Freedom: "doing almost anything"

Document 24 · 7 min read

The owner's ideal: an experience close to Sword Art Online, where the player can do almost literally everything. The audit (.audit-findings.md, section 3) showed that the plan covered shops, farming, housing and professions well, but left out player cities and laws, player-created content, social life and real crime. This document closes those gaps and defines the launch freedom pillars.

1. The principle

If a player can imagine it and the world has the pieces, the game should let them try. The server is the judge of what happens, not a menu of what is allowed. What the game cannot allow (cheating, theft of real value, abuse) is blocked by rule, not by lack of tools.

Three tests for any new system:

Does it have consequences? Every action changes something in the world or in someone (otherwise it's theater).
Can another player react? Every freedom of one is a situation for another (the thief creates the guard).
Does it have a role in the game's economy? If so, it goes in 08 and 09. Earning something from it is an extra, never the reason to play nor a job.

2. What the player can be (without choosing just one thing)

Classes are only the starting point (17). Identity comes from what the person does:

Fighter: monster hunter, mercenary, bounty hunter, hired guard, arena gladiator, clan war captain.
Producer: farmer, fisher, miner, lumberjack, animal breeder, alchemist, blacksmith, shipwright, builder, cook, tailor.
Merchant: shop owner, caravaneer, boat owner, land broker, clan banker, auctioneer.
Social: musician, tavern keeper, festival organizer, tour guide (yes, for money), teacher (teaches a recipe for a price), matchmaker, chronicler.
Explorer: cartographer, diver, climber, treasure hunter, archaeologist of the ruins.
Criminal: pickpocket, smuggler, pirate, PK, thieves' guild boss.
Authority: elected mayor, judge, militia chief, tax collector.

3. Cities, government and player laws

The map's fixed cities (20) keep NPC guards and game rules. Beyond them:

Founding a settlement: a clan (or a group of 10+ players) can found a village on a founding plot (a new plot type, on free land in mid and distant regions, never in the starting block). The village grows by milestones: 10 residents = village, 50 = small city with market and ferry, 200 = city with wall and port.
Government: the village has a mayor (elected by residents each season, or the founder until the first election) and a council (3 to 7 players). They decide with game tools, not free text:
- Local tax (0 to 10% on sales in the village), which goes to the village treasury;
- Local laws from a menu: PvP allowed or not inside the walls, entry of red karma, quiet hours, ban on Shadow magic, port toll, shop license;
- Guards: NPCs hired with the treasury, or players with a guard post (paid from the treasury);
- Works: wall, lighthouse, temple, pier, well (each unlocks something).
Court: a player-against-player complaint inside the village (theft, default) is judged by a player judge with evidence from the server record; penalties from the menu (fine, expulsion from the village, loss of license). None of this touches NFT items.
War and diplomacy: villages can be attacked in clan war (19), at a scheduled time. A captured village changes government; residents don't lose their house or plot (they lose the government and pay the new owner's tax, with a cap). Alliances, treaties and tolls between villages through the clan system.

4. Player-created content

03 excluded "content creation". That changes: the game gives templated tools, and the server controls what counts.

Books and signs: any player writes books (text), which can be sold, copied by the scribe, kept in the Vaelor library. Signs on plots and villages. Moderation by report and filter.
Maps: the cartographer draws maps (annotations over the game map) and sells them; treasure maps with a reward that the player buries themself.
Player contracts and quests: a contract board in each city: "bring 50 wolf pelts for 300 gold", "escort my caravan to Porto Sal", "kill the PK So-and-so", "find my sunken boat". Payment is held in escrow by the system; delivery is verified by the server. It's the player-made quest, without dangerous free text.
Events: the organizer reserves a square or arena for a set time, defines rules (race, tournament, party, wedding, concert), and the system handles registration, timer and prize in escrow.
Music: instruments playable note by note; sheet music as an item (made by the player, sellable); synchronized bands; tipping.
Free building within the plot: modular pieces (wall, floor, roof, stairs, window) and furniture, with a piece limit per plot. Outside the plot: temporary camp (campfire, tent, for a few hours) anywhere in the world, without blocking paths.
Theater and fashion: stage in tavern and square, costumes, runway show with voting. First-person photo mode (camera in hand, it's an item).

Friendships, groups, clans (19) and proximity chat by voice and text (18+ for voice, see 11).
Marriage: ceremony at the temple or in the square (event), ring item, shared house, reunion teleport once a day to the spouse (the game's only personal teleport). Divorce splits what is shared according to the record.
Family and mentoring: sponsoring a beginner: the mentor earns when the apprentice progresses (anti-bot: only accounts with age and KYC).
Player taverns: a plot's tavern serves food with effects, music, tavern games (23), rooms to sleep in (logout with bonus). The tavern keeper earns from it.
Calendar festivals (by season, 21) with roles for players: organizer, musician, street vendor.

6. Real crime, without losing what can't be lost

Fixed rule: nobody loses an NFT item or worn equipment. Within that:

Pickpocketing: the thief (Dexterity skill) tries to take gold from the pocket or a common unworn item from another player's backpack, in a city or on the road; turns yellow if seen; the victim and the guards can react; there is a cap per day and per victim. Gold in the bank can't be stolen.
Break-in: shops and houses have a lock (level); the thief steals from the day's sales box (gold) or from an unsecured chest; the plot's vault is inviolable. An alarm calls the village guards.
Smuggling: goods banned by local law (Shadow, liquor, certain reagents) give bigger profit and a risk of seizure at the port (lose the cargo, not the boat).
Piracy: boarding cargo boats on the open sea; takes cargo and gold from the pocket, never the boat nor NFT.
Default and fraud: contracts through the system have escrow, so there is no default; direct trades have a double-confirmation window.
Response: everything generates karma (23), a trail in the record, wanted lists and bounty hunters; villages can ban red players from entering.

7. The world responds

Reactive NPCs: they have affinity with the player (price, dialogue, quest) and react to crime, fame and karma; they can be persuaded, bribed or intimidated (Mind, Luck); killing a common NPC is possible outside the city, with karma and consequence (it disappears for a while; the village turns hostile).
Terrain: digging and felling trees outside plots in marked areas (they regenerate); building outside a plot is not allowed (camp only).
Taming: tameable wild creatures as companions (10), with lineage and sale; combat animals limited in power (they never replace a player).

8. Launch freedom pillars (the rest is roadmap)

The launch won't have everything. It will have 5 complete pillars, each with consequence, reaction and economy:

Shop and profession (craft, sell, take orders) — 09, 22.
Land and house (buy, build on the plot, decorate, plant) — 15.
Boat and travel (ferry and fishing in Chapter 1; own boat and islands only from Chapter 3, 25) — 20 §7.
Crime and law (PK with karma, pickpocketing, wanted, hunters, guards) — 23, §6 here.
Player contracts (contract board with escrow, reserved events) — §4 here.

For the first big update: founded villages and government (§3), marriage and mentoring (§5), books and music (§4). After that: own airship, persuadable NPCs, diggable terrain.

9. What stays out

Free text without moderation (chat and books have filter and reporting).
Anything that takes NFT or equipment from someone.
Player laws that block another player's access to their own plot.
"Doing everything" does not include winning without playing: no buying power (08).