Gameplay design verification — 9 September 2026

Scope: MMO gameplay design, screen specification, and the local browser rehearsal in gameplay-concepts.js, gameplay-interface.js, and gameplay.css.

Automated evidence

Executed:

node --check public/gameplay-concepts.js
node --check public/gameplay-interface.js
node --test --test-concurrency=1 test/gameplay-concepts.test.js test/protocol.test.js test/integration.test.js

14 tests passed, 0 failed. Coverage: preview is free; acceptance/cancellation conserve stock; attention is not refunded; stale/duplicate/unaffordable orders are rejected without spending; canonical costs defeat modified preview costs; route choices change reservations; death activates AI and suspends personal commitments; invalid/dead heirs cannot take control; lawful handover preserves resources and commitments; no-heir landless continuation remains possible; mandates become read-only under AI; voting is free; screen/action references are valid; existing movement/protocol/persistence/reconnect/static caching integration passes.

No full art suite, raster gate, or load benchmark was run for this gameplay design change. No incoming artwork or production manifest was modified by this task. The only map-code addition clears held movement input when a management view or review opens.

Browser evidence

One local server at http://localhost:3031 with one simulation worker and an isolated .data-gameplay-design directory. Tested in one Codex in-app browser tab.

• All 22 management destinations selected through the actual screen directory and returned the expected heading. The existing map/selected-place view is screen S03, giving 23 screen specifications total.
• Family screen visually inspected at desktop and mobile widths.
• Character death confirmed through the review dialog: controller changed from Aren Willow to Elara Voss / AI interregnum, preserving 8 attention, 1,248 gold and 684 food.
• Selected Mira Willow and confirmed the lawful handover: controller became Mira Willow / Human rule with the same budget.
• Chose River Veil in the route selector: preview showed 12 hours, 1 attention, 60 food and 74 gold. Accepted: budget became 7 attention, 1,174 gold, 624 food. Cancelled: gold/food returned to 1,248/684; attention remained 7.
• Cast a sample Elara ballot: local receipt appeared and attention remained 7.
• Escape dismissed a review and restored focus to the initiating route-review button.
• At 320 × 740, measured every management pane. A queue Cancel-button overflow was found and corrected. Fresh versioned CSS produced a 279px content width and 279px scroll width for Orders; the page width was 305px within the 320px viewport. The corrected queued-order list was visually inspected.
• Browser warning/error log was empty during the inspected flow. This does not claim performance certification of the map or its incoming art.

Delivery boundary

The prototype changes in-memory sample state only and resets on refresh. Orders are not submitted to the world server; no market, election, tribunal, battle, frontier generation or persistent AI succession engine is implemented by this delivery. Those systems have design rules, screen contracts, acceptance scenarios and staged implementation work in the companion documents. Art compatibility is a design contract, not a claim that live art hot-swapping has shipped.

Mutable terrain extension

The later terrain/building extension adds S24 and S25: 25 specified screens in total, including 24 management destinations. Earlier counts above record the original review.

node --check public/terrain-planner.js and node --check public/gameplay-interface.js passed. node --test --test-concurrency=1 test/terrain-planner.test.js test/gameplay-concepts.test.js passed 20 tests, 0 failures. Terrain coverage includes mature trees, untreated desert, secured water and irrigation, clearing, planting, drainage, terracing without invented soil/deposits, processing with imported inputs, navigable access, unknown/protected ground, and all 32 building definitions across 10 fixture plots. Comparisons preserve their inputs.

Browser checks through the actual selectors confirmed that desert without a secured source blocks irrigation; clearing mature forest removes woodcutter eligibility and enables fields on its fertile soil; mountain terracing stabilizes the foundation while leaving fields blocked by poor soil and missing water. Both new destinations open through the screen directory. The planner exposes current and completed-project biome, fertility, tree cover/maturity, usable water, foundation and slope, plus reasons, stages and maintenance. The desktop building screen was visually inspected. The previous mobile measurements above predate this extension.

The added planner is a hypothetical compatibility comparison, explicitly labeled as sample plots. It neither transforms a live map tile nor queues a terrain project. Persistent patches, staged simulation, construction execution and matching terrain art remain implementation work specified in terrain-and-buildings.md.