Daily Flow & Mechanics

This page walks through the exact order of operations for a single day, with the key formulas and thresholds used in engine code.

Step-by-step day

1. Player inputs: choose pace (PaceId: Steady, Heated, Blitz) and diet (DietId).
2. Travel miles
   • Start from travel.mpd_base (family/overlay).
   • Multiply by pace factor (Classic: Steady 1.0, Heated 1.12, Blitz 1.3).
   • Multiply by weather factor (Classic: Clear 1.0, Storm 0.82, HeatWave 0.78, ColdSnap 0.9, Smoke 0.86).
   • Apply exec-order/weather/diet modifiers if configured.
   • Clamp to [mpd_min, mpd_max] (Classic: 10.0–22.0).
3. Partial travel (detour/repair/etc.): miles × partial_ratio (Classic 0.50; Balanced overlay 0.51).
4. Wear accumulation
   • Classic baseline: wear = base (0.07) + fatigue_k (0.08) * fatigue(distance, comfort_miles=1250).
   • Balanced overlay: base 0.073, fatigue_k 0.245, comfort_miles 1750.
5. Breakdown roll
   • Classic base: p = breakdown.base (0.01) * pace_factor * weather_factor + beta (0.10) * wear_component.
   • Overlay tweaks: base 0.015, beta 0.185; pace multipliers Steady 0.94, Heated 1.08, Blitz 1.28; weather multipliers Clear 1.0, Storm 1.25, HeatWave 1.35, ColdSnap 1.1, Smoke 1.15.
   • Targeted part weights (Classic): tire 44, battery 22, alternator 18, pump 16.
6. Crossing resolver (if scheduled for the day)
   • Classic probs: pass 0.72, detour 0.16, terminal 0.12; detour costs 1–3 days.
   • Bribe: pass bonus 0.2, terminal penalty 0.2, diminishing returns 0.4 (Balanced overlay adjusts to 0.192 / 0.045 / 0.38).
   • Permit can disable terminal for eligible tags (default ["checkpoint"]).
7. Encounter resolver
   • Uses cooldowns and history windows (constants.rs: cooldown 1 day, history window 10, repeat window 6, soft cap threshold 5).
8. Daily tick (supplies/sanity/HP)
   • For each channel: base × pace × diet × weather × exec (see DailyTickConfig).
   • Rounded to integers and clamped to stat caps. Classic family uses zeros; overlays add decay (e.g., Balanced health.decay = 0.12).
   • Rest requests can heal HP if rest_heal is set (overlays can enable).
9. Endgame/boss gates
   • Endgame (Deep) from endgame.json: starts at 1750 mi, guard at 1950 mi, health floors 45–50 HP, wear multipliers 0.6–0.7, stop caps (window 10, max 2 full stops), wear shave 0.7.
   • Boss gate: requires distance ≥ distance_required (defaults to 2100 mi). Boss chance is weighted by supplies, sanity, allies, pants penalty, and policy bias (BalancedBossBias in boss.json: Classic bonus 0.30, Deep multiplier 1.1, Deep bonus 0.08). Outcomes: PassedCloture, SurvivedFlood, PantsEmergency, Exhausted.

Day record semantics

• Travel: full mileage credit.
• Partial: mileage multiplied by partial_ratio (detours, repairs, shared travel).
• NonTravel: camps, blockers, endgame/boss-only days.
• Travel ratio uses (Travel + Partial) / total_days and is checked against guards.