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Project-M/Docs/Vault/01_Vision/Pillars.md
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kronic c87dd04e87 Docs: truth pass over CLAUDE.md, DRs and the MOCs (audit M13/M14/M15/M16/M19/L11/L12)
CLAUDE.md — it is loaded every session, so its errors cost the most:
- M13: it still said "No world code until the world-model spike passes
  its design review" while DR-049 has been `accepted` since 07-13 and the
  roadmap says PASSED. A hard contradiction between the two authority
  docs, with CLAUDE.md winning by being always-loaded — plausibly part of
  why Phase 2 never started. Now points at the build spec, warns it needs
  re-anchoring, and links the parked engine fork.
- Records the H2 hazard as a rule: a socket whose SparkId is missing from
  the baked AbilityDatabase silently reads Damage/Range/Cooldown 0.
- L12: the asmdef table was stale on all four rows; also notes the fifth
  compilation unit (Scripts/Editor has no asmdef) and that tests now
  reference Authoring.
- M19: per-machine setup — the machine-loss recovery checklist — was
  missing Blender + blendermcp (which the committed /art-dev skill
  hard-requires) and ctx7, and claimed a ${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR} in
  .mcp.json that isn't there.
- Structures / harvest / persistence / BefourStudios bullets rewritten:
  they described deleted subsystems.
- Net-zero rule honoured: the additions pushed it to 41,057 (over the
  40,960 hard limit), so two long art-pipeline bullets moved verbatim to
  the gotchas archive under a dated heading. 39,661 now — inside the
  file's own 39,936 soft ceiling.

- M14: DR-053 files the Bevy fork as PARKED. The guide was reachable from
  NOTHING — one file, zero inbound links, and its gating instruction
  lived only in machine-local memory, which CLAUDE.md explicitly forbids
  as a sole home. It now has a committed home and inbound links.
- DR-054 records this purge, including the three files that were in the
  delete set until their consumers were checked and turned out to be
  load-bearing.
- M15: 13 superseded DRs re-statused with `superseded_by`. Only DR-002
  carried the field before, though the project's own template prescribes
  it.
- M19: Home.md stated three wrong facts (latest DR, latest session, date)
  — refreshed. Pillars.md and Systems_Index.md now carry warning banners:
  both assert things the purges falsified, and Systems_Index still claims
  to be "the accurate map of what exists in code today".
- L11: the 4 genuinely-broken wikilinks fixed (typo'd DR filenames). Zero
  broken vault-internal links now.
- Session log written — the last three commits before today had none,
  breaking the protocol's own bookend rule.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-07 13:44:18 -07:00

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vision
pillars
draft 2026-05-29 gamevault/01-vision/pillars

[!warning] AUDIT NOTE 2026-08-07 — parts of this page are stale and self-contradictory. The 2026-08-06 audit found: the automation/persistent-base claims and the turret pillar describe a direction deleted by DR-051_Lantern_Realignment_Purge and DR-054_Audit_Purge_2026-08; and the page locks soft auto-target in-arc in one place and soft auto-target CUT in another. The CUT lock is the current one (DR-052_SoD_Facing_Underwater_Feel — manual aim is the SoD pillar). Treat Identity_Lantern as the live design and this page as pillars-plus-history until it is rewritten.

Design Pillars & Locked Decisions

The few non-negotiables every system must serve. Keep this short; promote only decisions that are truly locked.

[!info] Direction: LANTERN (locked 2026-07-13, DR-048_Lantern_Adoption_Full_Pivot). The mechanical pillars below still hold (Unity DOTS + Netcode, server-authoritative, 24 co-op, skill-expression combat, persistent base, automation-as-progression). What changed is the fiction + three subsystems: the fiction is now Identity_Lantern (not the Awakening Engine); combat sharpens to SoD-grade manual-aim skillshots (the soft auto-target era ends); the world becomes a seed-pinned pocket-graph where light is territory; the build layer becomes suit-frames + cultured Sparks + wild mutations. See the LANTERN locked decisions at the bottom.

Pillars

Combat is the primary verb; base + automation braid around it (locked 2026-06-08, DR-028_Combat_Primary_Verb_Depth_First). The fusion of all three is the identity — but as ONE braided loop with a single primary verb, never three co-equal, independently-deep modes. Roadmap: Path_to_Fun.

  1. Action-ARPG combat — the primary verb — twin-stick, controller-first (Hades / Risk of Rain 2 / Deep Rock Galactic feel); skill expression over stat-checks (dodge, read-and-react, a real ability kit). The moment-to-moment the other pillars serve.
  2. Co-op base power fantasy — braids in — 24 friends defend and grow a shared home base (V Rising / The Riftbreaker feel); the base is what you fight for and the siege's stakes.
  3. Automation as progression — braids in — self-running production that makes what you fight with (charges / munitions / turrets / upgrades) and that sieges threaten; rewards setup, not grind (The Riftbreaker / Core Keeper).
  4. Server-authoritative & deterministic — input-only clients, client prediction; the simulation is the source of truth. Co-op is non-negotiable, so every mechanic stays server-authoritative.

Locked decisions

  • Tech stack: Unity DOTS (Entities) + Netcode for Entities — server-authoritative, input-only clients, client prediction. Established 2026-05-29_Project_Setup.
  • Control (locked 2026-05-30): WASD movement, controller-first, directional / twin-stick aim with soft auto-target in-arc. 2026-05-30_M1_Player_Slice
  • Multiplayer (locked): small co-op 24, client-hosted listen-server (BinaryWorlds + in-proc IPC; not the experimental SingleWorld host mode), PvE.
  • World (locked): persistent buildable home base + instanced/procedural expeditions. Sharpened 2026-06-17 (DR-037_Procedural_Expedition_Spine_Two_Classes_Persistent_Meta): the procedural Expedition region is the required combat SPINE (where the bulk of the fight happens); the base is the persistent HUB that never resets ("Mission-as-Sortie": Deep Rock Galactic / Cult of the Lamb). A "run" is a re-seeded Expedition region in the SAME world, not a new world or a base reset.
  • Automation (locked): progression accelerator — self-running production chains; data model designed to grow toward full logistics.
  • Combat-primary + depth-before-breadth (locked 2026-06-08): combat is the primary braided verb; no new system until one braided loop is genuinely fun, and every milestone ends with a play/fun-gate (not just green tests). DR-028_Combat_Primary_Verb_Depth_First · roadmap Path_to_Fun.
  • Classes + persistent meta (locked 2026-06-17, DR-037_Procedural_Expedition_Spine_Two_Classes_Persistent_Meta): two classesWarrior (melee anchor) + Ranger (ranged, manually aimed — not auto-fire, which would break skill-expression). Class identity = the primary-attack archetype; run-acquired meta-buffs ride the existing StatModifier/TimedModifier pipeline. A persistent meta-progression layer (SaveData v6) funds permanent growth at the hub; run combat-buffs are run-scoped. Reverses DR-031_Base_Mining_Loop_Cohesion's expedition pause (a real playtest — Scratch Notes 6152026 — showed the single arena goes stale).

LANTERN direction — locked decisions (2026-07-13, DR-048_Lantern_Adoption_Full_Pivot)

These sit on top of the mechanical pillars above (which are unchanged). Full design: Identity_Lantern; roadmap: Roadmap_Lantern_Slice.

  • The one rule: what the light holds, stays; what the dark holds, changes. Applied to the world = persistence; to the body = death; to the kit = builds; to the story = stakes.
  • World = seed-pinned pocket-graph (light is territory). Permanence is spendable: lit pockets persist, dark pockets re-knot. The hardest netcode problem — Lantern_World_Model_Spike (★review-first).
  • Combat feel = SoD-grade manual-aim skillshots (telegraphs, dashes, cooldown kits; soft auto-target cut). Suit-frames = chassis/class; Sparks (abilities-as-organs, cultured) graft into sockets; wild mutations are the augment layer (paced thresholds, evaporate at homecoming, Tallow fix-slots).
  • Death = the split: flame returns cheap (kit works within minutes); cargo + fixed mutations + raw organs strand with the suit — recovery runs are optional value-runs, never mandatory kit-repair.
  • Session-only burn (the Lamp burns only while a session runs — no offline punishment). Hosting = Wicks travel; worlds are saves (Valheim contract). Loss ceiling = pockets, never a shelf.
  • The slice's falsifiable test: does pinning a pocket feel like winning, and does a stranded suit feel worth a second descent? — the only gate that matters.