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
127 lines
4.6 KiB
JavaScript
127 lines
4.6 KiB
JavaScript
// Running out of money.
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//
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// There is no game over here and no separate failure mode in the engine — this
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// is an ordinary event whose conditions happen to be "your money is negative",
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// carrying enough weight to crowd out an ordinary day. Every route out costs
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// something other than money, and every one of them leaves you still playing.
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//
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// Both events always offer at least one ungated option, so a player with no
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// skills and no friends is never stuck.
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export const hardTimes = [
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{
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id: 'rent_bounced',
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// No stage: rent is due wherever you work, and the branch has to follow
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// the player up rather than vanishing on promotion.
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weight: 5000,
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requires: [{ path: 'money', op: '<', value: 0 }],
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description:
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'Rent came out and did not clear. The letter uses the word ' +
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'"unfortunately" four times and encloses a form.',
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options: [
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{
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id: 'take_loan',
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label: 'Take the loan the letter suggests.',
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// They stop lending eventually, which is when the spiral gets real:
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// past this, the only ways out cost standing rather than interest.
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requires: [{ path: 'debt', op: '<', value: 2000 }],
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result:
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'The money arrives the same afternoon, which tells you something about ' +
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'the rate.',
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effects: [
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{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 500 },
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{ path: 'debt', op: 'add', value: 500 },
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{ path: 'flags.took_loan', op: 'set', value: true },
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{ path: 'reputation', op: 'add', value: -2 },
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{ path: 'notable', op: 'push', value: 'Took the loan.' },
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],
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},
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{
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id: 'ask_trevor',
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label: 'Ask Trevor for a float.',
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requires: [{ path: 'relationships.trevor.likes_you', op: '>=', value: 40 }],
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result:
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'He lends it without making a thing of it, and from then on he is a ' +
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'man who lent you money.',
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effects: [
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{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 150 },
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{ path: 'reputation', op: 'add', value: -3 },
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{ path: 'relationships.trevor.fears_you', op: 'add', value: -8 },
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{ path: 'relationships.trevor.wants_to_help_you', op: 'add', value: -5 },
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{ path: 'notable', op: 'push', value: 'Borrowed money from Trevor.' },
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],
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},
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{
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id: 'ask_marlene',
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label: 'Ask Marlene for an advance.',
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requires: [{ path: 'relationships.marlene.wants_to_help_you', op: '>=', value: 55 }],
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result:
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'She processes it herself and does not put it through the system. ' +
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'Neither of you mentions it again.',
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effects: [
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{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 200 },
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{ path: 'relationships.marlene.wants_to_help_you', op: 'add', value: -10 },
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{ path: 'relationships.marlene.likes_you', op: 'add', value: -3 },
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],
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},
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{
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id: 'extra_shifts',
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label: 'Take every shift going.',
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result:
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'You do eleven days without one off. The bins stop being individual ' +
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'bins after a while.',
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effects: [
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{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 120 },
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{ path: 'skills.logistics', 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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},
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{
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id: 'debt_collector',
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weight: 25,
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cooldown: 4,
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requires: [{ path: 'debt', op: '>', value: 0 }],
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description:
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'A man from the lender calls the mailroom phone. Marlene answers it. She ' +
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'hands it to you without expression and then, notably, without leaving.',
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options: [
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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: 350 }],
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result: 'He is audibly disappointed.',
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effects: [
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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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{
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id: 'pay_minimum',
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label: 'Pay what you can.',
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requires: [{ path: 'money', op: '>=', value: 60 }],
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result: 'Sixty dollars, fifty of which is the loan.',
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effects: [
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{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -60 },
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{ path: 'debt', op: 'add', value: -50 },
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],
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},
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{
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id: 'stall',
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label: 'Tell him next month.',
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result: 'He says next month. Marlene goes back to her desk.',
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effects: [
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{ path: 'debt', op: 'add', value: 25 },
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{ path: 'reputation', op: 'add', value: -3 },
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{ path: 'relationships.marlene.likes_you', op: 'add', value: -4 },
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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 hardTimes;
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