major_tom/TODO.md

TODO

Distance-based sound effects ✓

Implemented: audio_set_listener(), audio_play_sound_at() with linear attenuation and stereo panning. Used by enemy death, asteroid impact, and powerup pickup.

Spacecraft art and entity ✓

Implemented: spacecraft PNG spritesheet (5 frames, 80x48 each), full entity with state machine (FLYING_IN → LANDING → LANDED → TAKEOFF → FLYING_OUT → DONE), engine/synth sounds, thruster particles, level intro sequence with deferred player spawn.

Large map support (5000x5000) ✓

Audited and fixed all engine bottlenecks for maps up to 8192x8192:

• MAX_MAP_SIZE constant (8192) replaces hard-coded 4096 caps in tilemap loader and editor resize. Tile layers allocate fine at 5000x5000 (~143 MB).
• Dynamic line reader in tilemap_load() replaces fixed 16 KB fgets buffer; handles arbitrarily long tile rows without truncation.
• MAX_ENTITY_SPAWNS raised from 128 to 512; MAX_EXIT_ZONES from 8 to 16.
• Entity distance culling: entity_update_all() skips entities beyond 2× screen width from the camera; entity_render_all() skips entities outside the viewport + 64 px margin. Player, spacecraft, and drone use ENTITY_ALWAYS_UPDATE flag to opt out of culling.
• Editor flood fill replaced with scanline algorithm — O(height) stack usage instead of O(area), safe for very large maps.
• Verified: tilemap rendering already viewport-culled, physics queries are O(1) local tile lookups, float precision fine up to ~1M pixels (62 K tiles).

Spacecraft at level exit ✓

Implemented: spacecraft_spawn_exit() with is_exit_ship flag. Proximity trigger in level.c spawns exit ship when player is within ~2 screen widths of an exit zone. Ship flies in, lands near exit. Player overlaps landed ship → player deactivated, ship takes off, camera holds still, level transition fires after ship departs (SC_DONE).

Asteroid refinement ✓

Implemented: base speed 120→200, accel 200→350, respawn 3→6s, stagger 0-3→0-8s, random horizontal drift (±60 px/s), moon level reduced from 24 to 8 asteroids.

Moon campaign: 3 levels with spacecraft transitions ✓

Implemented: 3 moon levels connected by spacecraft takeoff/landing sequences.

• moon01.lvl (1000 tiles) — Exit triggers spacecraft, transitions to moon02.
• moon02.lvl (200 tiles) — Crater fields, tighter platforming. Spacecraft intro, 7 asteroids, unarmed. Exit to moon03.
• moon03.lvl (150 tiles) — Dark side, hardest moon terrain. Spacecraft intro, 5 asteroids, unarmed until gun powerup near exit. Exit to level01.
• level01.lvl — Space station with spacecraft landing intro (arriving from moon).

Level generator: height zones (verticality) ✓

Implemented: tall level support (46 tiles, two screens) with height zones.

• Camera vertical look-ahead (30px lead when player moves vertically > 50 px/s)
• All segment generators (gen_flat, gen_pit, gen_platforms, gen_corridor, gen_arena, gen_shaft, gen_transition) accept ground_row parameter — platforms, enemies, and hazards are placed relative to the zone's ground level
• SEG_CLIMB connector segment type: vertical shaft with alternating platforms, wall openings, optional moving platform and enemies, bridges height zones
• levelgen_generate() assigns zones per theme: Surface → LOW (row 43), Base → HIGH (row 17), Station → alternates. SEG_CLIMB auto-inserted at zone boundaries. Single-theme levels stay at standard 23-tile height.
• Station generator unchanged (23 tiles, corridor envelope constrains)
• Tall test level: assets/levels/tall_test.lvl (40x46)

Jetpack boost blue flame effects ✓

Implemented: particle_emit_jetpack_boost_burst() (electric blue core + blue-white flare, 18 particles mixed into regular burst) and particle_emit_jetpack_boost_trail() (blue sparks + pale blue wisps, 3 particles/frame). Both activate only when jetpack_boost_timer > 0. Burst fires on dash start, trail emits each frame during dash.

Pause menu ✓

Implemented: extracted bitmap font from editor.c into shared engine/font module (font.h/font.c). Added MODE_PAUSED game state to main.c with semi-transparent overlay, menu items (Resume / Restart / Quit), up/down navigation, confirm with jump/enter. Restart reloads file-based levels or regenerates procedural levels.

Laser turret hazard ✓

Implemented: ENT_LASER_TURRET entity with state machine (IDLE → CHARGING → FIRING → COOLDOWN). Beam uses per-pixel raycast via tilemap_is_solid(). Player damage via point-to-line distance check. Rendering with SDL_RenderDrawLine and perpendicular offset for beam thickness. Two variants: laser_turret (fixed, aims left) and laser_turret_track (rotates toward player at 1.5 rad/s during idle/charge, locks on fire). Both registered in entity registry with editor icons.

New enemies: Charger and Spawner ✓

Implemented in enemy.h/enemy.c:

• Charger — Ground patrol → ALERT (0.5 s telegraph) → CHARGE (150 px/s rush) → STUNNED (0.8 s on wall hit, reverses). 2 HP. Detects player in horizontal line-of-sight within 200 px.
• Spawner — Stationary. Spawns grunts every 4.5 s (max 3 alive via count_alive_grunts()). Pulses before spawn. 3 HP, destructible. Purple color scheme. Both registered in entity registry with editor icons.

Mars campaign ✓

Implemented: three handcrafted levels, a dedicated Mars Base generator, and Mars themes in all generic segment generators.

Handcrafted levels

• mars01.lvl (250×23, Mars Surface): low gravity (370), wind, wide-open red terrain, charger + grunt enemies, spacecraft intro. New mars_tileset.png and PARALLAX_STYLE_MARS (salmon sky, red mesas, dust).
• mars02.lvl (40×46, Mars Base): normal gravity (700), tall vertical corridors with narrow passages, turrets, laser turrets (fixed + tracking), spawners, chargers, grunts. Exits to generate:mars_base.
• mars03.lvl (30×23, Boss Arena): heavy enemies (spawners, chargers, laser turrets), exits to generate:station.

Mars Base dedicated generator

• levelgen_generate_mars_base() with 6 custom segment types: Entry (safe start), Shaft (vertical with alternating platforms + laser turrets), Corridor (narrow horizontal passage), Turret Hall (three-level laser gauntlet), Hive (spawner room), Arena (tall multi-level combat).
• 46-tile tall levels, Mars tileset, interior parallax, 700 gravity.
• Depth scaling: 6→7→8 segments, difficulty 0.5→0.7→0.9.
• After 2 generated levels, exit points to mars03.lvl (boss arena).
• generate:mars_base exit target handling in main.c with s_mars_depth.

Mars themes in generic generators

• All 7 generic segment generators (gen_flat, gen_pit, gen_platforms, gen_corridor, gen_arena, gen_shaft, gen_transition) place Mars-specific enemies (chargers, laser turrets, spawners) when the active theme is THEME_MARS_SURFACE or THEME_MARS_BASE.

Music

• kaffe_og_kage.ogg used for all Mars levels (handcrafted + both generators).

Level chain

• moon03 → mars01 → mars02 → generate:mars_base (×2) → mars03 → generate:station.

Bug fixes (this batch)

• Deterministic seed on generated level restart (s_gen_seed snapshot).
• NULL checks on calloc in charger_spawn, spawner_spawn, laser_spawn_internal.
• Charger charge timeout (2 s max) prevents infinite charge on flat terrain.
• Removed no-op flags |= 0 in spawner_spawn.
• Jetpack fuel pickup preserves recharge progress instead of resetting timer.
• Makefile web-serve: removed 2>/dev/null so real errors are visible.
• s_mars_depth and s_station_depth reset when game loops back to beginning.
• Added gen_bg_decoration() call to Mars Base generator.

Editor: level select should also load into game

In showEditor mode, the Open level-select dialog currently only loads the selected level into the editor. It should also load the level into the game (MODE_PLAY) so test-playing reflects the newly opened file.

Mars Surface atmosphere particles

Mars Surface levels should have ambient floating particles (dust motes, fine sand) drifting across the screen to sell the atmosphere. Could tie into the existing wind system — particles drift with the wind direction. Should be subtle, low-alpha, and layered behind/in front of the player for depth.

Skip spacecraft transition for non-surface levels

The spacecraft fly-in animation should only play on surface levels (moon01, mars01, etc.). Interior/base levels (mars02, mars03, generated mars_base, generated station) should skip it — the player is already indoors.

New level transition styles: elevator and teleporter

Two new transition animations to complement the spacecraft fly-in:

• Elevator — Doors slide shut, brief pause (screen shake / rumble), doors slide open onto the new level. Good for base/station interior transitions (mars02 → mars_base, between generated station levels).
• Teleporter — Energy charge-up effect around the player, flash/warp distortion, player materialises in the new level. Good for cross-planet jumps or generated-to-handcrafted transitions.