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Dev Log: 2026-06-05

Branch: rc/v0.1.4-dev

Chapter 4 content complete

The last four days closed out Chapter 4 ("The Paper in Her Hands"). All ten stages are now implemented, balanced, narrated, and playtested. This brings the shipped demo (Ch1) + the first full paid chapter to a complete state.

The chapter finale on the memorial terrace delivers the emotional payload prepared across the preceding nine sectors: the catalogue of 342 names, the overwrite of Alpha-Nadeshiko, the first snowfall, and the quiet westward turn that seeds Chapter 5. The boss fight uses her full Storm Run limit break in its most punishing configuration.

Memory fragments for the entire chapter were written and integrated. The Oversight Committee records (Stages 7-8) and the civic plaza confrontation (Stage 9) now carry the revised dialogue that makes Reiss's role and the structural cynicism of Project ORACLE land without exposition dumps.

Balancing infrastructure and passes

A major infrastructure change landed: balancing values are now the single source of truth in data/balance/. The Python solver reads the same JSON files the game does. test.sh was extended to run the full solver suite after every logic change.

This enabled three rapid balancing passes:

  • Drone density: 23 support drones (mostly SPOTTER and RELAY_NODE) and 9 new combat drones distributed across 18 sectors. Late sectors now close at 8 instead of sagging to 5-6.
  • Detonator placement: 12 cells were relocated. Water detonators now fan across the middle of the board instead of clustering on the right edge. Air detonators appear at y=3 in several sectors. S06 Layer 0 launches both from center rather than the top row. The three "locked patterns" are broken.
  • Threat scaling: Boss HP increased, Alpha units strengthened, late-chapter DETONATORs hit harder. 0 ATK drones no longer count against pathing cost or trigger reflex attacks.

The greedy solver (the only backend now — others were removed) clears all current content reliably. Parity between the live GDScript engine and the Python mirror was maintained throughout.

Tutorial and UX polish

  • Relay node tutorial added with dedicated coachmark flow.
  • Multi-sector tutorial state fixed so resuming mid-chapter no longer replays earlier guidance.
  • Character narrator portraits (already described in the 06-01 entry) are now wired up for the new Ch4 sectors.
  • Layer banner, level-up timing (now before sector transition), skill picker dead-end, and several crash paths were fixed.
  • Font refactoring completed; tap button contrast improved.

Narrative polish wave

Every chapter received dialogue passes. Ch1, Ch2, and Ch3 memory fragments and cutscene lines were tightened. Ch4 received the heaviest lift — the Oversight records, plaza exchange, and terrace finale all went through multiple revisions during playtests. The _story_so_far.md entries were updated to match the new beats.

The landing cutscene narration now flows cleanly into the revised Stage 1 waking line.

Release movement

Version bumped to 0.1.4. The branch moved from rc/v0.1.3-dev to rc/v0.1.4-dev. A full ./check.sh + ./test.sh run passes. The project is in a stable state for the next closed playtest round.

Next focus: Chapter 5 opening stages and the parity harness that will automatically replay solver logs against the live engine.