Crafting & Progression

Authoritative project content

Progression is gear/loot + a crafting tech tree, with a signature boss-driven layer on top — [CONFIRMED]. There are no global character levels; Phase 2 adds per-skill learn-by-doing proficiency so repeated activities improve related capabilities without turning the game into a traditional character-level RPG.

Progression vectors

1. Crafting tech tree

• Recipes are unlocked by acquiring blueprints (looted/researched) and/or reaching crafting-station tiers.
• Tiers gate access: better stations → better recipes (e.g., basic campfire vs. workbench tiers vs. advanced fabricator).
• The workbench also provides firearm work (3D inspect, attach/remove, later rail/stock adjust). Anyone in range may use it. See 09-Weapon-Customization.md. Phase 1 attach/remove is not skill-gated. Blood on inspected items is visual state, not a bench clean action — 10-Blood-Visual.md.
• Crafting consumes resources and time; some recipes require a specific station nearby.
• Recipe data is data-driven (DataTable/DataAsset): inputs, output, required station/tier, craft time, unlock condition.

2. Gear / loot

• Power comes primarily from what you carry, not a character level — consistent with full-loot stakes.
• Gear tiers from scavenged → crafted → boss-crafted. Higher tiers = better stats but greater loss risk on death.

3. Boss progression (signature system)

This is the spine of meta-progression. See ../03-Enemies/02-Boss-Zombies.md for boss design.

a) Boss components → tiered weapon crafting — [CONFIRMED]

• Defeating a boss drops boss-tier crafting components unique to that boss/tier.
• These components are the gate to powerful tier weapons: the higher the boss tier, the more powerful the weapon that its components can craft.
• Top-tier weapons are only obtainable via boss components — making boss hunts the endgame driver.

b) First-kill permanent buff — [CONFIRMED]

• The first time a given boss is defeated on a server, every player who participated in that fight receives a permanent buff.
• The buff is permanent for those participants on that server.
• This creates a server-wide milestone moment and rewards being present for "first blood" on each boss.

Open questions to resolve before building ([TBD])

• Participation rule: what counts as "participated"? (dealt damage / was within range / in the encounter when it died.) Default [RECOMMENDATION]: dealt nonzero damage and was alive/nearby at death.
• Scope of "first": per-server (default, [CONFIRMED] intent) — confirm it is not per-account-global.
• Initial buff catalog — [CONFIRMED]: +5% run speed and +10% maximum HP.
• Stacking & caps — [CONFIRMED]: there is no total buff cap. The same buff ID cannot be applied twice; effects with different IDs may stack even when they grant the same numeric modifier. Every persisted grant stores its stable buff ID.
• Repeatable kills: later kills of the same boss give components/loot but not the permanent buff (only the first does).
• Persistence: permanent buffs must be saved in player data and survive death/relog. See ../04-Multiplayer/01-Network-Architecture.md.

4. Phase 2 learn-by-doing skills — [CONFIRMED]

Skills are confirmed for Phase 2 onward, after the Phase 1 vertical slice proves the core loop. They improve through relevant activity use, not through a global XP level. [OWNER CONFIRMED 2026-09-22] TBD-BCAE2104 is resolved by the ten-level baseline, 20% XP-growth curve, activity-award defaults and per-skill numeric bonuses below. These are the initial balance values; later playtest tuning may change data values without changing the progression contract.

TBD-BCAE2104 — Level, XP and award contract — [RESOLVED 2026-09-22]

• Every skill has Level 1–10. A new skill starts at Level 1 with TotalXP = 0. Level 10 is the cap and grants no further XP.
• Level 1 is the unmodified gameplay baseline. Numeric skill bonuses use RankDelta = Level - 1, so Level 2 applies one increment and Level 10 applies nine increments.
• XP required to advance from current level L is round(100 × 1.20^(L - 1)) for Levels 1–9. Each threshold is calculated from the formula, not from the previously rounded row.
• TotalXP is the authoritative per-character, per-server saved value. Level and progress-to-next are derived from the curve. At Level 10, TotalXP is clamped to 2,080.
• XP is granted only by the server after a completed, state-changing, skill-relevant action. Cancelled, failed, preview-only, invalid, already-complete and repeated no-op requests grant zero XP. A single authoritative action transaction may grant each relevant skill only once.
• Activity definitions own their XP award. Defaults are 2 XP for a minor completion, 10 XP for a standard completion and 25 XP for a major completion. Continuous exertion defaults to 1 XP per 60 accumulated qualifying seconds. Combat proficiency accumulates 1 XP per 10 points of authoritative valid damage, capped per attacker/target lifecycle at that target's authoritative maximum health so healing or repeated overkill cannot create extra XP.
• Partial XP is retained in the activity accumulator but only whole XP is added to TotalXP. Bonuses change only when a full level threshold is crossed; partial progress grants no partial bonus.

Owner decisions — 2026-09-22

• Catalog: retain the 16 skills. No separate Carpentry skill: Construction covers wooden structures; Crafting covers wooden utility items.
• Scavenging: the first successful opener of a world loot container determines its skill bonus for that loot-generation cycle. The server applies the source-owned bonus once and persists the generated contents and resolved-cycle state atomically. Everyone sees the same contents. Reopening, changing opener, reconnecting or restarting never rerolls that cycle. Player storage and deposited items do not generate bonus loot. This decision does not introduce a new respawn schedule.
• Death: retain all skill levels and XP through death/respawn, rejoin and restart for the same character/server.
• Persistence delivery: skill progress and Scavenging cycle state are later-phase requirements, outside the current P07 player/pickup contract. P21 must extend the existing USaveSubsystem / ULambeerWorldPersistenceSubsystem capture/restore path and persistence automation; no ad-hoc SaveGame or schema-version change is selected here.
• Lockpick and Hotwire use the approved timed chance-based actions in TBD-LOCK-001. Gun Repair Kit is initially loot-only under TBD-8EF6FAED.

Numeric bonus rules

P21 preparation implemented 2026-09-22: ULambeerSkillCatalog exposes editable definitions and award defaults. Stable IDs use Skill.<catalog name> as FNames, not registered GameplayTags. The saved DA_SkillCatalog is the authored tuning source for future consumers; native constructor values seed new catalogs with the approved baseline. LambeerSkillRules::Progress accepts an explicit catalog and projects total XP into level, progress, remaining XP and cap state. ApplyBonus handles one named modifier at a time, distinguishing relative rates, percentage points, rounded duration and required-item costs. Callers own cross-skill stacking and system limits. Validation rejects invalid transitions, overflowing XP caps, duplicate IDs/stats and nonfinite tuning. This foundation has no automatic loading, actor binding, live awards, GAS effects, replication, UI or save writes. No player skill state exists yet; P21 must deliver its durable capture/restore together with live integration. Missing content-dependent rewards and action-to-XP mappings remain integration work. The full phase is not complete.

• Percentage modifiers use Base × (1 ± Rate × RankDelta). Percentage-point modifiers add directly to the authoritative base chance and clamp to 0–100%.
• Action durations round to the nearest 0.1 second after the skill modifier. Discrete item costs always round up and can never fall below one required item; a skill cannot make a required consumable free.
• Quality, nutrition, happiness, repair and similar bonuses apply only when the owning runtime system exposes that value. Missing content or an absent quality field does not create a placeholder reward.
• Skill modifiers apply to the owning system's base value before temporary buffs/debuffs; the owning system retains final clamping and stacking authority.

Crafting flow

Gather resources ──┐
Loot blueprints ───┼──▶ Unlock recipe ──▶ Have station/tier? ──▶ Craft (time+inputs) ──▶ Item
Boss components ───┘                                                   │
                                                                       └─▶ Boss-tier weapons

Implementation guidance

• UCraftingComponent (C++) checks unlocked recipes + nearby station + inventory inputs, then requests a server-authoritative craft.
• Recipes, blueprints, station tiers, boss-component types, the Phase-2 skill catalog, and the buff catalog are all data assets — adding content should not require code.
• [RECOMMENDATION] implement permanent buffs (and status effects) via GAS GameplayEffects/Attributes for a clean, persistent, stackable buff layer. See ../05-Technical/01-Tech-Stack-and-Engine.md and 04-Survival-System.md.
• Skill bonuses that modify attributes or actions should route through shared systems: GAS for attributes/effects, inventory weight for Strength, combat data for Melee/Archery/Firearms, crafting recipes/stations for Crafting/Blacksmithing/Cooking/Medical, and source-owned loot tables for Scavenging.