What we're building toward. Left = the two reference games' core features; right = how AEON adopts/adapts each, with the twist that nobody is scripted — civ behavior emerges from evolving NN brains + a memetic culture layer + the player's indirect steering.
| WorldBox feature | AEON plan |
|---|---|
| God powers / world editor — terrain brushes (mountain/water/biome), spawn life | ✅ have (raise/lower/forest/spawn/food/smite); EXPAND brush set |
| Disasters — meteor, volcano, tornado, plague, fire, acid, lightning | ➕ add as god tools (high-ROI spectacle + selection pressure) |
| Autonomous living world — creatures act on their own, rise & fall | ✅ core (real NN brains, not scripts) — our differentiator |
| Civilizations — villages→towns→cities, kingdoms, borders | 🔨 building now (Settlements workstream) |
| War & diplomacy — kingdoms fight, ally, raid | ➕ partial (combat exists); add alliance/raid/diplomacy |
| Multiple species — humans/elves/dwarves/orcs + animals + monsters | ➕ later (genome already supports subspecies via traits) |
| Genetics / traits / subspecies / mutation | ✅ have (evolving genome → visible traits) |
| Culture / language / religion / clans | 🔨 building now (Culture workstream, light first pass) |
| Sandbox, no forced goal — pure toy, name & follow units | ✅ god mode is pure sandbox; goals are opt-in (nation mode) |
| Zoom, pixel art, mobile+PC, modding | ✅ continuous zoom; 🔨 art upgrade now; modding later |
| Civ VI feature | AEON plan |
|---|---|
| 4X loop (explore/expand/exploit/exterminate) | ➕ emerges via nation mode (lead a people to grow/survive/win) |
| Tech tree (science) | 🔨 building now (Tech workstream — your headline ask) |
| Civics/culture tree (2nd progression) | ➕ fold into Culture/memetics (policies, beliefs) |
| Eras (Ancient→Information) + golden/dark ages | 🔨 Tech eras now; golden/dark ages later |
| Cities + DISTRICTS + Wonders (Civ 6 signature) | 🔨 Settlements + buildings now; wonders later |
| Tile yields (food/production/science/gold/faith) + Builders | ➕ add: settlements work surrounding tiles for yields |
| Leaders w/ unique abilities + AI agendas (personalities) | ➕ EMERGENT: a tribe's "leader" = its policy + dominant evolved traits |
| Religion (found/spread/theological combat) | 🔨 Culture workstream (arise + spread) |
| Diplomacy (alliances, city-states, grievances, casus belli) | ➕ later: tribe-to-tribe stances driven by policy + history |
| Combat (unit types, promotions, generals, siege) | ➕ deepen: tech/era changes weapons; settlements have walls |
| Victory conditions (Science/Culture/Domination/Religion/Diplo) | ➕ nation-mode "destinies" (opt-in goals) — the Civ win-loop |
| Resources (strategic/luxury/bonus) + trade routes | ➕ later: resources gate techs (metals→tools, horses→cavalry) |
| Fog of war / exploration | ➕ optional per-nation (god sees all; nation sees explored) |
- WorldBox gives the toy & the spectacle; Civ gives the depth & the goals; the NN gives the soul.
- In Civ, the tech tree is a menu you click. In AEON, research accrues from a living population and its culture, and a tech you unlock changes what your creatures' brains can actually DO (sailing → they cross water; horses → they move/raid faster; metals → they win fights).
- In WorldBox, civs develop on rails. In AEON, they develop because evolved brains + spreading memes + your steering pushed them there. Same god-sandbox joy, real causation underneath.
The current brain only senses/does survival. To learn CIV behavior it needs richer affordances. Expand brain.js I/O (done during integration, carefully — it touches the hot path):
- New SENSES: nearest settlement dir/dist, on-own-territory?, tribe tech-era, food in storage, nearest resource & type, season/temperature trend, danger level, leader/policy signal, meme-carried?
- New ACTIONS: build/contribute-to-settlement, gather (vs eat), trade with kin, flee, follow, adopt-meme/convert, pray (culture).
- This gives evolution + the player something civ-relevant to optimize — beyond eat & breed.
- "No info on tools." → every god tool gets a hover tooltip (name + what it does + hotkey), a one-line description in the dock, and a first-use hint. Plus a proper help/legend panel.
- "Can't play as a nation." → make it impossible to miss: a Nations list panel (click any nation → "Play as" / "Watch" / "Possess a citizen"), a clear prompt on first tribe click, and fix click-targets so selecting a creature/nation is reliable at any zoom. Nation mode then shows tech/era, settlements, policies, and an opt-in destiny (goal).
- (running now, parallel) Tech tree · Settlements · Culture · Visuals.
- Integrate them one at a time (test after each).
- Brain I/O expansion (§D) — give NNs the civ-relevant senses/actions.
- Nation-mode UX (§E.2) + tool info/help (§E.1) — make agency & tools discoverable.
- Disasters, victory/destinies, diplomacy, tile-yields — the remaining Civ/WorldBox depth.
- Polish: audio, timelapse capture (shareability), perf scale (WebGL instancing).