- Introduce a NEUTRAL-ONLY encounter path: when escorts are live with zero hostiles, the combat seam now carries a `neutral` flag so the scene can swap to a dedicated neutral hum instead of the combat shuffle.
- Fire two new pilot comms once per neutral encounter — `neutralScan` (pilot on screen) and `neutralScanComplete` (first pilot break-off) — via a new `onComm` seam in CombatSystem; hostile-only beats stay silent during neutral encounters.
- Add `neutral` music context to data/music.json with its own shuffle playlist, load it in GameScene, and resume the correct context on wake.
- Ship a `?neutral` dev boot (two pilots, 8 s escort window) for testing the full beat at home, plus tests covering the comm seam, mixed→neutral re-resolution, and data validation.
- The last escort leaving the screen (encounter over without a kill) now calls `_setActive()`, which flips `active` to false and emits `onActiveChange`.
- Previously only kills triggered the flip, so GameScene's deck/soundtrack swap (`_setCombatBar`) never ran on a break-off ending.
- Add a test asserting the `true→false` active flip when the last escort is culled off-screen.
- New EncounterDirector (js/combat/Encounters.js): pure, data-driven clock that rolls pirate / neutral / mixed encounters in neutral non-home systems on a ~45–90s interval at 50–60% chance, one at a time with a 30–60s cooldown, never during a live wave run or on a downed player.
- Neutral ally ships (js/combat/NeutralShip.js) on spritesheet frames 20–27: escort the player for a per-ship 10–15s window, engage the nearest pirate in mixed fights, then break off and fly off-screen; player-safe by construction (never targeted or damaged by ally bolts/seekers).
- Pirate targeting generalized so hostiles can draw aggro onto escorts when the player is out of range; escort and pirate bolts/missiles collide with each other but not the player.
- Group size scales with combat level (1–2 low → 4–5 high, bands in data/combat.json); encounter hostiles are one-shots so the fight ends when the sky clears.
- New 'volley' weapon pattern (wide staggered-speed fan) and owner-tagged bolts/missiles for ally vs enemy routing in Weapons.js.
- Neutral roster config + encounters section added to data/combat.json; EnemyTypes gains neutralTypeConfig/Ids/SheetList.
- Tests: dev/encounters.test.mjs (cadence, gate, weights, size bands), dev/neutral.test.mjs (roster, escort AI, targeting, no friendly fire), plus combat/xp test updates; CDP probes and encounter-hud-check for in-browser HUD verification.
- Raiders now roll an attack comm on-screen (50%) or on rolling-wave arrival (20%), and a defeat comm on kill (20%), driven by per-type config in combat.json
- New bounty-attack comm fires when the wanted leader's fight stands up in GameScene._fireBountyEngagements
- Ship 12 pirate speech clips, 3 enemy video clips, and register three new senders (pirate, pirate_defeat, pirate_bounty) in comms.json
- Wire onComm seam through CombatSystem so the scene can arm CommsHub triggers; rolls are no-ops when the seam is absent
- Add combat, bounty-hunt, and comms test coverage for the new roll logic, trigger arming, asset presence, and roster count
- Enable the `bounty` category in data/sidequests.json with level-2 gate,
Neutral-only contexts, encounter chain odds, and 20 written leader dossiers
- Add pure bounty model to SideQuests.js: plan derivation, wave scripts, XP,
sequential waypoint rule, and completion only via the mark's kill
- Extend combat seam (Waves/CombatSystem/EnemyShip) for a named elite unit
deployed with the opening group at scaled hull/damage, plus haltWaves() so
killing the mark stops deployments while survivors stay hostile
- Wire GameScene/SurfaceScene/JobBoardWindow for locked rows, dossier readout,
sequential check-ins, engagement chain, and single idempotent claim
- Add dev/bounty-hunts.test.mjs (591 checks) and in-browser probe with JSON/PNG
evidence; update patrol/sidequests tests for the new live category
- New hostiles frames 1–7 (bomber → warden) with distinct stats and
monotonic difficulty ramp in data/combat.json
- Shared js/combat/Weapons.js dispatch for lance, spray, burst, rapid,
ring, missile, and combo patterns used by both combat contexts
- New dodgeable heat-seeking Missile (capped turn-rate homing) plus pure
geometry helpers in Combat.js
- Rewire ?combat boot to startWaves('combat_demo'): 7 rolling waves, one
type each, 6 ships per wave, 3 concurrent, replacement per kill
- Add missile_fire SFX voice and extend tests/CDP demo checks for all
patterns and the full wave run
- Split the shared `fire` event into `cannon_fire`, `cannon_hit`, and `fire` so each weapon gets its own distinct voice
- Add three new sound assets (combat-mass-cannon, combat-mass-cannon-hit, combat-laser) to data/sfx.json and load them in GameScene
- Remove the 0.45 volume multiplier on enemy fire; the laser now plays at full volume since it has its own voice
- Update CombatSfx event map, both combat contexts (CombatScene, CombatSystem), dev tests, and README to reflect the ten-event SFX set
- Kills grant the hostile type's own `xp` (the roster sets XP-per-threat;
the curve lives in data/progression.json, 100 x n^2, capped at level 80)
- Each crossed level fires one `levelup` event: +3 hull / +2 shields with
a full heal, cyan burst + a distinct voice, and a kill-feed line — the
placeholder toughness the skill layer will subscribe to later
- Combat bar gains an XP row below the orbs (level, live gold fill,
banked / next cost; hidden when the snapshot carries no xp, so the
range bar keeps its old face)
- Kills show a gold "+N" reward floater; the level-up's SFX is the new
8th combat event (solar_flare_01)
- XpManager is pure and tested headless (node dev/xp.test.mjs); the
ledger saves as { level, xp } and old saves load fresh at level 0
- dev hooks (xp/grantXp), sfxcheck (range seven, main eight), shot
captures, and README all follow along
- Add inView() pure geometry helper to test if a craft's visual circle is at least partly within the camera's visible rect
- Gate enemy fire, auto-fire target selection, currentTarget lock, and bullet collision checks behind craftVisible() so off-screen hostiles hold lances, can't be engaged, and are immune to tracers until they fly into view
- Extend pickTarget() with an optional qualifies predicate to narrow the candidate pool (used for the on-screen rule)
- Document the rule in data/combat.json and CombatSystem class comments
- Prevent overlapping hit flashes from stacking, which captured the in-flash
state as the restore value and left crafts permanently white
- Track flashed crafts in a Set so the expiry path can always settle them
- Add purgeCraftTints(), called every ~250 ms from update(), that re-asserts
normal colors on any craft (tracked or roster) not holding a live flash
- Wire purgeRoster in both CombatScene and CombatSystem so the purge covers
the full player + enemy pack, not just Fx's own flashes
- Prune destroyed crafts from the tracking set to avoid leaked references
- Add tests covering overlap extension, kill-seam settle, periodic purge,
roster coverage, and dead-craft pruning
- Add Fx.releaseCraft() to settle a craft's pending white tintFlash
immediately on kill/destroy, so sprites never die mid-flash
- Add exported settleCraftTint() helper that resets tint mode and tint
to identity; call it on revive (EnemyShip), respawn, and reuse seams
- Guard restore callbacks against destroyed sprites with try/catch so a
half-restored craft can't leak white state
- Update combat screenshots
- Replace dot tracers with elongated glowing bolts (trail band + core streak + head bloom)
and a directional muzzle flare in both the range and main-game contexts.
- Add enemy impact reads: core flash, directional sparks along the travel vector,
cyan arc ripple on shield hits vs orange shards on hull hits, white craft hit-flash,
and a polished damage-number pop.
- Add player shield-sphere strike effect: full-sphere outline + bright arc centered on
the laser's incoming bearing, radial ripple, spark burst, and a shield-collapse cue
when shields break to hull.
- Add subtle world-camera shake on player hits, enemy kills, and shield-break while
keeping the HUD/combat bar perfectly still via the fx-ui camera split.
- Expose new visual knobs (bolt size/trail, muzzle, arc span, shake intensity) in
data/combat.json; fix Fx.update destroying ships on tintFlash expiry.
- Remove the gate-to-capital midpoint origin logic (_pirateAmbushOrigin) and
the startWaves opts.origin seam; wave ships now materialize off-screen
around the player from a random direction, matching the ?combat pack.
- Update combat.json, comms.json, quests.json comments to reflect the new
spawn behavior (off-screen around player, streaming in on chase AI).
- New main-story quest granted after 'Special Delivery' is claimed AND its payoff comms are ACKed all the way through (unlocks.acked gate)
- Three-step checklist: speak with Trestle (trestleQ4 warning beats), defend from a rolling wave of six raiders at the gate-to-capital midpoint, return to the Neutral Capital World
- CombatSystem.startWaves gains an origin option so ambush enemies materialize in a ring around a specified point rather than off-screen around the ship
- CommsHub fires a new onAck hook before onEnd so the scene can record acknowledgments and run its grant pass in the same tick
- QuestState.isUnlockMet / grantUnlocked accept a gates.acked set; GameScene supplies it from the comms acked-ledger
- SaveData captures/restores comms.acked, combat.done, and story.capitalReturned; resetRunState clears all three on New Game
- Combat is now built for every scene (not just ?combat demo); the hostile pack spawns only in the sandbox boot
- Test suites updated: quest unlock gating, ambush wave shape, roster count 25→28, save round-trip of new ledgers
- Waves.js: pure wave runner (rolling/fixed) + CombatSystem.startWaves
for quest-step combat; named scripts (probe/skirmish/raid) ship in
combat.json, driven from the console until the quest hook lands
- EnemyTypes.js: named hostiles (raider/bomber) deep-merged onto the
base craft, with per-type textures preloaded via enemySheetList()
- Hostiles now materialize off-screen (camera edge + game.spawnLead)
and fly in on their chase AI instead of popping into view mid-fight
- Wave ships are run-owned: no self-respawn, kills feed rolling
replacements, and the combat bar stays up through the lead and gaps
A shared readability layer (js/combat/CombatHud.js) for both combat
contexts — the training range and the main game's ?combat:
- Target/lock indicator: rotating brackets on the current target (the
auto-fire target — one rule, one target, js/combat/Combat.js#pickTarget).
- Threat cues: pulsing markers above each live hostile.
- Off-screen arrows: edge arrows toward hostiles outside the camera
(zoom-aware via a context-supplied worldToScreen).
- Kill feed: newest-first fading entries, top-right.
- Gauge flash: the combat bar's shields/hull gauge flashes on the hit
it took (CombatBar.gaugeRect feeds the shared CombatHud.flash).
Pure rules stay in Combat.js (pickTarget, feedPush, offscreenArrow),
covered by dev/combat.test.mjs. The main game re-anchors the pack
around the ship once its start position settles (CombatSystem
.resyncAroundShip + a short settle window in GameScene), so the demo
pack sits in auto-fire range instead of kilometers off.
All combat rules tests pass (0 failures); CDP-verified in both
/combat and index.html?combat.
All from the one shared Fx path (js/combat/Fx.js) — both contexts call
the same cues, so the read never drifts:
- Fx.damage(): floating damage numbers on every hit, cyan when the
shields took it / orange when the armor did (both enemy + player).
- Hit flashes are now color-coded by the layer that took the hit
(FX_COLORS.shield / .hull) instead of a flat white.
- Fx.explode() (the kill burst) gains a second delayed shockwave ring
+ a denser spark burst.
- Fx.down(): the player-DOWN cue — hot-red burst + big DOWN hold.
- Fx.respawn(): the REFORMED cue — clean cyan bloom + pop.
- Fx.text() is a graceful no-op without scene.add.text (the Node test
stubs), and canvas text gets a CSS string (toCss) per the v4 Giedi
fillStyle quirk.
CombatScene + CombatSystem wire every hit/kill/down/respawn site to the
shared cues. dev/combat.test.mjs stays 0 failures; CDP screenshots
(/tmp/vfx-cues-*.png) show the damage numbers, kill burst, DOWN and
REFORMED cues live in both /combat and index.html?combat.
- js/combat/CombatSfx.js (new): ONE event→voice map + playback path for
both contexts, using ONLY existing data/sfx.json files:
fire=scan · impact=ui_click · shield=solar_buzz · hull=mining_split
kill=thunder_01..04 (one at random) · down=deconstruct ·
respawn=discovery
plus combatSfxEnemyHit() (shield/hull decision in one place: a hit
that breaks through to the hull plays both — the shield-pop read),
loadCombatSfx() for the range's preload (the main game already loads
all of sfx.json), and a capped dev log on window.__COMBAT_SFX__ so
the wiring is verifiable headless (no audio manager) in both.
- js/combat/CombatScene.js: fire/enemy-fire/wall-clip/ram/lance/kill/
down/respawn sites call the shared path; the player-hit voices
(impact + shield/hull from applyDamage) funnel through damagePlayer.
- js/combat/CombatSystem.js: the same seven call sites, identical
wiring (no per-context copies).
- dev/combat.test.mjs: sfx block — seven events mapped, voices exist in
data/sfx.json, pairwise distinct, vol scaling, thunder pick, the
shield/hull decision, the dev log, the master switch (0 failures).
- dev/combat.sfxcheck.mjs (new): CDP check that drives real events in
/combat AND index.html?combat and asserts all seven events pass
through the shared path — PASS in both.
- Add CombatSystem: owns the hostile pack, tracers, player armor/energy,
auto-fire (nearest-in-range), swept-hit collisions, rams, respawn — all
driven by data/combat.json `game.*` / `energy` sections
- Add CombatBar (Diablo 4 style): vertical shields + hull gauges on the
left, energy gauge on the right, eight skill seats (keys 1–8) in the
middle; shown in place of the action deck while combat is live
- `?combat` now boots the normal game with the pack spawning when the
player starts (mouse steers, cannon auto-fires); the standalone WASD
range remains at `/combat` / `combat.html`
- GameScene wires the system into its update loop, solid constraints, and
click-through gate; exposes `window.__ORBIT_COMBAT__` for DevTools
- Extend combat tests to cover CombatSystem lifecycle (spawn, auto-fire,
hits, rams, armor, respawn, cast stub, destroy)
Brian Fertig
Brian Fertig