Wanderer is separated out into regions, which have ties to one another with some percentage chance. As you explore, you might hit on those links. POIs also have a percentage chance of appearing.
Given the nature of the engine, POIs and locations are brand new every time you find them, regardless of whether you've been there before or not. So identical ponds may connect to streams sometimes. Dungeons and caves are also different every time -- and since you can't backtrack, you can't go into the same one again.
You start out at the terminus of a road surrounded by forest. You can either follow the road (which eventually leads to a town) or go into the forest. The forest will eventually come back to roads with some percentage chance, so you're not permanently locked out of that choice.
The forest is divvied up into different proportions of trees as its defining characteristic, though there are additional ones that influence the likelihood of reaching POIs:
Rockiness -- leads to a Temple
Hilly/mountainous -- Cave
Watery -- leads to a Pond
Paths -- will eventually lead you back to a Forest Road.
Additional layout notes
Hilly and rocky should lead to one another fairly easily.
Hilly + a water source should have a decent chance of leading to a watery location.
Once you've reached a POI, its characteristic resets so you then have to traverse some more to find a new one. The exception is the Forest Road, since that's a new Location.
With the actual pathing, it's not clear what you're headed towards, however because of how the engine works, the same signals lead to the same types of locations. I'm not sure what these paths actually are, but there could be placeholder things like specific shrubs or leaf piles or whatever.
Interactions
You can interact with several things in the Forest location:
Trees, which will sometimes give you Branches or Twigs. Some trees also produce Sap.
Some Trees can be climbed, which if successful may give you access to Nuts, more access to Sap, and Eggs.
Decaying logs can contain Grubs or Insects.
Rocky areas will naturally contain Rocks
Very rocky areas may contain Copper, though it's rare. There's a good chance they'll contain Limestone however.
More hilly terrain provides a source of Water, sometimes Mushrooms and Salt.
Watery terrain contains Berry Bushes.
Watery terrain and rocky terrain contains Herbs, and has less trees for obvious reasons.
Both Herbs and Berry Bushes can sometimes contain Tubers.
Trees and cliffs and other types of things can sometimes have Vines growing on them.
Fauna
The Forest location contains several different Animals that have a potential of appearing:
Squirrels, which hang out near trees and appear when interacting with them.
Birds, which appear when climbing a tree.
Moose, which stick to rocky areas.
Beavers, which stick to watery areas.
These can all be hunted via that mechanic. There are different species and they're all a bit different from one another which influences their uses. There may be more animals as well; this is really just a first draft.
