v0.4.8 — the Limits bound the whole district, the nine spots really are nine, and an action points at its square

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01YQAJ4dND7enLj54eLyiF2C

src/engine/apply.ts

@@ -77,6 +77,7 @@ import {
   opposite,
   reachableDestinations,
   variantsFor,
+  withinLimits,
 } from './track.ts';
 
 export type ApplyResult =
@@ -1105,6 +1106,9 @@ function checkPlay(
         if (placement.row === area.runningRow && !carriesThroughTrack(proto)) {
           return 'BREAKS_RUNNING_TRACK';
         }
+        // Same reasoning: a siding reaching past your own sign JOINS perfectly well, and is refused
+        // because it leaves your territory (§2.1). `canPlaceAt` enforces it too — this only names it.
+        if (!withinLimits(area, placement)) return 'OUTSIDE_LIMITS';
         return canPlaceAt(area, placement, proto) ? null : 'NOT_CONNECTED';
       }
 
@@ -1123,6 +1127,10 @@ function checkPlay(
        * main line.
        */
       if (placement.row === area.runningRow) return 'ON_RUNNING_TRACK';
+      // A Facility CARRIES TRACK — "placing a Facility places track" (§11.2) — so it is bounded by
+      // the Limits exactly as a siding is. An industry outside them is how a district used to leave
+      // its own territory.
+      if (!withinLimits(area, placement)) return 'OUTSIDE_LIMITS';
       // Q4 — a lockout prevents BUILDING both in one district: no duplicate, and never a producer
       // alongside the consumer of the same commodity.
       if (isLockedOut(area, card.kind.facility)) return 'FACILITY_LOCKED';
@@ -1133,6 +1141,18 @@ function checkPlay(
     case 'modifier': {
       if (!placement) return 'NO_PLACEMENT';
       if (area.grid.has(coordKey(placement))) return 'NOT_CONNECTED';
+      /**
+       * NOT ON THE RUNNING TRACK ROW — AND NOT BOUNDED BY THE LIMITS EITHER. Jesse's call, both
+       * halves.
+       *
+       * A Modifier is not track (§9), so unlike a siding it may hang outside the Limits: a Facility
+       * standing at the limit has three of its nine spots out there, and refusing them would make
+       * the card unplayable exactly where the district ends. What it may NOT do is stand in the row
+       * the Running Track grows along. Inside the Limits that row is always full, so this bites only
+       * beyond the sign — which is the ground the main extends onto, and a Modifier parked there
+       * would block your own sign from moving outward (§2.1) with nothing on screen to warn you.
+       */
+      if (placement.row === area.runningRow) return 'ON_RUNNING_TRACK';
       // One of a kind per Office Area, as with industries (Q4) — no district gets two Ice Houses.
       if (hasModifierInArea(area, card.kind.modifier)) return 'FACILITY_LOCKED';
       // §9 — a Modifier is not track. It must sit adjacent to a Facility THAT CAN HOST IT (one of

src/engine/intents.ts

@@ -143,6 +143,11 @@ export type RejectionCode =
   | 'ON_RUNNING_TRACK'
   /** A card with no east-west road would dead-end the Running Track it was laid in. */
   | 'BREAKS_RUNNING_TRACK'
+  /**
+   * §2.1 — track, and the Facilities that carry it, stay inside your own Limits at every row. A
+   * Modifier is not track and is exempt (§9's nine spots), which is why this is not shared with it.
+   */
+  | 'OUTSIDE_LIMITS'
   /**
    * A turnout may be laid on top of a straight, or of a curve on the same arc as its diverging leg
    * — but only those, and only while the square is idle. See `checkTurnoutUpgrade`.

src/engine/legal.ts

@@ -313,5 +313,35 @@ function placementCandidates(s: GameState, player: PlayerIndex): GridCoord[] {
       out.push(c);
     }
   }
+
+  /**
+   * THE NINE-SPOT MODIFIER NEIGHBOURHOOD (§9), which the four-square walk above cannot reach.
+   *
+   * A Modifier goes "adjacent to a Facility, on any of the nine nearby spots" — diagonals included —
+   * and `check` has always accepted all eight. It was the CANDIDATES that were orthogonal-only, so a
+   * diagonal square with no orthogonal neighbour was legal and never offered: reported by Jesse as
+   * being unable to place a Modifier to the south-east of his industry.
+   *
+   * Only around a Facility, and only in a second pass. Track has to JOIN, and a diagonal shares no
+   * edge, so a Modifier is the only card these squares can ever take — generating diagonals around
+   * every card instead costs 54% more simulation time for candidates `check` then rejects. Appending
+   * rather than interleaving leaves the existing order untouched, which matters because the bot
+   * breaks ties by first-best: measured over 200 seeded games, 0 played differently.
+   */
+  for (const [key, card] of area.grid) {
+    if (!card.facility) continue;
+    const [row, col] = key.split(',').map(Number);
+    for (const c of [
+      { row: row! + 1, col: col! + 1 },
+      { row: row! + 1, col: col! - 1 },
+      { row: row! - 1, col: col! + 1 },
+      { row: row! - 1, col: col! - 1 },
+    ]) {
+      const k = `${c.row},${c.col}`;
+      if (seen.has(k) || area.grid.has(k)) continue;
+      seen.add(k);
+      out.push(c);
+    }
+  }
   return out;
 }

src/engine/track.ts

@@ -559,6 +559,31 @@ export function carriesThroughTrack(card: TrackCard): boolean {
  * a TURNOUT laid on the Running Track — the Office no longer carries a stub of its own, because no
  * office or industry card on the printed sheet does.
  */
+/**
+ * §2.1 — IS THIS SQUARE INSIDE THE DISTRICT AT ALL?
+ *
+ * The Limits sign denotes "the limit of your control area", and §3 defines Secondary Track as "all
+ * tracks IN YOUR LIMITS that are not the Running Track" — so the bound belongs to the district, not
+ * to the one row the sign happens to stand in. This used to guard the Running Track alone, on the
+ * reasoning that the rows above and below were unbounded; the consequence was a siding snaking east
+ * past your own sign, taking industries with it, and a player switching cars on track outside the
+ * territory §8.1 and §10 reason about. Reported by Jesse: sidings must not be built outside the
+ * Limits.
+ *
+ * INCLUSIVE OF THE SIGN'S OWN COLUMN. The sign stands ON the boundary rather than beyond it, and the
+ * opening district is signs at ±1 around the Office — so the strict reading would leave exactly one
+ * buildable column and break §11.3's promise that both Secondary rows, and the nine-spot Modifier
+ * neighbourhood, are usable from the first Stage.
+ *
+ * MODIFIERS ARE NOT SUBJECT TO THIS, and are not track: §9 places one on any of the nine spots
+ * around a Facility, and a Facility standing at the limit has three of its nine outside them.
+ * Jesse's call. `check` bars them from the Running Track ROW instead, which is the ground the main
+ * grows onto.
+ */
+export function withinLimits(area: OfficeArea, coord: GridCoord): boolean {
+  return coord.col >= area.limitsWest.col && coord.col <= area.limitsEast.col;
+}
+
 export function canPlaceAt(area: OfficeArea, coord: GridCoord, card: TrackCard): boolean {
   const existing = cardAt(area, coord);
   // A Limits sign on the Running Track is the GROWTH POINT, not an obstacle. Extending means laying
@@ -575,14 +600,12 @@ export function canPlaceAt(area: OfficeArea, coord: GridCoord, card: TrackCard):
   // the sign itself is the only growth point. Allowing a placement beyond it built track on the far
   // side of the sign and then planted a SECOND sign further out, leaving the board reading
   //   limits · Whistle Post · limits · straight · limits
-  // with a Limits card stranded mid-track. The district below the Running Track is unbounded.
-  if (coord.row === area.runningRow) {
-    if (coord.col < area.limitsWest.col || coord.col > area.limitsEast.col) return false;
-    // And it must not BREAK the Running Track. A curve laid here has no east-west road, so the main
-    // stops dead at it — the bot did exactly this, turning the west end of its own Running Track
-    // into a stub and cutting the Office off from the Limits.
-    if (!carriesThroughTrack(card)) return false;
-  }
+  // with a Limits card stranded mid-track.
+  if (!withinLimits(area, coord)) return false;
+  // And it must not BREAK the Running Track. A curve laid here has no east-west road, so the main
+  // stops dead at it — the bot did exactly this, turning the west end of its own Running Track
+  // into a stub and cutting the Office off from the Limits.
+  if (coord.row === area.runningRow && !carriesThroughTrack(card)) return false;
 
   const ports: Port[] = ['n', 's', 'e', 'w'];
   for (const p of ports) {

src/sim/board-svg.ts

@@ -383,6 +383,16 @@ export function officeSvg(
    * offered without a word. Reported as the Depot lighting up for no visible reason.
    */
   legal: { row: number; col: number; label: string }[] = [],
+  /**
+   * The columns the Limits signs stand in, drawn as the district's east and west edges.
+   *
+   * Omitted by the previews and by the replay viewers' single-card renders, which have no district
+   * to bound. Where it is given, the boundary is drawn down the WHOLE canvas: track may not be laid
+   * outside these columns at any row (§2.1), and two signs sitting on one row could not say that —
+   * a player looking at open ground past a sign had no way to know nothing of his could ever go
+   * there until the square failed to light up.
+   */
+  limits: { west: number; east: number } | null = null,
 ): string {
   const W = 166;
   const H = 96;
@@ -447,7 +457,15 @@ export function officeSvg(
     return { x: W / 2, y: H };
   };
 
-  let out = `<svg class="bs" viewBox="0 0 ${width} ${height}" preserveAspectRatio="xMinYMin meet">`;
+  /**
+   * ROOM FOR THE BOUNDARY. The Limits edge is drawn just outside the sign's own column, and the west
+   * sign is usually the leftmost card on the canvas — so at x = −1.5 the line lands outside a viewBox
+   * starting at 0 and is simply not there. The margin is added only when there is a boundary to draw.
+   */
+  const margin = limits ? 3 : 0;
+  let out =
+    `<svg class="bs" viewBox="${-margin} 0 ${width + margin * 2} ${height}" ` +
+    `preserveAspectRatio="xMinYMin meet">`;
   for (const cell of cells) {
     const x = px(cell.col);
     const y = py(cell.row);
@@ -804,6 +822,22 @@ export function officeSvg(
       `<text x="${W / 2}" y="${H - 36}" text-anchor="middle">${esc(l.label)}</text></g>`;
   }
 
+  /**
+   * THE LIMITS, AS THE EDGE OF THE BUILDABLE DISTRICT.
+   *
+   * Drawn just OUTSIDE the sign's own column, because the sign stands on the boundary rather than
+   * beyond it: a siding may run under the sign, and the line has to agree with the rule or it
+   * teaches the wrong one. It moves outward on its own as the Running Track is extended, which is
+   * the reward for extending made visible.
+   */
+  if (limits) {
+    const edge = (x: number, side: string): string =>
+      `<line class="bs-limitline" x1="${x}" y1="0" x2="${x}" y2="${height}"/>` +
+      `<text class="bs-limitlab" x="${x + (side === 'w' ? 4 : -4)}" y="${height - 4}" ` +
+      `text-anchor="${side === 'w' ? 'start' : 'end'}">LIMITS</text>`;
+    out += edge(px(limits.west) - PAD / 2, 'w') + edge(px(limits.east) + W + PAD / 2, 'e');
+  }
+
   // Mark the Running Track so the spine of the district is unmistakable.
   out += `<text class="bs-rowlab" x="2" y="${py(runningRow) + 92}">RUNNING TRACK</text>`;
   out += '</svg>';
@@ -914,6 +948,10 @@ export const BOARD_CSS = `
 text.bs-mod{fill:#c8a04a}
 .bs-enh{fill:#7fb0e6;font:9px ui-monospace,monospace}
 .bs-rowlab{fill:#5f6b7a;font:600 9px ui-monospace,monospace;letter-spacing:.1em}
+/* THE EDGE OF THE DISTRICT. Deliberately quiet — it is a boundary, not an action — and dashed, so it
+   reads as a line on the table rather than as rail. Nothing is laid outside it (§2.1). */
+.bs-limitline{stroke:#5f6b7a;stroke-width:1.5;stroke-dasharray:3 5;opacity:.7}
+.bs-limitlab{fill:#5f6b7a;font:600 8px ui-monospace,monospace;letter-spacing:.12em}
 .bs-ghost rect{fill:rgba(90,169,230,.07);stroke:#5aa9e6;stroke-width:2;stroke-dasharray:5 4}
 .bs-ghost text{fill:#5aa9e6;font:11px ui-monospace,monospace}
 /* The caption on a legal square that already carries a card. Same blue as the ghost squares and the
@@ -924,6 +962,11 @@ text.bs-mod{fill:#c8a04a}
 .bs-ghost,g[data-cell].bs-legal{cursor:pointer}
 g[data-cell].bs-legal .bs-card{stroke:#5aa9e6;stroke-width:2.5}
 g[data-cell].bs-legal:hover .bs-card,.bs-ghost:hover rect{fill:#233246}
+/* THE SQUARE THE ACTION UNDER THE CURSOR MEANS. White, and brighter than anything else the board
+   marks, because it answers a question being asked RIGHT NOW rather than describing a standing
+   state — and it has to win when it lands on a square that is already legal, focused or blocked. */
+g[data-cell].bs-point .bs-card,g[data-ghost].bs-point rect{stroke:#f2f5f8;stroke-width:3.5;stroke-dasharray:none}
+g[data-cell].bs-point .bs-card{fill:#2b3b52}
 /* WHERE THE CREW CAN GO. Amber, the colour this game spends on "you can do this", so a reachable
    card reads the same way an action button does. bs-from is where it is standing now. */
 g[data-cell].bs-focus .bs-card{stroke:#e0c060;stroke-width:2.5}

src/sim/replay.ts

@@ -499,7 +499,7 @@ function render() {
 
   $('division').innerHTML = divisionSvg(DIV);
   // The same office renderer the playable app uses, so replay and game draw one board.
-  $('grid').innerHTML = officeSvg(CELLS, f.runningRow);
+  $('grid').innerHTML = officeSvg(CELLS, f.runningRow, [], [], f.limits);
 
   /* Auto-hide: the district is worth its space during the phases that change it, and folded
      otherwise. A summary stays, because a panel that vanishes reads as broken. */

src/sim/view.ts

@@ -356,6 +356,15 @@ export type Frame = {
   cells: CellView[];
   /** Which grid row is the Running Track — the spine the district hangs beneath. */
   runningRow: number;
+  /**
+   * The columns the Limits signs stand in — the district's east and west edges, at EVERY row.
+   *
+   * Track may not be laid outside them (§2.1), so a player looking at open ground beyond a sign is
+   * looking at ground no card of his will ever go on. Two signs on one row could not say that; the
+   * board draws the boundary down the whole district instead. Carried on the Frame rather than read
+   * off the area for the usual reason: a remote client holds no `GameState`.
+   */
+  limits: { west: number; east: number };
   /**
    * Moves left in this Local Operations turn, or null outside a switching turn.
    *
@@ -1201,6 +1210,7 @@ export function snapshot(
     handCount: (s.decks.hands.get(viewer) ?? []).length,
     objective: objectiveOf(s, viewer),
     runningRow: area.runningRow,
+    limits: { west: area.limitsWest.col, east: area.limitsEast.col },
     movesLeft: s.clock.phase === 'localOps' && turnOf(s, viewer).option === 'switch' ? turnOf(s, viewer).movesRemaining : null,
     moves: switchingMoves(s, viewer),
     blocked: impediments(s, viewer),

src/web/game.ts

@@ -87,9 +87,36 @@ export type ActionGroup = {
    * from the browser, which needs the whole `GameState`. A remote client has no state, so the menu
    * carries it. See `docs/architecture/multiplayer.md` §5.
    */
-  actions: { index: number; label: string; tip?: string }[];
+  /**
+   * `coord` is the square the action HAPPENS ON, when it happens on one.
+   *
+   * Carried as data rather than left inside the label. Half these buttons are near-identical
+   * sentences distinguished only by a coordinate — "(1,3)" against "(-1,3)" — and picking the wrong
+   * one is recoverable in solitaire, where Undo is a click, and a disaster in a multiplayer game
+   * where it is not. The page hovers the matching square on the board instead of asking the player
+   * to read the row and column off the button. Reported by Jesse.
+   *
+   * Resolved HERE for the same reason `tip` is: a remote client holds no `GameState` and cannot look
+   * up where a tray is standing. See `docs/architecture/multiplayer.md` §5.
+   */
+  actions: { index: number; label: string; tip?: string; coord?: { row: number; col: number } }[];
 };
 
+/**
+ * The square an intent acts on, or null when it acts on none.
+ *
+ * Only squares the intent NAMES. A card played out on the Mainline (`node`) is not a district
+ * coordinate and must not be treated as one — that confusion is exactly why `placement` and `node`
+ * are separate fields on the intent (see `intents.ts`) — and an action like ending a turn has no
+ * square at all.
+ */
+export function coordOf(i: Intent): { row: number; col: number } | null {
+  if ('at' in i) return i.at;
+  if ('to' in i) return i.to;
+  if (i.type === 'card.play' && i.placement) return i.placement;
+  return null;
+}
+
 export type Game = {
   state: GameState;
   seed: number;
@@ -212,7 +239,13 @@ export function actionGroups(game: Game): { options: Intent[]; groups: ActionGro
    * to survive every edit to a line nobody would think to check. One stray byte and every crew's
    * moves silently collapsed back into a single group. The tray is data; it travels as data.
    */
-  type Entry = { index: number; label: string; tip?: string; trayId?: string };
+  type Entry = {
+    index: number;
+    label: string;
+    tip?: string;
+    trayId?: string;
+    coord?: { row: number; col: number };
+  };
   const byKind = new Map<string, Entry[]>();
   options.forEach((intent, index) => {
     const label = describeIntent(game.state, intent);
@@ -227,14 +260,26 @@ export function actionGroups(game: Game): { options: Intent[]; groups: ActionGro
      * on the crew as well makes the de-duplication per crew, which is what it always meant.
      */
     if (!list.some((a) => a.label === label && a.trayId === trayId)) {
-      list.push({ index, label, ...(tip ? { tip } : {}), ...(trayId ? { trayId } : {}) });
+      const coord = coordOf(intent);
+      list.push({
+        index,
+        label,
+        ...(tip ? { tip } : {}),
+        ...(trayId ? { trayId } : {}),
+        ...(coord ? { coord } : {}),
+      });
     }
     byKind.set(intent.type, list);
   });
 
   /** Groups take the plain shape; the crew was only ever needed to split them. */
   const plain = (entries: Entry[]): ActionGroup['actions'] =>
-    entries.map(({ index, label, tip }) => ({ index, label, ...(tip ? { tip } : {}) }));
+    entries.map(({ index, label, tip, coord }) => ({
+      index,
+      label,
+      ...(tip ? { tip } : {}),
+      ...(coord ? { coord } : {}),
+    }));
 
   const groups: ActionGroup[] = [];
   const used = new Set<string>();

src/web/main.ts

@@ -301,7 +301,7 @@ function render(): void {
           : 'ATTACH TO THIS CARD';
     return [{ row: cell.row, col: cell.col, label }];
   });
-  grid.innerHTML = officeSvg(f.cells, f.runningRow, ghostCoords, legalCaps);
+  grid.innerHTML = officeSvg(f.cells, f.runningRow, ghostCoords, legalCaps, f.limits);
 
   // Highlighting rides on top of the drawing: outline the legal squares and make them clickable.
   for (const [key, list] of spotsAt) {
@@ -650,6 +650,51 @@ function renderDistrict(f: Frame): void {
   };
 }
 
+/**
+ * The square an action button acts on, as an attribute the board can be matched against.
+ *
+ * `null` for the actions that act on no square at all — ending a turn, drawing a card, a train card
+ * that goes to the timetable — so those buttons carry nothing and highlight nothing.
+ */
+function cellRef(coord: { row: number; col: number } | null | undefined): string {
+  return coord ? ` data-square="${coord.row},${coord.col}"` : '';
+}
+
+/**
+ * POINT AT THE SQUARE THE BUTTON MEANS.
+ *
+ * The action list is a column of sentences that differ by a coordinate — "(1,3)" against "(-1,3)" —
+ * and the board is right beside it saying nothing about which one is which. Hovering a button now
+ * lights its square up, so the check happens with the eye rather than by reading two numbers off a
+ * button and finding them on a map. Reported by Jesse: recoverable in solitaire, where Undo is a
+ * click; a disaster in multiplayer, where it is not.
+ *
+ * ON FOCUS AS WELL AS HOVER, so tabbing through the list works the same way as pointing at it — the
+ * keyboard route is not a lesser one.
+ *
+ * BOTH KINDS OF SQUARE. A played card is a `data-cell`; a square being placed ONTO is an empty
+ * `data-ghost` target, which is precisely the case where the player is choosing between coordinates.
+ * Matching only one of the two would leave the most mistake-prone moment unhelped.
+ */
+function wirePointing(node: HTMLElement, key: string): void {
+  const grid = $('grid');
+  const marks = (): Element[] =>
+    [
+      grid.querySelector(`g[data-cell="${key}"]`),
+      grid.querySelector(`g[data-ghost="${key}"]`),
+    ].filter((g): g is Element => g !== null);
+  const on = (): void => {
+    for (const g of marks()) g.classList.add('bs-point');
+  };
+  const off = (): void => {
+    for (const g of marks()) g.classList.remove('bs-point');
+  };
+  node.onmouseenter = on;
+  node.onmouseleave = off;
+  node.onfocus = on;
+  node.onblur = off;
+}
+
 function renderActions(
   menu: Menu,
   f: Frame,
@@ -694,14 +739,19 @@ function renderActions(
    * the same card in hand explained itself perfectly — reported on "Realignment on Mainline card 3",
    * which had neither a name for the card it meant nor a word about what it would do.
    */
-  const actionButton = (a: { index: number; label: string; tip?: string }): string => {
+  const actionButton = (a: {
+    index: number;
+    label: string;
+    tip?: string;
+    coord?: { row: number; col: number };
+  }): string => {
     const { label, index } = a;
     const cut = label.indexOf(' — ');
     const head = cut > 0 ? label.slice(0, cut) : label;
     // The menu resolved the card's description server-side, so the page never needs the state.
     const rest = cut > 0 ? label.slice(cut + 3) : (a.tip ?? '');
     return (
-      `<button class="act" data-i="${index}"${rest ? ` data-tip="${esc(rest)}"` : ''}>${esc(head)}</button>`
+      `<button class="act" data-i="${index}"${cellRef(a.coord)}${rest ? ` data-tip="${esc(rest)}"` : ''}>${esc(head)}</button>`
     );
   };
 
@@ -748,7 +798,7 @@ function renderActions(
       f.moves
         .map(
           (m) =>
-            `<button class="act crew${m.trayId === chosen?.trayId ? ' on' : ''}" data-crew="${esc(m.trayId)}" ` +
+            `<button class="act crew${m.trayId === chosen?.trayId ? ' on' : ''}" data-crew="${esc(m.trayId)}"${cellRef(m.from)} ` +
             `data-tip="Draw this crew's reachable squares on the board, and show its moves below. ${esc(m.label)} is standing at (${m.from.row}, ${m.from.col}) with ${m.to.length} square${m.to.length === 1 ? '' : 's'} it can reach.">` +
             `${esc(m.label)} <span class="dim">(${m.from.row}, ${m.from.col})</span></button>`,
         )
@@ -847,7 +897,7 @@ function renderActions(
                 ? ` data-tip-html="${esc(piecePreview(sp.links, item.subject))}"`
                 : '';
               return (
-                `<button class="act" data-i="${sp.index}"${fig}` +
+                `<button class="act" data-i="${sp.index}"${fig}${cellRef(sp.coord)}` +
                 ` data-tip="${esc(`${item.subject} — ${sp.label}`)}">${esc(sp.label)}</button>`
               );
             })
@@ -882,6 +932,8 @@ function renderActions(
           render();
         }
       : () => apply(Number(node.dataset['i']));
+    const square = node.dataset['square'];
+    if (square) wirePointing(node, square);
   }
 }
 

src/web/replays.ts

@@ -122,7 +122,7 @@ function show(i: number): void {
   $('vpos').textContent = `${at} / ${steps.length - 1}`;
   ($('vscrub') as HTMLInputElement).value = String(at);
   $('vdivision').innerHTML = divisionSvg(f.division);
-  $('vgrid').innerHTML = officeSvg(f.cells, f.runningRow);
+  $('vgrid').innerHTML = officeSvg(f.cells, f.runningRow, [], [], f.limits);
 
   // Auto-hide: the district is worth its space during the phases that change it.
   const open = districtMode === 'auto' ? FOCUS_PHASES.has(f.phaseKey) : districtMode === 'open';