Civilization Shell

The civilization shell is the visible layer of a ruin. It lets the player read "who left this place," then projects that identity into clues, activation prompts, runtime pressure bias, and recovery direction. It does not replace survey, activation, runtime, resonance, or recovery themselves.

Framework And Shell Split

Layer	Owns	Does not own
main-loop framework	survey, activation, runtime, resonance, recovery, identification	civilization identity by itself
civilization shell	outer traces, clue items, activation prompts, pressure presentation, recovery direction	rewriting the main-loop state machine

The shell must sit on top of the main loop rather than next to it. If a civilization idea only contributes art or lore terms and cannot project into the rule layer, it is not a shell definition yet. It is only narrative material.

Preserved And Trace-Based Civilizations

Civilization shells fall into two visibility types:

Type	Presentation traits	Design use
preserved civilization	more complete landmarks, denser traces, clearer signals	strongest fit for first samples and onboarding ruins
trace-based civilization	weaker signals, more fragmented materials, more distributed anomalies, stronger reliance on experience	stronger fit for later expansion and advanced survey targets

This split is about information density, not power ranking. Preserved shells fit version one better because they make it easier to verify clueing, activation prompts, and recovery direction.

Version-One Template

Version one should use one shell sample that is singular, clear, and testable instead of pursuing multiple civilizations at once.

Item	Version-one requirement
shell type	preserved
identity lean	mechanical sample
host environment	dry badlands edge or weathered plateau
host structure	tagged trail_ruins or a reused watch-post host
outer traces	brass stakes, broken survey pylons, collapsed watch platforms
clue items	inscribed tablet fragments, calibration plates, damaged filter parts
activation prompts	should express calibration, alignment, filtering, or verification semantics
pressure bias	mostly Contamination, with a smaller layer of Instability
recovery direction	filter relic fragments, corrosion samples, logistics record tablets

The job of this first shell sample is not to tell a complete civilization history. Its job is to prove that one shell can map consistently into location, identification, activation, runtime, and recovery.

Data Projection Points

At minimum, a civilization shell has to project into the following rule layers:

Layer	What belongs there
structure layer	structure tags or author markers that are more likely to host the shell
biome layer	biome tags where the shell's traces appear more often
clue layer	fragments, stakes, debris, tablets, and other readable signals before activation
activation layer	prompts, submit semantics, and common interaction objects
runtime layer	pressure distribution, guardian style, and presentation tone
recovery layer	record types, fragment types, and identification-text direction

If a shell definition cannot project into these layers together, it will not stay coherent inside the main loop.

Shared Gun Base

TaCZ remains the shared firearm base. Civilization difference should not be expressed by separate weapon systems. It should be expressed by the following parameters:

Dimension	Mechanical sample expression
pressure handling	emphasizes control, suppression, and site stabilization
activation semantics	emphasizes calibration, alignment, filtering, and verification
resonance tendency	leans toward stabilization, redirection, and suppression
failure form	leans toward leakage, breakdown, and structural collapse
recovery result	leans toward sortable parts, records, and contamination samples

The point of the shared base is to keep civilization difference inside the ruin loop instead of splitting the project into incompatible combat stacks.

Inspiration Boundary

Allowed inspiration is limited to scale, doctrinal weight, dangerous machinery, and high-pressure combat atmosphere. It does not include direct reuse of names, factions, emblems, or setting structures from existing IP.

If a civilization idea needs large structure art production, complete lore writing, and major exclusive assets before the loop becomes playable, it does not belong ahead of the first vertical slice.

Acceptance Criteria

• outer clues improve ruin recognition and feed players toward formal survey,
• the same main loop presents readable activation, pressure, and recovery differences under different shells,
• shells can be authored through tags, clue items, and a small number of explicit nodes instead of large exclusive art pipelines,
• adding a new shell costs substantially less than the readability and gameplay difference it adds.