--- name: fo3-pipboy-design description: "FO3 true-recreation Pip-Boy — the locked design decisions and the owner's rulings behind them" metadata: node_type: memory type: project originSessionId: 44d8e54f-7f2e-4ebb-8d57-31b2e03f18e4 --- The FO3 Pip-Boy design went through five passes (2026-07-12). Passes 1–4 (zero-cost mobile body → A/B/C weight study → reference-faithful furniture → structural rebuild with scattered controls) are **all superseded** by the owner's final brief: **"a genuine recreation, down to the panels fitting into the UI."** Design of record and mockup live under `planning/2.8.5/designs/FO3/` and `planning/2.8.5/mockups/FO3/`; read those for the spec. This file holds the decisions and rulings only. *Correction 2026-07-20: the previous "doc + mockups done, awaiting owner sign-offs, then audit → build" framing was removed. That gate is long past.* **The load-bearing decisions:** - **Orientation split:** LANDSCAPE = the true Pip-Boy and the primary FO3 view; PORTRAIT = the existing legacy flat layout, unchanged. Rotating the device is diegetic. Implemented as a pure orientation media query, not a breakpoint. - **Thesis:** NV puts machinery ON the glass; FO3 puts it IN the casing. The FO3 glass is austere — flat phosphor text, boxes, dash rails, ▲▼ — and all tactility lives in the body. - **Structure:** in-glass sub-tab rails, five per board (STATS: STATUS/SPECIAL/SKILLS/PERKS/GENERAL · ITEMS: MANIFEST/CRAFT/BARTER/SQUAD/CURIO · DATA: MAP/QUESTS/NOTES/LOG/QUERY). The weigh bridge rides the top strip. UPLINK = knob, CHASSIS = gauge, SETTINGS = toggle, all on the body. **DIR is cut from FO3**; the hotkey still opens the directory. - **Steppers are HORIZONTAL** (`[▼][val][▲]`) — vertically stacked arrows were tried and **rejected**: they failed the tap probe at the size the layout could afford them. Same reason the gauge and knob were forced onto the left rail: the landscape body has no room for them elsewhere. - **Vault Boy** is the original inline SVG, thumbs-up, with tappable limb boxes. No compact pose was introduced — it fits at full size. - **Edit parity is a requirement, and no tab may be silently downgraded.** Most sub-tabs reach strict tap parity. MANIFEST/SQUAD/QUESTS cost one extra tap on the first action per item because of the master-detail select; the agreed mitigation is an inline primary-action glyph, and that remains an owner decision. LOG is legitimately read-only. - **The temptation list** (design doc §7) is the evidence-based spec for a future N-game abstraction and was deliberately NOT built. The FO3 skin gets its OWN numbered CSS file; never hardcode FO3 anywhere; all flavour goes in the identity layer. - NV was left untouched throughout. **Known risk areas flagged at design time**, worth re-checking against any change here: the sub-tab rails are a new IA axis riding the shared render pipeline; landscape gating; second-level tablist accessibility; `100dvh` behaviour on a real device.