docs(design): RimWorld world-map fluency reference — screenshot + extracted-techniques note (T-1175)

Jeroen's benchmark capture for the Atlas polish pass, saved in-repo
with the technique extraction (rivers-as-networks/taper, road-vs-river
color+straightness disambiguation, coast gradient, data-driven stipple,
labels) so the future Araminta-led pass has the source material.

Tickets: T-1175

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

.pql/changelog/ticket_history/2026-07.sql

@@ -1741,3 +1741,10 @@ INSERT INTO ticket_history (ticket_record_id, field, old_value, new_value, chang
 INSERT INTO ticket_history (ticket_record_id, field, old_value, new_value, changed_by, changed_at, created_at, updated_at, deleted_at, hash, canonical_version) VALUES ('06FRXKFEJMDEPQ0PZ5Q862DHKG', 'description', 'Jeroen, 2026-07-23, reviewing the T-1170 course captures: ''there are a bunch of graphical cleanups I would want to suggest around line thickness and tapering off to a point at the source to make the map read more fluent, but I feel map polish like that is better off as a single large pass later.'' This ticket is that pass''s collector — park presentation refinements here rather than folding them into feature batches. Seeded items: (1) river line thickness tuning across rungs (beyond the functional per-class defaults Araminta confirmed in T-1170); (2) SOURCE TAPERING — courses should taper to a point at their upstream source rather than starting at full class width (the classic cartographic river grammar; likely per-vertex width via Polygon2D strip or per-segment width ramp, since draw_polyline is single-width); (3) candidates declined-as-scope during T-1170 review: class-tinted color ramp (Araminta: width+opacity sufficient for now, hue is solvable-later). Accumulate further items via pql ticket append as they come up in captures/reviews. Scope discipline: correctness issues (ruled values not rendering, clip bugs) are NEVER parked here — they get fixed in their own batches; this pass is aesthetics only. Schedule: after the nature layer stands (post T-1156 wave 2 at the earliest), as one coherent Araminta-led pass.', 'Jeroen, 2026-07-23, reviewing the T-1170 course captures: ''there are a bunch of graphical cleanups I would want to suggest around line thickness and tapering off to a point at the source to make the map read more fluent, but I feel map polish like that is better off as a single large pass later.'' This ticket is that pass''s collector — park presentation refinements here rather than folding them into feature batches. Seeded items: (1) river line thickness tuning across rungs (beyond the functional per-class defaults Araminta confirmed in T-1170); (2) SOURCE TAPERING — courses should taper to a point at their upstream source rather than starting at full class width (the classic cartographic river grammar; likely per-vertex width via Polygon2D strip or per-segment width ramp, since draw_polyline is single-width); (3) candidates declined-as-scope during T-1170 review: class-tinted color ramp (Araminta: width+opacity sufficient for now, hue is solvable-later). Accumulate further items via pql ticket append as they come up in captures/reviews. Scope discipline: correctness issues (ruled values not rendering, clip bugs) are NEVER parked here — they get fixed in their own batches; this pass is aesthetics only. Schedule: after the nature layer stands (post T-1156 wave 2 at the earliest), as one coherent Araminta-led pass.
 
 REFERENCE (Jeroen, 2026-07-23): RimWorld''s world map as the fluency benchmark — ''the rimworld maps do roads, rivers, coasts and biomes quite well'' (hex substrate explicitly NOT us; the techniques transfer, the tiling doesn''t). Extracted techniques for this pass: (1) RIVERS AS NETWORKS — visible tributary-joins-trunk convergence, subtle width variation along the run, taper-to-source (his earlier item 2), thin/consistent/restrained overall; (2) ROADS VS RIVERS disambiguated by COLOR + STRAIGHTNESS (grey chord-like vs blue winding), not width — the wave-2 road-rendering rule; (3) COASTS as a shoreline GRADIENT — beach/transition band + subtle near-shore water shading (our coastal/transition morphology class already exists; presentation only); (4) BIOME/RELIEF TEXTURE — stipple/texture density carrying hills/mountains/forest on top of hue; strong fit for us since T-1162''s vegetation-patchiness and relief fields can DRIVE stipple density (texture as data, not decoration); (5) geographic LABELS do heavy fluency lifting — that half lives in T-1169, coordinate the passes. Screenshot reference in the session record 2026-07-23.', NULL, '2026-07-23 11:51:22', '2026-07-23 11:51:22.672', '2026-07-23 11:51:22.672', NULL, 'ab3cb347c7e35cf45ce867a5ead8fe61', 2) ON CONFLICT(hash) DO NOTHING;
+INSERT INTO ticket_history (ticket_record_id, field, old_value, new_value, changed_by, changed_at, created_at, updated_at, deleted_at, hash, canonical_version) VALUES ('06FRXKFEJMDEPQ0PZ5Q862DHKG', 'description', 'Jeroen, 2026-07-23, reviewing the T-1170 course captures: ''there are a bunch of graphical cleanups I would want to suggest around line thickness and tapering off to a point at the source to make the map read more fluent, but I feel map polish like that is better off as a single large pass later.'' This ticket is that pass''s collector — park presentation refinements here rather than folding them into feature batches. Seeded items: (1) river line thickness tuning across rungs (beyond the functional per-class defaults Araminta confirmed in T-1170); (2) SOURCE TAPERING — courses should taper to a point at their upstream source rather than starting at full class width (the classic cartographic river grammar; likely per-vertex width via Polygon2D strip or per-segment width ramp, since draw_polyline is single-width); (3) candidates declined-as-scope during T-1170 review: class-tinted color ramp (Araminta: width+opacity sufficient for now, hue is solvable-later). Accumulate further items via pql ticket append as they come up in captures/reviews. Scope discipline: correctness issues (ruled values not rendering, clip bugs) are NEVER parked here — they get fixed in their own batches; this pass is aesthetics only. Schedule: after the nature layer stands (post T-1156 wave 2 at the earliest), as one coherent Araminta-led pass.
+
+REFERENCE (Jeroen, 2026-07-23): RimWorld''s world map as the fluency benchmark — ''the rimworld maps do roads, rivers, coasts and biomes quite well'' (hex substrate explicitly NOT us; the techniques transfer, the tiling doesn''t). Extracted techniques for this pass: (1) RIVERS AS NETWORKS — visible tributary-joins-trunk convergence, subtle width variation along the run, taper-to-source (his earlier item 2), thin/consistent/restrained overall; (2) ROADS VS RIVERS disambiguated by COLOR + STRAIGHTNESS (grey chord-like vs blue winding), not width — the wave-2 road-rendering rule; (3) COASTS as a shoreline GRADIENT — beach/transition band + subtle near-shore water shading (our coastal/transition morphology class already exists; presentation only); (4) BIOME/RELIEF TEXTURE — stipple/texture density carrying hills/mountains/forest on top of hue; strong fit for us since T-1162''s vegetation-patchiness and relief fields can DRIVE stipple density (texture as data, not decoration); (5) geographic LABELS do heavy fluency lifting — that half lives in T-1169, coordinate the passes. Screenshot reference in the session record 2026-07-23.', 'Jeroen, 2026-07-23, reviewing the T-1170 course captures: ''there are a bunch of graphical cleanups I would want to suggest around line thickness and tapering off to a point at the source to make the map read more fluent, but I feel map polish like that is better off as a single large pass later.'' This ticket is that pass''s collector — park presentation refinements here rather than folding them into feature batches. Seeded items: (1) river line thickness tuning across rungs (beyond the functional per-class defaults Araminta confirmed in T-1170); (2) SOURCE TAPERING — courses should taper to a point at their upstream source rather than starting at full class width (the classic cartographic river grammar; likely per-vertex width via Polygon2D strip or per-segment width ramp, since draw_polyline is single-width); (3) candidates declined-as-scope during T-1170 review: class-tinted color ramp (Araminta: width+opacity sufficient for now, hue is solvable-later). Accumulate further items via pql ticket append as they come up in captures/reviews. Scope discipline: correctness issues (ruled values not rendering, clip bugs) are NEVER parked here — they get fixed in their own batches; this pass is aesthetics only. Schedule: after the nature layer stands (post T-1156 wave 2 at the earliest), as one coherent Araminta-led pass.
+
+REFERENCE (Jeroen, 2026-07-23): RimWorld''s world map as the fluency benchmark — ''the rimworld maps do roads, rivers, coasts and biomes quite well'' (hex substrate explicitly NOT us; the techniques transfer, the tiling doesn''t). Extracted techniques for this pass: (1) RIVERS AS NETWORKS — visible tributary-joins-trunk convergence, subtle width variation along the run, taper-to-source (his earlier item 2), thin/consistent/restrained overall; (2) ROADS VS RIVERS disambiguated by COLOR + STRAIGHTNESS (grey chord-like vs blue winding), not width — the wave-2 road-rendering rule; (3) COASTS as a shoreline GRADIENT — beach/transition band + subtle near-shore water shading (our coastal/transition morphology class already exists; presentation only); (4) BIOME/RELIEF TEXTURE — stipple/texture density carrying hills/mountains/forest on top of hue; strong fit for us since T-1162''s vegetation-patchiness and relief fields can DRIVE stipple density (texture as data, not decoration); (5) geographic LABELS do heavy fluency lifting — that half lives in T-1169, coordinate the passes. Screenshot reference in the session record 2026-07-23.
+
+Reference screenshot saved in-repo: docs/design/references/rimworld-world-map-fluency.jpg (+ README note in that dir) — supersedes the ''session record'' pointer in the previous append.', NULL, '2026-07-23 11:54:02', '2026-07-23 11:54:02.271', '2026-07-23 11:54:02.271', NULL, 'e71da503fceba44369e5f8d340b4be06', 2) ON CONFLICT(hash) DO NOTHING;

.pql/changelog/tickets/2026-07.sql

@@ -2558,3 +2558,8 @@ INSERT INTO tickets (record_id, type, parent_record_id, title, description, stat
 INSERT INTO tickets (record_id, type, parent_record_id, title, description, status, priority, assigned_to, team, decision_ref, created_at, updated_at, deleted_at, hash, canonical_version) VALUES ('06FRXKFEJMDEPQ0PZ5Q862DHKG', 'story', '06FB0TNSRZXCHGS16BFHSSGSV4', 'Atlas map-reading polish pass — river/nature presentation refinements (single large pass)', 'Jeroen, 2026-07-23, reviewing the T-1170 course captures: ''there are a bunch of graphical cleanups I would want to suggest around line thickness and tapering off to a point at the source to make the map read more fluent, but I feel map polish like that is better off as a single large pass later.'' This ticket is that pass''s collector — park presentation refinements here rather than folding them into feature batches. Seeded items: (1) river line thickness tuning across rungs (beyond the functional per-class defaults Araminta confirmed in T-1170); (2) SOURCE TAPERING — courses should taper to a point at their upstream source rather than starting at full class width (the classic cartographic river grammar; likely per-vertex width via Polygon2D strip or per-segment width ramp, since draw_polyline is single-width); (3) candidates declined-as-scope during T-1170 review: class-tinted color ramp (Araminta: width+opacity sufficient for now, hue is solvable-later). Accumulate further items via pql ticket append as they come up in captures/reviews. Scope discipline: correctness issues (ruled values not rendering, clip bugs) are NEVER parked here — they get fixed in their own batches; this pass is aesthetics only. Schedule: after the nature layer stands (post T-1156 wave 2 at the earliest), as one coherent Araminta-led pass.
 
 REFERENCE (Jeroen, 2026-07-23): RimWorld''s world map as the fluency benchmark — ''the rimworld maps do roads, rivers, coasts and biomes quite well'' (hex substrate explicitly NOT us; the techniques transfer, the tiling doesn''t). Extracted techniques for this pass: (1) RIVERS AS NETWORKS — visible tributary-joins-trunk convergence, subtle width variation along the run, taper-to-source (his earlier item 2), thin/consistent/restrained overall; (2) ROADS VS RIVERS disambiguated by COLOR + STRAIGHTNESS (grey chord-like vs blue winding), not width — the wave-2 road-rendering rule; (3) COASTS as a shoreline GRADIENT — beach/transition band + subtle near-shore water shading (our coastal/transition morphology class already exists; presentation only); (4) BIOME/RELIEF TEXTURE — stipple/texture density carrying hills/mountains/forest on top of hue; strong fit for us since T-1162''s vegetation-patchiness and relief fields can DRIVE stipple density (texture as data, not decoration); (5) geographic LABELS do heavy fluency lifting — that half lives in T-1169, coordinate the passes. Screenshot reference in the session record 2026-07-23.', 'backlog', 'low', NULL, 'client', 'D-226', '2026-07-23 11:48:08.469', '2026-07-23 11:51:22.671', NULL, 'ad9dfafb140cd4d7d022b525bdc5be77', 2) ON CONFLICT(record_id) DO UPDATE SET type=excluded.type, parent_record_id=excluded.parent_record_id, title=excluded.title, description=excluded.description, status=excluded.status, priority=excluded.priority, assigned_to=excluded.assigned_to, team=excluded.team, decision_ref=excluded.decision_ref, updated_at=excluded.updated_at, deleted_at=excluded.deleted_at, hash=excluded.hash, canonical_version=excluded.canonical_version WHERE excluded.updated_at > tickets.updated_at OR (excluded.updated_at = tickets.updated_at AND excluded.hash > tickets.hash);
+INSERT INTO tickets (record_id, type, parent_record_id, title, description, status, priority, assigned_to, team, decision_ref, created_at, updated_at, deleted_at, hash, canonical_version) VALUES ('06FRXKFEJMDEPQ0PZ5Q862DHKG', 'story', '06FB0TNSRZXCHGS16BFHSSGSV4', 'Atlas map-reading polish pass — river/nature presentation refinements (single large pass)', 'Jeroen, 2026-07-23, reviewing the T-1170 course captures: ''there are a bunch of graphical cleanups I would want to suggest around line thickness and tapering off to a point at the source to make the map read more fluent, but I feel map polish like that is better off as a single large pass later.'' This ticket is that pass''s collector — park presentation refinements here rather than folding them into feature batches. Seeded items: (1) river line thickness tuning across rungs (beyond the functional per-class defaults Araminta confirmed in T-1170); (2) SOURCE TAPERING — courses should taper to a point at their upstream source rather than starting at full class width (the classic cartographic river grammar; likely per-vertex width via Polygon2D strip or per-segment width ramp, since draw_polyline is single-width); (3) candidates declined-as-scope during T-1170 review: class-tinted color ramp (Araminta: width+opacity sufficient for now, hue is solvable-later). Accumulate further items via pql ticket append as they come up in captures/reviews. Scope discipline: correctness issues (ruled values not rendering, clip bugs) are NEVER parked here — they get fixed in their own batches; this pass is aesthetics only. Schedule: after the nature layer stands (post T-1156 wave 2 at the earliest), as one coherent Araminta-led pass.
+
+REFERENCE (Jeroen, 2026-07-23): RimWorld''s world map as the fluency benchmark — ''the rimworld maps do roads, rivers, coasts and biomes quite well'' (hex substrate explicitly NOT us; the techniques transfer, the tiling doesn''t). Extracted techniques for this pass: (1) RIVERS AS NETWORKS — visible tributary-joins-trunk convergence, subtle width variation along the run, taper-to-source (his earlier item 2), thin/consistent/restrained overall; (2) ROADS VS RIVERS disambiguated by COLOR + STRAIGHTNESS (grey chord-like vs blue winding), not width — the wave-2 road-rendering rule; (3) COASTS as a shoreline GRADIENT — beach/transition band + subtle near-shore water shading (our coastal/transition morphology class already exists; presentation only); (4) BIOME/RELIEF TEXTURE — stipple/texture density carrying hills/mountains/forest on top of hue; strong fit for us since T-1162''s vegetation-patchiness and relief fields can DRIVE stipple density (texture as data, not decoration); (5) geographic LABELS do heavy fluency lifting — that half lives in T-1169, coordinate the passes. Screenshot reference in the session record 2026-07-23.
+
+Reference screenshot saved in-repo: docs/design/references/rimworld-world-map-fluency.jpg (+ README note in that dir) — supersedes the ''session record'' pointer in the previous append.', 'backlog', 'low', NULL, 'client', 'D-226', '2026-07-23 11:48:08.469', '2026-07-23 11:54:02.271', NULL, 'd46950b7f50014259838506bb76c1667', 2) ON CONFLICT(record_id) DO UPDATE SET type=excluded.type, parent_record_id=excluded.parent_record_id, title=excluded.title, description=excluded.description, status=excluded.status, priority=excluded.priority, assigned_to=excluded.assigned_to, team=excluded.team, decision_ref=excluded.decision_ref, updated_at=excluded.updated_at, deleted_at=excluded.deleted_at, hash=excluded.hash, canonical_version=excluded.canonical_version WHERE excluded.updated_at > tickets.updated_at OR (excluded.updated_at = tickets.updated_at AND excluded.hash > tickets.hash);

docs/design/references/README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+# Design references
+
+External visual references collected for design/polish passes. Each image
+gets a one-paragraph note here: what it is, why it was captured, and which
+ticket/pass consumes it.
+
+## rimworld-world-map-fluency.jpg
+
+RimWorld world map (starting-site selection screen), captured by Jeroen
+2026-07-23 during the T-1170 river-course batch as the **map-fluency
+benchmark** for the Atlas polish pass (**T-1175**): *"the rimworld maps do
+roads, rivers, coasts and biomes quite well"* — with the explicit caveat that
+its hex substrate and globe projection are **not** us; the techniques
+transfer, the tiling doesn't. Extracted techniques (full list on T-1175):
+rivers as converging networks with subtle width variation and taper-to-source;
+roads vs rivers disambiguated by color + straightness rather than width;
+coasts as a shoreline gradient (beach band + near-shore water shading);
+biome/relief **texture** — stipple density carrying hills/mountains/forest on
+top of hue (maps onto T-1162's derived patchiness/relief fields: texture as
+data, not decoration); and geographic labels (our T-1169) doing heavy
+fluency lifting.