Where we are
The Playable scenario sandbox milestone is complete. Two forces load onto generated terrain, take orders, move by terrain-cost A*, fight under rules of engagement, dig in, tire, report contacts, and resolve victory — all deterministically, save/loadable, and replayable from the command log.
| Area | State |
|---|---|
| Phase 0 — Foundation | Done for a local buildable project. CI is scaffolded but Unity licence secrets are unset. No EditMode test assembly yet. Steamworks not started. |
| Phase 1 — Map | Largely built. Procedural generation + 2D topographic sheet + 3D drape preview. Still missing: terrain LOS, real fog of war, weather, day/night, alternate render modes, basin-breaching for lake-heavy maps. |
| Phase 2 — Symbols | Complete for land units (composer, baker, library, BUILDER). Gaps: symbol LOD, non-land sets, four land entity icons (FRAME ONLY), animated states. |
| Phase 3 — Units / ORBAT | Built. Hierarchy, roll-up, fatigue, training, capabilities, sides, command-rank ladders. Still missing: commander entities, OPCON/TACON attach-detach, national doctrine profiles. |
| Phase 4 — Movement & combat | Core path done. A* movement, direct fire, suppression, dig-in Hold/Defend, wrecks + casualty log. Still missing: indirect fire, logistics, reconstitution, formation movement, collision/ZoC, path replanning. |
| Phase 5 — C2 | Foundations in. Command/report/directive buses, queues, FRAGO-style cancel, ROE reflexes, TTP binder + drill execution with readiness-aware picker, mission types, graphic control measures (APP-6D), a policy seam for the opposing side. Still missing: spatial comms, intel fusion, doctrine authoring. |
| Phase 6 — Scenario & campaign | Partial. Scenario JSON + objectives/victory ship; campaign chain data + carry-over + starting/advancing/saving a campaign in PLAY. Still missing: scenario editor, feature-placed objectives, historical packs, full campaign arc. |
| Phases 7–10 | Mostly unbuilt. Windows builds + this GitHub Pages site exist. Audio and release-engineering work is planned, not started. |
Near-term focus — "First playable game"
Explicit command controls are done, and so is campaign play in PLAY — starting, continuing and mid-campaign-saving a linked chain of operations — the full set of mission-type orders (Screen, Guard, Cover, Withdraw, Delay, Attack, Recon, Exploit, Pursue), the AI environment API (observation / action / reward / env / throughput / trajectory), and graphic control measures (checkpoints, phase lines, boundaries, axes, areas), and a US/NATO topographic map palette. Next up: the full campaign arc (rank gates, career), and treating the player as a node in the chain of command.
Outstanding themes
Open work, grouped by area. Each item is a real GitHub issue in the repository.
- Campaign & progression — career progression across multiple campaigns; rank gating echelon; the full campaign arc (drills, directives, positions, execution, rank).
- C2 / C3 depth — the player as a node in the chain of command; a spatial, multi-modal comms network; one-way number stations; doctrine authoring as an echelon-gated capability.
- World & movement depth — special actions and a dynamic world layer (objects and hazards that are neither terrain nor units); A* as a living plan that replans as the situation changes; placing objectives by map feature, not only by coordinate.
- AI as environment — shipped (#99 / #100–#106): observation encoding, action space, reward shaping, environment lifecycle, headless throughput, and trajectory export. Intelligence (planning) remains Phase 8.
- Persistence beyond run saves — content stays JSON; an embedded store for player data once there is any to keep (careers, unlocks).
- Audio — wiring (where sound assets live, format, mixer buses, the time-compression problem) and sourcing (planning, tooling, provenance) filed as prerequisites to actual sound-effect, voice and music content.
- Docs / reference — an in-game/web field manual (glossary, basic reference, drills folded in as a chapter); rank-insignia decorator variants by country, division and era.
- UI / accessibility — a selectable dark theme alongside the current light palette; colour-blind-accessible symbol and map palettes.
- Scenario / map access — PLAY can pick PUSH NORTH or SKIRMISH ONLY (#133).
- Map palette — US/NATO topographic five-colour mode
(
NatoTopo) ships alongside schematic / topographic / hybrid / terrain. - Release / site — versioning and release notes; itch.io; a short capture/GIF for this page.
Versioning strategy
| Release | Focus | Progress |
|---|---|---|
| 0.1 Alpha | Phases 0–3: Map + Symbols + Units | Reached |
| 0.3 Alpha | Phases 4–5: Movement + Combat + C2 | In progress |
| 0.5 Beta | Phases 6–7: Scenarios + All Game Modes | Campaign data started |
| 0.8 Beta | Phase 8: Full AI pipeline | Policy seam only |
| 0.9 RC | Phase 9: Online services | Not started |
| 1.0 | Phase 10: Polish + Release | Site + Windows builds only |
See ROADMAP.md for the backlog and phase status in full, docs/phases.md for the task-by-task checkboxes, and CHANGELOG.md for what landed recently.