[SimGamerJen]

0.4.4.0 Alpha 1 release candidate

This PR changes HelperPayroll's default worker-time accounting from real frame time to validated Farming Simulator game-clock time, while retaining legacy realTime mode.

Payroll time model

• gameClock is the default authoritative worker-time basis.
• Wage accrual follows accelerated Farming Simulator time.
• Clock movement is validated against the actual FS effective time scale.
• Billable acceleration is capped independently through maxPayrollTimeScale.
• Default cap: 10×.
• maxPayrollTimeScale=0 restores uncapped/full game-clock payroll.
• Default billable behaviour:
  • 1× → 1×
  • 5× → 5×
  • 10× → 10×
  • 30× / 60× / 120× / 360× → 10×
• Paused game time does not accrue game-clock wages.
• Sleep/time jumps, period skips and clock rollback are rejected/re-anchored instead of billed.
• Coarse/batched environment clock movement is supported.
• dailyPayroll work can split across midnight into the correct game-day segments.

UI, persistence and diagnostics

• Billing UI exposes worker time basis and maximum payroll time scale.
• Both settings persist per save.
• Diagnostics expose effective FS time scale, billable payroll scale and configured cap.
• Runtime tracking retains real elapsed time, validated game-clock elapsed time and billable game-clock elapsed time.

API and snapshots

• Public API remains v5; existing methods are retained.
• Snapshot schema advances to v4.
• Active jobs/sessions expose validated/billable elapsed data, scale diagnostics, discontinuity count and active per-day work segments.

HelperProfiles

HelperPayroll remains optional for HelperProfiles.

• HelperPayroll owns: roles, rates, compensation overrides, wage accounting, settlement and payroll history.
• HelperProfiles owns: worker identity, roster availability and helper selection.
• HelperProfiles consumes the public payroll snapshot/API only for read-only role and live COST display.

0.4.3.0 Alpha 2 compatibility

The branch is based directly on current main and is 0 commits behind. Existing 0.4.3.0 Alpha 2 functionality is retained, including A–T roster-aware payroll, external-worker sessions/AutoDrive continuity, Dashboard, WorkerCosts conflict protection, ledger persistence and single-player authority boundaries.

Pre-release review fixes

Release review found and corrected one blocker before merge: the save-settings diagnostic had a shifted string.format argument list after the new cap field was added. It is now fixed and covered by release validation.

Release-facing metadata was also updated because the previous README still reported 0.4.2.0 despite main being 0.4.3.0 Alpha 2.

Validation

At current head ca9e719e82de1fa703ac31a5ec81532121cfc114:

• push validation: passed
• PR validation: passed
• XML/release metadata checks: passed
• Lua syntax: passed
• 1×, 5×, 10× accounting: passed
• 30×, 60×, 120×, 360× capped accounting: passed
• unlimited cap=0: passed
• pause: passed
• sleep/jump rejection: passed
• rollback and multi-day/period skip rejection: passed
• batched clock movement: passed
• midnight splitting: passed
• legacy realTime: passed
• ZIP integrity: passed

Validation package SHA-256:

c3689f0ae39c49ae2ba5932984a1dc44052fe634c36b82362c03dc13e5458e2b

This remains an alpha pre-release. Multiplayer remains disabled.