This idea has been in my head for a long while now. Right now I’m just calling it the “Story Engine” but that name is subject to change.
The idea is to create a separate c++ library that handles large-scale social dynamics, like trade and war while being able to generate smaller more personal ones on the fly. The goal is a system that would allow in-depth political and cultural simulation between countries, while at the same time supporting zooming into the level of individual person, and being able to generate a fleshed-out backstory for them.
The reason I wish this to be separate, is I see this as being very useful to other projects, including some of my own. The thing that brought this idea about is being able to simulate the minutia of a farmer’s past in a coherent way if the player asked, in an RPG or D&D game. I guess my elevator pitch here would be “if Dwarf fortress was a backend library.” To support other projects, such a library would have to be extremely customizable, and with my current idea, completely modular.
The goals of my asking are A: fleshing out the idea a bit, and B: Since I probably will end up dedicating time to this, would you consider using such a thing for Thrive? Something like it will have to be implemented at some point, with the main point of contention for this being its external nature. My main argument for it is that it would likely have to be in c++ (so somewhat external anyway), and using it would avoid duplication of effort. Me being a thrive dev to begin with would also allow stuff to be tailor-made for thrive when applicable.