Economic Map Zones

Tax, property, and growth are segment overlays — axis-aligned zones on the same map layout as terrain and resources. They are not biomes and not terrain surface tiles. Biomes, adjacency, and cultivation live in 38 — Biomes, adjacency & terrain transitions.

Related: 10 — Economy & markets, 23 — Harvest, 08 — Inventory & storage (banks after property), 21 — World content schemas, player ledger (LedgerCategory::Taxes).

1. Summary

Designers draw three overlay kinds in content-admin World → Map layout (primary large-scale editor):

Layers stay independent: a cell can sit in temperate biome + taxed crown land + fertile growth at once. Sampling uses the same highest z_order wins rule as terrain zones (tie-break: later in the YAML list).

2. Design principles

3. Shared zone shape

Same rect model as terrain (21):

tax_zones:
  - id: mill-road-tax
    z_order: 0
    rects:
      - { x0: 120, y0: 130, x1: 160, y1: 150 }
    # fields below vary by kind

Legacy single-rect x0/y0/x1/y1 on the zone may load; prefer rects:.

Overlap: highest z_order among zones of the same overlay family (tax vs tax, growth vs growth). Different families stack independently.

4. Tax zones

4.1 Fields

Harvest copper value: sum of minted/granted items’ nominal copper (template or instance valuation used elsewhere for ledgers). If valuation is unset, use flat_copper only or skip percentage.

4.2 Runtime

On harvest complete (finish_harvest):

1. Resolve tax_zone_at(x, y).
2. Compute bill = flat_copper + floor(harvest_value_copper * rate_bps / 10000).
3. If the harvester owns an overlapping property parcel (see §5), apply owner_tax_discount_bps from that property (or a global settings default).
4. Deduct min(bill, player_copper) — soft deduct. Ledger entry: LedgerCategory::Taxes.
5. Never cancel the harvest for insufficient funds.

Workers harvesting for an employer: tax the employer copper when policy says so (same soft rule); otherwise tax the acting character. Default: tax the character that receives the items.

5. Property zones

5.1 Fields

Runtime ownership is not stored only in YAML: segment defines the parcel geometry and crown terms; ownership + upkeep arrears live in control-plane / worker persistence keyed by (segment_id, property_zone_id).

5.2 Buy / sell / upkeep

Banks / housing static storage (08) may key off owned property later; property zones are the land-claim precursor.

6. Growth zones

6.1 Fields

6.2 Respawn formula

At harvest-complete when entering cooldown:

base = node.respawn_ticks
zone = growth_zone_at(node.x, node.y)
if zone matches node (crop_tags empty OR intersection with node/item tags):
  effective = base / fertility * weather_mult
else:
  effective = base * weather_mult_outside   # usually 1.0
until_tick = tick + max(1, ceil(effective))

weather_mult defaults to 1.0 until regional weather exists (38 § weather). Same stub on the growth path avoids a later schema break.

6.3 Crop tags

Resource nodes and/or yield item templates carry crop_tags: [carrot, vegetable, …]. Catalog and Map layout expose tag pickers via /api/catalog.

7. Sampling helpers

Sim provides:

• tax_zone_at(segment, x, y) -> Option<&TaxZoneDef>
• property_zone_at(...) / property_zones_covering(...) for ownership checks
• growth_zone_at(...)

Mirror terrain_zone_at overlap rules within each family.

8. Content-admin Map layout

Required for done criteria (content-admin rule):

Native flatland-editor may visualize overlays later; web Map layout is primary for large-scale placement and catalog cross-links.

9. Settings knobs

Under assets/config/server-settings.yaml (names illustrative):

economy_zones:
  tax_soft_deduct: true
  default_owner_tax_discount_bps: 0
  property_sellback_bps: 5000          # 50% of crown price
  growth_fertility_min: 1.0
  growth_fertility_max: 3.0
  weather_mult_default: 1.0

10. Example (starter-plains sketch)

tax_zones:
  - id: plains-crossroads-tax
    z_order: 0
    rate_bps: 400
    flat_copper: 0
    rects:
      - { x0: 118, y0: 128, x1: 155, y1: 148 }

property_zones:
  - id: crown-plot-a
    z_order: 0
    crown_price_copper: 5000
    upkeep_copper_per_day: 25
    upkeep_grace_days: 3
    owner_tax_discount_bps: 2500
    rects:
      - { x0: 130, y0: 135, x1: 145, y1: 145 }

growth_zones:
  - id: mill-fields
    z_order: 0
    fertility: 1.4
    crop_tags: [carrot, potato, vegetable]
    allowed_kinds: [grass, tilled]
    allowed_biomes: [temperate_plains]
    rects:
      - { x0: 125, y0: 120, x1: 150, y1: 135 }

11. Exit criteria

• Zones load from segment YAML and appear in Map layout CRUD
• Harvest inside tax zone writes a tax ledger line and soft-deducts copper
• Owned property applies tax discount
• Matching growth zone shortens plant respawn_ticks by fertility
• Crown buy/sell + upkeep grace reclaim work for a sample parcel
• weather_mult and allowed_kinds / allowed_biomes are present (mult may stay 1.0)

12. Non-goals

• Biome climate, adjacency, procedural fill, cultivate intents → 38
• Full broker markets / sales tax E2 → 10
• Bank chests keyed to parcels → after property ships (08)
• Fractional plot purchase, tax share, and player farming → 40 (supersedes whole-zone-only buy UX)