Add promotion to Dispatch, and measure how repetitive a run is
The mailroom is no longer the whole game. Around turn 50, a player who has
built standing and either Marlene's goodwill or the nerve to ask gets offered
the Dispatch post — and can take it, take it and put Trevor up for the mailroom,
or turn it down, which is a real strategy rather than a mistake and comes back
after a cooldown.
Dispatch is eleven events of its own. The money problem is largely solved up
there and replaced by other people's days depending on yours, including the
mailroom's — which you used to be. Trevor branches on whether you recommended
him: he either runs the mailroom and has opinions about how it used to be run,
or he stays put and starts addressing you by your full title, kindly, in front
of people.
None of this is a promotion mechanic in the engine. It is
`{ path: 'stage', op: 'set', value: 'dispatch' }` on an option, since `stage`
was already how events are filtered. The reserved-write rule now allows it
narrowly — `set` only, and only to a stage that has events, both checked by the
validator, so a typo cannot strand the player in an empty pool. Wages differ by
rank through two upkeep entries gated on `stage`. The hard-times events dropped
their stage entirely: rent is due wherever you work.
The second half of this is the thing the last playtest asked for. A 183-turn
session, and no way to see how much of it was new ground.
`npm run analyze <exported-log.json>` now reports turns against distinct
situations, how often each recurred, which options were most used, which locked
gates players kept meeting, and anything they typed. The retrospective shows the
player-facing version.
It found a regression in this very change on its first run. Dispatch started
with eight events against the mailroom's nineteen, so its two floor events were
46% of every promoted run — one every three turns. Promotion was moving the
player into *thinner* content. Three more events and a weight rebalance took the
top two to 24.5%, and the heaviest recurrence from every ~3 turns to every ~5.
A test now holds that line.
Also corrected: the coverage test was asking whether an archetype ever *took* an
option, which is a property of the bot, not the pack. It had flagged
`rent_bounced.ask_trevor` as dead content when it had been offered, unlocked,
419 times across a sweep and simply never chosen. Options are now checked on
availability; events are still checked on firing.
114 tests. Reasoning in docs/DECISIONS.md §22-24.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01VMSFHyVPitUoosW5wyEADj
This commit is contained in:
co-authored by
Claude Opus 5
parent
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commit
4cab9fc41e
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// Leaving the mailroom.
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//
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// The offer is an ordinary event whose effects happen to include
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// `{ path: 'stage', op: 'set', value: 'dispatch' }` — the engine has no notion
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// of a promotion, only of a stage that determines which events are in the pool.
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//
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// Declining is a real option, not a soft no. It comes back after a cooldown,
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// and the brainstorm is explicit that staying lower to build skills or
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// relationships should be a strategy rather than a mistake.
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export const promotion = [
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{
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id: 'dispatch_offer',
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stage: 'mailroom',
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weight: 800,
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cooldown: 12,
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// Deliberately a long way in. The mailroom is where most of this pack
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// lives, and a promotion at turn 25 would skip it — the offer should read
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// as the end of a career there, not an early exit from it.
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requires: [
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{ path: 'reputation', op: '>=', value: 72 },
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{ path: 'turn', op: '>=', value: 40 },
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// Two ways to be in the room: somebody upstairs wants to help you, or
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// you have got good enough at asking.
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{
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any: [
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{ path: 'relationships.marlene.wants_to_help_you', op: '>=', value: 68 },
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{ path: 'skills.negotiation', op: '>=', value: 42 },
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],
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},
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],
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description:
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'The Dispatch post is real, it is open, and Marlene has put your name on ' +
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'a list of one. She says the coordinator job is mostly the same work with ' +
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'a different phone. She does not say it is more money, because she assumes ' +
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'you can read.',
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options: [
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{
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id: 'accept',
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label: 'Take it.',
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result:
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'You are given a desk with a window in it. Trevor helps you carry ' +
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'your things up and does not say anything the whole way.',
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effects: [
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{ path: 'stage', op: 'set', value: 'dispatch' },
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{ path: 'flags.promoted', op: 'set', value: true },
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{ path: 'reputation', op: 'add', value: 5 },
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{ path: 'relationships.trevor.likes_you', op: 'add', value: -12 },
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{ path: 'relationships.trevor.fears_you', op: 'add', value: 6 },
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{ path: 'notable', op: 'push', value: 'Took the Dispatch post.' },
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],
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},
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{
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id: 'accept_and_recommend',
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label: 'Take it, and put Trevor up for the mailroom.',
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requires: [{ path: 'relationships.trevor.likes_you', op: '>=', value: 50 }],
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result:
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'Marlene raises an eyebrow and writes his name down. Trevor finds out ' +
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'from the notice board and is unbearable about it for a week.',
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effects: [
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{ path: 'stage', op: 'set', value: 'dispatch' },
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{ path: 'flags.promoted', op: 'set', value: true },
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{ path: 'flags.recommended_trevor', op: 'set', value: true },
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{ path: 'reputation', op: 'add', value: 3 },
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{ path: 'relationships.trevor.likes_you', op: 'add', value: 12 },
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{ path: 'relationships.trevor.wants_to_help_you', op: 'add', value: 8 },
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{ path: 'notable', op: 'push', value: 'Took Dispatch, and put Trevor up for the mailroom.' },
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],
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},
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{
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id: 'decline',
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label: 'Not yet.',
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result:
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'Marlene takes the list back. She has been on a list of one before ' +
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'and does not ask why.',
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effects: [
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{ path: 'skills.negotiation', op: 'add', value: 2 },
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{ path: 'reputation', op: 'add', value: -2 },
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{ path: 'relationships.marlene.wants_to_help_you', op: 'add', value: -6 },
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{ path: 'notable', op: 'push', value: 'Turned down Dispatch.' },
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],
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},
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],
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},
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];
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export default promotion;
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