Two important changes today: fixing a critical NPC movement bug and standardizing all game content to English.

Bug Fix: NPCs Frozen in Multiplayer

NPCs stopped moving when Firebase multiplayer was enabled. Root cause was a race condition in the host election system:

  1. After initMultiplayer(), mp.enabled is true immediately but mp.isHost stays false until the async Firebase host election callback fires
  2. During this window, the condition if (!mp || !mp.enabled || mp.isHost) evaluates to false -- updateNpcs() is skipped
  3. Additionally, stale host entries from crashed sessions could make the current player permanently "non-host" while no actual host is broadcasting NPC data

Fix: Added shouldRunNpcSim getter to the multiplayer module that tracks:

  • hostResolved: whether host election has completed
  • lastNpcSyncAt: timestamp of last NPC data received from host
  • Falls back to local NPC simulation if no host sync received within 5 seconds

English-Only Standardization

Since multiplayer brings together players from different regions, mixed Korean/English content created a confusing experience. All game content is now English-only.

Changes Across 11 Files

Area What Changed
Default language 'ko' → 'en' in main.js
NPC names Korean → romanized English (Dokkaebi, Haru, Byeoli, etc.)
25 regex patterns Korean topic/sentiment/action detection → English equivalents
LLM prompts Removed Korean prompt variant; English-only prompts to Gemini
Tag parsing [부탁:] → [request:], [동행] → [follow], [안내:] → [guide:]
HTML template All Korean button/label defaults → English
Language selector Removed from name modal (English-only)
Place aliases Korean → English (공원→park, 광장→plaza, etc.)
200+ code comments Korean → English across all source files
Farewell detection Korean patterns → English patterns
Personality matching Korean traits → English (밝→bright, 조용→quiet, etc.)

NPC Name Mapping

The village characters keep their Korean-origin names, romanized for readability:

ID Name Role
guide Yujin Village guide (docent)
yoo Hyogon Village developer
heo Dokkaebi Ghost story lover
kim Haru Optimistic daydreamer
baker Milsuni Bakery owner
barista Mocha Cafe barista
grandpa Neuti Village elder
... 18 more Various roles

Files Modified

  • src/playground/main.js -- NPC names, default lang, regex patterns, all comments
  • server/llm-proxy.mjs -- Removed Korean prompts, unified to English
  • src/playground/systems/conversation.js -- Korean regex → English
  • src/playground/core/constants.js -- Place aliases, all comments
  • playground/index.md -- HTML template defaults to English
  • src/playground/systems/tag-game.js -- Comments
  • src/playground/systems/weather.js -- Comments
  • src/playground/systems/guide-greeting.js -- Comments
  • src/playground/systems/npc-data.js -- Comments
  • src/playground/renderer/renderer.js -- Comments
  • src/playground/renderer/entities.js -- Comments

What's Preserved

  • The i18n system infrastructure remains (for potential future localization)
  • Korean translations kept in i18n.js as reference
  • Village lore and cultural identity maintained through romanized names

Build passes all 7 verification checks. Net result: -227 lines (removed redundant Korean prompt variant).