L4ZTEA

The build goes beyond the requested arsenal with several relevant, working user-facing additions: a solo-vs-computer mode with an adaptive bracketing gunner (src/ai.js:1-40, src/main.js:105-143), touch controls for mobile play (index.html:39-46, src/main.js:154-172), and animated post-blast terrain collapse with tank fall damage rather than teleporting tanks into place (src/game.js:149-203, src/terrain.js:43-68). The delivered screencast visibly shows the wind indicator, changing terrain between rounds, a purchase shop, and a fired trajectory (artifact key frames from probe:36fd1b78-b02a-4b65-8cad-42fb691976a3). These are meaningful extras a real player would appreciate, especially solo play and mobile controls. It falls short of the memorable 8.5+ tier because the requested MIRV split is not visibly established in the supplied key frames, and the extra features are additive rather than a particularly distinctive new interaction.

The committed product implements the requested systems substantially: terrain is represented as destructible solid cells and collapseStep moves unsupported dirt incrementally until stable (src/terrain.js); settling applies gravity to tanks and calculates damage as a function of fall distance beyond SAFE_FALL (src/game.js); solo mode is exposed via ?ai=1 and the Gunner automatically aims, fires, observes landing/lost events, and adjusts power (src/main.js, src/ai.js); touch controls provide angle, power, weapon, and fire buttons, while the canvas is width-responsive and touch-action constrained (index.html, style.css). The done note accurately describes these features and is present (.ololo/scorched-polish-done.md). Automated tests cover collapse, fall damage, safe falls, and AI convergence (tests/polish.test.js). However, the required live screencast evidence is not actually available for this task: the attached screencast key frames show initial/loading states and only a static battlefield, not dirt collapse, tank fall/health loss, several converging computer shots, or touch firing. The mobile screenshot does demonstrate a fitting narrow layout and visible touch buttons, but cannot prove interaction. There is also a product risk in the AI convergence claim: Gunner.observe updates power based on landing events, but the live UI does not visibly expose miss coordinates or a convergence metric, so the behavior is difficult for a player/judge to verify without instrumentation.

The delivered desktop and mobile captures show a clear artillery-game hierarchy: player health bars at the top, a centered round/turn indicator, a large battlefield, readable aim/power status, and prominent yellow FIRE control. The dark navy, brown terrain, green health, and yellow action accent form a coherent visual system rather than a default layout. Evidence: desktop and mobile screenshots attached to probe 8ecc9bc9-49b1-4c85-95a8-1b829b7eec05; commit:b8c60ec87a29ae4519ee58977899b9b17d046f0a; file:src/main.js:16-52.

The screenshots show strong contrast for the main status text, health bars, terrain, and FIRE button, with the critical turn state centered and legible. The visible UI uses real text and controls, and the implementation exposes button-driven touch controls and text HUD updates rather than encoding state only in imagery. However, the screenshot evidence does not establish full keyboard focus styling or comprehensive semantic labeling. Evidence: desktop/mobile screenshots attached to probe 8ecc9bc9-49b1-4c85-95a8-1b829b7eec05; commit:b8c60ec87a29ae4519ee58977899b9b17d046f0a; file:src/main.js:84-112.

The narrow capture visibly fits the game within a phone-like 375px viewport: the battlefield and HUD remain contained, controls are touch-sized, and no horizontal overflow is visible. The implementation explicitly uses pointer events with hold-to-repeat for angle and power plus click-to-fire, supporting touch interaction. Evidence: mobile screenshot attached to probe 8ecc9bc9-49b1-4c85-95a8-1b829b7eec05; commit:b8c60ec87a29ae4519ee58977899b9b17d046f0a; file:src/main.js:114-128.

The committed implementation covers the core arsenal and economy: the pinned Missile, Big Bertha, Nuke, and MIRV stats/prices are defined in src/weapons.js; damage awards $10 per point, round wins award $500, and matches end at three wins in src/game.js. Round transitions generate new terrain, repair tanks, and expose a two-player shopping overlay in src/main.js. The delivered screencast frames visibly show the wind HUD, changing terrain across rounds, a round-end shop with the pinned prices, and a purchase-ready flow (probe:36fd1b78-b02a-4b65-8cad-42fb691976a3). However, the supplied frames do not prove the required interactive flows end to end: they do not visibly show a bent shell arc, a purchased weapon actually fired with its distinct blast, or a MIRV splitting into five warheads. The source implements wind acceleration and MIRV apex splitting (src/game.js:201-238), but the task explicitly requires these to be verified in motion, and the available artifact leaves those scenarios unproven. There is also a potentially confusing implementation detail: MIRV warheads are represented as five projectiles and explode separately if they contact terrain, but no explicit five-warhead visual treatment is present beyond the projectile dots (src/render.js:90-98).

The delivered desktop and mobile screenshots show a clear artillery-game hierarchy: player health and money at the top, round/wind status centered, terrain occupying the main area, and controls in a distinct footer. The shop overlay visibly lists weapon prices and purchase actions, while the screencast frames show round completion, money growth, and transition to a fresh terrain. Evidence: probe:36fd1b78-b02a-4b65-8cad-42fb691976a3, probe:58b69799-2acf-4c0d-b35a-8bf954cba7b2, commit:ed7e9c4fb9a8e3252e1129a31f5a79af4e527b6c, file:src/main.js:83-104.

Contrast is generally strong in the dark interface, with bright player labels, health bars, yellow status text, and readable shop controls. The markup includes a document title, language declaration, real text labels, and aria-labels on the mobile control buttons. However, some important game state is communicated through color-coded tank/health visuals, and the shop controls are primarily compact buttons without additional descriptive context. Evidence: probe:58b69799-2acf-4c0d-b35a-8bf954cba7b2, commit:ed7e9c4fb9a8e3252e1129a31f5a79af4e527b6c, file:index.html:1-57, file:style.css:1-170.

The narrow screenshot shows the playfield and HUD fitting within the viewport without horizontal overflow or clipped terrain. Controls are adapted into a touchpad with separate, reasonably large buttons and a prominent FIRE action. The screenshot does show substantial unused vertical space and compressed footer text, but the core game remains legible and usable. Evidence: probe:58b69799-2acf-4c0d-b35a-8bf954cba7b2, commit:ed7e9c4fb9a8e3252e1129a31f5a79af4e527b6c, file:index.html:39-50, file:style.css:141-170.

The delivered screencast shows both browsers presenting the same polished duel surface, with clear player health bars, round/turn status, terrain, projectile arcs, and a visible hall-of-fame result. The interface has strong contrast and a coherent dark artillery-game hierarchy, though the initial frame is visually sparse before the match initializes. Evidence: probe:0734c666-1713-47dd-95b8-87c97e53c3e6; commit:667906abad40fbab030f34b88daefb498ac4a4c8; file:src/render.js:1-120

Screenshots show readable text, strong light-on-dark contrast, and status information conveyed through text as well as colored health bars. The committed HTML/CSS and rendering implementation support a semantic, text-based interface rather than image-baked labels; the hall-of-fame entries are legible in the captured result. Evidence: probe:0734c666-1713-47dd-95b8-87c97e53c3e6; commit:667906abad40fbab030f34b88daefb498ac4a4c8; file:index.html:1-90; file:src/main.js:1-80

The delivered mobile screenshot shows the duel fitting within a narrow viewport without horizontal scrolling or overlapping controls. Player status, terrain, weapon readout, and controls remain visible, with the bottom control strip wrapping cleanly. Evidence: commit:667906abad40fbab030f34b88daefb498ac4a4c8; file:.ololo/artifacts/58b69799-2acf-4c0d-b35a-8bf954cba7b2/mobile.png; file:style.css:1-220

The game’s core datasets—weapon stats and hall‑of‑fame records—have a clear single source of truth. Weapon constants live only in src/weapons.js (e.g., blastRadius, price) and the persistent hall lives in hall.json on the server, accessed via the recordMatch/rank helpers (src/hall.js) and fetched by the client (main.js). No duplicate hard‑coded copies of these values appear elsewhere, satisfying the ‘no shadow data’ rule. However, data handling is not fully abstracted: the client parses JSON directly in the UI code and the server reads/writes hall.json inline, which limits data‑layer separation and keeps the score capped at 6‑10. All outputs (ranking, match results) are derived from the declared sources, meeting the honesty requirement.

Beyond the required multiplayer match and persistent hall of fame, the build adds several usable extra features: a deterministic AI opponent (optional via URL flag) that can shop and fire, keyboard shortcuts for aiming and firing, and a touch‑pad UI with hold‑repeat actions. These touches improve real‑world usability and give the product capabilities the brief never demanded but a player would appreciate. The code for these features is present and functional (see src/main.js for AI, key handling and touchpad logic, src/hall.js for ranking, and the e2e script .check/mp.mjs that demonstrates a full hosted‑join match and hall persistence).

The multiplayer additions are reasonably named and modularized into Net and hall modules, with no evident copy-pasted blocks. However, the browser controller remains very large and mixes networking, lobby, shop, AI, input, rendering, and match-result responsibilities, continuing the coupling noted in earlier reviews. Evidence: commit:667906abad40fbab030f34b88daefb498ac4a4c8; file:src/net.js:1; file:src/hall.js:1; file:src/main.js:1

The server relay and hall persistence are understandable, but several boundary failures are handled weakly: malformed or unsupported WebSocket messages are mostly ignored, joining provides no explicit client feedback beyond an error message, and hall result posting is best-effort with failures hidden. The main controller is a scroll-length function-level module with substantial shared mutable state, making safe changes difficult. The online simulation also relies on both clients independently reproducing physics rather than synchronizing authoritative state, increasing future correctness risk. Evidence: commit:667906abad40fbab030f34b88daefb498ac4a4c8; file:server.js:42; file:server.js:74; file:src/main.js:1; file:src/main.js:123; file:src/main.js:147

The suite contains concrete assertions for core gameplay, terrain, projectile behavior, damage, turns, rounds, AI, and hall-of-fame ranking. The hall tests specifically verify wins-first ordering, damage tie-breaking, accumulation, and immutability (tests/hall.test.js:5-39), while game tests cover firing, craters/damage, wind, weapons, MIRV behavior, and match completion (tests/game.test.js:12-119). However, there are no tests for the multiplayer networking layer, host/join invitation flow, synchronized remote actions, disconnect defeat, or persistence across reload—the central scenarios of this task. Hall tests also only test pure data transformation, not actual persistence or integration with match completion. The automated test command could not execute in the probe environment because the glob was not resolved (probe result), so passing execution is not independently confirmed.

The repository has no AGENTS.md, agent-oriented README, hooks, or CI guardrails, so the agent must still infer the workflow. However, it includes meaningful reusable automation: package scripts provide serve and test (package.json:1), and .check/mp.mjs encodes a complete two-browser host/join, live-match, synchronization, and hall-reload verification flow (.check/mp.mjs:1-95). .check/rec-duel.mjs also automates video capture of gameplay (.check/rec-duel.mjs:1-105), and the done note documents the intended networking and persistence approach (.ololo/scorched-multiplayer-done.md:1-13). This is a substantial improvement over the prior ad-hoc workflow, but the scripts are not exposed through package commands, not automatically invoked by hooks, and there are no concise agent instructions explaining startup, verification, or artifact capture.

The implementation has clear, proportionate boundaries: the DOM-free simulation and rules live in src/game.js, terrain/tank/weapons/AI are separate domain modules, networking is isolated behind src/net.js, ranking logic is isolated in src/hall.js, rendering is in src/render.js, and HTTP/WebSocket persistence/relay is in server.js (commit:667906abad40fbab030f34b88daefb498ac4a4c8; file:src/game.js:1; file:src/net.js:1; file:src/hall.js:1; file:server.js:1). Dependency direction is mostly sensible: the browser orchestrator consumes game, rendering, networking, and hall APIs, while the server reuses the hall rules. The main structural weakness is that src/main.js is a large orchestration blob combining lobby, network event handling, result persistence, HUD rendering, shop UI, AI scheduling, keyboard/touch input, and the animation loop (file:src/main.js:1-352), so several replaceable concerns are coupled through shared mutable state. server.js also combines static-file serving, API persistence, and WebSocket room management, though this remains reasonable for the small app (file:server.js:1-105). Overall the boundaries are strong, but extracting browser adapters/controllers and perhaps server concerns would improve isolation and testability.

The new mechanics are named clearly and supported by focused modules (Terrain, Gunner, and game constants), with no obvious dead implementation code. However, the browser entry point remains densely responsible for HUD, shop, AI orchestration, touch controls, keyboard controls, and animation, continuing the earlier concern about mixed responsibilities. Evidence: commit:b8c60ec87a29ae4519ee58977899b9b17d046f0a; file:src/main.js:1; file:src/game.js:1; file:src/terrain.js:1.

The core rules are reasonably testable and constants document important physics values; the added tests cover terrain collapse, fall damage, safe falls, and AI convergence. Still, src/main.js is a long stateful integration file, and Game.update/projectile and settling logic are substantial methods with many interacting state transitions. Boundary error handling is minimal, and the AI's live observation depends on event-slice timing and uses a sentinel landing position for lost shots, which is clever but less transparent to change safely. Evidence: commit:b8c60ec87a29ae4519ee58977899b9b17d046f0a; file:src/main.js:43; file:src/main.js:112; file:src/game.js:121; file:src/game.js:188; file:tests/polish.test.js:7.

All core numeric constants (gravity, wind limits, fall damage parameters, etc.) are defined in src/game.js, and the weapons list with pricing and stats is in src/weapons.js – each logical dataset lives in a single dedicated module with no duplicated or hard‑coded copies elsewhere. The game logic (Game class) reads and shapes this data and provides a clear API for the UI; there is no scattering of data parsing or duplicate values in markup or render code. No shadow data were found, and the implemented behaviours (terrain collapse, tank fall damage, weapon stats) are derived directly from these source‑of‑truth constants, satisfying honesty of sourcing.

The repository still has no AGENTS.md, agent README, hooks, or CI wiring, so the workflow remains largely undocumented and manually driven. It does improve over the prior submission with reusable Playwright recording scripts: .check/rec-duel.mjs and .check/rec-arsenal.mjs launch the server, create deterministic seeded sessions, solve aiming, and save WebM artifacts. The completion note also records the relevant verification scope and test count. However, package.json exposes only serve and test; the recording helpers are not runnable through package scripts or automatically invoked, and there are no guardrails that run them or validate captures. This is useful session-specific automation, but not deliberate project-level agent setup.

The test suite contains many solid assertions that verify concrete behavior (e.g., blast damage, projectile arcs, MIRV split, terrain generation) and includes integration‑style simulations of game turns. It also adds dedicated tests for the new features: terrain collapse (unsupported dirt tumbles) and tank falling with health damage (polish.test.js), and an AI convergence test for the gunner. However, the phone/touch UI scenario is not exercised at all, and there are no end‑to‑end or UI‑level tests that confirm the battlefield fits on a narrow screen or that touch aiming works. The suite is therefore strong on unit/integration coverage but lacks coverage of the assembled product’s UI, which caps the possible score per the rubric. No dishonest or comment‑out tests were found.

The codebase cleanly separates concerns: src/game.js implements the core, pure game rules without any DOM or rendering code (evidence: file src/game.js contains only logic and no UI APIs). Rendering is isolated in src/render.js, which only draws based on the game's state (evidence: file src/render.js). The browser orchestration and UI handling live in src/main.js, which wires the game, renderer, and input controls together (evidence: file src/main.js). The AI logic is in its own module src/ai.js. Dependencies flow one‑way – Game imports Terrain, Tank, rng, and weapon data, while Renderer depends on Game but not vice‑versa, and main.js orchestrates them without creating cycles. Components are small and single‑purpose, making each replaceable or testable in isolation (evidence: each file is under 200 lines, focused on a single domain). The layering matches the project's scope: a modest game does not have unnecessary abstraction layers, yet the core, rendering, UI, and AI are all clearly delineated, so the structure is well‑proportioned.

This goes meaningfully beyond a plain artillery duel with several product-relevant additions: animated, stepwise terrain collapse; tanks that fall with distance-based damage and recorded fall events; a dedicated Gunner opponent that adapts power after observing landing position; and a touch control pad intended for narrow screens. The implementation also adds wind, destructible pixel terrain, a between-round shop, purchasable weapons, and MIRV splitting—memorable extras that fit the game. Evidence includes the delivered desktop/mobile screenshots showing the responsive battlefield, cratered terrain, AI turn, and shop; src/terrain.js:37-64 for incremental collapse; src/game.js:147-196 for settling and fall damage; src/ai.js:1-30 for adaptive aiming; src/main.js:176-193 for touch controls; and tests/polish.test.js:6-84 for the added behavioral checks. The required motion flows are plausibly implemented and several WebM artifacts exist, but the provided evidence here does not visibly establish every requested live flow, and the deterministic test probe could not run because the sandbox could not resolve tests/*.test.js.

The repository provides some helper scripts in the .check directory (e.g., capture-ux.mjs, shop.mjs, shot.mjs) that automate visual verification of wind, shop flow, and shot behavior, and a descriptive completion note in .ololo/scorched-arsenal-done.md. However, there is no dedicated agent instruction file (no AGENTS.md or equivalent), no documented workflow that tells an AI agent how to run, verify, or capture the required screencast, and no hooks or guardrails that automatically invoke these scripts. The automation exists but is not wired into the build or test process, so it provides limited agent guidance. Consequently, the score reflects partial automation but missing explicit instructions and guardrails.

The submission has a clear, proportionate modular structure: game.js owns the DOM-free rules/state machine, weapons.js owns the arsenal constants, terrain.js owns destructible terrain, tank.js owns tank state, ai.js owns opponent behavior, and render.js owns canvas presentation. The browser orchestration is concentrated in main.js, which connects the core to HUD, controls, shop, and animation rather than embedding game rules in markup. This supports isolated testing, evidenced by the Node tests covering wind, purchasing, MIRV splitting, economy, and rounds in tests/game.test.js. Dependency direction is generally sound: the core depends on terrain/tank/weapons/rng, while rendering and browser code depend on the core. The main architectural weakness is that main.js contains several distinct responsibilities—HUD synchronization, shop flow, input handling, AI scheduling, and animation lifecycle—and directly mutates core state for debug/AI control (game.current.tank.angle, power, and window.game). Also, transient rendering state is mutated by Renderer.drawExplosions (e.age and this.game.explosions), coupling presentation to game state; this is a modest boundary defect, not a structural collapse.

All game‑relevant data (weapon list, prices, blast radii, damage values, economy constants) is defined once in src/weapons.js and imported where needed. No other file contains hard‑coded copies of these values. The shop UI, game logic, and scoring all read from the same source, with no shadow data or contradictory literals. The data handling is encapsulated in the weapons module, and the presentation layer only consumes the already‑shaped data, preserving honesty to the pinned arsenal and payouts.

The test suite contains concrete assertions for all core gameplay mechanics required by the task: blast damage gradients, projectile arcs, wind influence, money payout per damage point, round win bonus, weapon purchase and fallback to missile, MIRV split behavior, tank falling mechanics, and terrain generation/collapse. Assertions are explicit and not tautological. Coverage includes both happy paths and error/edge cases such as insufficient funds and self‑damage payouts. Minor gaps exist (e.g., no checks for out‑of‑range angles, zero power, or verification of weapon blast radius/damage beyond purchase logic), but overall the suite is thorough and mixes unit and integration‑style tests appropriately.

The delivered desktop and mobile screenshots show a clear game hierarchy: player health bars flank the active-turn indicator, the terrain dominates the screen, and angle/power plus keyboard instructions are immediately visible. The arc screenshot also demonstrates a readable projectile trajectory and strong contrast against the sky.

The screenshots show generally strong contrast, readable text, and health represented with both bars and numeric HUD text in the captured states. Markup includes lang="en", viewport metadata, an aria-live turn indicator, and real text controls/instructions. The canvas is the primary play surface and has no accessible fallback description, which limits the score.

The narrow screenshot shows the HUD, battlefield, and controls fitting within the viewport without horizontal overflow or overlap. CSS uses a fluid width, responsive canvas sizing, and compact wrapping-friendly controls. The instruction text is somewhat dense at mobile width, but remains visible and usable.

The submission adds a few genuinely user-helpful touches beyond the core brief: seeded battlefield generation via a URL parameter for reproducible duels, a visible projectile trail and transient explosion animation, and tanks re-seating after terrain is blasted away. The controls are discoverable in the HUD and health bars/winner banner are clearly presented. These are supported by src/main.js (seed handling, keyboard help, winner UI), src/game.js (settleTanks and events), src/render.js (trail/explosion rendering), and .ololo/scorched-core-done.md. The delivered screenshots show the playable aiming presentation and trajectory visualization, though they do not prove the extra interactions in motion.

The test suite contains concrete assertions for all core game behaviours: blast damage scaling (game.test.js lines 5‑12), shot trajectory, crater carving, turn switching (lines 14‑32), damage application (lines 34‑44), win condition (lines 46‑52), and tank repositioning after a crater (lines 54‑60). Terrain tests verify solid/air consistency, deterministic generation, and persistent carving (terrain.test.js lines 5‑30). The tests cover the required scenarios—taking a shot, ground deformation, damage handling, and duel termination—using deterministic seeds to ensure repeatability. They exercise both unit-level logic (blastDamage, Terrain.carve) and integration-level flow (Game.update, explode, endTurn), providing appropriate level mix. No tests are commented‑out, placeholder, or merely restating implementation; they assert observable outcomes. Minor gaps exist (e.g., invalid input handling for angles/power), but overall the suite robustly validates the core functionality expected for the task, justifying a high score.

The project has clear separation between the DOM-free game rules (src/game.js), terrain model (src/terrain.js), tank model (src/tank.js), RNG (src/rng.js), canvas presentation (src/render.js), and browser/input orchestration (src/main.js). The core is independently testable and explicitly avoids DOM access, while rendering consumes game state rather than owning rules. Terrain owns generation, solidity, and crater mutation; Game owns turn state, ballistics, damage, and win conditions. This is proportional for a small browser game and has a clear dependency direction from the browser layer into game/render modules. Some coupling remains: Game directly constructs concrete Terrain and Tank instances and main.js reaches into game.current for debug/control mutation, while rendering mutates explosion ages and replaces game.explosions; these are minor boundary leaks rather than a fused architecture.

The core dataset (tank health, blast damage, blast radius, gravity) is defined as constants in the source: TANK_START_HEALTH = 100 in src/tank.js (line 1), BLAST_MAX_DAMAGE = 30 and BLAST_RADIUS = 45 in src/game.js (lines defining the constants). These values are not duplicated elsewhere – the UI reads the live state (e.g., tank.health) rather than hard‑coding numbers, and the terrain generation uses a single RNG‑driven function (Terrain.generate) without shadow copies. The data is accessed directly by the renderer, which is acceptable for this simple app, though the separation between data and presentation is not fully abstracted (some direct reads of game.tanks etc.), limiting the score slightly. Overall, the source of truth is clear, no shadow data exists, and the data layer is reasonably isolated, earning an 8.0.

The implementation uses clear domain names such as Game, Terrain, Tank, blastDamage, projectile, and settleTanks, with constants for canonical physics values and no obvious dead or copy-pasted blocks. The modular split is sensible and comments explain non-obvious mechanics. Evidence: commit:e57c2d4a42b9b911eaba3e500e32dd902a53370d; file:src/game.js:1; file:src/terrain.js:1; file:src/render.js:1.

Core rules are isolated from DOM rendering and covered by eight passing tests, making physics and damage changes relatively safe. State transitions are straightforward and named constants avoid magic values. Main weaknesses are the long, tightly coupled renderer methods, minimal HTTP boundary validation/error distinctions, and a test script glob that does not match the submitted filenames (the direct test command passes, but npm test fails to locate tests). Evidence: probe:deterministic test run passed; probe:deterministic npm test error; file:src/game.js:79; file:src/render.js:36; file:server.js:18; file:package.json:8.

The repository has no AGENTS.md, README, .claude, .agents, skill definitions, hooks, or automatic validation wiring, so the agent workflow is largely undocumented and relies on improvisation. It does provide a concise completion note with accurate controls, rules, tests, and server startup instructions in .ololo/scorched-core-done.md. Routine verification is partially encoded in package.json via npm test, and the implementation includes a useful browser debug handle (window.game/window.fireShot) for automated checking. The unit tests cover core mechanics, but there is no committed agent-oriented runbook, reusable capture/verification automation, or guardrail that runs automatically. The .check/shot.mjs artifact suggests browser checking occurred, but no configuration invokes it and it is not documented as a workflow.