Making reloading a part of the pacing sounds like it'll add all sorts of strategy!
Might be the exaggerated gifs, but not sold on the TDC animation without user input. The eye is attracted to things in motion, and since the user may be reading lower half seems counterproductive application. Confuses player input and gives the dials a rough and chaotic feel. I think that because of the contrast between the precision modern for the time engineering of TDC vs scrappy handwritten paper works so well! Personally would suggest some ambient audio for breathing life in this case.
Was wondering if the dials have frames for turning vs locked into position? Like have it more freely move when being turned but stop at specific set intervals? Since the dials drawn for various granularity but the needles seem to have same degrees of rotation between them?
Very excited for the game and always a joy to read your write ups and thought process. Have to ask: do you have a beta sign up? Thanks!