The Third Survey is the structural core of the simulated universe in The Corporate Wars. It is not a mere catalog of planets or a route map, but an active, decentralized, and asynchronous database that models the physical and logical elements of charted space.
Information is not static: it evolves over time, is transmitted partially, and experiences delay depending on real information flow.
This behavior is not a narrative device, but a direct consequence of the model: worlds, routes, and power structures are stored, processed, and updated within program-derived accounts (PDA), anchored to specific programs.
Worlds as dynamic nodes
Each world is a program-derived account (PDA), whose contents are compressed into a Merkle Tree representing a dehydrated profile of the planet: essential data encoded in an efficient and verifiable manner.
This includes population, tech level, legal regime, estimated GDP, government type, climate, and other key attributes.
Moreover, each world maintains a version history. Instead of overwriting its state, each change is stored as a diff from the previous version, allowing precise reconstruction of its evolution at any point in the past.
These worlds do not exist in isolation: they are linked by routes that determine not only physical transit, but also access to updated information, valid orders, and applicable authority.
Routes, visibility, and governance
Jump routes are program-derived accounts that represent all functional connections between worlds. They record latency, traffic volume, operational conditions, and restrictions.
They are technical entities, but also political: they enable or block the transmission of orders, goods, data, and power.
The system simulates an asynchronous and partially visible universe. Each world only sees what has been transmitted through its active routes.
There is no instant global truth: two worlds may hold different versions of the same event, depending on their position in the topological graph and the delay in information propagation.
This logic faithfully replicates the physical limits of interstellar communication.
This entire framework is where the Allegiances operate — the governance entities of the system.
None can exercise authority in the abstract: they need controlled worlds and operational routes connecting them.
Without infrastructure validated by the system, their ability to act is null or symbolic. Authority depends on topology: one does not govern where one cannot reach.
The structure is also alive. Worlds may be founded, change hands, be terraformed, abandoned, or destroyed.
Routes may close, degrade, or open due to diplomatic decisions, systemic events, or technological shifts.
All of it is registered and reflected in the program-derived accounts of the Third Survey.
In summary, the Third Survey doesn’t just describe the universe: it defines it. It is the ontological source of the game. What is not in the Third Survey does not exist. And what is not up to date, is uncertain.
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