let Q dismiss a dialog, and stop the drop dialog being dismissed at all

Q backs the player out in the game world, so it backs them out of a dialog
too: the recipe/schematic selection dialog, the blueprint selection dialog,
and the layout configuration dialog, where it is Cancel. In that last one it
steps out one level at a time as it does in the world -- a selected module,
then remove mode, then the session -- so one press never both leaves a mode
and discards the changes.

The schematic choice dialog goes the other way: it is now stated to be
undismissable, which it was already built to be (no close button) but was not
written down. Escape currently closes it and the handler then applies the
default choiceIndex of 0, awarding the first option the player never picked;
saying no way out exists but choosing is what closes that.

Q stays an ordinary character in the two dialogs that take a typed name. The
Escape bullet named only the blueprint dialog and was narrower than what
Escape has always done, so it now covers dismissible dialogs generally.

Requirements only; no code yet.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ne3mejABZoLWKLh8fgpM3x

docs/requirements.md

@@ -273,9 +273,9 @@ Any ship, module, building, or assembler recipe id that appears in no unlock gro
 
 ### Module Placement
 
-- REQ-MOD-PLACEMENT: In the layout configuration dialog (REQ-MOD-UI-DIALOG), the player places modules onto the ship's layout grid. Clicking a module button in the module selection grid enters module placement mode for that module type. While in placement mode, a ghost of the module's surface mask is rendered at the cell under the cursor. Clicking a valid position places one instance of the module. A position is valid if every `O` cell in the module's (rotated) surface mask coincides with an unoccupied buildable cell of the ship's layout. The player may place unlimited instances of the same module type.
+- REQ-MOD-PLACEMENT: In the layout configuration dialog (REQ-MOD-UI-DIALOG), the player places modules onto the ship's layout grid. Clicking a module button in the module selection grid enters module placement mode for that module type. While in placement mode, a ghost of the module's surface mask is rendered at the cell under the cursor. Clicking a valid position places one instance of the module. A position is valid if every `O` cell in the module's (rotated) surface mask coincides with an unoccupied buildable cell of the ship's layout. The player may place unlimited instances of the same module type. Placement mode is left by pressing Q, which clears the selected module before it reaches the dialog itself (REQ-UI-DIALOG-DISMISS), and by the existing gestures: clicking the same module button again, picking another module, or entering remove mode (REQ-MOD-REMOVE).
 - REQ-MOD-ROTATION: While in module placement mode, pressing R rotates the module ghost 90° counter-clockwise and Shift+R rotates it 90° clockwise. Rotation transforms the surface mask grid identically to building rotation (REQ-BLD-ROTATE).
-- REQ-MOD-REMOVE: The module selection grid includes a "Remove" button. Clicking it enters remove mode. In remove mode, clicking on a cell occupied by a placed module removes that entire module instance from the layout. Remove mode is exited by clicking the Remove button again or by selecting a module for placement.
+- REQ-MOD-REMOVE: The module selection grid includes a "Remove" button. Clicking it enters remove mode. In remove mode, clicking on a cell occupied by a placed module removes that entire module instance from the layout. Remove mode is exited by clicking the Remove button again, by selecting a module for placement, or by pressing Q, which leaves the mode before it reaches the dialog itself (REQ-UI-DIALOG-DISMISS).
 
 ### Module Effects
 
@@ -321,7 +321,7 @@ Any ship, module, building, or assembler recipe id that appears in no unlock gro
   - **Left** (below the grid): The ship stats panel (see REQ-MOD-UI-STATS-PANEL), and beneath it the layout's **build cost**, so the price of a configuration is visible while it is being assembled rather than only once it has been confirmed: the total materials required for the ship — the union of the schematic's base materials and those of every placed module, summed per item type (REQ-MOD-MATERIALS) — drawn as item icons on their colored squares with their amounts (REQ-UI-ITEM-ICON), and beside them the total production time (REQ-MOD-PRODUCTION-TIME). Both update in real time as modules are placed and removed. The cost sits beside the stats panel rather than within it because a build cost belongs to a ship being configured: the same panel serves an existing ship (REQ-UI-SHIP-STATS-PANEL) and the balancing tool, neither of which costs anything.
   - **Center** (below the grid): A grid of module selection buttons (one per **unlocked** module type; see REQ-DEF-SCHEMATIC-DROP) plus a "Remove" button. A module button shows the module's name — its `id` under the usual display convention — on its first line, and beneath it what the module costs: the icons of its `materials` items on their colored squares with their amounts (REQ-UI-ITEM-ICON) and the production time it adds, as `+<n> s` (REQ-MOD-MATERIALS, REQ-MOD-PRODUCTION-TIME). This is the same form a recipe option button uses to state what it makes (REQ-UI-SELECT-OPTIONS), and it puts the price of a module in front of the player before it is placed. The "Remove" button costs nothing and shows its caption alone.
   - **Right** (below the grid): The layout blueprint panel (see REQ-MOD-UI-BLUEPRINT-PANEL through REQ-MOD-UI-BLUEPRINT-FILE-LOAD).
-  - **Bottom**: A "Confirm" button and a "Cancel" button. Cancel discards all changes made in this dialog session and closes the dialog. Confirm applies the changes: the shipyard's configured layout is updated, the required materials and cycle time displayed in the selection panel are recalculated, and the ship layout preview is refreshed.
+  - **Bottom**: A "Confirm" button and a "Cancel" button. Cancel discards all changes made in this dialog session and closes the dialog; Q is a second way to reach it, once nothing is left to back out of within the dialog (REQ-UI-DIALOG-DISMISS). Confirm applies the changes: the shipyard's configured layout is updated, the required materials and cycle time displayed in the selection panel are recalculated, and the ship layout preview is refreshed.
 
 - REQ-MOD-UI-EMPTY-PULSE: While a module is selected for placement in the layout configuration dialog (REQ-MOD-UI-DIALOG), the empty buildable cells of the layout grid pulse smoothly around their normal fill shade, oscillating between a slightly darker and a slightly brighter shade at approximately 1 Hz (one full cycle per second), to draw the player's attention to where the module can be placed. All empty buildable cells pulse in phase. When no module is selected for placement (including remove mode), empty buildable cells render at their normal static shade. Non-buildable cells and cells occupied by a placed module do not pulse.
 
@@ -383,6 +383,8 @@ Any ship, module, building, or assembler recipe id that appears in no unlock gro
 
   Each recipe is shown as a **recipe line** of the same two-row card the item production tooltip uses (REQ-UI-ITEM-TOOLTIP): the icon of the building that runs it (REQ-UI-BUILD-ICON) and the recipe's name — by its `id`, using the same display convention as the assembler recipe-selection dialog — on the first row, and the recipe drawn as the recipe summary draws it (REQ-UI-RECIPE-SUMMARY) on the second. The lines are sorted alphabetically by recipe name. The line says everything there is to say about the recipe, so nothing in this list carries a tooltip, as in the selection dialog (REQ-UI-SELECT-OPTIONS). If no recipes would be newly unlocked, the list shows "None".
 
+  **The dialog cannot be dismissed.** Clicking an option is the only thing that closes it: it has no close button, no Cancel, and neither Escape nor Q dismisses it (REQ-UI-DIALOG-DISMISS). The drop is a reward the player has earned by destroying the station set, and every way out of the dialog would have to either forfeit it or pick an option the player did not — so there is no way out but choosing. The dialog is modal and the game is paused meanwhile, so nothing is waiting on the decision.
+
   The player selects one option by clicking it. If the player selects the artifact option, the player's artifact count is incremented by 1 (REQ-WIN-ARTIFACT-COUNT) and the dialog closes; no unlock is applied. Otherwise the selected unlock group is awarded and the dialog closes: every ship, module, building, and assembler recipe the group grants becomes unlocked at once — ship schematics unlock the corresponding shipyard selection; module schematics unlock the module type for placement in the layout configuration dialog (REQ-MOD-UI-DIALOG); building types become available in the build menu (REQ-LOCK-BUILDING); assembler recipes become available in the assembler recipe-selection dialog (subject to REQ-LOCK-UI-RECIPE). The unlock group is removed from the pool permanently (REQ-LOCK-EXPLICIT), and the implicit unlock set is recomputed (REQ-LOCK-IMPLICIT).
 
 ## Progression & Locking
@@ -489,6 +491,15 @@ The screen is a single column: a header bar across the top and the game world vi
   - **Presentation only.** The placement is computed once, when the modal opens, and is not revisited while it is open; the panel cannot move meanwhile, being behind the modal and receiving no input. It is not a player command, never enters the replay stream, and has no effect on the simulation.
 - REQ-UI-MODAL-DIM: While a modal dialog, menu, or full-screen state screen is open on top of the game, a transparent black overlay (a dim/scrim) is drawn over the **entire game window** — the header bar, the game world view, and the widgets floating over it (the build button bar, REQ-UI-BUILD-BAR, the selection panel, REQ-UI-SELECTION-PANEL, and the controls panel, REQ-UI-CONTROLS-PANEL) — behind that modal, so the game reads as inactive while the modal holds focus. The overlay is shown for every modal that auto-pauses the simulation — the escape menu (REQ-UI-GAME-MENU), the recipe/schematic selection dialog (REQ-UI-SELECT-BUTTON), the layout configuration dialog (REQ-MOD-UI-DIALOG), the schematic choice dialog (REQ-DEF-SCHEMATIC-DROP), the blueprint save dialog (REQ-UI-BLUEPRINT-CREATE), and the blueprint selection dialog (REQ-UI-BLUEPRINT-DIALOG) — as well as the game-over screen (REQ-HQ-GAME-OVER) and the win screen (REQ-WIN-SCREEN), which end rather than pause the game. When modals are nested (for example the Create Blueprint name dialog (REQ-MOD-UI-BLUEPRINT-CREATE) opened from the layout configuration dialog), only a single dim is shown over the game window; nested modals do not stack additional overlays. The same applies when one modal hands directly off to another — the blueprint save dialog opening the blueprint selection dialog on confirm (REQ-UI-BLUEPRINT-CREATE): the dim persists across the handoff rather than flickering off and back on, and the simulation is not resumed in between. The dim color and opacity are read from `visuals.toml [overlays]` (a semi-transparent black modal-dim color), consistent with the other overlay colors. The overlay is presentation-only and has no effect on the simulation.
 
+- REQ-UI-DIALOG-DISMISS: **Q dismisses an open dialog.** The key that backs the player out in the game world (REQ-UI-HOTKEYS) does the same on a dialog: while one is open it dismisses that dialog, doing exactly what its own Cancel or close already does and nothing else. It is a second key alongside Escape rather than a new behavior, so the player backs out of a dialog with the key their hand is already on. Three dialogs take it:
+  - **The recipe/schematic selection dialog** (REQ-UI-SELECT-BUTTON) — closes with the current recipe or schematic unchanged.
+  - **The blueprint selection dialog** (REQ-UI-BLUEPRINT-DIALOG) — closes with no other effect, as its close button does.
+  - **The layout configuration dialog** (REQ-MOD-UI-DIALOG) — Q is its Cancel, discarding every change made in this dialog session. Here Q backs out **one step at a time**, as it does in the game world: while a module is selected for placement (REQ-MOD-PLACEMENT) it clears that selection, while remove mode is active (REQ-MOD-REMOVE) it leaves remove mode, and only with neither active does it cancel the dialog. One press therefore never both leaves a mode and discards the session.
+
+  In each case the simulation speed is restored as it is on any other close (REQ-UI-SELECT-BUTTON, REQ-MOD-UI-DIALOG, REQ-UI-BLUEPRINT-DIALOG), and a dialog opened from another (REQ-MOD-UI-BLUEPRINT-CREATE) is dismissed before the one that opened it, Q reaching whichever holds focus.
+
+  **Where Q is not a dismissal.** It stays an ordinary character in the two dialogs that take a typed name — the blueprint save dialog (REQ-UI-BLUEPRINT-CREATE) and the Create Blueprint name dialog of the layout configuration dialog (REQ-MOD-UI-BLUEPRINT-CREATE) — where a dismissal key would be unable to tell a name from a command. The escape menu (REQ-UI-GAME-MENU) keeps Escape and its Continue button, the game-over and win screens (REQ-HQ-GAME-OVER, REQ-WIN-SCREEN) are ended by their own buttons, and the schematic choice dialog is not dismissible at all (REQ-DEF-SCHEMATIC-DROP).
+
 ### Game World
 
 - REQ-UI-SCROLL: The player scrolls the view horizontally across the scrollable area by pressing A (scroll left) and D (scroll right). The pan speed is not constant; it varies with the view's position per REQ-UI-SCROLL-SPEED.
@@ -520,6 +531,7 @@ The screen is a single column: a header bar across the top and the game world vi
   - **S** — decreases game speed by one step in the same sequence (no wrap-around past 0×).
   - **A / D** — scroll the view left / right (REQ-UI-SCROLL).
   - **Q** — context-sensitive: one key that backs out of whatever the player is currently in, and enters deconstruct mode when they are in nothing. Its cases are evaluated in order:
+    - A dialog that takes Q is open — Q dismisses it, and the cases below do not apply: the dialog holds focus, and the game world is not what the player is backing out of (REQ-UI-DIALOG-DISMISS).
     - A build mode is active (builder mode, blueprint placement mode, or deconstruct mode) — Q exits it.
     - Something is selected — Q clears the selection (REQ-UI-EMPTY-SELECTION). The two cases never both apply, a selection and a build mode being mutually exclusive (REQ-UI-SELECTION-EXCLUSIVE); the order is stated only to fix the reading.
     - Neither — Q enters deconstruct mode (see also REQ-UI-DECONSTRUCT-BUTTON for the equivalent button, which enters it from any of these states and clears the selection in doing so).
@@ -530,7 +542,7 @@ The screen is a single column: a header bar across the top and the game world vi
   - **V** — re-enter placement mode for the last temporary blueprint created with C (REQ-UI-BLUEPRINT-TEMP). Does nothing when no temporary blueprint exists.
   - **Ctrl+C** — save the current selection as a named blueprint: opens the blueprint save dialog (REQ-UI-BLUEPRINT-CREATE). Has effect only when at least one player-placeable building is selected; otherwise it does nothing.
   - **Ctrl+V** — opens the blueprint selection dialog (REQ-UI-BLUEPRINT-DIALOG), from which a saved blueprint is picked for placement. It is available whenever the game is being played, regardless of the current selection or of which build mode is active, and opens the dialog even when no blueprints are saved yet.
-  - **Escape** — opens the escape menu (REQ-UI-GAME-MENU). While a blueprint dialog is open, Escape closes that dialog instead (REQ-UI-BLUEPRINT-DIALOG).
+  - **Escape** — opens the escape menu (REQ-UI-GAME-MENU). While a dismissible dialog is open, Escape closes that dialog instead — the blueprint dialogs (REQ-UI-BLUEPRINT-DIALOG) and the two dialogs Q also dismisses (REQ-UI-DIALOG-DISMISS). The schematic choice dialog is the exception it cannot close (REQ-DEF-SCHEMATIC-DROP).
   - **Build mode selection** — pressing a build hotkey activates builder mode for the corresponding building type, equivalent to clicking its build button (REQ-BLD-BUILDER-MODE):
     - **1** — Belt, **2** — Splitter, **3** — Tunnel (the unified tunnel build mode, REQ-BLD-TUNNEL-MODE). Hotkey 4 is unused.
     - **Shift+1** — Miner, **Shift+2** — Smelter, **Shift+3** — Assembler, **Shift+4** — Shipyard, **Shift+5** — Salvage Bay, **Shift+6** — Reprocessing Plant.
@@ -612,7 +624,7 @@ The panel shows exactly one **content** at a time, picked from the catalog in RE
   - **Rectangle color.** While dragging, the selection rectangle is drawn as an outline in `visuals.toml [overlays].selected_outline` — the same color and config entry as the outline drawn in the world around the objects that end up selected, so the box and the selection it produces read as one thing. **Exception:** while deconstruct mode is active (REQ-UI-DECONSTRUCT-BUTTON, REQ-UI-HOTKEYS), the box drag marks buildings for demolition instead (REQ-BLD-DECONSTRUCT-BOX) and the rectangle is drawn in the deconstruct color — the RGB of `visuals.toml [overlays].deconstruct_tint`, drawn **fully opaque**. That entry's alpha channel governs only the fills it tints (the deconstruct-mode hover tint and queued buildings, REQ-UI-DECONSTRUCT-BORDER, REQ-BLD-DECON-QUEUE) and is not applied to this outline, which would otherwise be too faint to see. The rectangle's geometry is the same in both modes.
 - REQ-UI-MULTI-SELECTION: When multiple buildings are selected and the selection does not aggregate (REQ-UI-SELECTION-AGGREGATE), the panel shows a count summary. Its header names the size of the selection as `<n> buildings` in place of an object name, and carries no symbol and nothing in its right slot. Below it is one row per selected building type — the type's symbol, its name, and the number selected as `x<count>` — one type per row, and no per-building detail. A final row shows the **total building block cost** of the selection, captioned `Total cost` with the value followed by the `building_block` item icon (REQ-UI-BLOCKS-ICON, REQ-UI-ITEM-ICON): the sum of each selected building's placement cost (`buildings.toml [[building]].cost`, per REQ-BLD-COST), counting only player-placeable buildings (buildings with a button in the build button bar); non-player-placeable buildings (the HQ and defence stations) are excluded from the total, consistent with the blueprint total (REQ-UI-BLUEPRINT-CARD). Construction sites count at their building type's full placement cost regardless of construction progress.
 - REQ-UI-CONFIG-INLINE: Recipe and schematic configuration for a selected building is shown within this panel, in its configuration group (REQ-UI-SELECTION-CARD). Recipe selection (miner, assembler, smelter, reprocessing plant) and schematic selection (shipyard) use the selection button and dialog (REQ-UI-SELECT-BUTTON) rather than an inline control. For shipyards, the panel additionally shows the ship layout preview and "Configure" button below the schematic selection button (REQ-MOD-UI-PREVIEW).
-- REQ-UI-SELECT-BUTTON: **Recipe and schematic selection control.** Recipe selection (Miner ore type, Assembler recipe, and the Smelter's and Reprocessing Plant's recipe per REQ-BLD-AUTO-RECIPE) and schematic selection (Shipyard) are each presented in the selection panel as a single **selection button** whose caption is the name of the currently selected recipe or schematic, or a placeholder ("Select recipe" / "Select schematic") when none is selected. Clicking the button opens a modal **selection dialog** that pauses the game (speed set to 0×; on close, the speed is restored to what it was before the dialog was opened) and that opens centered on the selection panel, as every modal opened from the panel does (REQ-UI-PANEL-MODAL). The dialog contains a vertical list of option buttons, one per selectable option, each describing itself (REQ-UI-SELECT-OPTIONS) — only options that are currently unlocked are shown (REQ-LOCK-UI-RECIPE for recipes, REQ-LOCK-UI-SCHEMATIC for schematics). Neither the option buttons nor the selection button carries a tooltip: an option button states what it makes on its own face, and what the building has selected is drawn beneath the selection button as the recipe summary (REQ-UI-RECIPE-SUMMARY), with the production paths of the items involved reachable by hovering the card's item chips (REQ-UI-ITEM-TOOLTIP). Clicking an option button selects that recipe/schematic, closes the dialog, and updates the selection button's caption in the selection panel. The dialog can be dismissed without changing the current selection (e.g. closing it without clicking an option). Selecting a new recipe or schematic has the same effects as before (REQ-MAT-INPUT-BUFFER, REQ-MAT-OUTPUT-BUFFER, REQ-BLD-SHIPYARD).
+- REQ-UI-SELECT-BUTTON: **Recipe and schematic selection control.** Recipe selection (Miner ore type, Assembler recipe, and the Smelter's and Reprocessing Plant's recipe per REQ-BLD-AUTO-RECIPE) and schematic selection (Shipyard) are each presented in the selection panel as a single **selection button** whose caption is the name of the currently selected recipe or schematic, or a placeholder ("Select recipe" / "Select schematic") when none is selected. Clicking the button opens a modal **selection dialog** that pauses the game (speed set to 0×; on close, the speed is restored to what it was before the dialog was opened) and that opens centered on the selection panel, as every modal opened from the panel does (REQ-UI-PANEL-MODAL). The dialog contains a vertical list of option buttons, one per selectable option, each describing itself (REQ-UI-SELECT-OPTIONS) — only options that are currently unlocked are shown (REQ-LOCK-UI-RECIPE for recipes, REQ-LOCK-UI-SCHEMATIC for schematics). Neither the option buttons nor the selection button carries a tooltip: an option button states what it makes on its own face, and what the building has selected is drawn beneath the selection button as the recipe summary (REQ-UI-RECIPE-SUMMARY), with the production paths of the items involved reachable by hovering the card's item chips (REQ-UI-ITEM-TOOLTIP). Clicking an option button selects that recipe/schematic, closes the dialog, and updates the selection button's caption in the selection panel. The dialog can be dismissed without changing the current selection — by closing it without clicking an option, by Escape, or by Q (REQ-UI-DIALOG-DISMISS). Selecting a new recipe or schematic has the same effects as before (REQ-MAT-INPUT-BUFFER, REQ-MAT-OUTPUT-BUFFER, REQ-BLD-SHIPYARD).
 - REQ-UI-SELECT-OPTIONS: **Option list of the selection dialog.** The selection dialog (REQ-UI-SELECT-BUTTON) lists its options as a **single vertical column** of buttons, one per option, rather than a grid: each button is as wide as the dialog and states what the option does, which needs a line of its own. No option button carries a tooltip — the button face is the whole description, so the player reads every option's inputs, product, and time from the list itself without hovering anything. Should the column be taller than the space the window leaves the dialog — a fully unlocked Assembler offers more options than any window can hold, and a modal is never resized to fit (REQ-UI-PANEL-MODAL) — the list **scrolls** within the dialog rather than the dialog growing past the window.
   - A **recipe** option shows the **recipe name** on its first line and, beneath it, that recipe drawn as the recipe summary line draws it (REQ-UI-RECIPE-SUMMARY): each input item's icon on its colored square with its per-cycle amount, an arrow, its output groups with their amounts, and the cycle time. A miner recipe consumes nothing, so its line begins at the arrow.
   - A **ship schematic** option (Shipyard) shows the ship's `display_name` on its first line and, beneath it, the icons and quantities of its base required materials (`[ship.schematic].materials`, excluding any module contributions) with the base production time (`[ship.schematic].production_time_seconds`). A ship is not an item and has no icon of its own, so this line names no output: the button's caption is what it produces.
@@ -742,7 +754,7 @@ Blueprints occupy no permanent screen space. They are saved with **Ctrl+C** from
   - Below it, a **scrollable two-column grid of blueprint cards** (REQ-UI-BLUEPRINT-CARD), one per saved blueprint, filling the grid left to right and top to bottom in creation order. The column count is fixed at two; the grid scrolls vertically when the cards do not fit, and does not scroll horizontally.
   - When no blueprints are saved, the dialog still opens and shows an empty-state message in place of the grid, telling the player that blueprints are created with Ctrl+C from a selection of buildings.
 
-  Clicking the close button, pressing Escape, or closing the dialog through the window manager closes it with no other effect: the current selection, build mode, and blueprint list are unchanged, and the simulation speed is restored to what it was before the dialog was opened. While the dialog is open, Escape closes it rather than opening the escape menu (REQ-UI-GAME-MENU).
+  Clicking the close button, pressing Escape, pressing Q (REQ-UI-DIALOG-DISMISS), or closing the dialog through the window manager closes it with no other effect: the current selection, build mode, and blueprint list are unchanged, and the simulation speed is restored to what it was before the dialog was opened. While the dialog is open, Escape closes it rather than opening the escape menu (REQ-UI-GAME-MENU), and Q closes it rather than acting on the game world beneath.
 
 ```
 +------------------------------------------------------+