Transitioned from instanced sessions to a shared persistent world. This is the architectural shift that turns a solo dungeon crawl into an MMORPG.
Key systems built:
- Reputation with exponential decay — 7 categories, configurable half-lives. Your standing with factions fades if you stop engaging.
- Monster respawn on real-time intervals with d20 dice rolls. No enter/exit farming — spawns happen on the clock, not on player actions.
- Items on floor with decay timers. Drop loot and it persists for other players to find, but not forever.
- Shared combat — open initiative, join mid-fight. Multiple players can engage the same monsters simultaneously.
- Room channels via Supabase Realtime for live presence, combat events, and chat.
World clock runs on real time (UTC timestamps). No game-time abstraction — if a merchant restocks every 4 hours, that's 4 real hours.