Progression Flow Notes

These systems are staged around the current one-page interaction prototype. They solve long-term progression problems without placing every control on screen from the start.

Research as a Capability Map

Research groups learned abilities into four compact branches:

• Cultivation: individual specimen care and later plant-form techniques.
• Ecology: visitor relationships, biological control, and companion planting.
• Propagation: seed saving and later cuttings or lineage work.
• Engineering: maintenance knowledge, water reuse, and later automation policies.

Research does not replace every unlock. Garden expansion and equipment remain purchases; plants can still arrive through visitors, events, and orders; caretakers remain paid services. The first Phase 7 bridge is 个体培育: complete seed-saving basics, reach three total blooms, record two visitor species, and spend 18 observation notes to receive one butterfly-orchid specimen.

The first specimen opportunity is intentionally bounded. A butterfly orchid flowers normally without active care. Recording two distinct meaningful care types during growth creates a 分枝花梗, adding exactly two flowers compared with an otherwise equal natural bloom. The result is stored on the plant and shown directly on its specimen card; it is not a hidden quality score.

Common Flower Demand

Expensive flowers should not strictly replace basic flowers. Common plants become high-volume ingredients:

Recipe structure should usually require a large common base plus a small distinctive accent. The first implementation includes:

• Daily bouquet: six mint flowers and two calendula flowers.
• Night sachet: revealed after one completed order; requires six mint flowers and one discovered moonflower.
• Woodland essence: revealed after three completed orders; requires four calendula flowers, one discovered wildberry flower, and a level-two sparrow card.

The flower-material panel stays hidden until the player first stores a harvest. A blooming plant can still be sold directly for immediate coins, or cut into persistent material inventory. Orders are permanent and manually delivered only when all ingredients are ready.

Future orders are revealed just before they are achievable instead of all appearing at once. A visible locked order names its missing discovery, visitor level, and material counts. It acts as a route marker: the player can see a meaningful next target without being given a detached tutorial instruction. This makes rare plants exciting without making mint obsolete.

Rotating orders can create temporary demand, but permanent recipes must provide the stable baseline. Orders should never be the only reason a basic plant has value.

Coin Reinvestment

The finite tool catalog currently lets coins accumulate after expansions and automation are purchased. Phase C tests one repeatable outlet before committing to a permanent shop:

The first implementation offers three once-per-event purchases:

All three reset when the event closes. After the market, a bounded wheel adds one free draw and at most two optional coin-or-common-flower draws. The result screen shows entry fee, preparation spending, wheel coin spending, payout, and net cash change. This is a recurring experiment, not proof that the whole late-game economy is solved. Permanent capital projects and a roadside stand remain separate later candidates.

Phase C2 adds the first permanent capital project after this repeatable sink:

Central tank learned -> save 420 coins -> install cycling soil feeder
-> growth drains a bed below 35% -> spend one stored compost automatically
-> restore 42 nutrients -> protect growth and flower-count potential
-> harvest or decline returns compost -> feed the next planting

The soil feeder provides a large savings target and turns accumulated money into a permanent change in the production loop. Its value scales with the number of active beds, while its compost requirement keeps harvest and recovery relevant. It does not solve infinite inflation by itself; event preparation remains the recurring sink, while later capital projects must continue to unlock genuinely different control rather than only larger numbers.

Flower Quantity

The current prototype calculates flower quantity when growth reaches bloom:

• Base flower count comes from species.
• Low accumulated care stress adds one flower.
• Soil nutrients above 60% add one flower.
• Freshness affects sale price after bloom begins.
• Bee visits increase seed return, not flowers already formed.

A later perennial or rebloom system can let pollination affect the next bloom:

This keeps the biology legible: care creates flowers, pollination creates seeds and future reproductive success.

Employee Cash Flow

Employees belong after the player understands the manual task they automate. They should not duplicate a machine with a salary attached.

The first hire should be one general greenhouse assistant rather than several professions. Its value comes from routing work across planting, inventory, orders, treatment, and sales. Gardener, order clerk, and salesperson specializations should appear only after those systems are individually deep enough to justify them.

The UI must show payroll amount, next payday, and days of cash runway before hiring. Sudden theft would feel arbitrary. If unpaid staff can take flowers or materials, it should be an explicit employment term and a final wage settlement after a visible grace period. Unique seeds, competition plants, and protected collection items can never be taken.

Automation Policy

Automation should follow persistent rules instead of asking for a decision on every flower:

• Sell immediately above a chosen freshness threshold.
• Wait until all current visitors are recorded.
• Reserve named flowers for recipes or orders.
• Keep a minimum seed stock before selling.

Employees and machines should execute these policies. The player's later-game role becomes configuring the greenhouse rather than confirming repeated actions.

The first policy interface should stay deliberately small:

• Harvest priority: order needs, then storage, then sale.
• Minimum stock: keep a named quantity of common materials and seeds.
• Protected items: rare, event, and lineage materials always require player approval.
• Cash reserve: routine purchases stop before payroll or a player-set reserve is endangered.

Staff must explain skipped work with one readable reason such as 缺少花材, 受保护, 低于库存底线, or 预算不足. Opaque staff AI is not automation; it is loss of control.

Lineage, Merit, and Trait Progression

Competition can eventually turn seeds from disposable inputs into named long-term lineages. This is a late-game raising loop and must not appear until ordinary greenhouse care is mostly automated.

Three values remain separate so progression stays understandable:

A competition win does not directly rewrite a seed's genes. The parent earns a title, recovered descendants carry that pedigree, and the player may choose those descendants for later breeding. Genetics determines plant differences; merit determines recognition and access.

The system must avoid one permanently best seed:

• Traits use caps, probabilities, diminishing returns, or explicit tradeoffs.
• Competition briefs reward different combinations, so a fast abundant line cannot dominate color, freshness, resilience, and rarity simultaneously.
• Losses still produce species mastery, observations, or breeding information.
• Unique lineages can be backed up in a seed bank and are never deleted by event sabotage or business failure.
• Lineage details stay behind a breeder workspace; normal planting shows only a short identity and the most relevant trait.

Complexity Release Ladder

Each layer has an attention budget. The next layer unlocks only after the prior layer has a relief mechanism the player has seen working.

Unlocking is not the same as displaying. A player who does not enter breeding should continue to see a calm production game rather than dormant genetics controls.