Where work comes from: the marketWK

A town full of households whose gardens really grow. They find you through the channels you work, call when they think it's time, and go to a rival if you're slow. Work is scarce in week one and overflowing by the time you can hire.

The player's view

Week one. Nobody has heard of you. You knock on doors along grandma's street, push flyers through letterboxes and undercut where you can. Kyle, a teenager, mows for pocket money and leaves stripes like a seismograph; you win his clients the week he forgets to show up.

The phone. The fussy neighbour calls the moment her lawn looks a little shaggy; the relaxed one down the road waits until it's a meadow. The man who mows his own lawn only calls when his back is bad. After a rainy week, everyone calls at once, and you saw it coming.

Answer in time. A voicemail came in at lunch. You finish a job, drive back, and just before the end of the day you call her back and book Thursday. The one you didn't answer has a van from someone else outside the next week. Every caller tells you how they heard of you, and the ledger shows which channels pay for themselves.

Regulars. After a good visit, she asks if you can come every week. A month later another regular asks you to match GreenCorp's offer: you match it, explain why your lawns look better, or let him go.

Old Walt retires. His goodbye letter is in the paper, and for a few days his clients call around looking for someone new.

Leads. Riding to a job, you notice a long lawn and a green pool on a street you don't work yet. You note the lot, knock the next day, and book it. On the computer, the market map colours each district by who mows it.

Overflowing. By the second month there are more calls than you can take. You pick the good ones, raise your prices, and hire a crew: finding work isn't the problem any more, doing it is.

Ideas

WK1: the market, households on lots

Every district has lots, every lot a household. Generated from the save seed + the lot, so every machine and every save has the same town; nothing to sync. It replaces today's 15 hand-made clients; J5 is its first slice.

• Who they areA name, a look, a voice, five traits and a habit (Characters: the family, the street, the clients: CH7 and CH8). WK2's personalities read through them: fussy / normal / relaxed = Picky high / mid / low; DIY and show-off are habits.
• What they needLawn size, hedges, a pool or not, patio and driveway m², windows. The garden itself comes from LawnPlan with the lot's seed, so the garden you mow is the lot you walk past ("matching street gardens" for free).
• Their providerNobody, themselves (DIY), you, or a rival.
• Windows that listenEach household's windows are noise listening points with limits by hour (a baby, a night-shift worker); Sound: every sound comes from something owns the noise (SN3).

• The save only stores what changed, for households you touched: provider, satisfaction, last visits, awareness of you, round. Untouched households are pure functions of (seed, lot, day).
• Story clients sit on top: hand-made households on fixed lots with fixed gardens and lines. Mrs. Higgins next door, Chad, the Whitmores, Lady Mossley, the stadium. Today's m01-m14 become hand-made households in their districts.
• Needs grow day by day with the weather (weather.md growth): lawn cm, hedge cm, pool greening, patio and driveway grime, window dirt. A rain week means a busy week after, and you can predict it.
• Sizes (targets, tuned by the economy.md EC5 simulator):

District	Lots	Typical lawn	Services seen
Grandma's street	~20	80-300 m²	lawns, hedges, odd jobs
Suburbs	~150	150-600 m²	lawns, hedges, some pools, driveways
Leafy avenues	~100	400-1,500 m²	everything, many pools
The hills	~40	1,000-4,000 m² (estates)	everything, big
Commercial sites	~20	5,000-20,000 m²	contracts (economy.md, GA7)
Prestige	~5	hectares	tenders (GA8)

Needs: TU6 (districts as data, the walkable street) · Done when: grandma's street shows 20 households with their own lawns, the same on both instances.

WK2: requests and booking

Requests come from needs and personality, and replace today's GenerateRequests. The v0 of all this lives in Jobs: from the phone call to the review (J1-J9): the opening path (grandma → Mrs. Higgins → her friends), one offer algorithm (word of mouth + your paper ad, urgency %, trust opens bigger gardens, a luck tally), voicemails a rival takes the longer you wait. This page is the full market built on top of it.

Personality decides when they call

Personality	Calls when the lawn is…	Other habits
Fussy	+2 cm	complains about edges; tips well when it's perfect
Normal	+4 cm
Relaxed	+6 cm	never complains; forgets to pay on time (invoices)
DIY	mows it themselves; calls when away, ill or busy (seeded events)	"I'd do it myself, but my back..."
Show-off	before parties and events (seeded dates)	wants patterns, pays for the rush

A household with a provider calls that provider. Without one, it looks for one (WK4).

Answer in time, or a rival does

Every request has an answer deadline, set by the channel it came through, and a visit window (the days they're happy with).

1. VoicemailAnswer by 18:00 the same day.
2. EmailWithin 2 days.
3. Paper adUntil noon.
4. Face to faceRight now.

• You quote and book a day, decline politely (no penalty; a regular minds a little), or put them on a waiting list (they wait a few days; their mood dips each day).
• Unanswered = a rival gets it. That household now has a provider, and getting them back means pitching.
• The calendar shows capacity: booked work minutes per day against what you (and your crews) can do. Overbooking is allowed; the clock runs (day.md), so you'll be late.

Needs: EC1, WK1, J3 · Done when: a fussy client calls at +2 cm, an unanswered voicemail is gone at 18:00 and its household goes to a rival, and a client on the waiting list loses mood each day.

WK3: channels

Each channel has a cost and a reach. Every request says "how did you hear about us?", and the ledger shows what each channel brought (EC1). Each household keeps an awareness of you, and the channels raise it.

Channel	Cost	Reach
Word of mouth	free	a happy visit raises awareness of you on the neighbouring lots; an unhappy one lowers it
Street standing	free	grandma's street (TU5)
Your lawn, the showroom	time	passers-by on grandma's street see a neat lawn (or a jungle)
Knocking on doors	time	one household, face to face (J37b)
Flyers in letterboxes	~$0.10 each, an hour per 100	one street, small chance each
Paper ads	$25 classified / $120 display, a day	a district
Starzly reviews	free	leafy avenues and the hills check them before calling
Signs on the van	one-off ($150 magnets → $900 wrap)	wherever you drive and park
A website (registered)	$20 / 4 weeks	everyone online; grows with reviews

The arc: scarce, then overflowing

The target the market is balanced to (economy.md EC5):

1. Week 11-3 requests a day plus the odd-jobs board (EC6). You hunt: knock on doors, flyers on grandma's street, low prices, beat Kyle by showing up.
2. Weeks 2-4Word of mouth and reviews kick in: 5-8 requests a day, more than one pair of hands can do. You choose clients, raise prices, decline the far and the cheap.
3. Day 30+15-30 requests a day across districts, regulars on rounds. Hiring crews is the answer; finding work isn't the problem any more, doing it is. That's the management game.

• Volume grows with awareness and reputation, never with a timer.
• Co-op: more siblings knock more doors and answer more calls; economy.md's +1 paper ad per extra sibling becomes "more siblings, more channels worked".

Needs: WK2 · Done when: flyers raise awareness on one street only, an unhappy visit lowers the neighbours' awareness, and every request shows the channel it came from, with each channel's cost and what it brought in the ledger.

WK4: rivals and market share

• Kyle, 15 (grandma's street, from day 1): $10 a lawn, unreliable, leaves stripes like a seismograph. Takes the bargain hunters; loses them when he forgets to show up. A gag that teaches competition.
• Old Walt's Mowing (suburbs, early game): cheap, slow, loyal clients. Retires around day 30: his round goes up for grabs (a story beat: his letter in the paper, his clients call around).
• GreenCorp (from mid-game, story): cheap at first, aggressive in the rich districts, poaches regulars with offers, bids on tenders (GA8). Chad joins it (his arc's end waits in Leftovers from the old plans).

• How a household chooses: without a provider, it picks among the providers it knows of (awareness, WK3), by price against its budget, reputation and rating, how fast you answered last time, and its personality (loyal, bargain hunter, snob).
• Poaching and match offers: a rival offers your regular a lower price: "GreenCorp offered me $45 a week. Can you match it?" You negotiate: match it, explain your quality, or let them go.
• Market share per district on the computer: yours, each rival's, nobody's, DIY.

Needs: WK2, WK3 · Done when: an unanswered request goes to a rival, Walt's clients call around after his letter in the paper, and the computer shows each district's market share.

WK5: regulars

• After a good visit, a happy client may ask "Can you come every week?" (a chance by mood and personality).
• At the door when collecting pay, you can pitch a round yourself (the negotiation model, J7).
• A regular is on a round (a fixed weekday, weekly or fortnightly; GA1): they fill the calendar on their own, pay a steady price without haggling, and are what crews feed on later.
• Regulars leave over low satisfaction, missed visits (GA1's missed-visit ladder), or a rival's offer (WK4).

Needs: WK2, GA1, J7 (the negotiation model) · Done when: a happy client asks for a weekly round after a good visit, a round pitched at the door is accepted or refused by mood and personality, and a regular leaves after missed visits or for a rival's offer you don't match.

WK6: leads and the market map

• The world shows where the work is: on the street and on rides (DY2) you see needs: a long lawn, a shaggy hedge, a green pool, a grimy driveway, dirty windows. Look at a lot to note it as a lead; knock to pitch.
• The market map on the computer: each district's lots coloured by provider (you, a rival, nobody, DIY) and your noted leads; market share (WK4); where your requests came from (WK3).
• Cross-selling falls out of this (EC9): the lawn client's green pool is a lead too.
• Leads noted by one sibling are shared.

Needs: WK1, DY2 · Done when: a sibling spots a long lawn on a ride, knocks the next day, and books it.

WK7: the business directory and the tenders board

Commercial and prestige work doesn't come from households. A business directory and a city tenders board on the computer list sites and tenders now and then. They find you by reputation and track record (completed contracts), not flyers. Tenders are bid against GreenCorp (GA8); commercial sites are run as GA7's service levels.

WK8: seasons in the market

Autumn leaves and winter snow become needs that make households call, and some months go quiet. Waits for seasons (weather.md); GA9 is the leaf work itself.

WK9: events

The street party, a wedding in the hills (rush jobs, big tips), a storm (everyone calls at once).

WK10: referral rewards

Clients who bring a neighbour get a discount.

WK11: rivals' crews on the street

Rivals' crews are visible in the world: a GreenCorp van parked at a lot you lost.

Tuning

Starting numbers, all tuned by the economy.md EC5 simulator. The districts (WK1), personalities (WK2) and channels (WK3) are their own tables.

Name	Value	Idea	What it does / why
Answer deadline: voicemail	18:00 the same day	WK2	after that, a rival has it
Answer deadline: email	2 days	WK2
Answer deadline: paper ad	until noon	WK2
Answer deadline: face to face	right now	WK2
Waiting list	a few days, mood dips each day	WK2	they wait, but not for ever
Requests, week 1	1-3 a day (+ the odd-jobs board)	WK3	you hunt for work
Requests, weeks 2-4	5-8 a day	WK3	more than one pair of hands can do
Requests, day 30+	15-30 a day	WK3	crews are the answer
Extra paper ad per sibling	+1	WK3	economy.md's co-op scaling, as more channels worked
Kyle's price	$10 a lawn	WK4	the bargain hunters' choice
Old Walt retires	around day 30	WK4	his round goes up for grabs
GreenCorp's match offer (example)	$45 a week	WK4	poaching a regular

Co-op

1. State: touched households (provider, satisfaction, awareness, round, last visits), leads, the waiting list and market share, in company state. Untouched households are computed.
2. Ownership: the company (host-owned). Leads noted by a sibling are shared.
3. Host-only: the day roll (needs, requests, rivals' moves, market share).
4. Randomness: households, personalities, events, requests, rival choices → SimRandom(seed, lot/day, salt) with named salts (SD2). Nothing from UnityEngine.Random.
5. Channel: company updates (NetCompany); households are computed on each machine from the seed.
6. Packets: only touched households travel (small records).
7. Late joiners: with the save.
8. Secrets: none.
9. Cinematics: none (Old Walt's goodbye is a paper page).
10. Save and data: a version bump (households map, leads, waiting list, channels spent). Data: districts, personalities, rivals, channel costs. Migration: today's known clients become touched households on their lots.
11. Voices: request voicemails per personality, Kyle, Old Walt, GreenCorp's match offers.
12. Tests: below, plus two instances: the same households and the same requests on the same day; a guest answers a voicemail and the booking shows on the host.

Tech

Who owns what

• This page: the demand side of the economy (households, channels, booking, rivals, regulars, leads). It replaces today's request generator, and it's what the economy.md EC5 simulator needs (WK1-WK4) before it can balance anything.
• Jobs: from the phone call to the review: the v0 (J1-J9: the opening path, one offer algorithm) and the job itself: its sheet, quoting, negotiating, the visit.
• economy.md: prices (EC1), the ledger, crews (EC4), the odd-jobs board (EC6). garden.md: rounds (GA1), the trade's commercial and prestige work (GA7, GA8).
• The tutorial (TU5 street standing, TU6 districts and the walkable street), the neighbours (CH5) and canvassing (J37b) build on the same files.
• Sound: every sound comes from something: the noise heard at each household's windows. day.md: the clock, rides (DY2).

What the game has today

• 15 hand-made clients (Db.missions, m00-m14), each one garden.
• Requests (Company.Clients.cs GenerateRequests, deterministic per day):
  • a known client calls back after ≥ 3 days and 2.5 cm of regrowth (50%, 85% for a regular), at most 3 a day;
  • at most 2 new small clients a day advertise in the paper (60% each), the first one always on day 1;
  • big clients (rep > 8) email at most once a day, once you're "online" (rep ≥ 15, or 2+ reviews averaging ≥ 3).
• Booking: requests expire; a missed booking costs −1 reputation, the contract and maybe a 1-star review.
• Growth: GrassHeightFor = requested height + growth per day × season factor since the last visit.
• Limits: the pool runs out (15 clients can't feed 70 days, co-op, or crews); nobody competes; nothing in the world shows where work is; every client behaves the same.

Code it touches

Company.Clients.cs, Company.cs, CompanyRecords.cs, SaveData.cs, ClientTexts.cs, HubComputer.cs, GarageUI.cs, the mission data, Town (lots).

Data and save

• Households are computed from (seed, lot, day); the save keeps a map of touched households (provider, satisfaction, awareness, round, last visits), the leads, the waiting list and the channels spent.
• Data: districts, personalities, rivals, channel costs.
• Migration: today's known clients become touched households on their lots.

Tests

• WK1: the same household on two machines; the same garden as the lot's; needs growth.
• WK2: a fussy client calls at +2 cm; an unanswered voicemail is gone at 18:00; the waiting list dips mood.
• WK3: flyers raise awareness on one street only; an unhappy visit lowers the neighbours'.
• WK4: an unanswered request goes to a rival; Walt's clients call around after his letter.
• Co-op: two instances see the same households and the same requests on the same day; a guest answers a voicemail and the booking shows on the host.

Open questions

• None recorded yet; the numbers above wait for the EC5 simulator.

Rejected

• Today's fixed client pool: 15 hand-made clients can't feed 70 days, co-op or crews, nobody competes, and every client behaves the same. Replaced by generated households (WK1) with story clients on top.
• Volume on a timer: requests grow with awareness and reputation, never with the day count.