josh
cde93883bd
- .planning/season-7-end-state.md answers principle-level the three questions per CONTEXT D-08: (a) what rest state means, (b) what the finite Roothold ceiling is tied to (count of authored fragments + Seasons), (c) the coda's tonal register (warm/quiet/specific/final). Cites SEAS-04, SEAS-09, SEAS-10, STRY-08; ROADMAP Phase 7; PITFALLS #1. - Includes the explicit 'What this document is NOT' boundary section so treatment-level scope creep is structurally rejected (binary-choice scene text, ending paragraph text, Lura's final line, credits screen — all authored Phase 7, not Phase 1). - scripts/doctrine.test.ts is the only automated enforcement of both Phase-1 doctrine docs (per CONTEXT D-07: no UX-string lint rule). Asserts file existence + required H2 sections + required source citations + boundary disclaimer. 8 assertions / 2 doc files. - vitest.config.ts include glob extended to scripts/**/*.test.ts so doctrine.test.ts is discovered by 'npm test'. - tsconfig.node.json include extended to scripts/**/*.ts so the strict-TS gate covers the new doc-lint test alongside the existing build configs. - 'npm test' green: 2 test files, 9 tests passing (sentinel + doctrine). - Per CONTEXT D-09: lives in .planning/, not docs/. Rule 3 [Blocking]: vitest.config.ts and tsconfig.node.json include globs extended to discover the new TypeScript test file (existing globs only covered .mjs scripts and src/ tests).
113 lines
5.9 KiB
Markdown
113 lines
5.9 KiB
Markdown
# Season 7 End-State Design (Principle-Level)
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*Phase 1 deliverable per PIPE-05 + CONTEXT D-08. Principle-level only — treatment text is authored in Phase 7.*
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This document answers the question that ends ROADMAP.md Phase 7's success criterion #4:
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> *"the finite Roothold ceiling from Phase 4 has held the line, and the game has ended
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> the way A Dark Room and Universal Paperclips ended."*
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Per .planning/research/PITFALLS.md #1, "the story ends but the idle loop doesn't"
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is the single most dangerous structural pitfall for this project. This document
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is the canonical answer the project has *before* any economy code lands in Phase 2.
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Per CONTEXT D-08: this is **principle-level**, not treatment-level. It defines the
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contract Phase 7's authoring obeys, not the text of any final scene.
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## What does *rest state* mean?
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The rest state is the post-credits configuration the player can return to indefinitely
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without grinding. Concretely:
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- **No new fragments are added to the pool.** All authored content has been delivered.
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Harvests after the final binary choice yield re-readable previously-collected
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fragments — nothing new.
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- **No new currency tiers unlock.** Roothold has reached its finite ceiling (see below)
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and stays there. There is no "Season 8" hidden behind a number.
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- **The garden continues to render and respond to clicks.** Plants can still be
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planted. Seasons (now in Return register) continue to crossfade. The world is
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not frozen — it is *finished*.
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- **The Pale has receded.** The Heartsoil expands beyond the garden walls. Lura's
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arc has resolved. The Archivist's question has been answered (in the player's
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Season 7 binary choice — STRY-08).
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- **The cello and ambient layers continue.** The audio is *quiet*, *finite*,
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*understood* — never crescendos again, never hard-cuts.
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This is not "endgame content." It is **rest**. Lineage: *A Dark Room* fades to its
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ending screen and the player returns to it for the same reason they return to a
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finished album — not because there is more, but because there was *enough*.
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## What is the finite Roothold ceiling tied to?
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Roothold's ceiling is anchored in the **count of authored fragments and the count
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of Seasons** — not in an arbitrary number, not in a designer's intuition.
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The principle:
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> *One cannot accumulate more Roothold than the player has actually understood,
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> and what the player can understand is bounded by what the writer has actually written.*
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Concrete tie:
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- Roothold gain per Season is gated to a hard cap proportional to the fragment
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count of that Season + a small contribution from Roothold-relevant story beats
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(Lura conversations, the Nameless Man's arc, the Archivist's question, etc.).
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- Total Roothold ceiling = Σ(per-Season caps).
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- **Phase 4 enforces this cap** when it implements `migrate_v1_to_v2` and the
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prestige state machine (SEAS-04). Phase 7 verifies the ceiling holds through
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full play.
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- When Roothold reaches the ceiling, the UI displays "Roothold (full)" — never
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a hidden multiplier or "go again to overflow."
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Implication for designers: when adding fragments in Phase 5+, the Roothold ceiling
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*moves* — adding 5 new Season-3 fragments adds proportional headroom. This is
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intentional. Roothold is bounded by content; content is bounded by the writer.
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## What tonal register does the coda live in?
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- **Warm**, not pyrrhic. The garden persists *because* you tended it; this is
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earned redemption, not survival. Lineage: the closing minutes of *Spiritfarer*,
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not the closing minutes of *A Dark Room* (which earned its bitterness; we earn
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our warmth).
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- **Quiet**, not climactic. The cello does not crescendo at the binary choice.
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It rests. The chosen ending paragraph displays softly; "The garden persists."
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lands without underscore.
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- **Specific**, not abstract. The final visible state is a *real* garden — the
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one this player built, with their actual planted ecosystems, their actual
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Roothold value, their actual collected fragments — viewed in soft dawn-silver
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light per AEST-06's Season-7 palette anchor.
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- **Final**, not infinite. There is no Season 8. There is no New Game+. The Pale
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receded **here**, in **this** garden. Future patches may add cosmetic items or
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additional fragments per CONT-01 (post-launch additive content), but they slot
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*between* authored beats; they never extend the arc.
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## What this document is NOT
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This document defines principles. It does **not** define:
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- The text of the Season 7 binary-choice scene — *authored Phase 7*.
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- The text of either ending paragraph (`"They help us remember"` / `"They help us grow"`) — *authored Phase 7*.
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- The exact line "The garden persists." appears in both endings, but its surrounding
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paragraph and Lura's final line are *authored Phase 7*, not Phase 1.
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- The credits / coda screen visual treatment — *designed Phase 7*.
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- The exact tonal register or shape of individual final-Season fragments — *authored Phase 7*.
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- The numeric value of the Roothold ceiling — *computed Phase 4* from the
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content count at that point + ROADMAP-locked principle.
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This document is **the principle the economy obeys, the writer obeys, and the
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Phase 7 designer obeys** — not the implementation of any of those.
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## Source Documents
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This doctrine consolidates constraints already locked in:
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- **PROJECT.md** § "Core Value" — "every idle mechanic must function as a metaphor"; "what survives is what you understood"
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- **REQUIREMENTS.md** SEAS-04 (finite Roothold ceiling), SEAS-09 (Season 7 late-game shape), SEAS-10 (rest state, not infinite prestige tiers), STRY-08 (binary choice + "The garden persists.")
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- **ROADMAP.md** § "Phase 7: Season 7 (Return) & Final Choice" — the 4 success criteria
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- **.planning/research/PITFALLS.md** § "Pitfall 1: The Story Ends but the Idle Loop Doesn't" — the rationale this document directly addresses
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---
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*Authored: Phase 1 deliverable. Phase 4 enforces the Roothold ceiling. Phase 7 authors
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the treatment-level final scenes against the principles above.*
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