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Roadmap Phases

Phase 1: Playable Core

Goal: prove the async expedition MMO loop with a contained but complete economy.

Recommended scope:

  • 1 launch region: Frontier Marches centered on Trevalkaan
  • Trevalkaan as the main city hub plus nearby march ring outposts and expedition sites
  • one human-like playable race at launch, with variation coming from lineage and village origin
  • 6 starting archetype affinity packages
  • skill-based progression with no global player level
  • 30 distinct enemies across at least 6 active families
  • 6 elite encounters and 3 bosses or apex threats
  • solo missions
  • async group missions
  • hunger, thirst, fatigue, and basic climate pressure
  • farming, fisheries, cooking, and water logistics
  • town supply and demand simulation
  • town upgrade and degradation states
  • dynamic area and town event system driven by local conditions
  • gathering, refining, crafting, repair, and salvage loops
  • material relevance model that keeps staple resources valuable at all progression stages
  • direct trade
  • regional market
  • basic teaching, mentorship, and apprenticeship systems
  • NPC-generated work boards (town board, event board, guild board)
  • codex, monster knowledge, and map discovery

Phase 2: Economy Depth

Goal: expand information trade, logistics, and player-created work.

Recommended scope:

  • hireable NPC hands for narrow delegated tasks such as transport, workshop support, or field labor
  • surveying and map sales
  • caravan gameplay
  • broader crafting chains
  • regional specialization
  • stronger guild identity systems
  • expanded guild academies and teaching infrastructure
  • expanded town projects and district upgrades
  • more regions and monster families
  • broader event chains, seasonal pressures, and regional event diversity

Phase 3: Political Layer

Goal: add territorial control and deeper player governance.

Recommended scope:

  • town ownership
  • controlled taxation
  • town upgrades or policies
  • treasury systems
  • scheduled conflict windows
  • rare world events tied to regional control
  • multi-town logistics and regional trade blocs

Development Rule

Do not bring in live action combat or high-frequency synchronous simulation before the async core, economy, and governance loops are proven.

Phase 1 Build Order

Phase 1 scope is large. This build order defines what to build first so the core loop is playable as early as possible. Each milestone is independently testable.

Milestone 0 — Infrastructure (build first, nothing else works without it)

  • Cloudflare project setup: Workers, D1, KV, R2, Pages
  • D1 migration runner configured (wrangler d1 migrations apply)
  • JWT_SECRET and ADMIN_SECRET bindings set
  • Auth endpoints: register, login, refresh, logout
  • Auth middleware working in Workers
  • Basic SvelteKit shell: /login, /register, top bar, bottom nav stub
  • CI pipeline: lint, type-check, wrangler deploy --env staging

Test: can create account, log in, receive JWT, call a protected route.

Milestone 1 — Character Creation and Board (first playable moment)

  • Character creation flow (6-step wizard) + POST /api/characters
  • D1 tables: account, character, character_skill, character_flag, inventory_item
  • Board system: board_item table + board generation from authored YAML templates
  • GET /api/board/:locationId reading from KV snapshot
  • POST /api/board/:itemId/accept creating an expedition record
  • Expedition table: expedition, expedition_participant
  • /board/[locationId] client route with card list
  • Onboarding flags: first_session, intro_arc_active
  • One village (Talmaes), one intro arc sequence (3 tasks), 5 authored board order templates

Test: new player can register, create character, arrive at village board, accept a task, see expedition in progress.

Milestone 2 — Expedition Resolution (the loop closes)

  • Expedition resolver: deterministic outcome from seed + character skills
  • Expedition settlement: write results to D1, distribute rewards (coin + items), write skill XP
  • GET /api/expeditions?status=resolved&since= for focus-triggered poll
  • Client notification: badge on Board nav item, result card on expedition detail page
  • Basic inventory: items awarded, shown on /character/inventory
  • Skill XP application: band advancement logic

Test: player accepts task, waits, returns to tab, sees result card, inventory updated, skill XP gained.

Milestone 3 — Town Simulation (world reacts)

  • TownSettlementDO with alarm-driven daily tick
  • town, town_reserve, town_daily_ledger tables
  • Daily tick pass: NPC baseline, consumption, spoilage, band resolution
  • KV town_snapshot:{id} written on tick
  • GET /api/towns/:id serving from KV
  • Board generation re-runs after tick; board reflects reserve bands
  • TownGovernanceDO stub (no player control yet)
  • One town (Trevalkaan) + one village (Talmaes) in simulation

Test: run manual tick via admin endpoint; reserve bands update; board changes urgency; price index moves.

Milestone 4 — Market (economy opens)

  • MarketExchangeDO: order book, fill matching, escrow
  • market_order, market_fill, warehouse_hold, market_price_index tables
  • Sell orders, buy orders (Trade ≥ Familiar only), partial fills
  • Warehouse hold on fill; collect action
  • Market client routes: browse, my-listings, warehouse
  • Price sparkline from market_price_history
  • Shortage badge from town KV snapshot

Test: player posts sell order; another player fills it; coin transfers; item moves to warehouse; buyer collects.

Milestone 5 — Trevalkaan and Intro Arc Completion (full onboarding)

  • Letter of Introduction gate: final intro task unlocks Trevalkaan board preview
  • Travel expedition type: village → Trevalkaan
  • Hall registration: F-rank accept action on board
  • Trevalkaan board live with F and E rank orders
  • flags.intro_arc_complete set on arrival
  • All 6 village intro arcs authored (Talmaes done in M1; remaining 5 villages)

Test: player completes 3-5 village tasks, receives Letter, travels to Trevalkaan, registers with Hall, sees city board.

Milestone 6 — Content Breadth (Phase 1 feature complete)

Everything from Phase 1 scope not yet implemented:

  • Remaining 5 monster families (25+ creatures with full content YAML)
  • 6 elite encounters + 3 boss templates
  • Hunger/thirst/fatigue/climate pressure affecting expedition outcome
  • Farming, fisheries, cooking, water logistics as expedition and delivery types
  • Town upgrades and degradation states (granary, well, barracks, market hall)
  • Dynamic event system live (EVT templates in catalog, event director in Town DO)
  • Gathering, refining, crafting, repair, salvage
  • Material relevance: staple resources always have demand
  • Teaching and apprenticeship (basic; no full guild academy)
  • Codex and map discovery entries populated for all content
  • Group expeditions (multi-participant via departure slots)
  • NPC guild (Adventurers Hall) F through C rank boards authored
  • Crafters Hall F through C rank boards authored

Phase 1 Cut List (explicitly deferred to Phase 2)

These are in Phase 1 scope but will be cut if timeline demands it:

Feature Defer reason
Auctions Market browse + direct orders sufficient for launch
Direct trade window Low usage; buy orders cover the use case
Clan system Player-owned guilds (below) cover the social need
Player-owned guilds Expensive to build; NPC guilds serve Phase 1
Town control + taxation Needs player guilds first; Phase 3
Teaching and apprenticeship Phase 1 lite version only (passive skill share on expedition)
A and S rank guild orders Build F–C, add D–B if content time allows
Email verification + password reset Security note in launch assumptions; Phase 2
WebSocket notifications Focus-poll sufficient for async play