so, i had an idea for PCG'ing elementary material and mixed compound characteristics.
the characteristics of a material are numericals that describe how the material influences devices built using it or how the material behaves when in your cargo bay.
those characteristics are constant for pure materials, logically.
but what happens when the material is less pure?
the fraction of the material in the batch gets lower, which alters the characteristics of the material.
this fraction is somewhere between 0% and 100% (0.0 to 1.0) and i'll call the fraction simply x as of now, because its easier to type
the characteristics change along some simple formula f(x), this is something comparatively simple with few factors.
something along the lines of 1/(x+1) or e^-(x) or anything of similar complexity.
every material has independent formulas for each characteristic, so there may be independent f(x) for density, structural strenght, whichever characteristics materials end up having
for mixed compounds and alloys the functions of the individual ingredients get added together (or multiplied together, im not sure what would give the best gameplay)
example: material A has the function 1/(x+1) and material B has the function e^-(x).
we want to alloy it for the minimal value of the sum function (because its useful for our application and because its the more interesting example for the formulas i chose :V)
so the complete formula for the aloys behaviour is 1/(A+1) + e^-(B)
using 100% of component A (and 0% of B) gives a value of 1.366
using 100% of B gives 1.5, thats worse, so the value may be somewhere inbetween.
50% A and 50% B gives a value of 1.27, thats better
a bit more messing around gives a value of 1.26 for 37% A and 63% B
with more components it gets ever more complex and can give better results, but it also leads to more complexity when trying to design ones dream alloy.
which also gets more interesting the more materials one has available to mix into the alloy...
just some thought that recently appeared in my head as i was bored