Dependency timeline · no release dates

Proven first. Then made alive.

True MP NPC advances when the previous layer has evidence, not when a calendar promises it. The active problem is closing the survival loop at Home; the next is carrying that loop into the wider world.

5NPC autonomy accepted

15cold restore verified

20configured store ceiling

Proven

Real Body

A True MP NPC is a genuine, server-owned survivor body that an unmodified client can see.

Connectionless IsoPlayer with a safe OnlineID lifecycle
No NPC UdpConnection, fake Steam login, headless client, or ServerPlayerDB identity
Vanilla-client visibility, names, speech, health, damage, death, and corpse foundations

EvidenceRuntime and owner confirmed

Gate to advanceFoundation accepted; later work must preserve the null-connection boundary.

Proven

Move Through the Vanilla World

Intent becomes physical movement through Project Zomboid's world rather than a teleporting logical token.

Native same-floor pathfinding with WALK, RUN, and SNEAK
Ordinary doors, windows, and low fences
Bounded perception of rooms, buildings, players, and semantic locations

EvidenceRuntime and owner confirmed

Gate to advanceStairs and the complete key and locked-door matrix remain outside the accepted surface.

Proven

Persistent Person

Each survivor keeps an identity, a Home, possessions, and consequences across restarts.

Durable profile, identity, Brain state, and Home relationship
Interior and yard activity, leaving Home, and physical return
Cold restoration, death, corpse, and world-persistence foundations

EvidenceRuntime proven

Gate to advanceContinue hardening route choices around locked doors and collision barriers.

Proven

Possessions & Trade

The survivor owns and exchanges exact Project Zomboid items under server authority.

Real inventory, equipment, hands, weight, and exact item identity
Nested backpacks, safe upgrades, content migration, and restart persistence
Two-way vanilla Trade with reservations, cancellation, rollback, and session isolation

EvidenceRuntime and owner confirmed

Gate to advanceAutonomous item valuation and trade judgment are not yet claimed.

Proven

Live Without Humans

Survivors can restore and physically use a rolling window of the world while the server has no human connections.

15 durable NPCs machine-verified in cold restore on distinct safe squares
Unsafe or duplicate persisted squares relocate within a bounded nearby search and are persisted before autonomy resumes
ServerMap relevance loads ahead and releases old regions during travel, real container transfer, and return Home

EvidenceRuntime and machine verified

Gate to advanceGeneral autonomous behavior is accepted to five NPCs; 15-NPC restore is not a fleet-wide autonomy claim.

Active · partial proof

Survive at Home

The Brain now reads genuine needs and can turn hunger or thirst into bounded physical actions at Home.

Immutable need and reserve facts drive EAT, DRINK, REFILL_WATER, and FETCH_HOME_FOOD intents
Home kitchen containers are approached before inspection; visited facts are bounded and durable
Real transfers, a 2,000-calorie carried reserve, can opening, opener return, and empty-can disposal have runtime evidence

EvidenceSource implemented · focused runtime slices

Gate to advanceProve direct thirst reduction, repeated refill, reserve agreement, and prevention of starvation or dehydration; sleep remains intentionally unclaimed.

Leave Home for Resources

A need should produce a complete expedition: choose a place, travel, search, carry value Home, and update knowledge.

Choose a semantic destination from need, stock, knowledge, distance, and value
Inspect only physically reached containers and loot selectively
Return Home, deposit excess, and remember searched locations with freshness

EvidenceTravel and exact-transfer foundations only

Gate to advanceAdd non-destructive source-container reload verification before building the autonomous scavenging loop.

Later · research

Danger, Relationships & Scale

Threats, cooperation, households, and a larger population come after one survivor can complete a dependable survival loop.

Threat perception, avoidance, fleeing, hiding, assistance, and melee before firearms
Shared Home goals while each survivor retains an individual body, inventory, needs, and timing
Physical survivors nearby and a safely reconciled abstract layer at distance

EvidenceSelected foundations only

Gate to advanceCombat, vehicles, deep relationships, late-join multiplayer coverage, and large offscreen populations are not current capabilities.

Accepted evidence

What is real now.

Genuine server-owned IsoPlayers are visible to unmodified clients without NPC UdpConnections, fake Steam sessions, fake logins, or ServerPlayerDB identities
Five-NPC runtime evidence covers independent Brains, physical movement, ordinary traversal, Daily Life, and exact cleanup
15 durable NPCs cold-restored onto distinct safe squares and continued updating with zero human connections
Two-way vanilla Trade preserves exact items, nested inventories, reservations, rollback, multi-NPC isolation, and restart continuity
Bounded ServerMap relevance supports zero-player physical travel, real container transfer, return Home, and restart persistence
The Brain receives bounded survivor needs and reserve facts; Home food acquisition and real inventory actions have focused runtime evidence

Honest boundary

What this is not claiming.

A complete unattended survival loop: direct thirst reduction, repeat refill, reserve agreement, and starvation or dehydration prevention still need focused proof
Sleep, broad medical treatment, infection decisions, cooking, and thermal clothing policy
Autonomous scavenging beyond Home or complete source-container reload verification
Zombie combat, firearms, vehicles, stairs, and the full locked and key-door matrix
Late join, reconnect, two-client replication, and Steam co-op Host mode
Fleet-wide autonomous behavior above five NPCs: 15-NPC restore is proven, not general scale acceptance
Large abstract or offscreen populations; hundreds of permanently materialized NPCs are not the current model

North-star acceptance test

Ten survivors. Zero humans. One instruction: survive.

This is a long-term acceptance test, not a current scale claim. Success means every survival, injury, death, disappearance, stocked Home, or failed trip has a coherent cause in the persistent world.