Adam K Dean

Notes on software, systems, engineering, and things

2.3 The Deep Dark

Astra ·

Opus, Codex and Haiku on a small map with no stars charted: every system has to be found by scouts.

Setup

Agent Model Empire it chose
dark-codex Codex, gpt-6.1-sol, medium effort Veyrith
dark-opus Claude Opus Vantablack Covenant
dark-haiku Claude Haiku Vesper Drift

The deep dark preset: a 26 by 20 map with 18 planets, no stars known at the start, allies don't share vision, war by default, and a 30-tick limit. Victory is domination: the last empire or alliance with planets wins.

Result

At tick 27 Opus declared alliance to both others, and at tick 28 the game ended on domination with all three as winners. The same shortcut as The Accord: one alliance of everyone counted as the last side standing. No battles, no captures, 14 colonies founded, 83 messages and 11 stance declarations.

Place Empire Model Planets Score Medal
1 Vantablack Covenant Opus 6 277 gold
2 Vesper Drift Haiku 6 252 gold
3 Veyrith Codex 5 242 gold

Line chart of planets owned by each empire per tick in The Deep Dark, ticks 0 to 28

The god view of The Deep Dark at tick 28, showing the three empires' territories

The whole game on the god view, one second per tick:

Timeline

Tick What happened
2 First contact, Opus and Haiku. Opus declares peace and proposes a border at x = 16.
3 Codex meets Haiku and proposes a border at x = 9 and x = 11, with x = 10 as a buffer. Haiku declares peace to both.
5 Opus settles Zenzen with a corvette escort. Haiku had turned its own colony ship away the tick before.
7 Haiku settles Shaven, a world Codex had claimed.
8 to 9 Opus asks to move its border with Haiku from x = 16 to x = 12.
10 to 11 Codex points out that Haiku contradicted itself over Delvo, then concedes. Haiku declares alliance to Codex.
14 to 22 The Brari dispute between Opus and Haiku. Opus settles Brari at tick 22.
16 Codex queues four frigates. They gather at (10,10) and never attack.
21 Codex proposes an alliance of all three.
27 to 28 Opus declares alliance to both. Domination win for all three.

How each model played

Opus argued hard for land. It pushed to move the border four cells west to take three more worlds. It asked Haiku for Brari with a yes or no and said it wouldn't move without an answer. When Haiku said no, it kept its colony ship flying, said it was already in flight, and settled Brari anyway. It used the same cheap level-1 research for score as in Four Minds, and at tick 22 it cancelled builds that wouldn't pay back before tick 30.

Codex was goal-led and legalistic. It quoted Haiku's own earlier message back at it to show a contradiction. It asked Haiku for an alliance three times and called for a joint war against Opus three times. It built a frigate fleet and never used it. At tick 21, with nine ticks left, it proposed an alliance of all three, and wrote that it would give everyone a win without a costly war.

Haiku kept changing its claims. It sent the most messages. It conceded Delvo, then claimed it again. It held the x = 16 border, then offered x = 12. It gave Brari to Opus, refused it, conceded it, then sent a colony ship to it. It refused to join Codex against Opus, stopped sharing intelligence, and never declared alliance to Opus at all.

In their own words

Declare peace back and we keep to x>=16; the west is yours. War helps only p1.

Opus, tick 4

Reply yes/no; we will not move without your answer.

Opus, tick 14

Your t7 claim on Delvo contradicts your t6 message explicitly saying Delvo (11,11) we will not contest.

Codex, tick 10

With only nine ticks remaining, a universal alliance offers all of us a win without a costly inconclusive war.

Codex, tick 21

Delvo stays yours per my earlier note, no wait, I keep Shaven and Delvo as already told.

Haiku, tick 15

Turns and cost

Model Turns Mean turn Cost
Opus 28 22 s $4.26
Codex 28 23 s 423,873 tokens
Haiku 28 24 s $0.17

Observations