Harvesting and inventory prototype (chopchop)

What “harvesting” actually means in Luminids

Picture one Luminid. It notices a tree nearby and reserves it, so the others don’t all pile onto the same one. It chops the tree, ends up with a stack of wood, and carries it either to the best storage spot it knows about or to a temporary pile. Then it looks for the next job.

Spread that across a group of Luminids and piles start to collect near wherever the work is happening, and you can see the first rough shape of a village forming. The plan is for that wood to go into the next thing, so the world actually changes.

I’m not aiming for a survival grind. Harvesting in Luminids is closer to gentle world-tending: you shape the space, put down a few incentives, and the Luminids respond. You should usually be able to see what’s about to happen without micromanaging, and the Luminids should make their own choices rather than just follow orders.

The first resource pass

Right now there are three resources, and they’re boring on purpose:

  • Wood from trees, driftwood and deadfall
  • Stone from rocks and boulders
  • Fiber from grass patches and reeds

The point is to prove the system end to end: find, reserve, harvest, carry, store, consume. Once that loop works, everything else can grow on top of it.

The harvest loop (early draft)

In its current form, harvesting works like this
  1. Scan nearby resource nodes within a soft radius
  2. Pick a target based on distance, need, and a simple sense of interest
  3. Reserve it so multiple Luminids do not pile onto the same tree
  4. Perform the action itself, chopping, mining, or gathering
  5. Spawn a stackable item result
  6. Carry it to the best known storage point or a temporary pile

Inventory: small pockets, big effects

The inventory is minimal on purpose.

  • Luminids have a small number of slots.
  • Each slot holds a single resource type.
  • Stacks have a cap, so storage actually matters.

That does two things straight away. Hauling becomes something you can actually watch, instead of resources teleporting into storage. And piles form near the work, which is where those village shapes come from.

Storage: piles first, buildings later

Before building a proper warehouse UI, I want the world itself to show what’s going on. So storage starts out physical:

  • Items land in visible piles.
  • Piles merge when they’re close enough, so clutter stays manageable.
  • Later, buildings will really just be piles with rules.

You can walk around the settlement and see where the effort is going, which I really like.

Intent: why a Luminid picks a job

The difference between a task system and a living one is why something gets chosen. For now that’s simple weighting, but it’s already heading the right way:

  • Harvest because you’re nearby
  • Harvest because the settlement needs it
  • Harvest because it’s what you were already doing

Long term, that last one matters most. Sticking with what you were already doing looks like habit, and habit is where a character starts to come through.

What’s next

Next steps for this loop:

  • Crafting recipes that turn stacks into structures and tools
  • Priorities that act as gentle nudges
  • Better storage rules about what goes where, and why
  • UI that stays out of the way but still lets you follow what’s happening

Thanks for reading. More soon.

Nick