one dataset · paper, tables, graph, wiki
simgrammar the grammar of simulation

parts

14 mechanics, as FTL: Faster Than Light does them

core · 6

time & pacing

Crisis countdown

Each jump advances the rebel fleet across the sector map; overtaken beacons yield hard fights and no reward, forcing a trade between exploration and speed.

physics & materials

Fluid and gas simulation

Each room has an oxygen level that equalizes through open doors, drains through hull breaches and opened airlocks, and is refilled by the oxygen system; crew suffocate in empty rooms.

risk & failure

Permadeath

Losing the ship or all crew ends the run and deletes the save; dead crew members are gone.

resources & production

Power allocation

Reactor power bars are assigned among shields, engines, weapons, oxygen, medbay, and other systems, usually while paused in combat; each system caps how many bars it accepts, and damage removes usable bars until crew repair it.

risk & failure

Subsystem damage

Hits damage the system in the struck room (shields, weapons, engines, oxygen, piloting), removing its usable power bars until crew repair it, and the player targets enemy rooms to disable specific systems.

control & automation

Unit commands

The player moves crew between rooms to man stations, repair systems and breaches, fight boarders, and put out fires; crew act on their own only within the room they occupy.

supporting · 8

agents & behavior

Agent skills

Crew gain skill in piloting, engines, shields, weapons, repair, and combat through use, improving station bonuses.

environment & ecology

Fire spread

Hits and events start fires that spread between rooms, damage systems and crew, and burn oxygen; crew extinguish them or the player vents the room.

information & legibility

Fog of war

Beacon contents are unknown until visited unless revealed by upgrades such as long-range scanners.

time & pacing

Pause and speed control

Pause is the main tactical tool for issuing orders mid-combat.

agents & behavior

Personality traits

Eight species have fixed traits such as faster repair, fire immunity, or extra combat damage.

world generation

Procedural terrain

Each sector is a generated map of about twenty beacons with stores, hazards, and events.

conflict & defense

Statistical combat resolution

Each weapon shot rolls against the target's evasion, shield layers absorb hits, and hits damage the room and the system inside it.

narrative & generation

Triggered event chains

Beacon events offer text choices, with extra options unlocked by specific crew, systems, or equipment, and some quests chain across beacons.

core loop

jump to a beacon -> resolve an event or fight -> allocate reactor power and direct crew under fire -> repair breaches, fires, and systems -> spend scrap on upgrades -> stay ahead of the rebel fleet to the flagship

design notes

FTL models a ship as rooms with oxygen levels, doors, systems, and crew positions; hits create breaches, fires, and system damage that crew must walk to and repair, so a combat is a spatial triage problem as well as a damage race. The reactor's power bars are the central budget shared by shields, engines, weapons, oxygen, and medbay, and the player shifts them during paused combat. Manual reactor power allocation and per-system damage that removes capacity until repaired have no dedicated taxonomy ids (power-grid is the closest fit); both are recorded as new-mechanic proposals.

appears in

the paper, 2 sections · 2 chapters
paper

5. The structure of the design space

linked in this section of the paper

paper
paper

Appendix A. Game catalog

linked in this section of the paper

paper
catalog

The catalog

listed with its year, developer, subgenre, and number of mechanics

book
ch 3

Chapter 3. Old parts

linked from the text

book
ch 4

Chapter 4. Families

linked from the text

book

sources

1
Wikipedia contributors (2026). FTL: Faster Than Light. Wikipedia

provenance

runs in log/runs
2026-10-24
created2026-10-24-catalog-ggcatalog