GOL-041 · technical companion

Slow Attraction

Seekers and attractors approach other attractors, orbit within distance bands while waiting, and disappear on arrival. The closer the band, the shorter the wait.

Open simulation →Markdown Download example JSON

At a glance

geometry: Square lattice
neighborhood: Eight neighboring destinations + one assigned moving attractor
states: Attractors and seekers + replaceable targets + private choice streams + CW/CCW senses + inward waits
update: Frozen proposals, simultaneous claim rounds, countdowns, contact deaths and target replacement
renderer: Canvas 2D

Objective

Seekers and attractors both pursue moving attractors, orbiting during distance waits: 40 cycles at 40, 39 at 39. Attractors die on arrival too, and their followers choose surviving replacement targets.

Local rule

Every cell has a target attractor and a CW/CCW sense. Attractors exclude themselves from target selection. Wait equals the floor of Euclidean distance at assignment and each own inward rung. During the countdown, continue same-band orbital travel whenever a legal empty Moore neighbor exists. At zero, the next inner band becomes eligible. Rank by target distance and compass-directed turn. A moving target can change separation without restarting the follower’s timer. A lone attractor stays still; with no attractors, all cells stay still.

Update and boundaries

Freeze starting positions and occupancy for movement. Resolve ranked claims in simultaneous rounds with same-cycle retries, reserved unique destinations and at most one move per cell. Check target adjacency before movement and again between committed positions; either role dies on contact. Deaths are simultaneous, including contact with a target dying this cycle. Surviving followers of dead targets choose uniformly from surviving attractors, excluding self, and start a fresh distance wait for the next cycle. Independent private seeded streams keep choices reproducible regardless of array order. Wrapping defaults on, using shortest displacement; bounded comparisons remain available.

Controls and inspection

Attractor share (0–100%) is in Rule composer; edits rebuild the seeded opening. Density and four independent seeds are in Initial condition and apply on Use seeds or Reset. Playback starts at 16 Steps/second. Color starts off; enable it for gold attractors, cyan CW seekers and violet CCW seekers. Attractor center marks stay visible. Paused inspection shows target, distance/band, remaining wait, eligibility, attempted destinations and exact next result. No supplemental stage visualization. The Target after cycle inspector row reports reassignment or no eligible target. No stationary-attractor switch is present.

Reproducibility

Version four saves rule marker and attractorPercent plus fieldProfile, seed, roleSeed, targetSeed, compassSeed, density, initialCondition and wrapEdges. Default: 160-square wrapped Random Life, 10% density, 5% attractors, seeds 4100041/4100042/4100043/4100044. Reset reconstructs all roles, targets, private target streams, compasses and timers. Rules randomization changes share only; opening scopes preserve it. Complete saved defaults restore paused at zero and explicit shares override them. Version-one/two shares retain their share and opening values, discard neutralPoint and explicitly adopt distance waits. Display settings and evolved state are excluded. Version-three links retain settings and explicitly adopt moving attractors and survivor-only reassignment; earlier supported versions adopt this model after conversion. Explicit saved bounded topology is preserved.

Reproduce an opening

Download the example above, open the simulation, expand the controls, then use Share & reproduce → Import JSON. The example uses authored rules and a fixed seeded starting field; it is independent of the site’s editable default composition. Import starts paused at Step zero.

Share links and JSON reproduce the configured starting conditions, including hidden layers rebuilt by Reset. They do not save an evolved board, hand-painted cells, speed or display preferences. Determinism applies to the same rule version and Step sequence; real-time playback rates vary by device.

Large fields, dense populations and large interaction radii increase the work per Step. Start with a small field and radius, then increase them while paused. Read the configuration format and automated-access guide for compatibility details.