gamedev-the-steward/docs/ARCHITECTURE_OVERVIEW.md

The Steward — Architecture Overview

This project is organized around gameplay ownership, not scene-tree location. Serializable simulation records are authoritative; loaded Godot nodes present that state and contribute active-world facts such as positions and navigation results.

Runtime flow

SimulationClock
    -> SimulationManager orchestrates one deterministic tick
        -> ActionExecutionSystem advances needs and work
        -> ActionSelectionSystem chooses an action
        -> ActionTargetResolver resolves a stable target ID
        -> VillageEconomy performs inventory/storage transactions
        -> SimulationEventLog records completed facts
        -> EventKnowledgeSystem records, ranks, transfers, and retains bounded knowledge
        -> RelationshipSystem applies evidence-gated social consequences
    -> WorldViewManager presents travel and NPC state
        -> ActiveWorldAdapter supplies loaded-world positions/capacity
        -> NpcVisual performs local navigation, animation, and transient reactions

SimulationManager is the scene-tree façade for the simulation. It owns the tick lifecycle, authoritative NPC/village/resource records, reservations, and the signals consumed by presentation. Focused collaborators own rules that would otherwise obscure that lifecycle:

• simulation/actions/ owns selection, progress, and target resolution;
• simulation/economy/VillageEconomy.gd owns storage/inventory transactions and keeps village resource summaries synchronized;
• simulation/events/SimulationEventLog.gd owns ordered event identity, history queries, and rate calculations;
• simulation/knowledge/EventKnowledgeSystem.gd owns per-NPC references to known objective events, immutable acquisition provenance, proximity witnesses at record time, one-hop direct fact transfer, and deterministic recent-fact retention/importance ranking;
• simulation/relationships/RelationshipSystem.gd owns directed relationship queries, event-driven trust changes, and deterministic social tie-breaking;
• simulation/persistence/ owns save-slot file safety;
• simulation/state/ owns versioned serialized record contracts;
• simulation/definitions/ owns stable IDs and immutable action/profession definitions.

The manager deliberately remains a façade instead of being split into a collection of scene-tree manager nodes. A new collaborator is justified when one cohesive rule set has several real consumers or makes the tick lifecycle hard to read.

Folder ownership

Path	Responsibility
simulation/	Headless-capable orchestration and core models
simulation/actions/	Action decisions, execution, and target queries
simulation/economy/	Authoritative inventory and storage transactions
simulation/events/	Immutable event history and derived event queries
simulation/knowledge/	Per-NPC knowledge of objective event IDs
simulation/relationships/	Directed social consequences and relationship queries
simulation/state/	Versioned, serializable mutable records
simulation/definitions/	Stable IDs and immutable gameplay definitions
simulation/persistence/	Validated local save-file storage
world/	Loaded-world interaction geometry and presentation adapters
world/resource_nodes/	Finite resource presentation bound by stable ID
world/storage/	Storage interaction geometry, never stored quantities
world/activity/	Rest/study/patrol interaction sites and capacity facts
player/	Player input, camera, and active NPC presentation
tests/	Deterministic headless gameplay scenarios

Top-level core model scripts keep their stable paths because Godot's global class cache records class_name locations. Moving them solely for cosmetic nesting can break editor and headless startup for existing workspaces without improving ownership.

Dependency rules

• Simulation code must run without main.tscn or loaded world nodes.
• Persistent references are stable IDs, never Node, NodePath, or scene ownership.
• Presentation may report facts and submit commands; it does not choose NPC actions or own resource, storage, inventory, event, knowledge, relationship, or reservation state.
• Inspector history is a read-only façade query over objective events and retained knowledge. Relationship cues consume state-change signals and are intentionally absent from saves and checksums.
• Resource changes go through ResourceStateRecord, NPC inventory, and VillageEconomy; village.food and village.wood are synchronized views.
• New mutable features define serialization and deterministic continuation at the same time as their first gameplay use. Cross-record causes use stable event IDs rather than object references or prose.
• Prefer one tested vertical behavior over a generic framework with no proven consumers.

Where new code goes

Put a rule beside the state it governs. A relationship consequence belongs in a focused simulation system plus serialized relationship records; its icon or animation belongs in presentation. Add a world node only when the behavior needs loaded-world geometry. Add a stable ID or definition when content must be referenced across saves, scenes, or unloaded simulation.

The architectural decision and detailed contracts live in ADR 0001, the action system architecture, and the simulation state schema.