Direction

The north star for Life Framework. Read this before choosing what to build. docs/roadmap/ holds the scoped plan; docs/features.md holds what exists; docs/decisions.md holds the design calls that set the taste.

What we are building

A life/roleplay framework for Arma Reforger that other communities build on, proven by a flagship server we run ourselves.

• The framework is the product: modular systems (economy, jobs, crime, police, ownership, persistence) that a server owner can host, configure, and extend without forking.
• The flagship is the proof: 1989 Everon, played by real people. It is the showcase that makes server owners want the framework and players want the servers.
• Core is era-agnostic. 1989 Everon is our content pack, not an assumption baked into systems. A modern or alternate setting must be buildable on the same core.
• Open source, MIT. We grow by adoption and reputation. The source on GitHub is MIT; the Workshop build is APL, as Bohemia's Workshop terms require. The framework is never monetized. The flagship may take cosmetic-only donations within Bohemia's policy, never gameplay advantages; other servers follow Bohemia's rules on their own.

The ambition is the most played and most built-upon mod in Arma's history. We get there by being the most playable, the most provable, and the easiest to contribute to — in that order.

What "playable" means

A build is playable when a stranger can join, understand what to do without asking anyone, and complete a loop:

1. Arrive: register at the town clerk, get an ID card, read the town board. Everyone starts civilian; whitelisted players clock in as police at the station.
2. Earn: take a job, gather or process, get paid in cash.
3. Spend and save: shop, bank at the ATM, buy a vehicle.
4. Crime: rob a till, a bank, a hospital; carry contraband.
5. Consequence: police respond, arrest, fine, jail.
6. Ownership: an organization, a hideout, a garage.
7. Restart the server: everything a player earned is still there.

Every step works on a dedicated server with several clients, gives visible feedback for success and refusal, and is verified in the 3D world — not only by a test that calls the function.

Milestones

Each milestone ends with a public build and a filmed showcase. M0 is completed history. GitHub's M1+ milestones, descriptions, and issue assignments are the live roadmap data that the website and Discord board render.

Until 2026-11-08 M2 was "Flagship town": Everon placement, reusable site prefabs, and MainWorld. That work is now the closing step of M2, after the four themes are proven in the playtest village.

We do not start a milestone's features before the previous milestone's "done when" is true. New systems wait; playability does not.

How we build: AI-first

This repository assumes the contributor is an AI agent, working in parallel with other agents, and a human can still read and reason about everything.

• The contract is short and true. AGENTS.md is the only rulebook. A rule that is false or session-specific gets deleted, not worked around.
• Every claim has proof. Tests that can go red, a CI gate on every PR, a structural lint that ratchets, and a visual harness for the 3D world.
• Work is scoped for one agent. Roadmap items are written as scopes with files, acceptance proof, and no hidden context — so a human or an agent can pick one up cold.
• Agents improve their own tools. When a session is slowed by missing tooling — the MCP, the harness, the filming rig, a validator — fixing that tool is part of the work. Each PR names the friction it hit and either fixes it or files it as a scope. Over time the loop gets faster and more accurate.
• Subtract before you add. Deleting a wrong doc, a dead script, or a test that cannot fail is progress.

Proof in the 3D world

Most mod repos stop at "it compiles". Ours proves the world plays:

• Dedicated-server suite (tools\cli test) for logic, world seams, and restarts.
• Visual harness (agent-box/) drives a rendering session as a player: walks to every site, presses the interaction, takes screenshots, and fails on white meshes, missing actions, blank menus, or misplaced sites.
• Filming harness records the same runs as video: short clips attached to PRs as visual proof, and scripted camera passes for community showcases. Both run on any machine with the game installed — the maintainer's PC today, remote playtest machines later.

Community

• The Discord and GitHub are the front door. Playtest builds come with a guide (docs/playtest.md) and a feedback template.
• Every milestone ships with a short video made by the filming harness.
• Contributors find work in GitHub issues written as scopes. Good first scopes are small, self-contained, and carry their acceptance proof.

Not now

• New feature systems beyond the release scopes, until M1 is done.
• Rented hosting before M4 goes 24/7; the maintainer's PC hosts playtests and the first M4 sessions.
• Monetization of the framework, and anything on the flagship beyond cosmetic donations.
• Scheduled and organised events (parked; no milestone plans them).