable, solve distributed coordination at light-speed delays or predict a real singularity date.
Transit duration uses distance divided by 0.08c, with a fixed 12-year allowance for acceleration and braking. We do not model a propulsion architecture, beam infrastructure, detailed relativistic dynamics or erosion by interstellar dust and gas. The seed is assumed to carry appropriate protection. The destination's nearby distance and convenient resources are fictional; it is not an identified real red giant.
Random generation and musical rules are seeded. Player actions still alter the result. The red-giant expedition is a directly guided representative industrial front. Its wind deflection and short node deployments are arcade abstractions, not a plasma calculation or a change to matter conservation. The musical mapping, slow cooling responses, renderer density and orbit speeds are chosen for playability; they are not measurements of a proposed swarm.
The fictional third system
The K star is assigned 0.78 solar masses and 0.37 solar luminosities. Thalassa has 1.16 Earth radii, 1.35 Earth masses, a 0.62 AU orbit and 96.5% ocean coverage. These are game design assumptions, not an identified planet or a general prescription for K-star habitability. Atmospheric composition, climate and evolution are not solved.
The depth estimate uses a compressed display-to-depth map. Pressure can be estimated with ρ = 1030 kg m⁻³ and g ≈ 9.84 m s⁻²; neither water compressibility nor a full phase diagram is integrated. The local temperature/pressure regime is assumed to retain liquid water at the rocky ridge. The lights, currents, animal deformation and hydrophone signals are qualitative; there is no CFD or calibrated acoustic propagation.
Biosphere protection model
For inner bands the controller uses a conservative, all-longitudes equatorial exclusion belt, half-angle 0.12 rad. A circular band of inclination i has a clear-sky duty of 1 − (2/π) asin[sin(0.12)/|sin(i)|], clipped at zero where it never clears the belt. Inner crossing populations mostly feather, with a further global allowance limited by the 0.15% obscuration policy. This duty multiplies projected collecting area, so protection costs actual output.
Outer bands beyond the planet plus a buffer avoid this modelled direct occultation term. Small allowed crossings use an aggregate upper-bound proxy; displayed peak light change is the controller’s estimate, not a ray-traced photometric measurement. Climate response, finite stellar-disc transit structure, scattering, diffraction, diffuse infrared heating and detailed beam/traffic hazards are not simulated. The protected geometry assumes sophisticated autonomous scheduling and routing. The policy is not a known universal ecological threshold.
Thalassa cannot be targeted for bulk mining. Its initial 30-tonne survey fabrication uses finite local mineral clasts; after biosphere confirmation the local resource operation is closed. Off-world reserves, construction and collector deployment retain the existing mass ledger. The ocean exploration and star-scale industry use different compressed clocks.
Congestion orders
Congestion marks a specific collector band. An accepted reshaping order moves that stream radially or changes its phase slots if the requested radius is similar. A brief managed transfer reduces the displayed conjunction load. This is representative traffic scheduling, not a conjunction prediction or an orbital transfer solver.