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Dynamic Quest Pressure Model

Scope​

This page owns the generation contract that turns Valenar's world facts — Feature transitions, Territory knowledge changes, Site state changes, pressure escalation, settlement shortages, route safety, faction claims, named-character state, authored story gates — into planning-layer artifacts: objectives, clues or leads, mission candidates, urgency signals, consequences-if-ignored, and Journal readback hooks. The generation contract aggregates rules owned by other system docs; it does not re-author them. It does specify the binding correctness properties every generated mission must satisfy.

This page is the contract owner. It does not own taxonomy: the size ladder (Activity Beat / Mission / Local Quest / Quest Thread / Act Arc / Saga Arc), the type and importance categories, and the binding "lore is playable" rule remain owned by gd-quest-and-lore-design.md. The live planning vocabulary (objective / clue or lead / mission / activity / policy) remains owned by gd-objectives-clues-missions.md.

Input world-state sources owned elsewhere:

Output consumer surfaces owned elsewhere:

Runtime, read-model, and generator implementation are deferred. This page is a contract doc; see ../implementation/pr-roadmap.md and ../implementation/pr-wave-roadmap.md for scheduling.

Input World-State Sources​

The dynamic quest pressure system reads from a bounded set of world-state sources. The generator does not read undeclared sources; the set below is normative. Each entry points at the doc that owns the source.

  • Feature transitions — every change on the recommended Feature state ladder (Hidden → Hinted → Discovered → Surveyed → Handled → Secured → Developed → Depleted → Destroyed). Owner: ../generation/gd-feature-generation-contract.md.
  • Territory knowledge — Territory knowledge-state advances, terrain fact updates, route discovery, and Settlement-input changes. Owner: ../generation/gd-territory-generation-contract.md.
  • Site state — Site discovery, securement, ownership, activity, depletion, sealing, and destruction. Owner: gd-sites-and-dungeons.md.
  • World pressure and Nexus state — Ancient Shield decay, demonic gate activity, Wardheart stabilization, shard and leyline state. Owner: gd-world-pressure-nexus.md.
  • Corruption and reclamation pressure — taint spread, ward failure, unsafe routes, cleansing progress. Owner: gd-corruption-reclamation.md.
  • Front campaign goals — Crown-scale Front lifecycle and Campaign Goal resolution at Acts 6 and 7. Owner: gd-fronts.md.
  • Operation outcomes — completed, failed, withdrawn, or interrupted Operations. Owner: gd-operations.md.
  • Settlement shortages and labor pressure — population needs, resource shortages, labor allocation gaps, district capacity. Owners: gd-settlements-and-outposts.md and gd-settlement-buildings-economy.md.
  • Route safety — Route status, severance, escort needs, caravan risk. Owners: gd-territories-features-sites.md and gd-operations.md.
  • Faction claims and polity state — faction stance shifts, Banner Network / Province / Crown rank advances, contested claims. Owner: gd-realm-ranks-and-polity.md.
  • Named-character and NPC state — relationship shifts, retinue assignment outcomes, character-arc state. Owner: gd-characters-and-retinue.md.
  • Authored story gates — explicit story-beat preconditions resolving. Owners: ../story/ index and the per-act docs under ../acts/.

Output Planning Artifacts​

Every generated artifact lands on a specific consumer surface. The set below is the bounded output product list; the generator does not produce other artifact kinds.

Generator Contract Rules​

Every generated mission must satisfy the binding correctness properties below before it is allowed to surface to the player. A generated mission missing any of these is a contract violation; the generator must not emit it.

  1. Causal source fact. The mission cites the specific source fact that caused it: which Feature transitioned, which Territory knowledge state advanced, which Site changed, which taint spread escalated, which settlement shortage crossed a threshold, which route became dangerous, which faction claim shifted, which named character changed state, or which authored story gate fired.
  2. Player-actionable contract. The mission states what the player can do to engage it — at minimum one concrete activity or activity chain. A mission with no actionable surface is a violation.
  3. Consequence-if-ignored. The mission states the specific world-state delta that occurs if it is ignored within its escalation window. The delta must be a real change to a tracked world-state field (Feature state, Territory knowledge state, Site state, pressure / taint / threat level, settlement shortage growth, route status, faction claim, named character state), not a vague "things get worse" warning.
  4. Consequence-if-resolved. The mission states the specific world-state delta that occurs if it is resolved. The delta must be the same kind of real field change as the ignore consequence.
  5. Journal readback hook. The mission specifies which Journal entry class lands the resolution or escalation outcome (Outcome, Observation, Discovery, Decision, or Condition Record per ../ux/gd-journal.md). The hook must be reachable from the mission's causal source fact.

This is the anti-radiant-quest guard. Generated content that cannot answer all five questions is not generated. Failure to satisfy this contract is treated as a validation defect, not as flavour-text leniency.

Feature-Transition Trigger Table​

The table below lists the transition triggers that the generator reads from the Feature state ladder. The "May Generate" column lists the artifact kinds the trigger is permitted to emit; actual emission depends on the broader world-state context (which Territory, which neighboring Features, which pressure level, which authored story gates are active).

TransitionMay GenerateNotes
Hidden → HintedClue or leadSurfaces a new uncertain evidence record; no objective yet.
Hinted → DiscoveredObjective updateA previously uncertain clue resolves into a concrete objective slot or refines an existing one.
Discovered → SurveyedMission candidatesThe Feature is legible enough to plan operations against; one or more mission candidates may surface.
Surveyed → HandledMission resolution or site-conversion hookA handled Feature may close a mission, may also produce a site-conversion artifact if the Feature converts to a Site per the Feature contract.
Handled → SecuredMission resolutionFinal securement closes the associated mission and may surface follow-on opportunities (development, defense, garrison).
Secured → DevelopedSettlement, economy, or reclamation hooksA developed Feature feeds settlement-economy mission candidates, reclamation Operations, or Outpost / Settlement integration.
Developed → DepletedConsequence entryRecords the loss-of-yield outcome; may surface follow-on shortage pressure.
Developed → DestroyedConsequence entryRecords the loss outcome; may surface follow-on settlement, route, or faction consequences.
Ignored pressure FeatureTaint or threat escalation, route-danger entry, rest-risk entry, Journal warningPressure Features that are not handled within their escalation window mutate world state; the consequence-if-ignored contract applies.

Pressure And Escalation Triggers​

Rules for how each pressure system contributes generation signals are owned by the source-of-truth docs. The dynamic quest pressure model aggregates the signals; it does not re-author them.

  • World pressure and Nexus. Ancient Shield decay, demonic gate activity, Wardheart stabilization windows, shard and leyline state. Owner: gd-world-pressure-nexus.md. Pressure rules there determine when the world-pressure layer raises a generation signal.
  • Corruption and reclamation. Taint spread, ward failure, unsafe-route state, cleansing windows. Owner: gd-corruption-reclamation.md. Corruption rules there determine which corruption deltas raise generation signals.
  • Fronts. Front lifecycle (Forming / Active / Paused / Concluded / Failed) and Campaign Goal resolution. Owner: gd-fronts.md. Front transitions at Acts 6 and 7 raise Crown-scale generation signals.
  • Operations. Operation outcomes (completed, failed, withdrawn, interrupted) per Operation type. Owner: gd-operations.md. Operation outcomes raise consequence and follow-on signals.

Settlement, Route, Faction, And Character Triggers​

Analogous to the pressure pointer set above. The dynamic quest pressure model aggregates the signals; it does not re-author the underlying rules.

Failure-Forward Consequence Contract​

The binding rules for ignored generated content:

  • Ignored quests must mutate world state. A generated mission whose ignore consequence is "the world is unchanged" is a contract violation per the Generator Contract Rules above.
  • World-state changes from ignored content must be readable. Every ignore consequence must surface on at least one of: Journal (Outcome or Observation entry), Current Plan (escalating urgency item), Objectives (objective state change), or Territory Dossier (Feature / Site / pressure state readback).
  • No hidden unfair failure. The player must be able to trace any consequence back to the source fact and the missed engagement window.
  • Failure-Forward content extends the consequence rule. Per gd-quest-and-lore-design.md § Quest Importance, Failure-Forward quests are structured so that failure produces new content rather than blocking progress; the dynamic generator must respect that grade when the source mission is graded Failure-Forward.

Urgency Signal Contract​

Current Plan surfaces 1-3 priority items at a time. The dynamic quest pressure system contributes to that ranking; it does not own the surface. The binding rules:

  • Every urgency item must be traceable to a specific source fact. An urgency item with no visible source fact is a contract violation.
  • Urgency rank is deterministic for a given world-state snapshot. Two identical snapshots must produce the same ranking; the generator does not introduce non-deterministic ordering.
  • Authored content and emergent content rank in the same ordering. The generator does not silently prioritize authored or emergent content; the Importance grade and the active pressure context determine the rank.
  • Current Plan ownership of the surface is unchanged. The generator contributes a ranked candidate set; Current Plan applies its own selection rules per ../ux/gd-current-plan.md.

Quest Thread Lane Reference​

The Saga Arc has seven cross-act Quest Thread lanes. Every generated mission must declare which lane (or lanes) it feeds. The lane owner docs live under ../quest-threads/. Most lanes resolve before the saga arc ends; Core / Truth and Reclamation / Crown run the full saga and resolve only when the Saga Arc itself concludes.

A generated mission with no lane declared is a contract violation. A mission may feed multiple lanes when the source fact crosses lane scopes; the generator must declare every lane the mission contributes to.

Budget And Determinism Rules​

Binding constraints on the generation pass:

  • Bounded generation per tick. The generator emits a bounded number of artifacts per tick, sized so that Current Plan, Objectives, and Journal cannot be flooded by emergent content. Budget values are runtime configuration; the contract requires the bound, not the specific value.
  • Deterministic ordering. For a given world-state snapshot, the generator emits the same artifact set in the same order. Determinism is required so save / load, replay, and snapshot diagnostics remain reliable.
  • Validation hooks. The generator exposes validation hooks that fail loudly on budget overrun, on contract violations (the five Generator Contract Rules above), and on lane-declaration omissions.
  • No unbounded emergent sprawl. The generator never accumulates an unbounded pile of stale candidates; expired candidates are explicitly retired, not silently dropped.

First Proof Slice (Act 0 / Early Act 1)​

This slice is the minimum world-state-to-quest walkthrough the generator must support before any later content wave ships emergent missions at scale. The slice is concrete by design: every artifact below is a real example of the generator contract working end to end.

  • Water Feature. A Hinted water Feature in an early Territory is surveyed. Source fact: the water Feature's Hinted → Discovered transition. Output: a clue or lead pointing at the survey opportunity, then a mission candidate to confirm and secure the water source. If ignored: thirst pressure escalates and the MC's survival state degrades; Journal records an Observation entry. If resolved: the water source reaches Secured; the survival-shortage pressure clears and Journal records an Outcome entry. Lane: Survival / Settlement.
  • Food Feature. A Discovered foraging Feature is surveyed. Source fact: the Feature's Discovered → Surveyed transition. Output: a mission candidate to harvest. If ignored: foraging window closes seasonally and the Feature reverts toward Discovered; Journal records an Observation entry. If resolved: the Feature reaches Handled and yields the food resource; Journal records an Outcome entry. Lane: Survival / Settlement.
  • Old Stones Feature / Site clue. A Hinted Old Stones Feature surfaces a clue. Source fact: the Feature's Hidden → Hinted transition combined with proximity discovery. Output: a clue pointing at the Site mystery (no concrete mission yet — uncertainty is preserved per gd-objectives-clues-missions.md). If ignored: the clue remains until a later discovery reactivates it; no immediate consequence. If pursued: the clue advances toward a Mission candidate to investigate. Lane: Core / Truth.
  • Pressure Feature. A Discovered demonic gate scar surfaces a pressure threat. Source fact: the pressure Feature's Hinted → Discovered transition combined with the pressure-escalation rules owned by gd-world-pressure-nexus.md. Output: an objective update flagging the pressure source, plus a Current Plan urgency signal. If ignored: taint spread expands per gd-corruption-reclamation.md, routes near the scar become unsafe, Journal records a consequence entry. If addressed (Containment Operation, ward work, eventual SealGateScar Operation): the pressure source moves through Surveyed → Handled → Secured and the taint spread halts. Lane: Pressure / Corruption.
  • Shelter / camp pressure. Falling temperature combined with no established Camp surfaces a shelter pressure signal. Source fact: the Settlement-shortage layer raises a shelter shortage. Output: an objective update demanding shelter setup and a mission candidate to establish the Camp. If ignored: condition pressure (cold, fatigue) degrades the MC and Journal records a Condition Record entry. If resolved: the Camp is established and Journal records an Outcome entry. Lane: Survival / Settlement.

The slice demonstrates the full loop: world state creates clues and objectives, the clues and objectives create mission candidates, the player acts or ignores, the world state changes, Journal records the change, the Current Plan updates, and later generation cycles see the changed state through the same Input World-State Sources.

Implementation Status​

This page is a contract doc. The runtime, read-model, and generator implementation are scheduled in a later wave. The current snapshot:

Surface / BehaviorStatus
Generator contract authoringWave Q (this doc)
Runtime generatorDeferred — see ../implementation/pr-roadmap.md and ../implementation/pr-wave-roadmap.md
Read-model wiring (Objectives, Current Plan, Journal, Territory Dossier)Deferred — depends on runtime generator
First-proof-slice content (Act 0 / Early Act 1)Deferred to a later content wave
Per-lane mission ladder authoringDeferred to per-act content waves

Cross-References​