Idle bot turns confess; the chronicle fills its gaps

A clockwork whose chosen command the engine refuses now stumbles
visibly: the refusal is logged server-side with the offending command
(the RNRX coma took three silent turns to notice), and the bot says
so in character at the table — "RECALCULATING." — instead of an
unexplained idle turn. And six event types that never spoke in the
chronicle find their lines: the wave's wash-back, thornbush entry,
dragged objects, the opening deal, stolen-card and revealed-hand
privates. Replay captions inherit them all through humanize.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_015RCWSTnb1KYTPyL4GmhGnF

packages/server/src/index.ts

@@ -396,6 +396,16 @@ function botRemark(room: Room, actor: string, events: { type: string; [k: string
     }
   }
 }
+/** Spoken when a clockwork's chosen command was refused by the engine —
+ * the table sees a stumble instead of an unexplained idle turn. */
+const HESITATION_LINES = [
+  "RECALCULATING.",
+  "TACTICAL PAUSE. INTENTIONAL. PROBABLY.",
+  "THE MAZE REFUSES MY GENIUS.",
+  "ERROR LOGGED. DIGNITY INTACT.",
+  "I MEANT TO DO THAT.",
+];
+
 const pumping = new Set<string>();
 function runBots(room: Room): void {
   if (pumping.has(room.id)) return;
@@ -410,6 +420,14 @@ function runBots(room: Room): void {
     broadcast(room, (playerId) => ({ type: "state", view: viewForPlayer(room, playerId), seq: room.log.length }));
     // The game's end unmasks the mystery machines in the roster.
     if (room.state?.phase === "finished") broadcast(room, () => roomInfo(room));
+    // A refused brain-choice becomes a visible stumble, in character —
+    // an idle bot turn should read as hesitation, never as nothing.
+    if (step.hesitated) {
+      const said = addChat(room, step.seat, HESITATION_LINES[Math.floor(Math.random() * HESITATION_LINES.length)]!);
+      if (!("error" in said)) {
+        broadcast(room, () => ({ type: "chat", player: step.seat, text: said.text, at: said.at }));
+      }
+    }
     botRemark(room, step.seat, step.events as { type: string }[]);
     setTimeout(tick, BOT_STEP_MS);
   };