Anticipation

Anticipation baits the player with one section and lands on another. It is planned from the result, so it is deterministic, testable and always lands where the server said. One rule holds for every style: the wheel comes to rest exactly once, on the result. It never stops on the bait and moves on, and it never rolls back.

wheel.setResult({ value: 2 }, {
  anticipation: {
    bait: 'x50',              // section id, or { index }
    style: 'auto',            // 'creep' | 'stutter' | 'stall' | 'auto'
    rest: 0.22,               // where the pointer rests: this far into the target from the shared line ('keep' to leave it)
    creepSpeed: 40,           // deg/s at which the crawl begins
    hesitateSpeed: 2,         // stutter: the near-stall speed, deg/s
    dwellMs: 600,             // stutter: how long the near-stall lasts
    pushMs: 700,              // stutter: the slip over the line
    approachDeg: 45,          // stall: crawl length before the rest (default the target's arc, at most 45)
    maxDistanceDeg: 150,      // how far the bait may be from the landing
    protectSkip: false,
  },
});

Set .landing({ anticipation: { bait: 'x50' } }) on the builder to bait every spin. The defaults are tuned; bait alone gives the beat below.

The near-miss beat#

The feeling to hit is “it is going to be the jackpot… it is the one before it”. Three things make it read:

1. The approach is a crawl. Whatever the style, the wheel comes down to creepSpeed and crawls its last stretch with a constant deceleration, the way a real wheel dies against friction. The pointer takes its time reaching the line between the result and the bait.
2. It never stops early. creep crawls through the bait and barely crosses the line. stutter all but stalls a hair short of the line, still moving at hesitateSpeed, then slips over it. stall enters the result and crawls toward the bait’s line as if it will cross, and dies just short of it. In every case the first moment the wheel is still is the rest, and the segment under the pointer is the result. No dwell inside the bait, no roll back.
3. It rests by the line. Whatever the landing mode says, a tease puts the landing angle just inside the target, rest of its arc from the divider it shares with the bait: 0.22 after crossing it, 0.15 when it died short of it. The pointer ends up hugging the line it almost crossed, which is where the eye expects it. Set rest: 'keep' to let the landing mode place it, or add settle: 'center' to glide to the middle once the beat has landed. A target with its own offset, an angle / position target, or mode: 'exact' is never moved.

The crawls pass the divider under the pointer, so pointer:tick fires for them too, at crawl speed. Wire the flapper’s kick and its click to that event and the miss sounds right as well.

Geometry#

A clockwise wheel sweeps decreasing local angles under the pointer, so it meets the section after the landing (in layout order) first. In the spin direction:

• bait before landing (the pointer passes the bait, then reaches the landing): creep or stutter.
• bait after landing (the pointer reaches the landing first): stall.

'auto' picks by distance. If the bait is farther than maxDistanceDeg on both sides the tease is dropped with a warning (bait-too-far) and the wheel lands plainly. An explicit style with the wrong geometry warns (bait-order) and is dropped too. Nothing ever moves the landing off the result.

Events#

Protected skip#

With protectSkip: true (or .skip({ protectAnticipation: true })) the first press fast-forwards to the start of the crawl and lets the tease play; the second press lands. skip:requested carries protectedByAnticipation so audio can tell the two apart.