P12's core — the meta-layer John asked for on day one. Tips scale with
the grade because that is how it works: an S pays, a D pays in abuse,
and the scorecard says so ('They left you $18.' / 'No tip. He watched
them not leave one.'). The money is deliberately gentle. This is a
kitchen, not a roguelike economy.
And then the tier rule, which is the entire design: CHEAP GEAR ADDS
NOISE AND EVENTS, NEVER A FLAT SCORE TAX. The small board you start on
does not subtract points anywhere. It does two things:
- it SHIFTS under a sawing knife, as literal lateral noise added to the
stroke, so the wedge and the CV it produces are earned by the hardware
the way a thin pan's hot spots are;
- it cannot hold a whole diced onion, so past about eight pieces the
outer ones are balanced on the rim and go on the floor.
Buy the big maple board off the catalogue and both simply stop. That is
the feel the atlas asked for and it is now measurable: the SAME drill,
the same cuts, went 10 of 12 with two on the floor and no medal on the
small board, and 12 of 12 with an S on the maple.
One bug that only existed because of this feature: the drill's short
verdict said 'Finish the cut before you stop the clock' — which is a
plain lie to a cook who DID finish and watched the board throw two
pieces away. It now names the floor when the floor is the reason.
Verified: an S tips $18; $42 buys the maple through the real catalogue
UI leaving $18; the board tier reaches both service prep and drills;
brûlée 7.5, mandoline 9.6, curry 10.0, chips 10.0, grill 9.4.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
