Establishes the faux-game-menu base pattern for non-diegetic UI,
analogous to ImplantApp but for pre-gameplay and meta-overlay
screens (main menu, character creation, settings, debug console,
bug report, loading screen). Workstream 1 of the MetaScreen
refactor — foundation only, no screen migrations yet.
- client/ui/meta/meta_screen.gd: base class (Control) with
HIDDEN/OPENING/OPEN/CLOSING phase tracking, three orthogonal
policy booleans (pauses_sim, closable_by_escape, captures_input),
open/close lifecycle, on_escape contract, closed + escape_pressed
signals, subclass hooks (on_open, on_close).
- client/ui/meta/meta_stack.gd: autoload coordinator. Overlay stack
with push/pop/top/is_active; handle_escape chain; sim-pause
coordination via SimBridge when pauses_sim=true; meta_active_changed
signal. All class references kept inside method bodies — no
top-level class_name refs, matching HudGroups / GameState
autoload parse-order discipline.
- client/scripts/character_profile.gd: Resource wrapping the
visual descriptor with bookmark_id and start_location_id.
Target of the creation_confirmed signal once the character
creation flow migrates.
- client/project.godot: MetaStack registered as autoload after
HudGroups, before ImplantRegistry.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>