inventory: early return before HashSet alloc, restore doc comments

src/entities/item/inventory/personal.rs

@@ -1,4 +1,32 @@
 //! PersonalInventory — slots, strength-based carry weight, encumbrance tracking.
+//!
+//! # Design
+//! Every entity that can carry items gets a PersonalInventory. Slot count is
+//! species- and age-defined. Weight limit is strength-based.
+//!
+//! # Weight limit
+//! max_carry_weight = BASE_CARRY_WEIGHT + strength * STRENGTH_CARRY_MULTIPLIER
+//! + sum(carry_weight_bonus for each Container directly in slots)
+//!
+//! The bonus from held containers is re-evaluated whenever the slot contents
+//! change. It is NOT recursive — containers inside containers do not contribute
+//! their bonus to the carrier.
+//!
+//! # Encumbrance
+//! When current_weight > max_carry_weight, the entity is encumbered.
+//! The update_encumbrance system sets Ambulatory.walk_speed to
+//! base_walk_speed * ENCUMBERED_SPEED_MULTIPLIER when over limit.
+//!
+//! # Item placement
+//! Items are always placed in the best available slot at time of pickup —
+//! the smallest container whose max_item_size >= item.size with a free slot.
+//! No automatic reorganisation occurs. Reorganisation is an explicit task.
+//!
+//! # Life stage slot counts
+//! Adult: species value (e.g. DORF_ADULT_SLOTS = 8)
+//! Child: floor(adult / 2), minimum 0
+//! Baby:  1 if adult >= 2, else 0
+//! See slots_for_age().
 
 use bevy::prelude::*;
 use smallvec::SmallVec;

src/entities/item/inventory/systems.rs

@@ -1,5 +1,19 @@
-//! Encumbrance system. Fires `InventoryChangedEvent` after any inventory mutation to
+//! Encumbrance system — updates walk_speed based on carry weight.
-//! trigger walk_speed recalculation without per-tick iteration over all carriers.
+//!
+//! # Event-driven design
+//! Rather than iterating all carriers every tick, encumbrance recalculates only
+//! for entities that fired an InventoryChangedEvent. At 5000 entities with rare
+//! inventory changes, this reduces per-tick work from O(entities) to O(changes).
+//!
+//! Any code that mutates a PersonalInventory or a Container held by an entity
+//! MUST fire InventoryChangedEvent { carrier } after the mutation. The carrier
+//! is always the top-level entity with PersonalInventory — not a nested container.
+//!
+//! # base_walk_speed
+//! Ambulatory gains base_walk_speed: f32 — the unmodified speed. Encumbrance
+//! writes walk_speed = base_walk_speed * ENCUMBERED_SPEED_MULTIPLIER.
+//! Restoring writes walk_speed = base_walk_speed. base_walk_speed is never
+//! modified by encumbrance.
 
 use bevy::prelude::*;
 use rustc_hash::FxHashSet;
@@ -19,10 +33,10 @@ pub fn update_encumbrance(
     mut carriers: Query<(&mut PersonalInventory, &mut Ambulatory)>,
     containers: Query<&Container>,
 ) {
-    let changed: FxHashSet<Entity> = events.read().map(|e| e.carrier).collect();
+    if events.is_empty() {
-    if changed.is_empty() {
         return;
     }
+    let changed: FxHashSet<Entity> = events.read().map(|e| e.carrier).collect();
 
     for carrier_entity in changed {
         let Ok((mut inventory, mut ambulatory)) = carriers.get_mut(carrier_entity) else {