World, Biomes, Menu Upgraded – Shogun Exodus Devlog #42

Raw Patch Notes

UPDATE 2026-09-20 #203 - World Generation Tuning and Editable Biome Selection
- Reduced Ocean baseline weight to 0.25, set its independent ocean.neighbour_bonus to 3, and capped connected Ocean areas at 20 tiles. Land matching-neighbour bonus is 1.5: two matches yield weight 4, one yields 2.5, and unmatched land stays at 1 before preference boosts. Both existing weighting modes use the candidate's correct bonus; hard climate/connectivity rules and wrapped seams remain enforced. Saved maps are retained; newly generated worlds use the new defaults.
- Rebuilt Scenes/BiomeSelection.tscn as an authored, visually editable layout. It now contains the title/background, all 18 base cards, information panel, seed input/button, preference rows, Back/Next, and status label. Runtime code binds mod-merged content to those nodes and only creates additional cards/rows for new mod entries. Layout sizes/positions/themes can be adjusted in the 2D editor; biome_id/axis metadata and node paths remain contracts.
- Unavailable starting biomes now display at 50% opacity while remaining clickable for information. Opacity derives from the generation/start flags and automatically returns to 100% when enabled; authored card previews match the current flags.
- Matched the Shogun title's brush font; reduced biome icons to 96px in a transparent 3x6 grid sized to fit all base biomes without scrolling. Moved right-side information and setup controls into the shared ink menu, increased World Seed to 30px, and made Generate Random Seed a compact 222x40 control next to the input. Preference pickers explicitly avoid the shared large-action-button sizing. An authored ink-frame style supplies the editor preview; runtime uses the existing mod-aware frame service.
- Added DeveloperFiles/World_Map_Explainer.txt as a short architecture, editor-tuning and future-agent handoff. Clarified that DeveloperFiles/world_map_validation.gd and its .uid are optional manual test tooling, not runtime dependencies; retained and updated the runner for the new weights. Reviewed the existing loading hint; its Flatlands-only starting guidance remains accurate.
- Files: Data/world_map.json; Scripts/World/WorldMapGenerator.gd; Scenes/BiomeSelection.tscn; Scripts/UI/BiomeSelection.gd; Scripts/UI/WorldMapSetupControls.gd; DeveloperFiles/world_map_validation.gd; DeveloperFiles/World_Map_Explainer.txt; DeveloperFiles/current-game-setup.txt; Mods/mod-guide.txt; DeveloperFiles/update-log.txt.
- Validation: changed GDScript grammar, JSON, scene-resource/node-path/biome bindings and default layout bounds checked statically. Godot visual/runtime checks remain with the user, particularly editor layout, selection and Back/Next persistence, seed controls, both generation modes and Ocean connectivity. No intentional save/schema breaks; new generation settings produce different worlds for the same seed, while existing saved maps do not change.

UPDATE 2026-09-20 #204 Start-screen animation, parallax, visual weather and continuous music
- Enabled a scene-entry-only ink opening followed by five non-overlapping 0.5-second button fades; honors disabled Ink Window Animations and prevents input during the reveal. Title/menu now center as one responsive composition.
- Replaced the imported single-image reference with three AssetDB-driven planes and mild smoothed cursor parallax, common cover scale, and safe overscan.
- Added a one-shot compatible weather sampler, stable throughout local menus. Reused the shared mixer and renderers through a read-only snapshot path and independent clock option; excluded Clouds/Snow/Temperature/solid Fog sheets, whitened procedural Fog, and retained Wind response. Menu tuning (2026-09-21) excludes Fireflies and visible Wind streaks (Wind still drives Rain/Fog motion), requires Rain or Fog (both allowed), and caps Wind at 50 km/h through moddable required_any_effects and scalar_ranges. Scalar limits intersect state ranges before sampling, excluding stronger states and limiting Strong Winds to 39-50. No gameplay weather mutation.
- Added persistent native-looping setup music through biome/character creation and Back navigation; stops on gameplay scene entry before gameplay music begins. Presentation, effect eligibility/weights/overrides and asset/music choices are mod-configured.
- Startup audio fix (2026-09-21): FrontendMusic now defers one current-scene refresh after connecting its signals, covering initial scene entry that occurred before the listener was ready. The existing same-track playback guard prevents a duplicate start. Statically checked the callback and guard; cold-start playback and uninterrupted setup navigation still require a Godot audio check.
- Files: Scenes/StartScreen.tscn; Scripts/UI/StartScreenMenu.gd, StartScreenPresentation.gd, StartScreenWeather.gd; Autoload/FrontendMusic.gd, WeatherSystem.gd; Scripts/Weather_Systems/WeatherEffectBase.gd, WeatherEffectsBinder.gd and nine built-in renderer scripts (clock opt-out); Data/ui_config.json, assets.json; project.godot; current-game-setup.txt, Weather_System_Explainer.txt, Mods/mod-guide.txt and this log.
- Validation: JSON parsing, asset/effect/scene resource references, base weather compatibility enumeration (123 legal Rain/Fog tuples after the menu-only Wind cap; no Fireflies or Wind-only selections), snapshot isolation paths, and diff whitespace checks. Reviewed loading hints; presentation-only scope requires no hint change. Godot runtime/visual/audio checks remain manual: opening order/disabled setting/re-entry, resize/parallax edges, weather combinations and paused-game return, new/load music transitions and audible loop seam. No intentional breaking changes.

*This is an automated post, using Python and LLMs to summarize game updates. Mistakes, while rare, may happen.