Add siegeFreezesDefense mechanic (default true) that stops a colony's
passive defenseHp trickle and blocks defensive building completion at the
front of the build queue while a hostile warship fleet is present.
This fixes the recurring "Under Attack" notification loop reported by Brian
where defenseHp would regenerate each turn, re-arming the pendingBattlesFor
gate and triggering fresh popup notices for an already-beaten colony.
Also adds an AI dispatch throttle in manageFleets: idle fleets no longer
open redundant attack orders against colonies the empire already holds orbit
over with defenseHp beaten to 0. Excluded fleets fall through to rally logic
and naturally join the existing siege or find a fresh front.
New helpers: isDefensiveBuildingId, isHostileWarshipFleet, hasHostileWarshipFleet
— shared across processColony, pendingBattlesFor, and VegaAI to ensure a
single definition of "under active siege".
Includes tests (sections 5d, 5e) covering regen freeze, build queue freeze,
siegeFreezesDefense=false toggle, and AI throttle.
- **Visual Feedback**: Introduce VegaBombardScreen.js — a two-stage popup for
bombard/invasion results featuring JIT-loaded videos (per planet type or
invading species) and animated stat bars showing population, factory, and
building losses.
- **Expanded Consequences**: Factory and building destruction now scale with
the population kill ratio. On colony wipeout, weapon Mark gates planetary
ruin/ruination (toxic/radiated/dead/asteroids) via a weighted probability table.
- **AI & Tactics**: Ursaal now queue troop transports alongside warships for
invasion fleets. Added `bombardHoldFireChance` trait (0–1) to let species
defer bombing when invasion troops are staged, preserving intact colonies
without creating fortress-world stalemates.
- **Battle Logic Fixes**: Correct `prepareBattleAt` and `pendingBattlesFor` to
properly handle stars with multiple colonies, ignore transport-only fleets,
and suppress pending battles when planetary defenses are depleted.
- **UI/Reporting**: Wire player-initiated and AI-initiated attacks into the
new popup queue. Add `bombard` and `invasionFailed` to notable turn report
events with detailed outcome descriptions.
- **Testing & Tooling**: Add comprehensive verification tests for planet
destruction distribution, building damage rates, hold-fire chances, and
battle edge cases. Expose `window.game` for devtools debugging.
- Replace flat planetDefenseBase (20) with proportional planetDefenseScale
(0.06), so colony defense damage scales purely with current defenseHp.
A near-depleted colony now barely scratches attackers, while a fully
tech'd one still tops out ~110 damage — fixing "attacked with the
strength of a much-better-defended planet" (Brian, 2026-08-14).
- Add AI war memory: track consecutive losses per enemy and escalate
attackMultiplier up to 3x so repeated losing attacks stop dribbling
small fleets. A win resets the streak. Prevents permanent phoney wars
where both sides build to equal strength and nothing moves.
- Show "Under Attack" notice (one-button, no formation picker) when AI
attacks the player, since formation choice is meaningless for defense.
- Add planetary beam fire SFX for combat view.
- Add event `seq` cursor for war memory to survive event list trimming.
- Full test coverage for planet damage formula and AI escalation behavior.
- Add leader detail pop-over (VegaLeaderDetail.js) with portrait, bio, and
current posting bonuses displayed in fleet and colony views
- Add leader portrait click-to-zoom in the Leaders screen
- Add leader skill summary formatting (leaderSkillSummary) for readable
bonus descriptions across UI components
- Integrate leader skills into espionage power/defense and invasion attack
calculations in VegaLogic.js
- Cap bombard() at once per (attacker, colony) per turn via lastBombardTurn
tracking; fixes UI double-click and AI double-bombard bugs
- Contact-gate GNN breakthrough stories and ranking charts on first contact,
matching existing rankingRows behavior
- Round population displays throughout the UI (toFixed(1) → Math.round)
for cleaner presentation
- Bump colony ship and transport base costs in rules data
- Add leaders.png artwork reference to mastervega-artwork.json
- Add tests for bombard cap and GNN contact-gating in verifyMasterOfVega.js
- Add "peace request" diplomacy: player can ask an AI to end a war with a
third empire, and AIs can ask the player the same. Refusing costs attitude.
Implemented in VegaDiplomacy.js (wouldAcceptPeaceRequest/requestPeace/offerPeaceRequest),
VegaAudience.js (Demand Peace button + war picker), and full chat lines for
all species in VegaChat.js.
- Extract openFormationPicker to VegaScreens.js and wire it into
MasterOfVegaGame.js so the player chooses a formation before every battle.
AI opponents still pick silently.
- Fix Combat V2 planet positioning (fixed at worldWidth * 0.75 instead of
formation-relative), pass typeId for real planet art, and apply the
Planetary Shield building's shieldBonus (was hardcoded to 0).
- Add icon images to research screen tech field headers.
- Add comprehensive tests for peace requests and prepareBattleAt fixes.
Introduce a full-screen, click-advanced ceremony (VegaCouncilSession.js)
that replays runCouncil()'s result delegate-by-delegate instead of hiding
the tally behind the turn-report. Three fixed stages — Roster, Voting,
and Verdict — with a persistent 2:3 portrait anchor video, green-screen
ticker, live scoreboard with animated bars, and sting-then-loop audio.
Key changes:
- VegaLogic.js: expose per-voter `voters` breakdown and `pendingSession`
flag so the UI can replay the session before the victory check.
- MasterOfVegaGame.js: consume `pendingSession` in `runToHumanTurn()`
before `state.over`, ensuring a decisive council still gets its ceremony.
- VegaTurnReport.js: remove `council` from NOTABLE_TYPES (ceremony handles
it); keep `councilRefused` as a distinct war-declaration row.
- assetManifest.js / Sounds.js: register video + sting/loop audio cues.
- VegaScreens.js: add `D.council` depth value.
- verifyMasterOfVega.js: assert voter breakdown consistency and pending
session lifecycle.
Introduce GNN, a galaxy-wide news broadcast feature that reports major
events to the player via a full-screen takeover UI with anchor desk
video, story pages, MOO1-style animated rankings, and a diplomatic
relations reference.
Key changes:
- VegaGnn.js: headless event classification, anchor copywriting, and
ranking logic (Phaser-free, testable in Node)
- VegaGnnScreen.js: full-screen UI with looping anchor video,
green-screen ticker terminal, story renderers (diplomacy/tech/
territory/espionage), animated bar-chart rankings, and relations page
- HUD: new GNN button with unread bullet cue; auto-opens after turns
when stories are pending, on-demand via button
- VegaLogic.js: new `lastColony` event (reduced to single world),
`attacker` field on elimination events, `gnn` state with history
buffer, export empireFleetPower for multi-empire rankings
- VegaColoniesScreen.js: export and generalize createAdvisorTerminal
for reuse by GNN's ticker
- mastervega-rules.json: flag ~16 headline-worthy techs with
gnnHeadline (research-sourced only, not espionage-stolen)
- Assets: eager-load GNN anchor video, sting/loop audio, and populate
all 10 species colony advisor videos in mastervega-artwork.json
- verifyMasterOfVega.js: comprehensive 7b test section covering
classification, consumption, describeGnnStory, anchorLine, attacker
threading, ranking metrics, relationsRows, serialization, and AI soak
- Hulls: frigate turnRateBase 150→340, brakeSeconds 11→1.0 (X-wing agility);
destroyer turnRateBase 100→230, brakeSeconds 2.8→1.35 (midpoint leaning frigate).
- Fix battleship (and all slow hulls) no longer holding position: added
anticipatory retrograde pre-turning in computeShipMove, comparing
worstTurnTime vs timeToRange so the nose begins flipping before braking
range, with urgency-blended facing to avoid "running away" appearance.
(Was accidentally crutched by strong avoidAccel collision avoidance.)
- Fix parked ships coasting indefinitely: velocity now starts from 0 when
hasTask is false instead of carrying residual velocity forever.
- V2 damageMultiplier (2.8): scales weapon raw output before shield
mitigation, V2-only, doesn't touch live engine balance. Shortens battle
duration meaningfully across test scenarios.
- V2 maxDurationSeconds (240) and disengageFraction (0.9): decoupled from
shared rules.combat.maxRounds. Counterintuitively, the old disengage
timer was an implicit duration cap; extending it let genuine fights play
out while damageMultiplier handles the shortening.
- Species-colored beams: VegaCombatViewV2.js now renders beams in a
vibrant, saturation-boosted version of the firing ship's species color,
memoized. Missiles keep fixed orange.
- Mirror-match bias tolerance widened 0.25→0.30 (expected variance cost
of lower TTK from higher damage multiplier).
- Frigate stationary-target check inverted: now asserts it CAN hold
position (alongside battleship/cruiser/destroyer). Added agility ordering
data-integrity checks on hulls block.
Implement continuous velocity vectors (vx/vy) replacing the old
kinematic position clamp. Each hull gets brakeSeconds-derived
linearAccel so stopping distance naturally falls under or over beamRange,
producing battleship hold-position vs frigate strafe-run behaviour
without hull-specific tactic branches.
Key mechanics:
- Thrust magnitude scaled by facing alignment (cos of angle to task
direction), honouring "turn and engage thrusters" without locking
thrust to facing (which caused battleships to never stop).
- GOLDEN_ANGLE-spaced approach points fan out ships sharing a target.
- avoidAccel (60) is a gentle, hull-independent collision avoidance
budget — ships can overlap when objectives require it.
- Target avoidance uses reduced radius (0.35×) so engagement isn't
fought by personal-space calculations.
Data: add brakeSeconds to all hulls, avoidAccel to combatV2 constants.
Verifier: rewrite turn-rate check to time-to-range metric, add hold-vs-
strafe gradient and max-delta-speed checks, relax cloak/singularity to
"doesn't hurt" invariant.
Introduce `VegaCombatV2.js`, a parallel headless combat engine that simulates
individual ships (not stack aggregates) in continuous time rather than discrete
rounds. Ships have per-hull `sizeScale`, `sizeSpeedMult`, and `turnRateBase`
fields; every entity tracks its own cooldown, position, facing, and angular
momentum. Damage and movement are banked per-tick to preserve fairness.
Accompanying files:
- `VegaCombatViewV2.js` — zoomable/pannable Phaser view with parallax starfield
- `VegaCombatCamera.js` — cursor-anchored zoom + drag-to-pan (listener cleanup
on destroy to avoid stacking across battles)
- `VegaFormations.js` — formation strategy plumbing (chosen per side, not yet
read by movement/targeting)
- Hull-specific destroy audio cues and vega buildings art
Wired behind `?movsim`'s Live/V2 toggle in `VegaCombatSim.js` — the live engine
and all real player battles are untouched.
Also fixes several latent bugs discovered during the rewrite:
- Trap 26: simultaneous wipe-out now checks draw before single-side wins
- Trap 27: movement is banked (two-phase) like damage
- Trap 28: weighted-random targeting tames chaotic nearest-neighbour sensitivity
- Trap 29: fleet gap clamped to 85% world width to prevent starvation
- Trap 30: `RANGE_EPS` tolerance prevents steering-induced standoffs
See `docs/mastervega-build-plan.md` for full design notes.
Move vega audio files into assets/fx/vega/ subdirectory and register them via
assetManifest.js. Add weapon and missile sound cues banded by ship Mark, with
staggered playback in VegaCombatView to prevent audio clipping during barrages.
Wire up two previously inert tech effects in combat:
- Stealth Field (cloaked): applies a flat accuracy malus via cloakEvasion rule.
- Black Hole Generator (singularity): adds passive shield pierce via
singularityShieldPierce rule on every weapon fired by the design.
Update tech descriptions, ship detail display, and designFor() to reflect
these effects. Fix a bug where singularity was never copied into the design
object.
Add vega-endturn cue to End Turn / Next Round buttons (no-op when busy),
remove hardcoded audio loads from PreloadScene, and add verification tests
that isolate each flag with A/B battle comparisons.
- Add scaling leader hire costs based on number of leaders already owned (costScalePerOwned: 0.5), making it progressively more expensive to hire multiple leaders and preventing cheap roster stockpiling
- Add leaderHireCost() function in VegaLogic.js to calculate scaled hire costs
- Add unassignLeader() function to allow removing leader assignments
- Update AI in VegaLeaders.js to use dynamic pricing when deciding to hire leaders
- Add research videos for ursaal, kkrix, and mekhan factions
- Enhance leader screen UI with:
- Dynamic cost display reflecting current scaling
- Fleet labeling showing ship composition and location
- Assign/Reassign buttons with list picker for colonies (admins) and fleets (captains)
- Unassign button for posted leaders
- Better location display for assigned leaders
- Add full diplomacy subsystem: tiered gifts (BC payments with diminishing returns), trade agreements (passive BC income, coexists with treaties, cancelled on war), and espionage mission toggles (Off/Steal/Sabotage) in the Audience screen.
- Implement whole-galaxy diplomacy passes: border and fleet proximity tension, fleet intrusion tracking with escalating penalties and force-opened Audience complaints, and "enemy of my enemy" attitude triangulation.
- Update Audience screen UI with new action buttons, gift picker, intelligence toggle, and species-specific chat dialogue for all diplomacy events.
- Add research choice prompts for ambiguous tech frontier picks, surfaced before the turn report.
- Improve star map: Delaunay triangulation for controlled-space range darkness, staggered docked fleet markers, expanded pan slack to clear UI chrome, and zoom-aware colony info labels.
- Backward-compatible save serialization for new diplomacy fields.
- Add comprehensive test coverage for all new logic, chat completeness, and AI soak validation.
- Add 21 new alternate techs across all 6 fields (computers, construction,
forcefields, planetology, propulsion, weapons), using icon frames 78-96
- Set research video paths for human and kestrelli species
- Expand tech sprite sheet from 8 to 10 rows to accommodate new frames
- Add fieldTechLevel() to VegaLogic: displays per-field level as highest
known tier × 5 plus extra known techs below the frontier
- Display field level in research screen headers
- Add verification tests for 3-way branching rungs, fieldTechLevel calculations,
and refine availability roll tests to measure unbranched rungs only
- Add branching tech alternatives across all six fields (computers,
construction, forcefields, planetology, propulsion, weapons). Each
branched tier has 2+ techs sharing the same rung; researching any one
clears the rung while leaving siblings researchable as side-picks.
- Correct racial skill to affect tech COST only (Poor 125%, Average 100%,
Good 80%, Excellent 60%), not availability. Availability is now a flat
50% roll per tech (75% for Cerebrai/psilon analogue), with a safety
net that no branched rung can end up with zero available options.
- Add techRungsByField data structure and rungCleared/canResearch/setResearchTarget
logic so the research screen lets players pick among open rung alternatives
without losing banked beakers.
- Update sprite sheet layout (+1 row, frames 66-77 for new tech icons).
- Add comprehensive verification tests for cost buckets, rung gating,
setResearchTarget behaviour, and statistical availability rates.
Introduce colony naming with a 50-name bank per species, shuffled
per-empire and displayed as defaults in naming prompts. Colony names
now appear across all UI layers (star map, side panel, colony view,
system view) with the astronomical designation as fallback.
Add three pure-flavor conversation topics to diplomacy: "Their People"
(neutral+), "Their Homeworld" (friendly), and "A Story" (friendly).
Each diplomacy-capable species receives unique lore-rich responses
(3 variants each) reflecting their culture, homeworld, and history.
Other changes:
- Switch ursaal videos from generic "human" assets to species-specific
- Widen diplomacy buttons to 200px; add auto-shrink for long labels
- Add ±5 population transport buttons to colony view
- Validate colonyNames (50+ entries, no duplicates)
- Enforce minimum lore variant counts in verification
- Add Colony Transport ('poptransport') hull, dispatched directly in transit
from a Send Population order rather than built from the queue. Shares the
Troop Transport's hull art and uses the colony ship's commander clip.
- Implement VegaLogic sendPopulation/deliverPopulation flow: clamped to
maxSendablePopulation (leaves 0.5 floor), creates poptransport fleet
immediately, auto-delivers on arrival capped at destination max pop.
- Add Send Population button and overlay picker in colony view with
destination list, ETA display, amount dial, and MAX button.
- Log populationSent/populationDelivered events in the turn report.
- Refactor VegaAudience mood visuals to play-once-and-hold-last-frame with
a clickable replay badge, mirroring VegaColonyIntro's video contract.
- Seed human audience mood clips (angry/neutral/happy) into artwork config
as placeholders for all diplomacy-capable species.
- Add verification tests for poptransport mechanics and video aliasing.
- Rewrite contact detection from proximity-based (parsec-range) to
star-scoped: empires now meet by sharing a system (colonies or fleets),
making first-contact a visible event rather than a silent background
check.
- Add full-screen Audience interface (VegaAudience.js) with species-specific
mood videos (or letterboxed portrait fallbacks), a typewriter chat log,
and contextual action buttons. Auto-opens on first contact via a queue
system in MasterOfVegaGame.
- Add VegaChat.js with unique dialogue pools for all 9 diplomacy-capable
species across 18+ situations (first contact, peace/alliance offers,
war declarations, tech trades, accept/reject responses, etc.).
- Introduce held diplomacy offers: AI proposals to the human are queued
(pendingOffers) instead of auto-resolved, with player Accept/Reject
buttons in the Audience screen and automatic expiry after 6 turns.
- Add audienceVideos config and JIT-loading infrastructure in VegaArt.js.
- Add ship videos for kkrix and mekhan species.
- Simplify openDiplomacyScreen to a single "Seek Audience" button.
- Fix colony view to filter out 'starbase' from building display list.
- Add comprehensive verification in tools/verifyMasterOfVega.js for
contact system, held offers, chat completeness, audience videos,
and serialization of new state fields.
- Remove obsolete contactRange rule from mastervega-rules.json.
Introduces Master of Vega, a turn-based 4X strategy game built on MOO1 rules with MOO2 conveniences. The implementation features a fully headless, deterministic engine (VegaLogic) with zero Phaser dependencies, enabling complete Node-based verification (809 checks) and reproducible galaxy generation via mulberry32 RNG.
Key features:
- Preset ship hulls with an auto-refitting Mark system and provably monotonic knapsack loadouts.
- Tactical grid combat with banked damage resolution to eliminate first-strike bias.
- Galactic Council diplomacy, stalemate-breaking, and invasion forecasting.
- Drop-in artwork compatibility with procedural stand-ins for all spritesheets.
- Hireable leaders (admin/captain) and colony building queues.
Architecture splits cleanly into headless modules (GalaxyGen, Logic, AI, Combat, Diplomacy, Ships, Leaders) and a render tier (StarMap, SystemView, CombatView, Screens, Nebula, Art, Fx). A comprehensive build plan documents 19 architectural traps discovered and resolved during development.
Registers the game in the registry, asset manifest, preload scene, and soundtrack service. Includes tools/verifyMasterOfVega.js for automated rule validation, art verification, economy balancing, and AI self-play soaking.
Brian Fertig