# 2026-08-07 — Freeze charge meter adopted as the card-time playtest variant

**Status: playtest variant, NOT canon.** Ratification into the advisor
repo's CONCEPT.md is deferred until the operator's falsification-playtest
verdict — tracked at commit `73f84e7` (whose message records the pending
state) and the advisor repo's CONCEPT.md § Open questions #0 (the greybox
work tracker).

## The mechanic

A "Freeze" charge (meter) grows while the hand is closed, drains while
open. Its level maps to bands, best to worst:

- **FROZEN** (level ≥ 45%): true pause (`SceneTree.paused`).
- **THAW** (≥ 18%): slow-mo ramping back to full speed as it drains, on
  an acceleration curve (`thaw_curve` 2.2 — hangs slow, then rushes).
- **REALTIME** (≥ 10%): hand open, world at full speed.
- **UNAVAILABLE** (below): the hand will not open at all; a drained-open
  hand force-closes.

Opening with a full meter buys the whole ladder (~1.65s freeze → ~0.8s
thaw → ~0.5s realtime at defaults: cap 3.0s, drain 1.0/s, regen 0.4/s).
Closing the hand spools time back up over `release_thaw_s` (0.5s) instead
of snapping. All rates/bands are `@export` knobs; M flips live to the
original unlimited-toggle variant for A/B.

## Why (KB-grounded pressure test, 2026-08-07)

- **Kills a latent dominant strategy**: unlimited freeze made "open the
  hand as a free tactical pause" always-optimal (Schell: rework rules so
  a dominant strategy stops being dominant; aligns with CONCEPT.md's
  anti-dominant-strategy posture). The empty-meter lockout also closes
  the Space-spam refreeze exploit found during the pressure test.
- **Tension cycle**: freeze→thaw→realtime is Schell's
  rising-tension-then-release loop in miniature, inside every hand-open.
- **Temporal triangularity**: play one card early (safe) vs chain deeper
  into the thaw (greedy) — stacks with belt-depth pricing post-greybox.
- **Difficulty/accessibility axis**: meter size / regen / thaw length are
  one-scalar difficulty knobs that never touch enemy content — can't
  collide with the invincibility laws. Generous-to-infinite freeze is the
  accessibility floor.
- **Honesty note**: the KB surfaced nothing directly on decision timers /
  time pressure (retrieval miss) — grounding is flow/tension/triangularity/
  dominant-strategy material, adjacent but not a direct verdict.

## Canon tension to watch in playtest

"Attention is spent ON cards, not during them" (pillar 1, gentlest action
skill): a tight freeze window would turn the hand into a reflex test. The
generous default + continuous thaw (never a cliff) is the mitigation; the
ramp prices dithering and deep chains, not basic use.

## Evidence chain

Pressure test + operator "A for now" directive: session 2026-08-07.
Implementation: `73f84e7` (meter + bands), `3d2410c` (release ramp +
thaw curve). Operator early verdict: "that DOES feel very good", "ramp
feels good too… starting to feel game-like".