Diod v0.1.0.12 — A world worth exploring
Pre-alpha | 22 October 2026

Changes since v0.1.0.11
- Exploration saves use compressed regional files and stable object-ledger shards rather than rewriting all history as one JSON document. Terrain history, depleted resources, tree work and roaming-animal records load on demand.
- Permanent discovery remains exact at 32 metres using compact bitmasks. Map overview levels avoid scanning every visited cell, and detailed surveys use bounded regenerable RAM/disk caches.
- Inventory, XP, settlement work and world changes commit together through a checksum-protected redo transaction. Interrupted commits recover together; damaged committed saves refuse loading. Legacy saves migrate with an exact JSON backup.
- New worlds use the global GLiM regional geology dataset to guide rock families and soils, replacing purely procedural bedrock selection where the source identifies rock. Rare modeled iron-bearing metamorphic bands follow suitable hosts globally.
- The v3 terrain profile reduces broad procedural relief on gentle ground and keeps geology-cell boundaries from creating height cliffs. Source elevation is still coarse.
- Existing worlds retain their original terrain profile. Starting a new game with a newer generator selects a separate world folder and keeps the complete earlier world.

Implementation and limits: docs/REGIONAL_SAVES.md and docs/EARTH_DATA.md. Normal saves stay on the player computer. Current Earth sources are selected datasets, not every available metadata source. Data notices and conversion scripts ship with the downloads. Only one heavyweight process at a time; local GPU playtesting remains the visual acceptance loop.

Validation
linux: 321 focused actual-export checks: regional persistence 38, Earth metadata 11, terrain 49, progression 85, settlement 50, survival 30, navigation 31 and stone crafting 27. Includes sparse 12,000-point exploration/12,000-edit stress, interrupted multi-file transaction recovery, failed-migration rollback, depleted-world records, exact old-world preservation and bounded map/history caches. No full-world GPU playtest. Actual exported content/Earth/legacy-save path identity passed. No full-world GPU playtest.
windows: Sequential export, native icon groups/sizes and four-part version checked. Native Windows GPU playtest pending.
macos: Universal bundle identity/version and x86_64/arm64 verified. Fresh Developer ID signed, Apple notarized and stapled. Native Mac GPU playtest and fresh Gatekeeper assessment pending owner/local testing.

Known issues
- Native Mac/Windows GPU gameplay testing and fresh Mac Gatekeeper assessment await owner/local testing.
- GLiM is a coarse 0.5-degree regional lithology grid. Mapping to the current seven game rock types and modeled deposits is approximate, not surveyed outcrops or mineral occurrences.
- Higher-resolution Copernicus elevation, full HydroSHEDS drainage, complete erosion and world-wide species art are researched next steps, not included datasets in this release.
- The storage stress validates sparse exploration and historical edits; it is not a completed playtest of the entire Earth. Very large settlements/local object densities and the global structure catalogue still need simulation scaling.
- Global travel projection/floating origin and polar refinement remain unfinished. First migration must still parse the old JSON once.