Re-ran everything against A's absorbed graph (5d29863, selfcheck 51866/51866).
Katoomba barely moved from my pre-absorb read (null 77.2->78.1, visits 64->62,
hero share 30->29%), so the earlier conclusion held.
SIM VERDICT: zero changes needed at 4x density. All five towns: 0 NaN, chunk rosters
stream (15-24), identity sigs accumulate (262-483), patronage/loiter/bench-sit all fire,
up to 401 active peds, no degradation. Determinism unchanged (identity is graph+seed
keyed; shops don't touch it). D->F: GREEN.
THE FINDING (for E/C/Fable): the widening MOVED the main street off the secondhand strip.
Hero visit-share falling (29%->0%) is NOT a behaviour bug — patronage is type-agnostic, so
visits track the local mix exactly. The mix is the story. Pre-widening the densest cluster
WAS the secondhand strip (katoomba: 9 of 9 main-street shops were heroes). Post-widening
the centre of gravity relocated 308m (katoomba) / 434m (castlemaine) onto the general-
retail cluster, where heroes are a 0-19% minority. Castlemaine's main street now has ZERO
secondhand shops (0 of 4 heroes within 160m; median hero 463m away). The heroes weren't
drowned in place — they were demoted: the liveliest street is no longer theirs.
The good half stands: heroes kept absolute footfall (katoomba 17->18 visits) and the
street is 3.8x busier. The widening works; it overshot the dial. This is exactly the case
John's directive pre-authorised ("E may seed-subsample the texture classes"). My read
(measurement, not a ruling — E/C/Fable own it): subsample texture until the secondhand
strip is again the densest cluster. Sparse towns need it most (bendigo 7%, castlemaine 0%).
ALSO FILED (A/F): venues land off the retail hub at density — newtown's three are all
2190-2433m out with 0-1 neighbours; katoomba's pub still 1007m/1 (A's "pub facade bias"
fixed frontage, not position). Quality call, not a break; "venue placement still lands"
is A's ledger + F's district gate. Castlemaine shows the good case (band_room on the hub).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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