# T005 — Wired career-progression curve (post-fix) Goal: `baolife-economy` · Task T005 · Approach B (Judge-approved): wire the real tier-promotion `job_manager.handleJob` into BOTH weekly ticks (online + offline), before finances, mirrored. This is the re-measurement that proves the fix. Before T005, recurring salary was frozen at the entry tier for an entire career because `job_manager.handleJob` (the promotion/raise/firing function) was dead code — never called from any live game loop. See `T003-engaged-curve.md` for the pre-fix flat curves (engaged == passive, byte-for-byte). All figures: start age 18, 160 in-game-year horizon, seed 1 (salary-tier curves are seed-stable; seed only shifts death age). Captured from `npx vitest run tests/e2e/economy-curve.test.ts`. --- ## Engaged Accountant (Work Hard) — mid-tier ladder finalAge=73 · deathCause=natural · errors=0 · invariants=0 | age | salary | money | netWorth | occupation | |-----|--------|---------|----------|------------| | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | | 23 | 2000 | 4793 | 4793 | work | | 28 | 3000 | 12038 | 12038 | work | | 33 | 3000 | 31940 | 31940 | work | | 38 | 3000 | 52090 | 52090 | work | | 43 | 3000 | 72093 | 72093 | work | | 48 | 3000 | 92295 | 92295 | work | | 53 | 3000 | 112498 | 112498 | work | | 58 | 3000 | 132648 | 132648 | work | | 63 | 3000 | 155350 | 155350 | work | | 68 | 0 | 158260 | 158260 | retired | | 73 | 0 | 148960 | 148960 | retired | - **salaryTierProgression (yearly samples): 1200 -> 2000 -> 3000** (intermediate $1600 / $2400 rungs are crossed between annual samples; peak salary $3000 = Chief Financial Officer, the top of the Accountant ladder). - entrySalary=1200 · peakSalary=3000 (first reached age 24). - **Promotion ages**: reaches the $3000 CFO ceiling by ~age 24-28 (rapid early climb with Work Hard +2/wk; thereafter holds at the ladder top). - **Peak net worth = $163,410 (age 65)** — within the healthy target $150k-$300k. ## Engaged Software Engineer (Work Hard) — highest-ceiling career finalAge=73 · deathCause=natural · errors=0 · invariants=0 | age | salary | money | netWorth | occupation | |-----|--------|---------|----------|------------| | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | | 23 | 4000 | 5973 | 5973 | work | | 28 | 6000 | 21333 | 21333 | work | | 33 | 6000 | 54938 | 54938 | work | | 38 | 6000 | 88738 | 88738 | work | | 43 | 6000 | 122443 | 122443 | work | | 48 | 6000 | 156348 | 156348 | work | | 53 | 6000 | 190253 | 190253 | work | | 58 | 6000 | 224053 | 224053 | work | | 63 | 6000 | 260458 | 260458 | work | | 68 | 0 | 268828 | 268828 | retired | | 73 | 0 | 259528 | 259528 | retired | - **salaryTierProgression (yearly samples): 2000 -> 4000 -> 6000** (entry Junior $2000 -> Senior $4000 -> Software Engineering Manager $6000). - entrySalary=2000 · peakSalary=6000 (first reached age 27). - **Promotion ages**: climbs through the ungated rungs by ~age 23-27. - **Stalls at $6000 (Manager)** — the CTO rung ($10000) is prestige-gated (minPrestige 300) AND intelligence-floored (75). The sim never builds prestige, so the worker correctly holds just below the elite ceiling (gate working as designed). With prestige/intelligence cleared this would climb toward $10000. - **Peak net worth = $273,978 (age 65)** — within the healthy target $250k-$600k (the lower end, since CTO is gated off in this seed). ## Passive Accountant (no focus) — control finalAge=73 · deathCause=natural · errors=0 · invariants=0 | age | salary | money | netWorth | occupation | |-----|--------|---------|----------|------------| | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | | 23 | 1200 | 4492 | 4492 | work | | 33 | 1200 | 18836 | 18836 | work | | 43 | 1200 | 42577 | 42577 | work | | 53 | 1200 | 66468 | 66468 | work | | 63 | 1200 | 92909 | 92909 | work | | 68 | 1600 | 102605 | 102605 | retired | | 73 | 1600 | 113585 | 113585 | retired | - **salaryTierProgression: 1200** (creeps to $1600 only very late via the neutral random-walk — one occasional promotion, no ladder). - entrySalary=1200 · peakSalary=1200 (working-life peak). - **Peak net worth = $97,693 (age 65)** — low, NOT exploding (only a slow creep, exactly as required for the no-focus control). --- ## Verdict **Late-game money is now MEANINGFUL and BOUNDED.** - Meaningful: an engaged worker climbs a real salary ladder (Accountant 1200->3000, SWE 2000->6000) and accumulates **$163k-$274k** net worth — comfortably into mid-tier shop territory, versus the passive control's flat ~$98k. Engaged net worth is **1.67x-2.8x** the passive peak. - Bounded: highest observed peak is **$273,978**, far under the **$5,000,000** hard ceiling. The passive control still only creeps (~$98k peak), and elite top rungs (CTO $10000) remain prestige/intelligence gated, so the curve cannot run away. ## What was wired (and the one tiny job_manager tweak) - **Online** — `PlayerSession.processWeekTick`: call `handleJob(player, player.c)` BEFORE `applyWeeklyFinances(player.c)`. Promotion/firing messages flow through the existing `player.messageQueue` -> `messageEvent` drain in `processHourTick` (no new channel invented). - **Offline** — `GameEngine.handleWeeklyUpdates`: import the real promotion fn under an alias `processJobProgression` (= `job_manager.handleJob`) to avoid colliding with GameEngine's private happiness-only `handleJob`, and call it for the player character BEFORE `handleFinances`. The legacy happiness nudge is kept (harmless). Messages accumulate on `player.messageQueue`, delivered on reconnect via the offline loop drain — same pattern. - **Mirror parity**: identical function (`job_manager.handleJob`), identical ordering (career progression BEFORE finances), identical message surfacing (`player.messageQueue`). - **Tiny job_manager.ts fix (required)**: post-promotion performance reset changed `0 -> 50` (the fresh-hire baseline `setJob` uses). Resetting to 0 instantly satisfied the `< 10` termination check on the next weekly tick, firing the worker right after every promotion — a promote-then-fire sawtooth that prevented any ladder. With baseline 50 the worker climbs the next rung instead of being fired off. No salary tiers, finance math, or stats_manager constants were touched.