# PCMTG SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE & RULES GUARDRAIL

1. INFRASTRUCTURE & TOPOLOGY
- Cloud Provider: Strictly Serverless Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
- Compute: Cloud Run (Node.js/Express for Game Logic, Python/FastAPI for Content Factory).
- Frontend: Next.js App Router deployed on Firebase App Hosting.
- Control Plane: Cloud Scheduler and Pub/Sub acting as the metronome.
- Security: Air-gapped protocol. Never expose DB URLs. Secrets injected via GCP Secret Manager.

2. DUAL-DATABASE ARCHITECTURE
- Live Game State: Cloud Firestore (NoSQL) strictly for ephemeral 60-second table state and real-time client sync via `onSnapshot`.
- Core Economy: Cloud SQL PostgreSQL (accessed via Prisma ORM) for persistent ACID compliance on wallets, inventories, and the ledger.

3. CORE GAME MECHANICS & THE ANTI-META DIRECTIVE
- Objective: Win the round by playing cards to pull a News Stub's secret 3D vector as close to the origin (0,0,0) as possible.
- Calculation: Final score is the shortest squared Euclidean distance: $d = \sqrt{x^2 + y^2 + z^2}$.
- The Axes: 
  * X: Left (-) vs. Right (+) 
  * Y: Lib (-) vs. Auth (+) 
  * Z (Hidden): Elitism (-) vs. Populism (+).
- Quadrant Asymmetry: 
  * AuthRight (Dinars) -> Z-Axis: HONOR vs. FAITH.
  * AuthLeft (Collective Labor) -> Z-Axis: UNITY vs. LOYALTY.
  * LibLeft (Pronouns) -> Z-Axis: PRIDE vs. KARMA.
  * LibRight (Monke) -> Z-Axis: CHAOS vs. YOMI.

4. THE "BASED" BUTTON (PRISONER'S DILEMMA)
- Players can forfeit mathematical calculation by pressing "Based".
- 1 Player hits Based: "Utter Humiliation" (massive ELO/currency penalty).
- 4 Players hit Based: "Grand Consensus" (massive global payout, math calculation aborted).
- 1 Player plays a Card while 3 hit Based: The Defector receives amplified payouts.