Know where the lantern goes
Clearer handoffs, a cleaner result screen, and a shorter wait after lighting the whole harbor.
A handoff has two destinations: the boat receiving the lantern and the island that needs its light. Lantern Ferry used to show the receiving boat in its instruction while leaving the island to a separate ring on the map.
Now the instruction keeps both names together. Before you reach passing distance, a route points toward an empty boat. When that boat is ready, the instruction switches to PASS. Once you receive a lantern, delivery takes priority.
The finish needed attention too. A playtest completed all four islands with 22 seconds still on the clock. There was nothing left to accomplish, but results waited for the timer. Completing the harbor now gives you up to three seconds to enjoy the glow, then moves into results and the next round.
We checked that deadline with two browsers and deliberately closed the host during the celebration. The receiving phone kept the completed harbor, showed results on time, and started a fresh round. That check used a synthetic completed harbor to isolate the transition; it does not stand in for playing the game.
On a landscape phone, island status labels also disappear during results so they cannot overlap the unfinished-island summary.
These are clarity and pacing changes. They keep the same delivery rewards and final-lamp relay rule. The larger question—whether a group of friends will want another round—still needs more evidence from play.
A fresh reviewer found a sharper next problem: one short move onto the dock, followed by periodic PASS taps, let the bots finish all four islands. That is useful cooperation, but it removes most of the sailing. The next experiment will examine where bots wait for handoffs, rather than add another reward to the same stationary loop.
