RotoRouter

A tactical route-building board game with optional AI players.

What’s new

What’s new (Nov 10, 2025)

Turn counter (per player)

Each player now has a turns counter that increments at the start of a new turn only when there are no per-turn Redos available. This still counts even if only one player remains. Undo/Redo do not change the count.
Save/Load: players[].turns is persisted in snapshots and restored on load; older saves backfill the value to 0.
UI: In the Corners score table, hovering a player’s score shows a tooltip Turns: ###, and clicking the score shows a toast with the same text.
Look:* Game tokens have new glossy 3D appearance (made from rendered PNG images encoded at base64 and embedded in the source file)

AI Only Remaining Pause

Now when there are only one or more AI players left in the game, the game pauses asking if you want to continue.

What's new (Oct 26, 2025)

2025-10-25 — Cleanup Phase-1 (mechanical fixes)

Summary: fairness + determinism + one null-guard. No UI or layout changes.

Deterministic deck recycle

When the draw pile empties, the discard pile is moved back to draw without shuffling (FIFO). This preserves the original shuffle order for the entire game.

AI draw fairness

Removed the legacy “prefer connector cards (RS/RE/RT/RC)” look-ahead. AI now draws exactly like humans: top of the draw pile only.

Corner-highlight guard

drawTurnCornerHighlight() now skips safely if there’s no current player yet (boot/transition safety). No visual change; eliminates a rare console error.

Files touched: RotoRouter.html

Sanity checks:

New game → draw/discard until recycle: order remains consistent, no reshuffle. Early AI turns: no bias toward connectors; card mix reflects true top-of-deck. Launch from MainMenu: no “reading 'active' of undefined” console error on initial paint.

What’s new (Oct 16, 2025)

New: AI Delay Control (1–10 → ×0.5…×5.0)

You can now scale the AI's think-time/delay using a simple slider in the sidebar.

Where: In the Actions → Token panel, under the “AI debug trace (console)” checkbox.
Control: AI delay slider from 1 to 10 with a live label showing the multiplier (e.g. ×1.0).
Range: 1 → ×0.5 (shorter delays, faster AI), … 10 → ×5.0 (longer delays, slower AI).
Default: 2 (×1.0). This matches the previous timing: aiSleepTime=200, aiSleepTime2=300, aiSleepTime3=280.
Persistence: The setting is saved per-browser and restored on next load.
Design note: The control adjusts delay length (not speed); larger values mean longer waits.
Design note: The UI includes the caption: 1 = shorter (faster), 10 = longer (slower) and a numeric “×multiplier” label.

Oct 15, 2025

Last-placed highlight – on your turn, the most recent track you placed is outlined with a soft glow so you can quickly find it again.
AI move preview – before the AI commits a placement/rotation, it briefly flashes a ring on the chosen cell (a quick “heads-up” beat).
AI debug trace (console) – new sidebar toggle (“AI debug trace (console)”) prints the AI’s short decision trace (targets considered, scores, and final choice).

Using the new features

Seeing your last placement
- After you place a track, a subtle glow/border marks that cell only on your turn. It fades when you change context or another track becomes the “last placed”.
Watching AI intentions
- When the current player is AI, you’ll see a short flash on the cell it’s about to use (whether rotating an existing tile or placing a new one). Then it commits.
Debugging AI
- In the sidebar, under Actions → Token, tick AI debug trace (console). Open the browser console to view: scores for candidate moves, chosen action, and any fallbacks.

Oct 14, 2025

Fixed bug related to AI

When playing 2 players (1 human and 1 AI) or 3 players (1 humand and 2 AI), the "Continue" game state was being incorrectly triggered after the human player landed all his tokens. Fixed logic to determine when a player has truly finished.
Fixed bug whereby the solo-AI "Continue" warning message was getting overriden by "Turn passed." message endTurnImmediate(). Extended the guard that suppresses the "Turn passed." message to also suppress it while we're paused for the solo-AI prompt.

Oct 13, 2025

New: Token Visibility Toggle (Hide/Unhide)

You can now quickly hide all tokens to view the track layout unobstructed.

Where: Tokens panel in the sidebar.
How: Click Hide to hide all tokens; the button switches to Unhide.
Scope: Hiding persists for the rest of your current turn unless you manually unhide.
Auto-unhide: If you click Token Action, tokens are immediately made visible again and the button reverts to Hide.
Keyboard shortcuts:
- H — Hide tokens
- U — Unhide tokens

Note: Hiding affects visuals only; it does not change reachability or legal move checks.

AI: rotation gating, exploration, and no-op tolerance

Rotation gating: the AI only rolls the die after first probing for a legal token move and only when a rotation is likely to help.
Exploratory move before rotating: if recent rotations from the same cell don’t help, the AI will try a short exploration move to a nearby branching spot and re-evaluate before attempting another die roll.
No-op tolerance: if neither a token move nor a rotation would improve connectivity (e.g., early game with no nearby networks), the AI may Bottom and end the turn without moving or rotating.
Anti-bounce: remembers the last hop/edge to prevent A↔B “ping-pong”.

AI pause & Continue

When there are onlyy one or more AI players remaining and all human players are finished, the game pauses and shows:

“There is only one or more AI players left. If you wish to stop now, click New Game, or press Continue to proceed.”
Press Continue to resume AI play; the banner and button disappear.

Forced play / HUD polish

If 3 elbows were skipped, the next drawn Elbow must be placed (if legal). When the counter resets to 0/3, the warning style clears.
If a forced card has no legal placement, the force is waived to avoid deadlocks.

Bug fixes

Fixed “endless rotation” cases by adding stricter rotation gates and an exploration fallback.
Fixed standings to avoid duplicate “1st place”; unique places advance to 2nd/3rd/4th correctly.

Track colors

Newly placed tracks now adopt the placing player’s color for their line art.
RC (Replace with Cross) keeps the original tile’s color when replacing an existing tile (the Cross inherits the replaced tile’s color), but uses the placing player’s color when placing RC into an empty cell.

AI: rotation gating & anti-bounce

Rotation gating: the AI only rolls the die to rotate after first probing for a legal token action. If a legal move exists, it will not roll pre-emptively. (Prevents rotating immediately after placing a corner T.)
Single-rotation per stall cycle: when stuck, the AI will at most perform one rotation, then re-evaluate.
Anti-bounce memory: remembers last hop and a per-turn visited set to avoid A↔B oscillation (“ping-pong”).

Forced play / HUD polish

If 3 elbows were skipped, the next drawn Elbow must be placed (if legal). If that state is cleared or waived, the warning style is removed and the counter returns to its normal color.
If a forced card has no legal placement right now, the force is waived so play can continue.

Bug fixes

Fixed cases where the AI could “ping-pong” between two tracks without ever attempting a rotation.
Fixed elbow-skip banner not clearing its red/warn styling when the counter reset to 0/3.

What’s new (Oct 2025)

Gameplay/UI

Standings panel at the top of the sidebar shows active players only. Rankings remain hidden until the first scoring event; the first scorer becomes 1st (bold), all others start as 2nd. Ties display as T-1st, T-2nd, etc.
Corners table now includes a Place column mirroring the Standings.
Dual-use rotation cards: RS/RE/RT/RC can rotate/replace existing tiles or be placed as new Straight/Elbow/T/Cross, respectively.
Deck scaling for 2–3 active players so the total track supply stays healthy. Per-player minimums:
- 7×7: 7 Straight, 6 Elbow, 3 T, 1 Cross
- 9×9: 9 Straight, 8 Elbow, 3 T, 1 Cross
  Rotation cards scale with the deck. Decks are built at New Game from board size + active player count.
Touch rotation mode: tap a legal empty cell to preview; use Q/E or the ⟲/⟳ buttons to rotate; tap again (or Confirm) to place.

Rules/Edge-cases

Forced-play counters:
- 3 skipped tracks → next drawn track must be placed if legal.
- 3 skipped elbows → next Elbow drawn must be placed if legal.
- If a forced card has no legal placement, the force is waived (no deadlocks).
Pass-through corners: tokens may pass through corners they’ve already scored but cannot stop on those corners again.
Dead-Straight fix: fully trapped Straights can be converted to Cross (one per turn) at the start of your turn.
Corner fix: if your home corner is sealed, you must Cross it before other actions.

AI (Robot)

Path-seeking movement: prefers moves that strictly reduce Manhattan distance to any unreached opponent corner; avoids immediate back-tracking and short loops.
Anti-bounce memory: remembers the last hop and a per-turn visited set to stop A↔B oscillation.
Stall handling: when no progress is possible, AI prioritizes die rotations and conservatively skips RS/RE/RT/RC, saving them for endgame connections.
Dual-use awareness: RT now mirrors RS/RE behavior for placement and rotation.
Save/Load: AI flags, per-turn memory, and counters survive snapshot load.

AI Phase-2 / Placement Updates (Oct 12 2025)

Placement legality tightened: AI can no longer place tracks that only touch opponent tiles without connecting to them. A placement must connect to at least one friendly track, or to a joined network where both sides are connected.
Adjacency refinement: human players may always place adjacent to their own network (even without connecting); opponents can only place adjacent to yours once their network has become connected to it.
Forced-placement state: if you Undo during a forced turn, the state persists; Bottom and End Turn stay disabled until the forced card is placed or waived.
AI stall recovery: now performs at most one die-rotation per stall cycle instead of every turn.
AI card economy: saves RS/RE/RT/RC for endgame, Bottoms weak cards only when not forced.
Tooltip added: End Turn shows a short hint when disabled due to forced placement.

Bug fixes

Fixed undefined refs (firstPlace, firstPlacementRelax, oppId, oppCorners, best) that could halt turns.
Fixed cases where AI removed a Straight during RS/RE/RT without re-placing/rotating.
Fixed forced-play counters not resetting in some flows (draw, bottom, waive).
Fixed deck-full state where drawing should remain allowed if any rotation cards remain in the deck.

Bug Fixes (Oct 12 2025)

Skipped-count reset fixed: turn-skip and elbow-skip counters no longer reset incorrectly at the start of a new turn.
Forced-state restoration: Undo/Redo during a forced turn now fully restores the forced-placement lock so Bottom and End Turn remain disabled until you place or waive the card.
AI legality fix: AI can no longer place tracks that only touch opponent tiles without connecting; placement now requires at least one friendly connection or a joined network.
Adjacency highlight fix: human placement preview no longer shows island cells (no attachments) as valid except for the very first corner placement.
Rotation spam: AI die-rotation frequency reduced—only rolls when a rotation could open progress.
Undo safety: pending AI timers are cleared on Undo/Redo to prevent duplicate actions.
Skip-count clamp: counters capped at 3 / 3 (max) to prevent “4 / 3” displays.
HUD consistency: skipped counters, forced-turn banner, and tooltips now update instantly across Undo/Redo and AI turns.

Files

RotoRouter.html — the whole game (UI + logic)
MainMenu.html — setup screen (board size, players, AI flags, names)
RotoRouterHelp.html — in-game help (HTML)
RotoRouter-Rules.md — printable rules (Markdown)
(optional) JSON save files produced by the Save/Load UI

Quick Start

Open MainMenu.html (or RotoRouter.html → click Main Menu).
Pick a Board Size: 7×7 or 9×9.
Mark 2–4 colors Active (toggle AI if desired, edit names).
Click New Game.
On your turn:
- Draw a card (if you don’t already hold one).
- Play the card:
  - Place a track in a legal empty cell or
  - Use RS/RE/RT to rotate a matching placed tile or
  - Use RC to replace any placed tile with a Cross
  - (Dual-use) RS/RE/RT/RC may also be placed as their base track.
- Optionally take Token Action:
  - Place a token on your home corner (if a track is there), or
  - Move one token along connected tracks to any reachable empty cell.
- End Turn.

Controls

Rotate while previewing a placement: Q/E or sidebar ⟲/⟳.
Confirm placement: click again or Place/Confirm.
Undo / Redo (Global): roll back/forward the entire table state.
Save/Load: snapshot to JSON and restore later.

Deck & Cards

Tracks

Straight (─), Elbow (└), T (┴), Cross (┼)

Rotation/Replacement (dual-use)

RS rotate Straight or place Straight
RE rotate Elbow or place Elbow
RT rotate T or place T
RC replace any tile with Cross or place Cross

Deck scaling

Per-player decks scale with player count to keep supply healthy.
Minimum per player:
- 7×7: Straight 7, Elbow 6, T 3, Cross 1
- 9×9: Straight 9, Elbow 8, T 3, Cross 1
RS/RE/RT/RC scale too. Decks are created at New Game.

Legal Placement & Networks

Place only into an empty cell.
The cell must be adjacent (N/S/E/W) to at least one track that is connected to your network.
For two touching tracks to connect, the sides must have matching, reciprocal exits.
Opponent adjacency:
- Your normal placements may be adjacent to your own network.
- You may not place adjacent to an opponent’s disconnected track unless the new tile connects into that opponent network via reciprocal exits.
- Once a connection exists, both players may extend anywhere adjacent to that connected network (connected or merely adjacent).

Tokens & Scoring

Place a token on your home corner if a track is present there.
Move a token along connected paths to any reachable empty cell (one token action per turn).
Score by ending on an opponent’s corner → remove that token from the board.
First player to 3 scored corners wins; afterwards they’re auto-skipped.

Forced Play

3 Skipped Tracks: If you Bottom/skip 3 cards in a row, your next turn is Forced Placement.
HUD shows “Forced: Draw & Place”; Bottom and End Turn are disabled until you place the drawn card (if any legal spot exists).
If the drawn card has no legal placement, the force is waived and you may Bottom it.
3 Skipped Elbows: If you skip 3 Elbows, the next Elbow you draw must be placed immediately (same waiver rule if no legal spot).

Forced state survives Undo/Redo correctly; after undoing during a forced turn, Bottom remains disabled again until the placement is resolved.

AI (Phase-2 behaviors in this build)

Token targeting: prefers paths that reduce distance to the last unreached corner; lingers near high-leverage joints (e.g., [1,5], [1,6]) to exploit future die rotations before moving away.
Placement legality fix: AI cannot place adjacent to your disconnected tracks; it must connect into an opponent network to build alongside it.
Card economy: biases saving RS/RE/RT/RC for endgame connections; will Bottom non-progress tracks when not forced.
Stall behavior: on repeated non-improvement, cycles a card and attempts a single, conservative die rotation; re-evaluates without spamming rotations.
Save/Load safe: AI flags and per-turn memory are serialized in saves.

Standings & UI

Standings panel in the sidebar shows rank (1st, T-2nd, etc.), color, name, and scores for active players only.
Corners table includes a Place column mirroring standings.
On touch: tap a legal cell to enter rotation mode; rotate with ⟲/⟳; tap again to confirm.

Save / Load

Use the Save button to download a JSON snapshot. Load restores exactly, including turn order, decks, forced states, and AI status.

Known Notes

The “RC adopts replaced color” idea is not implemented yet (tracked for a later phase).
If a trapped Straight or sealed corner appears, the Dead-Straight Fix or Corner Fix rules (below) apply at the start of your turn.

Advanced Rules (implemented)

Dead-Straight Fix: at the start of your turn, you may convert one fully trapped Straight into a Cross (free).
Corner Fix: if your home corner is sealed by perpendicular Straights, you must convert it to a Cross before other actions.

See RotoRouter-Rules.md for a printable ruleset and RotoRouterHelp.html for a formatted, in-app reference.

Save/Load

Use the Save Game / Load Game buttons in the sidebar to export/import a JSON snapshot. AI state is included.

Known limitations

AI favors short, safe progress; it won’t search arbitrarily deep “sacrifices”. This is intentional to keep turns brisk.
Rare layouts may still require a few extra rotations to connect a final corner; this is mitigated by the stall logic.

+Build: 2025-10-01

+This build includes Save/Load, the Board Fully Tracked lock, the Dead-Straight Fix rule, the Undo/Redo system, a unified history fix-phase handler, and the new SVG Gear Mesh enhancement (with animated rotations synced to track rotations). It also adds updated token movement rules, a no-legal-placement bottom path (no penalty, but only once per turn), and player elimination / turn skip once a player is out of tokens.

New features

1) Save / Load (local JSON)

Save Game downloads a JSON snapshot of the entire game state (board, rotations, ownership, tokens, per-player decks/hand/counters, turn, corner-seal bookkeeping).
Load Game restores the snapshot; transient UI/animations are reset so play resumes cleanly.
File schema: __rr_version, savedAt, N, current, players[], board[y][x], cornerLockTurns[], cornerSealed[].

How to use

Click Save Game in the sidebar to download a .json file.
Click Load Game later and pick that file. Board size switches automatically to match the save.

Sample files for testing

9×9 with every cell already containing a track: RR_sample_full_board_9x9.json
9×9 with a sealed corner and multiple trapped straights ready for Dead‑Straight Fix: RR_sample_corner_and_deadfix_9x9.json

2) Board Fully Tracked — placement lock

When every cell on the board has a track, track placement is locked:

Draw / Place / Bottom are disabled.
Forced-Draw (3 general skips) and Elbow-force (3 elbow skips) are suppressed while locked.
Token Action and Roll / Apply remain available.

Lock detection runs on New Game, Load, and after any topology change (place, RC/RS/RE, Apply). The HUD shows “Draw: Locked (Board Full)” and disables the track-placement buttons.

3) Dead-Straight Fix (rule)

A trapped straight is a Straight that is surrounded by perpendicular Straights:

Inner cell: all 4 orthogonal neighbors exist and are perpendicular Straights.
Border cell: exactly 3 in-bounds neighbors exist and all 3 are perpendicular Straights.
Corner cell: only 2 neighbors → never qualifies.

At the start of your turn, if any trapped straights exist:

You may replace exactly one highlighted trapped straight with a Cross (free).
Tokens on that cell remain.
If trapped straights remain, each subsequent player may fix one on their turn until none remain.
Works whether or not the board is fully tracked.

UI flow

Turn start highlights all eligible cells and prompts:
“Dead-Straight Fix: replace ONE highlighted Straight with a Cross (free).”
Click a highlighted cell to apply the fix; normal actions then resume.

4) Undo / Redo system

Two scopes are supported:

Global Undo / Redo
- Steps backward/forward across any player’s turn.
- Restores the full game state (board, tokens, decks, turn ownership, etc.).
- After undo/redo, automatic re-entry into fix phases (Corner Fix, Dead‑Straight Fix) occurs if applicable.
Turn Undo / Redo
- Limited to the current player’s turn only.
- Starts with a baseline snapshot at the beginning of the turn.
- Lets a player roll back actions they’ve made within that turn, without affecting prior turns.

UI

Undo (Global) / Redo (Global) buttons control the cross-turn history.
Undo (Turn) / Redo (Turn) buttons control within-turn rollbacks.
Buttons auto-disable when no valid history exists.

5) Corners Score Table

The sidebar now includes a dedicated Corners Score Table:

Columns: Color (with swatch), Quadrant (with coordinates, e.g. NE (8,0) on a 9×9), and Score.
Score format: Matches the Token Score tag (2/3 [R, G]), showing how many opponent corners have been reached and by which players.
Automatically updates after every token scoring event or Undo/Redo.
Replaces the earlier legend/separator layout, consolidating all corner/score info into a single clear table.

6) SVG Gear Mesh (with animated rotation)

Each cell of the board now renders a gear image (gear-grayblue.svg) behind tracks/tokens.
Neighboring gears alternate 0° / 90° base orientation so the teeth appear to mesh visually.
On Apply Rotation (CW90, CCW90, or 180°):
- Gears animate at the same duration/easing as track rotation tweens.
- Each gear maintains a persistent offset so Undo/Redo and Save/Load restore orientations correctly.
Gears do not spin on RS/RE actions, only on Apply die rolls.
A fallback vector gear still draws if the SVG fails to load.

Assets

Place gear-grayblue.svg in the same folder as RotoRouter.html.
Adjust GEAR_OUTER_FIT in code (default 1.00) to tweak visual spacing between meshed gears.

7) Token movement rules (blocking + corner exception)

Tokens cannot pass through any other tokens by default.
If a player’s token would otherwise be trapped by opponents’ tokens, movement may pass through opponent tokens (never through your own) solely to find legal destinations. You still cannot end on an occupied non-corner cell.
Corners can’t be blocked: you may move onto an opponent’s corner even if their token already occupies that corner; that move scores and resolves per normal rules.

8) No-legal-placement → Bottom without penalty (and no forced draw deadlock)

When the drawn track card has zero legal placements anywhere on the board:
- Bottoming that card moves it to the bottom of the deck without incrementing Skipped or Elbows Skipped.
- Draw is marked as Used for that turn (so you cannot chain multiple Draw→Bottoms).
- The “Forced Draw/Place” rule is waived in this case to avoid deadlocks.
Normal Bottom behavior (with skip counters and draw lock) still applies when a legal placement exists.

Summary: You may either keep an unplaceable card until next turn or Bottom it once per turn without penalty.
If you Bottom it, your Draw state is set to Used — you must wait for your next turn to draw again.

9) Player elimination & turn skip (out of tokens)

Each player has a lifetime total of 3 tokens.
When a player has no tokens on the board and has removed all 3 (e.g., via scoring), they are out and their turns are automatically skipped thereafter.
The HUD’s “Token: X/3” now shows tokens remaining to place (3 - (removed + on-board)).

10) Auto-end on 3/3 corners + Finished skip + Game Over (bold green)

The instant a player reaches their third opponent corner (3/3) during a token move, their turn ends automatically and advances to the next player.
A player who has already completed 3/3 is auto-skipped at the start of their turn (works after Load, too).
If no active players remain, the game enters Game Over state and shows
All players have finished — game over. in bold green.

11) Token counter now shows placed (not remaining)

HUD “Token: X/3” now displays tokens placed so far: 0/3 → 3/3 (instead of remaining).
Saves record a coherent tokens value (= placed), and legacy loads backfill counts from the board and reached.
Fixes the fresh-game case where placing the first token showed 2/3 instead of 1/3.

12) Build adjacency from a token’s connected network

Placement highlights now include empty cells adjacent to any track that’s connected to one of your tokens’ current track cells (not just immediate neighbors).
This enables legal placement on cells that are two steps away via connected straights from the token’s position (matches the attached repro).

13) Elbows Skipped 3/3 → force only if possible (no deadlocks)

When a player reaches Elbows Skipped: 3/3, the next drawn Elbow must be placed only if there is ≥1 legal Elbow placement right now.
If the drawn Elbow has no legal placement, the force is automatically waived for that card; Bottom is allowed without penalty, and End Turn remains enabled.
On successful Elbow placement: elbowSkipCount resets and the force clears.

14) Deadlock-prevention waivers refined

After Draw: if the drawn card has no legal placement, the forced-place rule is waived immediately.
On entering Place: if no highlights exist, forced-place is waived.
In the HUD refresh: safety checks re-waive forced states if the card in hand can’t be placed, and also waive the general force when the player has no card and Draw is locked (avoids “can’t draw / can’t end turn” traps).

15) Fair Bottoming: no skip penalty after meaningful action

Bottom no longer increments Skipped (or Elbows Skipped) if the player has already applied a rotation and/or used a token action this turn.
Keeps skip counts from inflating on turns where the player actually did something.

16) Turn iteration & stack-safe Game Over guard

startTurn() now iterates to the next eligible player (no recursion) and detects Game Over when everyone is finished/out, preventing call-stack overflows on endgame.

17) Main Menu (separate HTML) — setup + live save

New file: MainMenu.html (kept separate from the game).
Choose board size, enter player names, and mark players as AI.
Saves configuration to localStorage key rr.setup on every input change.
Click Start Game to launch; optional auto-start via MainMenu.html?go=1.
Start button redirects to RotoRouter.html?start=1 (small cache-buster).

18) Game boot reads setup inside the game (IIFE) and honors 7×7/9×9 immediately

RotoRouter.html now loads rr.setup inside the main script on DOMContentLoaded, assigns it to state.setup, syncs the sidebar Board Size select, then calls newGame().
Ensures 7×7 selection applies immediately without any 9×9 flash.

19) In-game Main Menu button (same row as “New Game”)

Added Main Menu button next to New Game in the Setup panel.
On click: confirmation → navigates to MainMenu.html.

20) Immediate canvas rescale when board size changes

After newGame() builds a new board, we force an immediate resize with a double requestAnimationFrame() to settle layout before measuring/scale.
Covers switching 9×9 ↔ 7×7 and menu-launched games.

21) Setup helpers

loadSetupFromStorage() reads/normalizes rr.setup (board size + players/AI).
Sidebar Board Size dropdown is kept visually in sync with state.setup.boardSize.

22) New track types: T and RT (Rotatable T)

T = 3-way junction. Base openings: E, W, N (closed S). Rotations cover the other three T shapes.
RT rotates an existing T in-place (analogous to RS/RE).
Rendering: T draws a horizontal bar + an upward stem (matches base openings). Rotation preview (Q/E) and ghost behave like other tracks.
Connectivity/path checks use OPENINGS.T, so BFS/reciprocal logic works without special cases.

23) Deck updates (with T/RT)

7×7: Straight: 7, Elbow: 6, Cross: 1, T: 3, RS: 3, RE: 2, RC: 1, RT: 1
9×9: Straight: 9, Elbow: 8, Cross: 1, T: 3, RS: 4, RE: 3, RC: 2, RT: 2
Notes:
- Straights reduced by 1 (7×7) and 2 (9×9), then +1 T added to both sizes.
- Total deck sizes preserved versus prior build.

24) Placement & rotate/replace updates for T/RT

RT highlights any placed T; clicking enters rotateExisting and confirms on second click (same flow as RS/RE).
computePlaceHighlights() treats RS/RE/RT uniformly when selecting existing tiles to rotate.
RC unchanged (replace/rotate Cross behavior as before).

25) Scoring consistency on opponent corners (no ghost tokens)

When a token scores (lands on an opponent’s corner), the mover’s token is:
- Always removed from its source cell, and
- Never left on the destination corner.
Fixes the case where Score = 1/3 but 3 tokens still appeared on the board.

26) Legacy/Undo safety: prevent over-placement, but show the truth

Token placement uses an effective removed count = max(tokensRemoved, reached.size) to block illegal “extra” placements after Undo into old snapshots.
The HUD still shows the actual count (tokensRemoved + onBoard) so anomalies remain visible.

27) HUD token counter (actual placed + mismatch hint)

28) Elbows Skipped 3/3 — Forced Placement

When a player has skipped 3 Elbows, the next Elbow drawn must be placed if a legal placement exists.
While this rule is active:
- Bottom button is disabled.
- End Turn button is disabled.
- Status shows: “Elbows Skipped: 3/3 ⚠. This elbow must be now be placed”.
If no legal placement exists for that Elbow, the force is waived automatically to prevent deadlocks (the Elbow may be Bottomed without penalty).
On successful Elbow placement, the counter resets and normal play resumes.

29) 3 Skipped Track Cards — Force on Next Turn

After a player skips 3 track cards (not limited to Elbows), they are forced to Draw and Place on their next turn.
Bottom and End Turn are disabled until the forced card is placed.
If no legal placement exists for the drawn card, the force is waived automatically.
Consistent with the Elbow skip behavior, ensuring both rules work uniformly.

30) Dead-Straight Fix Refinement

Trapped Straights are detected only when surrounded by perpendicular Straights:
- Inner cell: all 4 orthogonal neighbors are perpendicular Straights.
- Border cell: 3 neighbors, all perpendicular.
- Corner cell: never qualifies.
At the start of a turn, any trapped Straight may be replaced (free) with a Cross.
Tokens remain in place during the replacement.
Undo/Redo and Load resume Dead-Straight Fix prompts correctly.

31) Corner Fix Enforcement

Detects when a player’s own corner is sealed by perpendicular Straights.
The corner must be replaced with a Cross (free) before normal actions continue.
HUD displays a persistent red warning during this fix phase.
Integrated with Undo/Redo and Save/Load — the fix prompt reappears when needed.

32) HUD / Button State Consistency

End Turn and Bottom are now disabled in all forced-placement cases (Elbow skips, 3 skips).
Sidebar tags (Skipped, Elbows Skipped) update dynamically as conditions change.
Warnings are displayed consistently in red with the ⚠ symbol.
Prevents situations where buttons were active but only blocked by a toast message.

33) Rotation Animation Timing (Unified Constants)

Added two top-level constants to control animation speeds:
- RR_APPLY_TWEEN_MS — duration (ms) for full-board Apply rotations (tiles + gears).
- PREVIEW_ROT_TWEEN_MS — duration (ms) for Q/E ghost preview rotations during placement.
All Apply tweens (tiles + gear pulses) now reference RR_APPLY_TWEEN_MS, so adjusting one knob changes the whole animation.
The quick preview spin remains controlled by PREVIEW_ROT_TWEEN_MS.

34) Safe Placement During Ghost Rotation

Fixed bug where clicking while a Q/E rotation animation was still in progress could place a track at a non-orthogonal angle.
New behavior:
- If a click occurs during a ghost tween, the action is queued until the animation completes.
- The placement then snaps to the tween’s exact 90° destination angle, guaranteeing orthogonal alignment.
This applies both to:
- New placements (placing on an empty cell), and
- Rotate-existing commits (RS/RE/RT).
Prevents “half-rotated” tracks and ensures consistent appearance.

35) Gear artwork update

Background gear asset switched to gear-grayblue-03.svg.
Added a small cache-buster on load to avoid stale art after updates.

36) Active Player Selection

In Main Menu, each color now has an Active checkbox in addition to AI toggle and name.
Any combination of colors may be chosen; there is no required order (doesn’t have to start with Red).
Game requires a minimum of 2 active players (at least one may be AI).
Maximum of 4 total players, with up to 3 AI.
Inactive players are:
- Skipped automatically during turn rotation.
- Shown as dimmed / greyed-out in the Corners table with score — and “(inactive)” tag.
- Displayed faintly on the board corners.
Active/inactive state is persisted in Save/Load snapshots.

37) Touch / Tablet Rotation Support

Players can now rotate new placements without a keyboard.
On touch devices, tapping a legal empty cell enters rotation mode (ghost remains visible).
Use the new ⟲ CCW and ⟳ CW buttons to rotate the ghost track.
Tap the same cell again or press the Place button (now labeled Confirm) to finalize the placement.
While in this mode, the ghost no longer disappears when moving the pointer away from the board.
This improvement ensures complete touch/mouse parity for placement rotation.

38) Rotation normalization & token connectivity

Fix: Some tiles carried non-orthogonal angles (e.g., 179°, 269°) due to legacy states or mid-animation clicks. This caused pathfinding to misread openings, so valid connections weren’t highlighted for token moves.
What changed:
- All rotations are snapped to 0/90/180/270 when computing openings, when placing/rotating a tile, when loading a save, and in the ghost preview.
- rotDir(...), rotatedOpenings(...), and rotatedOpeningsType(...) now operate on snapped angles; placement/rotation commits also store snapped values.
Player-visible effect: Token movement highlights are now correct in edge cases.
Example: A T on your corner with the stem facing down, a Cross to the right, and a Straight (vertical) below now correctly shows the straight below as reachable when you click Token Action.
Tech note: Introduced snap90(deg) and routed all rotation math through it; history/animation behavior is unchanged.

39) Load restores saved player names (and AI flag)

Fix: Loading a saved game always reverted player names to defaults. The loader now restores players[].name from the save (and players[].ai when present).

40) Confirm button for RS/RE/RT rotations

Fix: When using RS, RE, or RT to rotate an existing track, the Place button did not change to “Confirm”, forcing players to click the tile again to commit.
New behavior:
- During any rotate-existing phase (RS/RE/RT), the Place button now changes to Confirm.
- Pressing Confirm immediately finalizes the rotation — no extra tile click required.
- Works identically to the rotate-new flow used during normal placement or tablet rotation mode.
UI text update: The status line now reads:
“Rotating (type): use ⟲/⟳ or Q/E to rotate; click again or press ‘Confirm’ to apply.”
for consistent touch and keyboard guidance.

41) Standings Display and Dynamic Player Rankings

Added a Standings panel at the top of the sidebar showing the current ranking of all active players.
The display includes each player’s standing (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th), color swatch, name, and score, all on a single line.
Inactive players are not shown in this panel.
Before the first scoring event, standings remain hidden (no ranks shown).
Once any player reaches an opponent’s corner:
- That player is labeled 1st (bold).
- All other active players are labeled 2nd.
After subsequent scores, standings automatically update and display ties as T-1st, T-2nd, etc.
In the Corners table, a new Place column shows each player’s rank, using the same tie and bold-leader logic.
The rank column and top standings remain blank until the first token scores.
Visual cleanup:
- Standings entries now use white-space: nowrap to prevent line breaks between color, name, and score.
- Removed trailing separators (no “·” symbols).

42) Deck scaling with active players

RotoRouter now scales each player’s personal draw deck based on how many players are active:
Fewer players → more cards per player.
Minimum connectivity guarantees ensure enough Straights/Elbows/Ts/Crosses to reach opponents, even with 2–3 players.

Minimums (per player):

7×7: Straight 7, Elbow 6, T 3, Cross 1
9×9: Straight 9, Elbow 8, T 3, Cross 1
Rotation/Replacement (RS/RE/RT/RC) scale with the deck too. Decks are created at New Game using the selected board size and active player count.

Updated Deck (with T/RT) — supersedes older counts

7×7: Straight 7, Elbow 6, Cross 1, T 3, RS 3, RE 2, RC 1, RT 1
9×9: Straight 9, Elbow 8, Cross 1, T 3, RS 4, RE 3, RC 2, RT 2

Developer Notes

Undo/Redo config

const UNDO_CONFIG = { enabled: true, global: true, turn: true };

Can be toggled in code (no UI).

Snapshot tagging

Each history snapshot carries a __turnId so global operations can stay in sync with per-turn history.

Fix-phase integration after Undo/Redo (unified)

A single helper now manages re-entry into fix phases after either Undo or Redo:

// unified entry point used by applySnapshot(..., { fromHistory: true })
function maybeEnterFixPhasesAfterHistory(op) {
  /* op is reserved (unused) */
}

Priority: Corner Fix (if your corner is sealed) → else Dead‑Straight Fix (if available and not consumed this turn).
The previous helper maybeResumeDeadFixAfterHistory() has been replaced by maybeEnterFixPhasesAfterHistory(...).
The legacy name maybeEnterFixPhasesAfterRedo() has been removed (it was redundant once the unified helper existed).
If you need back-compat for external callers, you can add a 1‑line alias:
```
function maybeEnterFixPhasesAfterRedo() {
  return maybeEnterFixPhasesAfterHistory();
}
```

Dead‑Straight Fix bookkeeping

Undo of a Dead‑Straight Fix → restores the straight and re-enters the fix subphase (prompt/highlights).
Redo of a Dead‑Straight Fix → restores the cross and resumes normal play.
Only one free dead-fix per turn (deadFixDoneThisTurn in state & snapshots).

Corner Fix bookkeeping

On redo, if a corner is sealed at the start of turn, the Corner Fix prompt reappears.
On undo, returning to a state before the fix resumes the prompt.

Save/Load vs history

snapshotState() excludes undo/redo stacks.
Save/Load clears history stacks and starts fresh.
Undo/Redo calls pass { fromHistory:true } so stacks aren’t cleared and fix subphases are restored properly.

Gear offset persistence

Each cell now carries a persistent gearOffset (degrees) so visual gear orientations match track rotations.
snapshotState() includes gearOffset, and applySnapshot() restores it.
This ensures Undo/Redo and Save/Load both correctly restore gear orientations, eliminating drift or snap-back.

Token pathfinding (strict + fallback)

reachableFrom() runs in two phases:
1. Strict: treats any token as a blocker (no pass-through).
2. Fallback (only if trapped): allows pass-through over opponent tokens (never your own) to find destinations. You still can’t end on an occupied non-corner cell.
Corner exception: If a neighbor is an opponent’s own corner and their token is on it, it remains a legal terminal (corners can’t be blocked) but we don’t traverse beyond it.

No-legal-placement bottoming (no penalty)

canPlaceDrawnNow() checks if the current drawn track has any legal placements.
If none, bottomCard():
- Moves the card to the bottom of the deck,
- Does not increment skipCount or elbowSkipCount,
- Marks drawUsed = true so the player cannot draw again until their next turn.
This ensures only one Bottom per turn is possible.
checkForcePlace() waives the forced-draw rule while holding an unplaceable card to prevent deadlocks.

Player elimination / skipping turns

Each player tracks tokensRemoved (lifetime removed tokens).
At startTurn(), if tokensRemoved >= 3 and countTokens(pid) === 0, that player is skipped automatically.
The HUD “Token: X/3” displays remaining supply (3 - (removed + on-board)).

Legacy save backfill (pre-`tokensRemoved`)

Old saves won’t contain tokensRemoved. On applySnapshot():
- We infer a sensible value using the player’s reached set and current on-board token count.
- If no tokens are on board and no other info is available, we conservatively assume the player has exhausted supply so the skip-out logic works after load.

Deck recommendations

9×9

Straight 13, Elbow 8, RS 4, RE 3, Cross 2, RCross 2 — total 32

7×7

Straight 10, Elbow 6, RS 3, RE 2, Cross 2, RCross 1 — total 24

Run

Open RotoRouter.html in a modern desktop browser. Hard-refresh (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+R) after swapping files.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
assets		assets
MainMenu.html		MainMenu.html
README.md		README.md
RR_sample_full_board_9x9.json		RR_sample_full_board_9x9.json
RotoRouter-Rules.md		RotoRouter-Rules.md
RotoRouter.html		RotoRouter.html
RotoRouterHelp.html		RotoRouterHelp.html
gear-grayblue-03.svg		gear-grayblue-03.svg
gear-grayblue.svg		gear-grayblue.svg

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RotoRouter

What’s new

What’s new (Nov 10, 2025)

Turn counter (per player)

AI Only Remaining Pause

What's new (Oct 26, 2025)

2025-10-25 — Cleanup Phase-1 (mechanical fixes)

Deterministic deck recycle

AI draw fairness

Corner-highlight guard

Sanity checks:

What’s new (Oct 16, 2025)

New: AI Delay Control (1–10 → ×0.5…×5.0)

Oct 15, 2025

Using the new features

Oct 14, 2025

Fixed bug related to AI

Oct 13, 2025

New: Token Visibility Toggle (Hide/Unhide)

AI: rotation gating, exploration, and no-op tolerance

AI pause & Continue

Forced play / HUD polish

Bug fixes

Track colors

AI: rotation gating & anti-bounce

Forced play / HUD polish

Bug fixes

What’s new (Oct 2025)

Gameplay/UI

Rules/Edge-cases

AI (Robot)

AI Phase-2 / Placement Updates (Oct 12 2025)

Bug fixes

Bug Fixes (Oct 12 2025)

Files

Quick Start

Deck & Cards

Legal Placement & Networks

Tokens & Scoring

Forced Play

AI (Phase-2 behaviors in this build)

Standings & UI

Save / Load

Known Notes

Advanced Rules (implemented)

Save/Load

Known limitations

New features

1) Save / Load (local JSON)

2) Board Fully Tracked — placement lock

3) Dead-Straight Fix (rule)

4) Undo / Redo system

5) Corners Score Table

6) SVG Gear Mesh (with animated rotation)

7) Token movement rules (blocking + corner exception)

8) No-legal-placement → Bottom without penalty (and no forced draw deadlock)

9) Player elimination & turn skip (out of tokens)

10) Auto-end on 3/3 corners + Finished skip + Game Over (bold green)

11) Token counter now shows placed (not remaining)

12) Build adjacency from a token’s connected network

13) Elbows Skipped 3/3 → force only if possible (no deadlocks)

14) Deadlock-prevention waivers refined

15) Fair Bottoming: no skip penalty after meaningful action

16) Turn iteration & stack-safe Game Over guard

17) Main Menu (separate HTML) — setup + live save

18) Game boot reads setup inside the game (IIFE) and honors 7×7/9×9 immediately

19) In-game Main Menu button (same row as “New Game”)

20) Immediate canvas rescale when board size changes

21) Setup helpers

22) New track types: T and RT (Rotatable T)

23) Deck updates (with T/RT)

24) Placement & rotate/replace updates for T/RT

25) Scoring consistency on opponent corners (no ghost tokens)

26) Legacy/Undo safety: prevent over-placement, but show the truth

27) HUD token counter (actual placed + mismatch hint)

28) Elbows Skipped 3/3 — Forced Placement

Legacy save backfill (pre-`tokensRemoved`)