# Ashen Realms – Playable Slice 0.7 V2

## Complete Burned Road

**Status:** Implementation Specification  
**Depends on:** Slice 0.6.6  
**Purpose:** Turn the Burned Road into the first complete repeatable hunt location using the new no-XP/no-direct-money progression model.

---

## 1. Goal

The Burned Road becomes the first place where Ashen Realms feels like a repeatable RPG activity rather than a combat test screen.

The player should be able to:

**Travel → Hunt → compare encounters → choose an enemy → fight → receive trade goods/equipment → hunt again.**

This slice replaces the previous reward assumption of direct XP and Silver from kills.

> Normal monster kills must not directly grant XP, Silver, regional reputation or World Renown.

---

## 2. Player Experience

When the player starts a hunt on the Burned Road, 2–3 encounter cards appear.

Possible enemies:

- Ash Rat
- Feral Road Hound
- Road Bandit
- rare: Charred Raider

Each enemy must feel mechanically and economically different.

The player can deliberately choose an easy target, a useful target, or a risky rare target.

---

## 3. Encounter Pool

Suggested initial weights:

| Monster | Weight | Role |
|---|---:|---|
| Ash Rat | 50 | basic safe target |
| Feral Road Hound | 30 | first status-effect enemy |
| Road Bandit | 18 | stronger humanoid with telegraph |
| Charred Raider | 2 | rare dangerous encounter |

Weights are balancing data and must not be hardcoded into the Angular UI.

The hunt should return 2–3 distinct encounter records where possible.

---

## 4. Monster Mechanics

### Ash Rat

Purpose: pure baseline combat.

- no special combat mechanic
- low danger
- short fight
- guaranteed basic trade good

### Feral Road Hound

Purpose: introduce Bleeding as a simple ongoing effect.

- normal bite
- occasional Bleeding application
- Bleeding has clear icon/status feedback
- Bleeding duration and damage are server-authoritative

### Road Bandit

Purpose: reinforce Telegraphing.

- normal attack
- Heavy Strike is announced before execution
- Shield Bash can interrupt the prepared attack
- Defend is a valid response if the player does not interrupt

### Charred Raider

Purpose: first rare encounter and visible future farming target.

- noticeably stronger than normal Burned Road enemies
- combines higher base stats with one known mechanic
- no entirely new subsystem
- visually marked as Rare / Strong

---

## 5. Trade Goods

Every normal enemy should provide a thematic trade good instead of money.

Initial content:

| Monster | Guaranteed Trade Good |
|---|---|
| Ash Rat | Ashen Pelt ×1 |
| Feral Road Hound | Tough Hide ×1 |
| Road Bandit | Raider Insignia ×1 |
| Charred Raider | Charred Raider Insignia ×1 |

These items represent loot that can later be exchanged with a merchant.

The trade goods must be persisted as actual player-owned loot.

Slice 0.7.5 will add category-specific carrying capacity and loot bags. Until then, existing inventory storage may temporarily hold these goods.

---

## 6. Equipment Drops

Trade goods are guaranteed; equipment remains an exciting additional roll.

Suggested initial drops:

### Ash Rat

- small chance for simple starter-slot equipment

### Feral Road Hound

- chance for Ashen Boots
- chance for a Small Healing Potion if potions are already lootable

### Road Bandit

- Bandit Blade
- Bandit Hood
- Plunderer Gloves

### Charred Raider

- Reinforced Leather Jacket
- Ashen Boots
- Mark of the Border Watch
- optional prestige drop later

Exact drop rates should remain data-driven and can initially follow existing Tier-1 balancing values where already implemented.

---

## 7. Reward Rules

After a normal victory, the server may grant:

- trade goods
- equipment
- consumables
- hunt/combat state progression

The server must **not** grant:

- XP
- Silver
- regional reputation
- World Renown

These economy/progression rewards are deliberately deferred to merchant exchange and milestone systems.

---

## 8. Backend Requirements

The existing content model must support:

- multiple monsters for one location
- weighted encounter generation
- rare encounter weighting
- guaranteed loot entries
- probabilistic equipment entries
- status-effect combat events
- telegraphed actions

Recommended behavior:

```text
POST /api/hunts
→ server validates current location
→ server selects encounter definitions from Burned Road pool
→ persisted HuntEncounter records are returned
```

Combat must still start only from a valid generated encounter.

---

## 9. Frontend Requirements

The Hunt screen must show for each encounter:

- monster artwork
- English name
- danger rating
- optional short flavor text
- clear Attack action

The player should immediately recognize the rare Charred Raider.

After victory, the loot summary should clearly separate:

- Trade Goods
- Equipment
- Consumables

Do not show old XP or Silver reward rows.

---

## 10. Hunt Refresh

The player can choose **Search Again**.

Rules:

- generates a new persisted hunt result
- old encounter IDs cannot be attacked indefinitely after being invalidated
- avoid client-side randomization
- no resource cost in this slice

---

## 11. Tests

At minimum:

### Hunting

- Burned Road produces only configured monsters
- rare encounter is selectable through deterministic injected random values
- encounter generation is server-authoritative
- invalid/stale encounter cannot start combat

### Combat

- Feral Road Hound can apply Bleeding
- Bleeding ticks correctly
- Road Bandit Heavy Strike is telegraphed
- Shield Bash can interrupt the telegraphed action

### Loot

- Ash Rat grants Ashen Pelt
- Road Bandit grants Raider Insignia
- normal kill grants no XP
- normal kill grants no Silver
- normal kill grants no reputation
- equipment drop roll remains independent from guaranteed trade good

---

## 12. Acceptance Criteria

- [ ] Burned Road offers 2–3 encounter choices per hunt.
- [ ] Four enemy definitions are available, including rare Charred Raider.
- [ ] Feral Road Hound demonstrates Bleeding.
- [ ] Road Bandit demonstrates Telegraphing / interrupt interaction.
- [ ] Every enemy grants a thematic trade good.
- [ ] Equipment can drop in addition to trade goods.
- [ ] Normal kills grant no XP, Silver, regional reputation or World Renown.
- [ ] Loot is persisted server-side.
- [ ] The player can repeatedly hunt without manual database changes.
- [ ] Existing travel and combat flows continue to work.

---

## 13. Out of Scope

Do not add yet:

- loot bag capacity
- merchant exchange
- reputation-gated shop offers
- first quest tutorial
- Abandoned Watchpost content
- area boss