Ticks & Cycles

Time Units

Tick

Smallest unit of simulation time. One tick = one rule evaluation pass.

Cycle

Group of ticks (e.g., 1 day = 1440 ticks at 1 tick/minute)

Epoch

Multi-cycle timescale for long-running simulations

Tick Execution

Each tick follows this sequence:

1. Clear previous tick's events
2. Sort rules by priority
3. Execute each rule against matching agents
4. Increment tick counter
5. Emit callbacks

Tick Rate

The tickRate metadata field controls how many ticks per second should run. This is a hint for visualization; the VM itself executes ticks as fast as requested.

{
  "metadata": {
    "tickRate": 60  // 60 ticks per second
  }
}

Gas (xpt)

Each tick consumes computational resources measured in xpt (gas). Complex rules and many agents increase gas usage.