112 lines
6.7 KiB
Markdown
112 lines
6.7 KiB
Markdown
# Emperor Nexus Secret Ally revival and bank-auction purchase
|
|
|
|
27 September 2026. **Prototyped**, with **Partial** rules coverage. These
|
|
separate Secret Ally alternatives connect in Basic and Advanced classic-faction
|
|
games with Nexus alone. Public module starts and publication remain gated.
|
|
|
|
## Rules and connected behavior
|
|
|
|
The printed Emperor Nexus has an alternative Secret Ally grant during Revival:
|
|
three additional forces return free, beyond ordinary revival limits. Emperor
|
|
must be absent and the holder unallied. The grant does not revive leaders, spend
|
|
spice, or consume ordinary force/free-revival allowances. It can precede or follow
|
|
ordinary returns while Revival remains open. Submitting the interface's ready
|
|
action does not itself end that phase or invent a new card deadline.
|
|
[Printed cards](https://boardgamegeek.com/image/7767032/dune-ecaz-and-moritani),
|
|
[source audit](NEXUS_EMPEROR_RULES.md#secret-ally-three-additional-free-revivals)
|
|
|
|
The ordinary Advanced one-per-turn special-force revival cap remains in force.
|
|
For this roster, that means Fedaykin. The holder chooses among legal normal/elite
|
|
groups totaling exactly three; one printed counter cannot become two forces.
|
|
Fewer than three eligible counters remains a recorded source gap, not an implicit
|
|
up-to-three option. Recruits, Tleilaxu income/prevention, CHOAM suppression,
|
|
Homeworld deployment and other combined-module producers remain outside this
|
|
batch. A different player's ordinary Fremen ally grant does not block the holder.
|
|
[November FAQ, p. 2](https://www.gf9games.com/dune/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Dune-FAQ-Nov-2020.pdf#page=2)
|
|
|
|
The engine consumes the physical Nexus and moves the exact force group in one
|
|
action. A private receipt records the original pools, mode and conserved delta;
|
|
independent event markers reject missing, duplicated or reordered history.
|
|
Historical pools are not compared with all later current pools: ordinary revivals,
|
|
Ghola and later battles can legitimately change them. The current card and event
|
|
must still authorize a fresh use. Saved views never expose that receipt or rival
|
|
hands/spice. The private offer creates no table-wide decision or forced pass.
|
|
|
|
All four AI profiles use the same projected legal choices. The UI supplies a
|
|
physical elite selector only when it offers a real choice, shows unavailability
|
|
reasons, and disables submission while busy. The existing Nexus inspector retains
|
|
all three printed panels. This is legal functional support, not calibrated strategy.
|
|
|
|
## Bank-auction purchase alternative
|
|
|
|
The printed purchase option preserves the actual buyer's spice after proving
|
|
the final price is held. An unallied holder, with Emperor absent, can spend the
|
|
physical Nexus at the winner-payment decision of an ordinary bank auction.
|
|
The winner must have the full positive bid in their own spendable spice and
|
|
cannot use ally contribution. One actual Treachery lot enters their hand,
|
|
their spice remains unchanged, and normal auction/card follow-ups continue.
|
|
The public log announces the price/proof/use without revealing excess spice or
|
|
the Treachery card face. A private signed receipt records the lot, price and
|
|
unchanged balance; independent use markers and physical custody survive JSON
|
|
and in-memory SQLite CAS/restart. Rival seat views omit the offer and receipt.
|
|
|
|
**Timing is a provisional privacy choice, not a user or publisher ruling.**
|
|
Every winner in this bounded public auction context receives the same payment
|
|
confirmation, including a player with only spice and no Nexus card. Otherwise
|
|
the holder-only pause would disclose hidden ownership. The existing ordinary
|
|
spice/Karama payment choices stay available; bots use a legal purchase when
|
|
owned and otherwise use the ordinary decision. The previously asked
|
|
confirmation-versus-gate question remains pending; this prototype does not
|
|
settle it for release.
|
|
|
|
Seller-paid Richese/CHOAM transactions, allied split, expansions, other
|
|
purchase sources and the forced Emperor-payment Betrayal alternative remain
|
|
gated. The [source contract](NEXUS_EMPEROR_RULES.md#secret-ally-retain-the-actual-purchase-price)
|
|
records those payment boundaries.
|
|
|
|
## Prototype entry and evidence
|
|
|
|
A fresh ready local lobby can use the existing reusable writer:
|
|
|
|
```sh
|
|
node --import tsx tools/start-prototype.ts --profile nexus \
|
|
--db PATH_TO_LOCAL_D1_SQLITE --room EIGHT_CHARACTER_CODE \
|
|
--version CURRENT_LOBBY_VERSION --out /private/new-prototype-checkpoint
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
It enables the real twelve-card Nexus setup, backs up saved games, compares the
|
|
original room/version atomically, preserves seats and other rooms, and rejects
|
|
redealing a started game. The Nexus is drawn through the ordinary closing-phase
|
|
opportunity; the writer does not deal a chosen card directly to a player.
|
|
|
|
Focused tests exercise ordinary-first and Nexus-first returns, zero-spice use,
|
|
Fedaykin caps, later Ghola, native/Betrayal exclusion, private controls and bots,
|
|
JSON recovery, corruption, SQLite restart, lost-response replay and competing
|
|
normal/elite choices. The fixture executes the real setup, alliance and Nexus
|
|
draw actions but controls starting hands, deck order and the later loss topology.
|
|
It is a targeted scenario, not an untouched complete game.
|
|
|
|
Independent source/privacy review and 17 focused effect tests pass; four prototype
|
|
writer tests also pass. Two genuine-start samples with all four AI profiles finish:
|
|
Basic 715 actions/19 periodic JSON restores and Advanced 263/7, both with zero
|
|
rejected candidates and no Emperor use. Two explicitly staged continuations finish
|
|
in 18 Basic and 17 Advanced actions, with one normal-force Nexus return each and no
|
|
rejections. All samples preserve exact Treachery, force, elite and Nexus custody;
|
|
all 14 final seat views also survive restoration. These are bounded continuation
|
|
checks, not natural full-game acceptance of the Emperor effect or AI calibration.
|
|
|
|
A separate staged Advanced Fremen browser game spends the Nexus on three forces,
|
|
including one Fedaykin, then revives three ordinary normal forces. Reserves rise
|
|
from three to nine, Tanks fall from seven to one, spice remains three and the
|
|
ordinary free allowance is used only by the second return. One Fedaykin remains
|
|
in Tanks under the shared elite cap; the card is discarded exactly once. The full
|
|
inspector is readable, the action notice appears, and pending/resolved states
|
|
restore through refresh. Private projections and unchanged physical totals pass.
|
|
|
|
After the power outage, all 733 opening rooms and original seat/recovery records
|
|
match the private backup; database integrity and foreign keys pass. The healthy
|
|
server is reused without restart. A separate pre-verification snapshot protects
|
|
all 734 rooms, including the new QA game. Required broad results, final
|
|
preservation totals, source fingerprint and push confirmation are recorded in the
|
|
checkpoint commit and private report.
|