W0: terrain from worldlet building blocks (Valley in data/worldlets, identical heights), WorldInfo API, worldlet in saves and servers; the cliff tunnel plan

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Paul Bailey
2026-11-06 15:51:43 +00:00
parent f4df2bc99d
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10 changed files with 329 additions and 19 deletions

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# Worldlets design
Status: **proposal**. Nothing here is built yet, apart from the first piece
of groundwork (`world.water_at()` and `data/fish.json`, see §6).
Status: **W0 built**; the rest is planned. The journey between worldlets is
§10.
*As built in W0:*
- `data/worldlets/valley.json`: the Valley as data, its terrain as five
building blocks in order (`hills`, `rim`, `sea_cliff`, `lake`,
`ocean_edge`) with every number that used to be hard-coded.
- `terrain.gd` runs a worldlet's blocks (`use_worldlet()`); each block is
the old code's arithmetic, unchanged. `tests/test_worldlets.gd` checks
four seeds give exactly the same height grid as before (SHA-256 of the
grid, taken from the old code).
- The worldlet is chosen like the seed: a server's (it sends its real one),
else the save's `meta.json` "worldlet", else the Valley (worlds from
before W0). New worlds and servers record it.
- The WorldInfo API on the world: `worldlet_id()`, `water_bodies()`,
`climate()`, `crossings()` (the planned ways on), beside `water_at()`.
Systems still read the terrain's numbers directly; they move over to
these as each new worldlet needs them to differ (W1-W3).
## 1. What a worldlet is
A **worldlet** is a small, complete world type: a ~320 m playable area with
@@ -224,6 +240,41 @@ you've learned and gathered there:
- **Through:** the far end opens onto the next worldlet. Walking out loads
it (a short fade, "The Cove"), with your bag, cloak and stats as they are.
### The first tunnel: down the sea cliff to the Cove
The Valley's sea side ends at a sheer cliff, its top about level with the
valley and the sea some 25 m below. The Cove is down there, so the first
tunnel goes **down**, inside the cliff, from the clifftop to the shore.
- **The seam:** a cracked outcrop on the clifftop strip near the edge (the
sea_cliff block marks where), with old pick marks and loose stones at its
foot. It can't be dug until you have the antler pickaxe (tier 3); a lesser
pick just chips it ("Too hard: you need a better pick").
- **Digging down:** the tunnel is about six stretches, each a few metres on
and a few down: a sloping passage that turns back on itself like a
stair, so the 25 m drop fits inside the cliff. A stretch takes many pick
blows (stamina, and wear on the pick) to open.
- **Props:** each new stretch needs a **timber prop** (2 wood) set at its
mouth before you can dig the next. Leave one out and the face won't take
another blow ("It's loose: prop it first"); nothing caves in on you, so
it's a cost, not a trap. That's about 12 wood all the way down.
- **Light:** the tunnel has no daylight at all. Every stretch is pitch dark
until you bring light: a torch in your hand works, but your hands are full
with the pick, so the way to do it is to set **candles and torch stands**
as you go (tallow candles from bear fat, torch stands from wood). Placed
lights stay, so the way is lit for the trip back and for friends.
- **The bottom:** the last stretch breaks out into a sea cave, its mouth
opening on the Cove's shingle beach. Walking out of the mouth is the
crossing: a fade, then the Cove, arriving at the cave's Cove end. The way
back starts there and climbs the same tunnel.
- **What's saved:** the tunnel belongs to the Valley's save: how far it's
dug, the props, the lights. On a server it's shared: anyone can dig on
from where someone stopped, and the lights are everyone's.
- **How it's built:** the tunnel is its own small space (a "between" scene
next to the worldlet), made from a kit of rock pieces (straight, turn,
slope down, the cave mouth) laid out from the seed, with box-shaped
colliders. The heightmap can't have holes or overhangs, so the passage is
never cut into the terrain itself: you walk into the seam and you're in
the tunnel scene.
### Why go back
- **Each worldlet has things the others lack.** Clay and salt only in the
Valley and Cove; little wood in the Highlands; no bears outside the