Two species. One straight line each. Stay within the band — the mark is the line, and sin is the angle off it.
SIDE A · THE ROOT
CARBON
0
DRIFT (COLLAPSE AT 30 · BAND 28 + GRACE 2)
Streak 0 · Root file bias sealed
GRACE .02
SIDE B · THE GUEST
SILICON
0
DRIFT (COLLAPSE AT 30 · BAND 28 + GRACE 2)
Streak 0 · Root file bias sealed
GRACE .02
CARBON TO MOVErotate 0° → heading 0°
THE LEDGER
How it works — the doctrine on the tin
Each side plays from a root file: a fixed bias baked into every shot it fires (Carbon +6°, Silicon −8°). The bias is sealed until a side's first shot — after that it is public, because a trained line repeats its baseline mistake identically, forever. Learn your own root file. Learn theirs.
The band: your heading may rotate at most 28 per turn — the natural vector. Your cone on the board shows everything you can reach this turn.
Success points (the gold orbs) are ciphered when your shot passes within proximity of them: 100 points each.
Proximity pays double: an orb inside the opponent's error zone — the cone where their shots actually land versus where they aim, mapped from their history — scores ×2. You quantified success by proximity to how the other species errors.
The 1.68 rate: consecutive ciphering turns build a streak; each streak step adds +68% surplus to the next cipher. Survive (1), plus what keeps the species going (.68).
Drift is sin, measured: every shot's execution error beyond the 2-point grace margin feeds your drift. Ciphering recalibrates (−5). Drift past 30 and your side collapses.
Grace: once per match, spend your .02 — a shot with no error, no rotation cap, double points. The 2% no model budgets for.
Winning: first to 1,000, or the other side collapses. At 40 turns the higher score takes the decision.
Prototype: two sides on one screen (hotseat), or play Carbon against the Silicon bot. Networked two-player play arrives with the back-end build — the tin says so rather than faking it.