The purpose of this document is to present the vision for our sandbox, both in gameplay and worldly lore. A blueprint of what we've been working on and where we're going!

After close to four years of Meranthe and experimenting with new ideas and systems, a lot has been learned. What people enjoy and what could do with adjustment.

This serves as a declaration of intent that yes, we've been working on features for the next installment and it will include a character wipe. As for the exact date and how that will be handled, we're not too sure yet but are excited to show off the many things we've been working on in the meantime.

Keep in mind, also, that a lot is going to change, and that can both be scary and exciting. We've put a lot of time into this so an open mind is appreciated! We want to ensure that the delivery is at its best with your feedback. **This is still in the early stages; we just want to talk about it the development publicly.**

# Design Philosophy
* Divorce fully from the concept of good and evil magic. Power should just be as terrifying in the wrong hands without the 'fel' label. Expand on the new combat system to showcase this, as well as interactable mini-events.
* Improve the game's accessibility (tutorials, menu readability, combat).
* Drastically lower the level grind by front-loading the majority of EXP once minimal requirements are met. Reward consistency rather than word count.
* Overhaul all classes under a new system, eliminating the old faith/essence/etc grind in preference for cooldown based rituals.
* Add depth to the economy (semi-finite resources, storage, thievery, settlement wages). Tiered dungeons that can be claimed and contested over via PvP warfare events.
* Expand on settlements with upgrades, costs, and income, and make their interactions with the wider world more meaningful (territory, trade, warfare).

## Features
A feature list summarising what's new. Continue to scroll to where we delve into more detail.

* **Tactical Content** - Fully expanded on beyond the public alpha with advanced classes and elemental specs.
* **Custom Skills** - New spells can be created by admins and DMs with a robust spell component system.
* **Menus** - Much of the UI has been remade, including the character sheet, crafting, character creation, and skill menu.
* **Tutorials** - Dedicated tutorials accessed via the splash screen that walk players through game mechanics.
* **Territory** - The map has been adapted into a 'zone' based system, where surrounding areas are misted into a fog of war. Each zone has its own unique resources, weather, and flavour.
* **Settlements** - Founding a settlement claims the zone. Settlements can be upgraded with resource investment (build a docks, designate a building as a blacksmith or inn, etc)
* **Expeditions**: Moving, temporary settlements, that are used as a means of engaging in warfare as well as resource harvesting.
* **Dungeons**: The dungeon system has been remade, and all dungeons are semi-finite in their treasure. Settlements and expeditions can set up a mine to harvest higher tiers of resources and enemies.
* **Crafts & Lifeskill Progression**: Characters now gain support points per level, separate from combat investment. Used to upgrade your crafts (Blacksmith, Alchemy, Medic, and Enchantment) as well as your lifeksills (Cooking, Foraging, Mining, Farming and Fishing). Crafts are more expensive to invest into than lifeskills.
* **Classes**: The class system has underwent a complete overhaul, moving from 'numbers-go-up' accruement to timed actions on cooldowns and opportunities to engage in the map to host mini-events (both social and PvP oriented).
* **Regional Weather & Ambience**: Weather and ambience is now customizable by zone. Here's [an example](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gY6K_dxhqP8_rtiRGRL2uN4xrKMBOTo4/view?usp=sharing) while indoors by a fireplace on a stormy night.

## Territory - Zones
The map is now organised into zones, where each area has its own flavour text (name, description, occupying nation, etc) and resources. This allows players to better organise their kingdoms and for terrain and travel to have a real effect, rather than being able to fly through the world in a minute or less.

Characters can freely return to their settlement at any point, if not engaged in conflict. Characters can also fast travel from their settlement to any active expeditions.

In play, how this might look: A nation sends out an expedition with the intent to ransack another, moving gradually towards it, but has been spotted by scouts of the target. The target nation might intercept with their own war camp and initiate a PvP event. Then you have potential allies and other actors in play (broker a deal with a neighbour, or team up against them, etc).

Other benefits include, particularly organisation wise:
* Map Editors - Allows them to build on the world in a more organised way. Makes areas feel distinct rather than 'one giant map'.
* Dungeon Masters - Can also influence zones. For example, an event is held and now the zone has a chance for ash rain, or is in perpetual nightfall for a time.
* Settlement - Makes territory advantages distinct in the case of a settlement's borders, as well as claiming zones for resources, watchtowers, etc.
* Travel Time - No longer need to informally police travel time, as characters explore the world on a light cooldown. Adjustable. Ends large peanut galleries of 15+ characters for a single battle and makes location more IC.

### Resources
Zone resources are an abstraction that represents the sum total of the resources that a zone can produce. For example, a forested map zone that has a river could produce 2 lumber and 1 fish on a yearly basis. These resources are transferred to the settlement's storage when the year ticks over. Zone resources can then be spent on settlement/zone upgrades.

This will replace or supplement the existing systems that fully rely on coin to develop settlements further. This encourages trade and warfare between settlements, for example a mountainous nation may have a steady supply of common metals but desire lumber.

##### Settlement Trade
Settlements are able to form alliances and become trading partners.

#### Dungeons
In addition to passive resources, settlements can also build mines to harness dungeons fully. This replaces our monster den and resource node setup. A 'dungeon' is essentially any isolated resource area, the typical cave with ore and such.

Once a mine is built, on a yearly cooldown, a settlement can upgrade it to access the next tier of enemies and resources.

The major difference between current and future Meranthe is that resources are not 'infinite'. Scarcity currently doesn't exist in that the respawns are simply set on a timer, but the approach here is semi-finite spawns rather than endless passive gains. This grants us better control over the world and the flow of resources, which means demand for unique/rare materials can be higher, and also allows us to introduce new dungeons when desired without worrying too much without saturation.

As a dungeon's resources are depleted then they spawn less often. A resource area with 1000 copper might appear in abudance but when that supply is less than 100 it will appear 10x less, although it does slowly regenerate.

Beyond mundane items and creatures, the dungeon must be upgraded via a mine. This is typically organised into four tiers.

**Here is a simple example:**

**Dragonspire**
**Mundane Resources**
Copper
**Standard Resources**
Iron
**Exceptional Resources**
Mythril
Silver
**Epic Resources**
Eternite
Gold
**Creature Count**
**Mundane** - Goblin
**Standard** - Fire Elemental
**Exceptional** - Wyrmling
**Epic** - Dragon

# Settlements

## Expeditions
A settlement can set down an expedition on an adjacent zone, and that expedition can move to a new zone once per day. It has limited decor permissions but things like encamptments and banners. This allows a settlement's populace to explore the world as a group, to harvest resources, trade, and also engage in PvP events.

## Investments
Settlements can spend resources to upgrade adjacent zones and also directly buildings. Some examples include but are not limited to:

### Zone Upgrades
* Quarry
* Fishery
* Road
* Farm

### Building Upgrades
* Inn
* Docks
* Blacksmith
* Alchemist
* Glassworks

### Guilds
The guild system's backend has been rewritten to grant modular permission controls, as well as ease of expansion in the future.
# Crafting
## Support Points
There are four main crafts: Blacksmith, Alchemy, Medic, and Enchantment. There are five lifeskills: Cooking, Farming, Fishing, Foraging, and Mining.

Characters gain support points as they level up, and can allocate it to these areas (with crafts being more expensive).

While there are limited points to invest, they no longer deplete your spell point pool. Characters can specialize in particular crafts and lifeskills.

### Blacksmith
The Blacksmith craft has been remade, moving away from set recipes to a 'furnace' and 'anvil' approach; the former is used to craft things such as fuel, object moulds, and alloys, while the latter is for the finishing touches and personalization. There are no set recipes (such as tyrium sword) but gear types and contributing factors along the way.


### Alchemy
Adds a host of new potions for combat purposes (oils, bombs, health potions, etc). Characters can add up to 3 consumables to be used via the 'item' action during combat.

### Medic
Now a public craft that can be unlocked and progressed.

### Enchantment
Runes, rituals, etcera, that once mastered can open new branches (such as Druidry and Necromancy). Included in this alongside standard enchantments are:
- Gemcraft (rings and amulets).
- Runestones (can be customised visually) - used to influence zones, similar to the old 'Festival' but with map presence and potential bonus actions.
- Spell Scrolls (consumable items).
- Idols (performing rituals in battle, varying effects depending on Domain).

# World Building

## Great Works
Players who hit level 23 gain the ability to create a Great Work, similar to how Signature Dish works currently. When a player creates a Great Work, they designate an unbound book with a minimum word count to be the work. They then select the subject of the Great Work from a list based on their character. As an example, a skilled cook who also knows Wayfinding could write one about cooking, Wayfinding, or perhaps some other learned skill. Once a book is designated as a Great Work, it is bound and marked as a unique item.

A completed Great Work can be studied by a player every 5 years, which increases each time it's studied. Studying a Great Work grants a temporary, long-term buff dependent on the subject of the book. A Great Work cannot be studied by the same person twice.

This mechanic has a number of upsides:

Experienced characters can help ensure their names are known by writing Great Works that can be passed on for decades or centuries IC.
Libraries have something new to hold on to, giving them a new form of life.

The list of Great Work subjects include, but are not limited to:
- Medical (+EXP Multiplier, +Medic Energy Reduction)
- Blacksmithing (+EXP Multiplier, temporary increase in max level)
- Runes (+EXP)
- Wayfinding (+Rift Energy Reduction, must have wayfinding)
- Economics (+5% Gold Gain)
- Divination (+1 Fortune)

# Media

## World Map
(This uses Meranthe's current map, not the new map)
<div style="position:relative; width:100%; height:0px; padding-bottom:53.594%"><iframe allow="fullscreen" allowfullscreen height="100%" src="https://streamable.com/e/dd8q9a?" width="100%" style="border:none; width:100%; height:100%; position:absolute; left:0px; top:0px; overflow:hidden;"></iframe></div>

## Tutorials
<div style="position:relative; width:100%; height:0px; padding-bottom:47.969%"><iframe allow="fullscreen" allowfullscreen height="100%" src="https://streamable.com/e/68119e?" width="100%" style="border:none; width:100%; height:100%; position:absolute; left:0px; top:0px; overflow:hidden;"></iframe></div>
## Trading

## Resource Ledger

## Settlement Management


## Crafting

## Character Creation