Update gameplay feedback and repair portable VR launchers

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -1,5 +1,25 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## HUD, wheel and launch corrections — source update, 2026-10-03
+
+- Gameplay HUD follows the headset at a fixed readable size. It clamps above the transformed hull/shield only when its movement would intersect the ship; full menus remain head-relative.
+- Weapon slots survive an empty native drone-equipment collection. The bridge normalizes optional lists and the wheel accepts empty/malformed collections safely.
+- Remove all room-floor health/status bars and counters. Native room-role icons, permission-aware condition colors, fog, fire and breach effects remain.
+- Launch wrappers retain failures on screen and forward command-line options. Setup finds a real Python interpreter, rejects the Windows Store alias and keeps runtime configuration, dependencies and extracted assets local and ignored by Git.
+
+This source passed 38 Python tests and nine Godot suites in the prepared folder. The desktop and VR wrappers passed combined launch/exit in desktop smoke mode, including the GitHub Desktop checkout's FTL-VR alias. VR preflight passed; a copied campaign verified equipped weapon entries in the rendered wheel without changing the original campaign hashes. Physical headset comfort and stereo performance remain to test. See [Project status](docs/STATUS.md) for evidence and limits. Earlier test counts and native checks below refer to their respective revisions.
+
+## Gameplay refinements — preceding source update, 2026-10-03
+
+- Compact original status/crew HUD above the ship; the lower strip is replaced by dedicated Power/Shortcuts/wheel access while full native menus remain available.
+- Dpad Up toggles System Power, with a direct System Power button on Navigation.
+- Reactor free power excludes environmental cap loss; unavailable bars and battery availability are displayed separately.
+- Wheel slots show localized equipped names, weapon-family silhouettes and actual ammo-cost hints, with bounded names and unchanged-content rendering.
+- Native permission-aware room condition colors and detailed health bars supplement system role icons.
+- Native evasion produces a short MISS cue and pass-by trajectory; breach holes use shallow black crosses with oxygen-dependent air wisps.
+
+This revision passed 27 Python tests and nine Godot suites. Focused native storm power, localized equipment/ammo, enemy damage/repair, breach tiles and forced missed-event checks passed. Combined production Vulkan smoke passed with clean logs, no bridge errors, backed-up campaign hashes preserved and no remaining owned game/client processes; physical headset checks remained pending. Historical results below belong to previous revisions.
+
 ## 0.1.0-alpha.1 — prepared source snapshot, 2026-10-03
 
 The first standalone community source package. This records the current prototype; it does not claim a completed public release.