Core Game Loop Additions
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id: DR-013
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title: M6 — "The Aether Cycle" core loop + base/expedition region split via GhostRelevancy
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status: accepted
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date: 2026-06-03
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tags:
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- decision
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- netcode
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- ghost-relevancy
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- world-architecture
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- core-loop
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- m6
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permalink: gamevault/07-sessions/decisions/dr-013-m6-aether-cycle-region-split
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---
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# DR-013 — M6 "The Aether Cycle" core loop + base/expedition region split
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## Context
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M1–M5.5 + polish delivered a systems-complete prototype (predicted player, data-driven combat, co-op,
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physics/CC, home-base grid + shared storage, escalating Husk `WaveSystem`, death/respawn, VFX/HUD, Synty
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world, KBM/gamepad aim) — but with **no game loop**. The roadmap scoped M6 narrowly as "server-authoritative
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grid build placement via RPC."
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A `/dots-dev` research + design pass (Dome Keeper, Deep Rock, Hades, Risk of Rain, Vampire Survivors, Noita,
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Warframe/Control/Bastion) reframed M6 as **the first vertical slice of the actual core game loop** — *The
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Aether Cycle* — reusing the ~70% of loop systems that already exist. The operator chose four directions:
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**persistent base + procedural sorties** (death = respawn, not wipe); **separate base/expedition scenes**;
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**multiple resource types** (Aether/ore/biomass); narrative lean **"The Awakening Engine"** (base = recharging
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hibernation-pod, Aether restores memory+power, a guiding voice toward "THEM"). Full plan: see
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[[2026-06-03_M6_Aether_Cycle_CoreLoop]].
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The core loop is a **Dome-Keeper two-phase rhythm**: **Expedition** (gather resources from a procedural field,
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soft incursion timer) → **Defend** (a wave assaults the base; you + built structures hold) → **Build/Charge**
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(spend resources to place/upgrade structures *and* ability tiers — one shared economy) → repeat, escalating,
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with a long-arc goal meter toward THEM. Mechanically this is pure fulfilment of the locked [[Pillars]] (action
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ARPG + co-op base + automation + *persistent base + instanced/procedural expeditions*) — **no pillar changes**;
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only the fiction skin evolves (Aether/Awakening-Engine vs. [[Identity]]'s industrial-colony/Blight framing),
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which is reconcilable and tracked as a follow-up, not a mechanical rework.
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## Decision
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**The milestone is staged to de-risk the netcode world-split FIRST. Stages 0–1 are implemented + runtime-validated; Stages 2–4 are scoped for the continuation.**
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1. **Base/expedition split = ONE server world, two spatial REGIONS at a coordinate offset, scoped per-connection by `GhostRelevancy` — NOT `SceneSystem` streaming.** This **supersedes DR-008's framing** that the split requires Option-C async subscene streaming (which DR-008 deferred). `RegionTag { byte Region }` (server-only, NOT a `[GhostField]`; `RegionId.Base=0` / `Expedition=1`); `RegionMath.RegionOrigin` puts the expedition at `baseCenter + (1000,0,0)`. A server `RegionRelevancySystem` (in `GhostSimulationSystemGroup`, before `GhostSendSystem`) sets `GhostRelevancyMode.SetIsIrrelevant` and, each tick, marks every region-tagged ghost **irrelevant to each connection whose player is in a different region**. `SetIsIrrelevant` (not `SetIsRelevant`) was chosen so **untagged/global ghosts stay relevant to everyone for free** — only cross-region ghosts are hidden. Verified API shape on the installed Netcode **1.13.2** via `unity_reflect` (the 1.10 published docs were closest): `GhostRelevancy` singleton with `GhostRelevancyMode` + `NativeParallelHashMap<RelevantGhostForConnection,int> GhostRelevancySet`; `RelevantGhostForConnection { int Connection; int Ghost }` (`Connection` = `NetworkId.Value`, `Ghost` = `GhostInstance.ghostId`).
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2. **Region transit = `RegionTransitRequest { byte TargetRegion }` `IRpcCommand`** (mirrors the `StorageOpRequest` recipe — byte code, plain blittable, applied in the plain server `SimulationSystemGroup`, NOT the predicted loop). `RegionTransitSystem` resolves the sender's player via `ReceiveRpcCommandRequest.SourceConnection` → `NetworkId` → `GhostOwner`, flips its `RegionTag`, and teleports its `LocalTransform.Position` to the region origin. Players are tagged `RegionTag{Base}` on spawn (`GoInGameServerSystem`); the shared storage ghost (`SharedStorageSpawnSystem`) and Husks (`WaveSystem`) are tagged `RegionTag{Base}`.
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3. **Macro-loop director = a server-authoritative state machine.** `CycleState { [GhostField] byte Phase; [GhostField] int CycleNumber; [GhostField] uint PhaseEndTick }` (+ `CyclePhase` byte consts Expedition/Defend/Build) — currently a **server-only singleton**, pre-annotated with `[GhostField]`s so it drops onto the runtime-spawned CycleDirector ghost unchanged when the client HUD is wired. `CyclePhaseSystem` (plain server `SimulationSystemGroup`, `[UpdateBefore(WaveSystem)]`) advances **Expedition (timed) → Defend (wave-driven) → Build (timed) → next cycle**, all on wrap-safe `NetworkTick` math (`TickUtil.NonZero` + `IsNewerThan`, never raw `uint <`). It **gates `WaveSystem`**: a one-line early-out (`if (TryGetSingleton<CycleState>(out var c) && c.Phase != CyclePhase.Defend) return;`) so the base-defense wave only spawns during Defend. Defend ends when the wave has run for this phase (`WaveState.WaveNumber > DefendStartWave`), is fully spawned, and no Husks remain (`CycleRuntime.DefendStartWave` is server-only bookkeeping, kept off the replicated struct).
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4. **No new asmdefs.** New code under `…/World/` in Simulation (`RegionComponents`, `RegionTransitRequest`, `CycleComponents`) and Server (`RegionRelevancySystem`, `RegionTransitSystem`, `CyclePhaseSystem`); two one-line edits each to `GoInGameServerSystem` (tag player Base) and `WaveSystem` (Defend gate + tag Husk Base). The Server asmdef already references `Unity.NetCode` → `GhostRelevancy`/`GhostInstance` reachable with no asmdef edit.
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## Consequences
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- **Validated at runtime on 6.4.7 (single in-editor client), headless via `execute_code`:**
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- **Stage 0 (relevancy):** player spawns `RegionTag{Base}`; sends `RegionTransitRequest{Expedition}` → server player teleports to X=1000, region flips, **the base-region storage ghost despawns on the client** (`clientStorageGhosts` 1→0); transit back → storage **re-granted** (0→1), server==client position (no desync). Clean console (only the known tick-batching warning).
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- **Stage 1 (cycle):** full loop **Expedition → Defend → Build → Expedition** auto-advances on timers; **CycleNumber increments 1→2**; the wave spawns **only** in Defend (husks=0 in Expedition); **escalation persists across cycles** (wave 1 = 4 Husks → wave 2 = 6); Husks carry `RegionTag{Base}`.
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- **Delivers the "instanced/procedural expeditions" pillar without the streaming machinery DR-008 deferred** — region-relevancy reuses the existing runtime-ghost spawn path verbatim (no baked/prespawned ghosts → no prespawn section-ack/CRC handshake), and relevancy is a per-tick server-only write with no async-load race. Co-op drop-in is trivial (a connection without a spawned player is simply absent from the map and sees everything).
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- **Foundation for Stages 2–4** (the continuation): resources + harvest (multi-type, into the generalised `StorageEntry` ledger), build placement + turret + ability tiers (the original M6 RPC), persistence (host JSON, new scope vs. DR-008), goal meter — plus wiring the deferred **client HUD + cycle-state replication** (move `CycleState` onto a runtime-spawned CycleDirector ghost; the `[GhostField]`s are already in place).
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## Open / deferred
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- **Client HUD + `CycleState` replication** — deferred from Stage 1; bundle with the Stage 2 HUD (resource ledger readout). Needs the CycleDirector ghost prefab (duplicate `UpgradePickup.prefab`) + a baked spawner.
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- **Stages 2–4** — resources/harvest, build placement/turret/ability-tiers, persistence/goal. See the plan in the session log.
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- **Fiction reconciliation** — adopt the Awakening-Engine/Aether naming into [[Identity]] (currently industrial-colony/Blight); operator sign-off before rewriting the Identity doc. Light-touch in M6.
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- **Disk persistence** — the persistent-base run model now requires the save/load DR-008 deferred (Stage 4 = new scope).
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- **Teleport fidelity** — transit lands the CC character near (not exactly on) the region origin (collide-and-slide settling); the real game will land players on a designated pad/ring slot.
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## Build gotcha recorded this session
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- **Editing an existing `[BurstCompile]` ISystem's SystemAPI query set on an UNFOCUSED editor can leave a stale Burst binary** while the managed assembly recompiles with shifted source-gen query indices → a runtime `InvalidOperationException: "… required component type was not declared in the EntityQuery"` from an *unrelated* `GetSingleton<T>` in that system (the Burst stack reports the *old* line number — the tell). Root cause: Burst's async recompile doesn't complete on an unfocused editor (same family as the [[CLAUDE]] M2 Burst-cache gotcha). **Workaround used:** disable Burst for the session (`Jobs ▸ Burst ▸ Enable Compilation`; verified `BurstCompiler.Options.EnableBurstCompilation == false`) so every system runs the fresh managed source-gen. **Permanent fix = restart Unity** (clears the Burst cache) then re-enable Burst. Prefer a **focused** editor for Burst-affecting edits.
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Mirrors the server-authoritative + deterministic + co-op pillars from [[Pillars]]; supersedes the streaming framing in [[DR-008_M5_HomeBase_BaseLayer_Storage]]; reuses the byte-RPC + runtime-ghost + tick-safe patterns from [[DR-008_M5_HomeBase_BaseLayer_Storage]] / [[DR-009_GameFeel_Identity_FirstBlood]].
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