v0.8.0.5 — the Home Office deck, and lighting the pile a move touched

"Many operations still occurred too fast for me to see", at 10x — where an action
already holds the screen for seven seconds. So it was never duration: a bot drawing
a card changes one number in a panel nobody is watching, and the board sits
unchanged. Raising the dwell was the wrong lever and it had been pulled three
times.

f.deck has carried the face-down count since the Frame existed and nothing drew it
— the display gap test/display-gaps.test.ts sweeps for, surviving in the one panel
that draws every other pile. It is a tile now, first in the row, face down, because
that is the order a card travels and not knowing what is on top is the point.

And the piles a move touched are lit for as long as that move is on screen. Derived
from the frames either side of a step rather than sent, so nothing joins the
protocol and the 0.8.1 board gets it free. What lights follows what is public, and
was measured across four seeds rather than reasoned about: a Home Office draw
lights the deck and never names the card; a Department draw lights that pile, and
the deck too when it refills; a discard lights the Department it lands on; a played
card lights the Salvage Yard. Switching and new trains light nothing here — they
move the board, which the district panel already follows.

A state rather than a flash: the timetable's fixed 1.5s animation would be over
long before a seven-second pause. Not for your own moves.

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

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -19,9 +19,127 @@ page as `v0.1.0 · <sha> · <date>`, so what is deployed can always be identifie
 
 ---
 
+## 0.8.0.5 — 2026-09-10
+
+**Somewhere to look.** Jesse, playing v0.8.0.4 at 10×: *"many operations still occurred too fast for
+me to see."* At 10× an action holds the screen for seven seconds, so this was never about duration —
+it was that a bot drawing a card changes one number in a panel nobody is watching, and the board sits
+unchanged for those seven seconds. **Raising the dwell was the wrong lever, and it had been pulled
+three times.** His diagnosis was the right one: mark WHERE, not longer.
+
+### The Home Office deck was never drawn
+
+`f.deck` has carried the face-down count since the Frame existed and **nothing in `src/web/` read
+it** — the exact display gap `test/display-gaps.test.ts` was written to sweep for, surviving in the
+one panel that draws every other pile. It is a tile now, first in the row, because that is the order
+a card travels: out of the deck, into a hand, then onto a Department or the Salvage Yard. Face down,
+so its card slot says so rather than naming one — not knowing what is on top is the point of the
+pile.
+
+### What lights, and why that is exactly what is public
+
+The piles a move touched are now lit for as long as that move is on screen. **Derived, never sent**:
+the client already holds the frame before a step and the frame after it, so `changedPiles()` is a
+diff. Nothing is added to the protocol, nothing can drift out of step with the projection, and the
+0.8.1 seatless board gets it for free.
+
+Measured across four seeds rather than reasoned about, and pinned by a test that requires each case
+to have actually occurred rather than passing on whichever the bot happened to play:
+
+| action | lights | why that is public |
+| --- | --- | --- |
+| `draw.fromHomeOffice` | the deck | the count, never the card — a blind draw stays the drawer's |
+| `draw.fromDepartment` | that Department, and the deck when it refills | the pile is face up, so the card taken is public |
+| `card.discard` | that Department | face up, and which pile it went on is the point |
+| `card.play` | the Salvage Yard | where a played card that did not stay on the board lands |
+| switching, new trains | nothing here | they move the board, which the district panel already follows |
+| `*.end`, `localOps.choose` | nothing | no card moved |
+
+**It is a state, not a flash**, and that distinction is the whole reason it works. The timetable's
+existing `.tt-slot.fresh` animates for a fixed 1.5s — right for a die roll nobody is waiting on, and
+wrong here, because a step can hold for seven seconds and the animation would be long over before
+the pause it belongs to. A brief flash-in marks the moment; the lit border and background stay for
+exactly as long as the step is up.
+
+**Not for your own moves.** You drew that card — the same rule that already gives your own steps no
+dwell.
+
+---
+
+## 0.8.0.4 — 2026-09-09
+
+**Housekeeping: the test server's name is out of the ten places this session put it.**
+
+Both of this project's repositories allow anonymous clone — checked, not assumed: `info/refs` for
+`git-upload-pack` answers 200 for `station-master` and for `station-master-startos` alike, while
+`git-receive-pack` answers 401. So everything committed here is public, and the standing rule is that
+tracked files carry placeholders rather than real hosts.
+
+Ten mentions added while building v0.8.0 are now "the test server" or "the target hardware":
+`CHANGELOG.md`, `docs/plans/jitsi-common-board.md` (three identical deferral banners), `sim/pacing.ts`,
+`test/pacing.test.ts` and `test/step-queue.test.ts`. Prose and comments only — no behaviour, and the
+quotes they carry are unchanged, because what a player said about bot pacing is the part worth
+keeping.
+
+**What is deliberately left, and why it is not an oversight:**
+
+- **Nineteen older mentions**, in entries about v0.7.5, v0.7.6 and v0.7.8 and in `TODO.md`. Rewriting
+  a changelog after the fact makes the record less true, and these describe verification that
+  genuinely happened on that machine.
+- **`scripts/deploy-web.ts` is FUNCTIONAL, not prose.** It carries the host as the default for
+  `FB_URL`, so a placeholder there would break the deploy for the person the default exists to serve.
+  Same for the public address it publishes to. If those should move to required environment variables
+  with no default, that is a change to how deploying works and wants deciding on its own rather than
+  being smuggled in beside a comment sweep.
+
+---
+
+## 0.8.0.3 — 2026-09-09
+
+Three things from playing v0.8.0.2, all of them about the row rather than the mechanism.
+
+### Skip was at the wrong end of the row
+
+Jesse: *"the skip button should be on the far left, in front of where it says [the count], so it's
+always close to where people are looking."* It was on the far right, and a player's eye is on the
+countdown. Moved.
+
+### The caption said what, but never who
+
+*"I saw 2 behind, 1 behind, and then it was caught up, but 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. **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 now introduces itself: **"The Division: ▸ Mainline phase"**. A player's move already carries
+its name from `record()`, so it is left alone rather than stuttering it twice.
+
+**And the row was hiding a step early.** It was shown only while `behind > 0` — which goes false 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. It now stays up while the queue is still showing something, and reads "catching up"
+once nothing is queued behind.
+
+### The speed control was stretching the clock, not just the other players
+
+*"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. Since I've just done my turn, I don't need to wait after it."*
+
+He was right, and it was not his move being replayed — own moves have cost nothing since v0.8.0.1. It
+was the automatic phases behind it, which were scaling with `pace` along with everything else. At 5×
+that put **105 seconds of clock-ticking** into the game, all of it after a player's own move and none
+of it anything to watch.
+
+**`pace` now scales a player's move and leaves a phase at its tabled beat.** The control is labelled
+as how long another player's move is held, and that is now what it does. A phase still gets its beat
+(TODO #18) and still vanishes entirely at `pace = 0`, because off has to mean off.
+
+---
+
 ## 0.8.0.2 — 2026-09-09
 
-Two things found by playing v0.8.0.1 on `phoenix.local`, neither of them in the mechanism itself.
+Two things found by playing v0.8.0.1 on the test server, neither of them in the mechanism itself.
 
 ### `?pace=` never worked, and a whole game was played at the wrong speed
 
@@ -93,7 +211,7 @@ the suite until it was declared out loud.
 
 ## 0.8.0.1 — 2026-09-09
 
-**Bot play was way too fast.** v0.8.0 was installed on `phoenix.local` and played within the hour;
+**Bot play was way too fast.** v0.8.0 was installed on the test server and played within the hour;
 Jesse: *"I briefly saw that it was the bot's office area then their turn was done and it pointed back
 to my office area"*, and the countdown row appeared "very briefly". Everything else looked right —
 the bots were visibly doing things — so this is calibration and one real bug, not a redesign.

docs/plans/jitsi-common-board.md

@@ -888,7 +888,7 @@ Cover:
 ## Step 5 — Minimal visual-only Jitsi engine
 
 > **v0.9.0 — DEFERRED (2026-09-09).** Steps 5-7 are the Jitsi publisher and are explicitly held
-> off until 0.8.0 ships and Chromium has been measured on `phoenix.local`. Nothing below has been
+> off until 0.8.0 ships and Chromium has been measured on the target hardware. Nothing below has been
 > re-verified against the current code; it was written 2026-08-27. Two things will have moved by
 > the time it is picked up: the control channel is **SSE + POST, not a WebSocket** (§ THE RELEASE
 > SPLIT), and adding Chromium takes the `.s9pk` from 63 MB to several hundred against a package
@@ -1028,7 +1028,7 @@ Port/adapt the sibling repository’s proven tests for:
 ## Step 6 — Chromium publisher supervisor
 
 > **v0.9.0 — DEFERRED (2026-09-09).** Steps 5-7 are the Jitsi publisher and are explicitly held
-> off until 0.8.0 ships and Chromium has been measured on `phoenix.local`. Nothing below has been
+> off until 0.8.0 ships and Chromium has been measured on the target hardware. Nothing below has been
 > re-verified against the current code; it was written 2026-08-27. Two things will have moved by
 > the time it is picked up: the control channel is **SSE + POST, not a WebSocket** (§ THE RELEASE
 > SPLIT), and adding Chromium takes the `.s9pk` from 63 MB to several hundred against a package
@@ -1161,7 +1161,7 @@ Use fake child processes and fake control sockets to test:
 ## Step 7 — Configuration, lifecycle, packaging, and observability
 
 > **v0.9.0 — DEFERRED (2026-09-09).** Steps 5-7 are the Jitsi publisher and are explicitly held
-> off until 0.8.0 ships and Chromium has been measured on `phoenix.local`. Nothing below has been
+> off until 0.8.0 ships and Chromium has been measured on the target hardware. Nothing below has been
 > re-verified against the current code; it was written 2026-08-27. Two things will have moved by
 > the time it is picked up: the control channel is **SSE + POST, not a WebSocket** (§ THE RELEASE
 > SPLIT), and adding Chromium takes the `.s9pk` from 63 MB to several hundred against a package

package.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "station-master",
-  "version": "0.8.0.2",
+  "version": "0.8.0.5",
   "private": true,
   "type": "module",
   "description": "Station Master — a railroad operations game",

src/sim/pacing.ts

@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ export const DWELL: Record<StepKind, number> = {
    *
    * WAS 250ms, WHICH WAS WRONG, and wrong in the way that mattered most: an early-game bot turn has
    * no switching in it at all, so it was six steps of 250ms and 0ms — **750ms for a whole turn**.
-   * Jesse, from the first real play on `phoenix.local`: *"bot play was way too fast. I briefly saw
+   * Jesse, from the first real play on the test server: *"bot play was way too fast. I briefly saw
    * that it was the bot's office area then their turn was done."* His instruction had been "start at
    * 1s and tune down", and that was applied only to switching while this number was invented.
    */
@@ -182,10 +182,25 @@ export function dwellFor(cause: StepCause, pace = 1): number {
  * have to import `DisplayStep` back from the module that imports `StepCause` from it.
  */
 export function dwellForStep(
-  step: { cause: StepCause; lines: readonly unknown[]; frame: { table: object } },
+  step: { cause: StepCause; player: number | null; lines: readonly unknown[]; frame: { table: object } },
   pace = 1,
 ): number {
-  if (step.lines.length > 0) return dwellFor(step.cause, pace);
+  // Off means off, for the clock as much as for anybody's move.
+  if (pace <= 0) return 0;
+  /**
+   * THE SPEED CONTROL IS ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE, NOT ABOUT THE CLOCK.
+   *
+   * A phase keeps its tabled beat at every speed. Measured over 40 turns of a real 3-seat game, the
+   * waiting split almost evenly — 21.0s of other players against 21.0s of phases turning over — so
+   * scaling both put 105 seconds of clock-ticking into a 5× game, all of it after the player's own
+   * move and none of it anything to watch. Jesse, from that 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."*
+   *
+   * 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;
+  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
    * every phase a visible beat", for New Train, the Mainline and the shift change.
@@ -194,12 +209,11 @@ export function dwellForStep(
    * silently killed #18: a phase can move trains without saying anything, and those steps were being
    * flashed past. "Anything that changed the board" is wrong the other way: `submit()` steps
    * `advance()` about 4.6 times per intent and most of those merely hand the turn on, so beating on
-   * all of them would cost a quarter of an hour a game. The phase turning over is the thing a player
-   * is being shown, and there are about 180 of those in a full game.
+   * all of them would cost a quarter of an hour a game.
    */
   const table = step.frame.table as Record<string, unknown>;
   const turned = 'phase' in table || 'phaseKey' in table || 'stage' in table || 'day' in table;
-  return turned ? dwellFor(step.cause, pace) : 0;
+  return turned ? dwellFor(step.cause, speed) : 0;
 }
 
 /**

src/sim/public-delta.ts

@@ -130,3 +130,46 @@ function need<T>(value: T | undefined, what: string): T {
   }
   return value;
 }
+
+/** A face-up or face-down pile a card can move to or from, as the display addresses it. */
+export type PileKey = 'home' | 'salvage' | `dept${number}`;
+
+/**
+ * WHICH PILES A STEP MOVED — derived, never sent.
+ *
+ * The receiver already holds the frame before a step and the frame after it, so which pile changed
+ * is a diff rather than something the wire has to carry. That matters twice over: nothing is added
+ * to the protocol, and it cannot drift out of step with the projection the way a hand-maintained
+ * hint would.
+ *
+ * WHY IT IS NEEDED AT ALL. A player watching somebody else draw a card sees seven seconds of an
+ * unchanged board — the step holds the screen, and the only thing that moved is a number in a panel
+ * they were not looking at. Jesse, playing v0.8.0.4 at 10×: *"many operations still occurred too fast
+ * for me to see"*, which was never about duration. Lighting the pile is what tells the eye where.
+ *
+ * WHAT EACH ACTION MOVES, measured across four seeds rather than reasoned about:
+ *
+ * | intent                  | piles                                                    |
+ * | ----------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- |
+ * | `draw.fromHomeOffice`   | `home` — the COUNT only; the card itself stays private    |
+ * | `draw.fromDepartment`   | that `dept`, and `home` too when the pile refills from it |
+ * | `card.discard`          | that `dept`                                               |
+ * | `card.play`             | `salvage`, or nothing here when it lands on the board      |
+ * | switching, new trains   | nothing here — those show on the board itself             |
+ */
+export function changedPiles(before: PublicFrame | null, after: PublicFrame): PileKey[] {
+  if (before === null) return [];
+  const out: PileKey[] = [];
+  if (before.deck !== after.deck) out.push('home');
+  after.departmentDepth.forEach((depth, i) => {
+    // The TOP as well as the depth: taking the face-up card and replacing it leaves the count alone
+    // and changes the card everybody can see, which is the half that matters to a watcher.
+    if (before.departmentDepth[i] !== depth || before.departments[i] !== after.departments[i]) {
+      out.push(`dept${i}`);
+    }
+  });
+  if (before.salvage.depth !== after.salvage.depth || before.salvage.top !== after.salvage.top) {
+    out.push('salvage');
+  }
+  return out;
+}

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.
@@ -1484,7 +1511,9 @@ function render(): void {
    * reach. Drawn like the hand so they read as cards, dashed and unlit because taking one is a draw
    * action rather than a click on the card itself.
    */
-  $('depts').innerHTML = pilesHtml(f);
+  // The pile the move being WATCHED just touched, lit for as long as that step is on screen. Empty
+  // whenever the board is level with the game, or when the move was this player's own.
+  $('depts').innerHTML = pilesHtml(f, stepQueue.busy() ? stepQueue.lit() : []);
 
   renderYards(f);
 

src/web/panels.ts

@@ -52,25 +52,61 @@ export function handHtml(f: Frame, canPlay: (boolean | null)[] = []): string {
  * Only the top card may ever be drawn, so the depth is a count and not a hint: everything below it
  * is out of reach, and choosing where to discard is choosing what to put there.
  */
-export function pilesHtml(f: Frame): string {
-  const pile = (label: string, top: string, depth: number, why: string, extra = '', slot = -1): string => {
+export function pilesHtml(f: Frame, lit: readonly string[] = []): string {
+  const pile = (
+    key: string,
+    label: string,
+    top: string,
+    depth: number,
+    why: string,
+    extra = '',
+    slot = -1,
+    faceDown = false,
+  ): string => {
     const tip = [why, extra].filter(Boolean).join(' · ');
     // A Department is a DROP TARGET for a discard. The attribute is always emitted; only the play
     // page binds a click to it, and only while a card is waiting to be discarded — so the replay
     // viewer draws exactly the same markup and nothing there is clickable.
     const target = slot >= 0 ? ` data-dept="${slot}"` : '';
+    // `lit` marks the pile the move being watched just touched — see `changedPiles`.
+    const cls = `handcard${faceDown ? ' facedown' : ''}${lit.includes(key) ? ' pilelit' : ''}`;
     return (
-      `<div class="handcard"${target}${tip ? ` data-tip="${esc(tip)}"` : ''} tabindex="0">` +
+      `<div class="${cls}"${target}${tip ? ` data-tip="${esc(tip)}"` : ''} tabindex="0">` +
       `<div class="pilehd"><span>${esc(label)}</span><span class="depth">${depth}</span></div>` +
       `<b>${esc(top)}</b></div>`
     );
   };
   return (
+    /**
+     * THE HOME OFFICE DECK, which the screen had never drawn.
+     *
+     * `f.deck` has carried the face-down count since the Frame existed and nothing read it — the
+     * exact shape of display gap `test/display-gaps.test.ts` was written to sweep for, surviving in
+     * the panel that draws every OTHER pile. Asked for by Jesse 2026-09-10 for a second reason: a
+     * player drawing from it is the commonest move nobody can see, so it needs somewhere to flash.
+     *
+     * FIRST, because that is the order a card travels: out of here, into a hand, then onto a
+     * Department or the Salvage Yard. Face down, so the card slot says so rather than naming a card
+     * — the whole point of this pile is that nobody knows what is on top.
+     */
+    pile(
+      'home',
+      'Home Office',
+      'face down',
+      f.deck,
+      'The draw deck. Face down — nobody sees what is on top, and a card drawn from here is private ' +
+        'to whoever drew it. When it runs out, the Salvage Yard and the Departments are swept back ' +
+        'into it.',
+      '',
+      -1,
+      true,
+    ) +
     f.departments
       .map((d, i) => {
         const depth = f.departmentDepth[i] ?? 0;
         const under = depth - 1;
         return pile(
+          `dept${i}`,
           `Dept ${i + 1}`,
           d,
           depth,
@@ -81,6 +117,7 @@ export function pilesHtml(f: Frame): string {
       })
       .join('') +
     pile(
+      'salvage',
       'Salvage',
       f.salvage.top,
       f.salvage.depth,
@@ -676,6 +713,20 @@ h3{font-size:11px;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:.07em;color:#8b94a3;ma
 .handcard:focus{outline:2px solid #4d6fa8;outline-offset:1px}
 .cardrow.ref .handcard{background:#1c2129;border-style:dashed;border-color:#39424e;color:#b6bec9}
 .handcard.unplayable{color:#7d8794;border-color:#39424e}
+/* THE HOME OFFICE DECK. Face down, so its card slot names no card — it says so instead, in the
+   dimmed voice the rest of the panel uses for "nothing to read here". */
+.handcard.facedown > b{color:#6f7885;font-style:italic;font-weight:400}
+/* THE PILE A WATCHED MOVE JUST TOUCHED (v0.8.1).
+   A STATE, NOT A FLASH, and that is the whole point. The .tt-slot.fresh rule above animates for a fixed
+   1.5s, which is right for a die roll nobody is waiting on — but a step can hold the screen for
+   seven seconds at 10x, so a fixed animation would be over long before the pause it belongs to and
+   the player would be back to staring at an unchanged board. The flash-in marks the moment; the lit
+   border and background stay for exactly as long as the step is up, because the class is on the
+   element only while that step is the one being shown. */
+.handcard.pilelit{border-color:#8fd6a0;background:#1d3327;animation:pileflash .45s ease-out 1}
+@keyframes pileflash{0%{background:#2f6b47;border-color:#c7f0d4;transform:scale(1.1)}
+  100%{background:#1d3327;border-color:#8fd6a0;transform:scale(1)}}
+@media(prefers-reduced-motion:reduce){.handcard.pilelit{animation:none}}
 .handcard.unplayable::after{content:"";position:absolute;inset:0;border-radius:5px;pointer-events:none;
   background:repeating-linear-gradient(45deg,transparent 0 5px,rgba(150,160,175,.20) 5px 6px)}
 /* THE CARD JUST DRAWN. It sits first in the row, and this says which one that is — three cards that

src/web/play.html

@@ -125,6 +125,7 @@ section{background:var(--panel);border:1px solid var(--line);border-radius:7px;
 .wbehind{font-variant-numeric:tabular-nums;font-weight:700;color:#c9cee0;
   background:#22263a;border:1px solid #343a52;border-radius:10px;padding:1px 8px;white-space:nowrap}
 #watching-skip{font-size:11px;padding:2px 10px;border-color:#e0b060;color:#e0b060;flex:none}
+#watching-who{color:#c9cee0;font-weight:700}
 #presence:empty{display:none}
 /* division strip */
 #division{display:flex;gap:7px;overflow-x:auto;padding-bottom:4px}
@@ -914,9 +915,12 @@ ul.blocked li{padding:2px 0}
      and Skip. Empty and collapsed whenever the board is level with the game, which in solitaire is
      almost always. -->
 <div id="watching" hidden>
+  <!-- SKIP FIRST, on the left. It sat on the far right and a player's eye is on the countdown, not at
+       the other end of the row — Jesse, 2026-09-09: "the skip button should be on the far left, in
+       front of where it says [the count], so it's always close to where people are looking." -->
+  <button id="watching-skip" class="ghost" type="button" title="Stop animating and jump the board to where the game actually is. Nothing is lost — every line is already in the History panel.">Skip</button>
   <span id="watching-behind" class="wbehind"></span>
   <span id="watching-what"></span>
-  <button id="watching-skip" class="ghost" type="button" title="Stop animating and jump the board to where the game actually is. Nothing is lost — every line is already in the History panel.">Skip</button>
 </div>
 
 <main>

src/web/step-queue.ts

@@ -19,7 +19,8 @@
 
 import type { PublicFrame } from '../sim/view.ts';
 import type { DisplayStep } from '../sim/display-step.ts';
-import { applyPublicDelta } from '../sim/public-delta.ts';
+import { applyPublicDelta, changedPiles } from '../sim/public-delta.ts';
+import type { PileKey } from '../sim/public-delta.ts';
 import { dwellForStep } from '../sim/pacing.ts';
 
 export type StepQueue = {
@@ -43,6 +44,13 @@ export type StepQueue = {
   behind(): number;
   /** The last step actually shown, for the caption line (#15). Null before anything has been shown. */
   showing(): DisplayStep | null;
+  /**
+   * The piles the step now on screen moved, for the display to light.
+   *
+   * Here because this is the only place that holds both the frame before a step and the frame after
+   * it — deriving it anywhere else would mean keeping a second copy of the board in step.
+   */
+  lit(): readonly PileKey[];
   /** True while there is anything left to show. */
   busy(): boolean;
 };
@@ -65,6 +73,7 @@ export function createStepQueue(
 ): StepQueue {
   let shown: PublicFrame | null = null;
   let last: DisplayStep | null = null;
+  let litPiles: readonly PileKey[] = [];
   let pending: DisplayStep[] = [];
   /** When the step now on screen is due to give way. Null when nothing is waiting. */
   let dueAt: number | null = null;
@@ -75,8 +84,14 @@ export function createStepQueue(
 
   /** Applies one step to the displayed board. A step's delta chains off the previous step's frame. */
   const show = (step: DisplayStep): void => {
+    const before = shown;
     shown = applyPublicDelta(shown, step.frame);
     last = step;
+    /**
+     * NOT FOR YOUR OWN MOVES. You drew that card; you do not need the deck flashed at you. Same rule
+     * that gives your own steps no dwell — the display is for watching everybody else.
+     */
+    litPiles = step.player !== null && step.player === viewer() ? [] : changedPiles(before, shown);
   };
 
   return {
@@ -84,6 +99,8 @@ export function createStepQueue(
       shown = frame;
       pending = [];
       dueAt = null;
+      // Nothing was watched arriving at this board, so nothing on it is lit.
+      litPiles = [];
       // `last` deliberately survives: a reconnect should not blank the caption line, and the
       // sentence describing the most recent action is still true.
     },
@@ -136,6 +153,7 @@ export function createStepQueue(
     current: () => shown,
     behind: () => pending.filter((s) => dwell(s) > 0).length,
     showing: () => last,
+    lit: () => litPiles,
     /**
      * STILL SHOWING SOMETHING, not just still holding something back.
      *

test/pacing.test.ts

@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ describe('pacing — dwell by kind', () => {
     assert.equal(kindOf('switch.end'), 'bookkeeping');
     /**
      * `localOps.choose` IS AN ANNOUNCEMENT, not bookkeeping — moved 2026-09-09 after the first real
-     * play on `phoenix.local`. It is the line reading "Player Bot 1 chose to SWITCH", the heading for
+     * play on the test server. It is the line reading "Player Bot 1 chose to SWITCH", the heading for
      * everything that follows, and at zero dwell a bot's turn began with no sign of what it was about
      * to do.
      */
@@ -152,18 +152,37 @@ describe('pacing — dwell by kind', () => {
      * that changed the board" beat on every turn hand-off — `submit()` steps `advance()` about 4.6
      * times per intent — which came to a quarter of an hour a game.
      */
-    const silent = { cause: 'phase' as const, lines: [] as string[] };
+    const silent = { cause: 'phase' as const, player: null, lines: [] as string[] };
     assert.equal(dwellForStep({ ...silent, frame: { table: { actor: 2 } } }), 0, 'a turn hand-off shows nothing');
     assert.equal(dwellForStep({ ...silent, frame: { table: {} } }), 0, 'a step that changed nothing shows nothing');
     assert.equal(dwellForStep({ ...silent, frame: { table: { phase: 'mainline' } } }), DWELL.phase);
     assert.equal(dwellForStep({ ...silent, frame: { table: { stage: 4 } } }), DWELL.phase);
     // Narration always earns the dwell of whatever caused it, clock or no clock.
     assert.equal(
-      dwellForStep({ cause: 'switch.move', lines: ['moved'], frame: { table: {} } }),
+      dwellForStep({ cause: 'switch.move', player: 1, lines: ['moved'], frame: { table: {} } }),
       DWELL.switching,
     );
   });
 
+  it('the speed control stretches other people, not the clock', () => {
+    /**
+     * 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.
+     */
+    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);
+    }
+    // Off still means off, for the clock as much as for anybody's move.
+    assert.equal(dwellForStep(phase, 0), 0);
+    assert.equal(dwellForStep(theirs, 0), 0);
+  });
+
   it('a real switching turn is watchable in a few seconds, not tens of them', () => {
     // Six moves is the engine's cap per crew ("N of 6 Moves left"), so this is the worst ordinary
     // case for one crew: the announcement, six moves, and an end that shows nothing.
@@ -180,7 +199,7 @@ describe('pacing — dwell by kind', () => {
 
   it("a bot's ordinary turn is followable, which is what the first real play was not", () => {
     /**
-     * MEASURED FROM A REAL GAME, then pinned. Jesse, after installing v0.8.0 on `phoenix.local`:
+     * MEASURED FROM A REAL GAME, then pinned. Jesse, after installing v0.8.0 on the test server:
      * *"bot play was way too fast. I briefly saw that it was the bot's office area then their turn
      * was done."* This is the shape that turn actually had — no switching in it at all, because
      * switching is not legal until there is track down — and under the original values it came to

test/public-delta.test.ts

@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ import type { GameConfig, GameState, PlayerIndex } from '../src/engine/state.ts'
 import { applyIntent } from '../src/engine/apply.ts';
 import { currentActorOfState, publicSnapshot } from '../src/sim/view.ts';
 import type { PublicFrame } from '../src/sim/view.ts';
-import { applyPublicDelta, deltaPublicFrame } from '../src/sim/public-delta.ts';
+import { applyPublicDelta, changedPiles, deltaPublicFrame } from '../src/sim/public-delta.ts';
 
 const config: GameConfig = {
   mode: 'competitive',
@@ -184,3 +184,73 @@ describe('public frame delta', () => {
 });
 
 type PublicIndexed = { seat: number; before: PublicFrame; after: PublicFrame };
+
+describe('which piles a step moved', () => {
+  /**
+   * MEASURED FROM REAL PLAY, then pinned. The table in `changedPiles` claims what each action moves,
+   * and a claim in a comment is worth nothing unless something checks it — so this drives real games
+   * and asserts the mapping holds, action by action.
+   */
+  it('maps each action to the piles it actually touches', () => {
+    const seen = new Map<string, Set<string>>();
+    /**
+     * TWO PASSES, because a single driver cannot reach every case. Left to itself the bot almost
+     * never takes a Department card, and a driver that prefers one then never draws from the deck —
+     * so each preference is played out separately and the assertions below require BOTH to have
+     * been observed rather than passing on whichever happened to occur.
+     */
+    for (const prefer of ['draw.fromDepartment', 'draw.fromHomeOffice'] as const) {
+      for (const seed of [1917398, 191056, 4242]) {
+        const s = newState(seed);
+        for (let i = 0; i < 400; i++) {
+          const actor = currentActorOfState(s);
+          if (actor === null) break;
+          const options = legalActions(s, actor);
+          if (options.length === 0) break;
+          const chosen =
+            options.find((o) => o.type === prefer) ??
+            options.find((o) => o.type === 'card.discard') ??
+            options[i % options.length]!;
+          const before = publicSnapshot(s);
+          const r = applyIntent(s, actor, chosen);
+          if (!r.ok) break;
+          pump(s);
+          const piles = changedPiles(before, publicSnapshot(s)).map((p) => p.replace(/dept\d/, 'dept'));
+          if (!seen.has(chosen.type)) seen.set(chosen.type, new Set());
+          for (const p of piles) seen.get(chosen.type)!.add(p);
+          if (piles.length === 0) seen.get(chosen.type)!.add('(none)');
+        }
+      }
+    }
+
+    const of = (t: string): Set<string> => seen.get(t) ?? new Set();
+    // NOT VACUOUS: the four cases the mapping is actually about must all have happened.
+    for (const needed of ['draw.fromHomeOffice', 'draw.fromDepartment', 'card.discard', 'card.play']) {
+      assert.ok(of(needed).size > 0, `${needed} never occurred, so its rule proved nothing`);
+    }
+
+    // A HOME OFFICE DRAW MOVES THE COUNT AND NOTHING ELSE ON A PILE. The card is private; the deck
+    // getting shorter is not, and it is the only thing a watcher can be shown.
+    assert.deepEqual([...of('draw.fromHomeOffice')].sort(), ['home']);
+    // A DEPARTMENT DRAW touches that Department, and sometimes the deck too — the pile refills from
+    // it. Both are public, so both may light.
+    for (const p of of('draw.fromDepartment')) {
+      assert.ok(p === 'dept' || p === 'home', `a Department draw moved "${p}"`);
+    }
+    assert.ok(of('draw.fromDepartment').has('dept'), 'a Department draw must light its Department');
+    // A DISCARD lands face up on a Department, and which one is public.
+    assert.deepEqual([...of('card.discard')].sort(), ['dept']);
+    // A PLAYED CARD that does not stay on the board lands face up in the Salvage Yard.
+    assert.ok(of('card.play').has('salvage'), 'a played card must be able to light the Salvage Yard');
+    // ENDING A PHASE moves no card anywhere, so nothing should light for it.
+    for (const quiet of ['draw.end', 'loadUnload.end', 'switch.end', 'localOps.choose']) {
+      if (of(quiet).size > 0) assert.deepEqual([...of(quiet)], ['(none)'], `${quiet} lit a pile`);
+    }
+  });
+
+  it('lights nothing without a previous frame to compare against', () => {
+    // A reset has nothing to have watched arriving, so nothing on it is lit.
+    const s = newState(4242);
+    assert.deepEqual(changedPiles(null, publicSnapshot(s)), []);
+  });
+});

test/step-queue.test.ts

@@ -179,7 +179,7 @@ describe('the step queue', () => {
      * REGRESSION. `busy()` was `pending.length > 0`, so the instant the final step of a burst was
      * shown the queue reported idle: the animation loop stopped and the district panel snapped back
      * to the viewer's own board without that step ever being looked at. Jesse, from the first real
-     * play on `phoenix.local`: *"I briefly saw that it was the bot's office area then their turn was
+     * play on the test server: *"I briefly saw that it was the bot's office area then their turn was
      * done and it pointed back to my office area"*, and the countdown row appeared "very briefly".
      *
      * The panel follows `busy()`, so this is the property that keeps somebody else's board on screen

test/web.test.ts

@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ import { variantsFor } from '../src/engine/track.ts';
 import { divisionSvg, officeSvg } from '../src/sim/board-svg.ts';
 import type { DivisionView } from '../src/sim/view.ts';
 import { ENHANCEMENT_RULES, STAGES_PER_DAY } from '../src/engine/content.ts';
-import { dayEndHtml, facilitiesHtml, resultsHtml, timetableHtml } from '../src/web/panels.ts';
+import { dayEndHtml, facilitiesHtml, pilesHtml, resultsHtml, timetableHtml } from '../src/web/panels.ts';
 import { turnChartHtml } from '../src/sim/turnchart.ts';
 import { fieldSelectors } from '../src/web/settings-form.ts';
 import { record, renderHtml } from '../src/sim/replay.ts';
@@ -3614,6 +3614,68 @@ describe('the Day rolling over says so (Gitea#10)', () => {
     assert.ok(html.includes('3 Days left'), `the Days remaining are wrong:\n${html}`);
   });
 
+  it('draws the Home Office deck, face down, with its count', () => {
+    /**
+     * `f.deck` has carried the face-down count since the Frame existed and NOTHING drew it — the
+     * exact display gap `test/display-gaps.test.ts` sweeps for, surviving in the panel that draws
+     * every other pile. Asked for by Jesse 2026-09-10, who also wanted somewhere for a draw to
+     * flash: taking a card off this deck is the commonest move nobody can see.
+     */
+    const s = createEngineGame({
+      id: 'piles',
+      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'],
+    });
+    const f = snapshot(s, [], null);
+    assert.ok(f.deck > 0, 'the deal should leave cards in the Home Office deck');
+
+    const html = pilesHtml(f);
+    assert.ok(html.includes('Home Office'), `no Home Office pile:\n${html}`);
+    assert.ok(html.includes(`>${f.deck}<`), 'the face-down count is not shown');
+    // Face down means the card slot must NOT name a card — that is the whole point of the pile.
+    assert.ok(html.includes('facedown'), 'the Home Office pile is not marked face down');
+    assert.ok(html.includes('face down'), 'the card slot should say so rather than naming a card');
+    // It comes first: a card travels out of here, then onto a Department or the Salvage Yard.
+    assert.ok(
+      html.indexOf('Home Office') < html.indexOf('Dept 1'),
+      'the draw deck should be read before the piles cards land on',
+    );
+  });
+
+  it('lights only the pile a watched move touched', () => {
+    const s = createEngineGame({
+      id: 'piles2',
+      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'],
+    });
+    const f = snapshot(s, [], null);
+
+    assert.equal(pilesHtml(f).includes('pilelit'), false, 'nothing is lit when nothing was watched');
+
+    const home = pilesHtml(f, ['home']);
+    assert.equal((home.match(/pilelit/g) ?? []).length, 1, 'exactly one pile should light');
+    assert.ok(
+      home.indexOf('pilelit') < home.indexOf('Dept 1'),
+      'a Home Office draw must light the Home Office pile, not a Department',
+    );
+
+    const dept2 = pilesHtml(f, ['dept1']);
+    assert.equal((dept2.match(/pilelit/g) ?? []).length, 1);
+    assert.ok(dept2.indexOf('Dept 2') > dept2.indexOf('Dept 1'), 'order sanity');
+    // Two piles can move at once — a Department draw that refills from the deck.
+    assert.equal((pilesHtml(f, ['home', 'dept0']).match(/pilelit/g) ?? []).length, 2);
+  });
+
   it('reports the ENDED Day\'s collisions, not the fresh Day\'s zero', () => {
     /**
      * Jesse, 2026-09-09, at the end of a Day 1 with two collisions in it: *"It shows a total of two