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Exploration, Cartography, and Resource Discovery

Design Goals

Exploration should be a real profession and information economy, not just a checkbox that reveals the map once.

See map-tiles-fog-and-cartography.md for the detailed tile, fog-of-war, and map-sharing model.

Core Exploration Loop

  1. choose a survey target or route
  2. bring scouting tools, supplies, and specialists
  3. travel and resolve route events
  4. discover or confirm tiles, sites, hazards, and monster presence
  5. return with new map knowledge, chart data, coordinates, or rumors
  6. use, share, or sell the information

Discoverable Content

  • mineral veins
  • herb fields
  • ruins and delves
  • monster dens
  • caravan shortcuts
  • water sources
  • seasonal hunting grounds
  • hazard zones

Dynamic events should be able to temporarily create, hide, move, or intensify these discoveries.

Map and Coordinate Items

Maps should be real trade goods, not just UI flags.

Higher Cartography skill should determine how well revealed tiles can be packaged into shareable map items.

Recommended map properties:

  • area covered
  • tile bounds
  • discovery quality
  • confidence rating
  • secrecy level
  • last verified time
  • hazard notes

Knowledge Sharing

Knowledge can move through:

  • direct map sale
  • guild archives
  • job board survey requests
  • group and guild sharing on expedition completion

Depletion and Drift

Discovered sites should not stay perfectly reliable forever.

Examples:

  • mineral veins can deplete
  • herb fields can move seasonally
  • monster dens can migrate
  • roads can become unsafe after raids

Area events should be one of the main drivers of this drift. Storms can expose wreck sites, blight can create herb demand, raids can close shortcuts, and magical surges can reveal hidden ruins.

That keeps surveying valuable instead of becoming a solved one-time activity.

Technical Model

Core Data

Store:

  • map_area
  • map_tile
  • site_template
  • site_instance
  • route_record
  • map_item
  • tile_snapshot
  • map_sheet
  • character_tile_knowledge
  • guild_map_archive_entry
  • resource_depletion_state

Use character_tile_knowledge as canonical per-player exploration record. Higher-level map summaries can be derived read models, not separate authoritative knowledge tables unless later docs define them explicitly.

Discovery Rules

Survey resolution should generate structured discoveries. A discovery should point to a site or route entity with quality and freshness, not just raw text.

Tradable Coordinates

A tradable coordinate or map item should reference a structured site record plus the finder quality. Lower-quality maps can include vague or stale locations, while high-quality maps are more precise and current.

Town Demand Integration

If a town needs iron, salt, water, herbs, or timber, its boards and market demand should favor exploration or mapping of sites that can solve that shortage.

Event-linked demands should amplify this further, creating short-lived map and discovery opportunities tied to current conditions.

  • monster knowledge and encounter tables
  • regional markets and map sales
  • resource extraction and crafting
  • town project planning and caravan routes