Temporality, Causality, and the “Hard Turn” in The Corporate Wars

In The Corporate Wars (TCW), time does not advance as a continuous line nor as a homogeneous succession of instants. TCW does not simulate a universe where “things happen” constantly; instead, it models a system where time emerges only when uncertainty collapses into causality.

This is not an aesthetic or narrative choice. It is structural. TCW is an RTS–Tycoon, not an RPG, and its temporality is therefore bound to strategic decisions, valid information, and irreversible commits, not to the player’s subjective experience of time passing.

From the Classic “Turn” to the Hard Turn

Traditional RTS games usually represent time in one of two ways:

• Continuous time: the simulation runs constantly, and the player acts within an uninterrupted flow.
• Discrete turns: each player acts, the system resolves, and the state changes.

TCW breaks this dichotomy by introducing the concept of the hard turn.

A hard turn is not an instant, a tick, or a frame.
It is a causal event.

Originally conceived as a “per-turn update,” the hard turn in TCW has evolved into something more precise:

A hard turn is a sequential set of updates executed when the system can close uncertainty and commit state.

In other words:
time does not advance while actions are being taken,
time advances when outcomes can be confirmed.

Uncertainty and Causality

During gameplay, players make decisions continuously:

• moving resources
• opening routes
• negotiating
• speculating
• preparing conflicts

However, most of these actions exist in a non-canonical state. They are intent, preparation, accumulated pressure. They live in local layers of the simulation but do not yet constitute history.

The hard turn appears when the following happens:

A set of decisions reaches a point where uncertainty can no longer be sustained, and the system must resolve consequences.

That moment is what we call:

uncertainty collapses into causality

Time as Differential Accumulation

From the point of view of TCW—especially at its highest layer (LOD0)—time is not measured in seconds, minutes, or CPU cycles.

It is measured in canonical deltas.

• If there is no structural change → no time has passed.
• If there is an irreversible change → time advances.

This leads to a counterintuitive but fundamental implication:

You can play for hours without time “passing” for the universe.
And a single action can advance decades.

Time in TCW is accumulative and differential:

• accumulative because each delta is added to historical state,
• differential because only the difference between committed states matters.

The Hard Turn as Informational Collapse

Here TCW connects directly with the classic Traveller framework.

In Traveller, the Imperium does not live in real time:

• information travels with delay,
• decisions are made with incomplete data,
• power is exercised over the last confirmed state, never over an absolute present.

TCW adopts this principle and turns it into an RTS mechanic:

• while information has not arrived,
• while it has not been confirmed,
• while it has not been validated,

the universe does not “know” what has happened.

The hard turn is therefore the moment when:

• valid information arrives,
• effects are consolidated,
• the system can update its global state.

It is not a “tick.”
It is an act of recognition.

The Sequence of a Hard Turn

A hard turn in TCW is not a single update but an ordered sequence:

1. Narrative vectors produced by gameplay are aggregated.
2. Decisions that are causally relevant are validated.
3. Conflicts and incompatibilities are resolved.
4. A new structural state is committed.
5. Consequences are propagated to higher layers.

Only at the end of this process:

• the state is considered real,
• time has advanced,
• history has changed.

Consequences for RTS Gameplay

This temporal model has clear implications:

• The player does not “play against the clock,” but against uncertainty.
• Information, logistics, and control of flows are as important as direct action.
• There is no automatic progress: without causal decisions, there is no history.
• The system can remain stable, latent, or inactive without degradation.

The TCW universe can afford to stay “at rest,” because time does not erode it.
Only meaningful action transforms it.

Conclusion

In The Corporate Wars, time does not flow.

Time:

• is confirmed,
• is recorded,
• is accumulated.

Each hard turn is the moment when the universe stops speculating and starts remembering.

Because in TCW, as in any real complex system,
history does not advance while actions are being taken, but when the outcome can no longer be doubted.