Stellar Throne Devlog #5 — All 21 Zig Simulation Phases Implemented + Parity Tester Online (52.7x Faster)

All 21 simulation phases in Zig are complete, and the parity testing system is now active to compare performance between Zig and Godot engines. The Zig implementation is feature-complete but requires behavioral alignment before becoming the default runtime.

Architecture

The dual-engine approach uses Godot for UI/visualization and Zig for high-performance simulation across empires, colonies, economies, and galactic systems.

Implementation Highlights

All 21 phases now function: population growth, resource production, fleet logistics, natural disasters, diplomacy, military combat, and quest systems.

Configuration System

The TOML data loader replaced hardcoded values with ~800 lines of Zig code, enabling dynamic loading of gameplay parameters, resource definitions, and narrative content.

Testing Infrastructure

The bit-rotted test suite was rehabilitated (11 failing tests fixed), tests reorganized under src/tests, and a health monitor script created. All Zig tests now pass.

Parity Framework

A Turn Simulation Service serializes state to JSON, runs turns in Zig, then deserializes results. Current findings show floating-point drift and minor logic differences between engines.

Performance

Zig achieved approximately 52.7x speed improvement in large galaxy simulations.

Next Steps

Feature parity achieved; behavioral parity requires resolving population, stability, and diplomacy formula mismatches before Zig becomes the default runtime.