- Shrink the roster from 200 to 60 systems and drop spiral arms / core bulge for a uniform-in-area sparse disk (data/galaxy.json)
- Turn the jump network into a pure spanning tree (shortcuts off): exactly one route between any two systems, barren systems become single-gate dead-end leaves
- Remove the rendered Star entity; non-home system centers are now empty space with the star kept only as invisible dossier flavor
- Gate anchors restricted to planets (stations no longer anchor) and every non-barren system guaranteed ≥1 planet so a buildable world always exists
- Give barren dead ends 1–2 asteroid clusters drifting inside their gate's level-1 tether as the stop's only payload
- Bump save format to 2 and reject legacy format-1 saves with a clear toast message
- Update tests, docs, and README to reflect the maze layout, leaf dead ends, empty centers, and new barren cluster rules
- Galaxy shrunk to 200 systems (data/galaxy.json) — always fully known,
generation ~15 ms; roster/content two-level design unchanged.
- Object composition replaces planetCount (data/systems.json → objectCount):
10% barren (jump-gate-only), else 2/3/4/5 objects (planets + free-space
stations) at 15/30/30/15. One unified roll (rollSystemComposition) shared
by the content generator and the frame pass.
- Barren systems: no planets, no stations, no asteroid clusters; their
single gate sits on the star→destination ray at barrenDistance (8192 px).
Strong connectivity keeps them reachable.
- Jump gates are DORMANT by default: every gate record carries
active:false, the entity renders dim with a still field. Activation is
the seam for the tether mechanic (an activated gate anchors a level-1
tether). data/gates.json gains barrenDistance.
- Frame diversity (js/galaxy/PlanetFrames.js): one galaxy-wide pass spreads
(class, frame) across the galaxy — fixed spatial order, least-used face
among already-assigned nearest stars, seeded tie-breaks. Stamps
planet.frame + content.homeFrame, read by GameScene.
- Tests: dev/frames.test.mjs added; jumps/galaxy/discovery/jumpgate/asteroids
suites updated to the new rules (composition buckets, barren gates,
active flags, frame determinism/spread, 5-object max, index clamps).
- Docs (README, PROJECT_NOTES) and stale 40k references updated.
- Introduce the BUILD deck slot on planet surfaces: full-screen BuildWindow
(looping feed video, category tabs, build list, dossier + cost + BUILD
button) backed by pure BuildModel/BuildState rules
- Move tether level 2 from a research effect to a one-off planet build
(200 minerals, 20 s, requires L1 tether on the world); home world starts
with tether-l1 pre-installed as a rule re-asserted after load
- Add `node dev/server.mjs` static server sending Cache-Control: no-store to
stop browsers heuristically caching ES modules (the "new data + old JS" bug)
- Fix world-name casing leak: CommsPanel keeps canonical spelling in the
landing payload; GameScene.startLanding normalizes via WorldNames.canonicalPlanetName
so name-keyed build/tether lookups match
- Add in-game diagnostics (orbitDiag/orbitDiagBrief), dev/build-check.html
self-check page, and Node tests for builds, world names, and save staging
- Persist builds (built records + in-flight remaining time) in the save bank;
tick on the game-loop clock so a build survives takeoff mid-build
- New shared audio voices: js/utils/Sfx.js (playSfxOn/stopSfxOn/sfxPlayingOn)
and js/utils/Music.js (loop voice + shuffle playlist), both with v4 guard
rails (cache.audio.has, stopByKey, isPlaying) so missing assets never throw.
- data/music.json: menu loop, shuffled deep-space soundtrack for GameScene,
and per-world surface loops keyed by planets.png frame; new mp3 assets in
assets/music/.
- data/sfx.json: add ui_hover/ui_click/ui_window/ui_close/mining_loop and a
dedicated scan track; wire UI components (buttons, panels, popups, save
vault) to the shared voice via scene.playSfx seam.
- GameScene: start/stop the shuffle on create/shutdown, stop both soundtrack
and mining hum on 'sleep' (landing launch+sleep) and resume on 'wake';
mining hum loops while beam is live and stops quietly on 'stopped'.
- SurfaceScene: preload and loop the world's track from landing through
takeoff; fix landing frame hand-off to pass sheetFrame instead of the
texture Frame object.
- MenuScene: preload SFX + menu music, start the menu hum in create, stop it
on the 'shutdown' event (v4 never calls shutdown() on transition).
- data/ship.json → stats: hullIntegrity/shields/cargoHold/mineralStorage,
exposed as ship.stats for future combat/trading/mining systems.
- Tests: dev/sfx.test.mjs and dev/music.test.mjs cover the shared voices,
guards, and data contracts; ship-behavior and system-hud tests extended
for base stats and the mining hum lifecycle.
- Replace the no-op `ignorePointer` idiom with a new `setInteractiveEnabled` helper that toggles Phaser v4's `input.enabled`, so hidden/inert UI elements (sub-bar buttons, save cards, scrims, confirm buttons) stop swallowing clicks
- Set explicit depths for the menu sub-bar (60) and save panel (70) so they paint above the command deck, HUD, and world objects as intended
- Add a headless-browser z-order + input-state probe (`dev/zorder-test.*`) that boots the real engine and asserts both paint order and hit-testing behavior across open/close transitions
- Add gas giant landing video asset
- Add sound effects (construct, deconstruct, discovery) with config in data/sfx.json; play on dossier arrival/fold and new-object discovery; silently no-op when disabled or asset missing
- Rework the system dossier into a full lifecycle: open-by-default on arrival, one-shot auto-fold at 10 s, click-to-toggle (name + caret), reverse deconstruction order, state caret that swings with the open/closed state
- Add ScrambleDecode `reverse` mode so lines can deconstruct (value → static → '') for the fold animation
- Reposition the tether readout to bottom-right above the deck's MENU button, right-aligned and bottom-anchored; fall back to left column when the deck is disabled
- Expand decode and system-hud tests to cover reverse decode, the full dossier lifecycle (toggle, auto-fold cancellation, mid-animation guard), tether HUD layout, and SFX wiring
- New `js/utils/Decode.js` with a pure `ScrambleDecode` class plus
`DECODE_CHARS`, `DECODE_DURATION`, and a per-line `decodeDur()` helper,
so one effect serves both scenes.
- MenuScene now delegates its seed scramble to the shared utility instead
of inlining the reveal math and alphabet.
- GameScene's system dossier types itself in on arrival: each line starts
empty and decodes left-to-right, staggered top-to-bottom, with the
timeline anchored on the first update frame; state self-clears once all
lines settle so `update()` pays nothing afterward.
- Add Node dev tests for the shared effect contract (`dev/decode.test.mjs`)
and for the real GameScene dossier decode against actual galaxy/report
data with a stubbed scene (`dev/system-hud.test.mjs`).
- Document both new test commands in the README and update the planets
PSD asset.
- Generate 4–8 rock groups per system with seeded placement, spacing, and slow tumble/drift motion driven by data/asteroids.json
- Add AsteroidCluster entity (Phaser container) with halo, dust motes, per-rock spins, and ship keep-out collision reusing Planet.resolve
- Integrate clusters into GameScene: load spritesheet, constrain ship post-physics, include in click-to-fly/autopilot/discovery/compass
- Synthesise unique cluster names via NameGenerator.asteroid (syllables + field suffix)
- Add dev test suite and ?seed= param for deterministic galaxy generation
Planets and space stations were previously made by stitching a root word to
a kind noun ("Kest Skyspire", "New Natick IV"), which read like labels, not
names. They now draw from deep, hand-picked name BANKS in data/naming.json:
- banks.planet — colonial "New Denver"/"Port Tucson" worlds mixed with
alien "Klaxoria"/"Vexithunhal" worlds (269 names).
- banks.station — official designations ("Deep Space SC-145", "Nav Relay
V-77") mixed with smuggler hangouts ("Hell's Hideout",
"The Rusty Anchor") (165 names).
Assignment is a seeded shuffle of the whole bank (NameGenerator.planetDeck /
stationDeck), dealt out per-system in order, so a system never repeats a
name until the pool is exhausted (impossible at these sizes). The decks come
from dedicated Rng.derive(...) streams, keeping generation order-independent
(lazy === eager). Stars and the galaxy still synthesize from syllable pools
(unbounded), and the home world keeps its configured name.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The galaxy was settled long before the player arrives. Systems now
host colonies on habitable worlds, mining stations over resource
worlds, cloud bases riding gas giants, stations adrift in open
space, and beacons — or report "charted · unclaimed" when empty.
- data/settlements.json: the shared kind vocabulary (label, theme,
population range, anchor type); add a kind = JSON + naming pool.
- Per-archetype rates in data/systems.json (chance + required
planet class) and a core→rim density gradient in data/galaxy.json
(falloff/floor), keyed off each record's new rNorm.
- Draws stay in a stable order on the system's own Rng stream, so
lazy and eager generation still produce identical content.
- Every settlement keeps owner: null, a reserved seam for the
factions/pirates that will claim them later.
- NameGenerator.station() names from anchor + kind ("Kest Skyspire").
- SystemReport.js is a pure, testable formatter (dossier lines,
"charted · unclaimed" for empty); GameScene's HUD renders it and
Node tests cover structure, mix, gradient, naming, lazy === eager.
- Main menu Galaxy Seed panel: displayed, editable, rerollable; the menu
previews what the seed builds (galaxy name, scale, archetypes) before
committing. Same seed always generates the same galaxy.
- js/galaxy/Galaxy.js: seeded roster of 40k systems (disk + core + spiral
arms, type weights, radial bands) with spatial hash for neighbor queries;
contents generated lazily on arrival — identical to eager generateAll()
because each system draws from Rng.derive(seed, 'system', id).
- js/galaxy/SystemGenerator.js + data/systems.json: six themed archetypes
whose attributes (star classes, planet count spread, class weights,
moons, belts, habitability, hazard) steer content generation.
- data/galaxy.json layout/distribution knobs, incl. distribution.rules[]
hook for future proximity/clustering rules; data/naming.json name pools.
- GameScene: current system name/identity HUD (lazy content generation
on arrival); dev boot without a menu falls back to a dev galaxy.
- dev/galaxy.test.mjs: determinism, distribution, bands, lazy==eager,
neighbor brute-force checks (40k roster in ~70ms).
- Docs: world model, determinism rules, roadmap update.
- Boot the game from a static server with no build step (Phaser 4 vendored in lib/)
- Main menu (New Game button) and GameScene where clicking makes the ship fly there
- All tunables live in data/*.json (game/menu/ship), loaded via manifest + Config singleton
- Ship behavior driven by arcade physics (thrust, drag, maxSpeed, arrival) with a Node test harness (dev/ship-behavior.test.mjs) and a dev smoke page that boots straight into GameScene
- Project conventions documented in docs/PROJECT_NOTES.md; README rewritten to describe layout, run instructions, and dev tools
Brian Fertig
Brian Fertig