The Infinite Diaspora

by coldweld

The Infinite Diaspora is a text-based, hard science fiction, cassette futurism game set in our very own solar system in the year 2500. You take command of your very own ship and its crew to trade, complete missions, form relationships, and more in a setting that does not care that you exist.

Based in realism: Where the game can follow real physics or procedure, it does so without sacrificing player fun. The physics (flight models, ballistics, travel time), the economy (stations generate real goods, which are then consumed), and relationships (named NPCs have a personality, opinion, relationships with one another, etc.) all follow this principle.

Status
In development
Release
Not announced
Platform
Tested only on Windows
Price
Not announced

Artificial Intelligence content disclosure

I use an LLM to generate and modify Python-language code. I design the game systems, mechanics, and its overall visual theme. An LLM drafted the first version of the game's text and I am currently rewriting it by hand in order to form a more cohesive story and setting. Music, sounds, and in-game computer model are sourced from human creators, who are credited in the game. The console picture is built by LLM-written code around a human-made model and will be replaced by a human-made picture.

A first look

Screens from the game as a player sees them. Click one to enlarge it. The environment around the consoles is a placeholder that will be replaced by a human-made version.

The bridge screen during a fight. The ship's hull, heat and guns, one contact with its range and position, a log line from the sensors officer, and three numbered orders from the Second, each with the cost listed under it.
On the bridge, the Second offers three orders and lists what each one costs.
A hail from a hostile ship. The toll in credits, the odds that they win a fight, the average yard bill after a fight, and four numbered choices.
A raider hails you: the toll, the odds and the repair bill are on the screen before you choose.
The left console during a fight, showing a tactical display. A radar ring with the contact marked, a camera view of the target ship, a table of contacts with range and state, and readouts for the target, its guns and the observer.
The left console in a fight: the scanner ring, a camera on the target, and the contact table.
The right console during a fight, showing engineering. A table of vitals (heat, drive, reactor, life support, thrust, fins, hull), the standing orders, and the power bank with the draw of each load.
The right console in a fight: vitals, orders, and what each system draws from the power bank.
A map of the solar system drawn in text. Each body has a number, and the ship's position is marked.
The map: type a body's number to go there.
The destination screen at the ship console. A numbered list of the inner system and the Belt, each place marked with a job available or a mission due.
Choosing a destination: the inner system and the Belt, with the jobs waiting at each.
A market screen at UNASA Anchor Alpha above Earth. A table of consumer goods with buy and sell prices in credits, and a note on the one good the station produces.
The market at UNASA Anchor Alpha: buy and sell prices, and what the station makes itself.
A job board screen listing five jobs with who offers each, the pay, the days until it is due, and the hold space it needs.
The job board: who is paying, how much, by when, and what each job takes from the hold.

Console art: renders of "Quadronic 250 - computer that never existed" by AfBu (sketchfab.com/3d-models/quadronic-250-computer-that-never-existed-b945947a2c1d4b18812abe59392f715a), CC BY-SA 4.0. The pictures are changed from the original: the screen is replaced, parts are added, and the plastics are worn. These pictures are shared under the same license, CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). AfBu does not endorse this game.

Four Design Aspects

Feature-complete:
Game features must be thorough. Either the whole feature is implemented, or none of it is.
Mechanic parity:
I aim to ensure that whatever the player does, an NPC will call the same code to do the same action.
Realism:
Most in-game numbers are derived from the Atomic Rockets website and real sources, where one exists, in order to ensure an accurate simulation.
Fun:
The most important design aspect of The Infinite Diaspora; fun is a player decision with a cost on both sides, and the player sees the success odds of their decision before they choose.