docs+test: #372 — Options tabs blank + Gameplay buttons dead at first connected gate

The user's first Campaign OP connected gate (ACDREAM_RETAIL_UI=1, live
ACE) failed: Character/Chat/Config tabs render blank, only Exit Game of
the seven Gameplay buttons visibly acted. A live-DAT mount probe
(committed, env-gated) proves the panel BUILDS completely — root
UiTabPanel with a 4-entry tab table, all four page slots, all three page
ListBoxes as UiTemplateListBox with row templates, all seven buttons as
UiButton — and the three page controllers' Bind() run at mount. So the
defect is in the live render/input path the whole fixture suite never
exercises (mount -> ActivateTabs -> tab-click SwitchTo -> row draw /
button hit-test): the OP2-blast structural-false-negative class. Blocks
the OP3-OP6 gates; needs a dedicated debug slice + a gate-representative
test, not a guess.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

docs/ISSUES.md

@@ -24,6 +24,50 @@ What does NOT go here:
 - Every session: scan OPEN issues at start; promote/close anything we touched during the session before ending.
 - Promoting to a Phase: mark as `DONE (promoted to Phase X)` + commit SHA where the Phase entry landed.
 
+## #372 — Options panel: Character/Chat/Config tabs render BLANK on screen and most Gameplay buttons do nothing (connected-gate failure)
+
+**Status:** OPEN — filed 2026-08-11 at Campaign OP's first connected gate
+(`ACDREAM_RETAIL_UI=1`, live ACE). The user found: opening the Options panel
+(F11/toolbar) shows the Gameplay tab, but switching to Character/Chat/Config
+shows a BLANK page, and of the seven Gameplay buttons only **Exit Game**
+visibly did anything.
+
+**NOT a missing-layout bug — the panel builds fully.** A live-DAT mount probe
+(`tests/AcDream.App.Tests/UI/Layout/OptionsPanelLiveMountProbeTests.cs`,
+`ACDREAM_PROBE_LIVE_MOUNT=1`) confirms against the real DATs that the
+production mount (`ImportInfos(0x2100006E, 0x1000018D)`) resolves the root as
+a `UiTabPanel` with a 4-entry tab table, all four page slots
+(`0x10000212/11/1000050C/13`), all three page ListBoxes as `UiTemplateListBox`
+with their row templates (Character 3, Chat 9, Config 8), and all seven
+Gameplay buttons as `UiButton`. The three page controllers' `Bind()` also run
+at mount (the live log's `ChatOptionsPageController … 'ID_ChatOption_TextFilter_*'
+did not resolve` spam proves ChatOptionsPageController.Bind executed) — and
+every one of those `Bind` paths is green in the fixture-driven conformance
+suite.
+
+**So the defect is in the LIVE render/input path the tests never exercise** —
+the mounted → `ActivateTabs()` → tab-click → `SwitchTo` (page-slot
+`Visible` flip) → row draw / button hit-test chain. Every campaign test
+exercises `Bind()` in isolation and asserts widget structure; none drives a
+real tab switch on a mounted panel and asserts the switched-in page's rows
+actually draw, nor a real click reaching a Gameplay button's handler. This is
+the exact structural-false-negative class the OP2 blast review named (green
+tests over a live-only failure). Leading hypotheses to run down in the fix
+(not yet root-caused): (a) page-slot `Visible` flips false→true AFTER the
+ListBox/`UiScrollablePanel` computed its layout while hidden, so rows are
+zero-height/culled until a relayout; (b) the switched-in page slot or the
+Type-8 root's draw/hit-test doesn't cascade to descendants built post-mount;
+(c) the "dead" Gameplay buttons (Exit-to-CharSel dialog, Use-Mouse-Turning
+chat lines, UA/RA failure text) each have an invisible EFFECT rather than a
+dead click — needs per-button confirmation. Configure Keyboard + In-Game
+Help ARE correctly inert (OP8 pending).
+
+**Blocks the OP3/OP4/OP5/OP6 connected gates** — they cannot pass until the
+non-Gameplay tabs render and the Gameplay buttons act. Fix is a dedicated
+debug slice (live render-path instrumentation, NOT a guess), then a
+gate-representative test that mounts+activates+switches+asserts-drawn so this
+can never regress green again.
+
 ## #371 — Options-panel row viewport culls whole rows instead of clipping; tall filter blocks can vanish entirely at some scroll offsets
 
 **Status:** OPEN — filed 2026-08-11 at the OP5 review-fix round (S2).