Two Luminids can face the same task and handle it differently. One heads straight in. The other lingers, watches for a bit, and follows later.
Most of my recent work has gone into what makes that happen: the structure that decides what a Luminid does, who it gravitates toward, and how it changes over time. Here’s how it was put together at the time.
The core idea
Every Luminid runs on the same three axes. Only the values differ, and they drift slowly over time.
| Axis | What It Controls | What You’ll Notice In Play |
|---|---|---|
Work Drive W | How often a Luminid sticks with tasks and follows through | Some Luminids work steadily and stay focused. Others wander more, take breaks, or switch tasks often. |
Boldness B | How quickly a Luminid explores new spaces and reacts to uncertainty | Bolder Luminids explore new areas earlier and react calmly to change. Cautious ones stay closer to familiar spaces. |
Sociability S | How often a Luminid stays close to others while working | Social Luminids cluster, cooperate, and seek shared work. Less social ones operate more independently. |
The mix is the personality. Those two Luminids from the top? The one that heads straight in is the high Work Drive, high Boldness type. The one that hangs back is cautious and sociable, and learns by watching the others first.
A few more mixes:
- Work ↑ · Bold ↓ · Social ↓ Tends to work steadily alone and prefers familiar tasks.
- Work ↓ · Bold ↑ · Social ↑ Tends to explore, gather others, and shift tasks often.
- Work ↑ · Bold ↗ · Social ↑ Tends to coordinate with others and follow through on tasks.
- Work ↓ · Bold ↓ · Social ↑ Prefers safety in numbers, stays close to the group, learns by observing others.
- Work ↑ · Bold ↑ · Social ↓ Tends to push into new areas independently and stay focused.
How Luminids Think
How decisions are made
In the moment, a Luminid weighs up what needs doing nearby, how much energy it has, who’s around, and how safe it feels.
It’s the same process every time, which is why their patterns look consistent without looking scripted.
Quirks and tendencies
On top of the axes, Luminids pick up tendencies from what they keep doing. For example:
- a Luminid that spends a lot of time near water may start to prefer it
- one that works uninterrupted for long stretches may get touchy about being disturbed
- one that often rests near others may slowly become more sociable
These are subtle. You find them by watching a Luminid over time.
Relationships
Relationships build up the same way. Time spent together, shared work, resting nearby and competing for the same task all add up, and those feelings shift slowly.
When two Luminids work well together, it’s usually because their axes and tendencies happen to line up.
Why this structure matters
What I’m after is consistency. If you watch a Luminid for a while, what it does should make sense in hindsight. You should be able to say, “yeah, that tracks”.
I care much more about that than about making them clever or unpredictable. If a Luminid surprises you, it should be because of who that Luminid is, not because of a dice roll.
What this means for players
You don’t set these axes yourself. You influence them indirectly, by:
- shaping the world
- choosing where work happens
- deciding when to step in and when to just watch
Over time the Luminids adapt to those conditions and to each other. What I’m aiming for is a settlement where you recognise individuals by how they behave, not by labels or stats.
What’s next
Next is tuning, and making all of this easier to see in play:
- behaviour you can read just by watching
- more nuanced tendencies
- richer social feedback loops
A lot of this was rebuilt later: the behaviour tree underneath was deleted in July, and quirks became seven traits that really change what a Luminid does. That’s all in Dev Log 17.
Nick
