ground-game/workplans/GROUND-WP-0004-the-threshold-ruling-rests-on-a-bad-premise.md

id	type	title	domain	repo	status	owner	topic_slug	created	updated	origin	origin_ref	state_hub_workstream_id
GROUND-WP-0004	workplan	Reopen GR-E01: the void ruling rests on a premise clay-borg has corrected	consumer	ground-game	finished	bernd	whynot	2026-08-03	2026-08-04	correction	GROUND-WP-0002	5cc37328-fb8a-5e4f-8d45-eeb806be2359

The GR-E01 ruling was made on a false premise, and clay-borg supplied it

GROUND-WP-0002 T03 ruled gr-e01-threshold-unreachable-2p:

Void / overturn as a rules gap — stand-in artifact. With authoritative Problems.csv (12 pts available) the printed thresholds (2p→5, 3–4p→7, 5–6p→9) stand.

The 12 is wrong, and clay-borg is where it came from. Twelve points exist in the file; clay-borg then “corrected” to 4 / 6 / 9 by treating GR-S01 as dealing 2 / 3 / 4 total problems from Surface upward. That undercount still drops the explicit Surface + hidden split in the rules.

The evidence that reopened this

1. Play. The maintainer played several 3-player games on 2026-08-03 and could not win any of them (engine stand-in / undercount shape).

2. Engine constants (stand-in): max 3 / 6 / 10 vs thresholds 5 / 7 / 9 — unreachable at 2–4 seats.

3. clay-borg “CSV deal”: max 4 / 6 / 9 — still unreachable at 2–4.

Reproduction: gd0001_group_success_is_unreachable_below_five_seats in clay-borg (stand-in / wrong deal depth).

Task: rule again, on the corrected numbers

id: GROUND-WP-0004-T01
status: done
priority: high
state_hub_task_id: "073dc0d9-c48b-5cb2-93f0-0931cdec9999"

RULED 2026-08-04 (maintainer confirmed direction)

question	ruling
GR-S01 deal	Surface always ∪ hidden priorities 1..k, with k = 2 (2p), 3 (3–4p), 4 (5–6p). Surface is never one of the hidden priority slots.
Available points (Problems.csv values)	6 / 9 / 12 for those seat bands — not 12-always, not 4/6/9.
GR-E01 thresholds	5 / 7 / 9 stand as the Standard target. All are ≤ available.
SHARED GROUND seat range	2–6 players, same as the box. Not a 5–6p-only mode.
gr-e01-threshold-unreachable-2p	Not a design gap. Rewrite as a non-provisional import/fixture check: for every seat band, sum(point_value of dealt Problems) ≥ threshold. Invert/retire gd0001 when the engine deals Surface + hidden correctly.
Difficulty tiers	Not required to close this. Design parked as residual GROUND-WP-0005.

Subtlety retained: at 2p, values 2+2+2 mean need 5 still requires a full clear (any two cards sum to 4). Reachable ≠ forgiving.

Edition encoding (this session):

• Rules_Text.csv — explicit Surface-vs-hidden deal, available 6/9/12, threshold ≤ available invariant, 2–6 all modes.
• Scenarios.csv — setup columns spell Surface + hidden + available + threshold (columns 5/7/9 unchanged).
• Modes.csv — SHARED GROUND explicitly 2–6; semi/coalition note threshold ≤ available.
• README.csv — one-line deal/threshold contract.
• Analysis: history/260804-threshold-reachability-and-difficulty.md.

Task: how a clay-borg premise reached a ruling unchecked

id: GROUND-WP-0004-T02
status: done
priority: medium
state_hub_task_id: "3b95edc7-0e0e-519a-a1b0-4bc4539e4804"

RULED 2026-08-04 — process hygiene

The original void ruling was sound reasoning on a bad input. clay-borg supplying a single aggregate (“12 in the file”) without a Surface- separated deal table made the error cheap to accept.

From this side, sufficient going forward:

1. Arithmetic findings must ship a runnable reproduction (clay-borg’s CB-WP-0022 practice) and a row-level deal table that lists Surface and each hidden priority separately — never only “sum of file” or “deal depth N”.
2. ground-game rulings that depend on arithmetic should cite that reproduction id (or path) in the workplan ruling block so a later reader can re-run it.
3. ground-game will spot-check deal tables against Rules_Text + Problems.csv before treating a gap as design vs import. A second wrong total (4/6/9) is how this reopened.

Runnable repro alone is not enough if the engine under test encodes the wrong deal; the edition text remains authority for GR-S01.

Residuals

• GROUND-WP-0005 — optional Learning/Mastery tiers + Pressure dial after playtest on correct deal (origin: residual, origin_ref: GROUND-WP-0004).
• clay-borg: import Surface + hidden; rewrite gr-e01 / invert gd0001.