Darkness Falls — Player Request Backlog (disposition)

Status: IN PROGRESS — owner KEEP/DEFER disposition 2026-08-01; build via epics 25346–25348 (standing idea 25327)
Parents: index.md, north-star.md, act-1-class-signatures.md
Related: engine chat.md (pending messages / mute), human_idea 24044 (Amazon SFX + onboarding)

Design Fit Gate (MANDATORY — all games)

Player feedback is input, not a product mandate. Every KEEP and every fix MUST pass design+code check:

Fit class	Action
HAVE	Verify / discoverability only — do not rebuild
INTENTIONAL	Do not clobber (caps, paywalls, floors, non-shared loot)
GAP	Build to design, not to the loudest complaint
TUNE	Adjust numbers/copy inside existing systems
BUG	Code toward design + scenario_test

Same rule for DF, DT, Lineage, Zoo, and every future tweak. Siblings: dark-tower/player-request-backlog.md, lineage/player-request-backlog.md, zoo-simulator/player-request-backlog.md.

How to use

1. Read live feedback (do not use a frozen export):

   SELECT id, character_level, status, created_at, feedback_text
   FROM claude.player_feedback
   WHERE game_type = 'DARKNESS_FALLS'
     AND feedback_type = 'FEEDBACK'
     AND status IN ('NEW','VIEWED','ACTIONABLE','QUEUED')
   ORDER BY created_at DESC;

2. Match themes to the disposition tables below.
3. Archive only rows whose theme is done or declined (scenario_test or categorized skip).

As of 2026-08-01 open set was ~359 (305 VIEWED / 50 QUEUED / 4 ACTIONABLE).

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KEEP — build (owner 2026-08-01)

ID	Theme	Player signal (examples)	Design intent	Build home
D1	Pending-messages throttle / less spam	9615, 9689, 9464	Announce at most once per session (or after new message lands), not every launch/move. Honor mute (chat.md notifications-off). Prefer non-intercepting one-liner, then drain on "listen to messages".	engine chat.md + DF launch path
D2	Explore verbosity	9467, 9688	Do not restate level + XP on every move. Quiet while exploring; full readout on status / level-up / return briefing.	exploration + status / return briefing
D3	Activated Star Map node re-reads benefit	9660	Walking an already-activated node still speaks what it does (one short clause).	star-map.md
D4	Modes / endgame discoverability + onboarding help	9665, 10723 + Amazon 24044	Clear path to switch-modes / seasons / daily / help without inventing false "modes". Strengthen first-hour help + optional SFX layer (separate asset pass). Aligns Act I clarity.	act-1-class-signatures, help, north-star
D5	open equipment ≠ equip	10475	"open equipment" / "view equipment" opens equipped loadout; "equip X" equips from pack. No silent equip on open.	NLU + equipment handlers
D10	Death XP / penalty feel	9685	Tune or explain death XP loss; accidental double-death (teleport into pack) should not feel punitive without copy.	death utilities + game-balance.md
D11	Skill gems: auto + explain	10563	Auto-fire already law (class-playstyle). Improve view-abilities / equip copy so players know gems fire automatically.	combat + items
D12	Zone-enter announce first	10616	On zone transition, lead with zone name + level before other noise. (Partial HAVE on scan/entry — audit remaining paths.)	exploration
D13	Equip list by number / listen whole list	10473	Numbered equipment options or paginated full list without one-at-a-time only.	inventory voice UX

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SHIPPED — epic 25347 (2026-08-25)

Consolidated KEEP pass. Every row below is code-complete in the working tree; none is deployed by this pass (deploy is USER-only). Where a check found the behaviour already correct, that is recorded as-is rather than a change invented to have something to show.

ID	Outcome	What actually changed
D1	FIXED	A 15-minute quiet window now governs the passive pending-message nag, owned by and consulted from BOTH announcement sites. The Darkness Falls copy of the window was deleted: it only covered auto-listen OFF, so auto-listen ON with the gate CLOSED was nagged every move. announced with no window at all AND set the per-turn dedup flag, which silently prevented the other site from ever starting one. Inline playback is deliberately never throttled.
D2	FIXED	The per-step footer no longer restates level or percentage progress; status still speaks both. Health is spoken only when below full, and is no longer gated on experience — a level-one character on 3 of 20 health is exactly who the warning is for.
D3	FIXED	An ACTIVATED node with no authored description now states its benefit, mirroring the un-activated branch, which described itself and then went quiet after activation. Benefit names are now spoken through spokenPropertyName() so XP_BONUS and the ten DAMAGE_VS_* constants stop reaching Alexa as "xp" and "vs".
D4	FIXED	The seasons and endgame CONTENT already existed. The game modes help option was registered with addOptionNoSynonym, so its exact label was the only phrase that reached it and "seasons" / "modes" / "daily" fell through to FALLBACK — the one topic a player could see on the menu and not reach. It now carries those synonyms, and the advanced menu names endgame in its spoken list.
D10	PART FIXED, PART OWNER DECISION	All three death paths said "to return to where you fell, say teleport" while saveReturnTeleportPoint() deliberately returns the player to the ZONE ENTRANCE at 1,1 to avoid dropping them back on the pack that killed them — the copy was simply wrong and now names the entrance, and points at the Soul Anchor as the existing way to avoid the loss. The 10% figure is settled by index.md; whether the penalty may cost a LEVEL is NOT, and is open as queue 26881 (df_death_penalty_delevel).
D11	FIXED	Equipping a combat skill gem now says it triggers automatically in combat, so a player stops looking for a cast command. EXPLORATION_SKILL is excluded — it is a passive exploration bonus, not a combat trigger.
D12	ALREADY CORRECT	Zone entry already leads with the zone name and level. Verified, not changed.
D13	FIXED (discoverability)	The whole-loadout readout already existed: full status reads all ten gear slots, six skill slots and two potion slots in one pass. What was missing was any way to learn that from inside the one-at-a-time equipment browser, where the only route through the list was next, next, next. Opening equipment with more than one item equipped now points at it.

Regression cover: scenario_tests 3427 (D4 — "seasons" reaches the game-modes content) and 3428 (D2 — a step reports health below full and never restates level progress), plus JUnit (8 cases) and for D1.

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DEFER — not this pass

ID	Theme	Why deferred
D6	Friend item gifting	Exploit + economy design; a party's kill shares are built (party-combat.md), but giving an item to a friend is not
D7	Extra character slots (BE unlock)	Roster cap 3 intentional; monetization decision later
D8	Mass / horde / endless-spawn zones	Content pack after core UX
D9	Multi-step movement (north 15)	NLU + safety complexity

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BUG / support — escalate (not feature votes)

Theme	Sample ids	Action
Stash tabs disappear / auction wipe / re-buy BE stash	ACTIONABLE 10972, 10975, 10978 + VIEWED 10971–10979 (L47, 2026-07-30)	Priority bug epic — entitlement + inventory integrity
Fire Lord trophy fragment every move	ACTIONABLE 10965	Re-validate (prior HQ closed as misread; fresh concrete report)
Enchant stacks not applying	10735	Bug
Inventory full wrong counts	10321, 10116	Bug
Stuck exotic shop / teleport in combat	10064, 10298	Bug
Resurrect / 0 HP stuck	9659	Bug
Gold milestone trophies missing	10713	Bug / trophy rules
Promotion class change broken	9897	Bug

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DECLINE / noise

• Praise-only VIEWED noise — no product action
• Remove account-linking entirely — decline (platform infrastructure)

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Queue linkage

Build epics filed from this disposition (2026-08-01):

• 25347 — DF voice UX KEEP pack (D1, D2, D5, D11, D13)
• 25348 — DF clarity + balance KEEP pack (D3, D4, D10, D12 + 24044 onboarding/SFX note)
• 25346 — DF critical inventory integrity (stash/auction + Fire Lord fragment re-validate)

Standing idea 25327 remains open as the home for the next cycle; do not re-mint duplicate review tasks.

Changelog

• 2026-08-01 — Owner accepted recommended KEEP set from live feedback triage; DEFER D6–D9; bug escalate stash + Fire Lord.