Auto Warz — HUD Panel Flap¶

Document Type: Design Document Version: 0.1 Status: Approved — pending implementation in M2.7 Last Updated: 2026-03-31 Vault destination: 01_Design Documents Folder: 01_Design Documents

Overview¶

The Panel Flap system is the primary way players access factory information and session controls. Two flaps sit on opposite sides of the screen — left and right — mirroring each other structurally. Together they form the information and action layer of the HUD without cluttering the game world.

This document covers the detailed specification of both flaps and all their tabs.

Shared Flap Behaviour¶

Handle¶

Always visible — a small tab sticking out from the screen edge, even when collapsed.
Never hidden. New players can always discover it.
Click the handle or press the assigned hotkey to expand/collapse.

Expand / Collapse¶

Right flap — expanded by default. Player can collapse and set collapsed as new default.
Left flap — collapsed by default. Player can expand and set expanded as new default.
Preference is remembered between sessions.

Size¶

Width — adjustable. Player drags the inner edge to resize. Remembered between sessions.
Height — content height only. Panel grows only as tall as its tabs require. Does not extend to the bottom of the screen unnecessarily.

Game State¶

Factory simulation never pauses when either flap is open.
Both flaps can be open simultaneously.

Attention System¶

The attention system ensures players never miss something important, while avoiding constant noise during normal play.

Collapsed State¶

Handle glows/pulses if any tab within the flap requires attention.
Handle prods/peeks/bounces out from the screen edge if any tab has a critical alert. Continues bouncing until the critical condition is resolved or acknowledged.

Expanded State¶

Individual tab icons glow/pulse only on tabs that require attention.
Tabs with no alerts remain visually neutral.
The handle itself stays neutral when expanded — the tab icons carry the signal.

Alert Levels¶

Level	Collapsed Handle	Expanded Tab Icon	Requires Acknowledgement
Info	Subtle glow	Subtle glow	No — fades automatically
Warning	Stronger pulse	Stronger pulse	No — resolves when condition clears
Critical	Bounces out from edge	Strong pulse + colour	Yes — persists until player dismisses

Left Flap — Session Management¶

Default: Collapsed. Hotkey: ESC key opens the left flap. ESC again or clicking Resume closes it. Purpose: Session controls and player-facing information. Not factory-related.

Tab: Save¶

Save current session to autosave slot (one click).
Option to save to a named manual slot.
Shows timestamp of last save.
Autosave also runs automatically every 60 seconds in the background.

Attention trigger: Warning pulse if session has not been saved for an extended period. Critical bounce after a very long period without saving.

Tab: Load¶

List of available save slots — autosave and manual slots.
Each slot shows: save name, date and time saved, session time elapsed, milestones reached.
Confirmation prompt before loading (unsaved progress will be lost).

Tab: Settings¶

Audio: - Master volume slider - Music volume slider - SFX volume slider

Display: - Fullscreen toggle - UI scale slider - Camera speed slider

Gameplay: - Invert camera pan Y toggle

Reference: - Keybinding list — read only in M2.7. Remappable in a future milestone.

Tab: Session Info¶

Session type: Solo / Multiplayer
Player count and player names (multiplayer only)
Current planet name
Session time elapsed
Milestones reached this session:
☐ / ✓ First ship launched
☐ / ✓ First territory claimed
☐ / ✓ Master Rill built

Attention trigger: Brief glow when a milestone is reached.

Tab: Exit¶

Exit to Menu — saves first, then returns to main menu.
Exit to Desktop — saves first, then closes the game.
Both show a confirmation prompt if there are unsaved changes.

Right Flap — Factory Information¶

Default: Expanded. Hotkey: TBD (I key currently mapped to inventory — to be reassigned in M2.7). Purpose: Factory health, resource data, production information, contributions.

Tab 1: Inventory¶

Purpose: Planet-wide resource totals at a glance.

Contents: One row per resource type present on the planet.

Column	Content
Icon	Resource icon
Name	Resource display name
Quantity	Current total across all chests, buildings, and Genesis carry
Rate	Net production/consumption rate

Rate display: - Numeric value: e.g. +12/min or -3/min - Colour coded: - Green = net surplus (producing more than consuming) - Red = net deficit (consuming more than producing) - Grey = static (no active production or consumption)

Sorting: Player-sortable. Options: - By tier (Raw → Refined → Component → Advanced) - By quantity (highest first) - By production rate (highest surplus first) - By category (Extraction, Processing, etc.)

Sort preference remembered between sessions.

Attention trigger: Warning pulse when any resource is in sustained deficit. Critical bounce when a resource reaches zero and buildings are starving.

Tab 2: Power¶

Purpose: Planet-wide power health and per-grid breakdown.

Planet Overview (top section)¶

Total power generated (PU) vs total power consumed (PU)
Net surplus or deficit
Number of active grids on this planet
Warning count — how many grids have issues

Per Grid Breakdown (below overview)¶

One entry per power grid. Each entry shows:

Grid identifier (auto-assigned, e.g. Grid 1, Grid 2)
Surplus or deficit for that grid
Power sources on the grid — name and current output
Biggest consumers on the grid — top 3 buildings by draw
Estimated time to failure if deficit continues (e.g. "~4 min")
Status indicator: healthy / warning / critical

Problem grids are colour highlighted (warning = yellow, critical = red). Healthy grids remain neutral.

Grid Identification — On Demand¶

Clicking any grid entry in the panel triggers: 1. All buildings belonging to that grid pulse/outline briefly in the world. 2. A light floor overlay appears on the terrain showing the exact footprint of that grid.

Both effects are temporary — they fade after a few seconds or when the player clicks elsewhere. No permanent colour coding on buildings — avoids visual noise.

Grid Lifecycle Notifications¶

Merge: When two grids connect — toast notification: "Grid 2 and Grid 3 merged into Grid 2." Panel updates immediately.
Split: When a grid disconnects — toast notification: "Grid 2 split — now Grid 2 and Grid 4." New grid briefly highlighted in world.

Power Core Section (late game)¶

Appears only after Power Core is researched. Shows: - Power Core charge level - Rate of charge/discharge - Estimated time to full / time to empty - Which grids the Power Core is serving

Attention trigger: Warning pulse when any grid is in deficit or a source goes offline. Critical bounce when failure is imminent (time to failure < 60 seconds).

Tab 3: Analytics¶

Purpose: Factory health dashboard — efficiency, bottlenecks, performance vs potential.

Per Building Efficiency¶

List of all placed buildings
Each building shows: name, category icon, current efficiency % (actual output / theoretical maximum output)
Colour coded: green = 80–100%, yellow = 50–79%, red = below 50%
Sortable by efficiency (worst first by default — surfaces problems immediately)

Bottleneck Detection¶

Automatically identifies where the production chain is being throttled
Shows the bottleneck building/belt/connector and why it is throttled (output full, input starved, power cut, etc.)
Highlighted in the list with a warning indicator

Idle Building Alerts¶

Lists buildings that have been idle for more than a configurable threshold (default: 2 minutes)
Shows how long each has been idle and the reason if known (no input, no power, no output path)

Historical Graphs¶

Production over time for each resource
Selectable time window: last 10 minutes / last hour / full session
Simple line graph, one resource at a time

Actual vs Theoretical Maximum¶

For each production chain, shows: current output rate vs what it could produce if running at 100%
Expressed as a percentage and an absolute rate (e.g. "6/min of 10/min possible — 60%")

Attention trigger: Warning pulse when bottleneck detected or idle buildings exceed threshold.

Tab 4: Production¶

Purpose: Visual production chain diagram filtered by resource. Separate from Analytics due to complexity.

Resource Filter¶

Player selects one resource from a dropdown or list.
The tab shows the full chain required to produce that resource — from raw extraction through all processing steps to final output.

Chain Diagram¶

Visual node-and-arrow diagram.
Each node = one building type in the chain.
Arrows show material flow direction.
Numbers overlaid on each node: current throughput rate.
Numbers overlaid on each arrow: items/min flowing along that connection.
Colour coding on nodes matches building category colours.
Problem nodes (bottleneck, idle, insufficient input) highlighted with their status colour.

Interaction¶

Purely informational. No world highlight (too many buildings of the same type to disambiguate).
Hover a node for a popup showing: building name, count placed, total output, efficiency %.

Attention trigger: Glows when the selected resource chain has a bottleneck or broken link.

Tab 5: Contributions¶

Purpose: Track what your factory is sending to the trade network and the war effort.

Current Session Contributions¶

List of resources being sent this session
Per resource: quantity sent, destination player/station, rate
Total contribution value (if a scoring system exists)

Trade Station Status¶

Whether a Trade Station is built and active
Whether a transport ship is available
If neither exists: a prompt — "Build a Trade Station and transport ship to begin contributing."

Contribution History¶

Log of past contributions across sessions
Per entry: date, resource, quantity, destination
Filterable by resource or destination

Receiving¶

Resources incoming from other players
Status: in transit / available for collection

Early game state: Tab is visible but mostly empty. Shows the Trade Station and transport ship build requirements so the player knows what to work toward.

Attention trigger: Glows when incoming materials are ready to collect.

Tab 6: Log¶

Purpose: Notification history. Full record of everything that has happened this session.

Log Entries¶

Each entry shows: - Timestamp - Level indicator (Info / Warning / Critical) - System (Power / Production / Genesis / Contributions / Session) - Message

Filters¶

By level: Info / Warning / Critical / All
By system: Power / Production / Genesis / Contributions / Session / All
By time: Last 10 min / Last hour / Full session

Acknowledgement¶

Critical entries remain highlighted in the log until the player explicitly dismisses them.
A "Clear acknowledged" button removes all dismissed entries.
Unacknowledged critical entries keep the Log tab pulsing.

Player-Defined Notifications¶

Via the circuitry system (future milestone), players can define custom notification triggers: - Custom condition (e.g. chest below 50 ore, building idle for 2 min) - Custom message - Custom level (Info / Warning / Critical) - Acknowledgement required: yes / no

Custom notifications appear in the Log filtered under their assigned system.

Attention trigger: Glows when unread warnings exist. Bounces when unread critical notifications exist.

Tab 7: Pollution¶

Purpose: Planet-wide pollution health, waste management, and the consequences it is imposing on production.

It is deliberately structured to mirror Tab 2 (Power), which already establishes the pattern: planet overview, then per-unit breakdown, then click-to-highlight, then attention triggers. Reusing that pattern means one less thing for the player to learn, and largely the same components to build.

Planet Overview (top section)¶

Three pollutant readouts, matching the three-pollutant model:

Readout	Detail
Air / Smog	Planet-wide average, plus trend arrow (rising / stable / falling)
Water Contamination	Percentage of the fluid network affected
Waste Backlog	Total stored waste, and remaining Silo/Tank capacity

Effects readout¶

The key part of this tab. Pollution is only meaningful when the player can see the current cost.

Solar output penalty — current percentage reduction across all Solar Panels
Farm yield penalty — current percentage reduction across all farms
Decay rate — current planet-average building degradation

These three lines should make the tab immediately useful: a player should be able to read "your smog is costing you 18% of your solar output" without doing arithmetic.

Per Zone Breakdown¶

Air pollution is zonal, so this mirrors the per-grid breakdown in the Power tab.

One entry per pollution zone, each showing:

Zone identifier (auto-assigned, e.g. Zone 1, Zone 2)
Current concentration and trend
Top 3 emitters in that zone, by output
What the zone is affecting: solar panels within it, farms within it
Status indicator: clean / elevated / severe

Problem zones are colour highlighted. Clean zones remain neutral.

Zone Identification — On Demand¶

Identical interaction to the Power tab's grid highlighting, for consistency.

Clicking any zone entry triggers: 1. All emitters in that zone pulse/outline briefly in the world 2. A light floor overlay appears showing the zone's extent and concentration gradient

Both effects are temporary, fading after a few seconds or on clicking elsewhere. No permanent overlay, which would add constant visual noise.

Waste Section¶

Reflects the three handling choices in the pollution design: store, recycle, or dump.

Line	Shows
Stored	Total in Silos/Tanks, capacity remaining, estimated time to full
Recycled	Throughput rate, and the power draw it is consuming
Dumped	Rate, and cumulative total dumped

E-waste is called out separately, since it is the pollutant that attracts scavengers. Show quantity exposed and whether it is currently drawing attention.

Attention Triggers¶

Following the established flap convention:

Trigger	Level
Solar or farm penalty exceeds a threshold	Warning pulse on the flap handle
Any silo storing waste passes ~90% full	Warning pulse
Waste storage full and backing up the production line	Critical bounce
E-waste exposure high enough to attract scavengers	Critical bounce

What Does NOT Go Here¶

Building decay percentage. Decay is a productivity gradient and belongs in Tab 3 (Analytics), which already shows per-building efficiency, colour-coded and sortable worst-first. Duplicating it here would split one concept across two tabs.
Power generation figures. Tab 2 owns those. This tab shows only the pollution consequence on solar output.

Open items for this document are tracked in docs/open-items.md, area ui.

Revision History¶

Version	Date	Notes
0.3	2026-08-27	Absorbed `HUD Pollution Tab Specification.md`, which is now deleted. Tab 7 content was already merged; this adds the placement rationale (Tab 7 mirrors Tab 2's structure deliberately) and corrects Silo/Tank and Solar Panel to their canonical names.
0.1	2026-03-31	Initial draft — full left and right flap specification including all tabs
0.2	2026-08-25	Merged the Pollution tab addendum into the right flap specification as Tab 7