aetherbound-guild/docs/goals/PHASE9_0R4_SECOND_CYCLE_ADAPTATION_GOAL.md

Phase 9.0R4 Second-Cycle Adaptation Goal

Owner Decision And Role

On 2026-08-13 the Owner accepted the P9.0R3 battle cadence, authored character motion and event-bound combat feedback, asked development to continue, and reported that waiting for each playable delivery is too slow.

• Role: development task.
• Repository: aetherbound_guild only.
• Baseline: clean/upstream P9.0R3 Owner-acceptance closure 232e3a0.
• Fixed accepted product source: 425fae82d3d88a002bdaadeabb498d8bf0d069cd.
• Active contract: docs/runtime/PHASE9_0R4_SECOND_CYCLE_ADAPTATION_CONTRACT.md.
• Active ledger: docs/reviews/PHASE9_GODOT_VERTICAL_SLICE_LEDGER.md.

Player Hypothesis

After the first automatic battle, a new player can identify the causal lesson, understand the earned reward, choose between safety and tempo, and see that choice change a second battle without opening a form-like Market or inventory.

The bounded loop is:

first battle -> diagnosis -> +20 Coin -> two-option adaptation -> second battle -> changed result

Owned Slice

1. Replace the first-victory terminal with a readable diagnosis that names the selected front/rear roles and their committed contribution before totals.
2. Bind the tutorial fight to the existing B=0/R=1/Q=0 Steady reward formula: battle_coin = floor(18 + 2) = 20. Apply it once on first victory.
3. Show the next known threat before preparation: the veteran Riftblade's first strike pushes and heavily damages the exposed front.
4. Offer exactly two stable, unselected, run-local loan choices from the accepted equipment catalog:
   • EQ-002 Frontpin Greaves: resist the first push and reduce its damage, but delay the next front basic;
   • EQ-061 Early Bell: resolve the first front basic before the enemy strike, but delay the second front basic and accept the full strike.
5. Commit exactly one loan, start one second automatic battle using the accepted actors, animation states, feedback language and controls, then show the exact surviving front HP, elapsed battle time and first decisive difference.
6. Keep Home and confirmed Restart available throughout. Restart clears Coin, adaptation and both battles; repeated input cannot grant Coin or commit the loan twice.

Fixed Second-Cycle Fixture

The second encounter is a bounded tutorial veteran using the existing Riftblade identity and assets. It is not a new catalog enemy or authoritative full-combat implementation.

Loan	First decisive change	Front result	Cadence consequence
EQ-002	First push is resisted; committed hit is 100 -> 90	90, or 100 after Kindhand's capped heal	Front follow-up resolves later; safer route is slower
EQ-061	Front basic commits before the first enemy strike	Full strike commits 100 -> 70, then Kindhand may heal to 82	Delayed second front basic still produces the faster route

Farstring keeps one committed rear hit; Kindhand keeps one committed heal. Both adaptations win this tutorial, but one preserves more front HP and the other finishes sooner. The result must compare only actual committed facts.

Preview-First Delivery Cadence

P9.0R4 uses two explicit gates so the Owner can judge direction quickly:

1. FAST_PREVIEW: run the new focused domain/UI test, one normal-render landscape route and strict diagnostic scan; export and publish a clearly labeled H5 preview. This is not a candidate and cannot upgrade final evidence.
2. FORMAL_CANDIDATE: only after the Owner accepts the preview direction, bind a clean pushed source and run affected regressions, required viewport/ language/accessibility matrices, both adaptation routes, MovieWriter, immutable inventory, PCK scope, browser verification and final Gallery publication.

No formal evidence is silently omitted. Expensive evidence is postponed until the product direction is accepted instead of being regenerated for every preview revision.

Frozen

• P9.0R3 first-battle HP values, roles, targets, event order, victory and timing.
• Existing character, enemy, background, VFX and animation source assets.
• Title, Yard selection, Home and confirmed Restart semantics.
• Market, recruit hiring, permanent equipment inventory, Party order, risk selection, casualty, recovery, persistence, chapters and content expansion.
• Authoritative full combat, paid generation, audio expansion, device packaging, TestFlight, stores and release.

Acceptance

• The diagnosis precedes the reward and adaptation choice and uses no raw IDs as its primary player explanation.
• Coin changes 0 -> 20 exactly once on first victory and never on view/replay.
• Neither adaptation is preselected. Each names benefit, tradeoff and expected next-threat interaction before commit.
• The two routes produce different event order, front HP and elapsed time while preserving one victory and exact feedback deltas.
• The second result names what changed because of the selected loan and offers Replay and Home without opening the frozen Market.
• The fast preview is playable in phone landscape and is clearly reported as direction-review evidence rather than a fixed candidate.

Legal Terminals

Preview:

Aetherbound Guild P9.0R4 fast H5 preview ready

Formal candidate after Owner direction acceptance:

Aetherbound Guild P9.0R4 second-cycle adaptation candidate ready

or

Aetherbound Guild P9.0R4 redesign required: <earliest failed player boundary>