40 — Property plots & player farming

Related: 37 — Economic map zones, 40b — Farming cultivation depth, 38 — Biomes & cultivate, 23 — Harvest, 13 — Workers, 10 — Economy & markets.

1. Summary

Players buy plots of land only inside property zones. A plot is a fraction of a zone’s footprint — not the whole crown parcel, and not arbitrary wilderness. Ownership is a unique property deed item. Holding the deed (or a granted farm permission) unlocks cultivate / plant / harvest on that land, and the owner receives a share of harvest tax collected on the plot.

Farming loop: own plot → till with a hoe → plant seeds with a dibber → crops grow through gfx stages → harvest like a resource node → replant. Cultivation depth (tools, zone timing, fallow, planting channels) is 40b.

Zone YAML remains the crown catalog of where land can be claimed. Whole-zone ownership is obsolete; fractional plots + deeds are the model.

2. Design principles

3. What can be bought

World cell (x,y)
  └─ inside property_zone Z?  → claimable (if free)
  └─ else                     → not for sale

• One property zone may host many plots owned by different players (and leftover crown remainder).
• Plots are axis-aligned cell rects on the claim grid (same meter grid as movement).
• Claims that overlap another plot, fall under min_plot_area_m2, or exceed zone max_area_m2 are rejected.

3.1 Plot record (runtime)

PropertyPlot {
  plot_id,
  property_zone_id,       // crown terms from zone YAML
  deed_instance_id,
  owner_character_id,     // billed for upkeep (deed may be in storage)
  rect: { x0, y0, x1, y1 },
  purchased_at_day,
  purchase_basis_copper,
  upkeep_copper_per_day,
  arrears_days,
  farm_public,
  public_tax_discount_bps,
  farm_allow: [{ character_id, tax_discount_bps }],
}

Persisted in the worker world snapshot. Deeds carry plot geometry props so the server can restore after a bad reload; orphaned deeds are stripped on login.

4. Purchase price & period cost

Zone YAML defines crown terms (37):

For a plot of area A inside zone of area Z:

area_frac = A / Z
tax_premium = 1 + (rate_bps / 10000) * tax_premium_weight
purchase = ceil(crown_price_copper * area_frac * tax_premium)
upkeep_day = max(1, ceil(upkeep_copper_per_day * area_frac * tax_premium))  # if zone upkeep > 0

tax_premium_weight comes from property_plots in server settings (e.g. 0.5). Use the highest overlapping tax zone’s rate_bps.

4.1 Buy / sell / reclaim

4.2 Tax share (owner benefit)

When harvest tax is paid on an owned plot cell:

owner_share = floor(tax_paid * owner_tax_share_bps / 10000)

Credited to the plot owner (LedgerCategory::TaxShare). Deed-holders get the full zone owner tax discount; public/allow-list farmers may get a partial discount capped by the zone.

5. Deed farm access

Deed-holders open Farm access on their plot (o in gfx while standing on it):

Workers inherit their employer’s farm permission (owner or permitted tenant).

6. Farming overview

Own / permitted plot cells
  → Cultivate (hoe; timed; zone-tuned) → tilled cells
  → Plant seed (dibber; planting_ticks channel)
  → Grow (sprite stages; fertility / biome / weather)
  → Harvest at grow_100 (loot table; cell stays tilled)
  → Replant

Details: tools, fallow, zone knobs, Eli content → 40b.

When claim_must_be_in_growth_to_farm is true (starter config may enable this), cultivate / plant require a covering growth zone. Default in code is false — growth zones still boost fertility when present.

6.1 Worker farm routes

Ordered stops: cultivate_plot, plant_plot (with seed_template), harvest_plot. Soft-skip when tools/seeds are missing; harvest no-ops when nothing is mature.

7. Client / UX

8. Settings knobs

property_plots:
  plant_slot_m2: 1.0
  min_plot_area_m2: 4.0
  tax_premium_weight: 0.5
  owner_tax_share_bps: 2500
  sellback_bps: 5000
  claim_must_be_in_growth_to_farm: false   # starter worlds may set true
  cultivate_ticks: 600                     # ~20s @ 30 Hz baseline

plot_building:
  min_tilled_area_m2: 8.0
  min_short_side_m: 2.0
  min_long_side_m: 4.0
  tick_per_m2: 120
  base_ticks: 300

interior_edit:
  base_copper: 50
  per_room_copper: 25
  per_door_copper: 10
  min_room_m: 2.0

farming:
  default_weather_mult: 1.0
  wither_on_reclaim: true
  default_fallow_revert_ticks: 1620000

9. Non-goals

• Buying land outside property zones
• Stock-market land speculation / auctions
• Full greenhouse / multi-story farms
• Multiple buildings per plot / wilderness player builds
• Replacing wild resource nodes (wild carrots stay 23)