Plan the 0.9.9-1.0.0 roadmap and re-evaluate the NPC base
Move the gap analysis and risks into PLAN.md, version the character track (0.9.9 rig correction, 0.9.10 roster) and split 0.9.11-0.9.12 polish and verification out of the old 0.10.0 milestone. Add roadmaps to 0.10.0, 0.11.0 and 1.0.0, record the Quaternius face-fidelity gate and the rest-relative pose finding in MEMORY.md, and move the completed 0.9.7 and pose-harness sections to DONE.md.
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@@ -16,22 +16,91 @@ The game is about **judgment, communication, access verification, and proportion
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## Development Priorities
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The active planning order is set in [`TODO.md`](TODO.md) and in `AGENTS.md`:
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The active task order is in [`TODO.md`](TODO.md); the gap analysis and the release roadmap are
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below. The current order is:
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1. **Quaternius NPC base (unversioned).** Use the CC0 **Quaternius Ultimate Modular
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Characters** as the primary NPC mesh and animation source. Bake a canonical Quaternius base
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onto the runtime `npc_base` contract (13 core bones, five tint slots, 24,000/24,000) so the
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existing gear, `NpcAvatar` and gameplay poses keep working. If the proportion warp fails the
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silhouette gate, stop and decide on the 62-joint source rig in a new ADR. See
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[ADR-0017](docs/adr/0017-quaternius-npc-base.md) and
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[`docs/npc-model-sourcing.md`](docs/npc-model-sourcing.md). MakeHuman/MPFB body work is closed.
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2. **Local map development (unversioned).** Move beyond stylized venue reconstruction with
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licensed OpenStreetMap and 3D building data, downloaded reference imagery for photoreal
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facades, AI-assisted composition, and a Gaussian-splatting evaluation that stays in the
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development pipeline unless it proves runtime-safe.
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3. **Versioned release hardening.** The 0.10.0 release candidate and later semantic versions come
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after the unversioned development tracks in planning order. Versions are assigned only when a
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track's scope is accepted into a release.
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1. **0.9.9–0.9.12 patches.** Finish the character base (the accepted Quaternius 62-joint runtime),
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roll it out to the 12 roles, close the scheduled venue/prop/lighting polish, and verify
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performance, Web and accessibility.
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2. **0.10.0 minor.** Public readiness: external playtests, balance acceptance, legal/storefront
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approval, the platform matrix and the documentation/picture lock.
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3. **0.10.x patches → 0.11.0.** Content and systems depth: live body-camera replay, a fourth
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venue and the localization foundation.
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4. **0.12.0 → 1.0.0.** Platform/distribution, content complete, release candidates and the stable
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release.
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Versions are assigned only when a track's scope is accepted into a release (see
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[Release Roadmap](#release-roadmap)). Unversioned tracks — the 3D review evidence base,
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maintenance and the Gaussian-splatting study — do not receive a placeholder version.
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## Plan Evaluation (2026-11-05)
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The game plan itself is sound and largely built: three venues, the escalation ladder, access
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artifacts, the radio/report system, the shift review and the campaign loop all exist and are
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tested. What needed fixing was the **delivery plan**, not the design.
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- **Character sourcing churned.** The project moved procedural → MakeHuman → Quaternius, and the
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Quaternius Stage-1 warp failed its own gate. That leaves a correct decision (ADR-0018) with a
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half-finished implementation. The plan now makes the rig correction one small version, gates the
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roster behind a face/readability decision, and keeps exactly one fallback.
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- **One milestone carried too much.** The old 0.10.0 mixed character work, map work and every
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public-release gate, so one blocked export blocked the release. Character and venue polish are
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now patches; 0.10.0 is only the release gate.
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- **Unversioned work had no deadline.** The 3D review backlog could grow without bound. It is now
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capped: the ranked venue/prop/lighting items are scheduled into 0.9.11, the budget checks into
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0.9.12, and everything else is an explicit accept or deferred. Gaussian splatting stays
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unscheduled because no product need justifies its risk yet.
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- **Legal, signing and storefront work is release work, not polish.** It now has named checkboxes
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in 0.10.0 and 1.0.0 instead of living in prose.
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- **What is deliberately not planned:** new genres or mechanics, a live-service model, or a
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runtime splat renderer. The de-escalation-first, rare-emergency design stays frozen.
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Feasibility: the remaining character work is small in geometry terms (6.2k triangles against a
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24k cap) and larger in rig/export terms; the venue work is polish; most release gates are
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evidence gathering rather than engineering. The main schedule risk is external review and
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approval, not code.
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## Character Creation Re-Evaluation (2026-11-05)
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**Where it stands.** The shipped library is 12 procedural Blender variants (4.7k–5.8k triangles
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each) with a sculpted face, five tint slots and 18 gear pieces. The owner then chose the CC0
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**Quaternius Ultimate Modular Characters** as the primary source. Stage 1 (warp the Quaternius
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mesh onto the 13-core contract) failed its silhouette gate — arm ×1.63, leg ×0.74, torso ×1.61,
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judged distorted. [ADR-0018](docs/adr/0018-quaternius-stage2-runtime-rig.md) therefore adopts the
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source **62-joint rig at runtime**: no warp, source LOD (3,199 verts / 6,206 tris), source
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Idle/Walk clips, and gear pivots re-derived from the Quaternius skeleton.
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**What is already built.** The canonical `quaternius_base.glb` (welded, grounded, arm-down rest),
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the 62→13 joint map, the material→five-slot map, the clip inventory (24 clips; Idle and Walk in
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scope) and the `NpcAvatar` joint-name mapping with rest-derived gear pivots.
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**What actually blocks it.** Two technical items about the export and the pose math, not the art:
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1. the arm-down GLB renders in A-pose in Godot because the bake writes wrong inverse bind
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matrices; and
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2. `_pose_bone()` composes rotations as `rest * Quaternion(axis, angle)`, which only cancels for
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the old 180° rest, not the Quaternius ~76° rest.
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**Re-evaluation findings.**
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- Triangle budget is not the problem (6.2k against a 24k cap). Do not decimate the source.
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- **Face fidelity is the real risk.** The 0.9.7 library has a sculpted realistic face; the
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Quaternius head is low-poly. A blanket swap would regress every close-up. The plan therefore
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makes the owner choose at 0.9.9 between (a) a full swap, (b) Quaternius for crowd roles with the
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procedural library for named roles, or (c) extra head subdivision/hair cards on the Quaternius
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head.
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- **Animation** becomes clip-driven, which removes the hand-built pose composition as the main
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path. Poses the clips do not cover (seated, raise-hand, head turn) must be decided explicitly
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rather than patched per scene.
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- **One fallback, no third source.** The procedural `npc_base` and the MakeHuman head stay tested
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until the new base passes the gate. MPFB body work stays closed and the Stage-1 warp is not
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reopened. A new character source needs a new ADR.
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- **Sequence matters.** Fix the rig first (0.9.9), then the roster (0.9.10). Rolling a broken rig
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across 12 variants would waste the whole pass.
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**Reversal condition.** If the skin cannot be exported correctly without a new exporter path, or
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if the owner rejects the low-poly face in every option, the plan falls back to the procedural
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library and retires Quaternius with a recorded ADR. That decision is made at 0.9.9, not later.
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## Core Gameplay Loop
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@@ -171,7 +240,7 @@ The action wheel prioritizes de-escalation: Stop, Look, Point, No, Ask, Inspect,
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The visual direction is readable stylized realism:
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- **Character direction:** 12 skinned NPC variants, 18 gear pieces and 20 street/venue props. The active character track is the Quaternius base migration ([ADR-0017](docs/adr/0017-quaternius-npc-base.md)): use the CC0 Quaternius mesh/animation source, bake it to the runtime contract, and retire the bespoke procedural body work.
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- **Character direction:** 12 skinned NPC variants, 18 gear pieces and 20 street/venue props. The active character track is the Quaternius base at runtime ([ADR-0018](docs/adr/0018-quaternius-stage2-runtime-rig.md)): the CC0 source mesh keeps its proportions on the 62-joint rig, Idle/Walk run as clips, and the procedural library stays as the tested fallback until the face/silhouette gate passes. See [Character Creation Re-Evaluation](#character-creation-re-evaluation-2026-11-05).
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- **Realism pass:** AI-assisted per-phase skyline panoramas, v2 surface tiles with normal maps, wet asphalt at night, a warm day haze, phase-specific sun/exposure/fog, a tight flashlight spot (no beam geometry), and denser foliage.
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- **Local map direction:** the venues are currently stylized reconstructions. The local-map track evaluates licensed OpenStreetMap/3D building data, licensed reference photography, AI-assisted composition and Gaussian splatting as a development tool; online data and splat rendering are not runtime dependencies.
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- **References and QA:** runtime UI art lives in `assets/images/ui/`; reference/art-direction sets live in `docs/screens/designs/` and `docs/screens/concepts/`; captures live in `docs/screenshots/`; realism runs live in `docs/screens/realism/`. `screen_designs.py compare/judge` and `tools/check_screenshots.sh` guard drift.
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@@ -198,6 +267,106 @@ Primary decisions: [ADR-0007](docs/adr/0007-locomotion-and-input-layers.md), [AD
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`config/version` in `project.godot` is the single version source (currently `0.9.8`). Releases are tagged `v<version>`; the CI pipeline builds and publishes the standard artifacts plus the optional Desktop HQ zip. Version bumps follow [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/): every major, minor and patch increment needs a changelog entry, a local `tools/build_releases.sh` build, and artifact/checksum verification before tagging. Unversioned development tracks do not receive a version until their scope enters a release. See [`docs/RELEASING.md`](docs/RELEASING.md) and [`README.md`](README.md) for commands.
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## Gap Analysis
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**Published baseline:** v0.9.8 (2026-11-04) — three playable venues, tutorial/campaign/checkpoint
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resume, the access/radio/escalation loop, shift review, the 12-character Blender library, 277
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Godot + 162 Python tests, a 21/21 screen-design judge and Compatibility/Web/Desktop HQ builds.
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**Current source:** 0.9.8. The 0.10.0-rc.1 package built on 2026-11-03 is stale and is superseded
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by the patch sequence below; it is not a published release.
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| Area | Remaining gap | Milestone |
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| --- | --- | --- |
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| Character base | Quaternius arm-down skin export, rest-relative pose composition, face/silhouette acceptance | 0.9.9 |
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| Character roster | 12-role mapping, modular outfits, gear fit, AO/texels, budget evidence | 0.9.10 |
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| Venue and asset polish | Ranked prop/foliage/lighting/set-dressing fixes, collider verification | 0.9.11 |
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| Performance and Web | Frame/memory/load evidence after the content changes, LOD/impostor verification | 0.9.12 |
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| Onboarding and balance | External first-time-player evidence, balance sweeps/tuning, content lock | 0.10.0 |
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| Accessibility and localization | Acceptance pass, caption coverage, pseudo-locale/length checks | 0.9.12 / 0.10.0 |
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| QA and release engineering | Full smoke matrix, clean build/checksum verification, target-matrix launches | 0.10.0 |
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| Legal, signing, storefront | macOS signing/notarization, AI-provider rights, storefront/rating approval, privacy sign-off | 0.10.0 / 0.12.0 |
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| Systems and content depth | Live incident replay, fourth venue, localization foundation | 0.11.0 |
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| Distribution | Signed storefront builds, frozen save contract, launch languages, hardware matrix | 0.12.0 |
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| Stable release | Content complete, accessibility audit, release candidates, 1.0.0 decision | 0.13.0 / 1.0.0 |
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| Future | More venues/seasonal content, image-to-mesh props, other deferred ideas | Unscheduled |
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The 0.9.3 UI, 0.9.4 animation, 0.9.5 texture, 0.9.6 integration, 0.9.7 character development and
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0.9.8 deformation fixes are complete in [`DONE.md`](DONE.md); they are not remaining gaps. The
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2026-11-01 documentation audit is also closed.
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## Release Roadmap
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Every version below follows the release procedure in `AGENTS.md`. Patch versions contain fixes and
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polish; minor versions add user-facing features; the major version is the stable release with a
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compatibility promise. Each version's executable checklist is in [`TODO.md`](TODO.md).
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### Roadmap to 0.10.0
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The goal of this line is to finish the character and venue work and clear every public-release
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gate. The character track is versioned rather than unversioned so a blocked rig cannot hold the
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whole release.
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| Version | Type | Scope | Exit criterion |
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| --- | --- | --- | --- |
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| 0.9.9 | patch | Quaternius pilot: correct skin export, rest-relative pose math, Idle/Walk verification, owner face/silhouette gate, one-role (or crowd-only) rollout | A Quaternius NPC renders and animates correctly and ships behind a tested procedural fallback |
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| 0.9.10 | patch | 12-role roster, modular outfits, five slots, AO/texels, gear fit, 12×6 baseline | The full roster passes contract, gear, budget and owner-baseline gates |
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| 0.9.11 | patch | Scheduled 3D review fixes: props/foliage, gear silhouette, venue shape language, lighting, set dressing, colliders | Every scheduled P1/P2 item is fixed or accepted with a measurement |
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| 0.9.12 | patch | Performance/Web/LOD/memory verification plus accessibility and pseudo-locale checks | No regression against the pre-character baselines |
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| 0.10.0 | minor | Public readiness: external playtests, balance acceptance, legal/storefront/signing decisions, platform matrix, docs and picture lock | 0.10.0 is content-locked, externally played, legally reviewed, documented and reproducibly built |
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### Roadmap to 0.11.0
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This line turns a stable 0.10.x into a deeper game: the incident timeline becomes a live replay, a
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fourth venue enters the campaign, and the text catalogue becomes a real localization pipeline.
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| Version | Type | Scope | Exit criterion |
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| --- | --- | --- | --- |
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| 0.10.1 | patch | Onboarding and accessibility issues deferred from the 0.10.0 playtests | First-hour and accessibility defects closed |
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| 0.10.2 | patch | Balance/fairness sweeps, review-text and difficulty-progression tuning | Every balance-acceptance cell is in target or explicitly accepted |
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| 0.10.3 | patch | Save/checkpoint edge cases, gamepad/remap, pause/resume, small quality-of-life fixes | No known P1 stability defect remains |
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| 0.11.0 | minor | Live body-camera replay, fourth venue (candidate: TCL Chinese Theatre forecourt), localization foundation with one secondary language | The new systems ship without regressing performance, accessibility or balance |
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### Roadmap to 1.0.0
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This line is about distribution, contracts and completeness: signed builds on the launch stores, a
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frozen save format, finished content and release candidates.
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| Version | Type | Scope | Exit criterion |
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| --- | --- | --- | --- |
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| 0.11.1 | patch | Replay/venue/localization fixes from wider play | No P1 defect in the 0.11.0 feature set |
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| 0.11.2 | patch | New-venue balance, campaign pacing and content readability | The 0.11.x line is stable enough to freeze its contracts |
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| 0.12.0 | minor | macOS signing/notarization, storefront packages/metadata/ratings, save-format v2 freeze, hardware matrix, launch languages | Signed, storefront-ready builds exist on every launch platform |
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| 0.12.1 | patch | Signing, installer, metadata and save-migration fixes from storefront dry runs | Every storefront build installs, launches and migrates cleanly |
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| 0.13.0 | minor | Content complete: all planned venues/events/dialogue, audio decision, final tutorial, accessibility audit, balance freeze | All planned content is implemented and frozen |
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| 0.13.1 | patch | Release candidate 1: full smoke/performance/save/accessibility matrix | A candidate passes every gate except final approval |
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| 0.13.2 | patch | Release candidate 2: verify fixes, freeze release notes/credits/privacy/known limitations | The final candidate is reproducible and documented |
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| 1.0.0 | major | Stable release: legal/storefront/rating approval, hardware/accessibility/localization sign-off, no P0/P1, publish on every platform | 1.0.0 is published with verified checksums and no open blocker |
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## Roadmap Dependencies and Risks
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- Content volume is the largest schedule risk; tutorial and campaign work must not outrun the
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event/dialogue matrix.
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- The vision judge is a dev-time aid with an external key and budget; CI must never make it a hard
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gate.
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- Godot engine changes can alter lighting and imports; do not combine an engine baseline move with
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a content or feature milestone.
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- Signed macOS builds, AI provenance and storefront approval are release blockers, not polish.
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- The character pipeline is the current critical path. The rig/export fix must be proven on one
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variant before the roster rollout; otherwise 0.9.10 multiplies a defect.
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- Photo-derived map assets add a provenance risk: downloaded or user-supplied photos can carry
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unclear licences, identifiable people, plates and property restrictions. No photo- or
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splat-derived asset ships without a completed sidecar, consent/licence review and redaction.
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- Gaussian-splat training is GPU/disk-heavy and the toolchain churns; keep it offline,
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version-pinned and outside CI, and never make a runtime splat renderer a release dependency.
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- The Blender skill pack is local, unversioned guidance; it can drift from the project contract or
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assume Blender MCP. Re-verify every adopted technique with `inspect`/`audit`/`fit` and never make
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a skill, asset pack or tool version a build or CI dependency.
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- The 3D re-evaluation can expand without bound. Cap it with the scorecard ranking: P0/P1 only, one
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asset family per commit, and an explicit accept for everything else.
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- Keep the de-escalation-first rules and rare-emergency design unchanged while adding progression,
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difficulty and feedback.
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## Design Direction
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The game should feel like a tense workplace simulation with occasional crisis moments. The most satisfying outcome is not overpowering an NPC; it is recognizing the situation early and resolving it calmly.
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@@ -208,4 +377,5 @@ The game should feel like a tense workplace simulation with occasional crisis mo
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- A rare Bob Dobbs cameo (Easter-egg appearance; placement note in `MEMORY.md`).
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- Specific unusual NPC behaviors, such as slapping their own face, using hands as scissors, or interacting with props unexpectedly.
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- Live 3D body-camera replay; additional venues or seasonal events; real voice/dialogue audio; an image-to-mesh prop pipeline.
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- A fifth venue or seasonal events after the 0.11.0 fourth venue proves the venue pipeline.
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- Real voice/dialogue audio if the 0.13.0 audio decision does not fund it; an image-to-mesh prop pipeline remains unscheduled.
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