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Gameplay Framework Walkthrough (II) — DEPTHCHARGE, a salvage run

Scope: a deliberately simple job — one cart (DEPTHCHARGE), low threat, a single SALVAGE. The same simple case as GLASS PAYROLL, on a different cart: the verb is again OBTAIN, but the affinity is MARITIME, not NETWORK. No Hot Swap, no multi-cart campaign. The point is that the framework didn’t have to bend to host a sonar dive.


The contract: DEAD RECKONING — raise a scuttled courier sub’s sealed data core

Section titled “The contract: DEAD RECKONING — raise a scuttled courier sub’s sealed data core”

Operator HOSHIKO boots — the same operator who lifted GLASS PAYROLL. Mission Control synthesizes the board seeded by Universal Deck Statereputation sets the threat tier, cartridge_history shows DEPTHCHARGE registered (bit 0x04), cipher_seed is the entropy. Because DEPTHCHARGE is inserted it supersedes the System-tier :sonar baseline, so the board leans maritime. One contract surfaces: SALVAGE · MARITIME · T2 · ¤1700. → foundations: Board ↔ UDS (mission-control.md §3); the supersedes mechanic (§2.3)

The board prints the class SALVAGE = the Tier-3 verb OBTAIN × the affinity MARITIME — the player-legible “deep recovery.” The same verb as GLASS PAYROLL (which was OBTAIN × NETWORK); only the affinity changed. A single-type job. The mirror verb DELIVER (the dock handoff) is the settlement beat, not a separate phase. A (mission-type-catalog.md)

○ P1 Reach the wreck at depth 4 ¤500 primary · briefed · on-complete
○ P2 Recover the sealed core ¤1200 primary · briefed · :requires P1 · on-resolve
+ O1 Silent run — :hold (heat < breach) +3 REP optional · briefed · on-resolve (escrow)
◌ O2 [latent] Cargo manifest cache ¤400 +INTEL optional · revealed @ cargo hold · on-resolve

Mission succeeds when P1 + P2 are :done. The dive’s physical stakes — hull integrity, depth pressure, the oxygen clock — are not a new subsystem: the engine watches them as the same :hold-and-TTL machinery the objective model already owns (hull→0 or oxygen→0 forces :failed). → foundations: objective graph (mission-objectives.md, ADR-0043)

3 · Recon (HOSHIKO plays measured, not rip-and-run)

Section titled “3 · Recon (HOSHIKO plays measured, not rip-and-run)”

She drops into recon mode and opens bzbx against the target’s simulated dive world — the cart supplied that world via (launch-app :bzbx :world dive-topology); there is no real ocean, and bzbx is the sonar console here, not a network scanner. A passive SCAN (≈ free heat) maps the wreck’s terrain and a thermal-vent corridor that masks sonar; one active PROBE ping on the wreck (a little heat — and in shallow water surface hunters listen for exactly this) surfaces the core’s resting cell → (dossier-commit dive:wreck-7:core-bay). C recon mode + heat (recon-mode.md) · D enrichment / simulated world (enrichment-contract.md)

The key lands as a fact-node under a :target profile (the wreck, COURIER-DELPHINE) — :prov (mission … :via bzbx), :conf :verified. Now (dossier-has? dive:wreck-7:core-bay)true, which de-risks the descent: pre-mapped topology means fewer blind cells and a known thermal-vent approach (cover that also recovers a stealth credit). (A rip-and-run operator skips steps 3–4 and dives blind — both styles are valid.) → foundations: DOSSIER (dossier-data-model.md); the recon → intel → de-risk loop

5 · Dive in — (load-capability :depthcharge)

Section titled “5 · Dive in — (load-capability :depthcharge)”

DEPTHCHARGE’s capability is a mini-game — the real-time OODA dive (10–30 s cycles, played by ear). Inside it HOSHIKO works Tier-2 REMOTE OPS verbs: CORE DIVE (CAR, descend the depth list) down the thermal-vent corridor the recon mapped, riding its acoustic mask to stay silent; then a COMPOSITE GHOST = CONS(DRIFT, GRAPPLE) to lift the core under the logging threshold instead of the loud bare grapple — the same composite role as GLASS PAYROLL’s GHOST = CONS(MASK, JUMP), different operand cores because it’s a different cart. She reaches the core bay → (goal-complete 'P1)¤500 banked (on-complete). E capability shape: mini-game (capability-shapes.md) · B CORE + COMPOSITE verbs (verb-partition.md)

Pushing into the wreck’s cargo hold she hits a sealed manifest cache → (goal-reveal 'O2) (the bonus dataset appears). Taking it means cutting the hold open — the cutting torch, loud (+1 acoustic) — and more time at depth 4: pressure gnaws the hull and burns the oxygen clock. She goes for it. The torch sings. Heat rises. → foundations: latent reveal + risk-coupled escrow (mission-objectives.md §3)

The accumulated acoustic heat (the active PROBE in step 3 + the torch in step 6) crosses the threshold → counter-intrusion. A rival drone operator, passive-listening at depth, fixes her bearing. knSALK’s passive shield (her hardened rig, bought earlier with credits) absorbs the first shadowing pass — but the torch was loud → breakthrough → the dive interrupts → the active stand: HOSHIKO defends with DEFENDER verbs — QUARANTINE (slip into a thermal vent, break the acoustic lock), REROUTE (course-change to shed the intercept vector) — a grammar engagement, the other capability shape, in the same run. CIPHER-LINE, mystical now: the deep keeps her / it sends one back. She breaks contact — but the spike pushed heat past breach, so the silent run is blown. F knSALK: heat-triggered, passive → active (knsalk.md) · E grammar shape — both shapes fired this run

Both primaries :done. She surfaces (the REMOTE OPS Recover → Recovery tail) and hands the core to the dock contact — the DELIVER mirror settles the contract. Settlement:

GoalRewardOutcome
P1¤500kept (banked on-complete)
P2¤1200paid (mission succeeded)
O1+3 REPforfeited — the silent run was broken by the heat spike
O2¤400 + INTELpaid — grabbed and survived

One sanctioned UDS write (ADR-0040 §6): credit_balance += 2100, reputation += the success delta (no silent bonus), DEPTHCHARGE mastery += threat-weighted, the O2 manifest intel → DOSSIER, cipher_seed advances, phase_chain clears. New DEPTHCHARGE mastery nudges the next board toward deeper maritime work; the banked wreck key de-risks a future COURIER-DELPHINE follow-on. → foundations: economy — all four currencies move (currency-and-economy.md)


PieceWhere
A — mission-type catalogSALVAGE = OBTAIN × MARITIME (§1)
B — verb partitionCORE DIVE/GRAPPLE + COMPOSITE GHOST = CONS(DRIFT, GRAPPLE) (§5); DEFENDER verbs (§7)
C — recon modebzbx casing, passive SCAN / active PROBE heat (§3)
D — program enrichmentbzbx + the simulated dive world via launch-app :world (§3)
E — capability shapesDEPTHCHARGE mini-game dive (§5) and knSALK grammar stand (§7) — both in one run
F — knSALKheat-triggered counter-intrusion, passive → active stand (§7)
objective modelthe goal graph + escrow forfeit + hull/oxygen as :hold/TTL (§2, §6, §8)
economy¤ + reputation + mastery + intel all move (§8)
DOSSIERfact-node + dossier-has? de-risk (§4)
Board ↔ UDSseeded board (+ :sonar supersede), sanctioned write (§0, §8)

Why this proves coherence — the second test

Section titled “Why this proves coherence — the second test”

The first walkthrough showed the A–F pieces interlock. This one shows they interlock the same way on a cart that shares almost nothing with the first. Nothing in the framework changed to host a sonar dive:

  • the trace meter became an acoustic / stealth-credit meter — and knSALK read it from the other end exactly as before;
  • the network topology became a dive topology — same launch-app :world recon lens, same dossier-commit;
  • the netrun mini-game became a sonar dive — same (load-capability …) call, same result struct;
  • the intruder became a rival drone — same passive-shield → active-stand DEFENDER grammar.

The same cleanest tell holds: the heat HOSHIKO spent on offense (the recon PROBE + her greed at the cargo hold) is exactly what summoned the defense. Recon (C) and knSALK (F) are one acoustic-heat meter read from both ends; and a single ordinary run again naturally exercised both capability shapes (E). The one genuinely new thing DEPTHCHARGE brings — a physical stake axis (hull, pressure, oxygen) — needed no new system: it rode in on the objective model’s existing :hold constraints and the run TTL.

A rip-and-run variant of the same contract — skip §3/§4, dive blind, run cold (no active pings, no torch), surface clean, no breakthrough — is equally valid and exercises a different subset. That both playstyles, and both carts, run on the same machinery is the whole point.