Define baseline walking speed

AGRARIAN_DEVELOPMENT_ROADMAP.md

@@ -372,7 +372,7 @@ Target deliverable: A small group can join a server, spawn into one biome, gathe
 - [x] Implement first/third-person camera toggle.
 - [x] Implement movement.
 - [x] Implement sprinting.
-- [ ] Define real-world baseline walking speed.
+- [x] Define real-world baseline walking speed. Decision: baseline adult walking speed is `1.4 m/s` (`140 Unreal units/s`), with MVP tuning allowance up to about `1.6 m/s` for brisk walking. Movement speed does not scale with the `4 real hours = 1 in-game day` calendar.
 - [ ] Define real-world baseline running speed.
 - [ ] Connect movement speed to age, condition, strength, endurance, hunger, thirst, injury, carried weight, and terrain.
 - [ ] Implement crouching if needed.
@@ -1465,4 +1465,4 @@ Earliest incomplete foundation items:
 
 Immediate next item:
 
-- [ ] Define real-world baseline walking speed.
+- [ ] Define real-world baseline running speed.

Docs/MovementAndTimeScaleBaseline.md

@@ -0,0 +1,90 @@
+# Movement And Time Scale Baseline
+
+Date: 2026-05-15
+
+## Decision
+
+Agrarian should keep physical movement close to real-world human pace. The MVP
+calendar can remain compressed at `4 real hours = 1 in-game day`, but walking,
+running, swimming, climbing, animal movement, and vehicles should be measured in
+real distance per real second.
+
+Do not multiply player movement speed by the calendar time scale.
+
+## Why
+
+The world is built around real terrain and real distances. If a tile is 1 km by
+1 km, the player should experience that kilometer as a real distance, not as a
+distance that changes when the calendar scale changes.
+
+Calendar compression is for crop growth, weather passage, day/night rhythm,
+sleep, hunger pressure, and long-term life simulation. Movement speed is for
+the feel of a body moving through terrain.
+
+If we scale movement with the day length, travel will stop feeling grounded.
+Players will cross valleys, fields, roads, and forests at speeds that do not
+match what they see on screen.
+
+## MVP Baseline Walking Speed
+
+Baseline adult walking speed:
+
+- `1.4 meters per second`
+- `140 Unreal units per second`
+- about `5.0 kilometers per hour`
+- about `12 minutes` to walk across a flat 1 km tile edge-to-edge
+
+MVP tuning allowance:
+
+- The default playable walking speed may be tuned up to about
+  `1.6 meters per second` if the first playable build feels too sluggish.
+- That tuning should still be treated as a brisk real walk, not a hidden travel
+  multiplier.
+- Terrain, injury, hunger, thirst, carried weight, weather, age, and endurance
+  can reduce this baseline later.
+
+## Relationship To The 4-Hour Day
+
+With a 4-hour day, one in-game hour lasts 10 real minutes. If a player walks for
+10 real minutes, the world clock advances about one in-game hour.
+
+That is acceptable for the MVP. It creates survival pressure without making the
+player physically move at unrealistic speed.
+
+The tradeoff is that long travel consumes meaningful daylight. That is a design
+feature for Agrarian, because planning, shelter, food, water, roads, mounts,
+boats, vehicles, and eventually settlements should matter.
+
+## What We Should Not Do
+
+- Do not make walking 4x faster to compensate for a compressed day.
+- Do not make early-game walking feel like jogging.
+- Do not solve long-distance travel by hiding scale changes in character speed.
+- Do not make one real day equal one game day for the MVP just to make walking
+  math feel cleaner.
+
+## How To Keep The Game From Dragging
+
+Use systems that make sense in the world:
+
+- Start the MVP in a dense 1 km Ground Zero tile with meaningful nearby goals.
+- Keep early tasks local so the player is not walking across empty space.
+- Let paths, roads, tools, backpacks, carts, mounts, boats, and vehicles improve
+  travel over time.
+- Use sleep/rest, shelter, storage, and camp placement so time pressure becomes
+  part of strategy.
+- Tune hunger, thirst, weather exposure, and stamina around real seconds and the
+  4-hour day instead of inflating movement speed.
+
+## Open Follow-Up
+
+The next roadmap item should define baseline running speed. That pass should
+replace the current temporary sprint tuning with a realistic run/sprint model
+that separates:
+
+- normal walking;
+- brisk walking;
+- sustainable jogging/running;
+- short sprinting;
+- stamina cost and recovery;
+- injury/load/terrain modifiers.