Commit 1d31fb

2026-09-10 13:11:43 Anonymous: Outcome 53: align automatic growth, finite routes and three manual transformation ladders

hold the flood/build rules.md ..
@@ 1,6 1,6 @@
	# Build Rules
-	Builds are machines the player assembles from reusable parts. A good build has a recognizable fantasy—storm, ricochet factory, moving furnace—not merely a higher damage number. Permanent parts let the player begin an expedition with an intention; temporary combat upgrades make that machine grow into something outrageous before the astronaut returns home.
+	Builds are machines the player assembles from reusable parts. Early in an expedition, movement and a modest automatic effect help hold one lane. Earned temporary transformations make the same machine branch, rebound, gather or bloom across a substantial part of an 80–150-body horde, while the player still chooses the line and the moment of a manual climax. A good build has a recognizable fantasy—storm, ricochet factory, moving furnace—not merely a higher damage number.
	The owner has selected connected reusable parts, mostly automatic ordinary fire, manual special abilities, shared carrying space and a full journal pause. Temporary combat upgrades reset whenever the astronaut returns aboard, alive or revived. The specific connection language, upgrade effects and limits below are proposals.
@@ 10,14 10,14 @@
	An identified ward vent announces one finite release into the first occupied hall. Whenever Sensor offers a valid target and Projector is ready, the ordinary shot cycles; its impact supplies the real Dynamo input. The player chooses dense lines and clears that stage's committed arrivals. In the quiet afterwards the rig offers two temporary upgrades based on what is installed:
-	- **Echoing Arc** gives each accepted Arc discharge a proposed two-echo target allowance. Each echo extends that same physical Arc action to another nearby valid target and adds Arc heat. It creates no signal output or usable charge.
-	- **Rebound Disc** changes Projector's ordinary shot into a heavy disc with a proposed two-echo rebound allowance. Each rebound spends one echo and adds Projector heat. It promises repeated impacts when the room has hard walls and useful angles.
+	- **Echoing Arc** adds two finite branch routes to each accepted Arc action. Each route follows the same local hop, cover and body rules and the complete action reserves its heat before commitment. It creates no signal output or usable charge.
+	- **Rebound Disc** changes Projector's ordinary shot into a finite physical disc. It follows a committed direction, rebounds only from hard surfaces and reserves operating supply while in flight. It promises repeated contacts when the room has hard walls and useful angles.
	This is a choice of play, not “damage plus five percent.” Echoing Arc asks the astronaut to run toward density and preserve cooling headroom. Rebound Disc asks them to read the architecture and bank shots through the crowd. The player chooses Echoing Arc.
-	Later ordinary Projector shots fill Capacitor. At the next resolved stage, **Thunderhead** becomes an offered temporary transformation. It gives those same six mounted parts two visible connection modes: automatic charging and a manual burst. With the store full, the player presses the special once. The burst mode sends the stored charge through Fork to Arc and Projector, empties Capacitor with a high heat pulse, then automatically restores the charging connections. Ordinary fire resumes as its parts become ready. The temporary effect supplies that switching behavior.
+	Later ordinary Projector shots fill Capacitor. At the next resolved stage, **Thunderhead** becomes an offered temporary transformation. It gives those same six mounted parts two visible connection modes: automatic charging and a manual burst. With the store full, the player presses the special once. The burst sends stored charge through Fork to three Arc chain heads and one pressure lance, then automatically restores the charging connections. It can break roughly forty well-packed ordinary bodies without deleting the rest of a large horde. Ordinary fire resumes only as its parts naturally become ready. The temporary effect supplies the switching behavior; the player does not perform a journal relink during the fight.
-	A refused burst leaves the charge and automatic mode intact. Once accepted, it spends the full store, even if a later target is lost. The Arc keeps its finite echoes; burst descendants cannot refill storage through Dynamo. Further ordinary shots must charge the next burst. The journal previews both modes, including demand from effects still in flight; [Mechanical Interfaces](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Mechanical%20Interfaces%20And%20Opening%20Quantities) gives the numerical trace and acceptance rules.
+	A cancelled or refused burst leaves the charge, heat and automatic mode intact. Once the first receiver accepts, it spends the full store and reserves all stated heat, even if a later target is lost or cover intervenes. Burst descendants cannot refill storage through Dynamo. Automatic connections restore without granting readiness; further eligible ordinary shots must charge the next burst. The journal previews both modes, including demand from effects still in flight; [Mechanical Interfaces](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Mechanical%20Interfaces%20And%20Opening%20Quantities) gives the numerical trace and acceptance rules.
	Back aboard, Echoing Arc and Thunderhead are removed under the owner-set reset. The six physical parts remain if carried. The player also keeps the discovered fact that the next freight route has hard rebound surfaces. On the next departure they may choose the permanent ricochet base intended to seek Rebound Disc again, carry more oxygen instead, or follow a different clue. The expired upgrade itself is not retained; the power climb restarts while equipment and understanding remain.
@@ 37,9 37,9 @@
	A sensor may start an automatic event; a fork branches it; a lens changes charge into heat; an actuator turns the result into an arc, projectile, barrier or shove. A part can fill more than one role, so finding one object can reopen several existing builds.
-	The player mounts or removes a physical part in the live world. That action checks carrying and rig space, occupies the astronaut and can be interrupted. Once accessible parts are mounted, the proposed link editor lives in the journal. The journal already pauses enemies and oxygen by owner decision; link changes there consume no world time. Preview shows whether direct ports fit and how much power and heat the proposed connection demands.
+	The player mounts or removes a physical part in the live world. That action checks carrying and rig space, occupies the astronaut and can be interrupted. Once accessible parts are mounted, the proposed link editor lives in the journal. The journal already pauses enemies and oxygen by owner decision; link changes there consume no world time. Preview shows whether direct ports fit, which modes a temporary transformation will operate automatically, and how much power and heat each possible state demands.
-	This makes expression easy to try without pretending that a frozen menu is active combat. Closing the journal returns the player to exactly the danger they paused. Constant mid-fight optimization is a real usability risk, so temporary upgrades alter existing connections automatically and offers should stay few and consequential. Later authorized observation must determine whether players experiment freely or feel obliged to pause after every change in the room.
+	This makes expression easy to try without pretending that a frozen menu is active combat. Closing the journal returns the player to exactly the danger they paused. The journal is not a recurring active-special interface: Thunderhead, Foundry Drop and Furnace Burst perform their gated discharge and restore charging automatically. Offers should stay few and consequential. Later authorized observation must determine whether players experiment freely or feel obliged to pause after every change in the room.
	## Several ordinary weapons can work together
@@ 49,20 49,20 @@
	- **Rig space:** every active part must fit.
	- **Carrying space:** equipment competes with spare oxygen and discoveries.
-	- **Power:** the link preview refuses a configuration whose possible concurrent operating demand exceeds the rig's visible supply. Mutually exclusive link states and buffered charge/discharge states are checked separately rather than summing every theoretical maximum; any state that can truly overlap must fit. Effects already in flight still count when a mode changes.
-	- **Heat:** firing and repeated effects add visible heat. A hot component pauses or weakens according to its own inspected rule until it cools; it does not secretly choose another weapon to disable.
+	- **Power:** the link preview refuses a configuration whose possible concurrent operating demand exceeds the rig's visible supply. Mutually exclusive link states and buffered charge/discharge states are checked separately rather than summing every theoretical maximum; any state that can truly overlap must fit. A transformed projectile continues reserving supply until its finite flight ends.
+	- **Heat:** a named action reserves its complete heat at commitment rather than spending secretly per victim. Without headroom an automatic actuator holds ready and a manual command refuses before spending charge. Once accepted, movement, cover or an absorber may shorten the physical effect without refund.
	Multiple outputs therefore buy coverage and spectacle by consuming the same capacity that could support defence, oxygen or a more focused chain. Ordinary fire stays mostly automatic. Facing, movement and proximity determine what the actuators can reach; the player reserves button presses for labelled specials such as a barrier, shove or stored discharge.
	## Bounded returns and feedback
-	Spectacular builds need effects that can travel, branch and return. A blanket “each part resolves once and every return stops” makes that fantasy disappear. The proposed replacement is a visible **echo budget**.
+	Spectacular builds need effects that can travel, branch and return. A blanket “each part resolves once and every return stops” makes that fantasy disappear. The proposed replacement is a visible finite **route budget**: depending on the named effect it may count routes, hops, bodies, rebounds, penetration distance, flight time, fragments or bloom reach.
-	An automatic launch, manual special, enemy strike or environmental event begins one causal sequence. A part or temporary upgrade may give that sequence a number of echoes. An arc extension, projectile rebound or explicitly authored signal return spends one echo and adds its stated heat. A return can revisit compatible parts only when its named effect actually provides a signal output; Arc Emitter's ordinary physical arc does not. When the budget reaches zero, no target remains or a component overheats, that branch ends visibly.
+	An automatic launch, manual special, enemy strike or environmental event begins one causal sequence. A part or temporary upgrade gives that sequence only its inspected allowances. An Arc hop or branch consumes its route/body allowance; a disc consumes travel, time, rebound and body allowances; a lance and bloom consume their finite penetration and reach. A return can revisit compatible parts only when its named effect actually provides a signal output; Arc Emitter's ordinary physical arc does not. Cover, an absorber, missing targets or budget exhaustion ends that branch visibly.
-	A descendant cannot refill the echo budget that created it, refresh its own readiness or mint power from itself. Forking divides or copies only the kind of event its inspected rule names; stored charge and consumed salvage remain real inputs. A later automatic firing cycle, a new manual special or a separate enemy attack starts a new sequence with its own budget. This allows a single disc to rebound several times or an arc to sing across a dense crowd without permitting an undefined loop that runs forever in an empty room.
+	A descendant cannot refill the allowance that created it, refresh its own readiness, release its in-flight supply reservation early or mint power from itself. Forking divides or copies only the kind of event its inspected rule names; stored charge and consumed salvage remain real inputs. A later automatic firing cycle, a new manual special or a separate enemy attack starts a new sequence with its own budget. This allows a disc to rebound several times or an Arc to sing across a dense crowd without an undefined loop that runs forever in an empty room.
-	The exact echo counts, power draw, heat thresholds and cooling rates are deliberately unselected. They must make causes visible and spectacle possible before later implementation can test performance, dominance and readability.
+	The proposed counts, operating draw, heat capacity and cooling are centralized in [Mechanical Interfaces](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Mechanical%20Interfaces%20And%20Opening%20Quantities). They are replaceable written hypotheses. They make conservation inspectable but cannot establish performance, dominance, readability or fun.
	## A proposed reward rhythm
@@ 78,17 78,18 @@
	This rhythm gives the encounter and reward systems a clean handoff. Combat provides pressure and a release; the release provides a brief paused choice; the changed machine makes the next crowd desirable. The cost is that a familiar cleared route becomes safer but cannot rebuild peak power. The next climb comes from an occupied frontier, changed death-shift geography or a larger event the player chooses to wake—not from a death reward or instant reset of the world.
-	## Two contrasting directions, not recipes
+	## Three ordered transformations, not recipes
-	| Direction | What the player sees and does | Payoff | Cost and failure risk |
-	|---|---|---|---|
-	| **Storm Choir — 7 carrying / 7 mounted spaces** | Sensor→Projector; Projector impact feed→Dynamo→Fork→Arc + Capacitor. Echoing Arc extends the Arc action. A full-store Thunderhead command switches to its gated burst path, spends the full store through Fork, then automatically restores charging. | Automatic impacts become branching arcs and bank a visible manual lane-clearing climax. | Sparse or insulated targets interrupt Arc; Fork and storage consume space; echoes and Thunderhead run hot; building for the burst leaves less defence. |
-	| **Ricochet Foundry — 7 carrying / 7 mounted spaces** | Sensor→Projector; Projector impact feed→Dynamo→Capacitor; Manual Trigger→Vector Nozzle. Rebound Disc gives Projector two proposed echoes; Fragment Wake may turn the final rebound into one terminating fragment burst. After charging, a paused relink can send Capacitor's manual release to Projector. Nozzle moves eligible bodies or loose cover, not the disc by default. | Corridor geometry sustains a visible returning disc while lane control sets up bodies for its path. | Open rooms and absorbing targets kill rebounds; Dynamo contributes only once per original wave; the fragment finish adds power/heat and no new echoes; Manual and Nozzle use the three units Storm spends on Fork and Arc, so this base has no Barrier or Arc. |
+	**Storm Choir — 7 carrying / 7 mounted spaces.** Base short chain → Echoing Arc's added routes → Thunderhead's full-store three-head storm and lance. The player crosses toward connected density and chooses the release. Spacing, insulation and hard cover interrupt routes; it runs hot and has no Barrier. A front absorber can make a costly setup feel wasted if the preview is unclear.
-	These are illustrative fantasies built from reusable behaviours and temporary transformations. They do not allocate new permanent parts or sources beyond the current equipment list. The player may hybridize them, stop early, or use the same Fork, Projector, Dynamo, Arc and storage parts for defence or station machinery. The meaningful question is what the machine does in this expedition and what it costs, not whether the player completed an authored set.
+	**Ricochet Foundry — 7 carrying / 7 mounted spaces.** Base ordinary shot plus manual shove → Rebound Disc's automatic bank → Fragment Wake's terminal fan → Foundry Drop's full-store master disc and fan. Manual Trigger→Nozzle moves eligible bodies or loose cover; it never steers the disc. Open space, soft surfaces and absorbers kill routes. Spending the shove on setup may remove the escape tool; an absorber can end the disc without its fan.
+
+	**Gravity Furnace — 8 carrying / 8 mounted spaces.** Automatic pressure shots plus outward stride pulses → Inward Draft's rear pull → Furnace Burst's full-store lance and bloom. The player runs a wake into a chosen line, then fires or escapes. Heavy bodies and hard cover resist or divide the effect; ranged attackers keep firing. Holding for a larger knot brings danger closer, and a blocked bloom may feel much smaller than the gathered crowd.
+
+	These are ordered behavioural ladders, not XP thresholds, guaranteed pickups or a selected reward frequency. They work under either open growth alternative: resolved-stage choices, or regular defeated-enemy growth with larger milestones. They use only existing reusable parts and temporary effects that all expire on return. The player may hybridize them, stop early or use the same parts for defence or station machinery. The meaningful question is what the machine does in this expedition and what it costs, not whether the player completed an authored set.
	## Property and unresolved boundaries
	Everything physical still carried returns aboard after death. Consumed salvage remains consumed; a dropped part or one deliberately installed in station infrastructure remains at that location. Link changes never duplicate an object. [Equipment Acquisition and Rig Growth](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Equipment%20Acquisition%20And%20Rig%20Growth) owns source, pickup and property examples; [Hordes and Builds](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Hordes%20And%20Builds) shows three developed visual fantasies.
-	Whether stored Capacitor charge survives death remains with the existing persistence decision and is not answered here. Starting parts, exact carrying and rig space, power/heat values, upgrade frequency, duplicate stacking, acquisition by finding versus fabrication and detailed targeting assistance also remain open. Written rules cannot establish that the builds are fun, balanced, readable or technically feasible; those claims require a later authorized phase.
+	Whether stored Capacitor charge survives death remains with the existing persistence decision and is not answered here. Upgrade frequency, defeated-enemy thresholds or pickups, duplicate stacking, acquisition by finding versus fabrication and detailed targeting assistance also remain open. The proposed carrying, rig, power, heat and coverage quantities remain unvalidated candidates rather than owner selections. Written rules cannot establish that the builds are fun, balanced, readable or technically feasible; those claims require a later authorized phase.