FEATURES

What the game does. Each doc answers four questions: what is this, what are the rules and numbers, what does the player do, where does the code implement it.

When the documented numbers and the code disagree, the code wins; surprising numbers are flagged inline.

This is also the only place where implementation status is tracked. The other doc sets (ARCHITECTURE, API, DATA_MODELS, OPERATIONS) describe the target design; status notes (shipped, partial, design-only, known bugs) live next to the relevant feature in this folder. See "Status convention" below.

Index

Definitions

• definitions.md — Consolidated terminology, game rules, resource types, ship types, and galaxy components glossary.

Gameplay

• gameplay/game-loops.md — Canonical catalog of every named gameplay loop: player fantasy, status marker, home doc, and cadence layer, plus an "Under design" section for proposed/deferred loops.
• gameplay/player-journey.md — Lifecycle: first login → early/mid/end-game loops, pacing milestones.
• gameplay/turns.md — Turn allocation, regeneration, action costs.
• gameplay/movement.md — Ship-speed semantics, warp-tunnel turn cost, long-tunnel length bands, wall-clock travel time, fleet movement, cross-region travel.
• gameplay/first-login.md — Onboarding dialogue, ship-claim flow, starting state.
• gameplay/ships.md — Ship lifecycle, maintenance, upgrades, insurance.
• gameplay/ship-systems.md — Hull/engine/shield/cargo/sensor/weapon/drone/genesis/maintenance — upgrade vs equipment architecture.
• gameplay/combat.md — Ship/drone/planet/port combat, damage model, fleet battles.
• gameplay/fleet-tactics.md — Formations, morale, supply, role assignments, fleet-vs-fleet outcomes.
• gameplay/ranking.md — Military rank progression and personal-reputation alignment.
• gameplay/factions-and-teams.md — NPC factions vs player teams; how they differ.
• gameplay/police-forces.md — Federation Police + Nexus Sentinel Corps: NPC-only enforcement bodies, Interdictor hulls (Federation Marshal and Nexus Sentinel), engagement triggers, Nexus protected-sector defense.
• gameplay/message-beacons.md — Player-deployable in-world message objects: deploy, read, salvage, expiry, anti-griefing rules.
• gameplay/faction-lore.md — Faction profiles, ideology, territory, ally/rival matrix.
• gameplay/bounties.md — Bounty creation, tracking, collection, expiration.
• gameplay/regional-governance.md — Elections, policies, treaties, regional citizenship.
• gameplay/aria-companion.md — Mid-game ARIA: predictions, route optimization, trust/consciousness, trading-pattern evolution.

Economy

• economy/lifecycle.md — Credit sources, sinks, tax rates, faucet/sink balancing.
• economy/trading.md — Port classes, dynamic pricing, transaction flow, faction modifiers.
• economy/haggling.md — Numerical and narrative haggling, 5 port personalities, anti-exploitation.
• economy/port-ownership.md — Player station acquisition, tariffs, 9 upgrade types, takeovers.
• economy/station-protection.md — Docked-ship safety: 4-tier security system, hired security-guard NPCs (STATION_SECURITY archetype), anti-theft tractor beam, 40/30/30 docking-fee economics, attack shield for docked ships.
• economy/docking-slips.md — Slip scarcity: 4-class taxonomy (transient / long-term / construction / specialized), per-station-class slip counts, Tier-A vs Tier-B TradeDock discriminator (Tier-A required for Warp Jumper / Carrier), reservation queue with reputation-gated priority, 45–90 day Warp Jumper queue at peak.
• economy/tradedock-shipyard.md — Premium hubs, 12-slip shipyards, construction events.
• economy/contracts.md — NPC and player trade contracts with deadlines, rewards, and insurance options.
• economy/black-market.md — Illegal goods, contraband detection, stealth routes.
• economy/mining.md — Asteroid-field harvest loop, Mining Laser upgrades, AM claim licenses, depletion mechanics.

Galaxy

• galaxy/generation.md — Region → cluster → zone → sector → contents pipeline.
• galaxy/sectors.md — Sector defense, warp tunnels, navigation.
• galaxy/warp-gates.md — Player-built warp gates: construction, tolls, access control, destruction, upgrades.
• galaxy/quantum-resources.md — Quantum shards and crystals: gathering, refining, nebula yields.
• galaxy/genesis-devices.md — Genesis Device tiers and planet creation.

Planets

• planets/colonization.md — Claiming planets, colonist flow, lifecycle phases.
• planets/production.md — Resource production rules and allocation.
• planets/defense.md — Multi-layer planetary defense.
• planets/citadels.md — Citadel levels, storage, safe vault.
• planets/terraforming.md — Habitability improvement.
• planets/professions.md — Colonist profession system (12 professions, training, bonuses) — 📐 Design-only.

Status convention

Implementation status is tagged inline next to the feature it describes, using a four-status convention:

Marker	Meaning
✅ Shipped	Implemented and reachable end-to-end.
🚧 Partial	Some pieces in code, some pieces still missing.
📐 Design-only	Documented intent; no code yet.
🐛 Bug	Known runtime defect against the documented behavior.

Notes are written like:

Status: 🚧 Partial — short note. Pointer at where the target spec lives if cross-cutting (e.g., "see ARCHITECTURE/auth.md").

Cross-links

• Data models: ../DATA_MODELS/ (entities, schema, FK relationships).
• API surface: gameserver auto-publishes Swagger at <api-host>/docs and OpenAPI JSON at <api-host>/openapi.json. WebSocket protocol design lives in ../SYSTEMS/realtime-bus.md.
• Architecture: ../ARCHITECTURE/ (services, deployment).