ClayGrounds Data Pack — v0.7 → v1.3.4

A major evolution of ClayGrounds from the original v0.7 experience into a fully authored DAI 4.2 island RPG with staged world generation, character progression, custom NPC systems, safe inter-island travel, native entity presentation, and a fully custom application/pause interface.

World & Island Rework

• Expanded the playable ocean world to roughly 840×840 blocks, approximately 5.7× the previous playable area.
• Rebuilt the archipelago around five separated regions:
  • Solmere
  • Sunwash
  • Verdant
  • Claycrest
  • Grotto
• Added a fully layered ocean floor with stone, sandstone, sand, and water rather than suspended water over empty space.
• Changed later versions from the original staged flat-world ocean workaround to DAI 4.2's generated water world type.
• Final ocean generation uses:
  • Ocean biome
  • Waterline at Y=61
  • Stone floor
  • Sand seabed
  • Six blocks of ocean water
  • No vanilla structures, lakes, or terrain features interfering with the authored archipelago.
• New worlds initially materialize Solmere and Sunwash, while later regions are generated as progression unlocks them.
• Added staged generation for Verdant, Claycrest, and Grotto.
• Added loaded-chunk verification before generation batches execute.
• Initial construction now preloads only the chunks each batch actually requires and releases them immediately after use.
• Added final Sunwash verification and deterministic rebuild protection before the map is marked ready.
• Added migration paths for older world revisions so existing players do not need to delete their saves.
• Added revision 81, 82, 83, and 84 repair/migration stages across the v1.2.x updates.
• Existing v0.7 layouts can migrate forward while preserving player/class progression.

Regional Progression

• Added region-based progression requirements:
  • Sunwash: 12 kills + Level 4
  • Verdant: 17 kills + Level 7
  • Claycrest: 20 kills + Level 10
  • Grotto follows Claycrest progression and contains the Shorewarden encounter.
• Added regional EXP and gold scaling.
• Enemy spawning is tied to physically materialized/unlocked regions.
• First profession advancement now begins at Level 4 to align with the first major island progression milestone.
• Shorewarden remains the primary Grotto/subclass-license boss encounter.

Travel & World Map Safety

• Added Harbormaster Reed as the primary inter-island ferry NPC.
• Travel is restricted by each character's personal unlock progression.
• Replaced unsafe direct teleports with a staged safe-travel system.
• Destinations now:
  • Force-load required landing chunks.
  • Wait until the destination is actually loaded.
  • Verify a solid floor.
  • Reject air, water, and lava landing blocks.
  • Verify two blocks of headroom.
  • Teleport only after every test succeeds.
  • Cancel safely if the destination never becomes valid.
• Solmere Waystone travel now uses the same safe destination validation.
• Ferry travel no longer drops players into unloaded or incomplete islands.

NPC & Profession System

• Added seven major Solmere NPCs:
  • Mirelle
  • Brakka
  • Syl
  • Orin
  • Reed
  • Pella
  • Tovan
• Replaced profession-selection altars with interactive profession mentor NPCs.
• Added Harbormaster Reed travel interaction.
• Added Pella and Tovan restock/refit services.
• Increased NPC interaction hitboxes for easier targeting.
• Added deterministic interaction targeting through uniquely identified NPC interaction entities.
• Fixed NPC reaction routing to use the actual interacted entity rather than unrelated DAI target state.
• Added self-repair/respawn behavior for missing NPC visual actors.

Dialogue & DAI Screens

• Early versions used functional tellraw/title dialogue as a compatibility fallback.
• Added MapleStory-inspired multi-page NPC conversations.
• Added:
  • Next
  • Skip to Choice
  • Close
• Previously-read mentor dialogue can skip directly to the useful decision page.
• Choices are never automatically skipped.
• Migrated NPC presentation to real DAI data-driven screens.
• Added DAI interaction reactions for all seven major NPCs.
• Retained server chat dialogue as a fallback if the primary client-side reaction path is unavailable.
• Removed duplicate dialogue dispatch once the DAI screen path became stable.
• Reed's ferry interface now opens as a real DAI_DataScreen.

Item Presentation

• Migrated ClayGrounds item presentation to namespaced custom item models.
• Custom weapons, skills, tonics, and Waystone items now use minecraft:item_model components supplied by the data pack.
• Removed reliance on ClayGrounds-authored files inside the vanilla minecraft:item namespace.

DAI Application Architecture

• Rebuilt ClayGrounds around the DAI 4.2 authored-title architecture.
• claygrounds:claygrounds now owns its own real title-screen definition.
• Normal launch enters the ClayGrounds application shell before gameplay.
• Added dedicated selector experiences for:
  • World Selection
  • Local
  • Network
  • Clay Market
• Local character handling uses DAI's experience start/continue flow while preserving the main claygrounds:claygrounds save identity.
• Existing ClayGrounds saves remain compatible with Continue/DAI Play.
• Save & Exit returns to the authored ClayGrounds title flow.
• Clay Market browsing occurs before world entry while actual item grants remain server-authoritative inside the gameplay world.

World Generation Stability

• Fixed generation commands writing into unloaded distant chunks.
• Added exact force-load regions per generation batch.
• Replaced one-tick assumptions with real loaded readiness checks.
• Added deterministic Sunwash rebuild protection.
• Added supported lamp structures instead of unsupported floating/floor-height lantern placement.
• Existing worlds receive repair passes without destroying progression.

Native Entity System

• Replaced legacy multipart item_display enemy rigs with one DAI-native visual actor per entity.
• Preserved vanilla-template gameplay carriers for:
  • AI
  • Pathfinding
  • Health
  • Combat
  • Loot
  • Progression
• Added native visual actors for:
  • Clayling
  • Sunscorched
  • Vinecrawler
  • Mossbound
  • Canopy Fang
  • Claycrest Archer
  • Ruins Sentinel
  • Kilnbound
  • Shorewarden
• NPCs were also migrated to native mesh visual actors.
• Added deterministic visual ownership and orphan cleanup.
• Added 20 TPS visual synchronization.
• Added one-time migration that removes obsolete multipart display rigs from existing saves.

Pack-Side Render Distance Workaround

• Replaced extremely tiny visual culling bodies with ultra-narrow but appropriately tall visual carriers.
• Horizontal footprint remains only 0.05 blocks wide to avoid interfering with normal combat.
• Added a cg_visuals team with collision disabled.
• Shorewarden receives a larger visual culling height appropriate to its boss-scale model.
• Keeps normal DAI 4.2 unchanged.
• The cleaner long-term separation of render bounds from physical hitboxes remains reserved for a future DAI Engine update.

Custom Pause Interface

• Added a fully custom ClayGrounds pause screen.
• Rebuilt the menu around a MapleStory-inspired illustrated Solmere harbor interface.
• Added direct access to:
  • Resume
  • Character
  • World Map
  • Clay Market
  • Options
  • Save & Exit
• Replaced the old heavy 3-D pause scene with a static illustrated background for more predictable performance.
• Decorative character statistics in the artwork are covered by safe UI elements rather than presented as fabricated live values.

Unified ESC / Grave Pause Routing

• Minecraft's normal Escape pause screen is now replaced through DAI 4.2's pack-defined screen_overrides.
• ESC and Grave now open the same ClayGrounds pause menu.
• Pressing ESC again closes the custom menu and returns to gameplay.
• No DAI Engine modification is required.

Compatibility

• Progression and save data are preserved through the accumulated migration system.
• No world reset is required for supported v0.7+ upgrade paths.
• Current release: ClayGrounds Data v1.3.4 for DAI 4.2.