Rack to Riches — Devlog

• Three income modes — each case is manually assigned to Compute Rental, Crypto Mining, or Web Hosting; mode can be switched at any time from the case card
• Hard hardware requirements per mode: Rental earns from CPU + GPU combined; Crypto requires a dedicated GPU (iGPU counts for nothing); Hosting is RAM-heavy (CPU contributes a little, GPU irrelevant)
• Three independent compute pools — rentalCompute, cryptoCompute, and hostingCompute accumulate separately; each has its own sell button in the market row
• Rental market — same weighted random demand (Low / Medium / High / Spike) as before, rolling every 30 ticks
• Crypto market — deterministic bear → rising → bull → crashing wave cycle; bull run pays 7× base price and fires a log message; bear pays only 0.15×
• Hosting market — gentle dip / stable / strong demand rolling every 60 ticks; near-flat variation compared to crypto
• Mode badge and output preview on every case card — shows current mode in colour and lists Rental / Crypto / Hosting output per second so you can compare before switching
• Mid Tower fan slots increased from 3 to 4 — was impossible to cool at full load with only 3 slots
• 240mm AIO cooling buffed from −5°C/s to −6°C/s — now meaningfully outperforms two fans
• Full Compute GPU heat reduced from 6.0°C/s to 4.5°C/s — was disproportionately hot and made a fully loaded Mid Tower uncoolable
• Case inventory sizes reduced (Mini ITX 1 slot, Mid Tower 2 slots, Server Chassis 2 slots) — previous sizes (4 / 6 / 8) blocked buying Mid Tower or Server Chassis whenever the starting parts were in inventory
• Bug fix: loading a save with a version mismatch now properly initialises the fresh-game UI — previously the shop, cases, and inventory were never rendered, leaving the game in a blank unresponsive state
• Bug fix: installing a part from inventory now re-renders the shop — previously the buy buttons stayed disabled after freeing inventory space until the player manually switched shop tabs
• Save version bumped to 3 — v1.41 saves are detected and cleared on load

v1.43: contract system — passive income that runs automatically at a fixed rate, complementing the manual sell mechanic. Then tutorial / story before v1.5.

• Thermal equilibrium system — replaces all-or-nothing overheating; temperature now settles at a natural equilibrium based on heat generated vs cooling installed (Newton's law of cooling)
• Seven heat zones: Cold / Normal / Warm / Hot / Danger / Critical / Meltdown — each zone applies a fixed compute multiplier and a part failure chance
• Cold gives a +10% compute bonus; Normal is baseline; Warm -15%; Hot -35%; Danger -60%; Critical -80%; Meltdown 0%
• Random permanent part destruction — Hot zone and above have a chance each tick to permanently destroy a randomly chosen installed part (CPU, RAM, GPU, mobo, or cooling)
• Meltdown hard wall at 100°C — any case over 100°C instantly destroys a part and goes offline; no recovery without replacing the lost component
• Cascade effect: a destroyed cooling part causes temperature to spike, which can trigger further failures — manage heat before it runs away
• Temperature display updated — cards now show "45° — Warm" instead of "45° / 75°C" since max temp per case is no longer meaningful
• Case cards now animate based on heat zone — pulsing orange at Hot, fast red at Danger, very fast dark red at Critical, magenta strobe at Meltdown
• Sound effects added — all game actions now have audio feedback: buy, sell, install, remove, power on, warning, part fail, and meltdown; generated via Web Audio API with no audio files
• Background music added — a procedural 4-bar loop (Am – F – C – G) using triangle wave melody and sine bass at 90 BPM; schedules ahead to stay glitch-free
• Warning sound plays when a case crosses into Hot zone or worse for the first time
• SFX and Music toggle buttons added to the menu sidebar — state is saved to localStorage and restored on reload
• Switched to sub-version numbering (v1.41, v1.42…) for incremental pushes — v1.5 will be the next named milestone release
• Code cleanup: removed obsolete overheated and maxTemperature fields that were left over from the old heat system

v1.42: three income modes (Rental / Crypto / Hosting), independent market cycles, cooling balance fixes, and several load/buy bug fixes.

• Location / progression system — 5 tiers from Your Bedroom (2 cases) up to Small Datacenter (20 cases)
• Each location upgrade requires a minimum total-earnings threshold AND an upfront move-in cost — both must be met
• Location bar above the server room shows current location, case count, rent, and an upgrade button when eligible
• Rent per tick added for locations above Bedroom: costs drain continuously alongside electricity
• totalEarned tracker added — a lifetime counter that only goes up, used as the progression gate
• Electricity redesigned: replaced the periodic lump bill with a smooth per-tick drain (credits floor at $0)
• Per-case wattage now shown on each online case card — e.g. ⚡ 82W · -$0.10/s
• Power gauge label updated to show running electricity cost per second
• Power On button added to offline case cards — player must manually boot a case after installing parts or after overheat recovery
• Cases no longer auto-boot: installing parts or cooling down from overheat does not bring a case online automatically
• Overheat now shows clearly on the case card — "OVERHEAT — cooling down... (X°C)" replaces the generic offline message
• Power On button hidden while a case is overheating — player must wait for it to cool first
• Server Chassis 1U fan slots increased from 2 to 4 — was thermally impossible to cool at full load
• New part: 80mm Server Fan — high-RPM server fan, 4°C/s cooling per slot, fits the Server Chassis
• Console commands online and offline added — force a case or all cases online/offline; state is locked until a part is changed or Power On is pressed

v1.41: thermal equilibrium system, heat zones, permanent part destruction, sound effects, and background music.

• Full hardware component redesign — replaces the generic numbered slot system with typed, compatible parts
• Two fictional hardware brands: Zyntel (Intel-like, ZL5 socket, DDR5, has integrated graphics) and Atrex (AMD-like, VX4=DDR4 and VX5=DDR5, no iGPU)
• Motherboard is now a separate part: determines socket type, RAM type, RAM slots, and PCIe slots
• CPU compatibility: CPU socket must match the installed motherboard socket or it will not fit
• Boot requirements: a case only goes online when it has a mobo + matching CPU + at least one RAM stick + display output (iGPU or GPU)
• Narrative boot failure messages — "Hmm, it's not booting... I think there's no motherboard in there." and similar per missing component
• GPU size restrictions per case: Mini ITX and Server 1U only accept short / low-profile GPUs; Mid Tower accepts any
• Cooling type restrictions per case: Mini ITX supports case fans and 120mm AIO; Server 1U fans only; Mid Tower supports up to 240mm AIO
• Case modal now shows supported GPU size and supported cooling types at a glance
• Motherboard cascade removal: removing the mobo auto-ejects the CPU, RAM and GPUs back to inventory (cooling stays)
• New parts shop (13 parts total): 3 mobos, 3 CPUs, 2 RAM sticks, 2 GPUs, 3 cooling options — grouped by type with spec lines
• Starting state redesigned: Mini ITX Case is placed bare (offline); Zyntel ZL5 Board + ZL5-100 CPU + 8GB DDR5 start in inventory — player builds the PC themselves
• Sell confirmation popup added: selling any case or inventory item now asks for confirmation first to prevent accidental softlocks
• Mobile console close button added: ✕ button on both the auth overlay and main console header — no backtick key required
• Save version bumped to 2 — old v1.2 saves are detected and cleared with a warning instead of loading broken state

v1.3 continued: refining and bugfixes for the new parts redesign.

• Creative mode added — free builds, no bills, no random events; all shop items show FREE
• Career mode confirmed as default — same gameplay as before
• New Game Setup modal: clicking New on a save slot opens a mode selector before starting
• Game mode is locked to the save slot — you cannot switch mode mid-game, only by starting fresh
• Save button locked to active slot only — other slots show a disabled Save button to prevent accidental overwrites
• Save slot details now show mode (CAREER / CREATIVE) alongside credits and case count
• Mode badge added to game header — green CREATIVE badge or grey CAREER badge next to version number
• Sell from inventory: every item in the inventory panel now has a Sell button showing the 50% sell price upfront
• Sell deployed case: each case card has a Sell button — auto-ejects all installed parts to inventory, then sells the case
• Selling refuses if inventory is too full to eject the parts
• New Game button added to each save slot — previously you had to save-to-slot then reset to start fresh
• Active slot now initialised from localStorage on startup — slot number is preserved correctly across reloads
• Bug fix: case stuck offline after save during a power flicker event — now auto-recovers on next tick if no active event

v1.3: Further cases and parts redesign — polish the core hardware loop until it feels fully right before adding new locations, more random events, or other systems.

• Full Cases + Parts architecture redesign — replaces the old flat machine/cooler system
• Each case is an independent server: its own temperature, slots, built-in cooling, overheat state and online/offline LED
• Cases: Mini ITX Case (2 slots, 75°C max), Mid Tower (4 slots, 85°C max), Server Chassis 1U (6 slots, 95°C max)
• Parts: Budget CPU, Multi-Core CPU, GPU Compute Card, Case Fan (negative heat), Liquid Cooling Block (negative heat)
• Inventory system: items go to inventory on purchase; bedroom has 8 inventory slots; each item and case has a size
• Case placement flow: buy case → appears in inventory → click Place → deployed to server room
• Part installation flow: buy part → inventory → open case modal → click Install; Remove sends part back to inventory
• Per-case temperature bar on each case card with colour coding (green → amber → red)
• Overheat is per-case — only the overheating case goes offline, others keep running
• Selling from inventory and selling deployed cases added (50% of shop cost)
• Shop renamed: Hardware tab → Cases, Power tab → Parts, Cooling tab → Black Market (coming soon)
• Emergency row bug fixed — emergencyRow parent div now shown via JS alongside the individual buttons
• Old v1.0 saves detected and rejected gracefully with a message instead of crashing

v1.2: Creative mode, save system redesign, sell from inventory.

• Early Access release — full playable v1.0 shipped
• Three-panel layout: message log + menu (left), game dashboard (center), shop (right)
• Header with four live stat chips: Compute, Credits, Temperature, Power
• Machine cards with LED indicator, heat state colours (online/warm/hot/offline) and condition bar
• Passive compute generation — machines generate compute every tick (1 second)
• Spot market with four demand levels (Low / Medium / High / Spike) and weighted random rotation
• Sell button shows total payout — one click sells all stored compute at current market rate
• Temperature system: machines heat the room, coolers subtract heat, overheat shuts everything down until 40°C
• Electricity bill fires every 60 ticks based on total power draw
• Shop: Hardware tab (DataPlex 486, NetServer 200, ProRack 1000)
• Shop: Cooling tab (USB Desk Fan, Box Fan, Liquid Cooling Loop)
• Random events every 2 minutes: Heat Surge (pump coolant), Power Flicker (crank generator), Market Crash, Mom Knocking
• Emergency buttons (PUMP COOLANT / CRANK GENERATOR) appear only during active events
• 3-screen story tutorial modal fires on first play via localStorage flag
• Save system: 3 manual save slots, 30-second auto-save, active slot indicator, auto-loads last slot on page open
• Reset clears only the currently active save slot
• Mobile tabs: bottom nav switches between Game, Events and Shop panels

v1.1: Cases + Parts architecture redesign shipped — see v1.1 entry above.

• Project planning started — full game design document written (game-design.md)
• Core concept: idle game about building a data center from a trashed PC found on the street
• Starting hardware: DataPlex 486 (fictional model, found in the trash)
• Clicking mechanic redefined — clicking is an emergency tool, not the core loop
• Four location phases planned: Bedroom → Garage → Rented Basement → Data Center
• Hardware tiers designed: DataPlex → Budget Tower → SBC Cluster → Workstation → Rack Server → Blade Server → DC Node
• Visual progression planned — hardware visually changes per tier and per location
• Heat & cooling system designed with temperature thresholds and manual pump mechanic
• Power system designed with electricity bills and manual generator fallback
• Spot market (manual) + contract system (automatic) economy designed
• Tax system + Legal Heat system designed — pay taxes or risk police, fines and raids
• Black market system designed — unlocks after first tax evasion
• Mom as a recurring character in the bedroom phase
• 7-step scripted tutorial designed to teach every mechanic before they go random
• Game created as a standalone project in games/rack to ritches/ — separate from Server Clicker

Start building — HTML structure, core game loop, and tutorial system first.