# GOL-041: 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](https://100gol.com/experiments/041) · [Directory](https://100gol.com/experiments)

## 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 a starting configuration

[Download example JSON](https://100gol.com/api/experiments/041/configuration). Import it using Share & reproduce in the simulation controls. It starts paused at Step zero. Files contain rules and initial conditions, not evolved boards or manual edits. See [format, limitations and automated access](https://100gol.com/agents).