Progression & Economy

Build the progression/economy layer — systems architecture plus the live-ops economy discipline (not monetization ethics or gacha-pull psychology, which live in loot-drop-system). Primary references: Genshin Impact (datamined configs + the Grasscutter server reimplementation as architectural evidence), EVE Online and WoW (the virtual-economy management craft), plus the broad RPG/MMO/idle canon for curve and skill-tree patterns. Counterpoint: BotW (the no-server, materials-as-progression model with a datamined hidden world level).

The architecture rule

Progression is tables, the wallet is a ledger, and the server (or the save) is the only authority.