Plate9 1.1.4 - Persistent credits, XP pursuits, mystery guests and table polish

Background audio is removed. All six remaining cues play once, load only
when needed, and never start on an idle/resume transition. Returning from
Career or time crystals preserves mute and volume. Resume restores short
table effects, including card replacement effects during memory study.
Pause, mute and device changes discard late cues rather than replaying them.
The sound control distinguishes pause, mute, zero volume and no output.

Primary action buttons and the wager spinner grow from 33 to 39 units in
height. Side-challenge buttons grow from 37 to 43; top controls also receive
a modest height increase. Their panels retain room above the footer.
Opponent grids, their name panels and public-board peeks keep their sizing.

Ting retains the latest 25 receipts, replacing the oldest automatically.
Details explain the actual phase method, declared guest traits, public
prices, funding consequences and recent public betting actions. Offers
are explicitly conditional until accepted. Live following begins at the
new receipt's heading. Hidden cards, estimates and private scores remain
sealed. The decision worker and original 32 rule programs are unchanged; formatting
uses existing results without further sampling or inference.

The large selected guest portrait reuses the existing compact blink artwork.
It blinks while the guest list is active, even though the table is paused.
Hidden profiles, sealed invitations and reduced-motion portraits stay still.
The eight new mystery guests add full-resolution WebP portraits and small eye textures.
All original portraits remain byte-identical. No runtime dependency is added.

Player-guide chapter numbers now match its navigation. Sound, focus,
profile animation, replacement decks and terminal guidance are current.
Development notes and future-release commentary are removed from the guide.

The 1.1.3 Focus table signature and 1.1.2 independent replacement-deck fixes
are retained. Existing saves remain compatible. Wheel and source packages
must remain under 32 MB and exclude the removed ambient and full blink files.

Validation uses real Linux Qt/QML plus strict audio-effect doubles. Actual
Windows speaker playback and laptop battery consumption are not measured.
No PyPI upload is performed.

Credits now persist across tables. A fixed 200-credit buy-in or zero-stack
rebuy requires confirmation showing payment, assistance and the remaining
balance. Rebuys happen only at a settled boundary without changing cards.
Cash-out settles obligations and banks the remaining stack after assistance
recovery; unused assistance cannot be farmed by starting and leaving.
Saving/resuming never charges again. Rebuy tables are unrated.

Time crystals now spend available XP, never credits. Lifetime XP and career
level never fall when XP is spent. Catch awards 1,500 XP, Plate9 7,500 XP,
and a qualifying Astra victory 3,000 XP. Five repeatable pursuits add regular
rewards; completing a set adds 250 XP and refreshes its counters. Event cursors
and atomic saves prevent repeated claims on reload.

Fourteen crystals, priced 500 through 45,000 XP, unlock exactly eight playable
mystery guests: two in each class. Some sculptures share one invitation.
Old certificates remain valid and unlock their mapped guest. Old lifetime XP
becomes available XP; the existing table stack is preserved during migration.
