settled-reach/docs/sprints/sprint-34/planning.md

Sprint 34: Pulse — Planning Tasks

Goal: Close Phase 2 — wire the economics simulation into the live game, expose price history and trade flows in the implant, and make the economy observable and tweakable at runtime.

Branch: sprint-34/planning Agents: Gestalt (systems), Burnelli-Sheldon (economics), Tyre (technical), Miri (worldbuilding), Qatux (documenter), SI (project manager)

Tickets

#	Title	Blocked by
#748	Phase 3: Planetary/moon maps and station layouts — Atlas of the Reach	#747 (in progress → closes this sprint)
#811	Brand layer design	—

Context to Read Before Discussion

For #811 (Brand layer design):

• decisions/economics.md — D-185 (Brands Are Not Commodities), D-184 (Commodity Catalog — what exists), D-173 (Commodity Taxonomy — three-tier structure)
• decisions/scope.md — D-131 (broad economic verb vocabulary), D-118 (small business owner starting state — brands are the Phase 3 player layer)
• wiki/economics/commodities.toml, wiki/economics/production_chains.toml

For #748 (Phase 3 breakdown):

• CLAUDE.md — Development cascade table (Phase 3 = Planetary/moon maps, deliverable = Atlas of the Reach)
• decisions/architecture.md — D-093 (Sova Transit District spatial layout), D-094 (district spatial hierarchy), D-095 (Horizon stations and gate infrastructure)
• Sprint 33 deliverable: server/data/systems.db populated with 300+ systems, gate links, currency zones
• docs/atlas/ — existing atlas content

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#811 — Brand Layer Design

Type: Planning discussion — produces a D-record in decisions/economics.md

What this is: The brand/luxury goods system sits on top of the commodity layer (D-185 confirms brands are NOT commodities). Brands consume commodities as inputs. Brand pricing is driven by cultural/emotional/want mechanics, not tâtonnement. This design work answers the Phase 3 question: how does a player engage with the economy as a participant (producer/trader/brand-builder) rather than an observer?

Discussion rounds:

Round 1 — Inventory (what exists, what is missing)

• What is the full design space of "brand" in the Reach? (Gestalt, Miri)
• What D-records already constrain brand design? (Tyre reads economics.md, scope.md)
• What is the player's economic verb set when brands exist? (Burnelli-Sheldon, Gestalt)

Round 2 — Proposals

• Brand representation: is a brand a DB entity, a modifier on a commodity, or a separate production chain layer? (Tyre, Burnelli-Sheldon)
• Cultural pricing model: how does a brand's cultural origin affect demand across currency zones? (Miri, Gestalt)
• Player access: what verbs does a player have toward an existing brand vs. founding one? (Gestalt)

Round 3 — Convergence

• Draft one D-record covering: brand representation in the data model, cultural demand pricing, player access verbs, and the boundary with Phase 2 commodity tâtonnement
• SI creates follow-up implementation tickets for Phase 3 sprint

Output: D-NNN in decisions/economics.md (claim ID via tooling/db/decision claim D economics "Brand layer architecture"). Qatux files the record. SI creates 2-4 Phase 3 implementation tickets from the decision.

CONSTRAINT: This design session covers brand layer architecture only. No character creation, no tycoon states, no apartment generators. Phase 4 work is out of scope until Phase 3 delivers.

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#748 — Phase 3 Planetary Maps Breakdown Workshop

Type: Planning discussion — produces a sprint-ready ticket breakdown for Phase 3

What this is: Phase 3 deliverable is the Atlas of the Reach (implant app) — region-level maps at hundreds-of-km scale. Cities, rivers, mountains, rail lines, gate/portal locations, road hierarchy, named areas. This workshop answers: what is the minimal scope for a shippable Phase 3, and what tickets does it generate?

Timing: This discussion runs AFTER the server team confirms Phase 2 is closing (economics in-game, IPC bridge live). Do not start this discussion until Sprint 34 server tickets are at least in_progress.

Discussion rounds:

Round 1 — Inventory

• What does Phase 3 require that does not exist? Read docs/atlas/, existing world data in server/data/systems.db. (Miri, Tyre)
• What systems from Phase 2 does Phase 3 build on (gate network, system data, planet_class)? (Gestalt, Tyre)
• What is the rendering target? (Implant app panel — same component library as economics panel?) (Tyre)

Round 2 — Scope definition

• Define the MVP Atlas: which systems get maps first? (Miri — Sova/Krenn as canonical first-system per D-036)
• Data authoring pipeline: how are planetary maps authored? Hand-drawn overlays on procedural heightmaps? Pure procedural? (Miri, Gestalt)
• Implant app design: what does the Atlas panel look like? Click-through from the star map? (Tyre)

Round 3 — Ticket breakdown

• Break Phase 3 into 4-8 implementation tickets across server, client, copy, visual teams
• Assign team and priority to each
• SI creates the tickets and blocks them appropriately under #748

Output: 4-8 new tickets (server + client + copy + visual) with team assignments, priorities, and explicit dependencies. SI creates them immediately at round end.

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Dependency Chain

#811 (brand layer design) — run early in sprint, unblocks Phase 3 planning
#748 (Phase 3 breakdown) — run after server Sprint 34 tickets are in_progress

PR Workflow

Planning branch produces decisions and ticket updates only — no code. Commit decisions and close tickets:

tea pr create --repo jpmschweitzer/settled-reach --login schweitz \
  --title "planning(economics): brand layer design and Phase 3 breakdown" \
  --description "Sprint 34 planning work" \
  --base main --head sprint-34/planning