2026-09-08 11:22:51
Anonymous:
Align final discovery contract status and limits of failure and survivor evidence
hold the flood/clues and help.md ..
@@ 1,6 1,6 @@
# Hold The Horde — Clues and Help
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**Status:** working proposal. Wall strings may be a fragment of an alien language, but this chain fulfils no whole-language requirement; service notation remains distinct. Journal details, Dorn's wider knowledge and station history stay open. Legibility, value and cost remain untested.
+
**Status:** working proposal after focused review and response. Wall strings may be a fragment of an alien language, but this chain fulfils no whole-language requirement; service notation remains distinct. Journal details, Dorn's wider knowledge and station history stay open. Legibility, value and cost remain untested.
The preferred structure is **physical inference with optional, truthful survivor interpretation**. Comparison can support a reasoned decision; Dorn can clarify it, but neither rescue nor dialogue makes a panel usable.
@@ 21,7 21,7 @@
Captured records persist on return and through death and revival. They are knowledge, not cargo or cache contents. Personal notes may contain observations, quotations, plans or hypotheses; their wording persists without automatic validation. This facsimile example requires no in-game editor and does not prohibit a later annotation interface.
-
No record grants hidden permission. Knowledge changes which wall to open and route to budget for; failure gives visible feedback and a recoverable next action.
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No record grants hidden permission. Knowledge changes which wall to open and route to budget for; failure gives visible feedback, with remaining options subject to route state, threats and oxygen.
## Concrete clue inventory
@@ 53,7 53,7 @@
- With no record, Dorn cannot expose an unseen route.
- With one string recorded, he gives the crew term “crawl mark,” his firsthand basis and the actionable suggestion to inspect the panel seam. This is an early optional survivor-led information path.
- With an open-panel record, he confirms the pictured arrangement, not every duct or string.
-
- With the negative case or failed access, he separates intended access from present condition and leaves the rival open.
+
- With the unmarked duct or a failed access, he distinguishes the routes he used from current conditions; he does not infer historical access from an unexplained blockage and leaves the rival open.
Without Dorn, the open crawl, returnable blank wall and non-duct passage support the same candidate-access prediction. This provenance is not every player's experience. In either path the player judges context, spends resources and interprets the outcome. Missed strings recur; records retain breadcrumbs. Collapse or welding makes failure legible but still lowers confidence. The door or retreat remains only if threats and oxygen allow. No path guarantees progress.
@@ 61,7 61,7 @@
The selected policy permits two routes: early optional survivor interpretation after one record, or unaided physical comparison. Early help offers clearer direction and a visible colony role while leaving contextual inference and action to the player; the unaided route makes the practical reading emerge from their comparisons. Neither is inherently more reliable or more “owned” by the player.
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The strongest alternative makes Dorn's interpretation required. Its exact gate is **Dorn rescued and aboard, with a wall-string record shown in the matching dialogue state, before authored information is sufficient to recognise the crawlway around the jammed door**. That guarantees a shared explanatory beat and could require fewer environmental comparisons, but makes this discovery depend on rescue and a return to the wall.
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The strongest alternative makes Dorn's interpretation required. Its exact gate is **Dorn rescued and aboard, with a wall-string record shown in the matching dialogue state, before authored information is sufficient to recognise the crawlway around the jammed door**. That requires the explanatory encounter before this route to the interpretation and could use fewer environmental comparisons, but makes this discovery depend on rescue and a return to the wall.
The optional-help policy costs at least three matching string sites, a visibly non-duct connection, panel/seam states, one unstringed duct, one optional unusable marked access, four dialogue conditions, records, failure feedback and reverse-order continuity. Required help may save comparisons but spends dialogue-state and rescue-gate handling. Neither comparison establishes production feasibility, comprehension or fun.
