v0.8.0.7 — the Salvage Yard had nothing to say, and phases too little time to read

The Salvage Yard was face up all along; its tile just read "a card". apply.ts
pushes a synthetic train-<n> id on trainScheduled, nothing in s.cards matches it,
and cardName fell through to its default — and since a train is scheduled several
times a Day that id is on top most of the time. Measured before touching anything:
the tile read "a card" from the opening frame through 60 pushes while its depth
climbed from 2 to 8. cardName resolves it now, in sim/view.ts, because this is a
name.

The engine half is filed as Gitea#23 rather than fixed here. reshuffleIfDepleted
sweeps the Salvage Yard back into the draw deck, so that synthetic id can be
shuffled in and drawn into a hand as an id with no card behind it. Eight games
driven to 4000 moves across eight seeds produced zero reshuffles, so it is latent;
there are two defensible fixes and the choice turns on what the synthetic id is
for, which is not a call to make while fixing a label.

And phases scale with the speed control again, damped to a third of the rate. They
were pinned in v0.8.0.3 because scaling them walled off a player's own turn; pinned
turns out to be too short to read at 10x. Damped satisfies both: 1x unchanged, 10x
lands exactly on the four-times guess. Bounded because phase beats cluster rather
than accumulate — 1.0 per push on average, 4 at worst, so the wait after a move is
~2.4s typical.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01X6cF1iYvJ1kNmzYBzu4QX6

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -19,6 +19,51 @@ page as `v0.1.0 · <sha> · <date>`, so what is deployed can always be identifie
 
 ---
 
+## 0.8.0.7 — 2026-09-10
+
+### The Salvage Yard was face up and had nothing to say
+
+*"Why is salvage deck not face up? I should see the card played onto salvage."* It always was — the
+tile reads the top card. It just said **"a card"**.
+
+`apply.ts` pushes a **synthetic id** on `trainScheduled`:
+
+```ts
+s.decks.salvageYard.push(`train-${e.trainNumber}`);
+```
+
+Nothing in `s.cards` matches that, so `cardName()` fell through to its "a card" default — and since a
+train is scheduled several times a Day, that id is on top of the pile most of the time. Measured
+before touching anything: a session's Salvage tile read `"a card"` from the opening frame through 60
+pushes, never once changing, while its depth climbed from 2 to 8.
+
+`cardName()` resolves `train-<n>` now, so the tile reads **Train 3**, **Train 2** as cards land.
+Resolved in `sim/view.ts` because this is a NAME, which is that file's job.
+
+**The engine half is filed, not fixed — Gitea#23.** `reshuffleIfDepleted()` sweeps the Salvage Yard
+back into the draw deck, so a synthetic id can be shuffled in and drawn into a hand as an id with no
+card behind it. Not reachable in ordinary play: eight games driven to 4000 moves across eight seeds
+produced **zero** reshuffles. There are two defensible fixes and the choice turns on what that
+synthetic id is *for*, which is not a call to make in passing while fixing a label.
+
+### Phases scale with the speed control again — at a third of the rate
+
+*"Phases displayed on the upper line go by too quickly still. Should be 4 times as long — at a guess.
+Maybe use the speed multiplier for that too?"*
+
+Two complaints from opposite directions, and the answer is between them. v0.8.0.3 **pinned** phases at
+their tabled beat because scaling them walled off a player's own turn — *"that makes no sense"*. At
+10× that pinned beat is too short to read the sentence on it.
+
+So they scale, damped to a third of the rate: **1× unchanged, 10× lands exactly on the four-times
+guess**, 20× gives 4400ms. The cost stays bounded because phase beats cluster rather than accumulate
+— measured over 60 pushes, a push carries **1.0 phase beat on average and 4 at worst**, so the wait
+after a move is ~2.4s typical and ~10s at its very worst, against the minutes a full multiplier would
+have cost. A player's own move still outlasts a phase beat at every speed, which is the ordering that
+matters.
+
+---
+
 ## 0.8.0.6 — 2026-09-10
 
 Playing v0.8.0.5: *"saw bot's office area now — much better."* Three things still wrong, and one of

package.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "station-master",
-  "version": "0.8.0.6",
+  "version": "0.8.0.7",
   "private": true,
   "type": "module",
   "description": "Station Master — a railroad operations game",

src/sim/pacing.ts

@@ -177,6 +177,28 @@ export function dwellFor(cause: StepCause, pace = 1): number {
   return Math.round(DWELL[kindOf(cause)] * Math.min(MAX_PACE, Math.max(0, pace)));
 }
 
+/**
+ * How much of the speed control a PHASE gets — damped, not the full multiplier.
+ *
+ * Phases were pinned at their tabled beat in v0.8.0.3, because scaling them with everything else put
+ * a wall of clock-ticking after a player's own move. That was right about the cost and wrong about
+ * the need: at 10× the caption row goes past faster than the sentence on it can be read. Jesse,
+ * 2026-09-10: *"phases displayed on the upper line go by too quickly still. Should be 4 times as
+ * long — at a guess. Maybe use the speed multiplier for that too?"*
+ *
+ * So they scale, at a third of the rate. That lands exactly on his guess — 10× gives a phase four
+ * times its tabled beat — while leaving 1× untouched, and it stays affordable because phase beats
+ * cluster rather than accumulate: measured over 60 pushes, a push carries **1.0 phase beat on
+ * average and 4 at worst**, so the wait after a move goes to ~2.4s typical and ~10s at its very
+ * worst rather than the minutes a full multiplier would have cost.
+ *
+ * Below 1× it simply follows the multiplier: somebody asking for everything faster means the phases
+ * too.
+ */
+function phaseSpeed(pace: number): number {
+  return pace <= 1 ? pace : 1 + (pace - 1) / 3;
+}
+
 /**
  * How long to show one STEP — the form the queue actually uses.
  *
@@ -204,7 +226,7 @@ export function dwellForStep(
    * The phase still gets its beat (TODO #18) — it just does not get longer because somebody wanted
    * to watch a bot shunt cars.
    */
-  const speed = step.player === null ? 1 : pace;
+  const speed = step.player === null ? phaseSpeed(pace) : pace;
   if (step.lines.length > 0) return dwellFor(step.cause, speed);
   /**
    * A SILENT STEP EARNS A BEAT ONLY WHEN THE CLOCK TURNED OVER — which is TODO #18 exactly: "give

src/sim/view.ts

@@ -1791,6 +1791,23 @@ export function snapshot(
 
 /** A card id turned into something a person can read. */
 export function cardName(s: GameState, id: string): string {
+  /**
+   * A SCHEDULED TRAIN IS IN THE SALVAGE YARD UNDER A SYNTHETIC ID, and without this the pile that is
+   * supposed to be face up reads "a card".
+   *
+   * `trainScheduled` pushes `train-<number>` rather than the id of the card that was played
+   * (`apply.ts`), so there is nothing in `s.cards` to look up — and since a train is scheduled
+   * several times a Day, that synthetic id is on top of the Salvage Yard most of the time. Reported
+   * by Jesse 2026-09-10 as "why is salvage deck not face up. I should see the card played onto
+   * salvage": it was face up all along and simply had nothing to say.
+   *
+   * Resolved here rather than in the engine because this is a NAME, which is this file's job. Whether
+   * the engine should be pushing a real card id instead is a separate question with a separate
+   * consequence — the Salvage Yard is swept back into the draw deck when it runs out — and is filed
+   * rather than answered in passing.
+   */
+  const scheduled = /^train-(\d+)$/.exec(id);
+  if (scheduled) return `Train ${scheduled[1]}`;
   const k = s.cards.get(id)?.kind;
   if (!k) return 'a card';
   switch (k.kind) {

test/pacing.test.ts

@@ -170,23 +170,41 @@ describe('pacing — dwell by kind', () => {
     );
   });
 
-  it('the speed control stretches other people, not the clock', () => {
+  it('the speed control stretches the clock at a THIRD of the rate it stretches people', () => {
     /**
-     * Jesse, from a real 5× game: *"after my turn, when I actually execute my turn, I'm still subject
-     * to that same delay before it moves on. That makes no sense."* It was not his move being
-     * replayed — it was the automatic phases behind it, which were scaling with `pace` along with
-     * everything else. Measured over 40 turns, the waiting split almost evenly between other players
-     * and phases turning over, so a 5× game spent 105 seconds on the clock alone.
+     * Two complaints, one from each direction, and the answer is between them.
+     *
+     * v0.8.0.3, from a 5× game: *"after my turn … I'm still subject to that same delay before it
+     * moves on. That makes no sense."* — phases were scaling with everything else and walling off a
+     * player's own turn. So they were pinned at their tabled beat.
+     *
+     * v0.8.0.7, from a 10× game: *"phases displayed on the upper line go by too quickly still.
+     * Should be 4 times as long — at a guess."* — pinned was too short to read the caption.
+     *
+     * Damped scaling satisfies both: 1× unchanged, 10× lands exactly on the four-times guess, and
+     * the cost stays bounded because phase beats cluster rather than accumulate.
      */
     const phase = { cause: 'phase' as const, player: null, lines: ['New Train'], frame: { table: { phase: 'newTrain' } } };
     const theirs = { cause: 'switch.move' as const, player: 1, lines: ['moved'], frame: { table: {} } };
-    for (const pace of [1, 3, 5, 7]) {
-      assert.equal(dwellForStep(phase, pace), DWELL.phase, `a phase beat grew at ${pace}x`);
-      assert.equal(dwellForStep(theirs, pace), DWELL.switching * pace);
+
+    assert.equal(dwellForStep(phase, 1), DWELL.phase, '1x must be exactly the tabled beat');
+    assert.equal(dwellForStep(phase, 10), DWELL.phase * 4, '10x must be four times it, as asked for');
+
+    for (const pace of [2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 15, 20]) {
+      const p = dwellForStep(phase, pace);
+      const t = dwellForStep(theirs, pace);
+      assert.ok(p > DWELL.phase, `a phase must grow at ${pace}x`);
+      assert.ok(
+        p < DWELL.phase * pace,
+        `a phase must grow SLOWER than the multiplier at ${pace}x, or the clock walls off the turn`,
+      );
+      assert.ok(t > p, `somebody's move must still outlast a phase beat at ${pace}x`);
     }
-    // Off still means off, for the clock as much as for anybody's move.
+    // Off still means off, for the clock as much as for anybody's move; and below 1x the clock
+    // follows the multiplier straight, because "faster" should mean everything.
     assert.equal(dwellForStep(phase, 0), 0);
     assert.equal(dwellForStep(theirs, 0), 0);
+    assert.equal(dwellForStep(phase, 0.5), DWELL.phase * 0.5);
   });
 
   it('a real switching turn is watchable in a few seconds, not tens of them', () => {

test/web.test.ts

@@ -3647,6 +3647,34 @@ describe('the Day rolling over says so (Gitea#10)', () => {
     );
   });
 
+  it('names the train on top of the Salvage Yard, instead of "a card"', () => {
+    /**
+     * The Salvage Yard is a FACE-UP pile and its tile reads the top card — but `trainScheduled`
+     * pushes a synthetic `train-<number>` id rather than the id of the card that was played
+     * (`apply.ts`), so there was nothing in `s.cards` to look up and the tile said "a card". A train
+     * is scheduled several times a Day, so that id is on top most of the time: the pile was face up
+     * and had nothing to say. Jesse, 2026-09-10: *"why is salvage deck not face up. I should see the
+     * card played onto salvage."*
+     */
+    const s = createEngineGame({
+      id: 'salv',
+      seed: 5,
+      config: {
+        mode: 'competitive', days: 5, minCombinedRevenue: 60,
+        maxCollisionsPerDay: 0, maxCollisionsTotal: 0, pvpCardsAllowed: false,
+        optionalRules: { reducedVisibility: false, employeeRotation: false, emergencyToolbox: false },
+      },
+      playerNames: ['Joe', 'Bot 1'],
+    });
+    s.decks.salvageYard.push('train-13');
+    const f = snapshot(s, [], null);
+    assert.equal(f.salvage.top, 'Train 13', 'a scheduled train on the pile must be named');
+
+    const html = pilesHtml(f);
+    assert.ok(html.includes('Train 13'), `the Salvage tile does not name the train:\n${html}`);
+    assert.equal(html.includes('>a card<'), false, 'the face-up pile still says "a card"');
+  });
+
   it('lights only the pile a watched move touched', () => {
     const s = createEngineGame({
       id: 'piles2',