Arena re-run after the playtest-1 adjustments:
- spam-cruiser arena landed at par (default +9%) - the range buff alone
priced out the small-gun-spam meta, so revert railgun_m damage 16 -> 14
(range stays 80). The buff had regressed drone-swarm-vs-cruisers to
+47%, largely via a hit-count breakpoint (60 HP drone: 5 hits at
14 dmg, 4 at 16).
- battleship +30% / dreadnought +29% vs pure railgun_s fleets accepted
as reach-doctrine texture (the l gun's 130 m standoff working as
intended); repair kept at 4 HP/s (below par in-fight is the correct
price for free between-wave sustain).
Also corrects the playtest-1 record: it was two FULL playthroughs won in
~40 min each with cruisers only (not two pushes) - a 2.5-3x run-length
gap. Pacing knobs deliberately deferred to playtest 2, since those runs
predate the repair nerf and the l-gun siege range.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01DyCu8vwChKMbLJQ3xosYEN
Playtest 1 (first two pushes, ~40 min game time — pacing on target)
found the railgun_s-spam-cruiser meta and confirmed the repair tool as
overpowered (second signal after the persistent arena escort margin):
- repair_tool 9 -> 4 HP/s: the arena only prices in-fight sustain; real
runs add free between-wave top-offs across the whole swarm
- railgun_l range 100 -> 130: now outranges stations (120), buying the
siege role the capital ladder promises
- railgun_m 14 -> 16 dmg, range 70 -> 80: concentration tax softened so
the ladder reads "pay some DPS efficiency for reach", not
"strictly worse"
- new tracked arena: railgun_s-spam cruisers vs default cruisers
Module costs untouched, so all threat values stay valid. Docs updated
(derived.md, history.md playtest record, README status).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01DyCu8vwChKMbLJQ3xosYEN
Split the cluttered progression_design.md and content_design.md into
separated documents by role:
- docs/balancing/rules.md - design rules and principles (moved from
progression_design.md, which is removed)
- docs/balancing/targets.md - the chosen base numbers: run shape,
factory curve, threat ladder (achieved
values adopted), combat anchors, pacing
anchors
- docs/balancing/derived.md - current tuned state of all derived
numbers, mirroring the configs
- docs/balancing/process.md - pass order, tuning discipline learned in
arena rounds 1-5, tools, next-round
checklist
- docs/balancing/history.md - chronological record: decisions, numbers
pass, calculator bugs, arena rounds,
pacing pass
- docs/balancing/README.md - index, status, open action items (moved
from progression_design.md)
content_design.md slims back down to actual content: footprint gating,
hull grids, gating matrix (module names updated to railguns), and the
production tree structure with its fiction - numbers, anchors, arena
logs, and pacing all moved to docs/balancing/. Stale references in the
config comments updated to the new locations.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01DyCu8vwChKMbLJQ3xosYEN
