In short, I aim for ROMVLVS to be some sort of SimCity++, taking you from prehistoric to modern times while also invoking some Civ-like concepts such as research and warfare.

ROMVLVS, like the original SimCity, leans heavily on the idea of cellular automata. Basically, simple rules governing the contents of tiles lead to very complex behaviour.

The original concept popularized by Conway is very binary (either life exists on a tile or not); SimCity made use of difference equations in order to increase or decrease the quantity of e.g. population on a tile. This is the same in ROMVLVS. A simplified set of equations might look like this (x and y are quantities to be increased/decreased, t is time, t+1 is the time at the next turn):

x(t+1) = x(t) + C1 * x(t) + C2 * y(t)
y(t+1) = y(t) + C3 * x(t) + C4 * y(t)

In SimCity you were free to build wherever you wanted, as long as you had enough money to do so. The existing infrastructure generates taxes, which fills the city coffers.

In ROMVLVS, there is no money. Or, at least, not centralized. If you don’t have resources available in a specific tile to build something, you can’t build it, even though it’s available on other tiles.

So how do resources spread around? This is where dispersion comes in place. Think of an inflatable pool in your back yard. When you pierce it, it will empty out in rapid pace, flooding its surroundings. The more time goes by, the more dispersed the water is, eventually flooding your entire garden with a thin layer of water.

In ROMVLVS, dispersion works as follows: if you have a farm producing 1 unit of food per turn, a small percentage of that (say 10%) gets dispersed to the four surrounding tiles. Your farm will be left with 0.9 units while its neighbors get 0.025 units each. Those neighboring tiles will disperse 10% of 0.025 to their neighbors in the next turn.

In order to keep infinitisemally small amounts of resources spreading around the map, there’s a dispersion threshold.

At the beginning of a game, you start with a Settlement and 5 people (all living in the Settlement). The Settlement produces Culture (quite an abstract resource) which starts spreading outward over time. The difference equation governing the growth of people is such that Culture is a positive factor - i.e.:

Humans = Humans + CULTURE_FACTOR * Culture

Now, resources like Food have also a similar positive influence whereas proximity to enemies, extreme temperatures etc. will negatively impact human growth.

This basically describes the ROMVLVS engine. The trick is to balance out all the different resources: adjusting growth and dispersement parameters, adding buildings that modify growth even further, and adding resources that counterbalance other resources. So far, only Culture, Humans, Food and Wood are “active” resources that can be altered; I’ve thought about adding things like Disease, Fear, Stone, Bronze, Meat, Fruit, etc. etc.

Hope you enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look!