GDD — Kinhold

1. Vision, pillars and era

DECIDEDMedieval survival and building game, 100% in the browser. A single online world: play alone, as a pair or in a group within the same world, with PvP.

DECIDEDAn era with progression: you start in the Early Middle Ages and technology advances up to the Late Middle Ages. No fantasy for now.

Pillars

• Realistic mechanics. What you would do in real life costs what it would cost.
• The world is huge and travel matters.
• From survival to kingdom, or to living well in isolation.
• The solo player has a complete game.
• Everything rests on knowledge, skill and equipment, not on character levels or stats.
• Skill-based combat, without health bars.
• What is yours is safe while you are away.

2. Platform, camera and product

DECIDEDOwn website with accounts. Paid server if needed. PC, mobile and tablet.

DECIDEDSemi-isometric third person with free rotation.

DECIDEDLanguages: English, Spanish and Russian.

DECIDEDFree with cosmetic-only premium content: recipes you unlock to craft nicer-looking versions of things (see section 20).

DECIDEDOptional tutorial always available in the pause menu: you can read about every system in the game.

DECIDEDCheaters: immediate ban, also by IP.

DECIDEDMinimum requirements: to be decided midway through development.

DECIDEDName: Kinhold. Domain and trademark registration still to be checked.

3. Visual style and sound

DECIDEDCode-generated low-poly 3D, with your reviews to fine-tune it.

DECIDEDSound and music that are relaxing and not harsh.

DECIDEDWorld style: «miniature realism» (style test v5): clean shapes, textures made by code, soft light with contact shadows, an uncropped world.

DECIDEDCharacters: never sculpted or invented by code. The body comes from the free MakeHuman mesh (CC0) and in the own workshop its clothing, hair, beard, skin and eyes are made by code. The animations are Quaternius's (CC0), transferred to that skeleton.

4. World and size

DECIDEDAn invented pseudo-Europe, 5 regions with their own style (architecture, clothing, names). Biomes larger than 100 km² in northern, temperate and southern bands. A coherent sea.

DECIDEDA 2 h day and a 1 h night. One season per real month.

DECIDEDEach region has its own resources to trade, but none are essential.

Size calculation

Assumptions: walking at about 5 km/h, a horse at a sustained trot at about 12 km/h, and the sea adds around 40% to the side of the map. One day-night cycle is 3 real hours.

DECIDEDA world of 256 × 256 km including the sea (chosen by valravnx on 27 Oct, with seed 66172, in the map sketches): mainland regions of about 75 × 75 km and an island region of about 2,000 km², separated by sea. Crossing a mainland region takes about 15 hours on foot or 6 on horseback.

DECIDEDNames (chosen by valravnx on 28 Oct): the continent is Kinland, and its five regions are Whitholm (the northeastern island: cold, rainy and limestone), Eikwold (northwest: forests, plains and coast), Rudmere (southwest: the warmest, holm oak woods on red sandstone, with the lake), Highfell (the central massif, with the highest peak) and Storaa (southeast: the driest, where the great river runs). They are regions, not countries: countries, if they ever come, will be made by the players.

DECIDEDPlaytest world: Whitholm (valravnx, 29 Oct): while testing with other people, the game is played only on the island (about 2,000 km²). The rest of the world exists, but a sea more than 20 km wide separates it and cannot be crossed by swimming. It will be opened later: if there are enough players, or by letting them discover it themselves when ships arrive. The island is divided into districts. Where you appear (valravnx, 30 Oct): each new player, at a random spot in three starting districts (Motdale, Breiddal and Strandvang, the vales and meadows of the east and south-east), always in ordinary biomes (never in the mountains, alpine pasture or snow) and on flat ground away from rivers. Its resources are discussed separately. The districts (valravnx, 30 Oct) are eight, each one or several whole river basins: Breiddal (the great south-eastern vale), Motdale (the eastern valley, where the rivers meet), Nordwold (the north), Lindholt (the north-west), Strandvang (the east coast), Furulid (the western slope of the sierra), Sudholt (the south) and Ravnsnes (the western peninsula). Each district is divided into zones of roughly 1 km² for clans (section 11).

Relief, rivers and forests at real scale

DECIDEDEverything at real scale, like a world still unexplored by man. There are plains, but the world does not feel like a giant flat: mountain ranges like the Pyrenees, with peaks of about 3,000 m, valleys about 1,000 m deep and passes to cross them; the plains lie in the low basins. From anywhere you can see relief on the horizon.

DECIDEDRivers of three sizes, depending on the water they gather: streams 1 to 3 m wide, which can be forded; rivers 10 to 30 m wide, with few fords; great rivers 50 to 150 m wide, which need a boat or a bridge.

DECIDEDTruly dense forests, with clearings. No paths at first: they form through use.

DECIDEDRelief matters: steep slopes slow you down when walking, carts cannot climb steep hills and on a hillside you have to level the ground to lay foundations.

DECIDEDSettling makes sense in specific places without forcing anyone: by the river there is water for thirst, fertile soil in the floodplain, current for the mill, and fords and bridges that can be controlled (and tolled).

Water and swimming

DECIDEDAt fords you cross on foot. In deep water you swim slowly and it tires you a lot. In great rivers, the current drags you downstream.

DECIDEDStamina and drowning (valravnx, 30 Oct): a single stamina, the same as when running with Shift. Swimming drains it, faster the heavier what you carry (clothes, armour and load): lightly dressed you last a good while; in mail and a gambeson, or carrying a log, it runs out almost at once. Without stamina you drown and die. You can go into the water in armour, but you drown sooner (it used to say you could not swim in armour).

DECIDEDCarts only cross at fords and bridges. That way fords and bridges are truly valuable.

5. Travel, map and sailing

DECIDEDWhitholm is the king's island, and it is mapped (valravnx, 31 Oct): when you arrive you are given the king's map, with the coast, the districts, the rivers and the city of Strandvang; nobody gets lost on the island. The continent (Kinland) is unexplored: there is no map of it, it is reached by ship and it has to be mapped. Endgame cartography: a cartographer's table to draw on paper what has been explored of the continent; the map is an item that can be copied, sold or stolen from you.

DECIDEDPaths form through use. Buildable bridges in various materials and shapes.

DECIDEDSailing in a late phase: design ships and sail with others.

6. Character, death and logging out

DECIDEDCreation: a few appearance settings, man or woman, and starting region. You start at a random accessible spot in the chosen region (never in the sea or on a peak).

DECIDEDNeeds: hunger, thirst, cold, heat and fatigue, with warnings in circles on the right; tapping them shows the effect and information.

DECIDEDLater on (an expansion after the first version of the survival milestone, not before): five more states, with their warning in the same circles. Wet (rain, swimming or crossing rivers; adds to cold), infected wound (if it isn't cleaned or stitched properly), spoiled food (raw or rotten meat; makes you ill), pain (after a fight or a fall, clumsier until healed) and drunk (beer and wine, with a downside in combat). Boredom, sadness or panic are not included: with the character asleep while offline they would penalise being away, and panic would go against skill-based combat.

DECIDEDThe character does not improve through levels or stats: everything depends on the player's knowledge, skill and equipment.

DECIDEDDeath: you respawn in your bound bed; without a bed, where you started the game. On death, roughly half of what you carry can be looted and the other half breaks. Permadeath is left for a future version.

DECIDEDLogging out: the character falls asleep in the world, goes to their bed automatically if not already in it, and shows a disconnected symbol above them.

DECIDEDWhat breaks on death is always chosen at random, to prevent exploits.

Can a sleeping character be attacked outside their lands?

DECIDED (provisional)Attackable for a few minutes, then not.

• Inside your lands (or your family's): the sleeping character is protected like your base, with offline protection.
• Outside your lands: when you log out, the character falls asleep and stays attackable where they are for a few minutes (for example, 5). After that time, if they have a bed they move to it; if not, they stay where they were, but nothing can be done to them any more.
• If you were in combat in the last minute before logging out, the vulnerable time is longer (for example, 15 minutes).
• The times are numbers to tune when we test.

7. Equipment, clothing and inventory

DECIDEDEquipment matters and everything is craftable. You start with little more than what you wear: a basic linen shirt and trousers.

DECIDEDCarrying works by slots. Carrying large things slows you down.

DECIDEDThe belt can be crafted in several ways. Backpacks have unique functions: for example, the firewood one is a frame of sticks shaped like a double L for carrying firewood on your back. At the base you leave some and pick up others, or none if you want to travel light.

DECIDEDClothing and armour matter for combat.

DECIDEDThe inventory is a panel with the slots of each body location, and the slots depend on the equipment you wear.

Base character slots

Belts

Single-function backpacks and frames

Clothing and protection in layers

Inventory panel

DECIDEDThe lists in this section are approved for now.

DECIDEDSlowdown: only if you are loaded to the maximum in everything does walking speed drop to 80%.

Layered clothing on the character

DECIDEDClothing and armour are seen worn, in layers: shirt (and hose) always; over them a tunic or dress; gambeson; mail; surcoat. Whatever is covered is not drawn.

DECIDEDAll of it can be customized in game: the dye of each garment, a coat of arms or design on the surcoat, and which layers you wear.

8. Gathering and resources

DECIDEDTrees fall, are transported and are cut; they grow back in real weeks and can be planted.

DECIDEDOre veins do not regenerate, but the world has plenty of material: it is not a scarce resource.

DECIDEDThe ordinary near everyone; the great, few and marked: there are small iron and coal veins all over the world (one of each in every area of about 14 km), so nobody has to travel far for everyday needs. There are also a few great veins, marked on the map, to exploit to the full. Whitholm, the playtest island, has its own great iron vein high in the sierra (valravnx, 30 Oct).

Proposed gatherables: section 3 of the analysis document.

Digging and mining

DECIDEDYou can dig the ground and open mines. Outside: trenches, moats and levelling for foundations with a round brush that lowers or smooths with soft edges. Inside the rock, each pick stroke removes a rounded handful of rock in the direction you face: tunnels go straight, uphill or curving.

DECIDEDNo grid look: inside, the rock is split into small cubes of about 50 cm, but the wall is drawn as a smooth surface wrapping them, with the rock's roughness taken from a fixed seed by position: everyone sees the same irregular cave.

DECIDEDWhen you enter a mine, what is above is hidden (like the roof of houses) and what the character cannot see fades to black.

DECIDEDSupport: no support, no progress. Each material holds a maximum span of hollow roof to the nearest support (undug rock or a timber prop): earth 1 m, clay or gravel 1.5 m, soft rock 2.5 m, hard rock 4 m (values to tune by playing). If a stroke would leave more loose roof than it holds, it does not happen and a warning to shore it up appears: there are no collapses. The deeper, the shorter the span: a deep mine needs props every little way.

DECIDEDDownwards: in earth, a vertical wall reaches 1.5 m at most; to go deeper the sides must be stepped (slope) or the shaft shored up. In rock you can go straight down, with the same span limit.

DECIDEDTimber props (posts and a log crossbeam) are placed like building works: frame, material and time, and several people finish sooner. Each material takes more or fewer strokes depending on its hardness and the tool. A decent mine costs time or people.

DECIDEDSpoil is carried out in a basket or wheelbarrow, and it is material that gets used. What each one is for (earth to fill and level, stone to build…) is decided with the recipes.

DECIDEDRealistic layers and veins: topsoil, clay or gravel beneath, and then each region's bedrock (limestone, sandstone, granite, slate). Surface iron is scarce and poor, and is found by signs (reddish water, waterlogged ground); the good iron is in veins inside the rock, which need a mine. Coal crops out on some slopes and is dug in shallow pits. Veins come from the world seed.

DECIDEDNo digging on other people's land: neither inside another's boundary-stone territory nor within its exclusion radius.

9. Progression and technologies

DECIDEDCharacter technologies, unlocked through stations:

1. Building the station gives its basic recipes.
2. Practising at it opens the next ones.
3. Some recipes let you build new stations (that is how you advance from the Early to the Late Middle Ages).
4. Whoever knows a recipe can write it into a tome to teach it to others.

DECIDEDNo forced specialisations; the limit is play time.

DECIDEDDurability on tools, weapons and armour. They are repaired at the station that made them, with material of the same type. No item quality tiers.

10. Building

DECIDEDIt is the first thing to be developed.

DECIDEDFree placement that turns into a grid with the first structural piece; free decoration.

DECIDEDIf it cannot bear the weight, you cannot build on top. If a piece holding up others is dismantled or broken in a siege, what is above is destroyed.

DECIDEDDismantling recovers 75% of the material.

DECIDEDPalisades almost impossible to bring down without a siege. Stone is almost impossible to break: in a siege of a castle, gates and wooden elements break, not the walls.

DECIDEDFire damages wood with temporary damage over time, and it is visible.

DECIDEDBuildings decay. Decay is prevented by depositing materials in the boundary stone, in a low amount so as not to force farming.

Building works: frame, materials and time

DECIDEDBuilding is a work in progress: you place the frame of the piece, bring it the materials and press build; it takes time depending on the piece. If others help, it takes less.

DECIDEDEach material has a weight class, and height matters: the material has to be brought to where the work is.

DECIDEDBalance: alone or as a couple you can easily build a one-floor log cabin, and a second wooden floor with a pulley. A group of friends can raise stone walls and towers, with a crane and people split between pulling, guiding and placing.

DECIDEDEnd of decay: stone remains as a ruin indefinitely, gradually covered by plants and roots. Wood rots and disappears.

DECIDEDRuins belong to nobody. They can be cleared, but they give no stone back: it is no longer dressed stone but rubble. Clearing them takes time.

11. Lands and boundary stones

DECIDEDLand is claimed with a boundary stone placed in person. You can claim a mountain pass, a bridge or a ford and charge a toll: whoever does not want to pay can find another way.

DECIDEDNo waiting period for new accounts: everyone must be able to settle soon.

DECIDEDExclusion radius: if a house is settled within a certain distance, you cannot settle there, even if your plot is small. The radius grows with the boundary stone's level. People from the same family can settle inside the radius if the boundary stone allows it in its options.

DECIDEDConquest: you conquer by destroying the enemy's boundary stones. If you have a high-level territory, its surroundings count as your land, so when the nearby enemy boundary stones are removed that land becomes yours.

DECIDEDBoundary stone level: it rises by depositing materials of the corresponding technology level. The higher the level, the larger the exclusion radius and the territory.

DECIDEDAccess to doors and chests through family permissions.

Districts, zones and clans

DECIDEDSeparate from the boundary stone (valravnx, 30 Oct): the boundary stone is still what covers your home and what you build (upkeep, protection, exclusion radius). Clan matters go separately, with the districts and their zones. Here “clan” means the family of section 17.

DECIDEDZones: every district is divided into fixed zones of roughly 1 km² (room for a castle), with natural, curved borders. Any clan can take a zone by raising its castle and placing in it the centre, a piece of its own, different from the boundary stone. The zone shows on the map with its banner and its name. If they look too small on the map, they are made bigger.

DECIDEDTaking a whole district: the centre is also what gives the district. The clan that holds it is its lord, and the district shows on the map with its banner. The castle can go anywhere in the district.

DECIDEDVassals: a clan that takes a zone in a district that already has a lord becomes a vassal of the main clan. It still rules its zone (its castle, its doors and its permissions).

DECIDEDRent: the work done in the district gives the lord rent, without taking anything from whoever does it: whoever fells a hundred logs keeps their hundred, as anywhere else. The rent is not items (logs have to be processed and carried): it arrives as coin at the centre, and the clan spends it with NPCs (mercenaries, wandering traders, upkeep…). That way the lord is better off with many people working in the district, small groups included, instead of harassing them.

DECIDEDProtecting pays off: if the lord clan attacks or kills someone working in its district, that person's rent stops counting for a while. It can attack a vassal clan (for instance, to drive out one it believes is going to take the district), but then it loses the rent of that whole clan for a while.

DECIDEDSiege window: the centre can only be besieged in its window. Between one window and the next it keeps collecting rent.

DECIDEDWhen a boundary stone falls, its buildings pass to the conqueror if they lie within their territory; if not, they remain ownerless until someone places their own boundary stone.

12. Offline raiding and war

DECIDEDOffline protection: if no family member is online, their buildings cannot be damaged. It activates a few minutes after the last one logs out and does not activate if the base is under attack.

DECIDEDException: if war has been declared between the two families, a siege is allowed even while they are offline.

DECIDEDThe problem to solve: declaring war must not become the easy way to raid offline.

DECIDEDWar rules approved: war requires a casus belli.

13. Combat

DECIDEDNo health bars; direct and skill-based. PvP on; off within the family.

DECIDEDMounted and ranged combat later, when their turn comes in development.

DECIDEDFencing with a strike rose (combat v2): over the opponent, five zones (high, left, right, low and thrust). Defence in three layers: a parry without side that tires you, a perfect parry at the last moment, and a master strike from the same side. Feints and stamina. Guards remain as an advanced mode.

DECIDEDCombat happens inside the world (valravnx, 30 Oct 2026): no separate lists; you draw your weapon and fight wherever you are, with a free camera and free movement, and a mode to lock onto someone that brings back the duel camera. On PC, with the mouse: the direction of the blow is that of the last movement before the click, among four (valravnx, 31 Oct: high, left, right and down, which is the thrust; no low cut and no centre, because parrying or attacking the centre is very hard; no movement, the last one used); the longer the click is held, the more the blow charges, and released early it comes out a little sooner and weaker. Once the direction is chosen, the blow is committed: it cannot be changed; the parry button cancels it (a feint, which costs stamina), to parry or to start another blow from another side (valravnx, 31 Oct). Parries are by side (replacing the parry without side): you hold the right button and the mouse picks the side, which can also be changed without letting go; the perfect parry counts from when the right side is set. On mobile, the rose is fixed to one side with a button to parry.

DECIDEDShield (provisional): without choosing a side, it stops everything coming from the front, blows, arrows and stones; from the side or from behind, no (valravnx, 31 Oct).

DECIDEDTouch camera: dragging a finger on a free area turns the camera, tapping without dragging strikes; with the bow, the camera follows where you aim.

DECIDEDHealing: the analysis table is the base (bandaging, stitching, cauterizing, splinting, herbs, rest). It can be done mid-fight, but slowly and leaving you exposed.

DECIDEDFriendly fire: follows PvP. A strike does nothing to a member of your family; anyone else is wounded like a normal hit.

14. Animals and wildlife

DECIDEDHunting; tameable horses; realistic breeding and care; livestock.

DECIDEDRealistic wildlife: animals flee unless cornered; scarce wolves in mountains and deep forest that do attack.

DECIDEDNPCs who sell animals from other biomes.

15. Agriculture

DECIDEDCrops with yield by climate band and a calendar by season.

16. Economy and NPCs

DECIDEDCoins are minted only by NPCs. They are earned through NPC orders: they ask for what they need and you bring it; they do not buy whatever you want to sell.

DECIDEDMarket stalls that work while you are offline.

DECIDEDNPCs in your service, like the mercenaries of the era: you have to get them the gear they will wear, their food and their pay; you keep them as long as you can support them. Comfort affects these NPCs. Sentries work this way.

DECIDEDNo NPC villages or bandits at first; the only NPC city is the king's, in Strandvang (31 Oct).

DECIDEDIf not paid, the NPC leaves and takes the gear.

DECIDEDThe NPCs for hire are travelling merchants and mercenaries who arrive at your settlement.

17. Families, alliances and vassalages

DECIDEDFamilies, with PvP off inside them.

DECIDEDVassalage (updated on 30 Oct): it comes from the land. A clan with a zone in a district that has a lord is its vassal (section 11), and what it pays is the rent from the work done in the district. Before, it was an alliance with a periodic payment and, if not paid, the lord could declare war: how that fits with district vassalage is still open (section 21).

DECIDEDAlliances: PvP between allies is turned off only if both sides enable it.

DECIDEDProximity-only communication.

DECIDEDCoat of arms editor of its own for each family.

DECIDEDRent and payments between lords and vassals are in coin.

DECIDEDLetters by NPC messenger: you send a messenger to a settlement you know; they travel there and deliver the letter to a member of your family who is at that place.

DECIDEDMessengers cannot be intercepted or killed.

18. Technical architecture

19. Milestones by importance (draft)

20. Expansion for a finished game

Approved by valravnx on 26 Oct from the analysis of what was missing for a finished game. In brackets, the milestone where each item is planned.

World

DECIDEDThe king's district and its city (valravnx, 31 Oct; replaces the 27 Oct decision, «no NPC cities»): Strandvang (district E of Whitholm, one of the starting ones) is the king's domain, governed by NPCs and neutral: no PvP and outside the clan system (no seat can be placed, it can't be taken, it gives no income and there are no sieges). You live there with the ordinary boundary stone (house, crops, animals), so people who play peacefully feel at home. The other seven districts remain the clans', with PvP. Strandvang holds the only NPC city: not a place to live, but where you go to buy (metal, better tools, carts, animals) and sell (surplus harvest and so on, for coin), hire NPCs, meet others and practise in duels against NPCs, and whatever gets added. (Milestone 14)

DECIDEDNamed districts: each region is divided into districts that follow the terrain (a valley, a river plain, a range), named in the region's style. valravnx reviews and adjusts the world map and its names by hand. (Milestone 10)

DECIDEDThe world is never reset. (Milestone 11)

DECIDEDWeather: clear, cloudy, rain, snow (north and winter) and fog, over large areas and by season. In the north, rivers freeze in winter and can be crossed on foot. (Milestone 4)

DECIDEDDark but playable night: the moon, torches, oil lamps and campfires give real light, and wolves are more active. Sleeping is not forced. (Milestone 4)

Objects, transport and clothing

DECIDEDObjects on the ground: whatever is dropped outside a container disappears after a while (for example, 1 real hour), except inside your lands. Logs and stones stay as a pile. Stacks: each resource has how many units fit in one slot. (Milestone 2)

DECIDEDTransport from the start: the drag sled (N0: two long poles with crossbars, dragged by hand) and the solid-wheel barrow (N1: the wheel is a slice of a log). The barrow can be parked and works as a container: inside your lands it is protected; outside, anyone can take what it carries. Later, the two-wheeled cart (N2) and the four-wheeled wagon (N3), with draught animals. (Milestone 2)

DECIDEDNo item quality tiers. What a garment does comes only from its layer and material (linen, wool, fur, gambeson, hardened leather, mail, plate). What it looks like is chosen when weaving and sewing: cut (short or long tunic, smock, dress, skirt, cloak with or without hood, hose, hat or coif), weave (plain, twill, herringbone, check, stripes), dye from each region's plants (madder for red, weld for yellow, woad for blue, walnut husk for brown, oak galls with iron for black) and, later, embroidered borders. Since the dyes are spread across climate bands, they give reasons to trade. (Milestones 1b and 3)

DECIDEDPremium: unlocks recipes to craft nicer-looking versions of things (garment cuts, tapestries, furniture with its own shape). They are still crafted in the game with their materials and do nothing better: they only look different. To be detailed later.

Crafting, eating and fishing

DECIDEDCrafting: at the station, taking a time set by the recipe, with a small queue per station; it uses what you carry and what is in chests a few steps away. (Milestone 3)

DECIDEDCooking: recipes with utensils (spit, clay pot, cauldron, pan); cooked food fills you more and lasts longer. River water can be drunk safely. (Milestone 4)

DECIDEDFish by water, climate band, time of day and season, in varying sizes. Rivers: trout, salmon (north, runs upriver in autumn), grayling, barbel, eel, tench, nase. Lakes: pike, perch, carp. Sea: herring and cod (north), sea bass, mackerel, sardine, gilt-head bream, red sea bream. Shore: mussel, oyster, crab, limpet. Rod fishing is skill-based (reeling in without snapping the line). Butchering: cleaned fish, bones and scales; preserved dried, smoked or salted. (Milestone 7)

Living together online and dominion

DECIDEDNewcomer protection: nobody can hurt them, nor can they hurt anyone, during their first hours of play or until they place their boundary stone, whichever comes first. (Milestone 12)

DECIDEDAgainst harassment: anything built outside claimed land decays very quickly, and nobody can build within a certain distance of someone else's boundary stone. (Milestone 13)

DECIDEDTrade window: each side puts in their goods and both confirm; nothing changes hands until both accept. (Milestone 14)

DECIDEDRuling a district: the family with the highest-level boundary stone in a district rules it; its coat of arms appears over it on maps and it can rename it. It loses it if another family overtakes it or knocks down its stone. Titles by what is ruled: lord, baron, count, king of a country. (Milestone 13)

DECIDEDNamed settlements: when placing a boundary stone the settlement is given a name; it is the one shown on the map and the one messengers are sent to. (Milestone 13)

DECIDEDThe map as a game board: on the king's map (Whitholm) and on explored ground and cartographer's maps (the continent) you see the families' coats of arms over their lands and districts, in green, blue or red (yours, ally, enemy), with alerts for fighting on your lands and for boundary stones whose upkeep is about to run out. No fast travel. (Milestones 13 and 17)

Technical and production

METHODEvery process (tanning, crops, charcoal kiln, drying rack, decay, trees) is calculated from elapsed time, so the server doesn't simulate every minute. (Milestone 11)

METHODA shared pathfinding system for animals, livestock and NPCs (navigation meshes by chunks), in the pure logic; first with wildlife. (Milestone 7)

METHODAnimations: before each milestone, free animations are sought for what is missing (swimming, riding, pushing or pulling a cart, digging, carrying between two, climbing a ladder, forging, sawing, butchering, rowing, steering, spinning, weaving) and retargeted to the skeleton with the workshop.

METHODSound in every milestone: footsteps by ground type, tools, ambience, rain, fire and combat; soft music.

DECIDEDOptions menu: low, medium or high graphics quality, volume, controls and language. (Milestone 11)

METHODShips: on board, the character's position is stored relative to the ship, so you can walk on deck while it moves; when you get off it is counted relative to the world again. A ship is a construction anchored to something that moves. The camera is smoothed on mobile to avoid seasickness. (Milestone 16)

Later on (cosmetic and expansion)

DECIDEDHome: tableware and pottery on the table, woven tapestries with designs (with the same editor as the coat of arms), curtains, cushions and furs, candles, oil lamps and candelabras, hunting and fishing trophies, flowerpots, strings of garlic and onions, weapon racks and a mannequin for armour.

DECIDEDSocial life: board games playable between players (tables, alquerque, dice), simple instruments (flute, drum, hurdy-gurdy), emotes (sit, wave, bow, toast) and a cat as a pet.

DECIDEDGatherings: fencing tournaments and seasonal fairs with merchants from other regions, in the king's city (Strandvang).

DECIDEDSiege and farm: scaling ladders and mantlets, and fire spreading from one piece to another (milestone 6); water troughs, feeders, wells and irrigation ditches (milestone 9).

21. Open questions

The server cost will be measured with 100 simulated players in milestone 1f. Open since 30 Oct, with the clan districts:

• War between clans required a cause: an unpaid vassalage. With district vassalage there is no payment to miss: what causes are left? Does besieging a centre in its window require a declared war?
• The starting districts (Motdale, Breiddal and Strandvang): can they be taken? The v0.3 proposal says no claims near the starting areas.