ClayGrounds — Data Pack

ClayGrounds is a complete island RPG experience built for DAI Engine 4.2, combining character progression, class-based combat, an explorable ocean archipelago, regional unlocks, NPCs, quests, custom enemies, boss encounters, safe world travel, and a fully authored ClayGrounds interface.

Begin as a new Adventurer in Solmere, learn the islands, fight your way through increasingly dangerous regions, choose the profession that matches how you play, and gradually unlock the rest of the ClayGrounds archipelago.

The ClayGrounds Data Pack contains the gameplay, progression, world generation, combat, class, NPC, travel, enemy, boss, interface, and experience logic behind the adventure.

Explore the ClayGrounds Archipelago

ClayGrounds takes place across a dedicated ocean world rather than ordinary Minecraft terrain.

The current adventure spans five major destinations:

• Solmere
• Sunwash Strand
• Verdant Steps
• Claycrest Ruins
• Sunken Grotto

The surrounding world is generated as a clean ocean environment with a stone floor, sandy seabed, and matching waterline, allowing the authored islands, docks, routes, ruins, and landmarks to form the actual playable world.

Vanilla structures and unrelated terrain features are kept out of the experience so the archipelago remains focused on ClayGrounds.

Progress Through the Islands

New characters begin with access to Solmere and the early Sunwash adventure.

Further regions are earned through actual progression.

Fight enemies, gain experience, raise your class level, and complete the required regional combat goals to open new routes through the archipelago.

Progression leads through:

Sunwash Strand → Verdant Steps → Claycrest Ruins → Sunken Grotto

Each region introduces new enemies, environments, combat pressure, and story advancement.

Your unlocked regions and character progression persist with your ClayGrounds character.

Begin as an Adventurer

Every new character starts as an Adventurer equipped with a dedicated beginner combat kit:

• Driftwood Blade
• Quick Step
• Rising Arc
• Clayburst
• Tide Tonic
• Solmere Waystone

Combat is manual.

You choose where to move, when to attack, when to use a skill, when to heal, and how to approach each enemy.

DAI provides the RPG systems around that gameplay without automating your decisions.

Choose Your Profession

Reach Adventurer Level 4 and you can advance into one of three major professions.

Fighter

A close-range physical combat class built around aggressive movement, wide melee attacks, and durability.

Its abilities include:

• Rush Guard
• Crescent Cleave
• Groundbreaker

The Fighter uses the heavy Solmere Greatblade as its primary weapon.

Ranger

A ranged class focused on mobility, line attacks, and battlefield control.

Its abilities include:

• Windstep
• Piercing Line
• Arrow Rain

The Ranger fights with the Tidewood Bow, which provides its own ranged attack behavior without requiring ordinary Minecraft arrows.

Mystic

An arcane combat class centered around magical bursts and area damage.

Its abilities include:

• Phase Step
• Arc Pulse
• Sunflare

The Mystic channels attacks through the Sunshard Focus.

Separate Class Progression

ClayGrounds tracks progression for each profession independently.

Your Adventurer, Fighter, Ranger, and Mystic levels and experience can be stored separately instead of forcing every profession to share one universal level.

After progressing far enough through the main adventure and defeating the Shorewarden, subclass switching becomes available.

At that point, you can change between unlocked professions while preserving the experience and levels you previously earned with each class.

Your character history remains intact even when your active combat style changes.

Custom Skills and Cooldowns

Each class has its own primary attack and three dedicated abilities.

Skills use their own cooldowns and combat effects rather than behaving like renamed vanilla tools.

Depending on your profession, abilities can provide:

• Movement bursts
• Resistance
• Wide melee cleaves
• Line attacks
• Area attacks
• Magical damage
• Ranged pressure
• Mobility
• Defensive utility

The shared Tide Tonic provides an emergency heal with its own cooldown, while the Solmere Waystone gives your character a dedicated method of returning home.

Custom ClayGrounds Enemies

The islands are populated by their own enemy families rather than relying solely on ordinary Minecraft encounters.

Current enemies include:

• Clayling
• Sunscorched
• Vinecrawler
• Mossbound
• Canopy Fang
• Claycrest Archer
• Ruins Sentinel
• Kilnbound

Each enemy retains a gameplay carrier responsible for combat behavior, health, pathfinding, and AI while ClayGrounds uses DAI-native visual actors for the custom presentation supplied by the companion Resource Pack.

This allows the creatures to behave like real combat entities while appearing as purpose-built ClayGrounds monsters.

Native DAI Entity Architecture

ClayGrounds v1.3.x replaced its older multipart display rigs with DAI-native mesh visual actors.

Enemy and NPC visuals now use deterministic actor ownership, synchronization, and cleanup while the underlying gameplay entities continue handling real combat and navigation.

The system also automatically repairs missing nearby NPC visual actors and migrates older ClayGrounds saves away from the previous display-based system.

Visual actors are placed on a dedicated non-colliding team so their presentation cannot interfere with combat, movement, or NPC interaction.

Meet the People of Solmere

ClayGrounds includes a growing cast of dedicated NPCs with their own roles, dialogue, services, and visual identities.

Current characters include:

• Mirelle
• Brakka
• Syl
• Orin
• Reed
• Pella
• Tovan

NPC conversations are interactive rather than decorative.

Through them you can learn about the world, understand professions, select class paths, travel between islands, restore equipment, and access character services.

Harbormaster Reed

Reed manages island passage and only allows travel to regions your character has actually unlocked and that have finished generating.

Tovan

Tovan provides equipment refitting for your active class without resetting your level, EXP, gold, or island progress.

Pella

Pella operates the General Goods service and can restore your class utility loadout.

The profession mentors guide advancement into ClayGrounds' Fighter, Ranger, and Mystic paths.

The Shorewarden

The deepest currently unlocked region culminates in a dedicated boss encounter against the:

Shorewarden

Break the guardian of the Sunken Grotto to complete the current regional progression.

Defeating the Shorewarden rewards:

• 1,000 Gold
• 400 EXP
• Main-story advancement
• The Subclass License

The Subclass License unlocks profession switching through the three class mentors while preserving each class's independent progression.

Safe Archipelago Travel

ClayGrounds travel is designed around actual world readiness rather than blindly teleporting players to coordinates.

When you request travel, the game:

• Preloads the destination area
• Waits for the destination chunk to become available
• Verifies that the landing position has a valid floor
• Checks for safe player headroom
• Rejects unsafe water, lava, or empty landings
• Moves the player only after the destination passes validation
• Cancels safely if a destination cannot become ready

The same system is used by the Solmere Waystone.

This helps prevent players from being dropped into unloaded or unfinished island terrain.

World Map

ClayGrounds includes a dedicated World Map interface for navigating the archipelago.

From the map you can access unlocked routes to:

• Solmere
• Sunwash Strand
• Verdant Steps
• Claycrest Ruins
• Sunken Grotto

The map works with the same safe travel pipeline used by the world's ferry and waystone systems.

Clay Market

ClayGrounds also includes the Clay Market, an experience-owned interface for free character content.

Current claimable rewards include:

• Welcome Bundle
• Trail Charm
• Beach Shell
• Supply Parcel

Rewards are granted to the active character from inside the actual gameplay world, keeping character inventory changes authoritative rather than awarding items from a detached title environment.

Persistent Character Saves

A ClayGrounds local save represents an individual character and their adventure history.

Character progression includes systems for:

• Active class
• Individual class levels
• Individual class EXP
• Gold
• Story progression
• Regional unlocks
• Combat progress
• Subclass access
• Character equipment
• Persistent adventure state

The custom Character Selection interface allows players to continue an existing character, begin a new one, or manage ClayGrounds worlds.

A Complete ClayGrounds Front End

ClayGrounds now owns the experience before the gameplay world even opens.

The custom title architecture includes direct navigation to:

• World Selection
• Clay Market
• Options
• Quit

The normal ClayGrounds launch enters this authored title flow instead of immediately dropping the player into an existing world.

Local character creation and continuation still use DAI's persistent experience-save system underneath, keeping existing ClayGrounds worlds compatible.

Custom Loading Presentation

ClayGrounds defines its own startup and world-loading identity through DAI.

The experience includes:

• ClayGrounds window branding
• Custom loading background
• Custom logo
• Early startup presentation
• World-loading progress
• ClayGrounds-specific status text
• Transition presentation

Entering a character is presented as entering the ClayGrounds archipelago rather than simply loading another Minecraft save.

ClayGrounds Pause Menu

v1.3.4 replaces the normal Minecraft pause flow with a dedicated ClayGrounds pause interface.

Both Escape and the configured Grave control now open the same experience-owned menu.

From there you can access:

• Resume
• Character
• World Map
• Clay Market
• Options
• Save & Exit

The interface uses a ClayGrounds-specific harbor presentation inspired by classic colorful online RPG menus while remaining fully functional through DAI's screen system.

Pressing Escape again returns directly to gameplay.

Persistent HUD and Character Systems

ClayGrounds tracks core RPG information throughout the adventure, including character level, experience, class state, progression, kills, regional goals, and other runtime information.

These systems remain synchronized as your character travels between islands or changes professions.

Built for DAI Engine 4.2

ClayGrounds v1.3.4 uses modern DAI 4.2 systems for:

• Experience-owned title screens
• Experience-specific loading presentation
• Persistent character saves
• Generated ocean world presets
• Custom screens
• Escape-screen overrides
• DAI-native entities
• Custom NPC actors
• Custom enemy actors
• Class progression
• Combat reactions
• Safe world travel
• Regional world construction
• Persistent RPG progression

No modified DAI Engine JAR is included or required by the v1.3.4 pack.

Requirements

DAI Engine 4.2 is required.

The companion ClayGrounds Resource Pack provides the intended custom meshes, textures, class equipment, monsters, NPC visuals, interface artwork, and presentation assets used by this Data Pack.

The Data Pack runs the adventure.

The Resource Pack gives ClayGrounds its visual world.

Choose your profession. Explore the islands. Earn new routes. Defeat the Shorewarden.

Your ClayGrounds adventure belongs to your character.