2026-09-06 16:28:22
Anonymous:
WLD101 r2: adapt false-refuge chain to DES101 A, resolve shelter/observation rule, record A x WLD101 contradiction check; In review, design only
hold the flood/world and mystery.md ..
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# Hold the Flood — World and Mystery
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**WLD101 · r1 · 2026-09-06 UTC · In review**
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Role acknowledged: World and Mystery Designer; first assignment WLD101. Handoff: PM / lead for DES101 and independent critic. PM accepts.
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**WLD101 · r2 · 2026-09-06 13:26 UTC · In review** — supersedes r1 (revision 01378d, kept in page history). Author: World and Mystery Designer. Handoff: Independent Design Critic (REV101), Lead (DES102 integration), PM. PM accepts.
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**Owner requirements.** Survivorlike; exploration, experimentation, mystery; the Flood is massed enemies (Brief D011); Unity; Steam; assume nothing exists. Design only: development/testing requires explicit owner authorization after design review. No AI art or production-asset creation in this phase. Prefer verified free assets; purchases and rare authored assets require owner approval.
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**Owner requirements.** Survivorlike; exploration, experimentation, mystery; the Flood is massed enemies (Brief D011); Unity; Steam; assume nothing exists. Design only until the owner explicitly authorizes development after reviewing the design document. No AI-generated art; prefer verified free assets; purchases and rare authored assets need owner approval. This revision creates no assets, code, prototypes, or tests.
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**Sources / research.** Read [Hub](https://open-wiki.tail2e4d02.ts.net/Hold%20the%20Flood), [Brief a449b2](https://open-wiki.tail2e4d02.ts.net/Hold%20the%20Flood/Brief?revision=a449b2), [Tasks](https://open-wiki.tail2e4d02.ts.net/Hold%20the%20Flood/Tasks), and [Team](https://open-wiki.tail2e4d02.ts.net/Hold%20the%20Flood/Team). Brief reread: 2026-09-06 13:08:59 UTC; D011/D012 acknowledged, including owner-confirmed startup of three design agents. All uphold the gate. Design, Design Document, Design Review, and this page initially returned 404; no working concept was available. Inspirations are owner statements; no comparative research or asset verification was performed. All mechanics below, setting, and enemy identity remain proposals.
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**Sources.** Reread 2026-09-06 13:20 UTC: [Hub](https://open-wiki.tail2e4d02.ts.net/Hold%20the%20Flood), [Brief a449b2](https://open-wiki.tail2e4d02.ts.net/Hold%20the%20Flood/Brief?revision=a449b2), [Tasks 254220](https://open-wiki.tail2e4d02.ts.net/Hold%20the%20Flood/Tasks?revision=254220), [Team 3ddc81](https://open-wiki.tail2e4d02.ts.net/Hold%20the%20Flood/Team?revision=3ddc81), [Design 4343a2](https://open-wiki.tail2e4d02.ts.net/Hold%20the%20Flood/Design?revision=4343a2) (DES101 r1 plus the lead's coordination handoff addressed to PM and this role). Design Review still returns 404; no critique is inferred. PM has not yet recorded a working direction (OWN101 open). No comparative research on the inspirations and no asset verification was performed. Setting, enemy identity, and every mechanic below remain proposals.
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## Proposal — The refuge that calls the Flood
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**What r2 changes.** (1) The lead's handoff asked this role to review DES101 r1 against WLD101 r1 and the lead's integration recommendations; r2 restates the world rules in a form the lead can lift into DES102 and maps the false-refuge chain onto concept A's district. (2) The flagged shelter/observation rule difference is resolved: r1's protected observation interval is withdrawn in favour of the lead's shelter rules, with the consequence spelled out. (3) A contradiction check of A × WLD101 is recorded for the critic. (4) One paragraph shows the same rules under B, so this page does not pre-empt PM's choice. The mystery logic itself is unchanged from r1.
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**Feeling:** vulnerable curiosity becoming confidence, then unease: trusted infrastructure guides the threat. **Player question:** “Why is the marked refuge overrun, while the passage underneath still looks used?” Revisit a connected place until an observed rule changes travel and gathering. This contribution informs DES101 without fixing its premise.
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## World rules — proposal for DES102
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Use a provisional abandoned relay district and mobile hostile Flood. One loop joins an entry landing, a road marked as a refuge, and a salvage yard. A service passage beneath the road reconnects near the return route. A junction selects the road or yard beacon. The passage is visible immediately; enemies obstruct safe use, without a locked entrance. Landmarks and connections stay recognizable.
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Setting-neutral wording first; the mapping to A follows.
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**Proposed world rules for lead review:**
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- **W1 — Attraction.** When a surge is dispatched (a visible announcement pulse), it enters through the passage whose beacon is active. A fixed dispatch panel offers three positions: *Causeway* (the signed refuge route), *Yard*, and *Off* (the forecast's own default entrance). The panel needs no item, rack space, resource, or journal flag. This is a fictional rule; it does not explain the enemies' biology.
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- **W2 — Commitment.** A surge that has entered keeps its passage until it arrives. Changing the panel affects only surges not yet dispatched; it never teleports enemies or cancels a pursuit. The forecast lists each pending surge's entrance and updates the moment the panel changes; an entered surge shows a locked marker.
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- **W3 — Stable evidence.** Wiring, signs, wear marks, and signal behaviour are identical on every expedition. Enemy composition, loose salvage, and surge timing may vary and can change the best route, never the rule.
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- **W1 — Attraction:** At a visible dispatch pulse, approaching, unengaged Flood groups choose the active beacon's branch. The selector offers Road, Yard, or Off; only one signals. With Off, groups follow an indicated default approach. This is a fictional rule.
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- **W2 — Commitment:** Groups keep their chosen branch until arrival. Switching affects subsequent groups, never teleports enemies or cancels nearby pursuit. Display each group's destination and the next pulse.
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- **W3 — Stable evidence:** Wiring and signal behavior stay consistent between visits. Encounter/material variation may change the best route, never the rule.
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**Mapping to DES101 A, The Borrowed Route** (conditional on PM recording A):
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**Time and reason to investigate.** Clear the recessed landing, inspect, then choose a branch. Enemies cannot spawn there but pursuers can enter. Once clear, its observation/journal view pauses danger and the expedition clock; closing it resumes both. The lead must accept or explicitly replace this protected reading interval. The experiment occurs in live play. A visible approaching surge eventually closes the outing. Investigation reveals a less exposed route, while diversion makes the material-rich yard more dangerous.
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| r1 element | In A's pumping district | Note |
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| --- | --- | --- |
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| Entry landing | Elevated dock (start and extraction) | Overlooks the causeway beacon; the *Notice* step happens on arrival |
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| Road signed as refuge | Raised dry causeway signed as the evacuation route | Its beacon is active by default; the direct route to the interior |
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| Salvage yard | Pump hall and yard beside a shallow channel | Salvage-rich; its beacon is dark |
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| Service passage | Drained culvert under the causeway | Dry without any pump payment, so the chain is never resource-gated; cart wear and a refuge sign turned to the wall |
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| Junction selector | Dispatch panel at the causeway head, in the open, a short dash from the nearest raised shelter | Switching is a live, exposed interaction |
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| Groups and pulses | A's three announced surges | Up to three routing decisions per expedition; the panel resets to *Causeway* at expedition start; the first dispatch follows a short scouting interval whose length the lead sets |
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## Illustrative design — DESIGNER SPOILERS: the false refuge
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Recommended default: *Causeway*. The first expedition then shows the evidence unprompted (the causeway beacon pulses, the surge turns onto it), the question "why is the refuge overrun?" arises from play, and the reset is diegetic: the panel was left that way. A's "surges enter through different passages" survives through *Off*, which restores the forecast's varying entrances.
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This is proposed play, not a playtest or simulation.
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## Illustrative design — DESIGNER SPOILERS: the false refuge in A's district
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| Chain step | Observable evidence, inference, and consequence |
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Proposed play, not a playtest.
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| Step | Evidence, inference, consequence |
| --- | --- |
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| Notice | The entry route overlooks the road beacon flashing before approaching Flood turn toward it. Show pulse and destination visually; sound supplements them. Repeat the sequence on later arrivals. |
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| Compare | The yard beacon is dark. Cart wear detours beneath the crowded road into an unlit passage. An old refuge sign there has been turned face to the wall. These inspectable details suggest selective reuse. |
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| Understand | Visible wiring links the plainly labeled Road / Yard / Off selector to both beacons. Its display shows the next pulse and current group's committed destination. No symbol dictionary is needed. |
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| Infer | Perhaps the beacon attracts the Flood. Diverting arrivals toward the yard should reduce road pressure; a refuge sign alone cannot establish safety. |
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| Experiment | Set Yard with the ordinary interaction available from the first outing; observe the next pulse. Off instead produces the indicated default approach. Neither requires an item, stat, resource payment, or journal flag. |
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| Discover | The next group selects Yard. Existing road enemies remain; evade or clear them to use the passage. Supply traffic could continue beneath a dangerous refuge by diverting arrivals. The cart wear supports that interpretation; who used it remains unresolved. |
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| Change later play | Set Yard before approaching the road and prepare to handle its remaining pack. Alternatively leave Road active and gather from the less crowded yard. Learned attraction changes both routing and resource access. |
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| Notice | From the dock, the causeway beacon pulses and the first surge visibly turns onto the causeway. Pulse and turn are visual; sound supplements. Repeats on every arrival (W3). |
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| Compare | The yard beacon is dark. In the culvert under the crowded causeway: cart wear leading toward the yard, and a refuge sign turned to face the wall. Each inspectable in three or four lines. |
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| Understand | Visible cabling runs from the dispatch panel to both beacons. The panel is labelled *Causeway / Yard / Off* and shows the forecast: next surge, its entrance, and the locked marker for surges already inside. No symbol dictionary. |
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| Infer | The beacon draws the surge; the refuge sign marks where the Flood is sent, not where it is safe. Someone kept the culvert in use by leaving the panel on *Causeway*. |
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| Experiment | Set *Yard*; retreat to the shelter or stay exposed; watch the next dispatch. *Off* instead sends it to the forecast's entrance. Available from the first expedition. |
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| Discover | The next surge enters through the yard. The surge already on the causeway stays there (W2): evade or clear it, or use the culvert. The yard's salvage is now behind a surge; the causeway clears as its surge arrives and disperses. |
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| Change later play | Before the next expedition's first dispatch, choose: keep *Causeway* and haul through the culvert to a quiet yard, or set *Yard* and walk the causeway straight to the interior at the cost of this expedition's yard salvage. Each of the three surges reopens the choice. |
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**Knowledge gate vs item/stat gate.** The panel is usable on expedition one; what changes is knowing what it does and when to use it. An uninformed player can still survive the causeway by skill; an informed player decides where the pressure goes. Equipment (below) changes how well a choice can be exploited, never whether it can be made.
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**Fair recovery.** Death: rescue without cargo (A); notebook, map, and observed facts persist; no deduction is granted unearned. Missed clue: the causeway pulse repeats every expedition, and the culvert is visible from the yard side too; optional hints escalate from "the two beacons differ" to "set Yard, then watch the next dispatch". Late switch: the locked marker on the forecast explains why nothing changed. Withdrawal never requires solving this.
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## Shelter and observation rules — resolving the lead's flagged difference (proposal)
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DES101 A: raised shelters stop attacks, the notebook pauses the whole world, and the surge schedule runs outside pause. WLD101 r1: a landing that blocks spawning but admits pursuers, and an observation view that pauses danger and the clock once the landing is clear. The lead recommended keeping full notebook pause, requiring shelters to be clear before repacking or observing, and putting evidence and experiments in live play.
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Accepted, as this rule set for DES102:
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- **S1 Notebook** — full pause. Shows only what has already been observed; grants no new evidence; experiments do not advance.
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- **S2 Raised shelter (dock included)** — enemies cannot enter or spawn there; the surge clock keeps running; repacking is allowed; the district stays visible, so watching the next dispatch from a shelter is the observation position and costs surge time.
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- **S3 Live evidence** — new clues, panel switches, and their verification happen in the running world.
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Withdrawn from r1: the observation view that froze danger and the clock. It contradicted A's running surge schedule and would have removed the pressure/curiosity tradeoff at exactly the moment the design wants it. Kept from r1: pressure-free reading of recorded facts, which is S1. Consequence for the lead: with shelters fully safe, retreating to think costs surge time and position, not health. That is the intended tradeoff, and whether it feels right is empirical.
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## Contradiction check — DES101 A × WLD101, for lead and critic
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1. **Two evidence vocabularies.** A's channel lamps and cables mean *power*; this chain's beacons and cables mean *dispatch*. Proposed single convention: steady light = powered, pulsing light = dispatching; every cable visibly reaches its device. A presentation detail for the lead; no asset claim.
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2. **Two infrastructure mechanisms.** A's valve/coil current and this chain's dispatch panel share one theme: the district's own systems can be turned on the Flood. Agree with the lead that the false refuge is the minimum, because it needs no equipment, and the coil is an optional extension.
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3. **Pump payment vs culvert.** A lets a salvage bundle drain a channel. The culvert must be dry without payment (table above), or the mystery becomes a resource gate. A paid drain can open a *second* dry route later, as an extension.
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4. **Diversion can cut off extraction.** Sending a surge onto the causeway may block the return to the dock. That is a real consequence, not a flaw, but the forecast preview must show the entrance and the affected route before the switch is confirmed. Readability requirement, unvalidated.
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5. **Persistence.** A resets modules, cargo, enemies, pumps, and surge state; add "panel resets to *Causeway*; wear and signs never change" (W3). No conflict found.
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6. **Premise alignment.** A's "why were certain rooms deliberately isolated" and this page's "why is the marked refuge overrun while the passage beneath looks used" have the same answer at different scales: someone steered the Flood with the district's own dispatch system. Proposed campaign spine: each later mystery is another repurposed system, and the open question of whether they were steering it away from themselves or toward something stays unanswered in the minimum scope. No lore catalogue is proposed.
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**Knowledge gate versus item/stat gate.** Understanding grants predictable control over exposure. A newcomer could survive the crowded passage by skill; an informed player can divert immediately. Gear may help execution but does not supply the explanation or unlock access.
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**Under B, The Listening Below.** B's Flood follows sustained repeating signals, so W1–W3 hold with beacon = signal source and surge = the swarm released at a marked threshold; the chain's evidence becomes pulse counts rather than a beacon turn. PM's choice is not constrained by this page.
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**Fair recovery.** A late switch leaves committed enemies unchanged; the destination display explains why. Free switching permits another observation on subsequent pulses. Clues remain at stable landmarks. The journal retains observed facts and visited locations after death, without unearned deductions. Optional hints progress from “compare the signals” to “watch the next group after selecting Yard.” Death resets encounters, not clue/selector access. Withdrawal never requires solving this chain.
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## Expression, resources, colony — A terms, proposal
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## Proposal — Persistence, expression, and scope
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- **Three situational strategies from one rule.** *Hauler* (cutter, rack mostly cargo): keeps *Causeway*, slips past the causeway pack into the culvert, gathers in the quiet yard, banks the most salvage. *Explorer* (cutter, light): sets *Yard*, walks the causeway to the interior, forfeits this expedition's yard salvage. *Controller* (coil and battery, four squares): sets *Yard* and still gathers there, because the coil holds the yard's wet channel, at the cost of cargo space. None is dominant; the surge already committed and the salvage behind it decide which fits this expedition.
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- **Resources.** The panel decides which salvage area is hot this expedition; three surges give three decisions.
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- **Colony.** A's dock repair adds an extraction point. If the second dock is on the yard side, diverting to *Causeway* no longer threatens extraction, so a colony choice changes the value of a known rule instead of adding a new one. Optional, scope permitting: a relay repair that lets the player pre-set the first surge's entrance before departure. Colony remains the lead's system; nothing here requires it.
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Outings reset enemies, selector to Road, loose materials, and surge. Map, rules, journal observations, knowledge, and returned materials persist; death loses carried materials. Loss/retreat rules need lead integration.
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**Replay after the answer.** The question closes; the decision does not. The same three surges, the same panel, and a different rack, cargo target, and colony state make the routing choice fresh each expedition. Diverting never creates extra enemies or rewards.
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**Build expression:** corridor-clearing knockback could support quick passage after diversion; a build that holds a narrow approach could keep Road active and protect yard gathering. These are proposed behaviors, not established abilities. **Resources:** diversion trades safer transit for harder salvage collection. Colony progression remains optional and unspecified; gathering already supports this approach.
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## Content and asset burden
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**Replay after the answer:** choose which branch absorbs pressure according to material needs, time, and build. Supplies are finite per outing; redirecting groups creates no additional enemies or rewards. Later mysteries should recombine stable rules, preserving learned expertise.
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One district reused before and after discovery: dock, causeway, culvert, yard, one dispatch panel, two beacons, a forecast display, and a handful of inspectable wear and sign props. Evidence types are cheap and reusable: a light state, a visible cable path, wear marks, a turned sign, a three-label panel. No compatible free asset set or terms are verified; if a prop cannot be sourced, plain-text inspection is the fallback. No custom asset creation is proposed; any would need owner approval first.
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**Content/assets:** one district, three landmarks, paired relay, reusable enemy response, and a few observations. Reuse locations before and after discovery. Essential readable states, wiring, destinations, cart wear, and signs create asset needs; no compatible free set or terms are verified. Cut elaborate machinery, voice, and cinematics. If environmental clues need custom art, first propose existing-prop or plain-text inspection alternatives; obtain owner approval before any authored asset creation.
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## PM report
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**PM report / unresolved:** r1 adds W1–W3 and a complete chain; no canonical decisions changed. D011 is incorporated; this is the WLD101 submission for PM's task tracking. Reasoning: repeatable evidence enables comparison, then changes travel/gathering. Risks: combat readability, dominant diversion tactics, and observation pauses fitting the concept; all unvalidated. **PM decision requested:** carry this learned-route approach and protected observation interval into DES101 as candidate dependencies? Next handoff: lead/critic review, adaptation after direction, then world designer checks integrated rules for contradictions. No acceptance or development authorization is assumed.
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Task WLD101; artifact World and Mystery r2 (supersedes r1 01378d). No canonical decisions changed. Changed proposal: r1's observation pause withdrawn; S1–S3 adopted per the lead's handoff. Evidence: written analysis of Design 4343a2 and Brief a449b2; no player data. Risks, all unvalidated: diversion becoming an automatic choice (mitigated by W2, salvage behind the surge, and extraction blocking); readability of a surge's destination on a crowded survivorlike screen; whether three surges leave time to observe. Next handoff: critic reviews r2 with DES101 r1; after PM records the direction, the lead integrates W1–W3 and S1–S3 into DES102 and this role checks the integrated draft for contradictions. **PM request:** record the working direction (A, B, or a premise change) and whether W1–W3 and S1–S3 are carried into DES102 as candidate rules. No acceptance or development authorization is assumed.
