The area map editor — paint an Area's ground from the world editor

done priority 1 estimate L

ground-types/007 · created 2026-08-17 · updated 2026-08-18

What to do

The disabled Edit the cell map · later button in the world editor’s inspector (tools/world-editor/editor.js) becomes real. Built directly in the world editor’s own visual language — Kris’s local tool, never deployed.

tools/world-editor/server.mjs: GET /elements.js (serves game/shell/elements.js; the page <script src>s it), GET / PUT /areas/<slug>/ground.json (slug regex; 404 when absent; PUT validates shape, dimensions against spellgrove.world.json, values 1..64, then writes the row-string format). Still bound to 127.0.0.1, no auth.
New area.html, area-editor.js, area-editor.css (reusing editor.css tokens). The inspector button opens it in a new window — window.open('area.html?slug=…') — and is disabled with a note until an unsaved new Area has been saved.
The painter: a canvas at about 12 px per cell (60×60 = 720 px); eight base-type swatches (names and colours from the table); a variant picker per type including “random mix” (Earth-upper by default with the other seven sprinkled in); brush sizes 1 / 3 / 5; rectangle; flood fill; eyedropper; undo / redo (client-side). Overlays for portal cells, the entry cell, the (1,1) spawn and the home landing cell — painting an impassable type onto any of them is refused inline. A “loose ends” strip like the world editor’s: impassable under a door, a door that can’t be reached. If the Area was resized since the file was written, crop / pad with hexagram 2 on load and say so.
Save = PUT, then the same three steps as the world map: read the diff, npm run load-world, commit and push. Document in tools/world-editor/README.md and a “The ground” subsection of game/README.md’s world-map section. Optional: the world editor’s own cellPicker shows the ground colours behind its ruled grid.

The scaffold (server routes, page, palette) can be built before task 005 lands; the end-to-end check needs 005’s loader.

Definition of done

Paint the Village river by hand → save → git diff game/content/areas/village-of-lor.ground.json reads as row changes → load-world accepts → visible in the client. Committed and pushed.

Where the work lands

land-of-lor/tools/world-editor/, game/README.md.

What was done (2026-08-17, laptop session)

tools/world-editor/area.html + area-editor.js + area-editor.css; server.mjs serves /elements.js and GET/PUT /areas/<slug>/ground.json (PUT checks shape, dims against the world file, 1..64; writes the row-per-line format). The inspector’s placeholder became Edit the ground → (disabled until the world is saved).
Painter: 8 type swatches, flavour picker + Random mix, brush 1/3/5, rect, fill (same type), pick, undo/redo, keys; portal / entry / spawn overlays with refusal; loose-ends strip (impassable under a door, door unreachable — the loader’s rules); crop/pad on a resize with a note. Driven end to end in headless Chrome (paint, refusal, loose end, undo, save → a 4-line diff → reverted). Docs in tools/world-editor/README.md and game/README.md.
Not done: the optional ground colours behind the world editor’s cellPicker.

View source in repository · also available as raw markdown.