7.9 KiB
Ashen Realms – Playable Slice 0.12: Aschenfelder Complete
Status: Final integration slice for the first region
Prerequisite: Playable Slices 0.1–0.11
Scope: Integration, balancing, content completion and polish for the Aschenfelder
Primary Goal: Complete the first genuinely playable regional progression loop.
1. Goal
Playable Slice 0.12 does not introduce a large new system.
It integrates, verifies, balances, and polishes everything built so far into one coherent first region.
The full intended flow is:
Graufurt
↓
Südtor
↓
Verbrannte Straße
↓
first hunts
↓
first combat
↓
first loot
↓
first upgrades
↓
Verlassener Wachtposten
↓
NPC / Quest
↓
stronger enemies
↓
first Elite
↓
Grenzmarken
↓
targeted upgrades
↓
Aschengrube
↓
regional Boss
↓
guaranteed boss loot
↓
path toward Dämmerwald discovered
2. Complete locations
The Aschenfelder progression contains:
Südtor von Graufurt
Verbrannte Straße
Verlassener Wachtposten
Aschengrube
Each location must have a clear purpose and correct travel connections.
3. Complete Tier-1 enemy set
The relevant first-region pool should now include the established enemies:
Aschenratte
Verwilderter Straßenhund
Straßenräuber
Plünderer-Späher
Plünderer-Veteran
Verkohlter Plünderer
Aschenwühler
Verbrannter Jagdhund
Plündererhauptmann / Elite
Hauptmann der Aschenbande / Boss
If final naming differs in existing project content, preserve the existing finalized names rather than creating duplicates.
4. Complete Tier-1 item set
The relevant Tier-1 pool should now include:
Abgenutztes Kurzschwert
Räuberklinge
Aschenklinge
Räuberhaube
Verstärkte Lederjacke
Plündererhandschuhe
Wachmannsbeinkleid
Aschenstiefel
Zeichen der Grenzwacht
Anhänger des verbrannten Hauptmanns
Not every item must be required for progression.
Prestige/special drops remain optional.
5. Combat duration targets
During the balancing pass, verify:
Normal enemies
4–8 rounds
Elite
6–10 rounds
Boss
8–14 rounds
These are balancing targets rather than hard rules.
6. Power progression targets
Use the established Combat Power progression as a reference:
Start
approximately 47 CP
After first upgrades
approximately 60–70 CP
Wachtposten progression
approximately 80–90 CP
Aschengrube / boss-ready range
approximately 100–110 CP
Combat Power is an internal balancing tool, not a hard access gate.
7. Progression pacing
A typical player should need roughly:
12–18 normal combats
+
quests
+
boss
to progress meaningfully through the first region.
The intended experience must not require 50+ normal combats for basic progression.
8. First upgrade pacing
Verify that within approximately the first:
3–5 combats
the player is very likely to see a meaningful equipment upgrade.
If this does not happen reliably enough, tune only the smallest necessary variables:
drop rate
quest reward
starter equipment
Do not add unnecessary new reward systems.
9. Boss readiness
The regional boss should become reasonably beatable at approximately:
70–80% of maximum realistically obtainable regional power
Best-in-slot equipment should provide comfort and completionist value, not be mandatory.
10. Soft-gate validation
The player should not be blocked primarily by arbitrary level errors.
Where possible:
actual world danger
should communicate that the player is too weak.
A player may attempt difficult content early, but the game should make the risk clear.
11. Full UI consistency pass
Review all implemented screens together:
World
Hunt
Combat
Loot
Inventory
Quests
Merchant
Verify consistency of:
Topbar
SideNavigation
Footer
Context Panel
Panel frames
Buttons
DangerBadges
Item icons
Combat actions
Typography
Spacing
Design tokens
No screen should feel like a separate web application.
12. Loading and error-state pass
All core player actions need intentional UI states:
loading
success
domain error
network error
retry
Review at minimum:
Travel
Hunt
Combat Action
Reward
Equip
Quest
Purchase
Do not use browser alerts.
13. Refresh and recovery pass
The following states must survive browser refresh through authoritative backend state:
active travel
current hunt
active combat
finished combat/reward
inventory
equipment
active quest
Grenzmarken
boss completion
No critical gameplay state may exist only in Angular memory.
14. Full integration test
Where practical, automate the first complete progression flow:
character starts at Südtor
↓
travel to Verbrannte Straße
↓
hunt
↓
combat
↓
win
↓
receive loot
↓
equip upgrade
↓
travel to Wachtposten
↓
accept quest
↓
defeat relevant enemies
↓
progress quest
↓
earn Grenzmarken
↓
buy targeted item
↓
equip item
↓
travel to Aschengrube
↓
defeat boss
↓
receive guaranteed boss reward
↓
region completion persists
15. Manual playtest – average RNG
Perform at least one normal playthrough and measure:
combat duration
loot frequency
upgrade frequency
number of hunts
travel flow
quest pacing
Grenzmarken income
boss readiness
total region time
16. Manual playtest – bad RNG
Test a deliberately unlucky run.
Verify:
Grenzmarken still provide progress
progression does not hard-block
boss readiness remains achievable
player does not require extreme grind
17. Manual playtest – good RNG
Test a deliberately lucky run.
Verify:
region does not become instantly trivial
progression cannot be skipped too aggressively
boss remains meaningful
18. Data/content validation
Verify:
- all locations use persisted content
- all encounter pools use persisted relationships
- all loot is data-driven
- all shop offers are data-driven
- quest definitions are persisted/data-driven
- no core gameplay path depends on hardcoded Angular content
- no server domain service contains unnecessary location-specific special cases
19. Server-authority validation
Confirm that the backend remains authoritative for:
travel
hunt availability
encounter generation
danger rating
combat
loot
XP
Silver
Grenzmarken
inventory ownership
equipment
effective stats
quest progress
shop purchases
boss completion
20. Performance / technical cleanup
Review the accumulated implementation for:
- duplicate API calls
- duplicated frontend state
- duplicated domain validation
- unused temporary placeholder logic
- obsolete Slice 0.1–0.5 shortcuts
- hardcoded demo combat stats that should now use CharacterStatsService
- temporary combat placeholder routes
- duplicated item definitions
- migration quality
- seed idempotency
Do not perform unrelated architectural rewrites.
21. Definition of Done
Playable Slice 0.12 / Aschenfelder Complete is complete when a fresh character can, without developer intervention:
start
↓
travel
↓
hunt
↓
fight
↓
receive loot
↓
improve equipment
↓
meet NPC
↓
complete quest
↓
fight Elite
↓
earn Grenzmarken
↓
buy targeted item
↓
reach Aschengrube
↓
defeat regional Boss
↓
receive guaranteed progression reward
↓
discover path toward Dämmerwald
22. Final product test
The most important qualitative result is:
After completing the Aschenfelder, the player should want to see what waits in the Dämmerwald.
If the loop is technically correct but does not create that motivation, the region still needs iteration.
23. After Slice 0.12
Do not immediately expand into the full Dämmerwald.
First:
playtest
measure
balance
fix friction
validate reward pacing
validate combat decisions
validate boss readiness
Only after the first region loop works well should the same systems be expanded into the Dämmerwald and later the Vergessene Ruinen.