Add the interface, then rebuild the economy around the first playtest
The MVP is playable: a turn screen, a career retrospective, an optional feedback widget, local-storage autosave with file export/import, and a build that flattens everything into one self-contained HTML file. A turn has two phases — the scenario and its options, then what the choice did and, separately, what the day cost regardless. Numbers that move without the player seeing why are most of what makes them meaningless. Locked options are shown greyed with the requirement spelled out rather than hidden, so a player can see the door they cannot open yet. The interface is named entirely by the pack. `pack.display` maps a state path to a label, a format and an order, which is why the header reads "Standing" for a path called `reputation` and why debt disappears while it is zero. The first playtest then found three things, all of them fair. *"Wasn't clear what daily drain was for."* The ledger was labelling changes by the path that moved — "Money −$18" — when the upkeep entry that caused them had a perfectly good name. It now says "Coffee, transit, lunch". The labels were in the data the whole time and never reached the screen. *"Should probably pay rent weekly / get paid every other week… would be good to have day of week and week # shown."* Packs can now declare a calendar, and the engine derives the day name, cycle and index from the turn number before the event is drawn — so content can require a Friday and the header can say "Thursday · Week 2 · Day 12". Upkeep entries take `every` and `offset`, making wages fall on alternate Fridays and rent every Monday. The turn screen carries a diary line — "Wages tomorrow · Rent in 4 days" — computed generically from whatever a pack schedules. *"Always in debt — could never get ahead."* The old economy bled $25 a day regardless of play. It is now roughly break-even at baseline, with a `spare_shift` event that appears *because* you are broke: the way out of a hole should be visible from inside it. Across archetypes a careful player ends around $1,400, an unplanned one treads water, and a careless one sinks into real debt. That retune broke the coverage test, usefully. Random play stopped reaching hard times at all, which made the entire debt branch look dead — it was not, since random play is not a plausible player. Coverage is now the union across five archetypes, including one that is broke *and* well-liked, because the "ask a friend for money" options sit in a state no single-axis strategy reaches. Not covered by any of this: styling and dark mode, which only a human with a browser can check. This machine has none that can render a page. 109 tests. Reasoning in docs/DECISIONS.md §14-21. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01VMSFHyVPitUoosW5wyEADj
This commit is contained in:
JesseMarkowitz
co-authored by
Claude Opus 5
Claude Opus 5
parent
1d4ac0fdbd
commit
e482f07157
@@ -91,11 +91,11 @@ export const hardTimes = [
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{
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id: 'pay_chunk',
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label: 'Pay a real chunk of it down.',
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requires: [{ path: 'money', op: '>=', value: 200 }],
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requires: [{ path: 'money', op: '>=', value: 350 }],
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result: 'He is audibly disappointed.',
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effects: [
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{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -200 },
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{ path: 'debt', op: 'add', value: -200 },
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{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -350 },
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{ path: 'debt', op: 'add', value: -350 },
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{ path: 'reputation', op: 'add', value: 1 },
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],
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},
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@@ -344,6 +344,93 @@ export const routine = [
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},
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],
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},
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{
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id: 'late_run',
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stage: 'mailroom',
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weight: 35,
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cooldown: 5,
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description:
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'The evening courier run needs covering. It is an hour, it is nobody\'s ' +
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'favourite hour, and it pays.',
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options: [
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{
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id: 'take_run',
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label: 'Take the run.',
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result: 'An hour in the loading bay. The city looks better from there than it has any right to.',
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effects: [
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{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 70 },
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{ path: 'skills.logistics', op: 'add', value: 1 },
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],
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},
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{
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id: 'swap_it',
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label: 'Take it, and trade it to Trevor for the Friday one.',
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requires: [{ path: 'skills.negotiation', op: '>=', value: 15 }],
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result: 'Friday pays the same and finishes earlier. Trevor works this out on Friday.',
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effects: [
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{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 70 },
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{ path: 'skills.negotiation', op: 'add', value: 2 },
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{ path: 'relationships.trevor.likes_you', op: 'add', value: -3 },
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{ path: 'relationships.trevor.fears_you', op: 'add', value: 2 },
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],
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},
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{
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id: 'go_home',
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label: 'Go home.',
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result: 'You are home by six. It is a strange feeling and it does not last.',
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effects: [{ path: 'relationships.marlene.likes_you', op: 'add', value: -1 }],
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},
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],
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},
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{
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// Deliberately surfaced by being broke: when the money runs low the board
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// starts offering work. The way out of a hole should be visible from
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// inside it, not something you had to have planned for.
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id: 'spare_shift',
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stage: 'mailroom',
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weight: 300,
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cooldown: 2,
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requires: [{ path: 'money', op: '<', value: 350 }],
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description:
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'There is a shift going spare on the board — someone else\'s weekend, ' +
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'going cheap because nobody wants it. Marlene has not taken it down.',
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options: [
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{
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id: 'take_shift',
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label: 'Take it.',
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result: 'Two days of somebody else\'s work. The money is real.',
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effects: [
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{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 140 },
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{ path: 'skills.logistics', op: 'add', value: 1 },
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{ path: 'relationships.marlene.likes_you', op: 'add', value: 1 },
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],
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},
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{
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id: 'take_two',
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label: 'Take it, and ask what else is going.',
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requires: [{ path: 'skills.negotiation', op: '>=', value: 15 }],
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result:
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'There is more going than the board admits to. Marlene finds you ' +
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'another two days without writing either of them down.',
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effects: [
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{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 265 },
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{ path: 'skills.negotiation', op: 'add', value: 2 },
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{ path: 'reputation', op: 'add', value: -1 },
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],
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},
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{
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id: 'leave_it',
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label: 'Leave it for someone who needs it.',
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result: 'Trevor takes it. Trevor mentions taking it.',
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effects: [
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{ path: 'reputation', op: 'add', value: 2 },
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{ path: 'relationships.trevor.likes_you', op: 'add', value: 2 },
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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 routine;
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@@ -18,11 +18,20 @@ export const corporateLadder = {
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mailroom: { label: 'Mailroom', title: 'Mail Associate I' },
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},
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// Money is deliberately tight: the baseline is a slow bleed (see `upkeep`),
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// so the pressure that eventually forces a hard-times turn comes from doing
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// nothing about it, and most of the ways out cost standing rather than cash.
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// Turn 1 is a Monday. Content can gate on the day — and, more importantly,
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// money arrives and leaves on a rhythm the player can plan around instead of
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// draining by an unexplained amount every day.
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calendar: {
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cycleLength: 7,
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cycleName: 'Week',
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unitNames: ['Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday', 'Thursday', 'Friday', 'Saturday', 'Sunday'],
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},
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// Money is tight but not hopeless. The baseline bleeds about three dollars a
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// day, so a careful player creeps forward and a careless one does not — the
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// pressure comes from what choices cost, not from an unexplained drain.
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state: {
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'money': { initial: 400, min: -5000, max: 1000000 },
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'money': { initial: 520, min: -5000, max: 1000000 },
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'debt': { initial: 0, min: 0, max: 1000000 },
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'reputation': { initial: 50, min: 0, max: 100 },
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'skills.negotiation': { initial: 5, min: 0, max: 100 },
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@@ -38,37 +47,60 @@ export const corporateLadder = {
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// Nobody fears a new hire. Trevor's defaults are lower still — see
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// characters.js, where he starts two weeks ahead of you and knows it.
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relationshipStats: {
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likes_you: { initial: 50, min: 0, max: 100 },
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fears_you: { initial: 10, min: 0, max: 100 },
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wants_to_help_you: { initial: 40, min: 0, max: 100 },
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likes_you: { label: 'Likes you', initial: 50, min: 0, max: 100 },
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fears_you: { label: 'Wary of you', initial: 10, min: 0, max: 100 },
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wants_to_help_you: { label: 'Will help you', initial: 40, min: 0, max: 100 },
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},
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// Applied at the end of every turn, after the player's choice. Net -25 a day
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// before anything else happens, so a run drifts toward trouble in about
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// sixteen days if it is left alone.
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// Money moves on a schedule the player can feel: paid on alternate Fridays,
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// rent out every Monday, and only small change in between. Over a fortnight
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// the baseline is about forty dollars down — a drift, not a bleed.
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upkeep: [
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{ label: 'Wages', effects: [{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 115 }] },
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{ label: 'Living costs', effects: [{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -140 }] },
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{ label: 'Coffee, transit, lunch', effects: [{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -18 }] },
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// Turn 1 is a Monday, so offset 4 is the first Friday and every 14 makes it
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// alternate Fridays. Rent lands on Mondays, starting the second week.
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{ label: 'Wages', every: 14, offset: 4, effects: [{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 980 }] },
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{ label: 'Rent', every: 7, offset: 7, effects: [{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -455 }] },
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// The service charge steps up with the size of the debt, so the spiral
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// tightens instead of flattening out. A step function in data costs the
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// engine nothing; a percentage would have needed a multiply operation.
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{
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label: 'Loan service charge',
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every: 7,
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offset: 7,
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requires: [{ path: 'debt', op: '>', value: 0 }],
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effects: [{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -10 }],
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effects: [{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -70 }],
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},
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{
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label: 'Loan service charge (arrears)',
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every: 7,
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offset: 7,
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requires: [{ path: 'debt', op: '>=', value: 1000 }],
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effects: [{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -15 }],
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effects: [{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -40 }],
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},
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{
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label: 'Loan service charge (collections)',
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every: 7,
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offset: 7,
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requires: [{ path: 'debt', op: '>=', value: 2000 }],
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effects: [{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -25 }],
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effects: [{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -70 }],
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},
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],
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// How the interface names and formats this pack's state. The UI reads only
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// this map, so renaming a stat or reordering the header is content's job.
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display: {
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'money': { label: 'Money', format: 'money', order: 1 },
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'debt': { label: 'Debt', format: 'money', order: 2, hideWhenZero: true },
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'reputation': { label: 'Standing', format: 'meter', order: 3 },
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'skills.negotiation': { label: 'Negotiation', format: 'meter', order: 4 },
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'skills.logistics': { label: 'Logistics', format: 'meter', order: 5 },
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'notable': { hidden: true },
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'flags.took_loan': { label: 'a loan on the books', hidden: true },
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'flags.holds_the_envelope': { label: 'the envelope', hidden: true },
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'flags.covered_for_trevor': { label: "Trevor's Thursday", hidden: true },
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},
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characters,
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events,
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};
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