v0.8.0.3 — Skip on the left, a caption that says who, and a clock that stops

stretching

Three things from playing v0.8.0.2, all about the row rather than the mechanism.

Skip was on the far right and a player's eye is on the countdown. Moved to the
left, in front of the count.

The caption said what but never who. Measured over 40 turns of a real 3-seat game,
half the waiting is automatic phases — 21.0s of phases against 21.7s of other
players — and a phase narrates as "Mainline", which is accurate and no answer at
all to "who am I waiting on". A phase introduces itself now: "The Division:
Mainline phase". A player's move already carries its name from record(), so it is
left alone. The row was also hiding one step early, because it showed only while
behind > 0 — which goes false exactly when the last step of a burst goes up, so the
step most likely to be read lost its caption.

And the speed control was stretching the clock along with the players. It was not
his own move being replayed — own moves have cost nothing since v0.8.0.1 — it was
the phases behind it, which put 105 seconds of clock-ticking into a 5x game. pace
now scales a player's move and leaves a phase at its tabled beat, which is what the
control has always claimed to do. Off still means off for both.

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

src/web/main.ts

@@ -201,17 +201,23 @@ function drainIntoQueue(): void {
  * drawn — from `PublicDistrict`, which `officeSvg` can render as-is because it takes board data and
  * has never needed a private viewer.
  */
-function renderWatching(): void {
+function renderWatching(f?: Frame): void {
   const behind = stepQueue.behind();
   const row = $('watching');
-  // Collapsed whenever the board is level with the game — which in solitaire is nearly always, and
-  // between turns in multiplayer too. A row that is always there would be a row nobody reads.
-  if (behind === 0) {
+  /**
+   * VISIBLE WHILE THE BOARD IS BEHIND **OR** STILL SHOWING SOMETHING.
+   *
+   * It used to hide the moment `behind` hit zero — which is the moment the LAST step of a burst goes
+   * up, so the one step a player was most likely to be reading about lost its caption. Collapsed
+   * otherwise: in solitaire that is nearly always, and between turns in multiplayer too, and a row
+   * that is always there is a row nobody reads.
+   */
+  if (behind === 0 && !stepQueue.busy()) {
     row.hidden = true;
     return;
   }
   row.hidden = false;
-  $('watching-behind').textContent = `${behind} behind`;
+  $('watching-behind').textContent = behind === 0 ? 'catching up' : `${behind} behind`;
   /**
    * THE CAPTION IS #15, and this is where that item lands rather than as a line of its own.
    *
@@ -220,8 +226,29 @@ function renderWatching(): void {
    * The queue IS that, so the caption simply names the step being shown, and the counter beside it
    * says how much of the wait is left.
    */
+  /**
+   * WHO, THEN WHAT — Jesse, 2026-09-09: *"it didn't tell me what the actual action was, like who I
+   * was waiting on or what they were doing. I knew I was behind, but I wasn't sure what I was
+   * supposed to be looking for."*
+   *
+   * The caption was there; it was the wrong half of the sentence. Half the waiting is automatic
+   * phases, whose narration reads "Mainline" — accurate, and no answer at all to "who am I waiting
+   * on". So the name goes first, and a phase says so in as many words rather than leaving the reader
+   * to infer that nobody is acting.
+   *
+   * The narrated line is used as it stands otherwise, because `record()` already prefixes it with the
+   * player — "Player Bot 1 moved Train 3 (−1,−2) → (−1,1)" — so a second name would stutter.
+   */
   const showing = stepQueue.showing();
-  $('watching-what').textContent = showing?.lines[0]?.text ?? '';
+  const said = showing?.lines[0]?.text ?? '';
+  const who =
+    showing === null || showing === undefined
+      ? ''
+      : showing.player === null
+        ? 'The Division'
+        : (f?.players[showing.player]?.name ?? `Seat ${seatLabel(showing.player)}`);
+  // A player action already names its actor; a phase does not, so it is introduced.
+  $('watching-what').textContent = showing?.player === null && said !== '' ? `${who}: ${said}` : said;
   /**
    * SKIP COSTS THE ANIMATION AND NEVER THE INFORMATION.
    *
@@ -1264,7 +1291,7 @@ function render(): void {
 
   renderTurnChart(f);
   renderPresence(f);
-  renderWatching();
+  renderWatching(f);
   $('revenue').textContent = String(f.revenue);
   /**
    * THE OBJECTIVE, WITHOUT THE COMMENTARY.