138 lines
5.3 KiB
Markdown
138 lines
5.3 KiB
Markdown
# MVP Survival And Readiness Criteria
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This document locks the early MVP target for time, survival pressure, player
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success, failure, and closed-test readiness.
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## Day And Night
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MVP rule: day/night presentation should mimic the real Earth region represented
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by the loaded map tile, while the gameplay calendar uses the MVP pacing target
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of `4 real hours = 1 in-game day`.
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For Ground Zero, weather and sunlight should come from the same real-world tile
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context so the player feels like they are standing in that place. The sky should
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respect the region's local time zone, sunrise/sunset shape, season, and weather
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direction as the system matures, but the MVP gameplay day is still compressed
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to four real hours so players can experience a full survival cycle in a
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reasonable test session.
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Implementation target:
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- The server owns time and replicates it to clients.
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- The MVP gameplay calendar target is `4 real hours = 1 in-game day`.
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- Ground Zero day/night presentation uses the real local time zone and regional
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solar/weather context for its real-world coordinates.
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- Sunrise, sunset, day length, night length, and seasonal light should be based
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on the tile location as the system matures.
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- The MVP fallback can use the accelerated 24-hour gameplay clock with
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conservative fixed night bounds until real sunrise/sunset lookup is
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implemented.
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- Additional time acceleration is allowed for test commands and automation, but
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should not replace the default four-hour MVP day for normal playtests.
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Design consequence:
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- The sky stays regionally grounded even while the gameplay day is compressed.
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- Skills, tools, teamwork, shelter, storage, domestication, and infrastructure
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improve what players can accomplish inside the compressed gameplay calendar.
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- Natural biological systems should not be casually compressed just to make
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progress feel faster.
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## Survival Pressure Target
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The first playable MVP should feel difficult but learnable.
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Target experience:
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- A new solo player can survive the first session by gathering, drinking,
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crafting a basic tool, making fire, and using shelter.
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- Ignoring hunger, thirst, cold, injury, or weather can kill the player.
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- Death should usually feel preventable after the player understands the rules.
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- Early play should be inefficient and hands-on.
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- Progress should noticeably reduce friction through better tools, storage,
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shelter, food access, water access, and knowledge.
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Early survival pressure should come from:
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- thirst and freshwater access;
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- hunger and low-yield gathering;
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- cold exposure, especially at night or in bad weather;
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- injury/damage;
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- fire and shelter reliability;
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- limited inventory and carrying capacity;
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- weather changing the risk profile.
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## Basic Success Loop
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The MVP loop is complete when a player can:
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1. Spawn into the Ground Zero tile after the startup and character-selection
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flow.
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2. Read the environment enough to find immediate resources.
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3. Gather primitive materials.
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4. Drink or collect water.
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5. Craft at least one useful primitive tool.
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6. Make or use fire.
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7. Build or use a primitive shelter.
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8. Survive weather and nighttime pressure.
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9. Store or preserve some useful progress.
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10. Leave and return after restart with core state preserved.
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The loop should show the intended long-term direction: survival starts with
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hands, improvised tools, and local knowledge, then moves toward better tools,
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storage, shelter, domestication, farming, logistics, and cooperation.
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## Failure Conditions
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The MVP should support clear player failure states:
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- death from health reaching zero;
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- dehydration;
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- starvation;
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- cold exposure/hypothermia;
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- injury or damage;
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- inability to recover after poor preparation for night/weather.
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For MVP, failure does not need a complete generational inheritance system.
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Respawn rules can be simple, but death should still cost enough to make survival
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matter.
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## First Playable Internal Milestone
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The first playable internal milestone is ready when:
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- one Ground Zero tile loads as the playable map;
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- the map uses the Ground Zero tile context for time/weather direction;
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- the player can gather, drink, craft, make fire, and use shelter;
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- hunger, thirst, body temperature, and health can all affect survival;
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- one meaningful death path works;
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- core state survives a server restart;
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- the startup flow reaches character selection before entering the world;
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- two players can join the same server for a basic multiplayer smoke test.
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## Closed-Test Readiness
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Closed testing can begin when:
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- the Windows build installs and launches on a clean test machine;
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- the public or LAN tile endpoint is stable for the test group;
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- onboarding tells players enough to start without exposing debug internals;
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- at least one full day/night survival test passes;
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- basic telemetry/logging is available for crashes and major failures;
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- known critical bugs are documented;
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- reset/recovery instructions exist for the test server;
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- testers can report bugs with build version, map tile, and reproduction notes.
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## Explicit Non-Goals For This MVP
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Do not block first playable MVP on:
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- full Earth-scale streaming;
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- full real-weather provider integration;
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- full sunrise/sunset astronomy accuracy;
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- mature farming/livestock life cycles;
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- full economy or AGR utility;
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- full generational succession;
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- polished character art;
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- public Steam/Epic release readiness.
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