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/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) {