2026-09-15 13:43:38
Anonymous:
Align expedition renewal and combat growth with the owner answers
hold the flood/death shift and rescue continuity.md ..
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## The rule in one paragraph
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A placed room, threshold face, compact apparatus, persistent join, object, mechanism, evidence record and person keeps one stable identity. At death, all completed acts and actual locations seal; every still-carried astronaut object returns once; an eligible in-transfer survivor performs only a pre-prepared autonomous retreat to the named refuge during a hostile-free transaction window; then unanchored rigid groups change only their unbound adjacency/orientation while the R01 ship-rooted group remains fixed. The old route becomes historical. Living return changes no adjacency and does not replace defeated enemies. A wrong join stays walkable and can be released from a reachable network-side control. Under the stabilization branch, physically latching every reachable R01–R40 room into the ship-rooted group ends rearrangement; optional diagnostics and story choices neither complete nor block that physical result.
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A placed room, threshold face, compact apparatus, persistent join, object, mechanism, evidence record and person keeps one stable identity. At death, all completed acts and actual locations seal; every still-carried astronaut object returns once; an eligible in-transfer survivor performs only a pre-prepared autonomous retreat to the named refuge during a hostile-free transaction window; then unanchored rigid groups change only their unbound adjacency/orientation while the R01 ship-rooted group remains fixed. The old route becomes historical. Living return changes no adjacency. Every return aboard ends temporary combat upgrades, and the next expedition renews combat populations while permanent work remains. A wrong join stays walkable and can be released from a reachable network-side control. Under the stabilization branch, physically latching every reachable R01–R40 room into the ship-rooted group ends rearrangement; optional diagnostics and story choices neither complete nor block that physical result.
Outside the return transaction, oxygen use, equipment readiness, threats, mechanism motion and ordinary work all advance while the game runs under their owning rules. Opening the journal freezes all of them and cannot move a person, finish a stage, operate a latch or create evidence. Quit/load records or resumes state; it is not a death, shift, withdrawal, rescue action or discovery.
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- adjacency of **unbound** external faces and the position/orientation of unanchored rigid groups; the R01 ship-rooted group stays fixed;
- current accessibility through those new unbound relations;
- transient power, hazard phase and mechanism warning/charge where the owning reset rule permits it; and
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- the next encounter population variant, selected at the death-shift boundary independently of the player's build, kill speed or reward.
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- the next expedition's encounter population, placed for the resulting arrangement independently of the player's build, kill speed or reward. Living returns also renew combat for the next expedition without changing that arrangement; viable sources and placement follow [Combat Rules](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Combat%20Rules).
It may not split a rigid group, move one room twice, duplicate or recall an object, undo a completed latch/door/cap/clamp/pin/capture, refill a spent input, alter a committed converter mode, turn an unknown route into journal knowledge, open a survivor refuge, or complete a rescue. R02–R03 always retain their glazed throat and hard board/rack conduit. R36–R40 always retain the R36-to-clamp passages and, once the iris is open, the actual return paths to R39/R40. R35 is only an external approach and may change; an absent R35 approach defers access without disassembling R36–R40.
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1. **Seal the lethal instant.** Freeze the current action boundary. Commit only pickups, drops, installations, handovers, exact incremental gas transfers, stored-charge accepts/releases already past their commit boundary, spent material and local work checkpoints already completed. Interrupt the unfinished stage. Snapshot every object's actual location, exact O/U, fixture stage and the astronaut-carried membership once. No saveable gap exists before the transaction identity.
2. **Return the astronaut and carried set once.** Move the playable astronaut body and every still-carried active rig part, inactive part, loose loot and canister aboard, preserving object identity, rig/cargo substate and canister O. Leave installed, dropped, deposited, handed-over and consumed items where step 1 put them. Restore ordinary condition for the next expedition; canister refill/repacking are later ship actions. This preserves Save And Content State's property-first order. The sealed membership cannot change during the remaining transaction, and the player receives no control aboard until step 6.
3. **Resolve the survivor branch before geometry moves.** Waiting or Prepared people do not depart. A person already Sent remains aboard. Under the protected-retreat safeguard below, an eligible person In transfer executes the already armed autonomous retreat to the named abort refuge; no new astronaut action, combat clear, door unlock, power routing or resource appears. From the lethal seal until the abort door closes, creatures and active encounter hazards are frozen and cannot act, pursue, collide with, damage, tether, displace or physically block the retreating survivor. Their last old-expedition state is otherwise unchanged until step 4, and no player action can use this window. The resulting **At abort refuge, alive, unsent** world state commits. If this protection or the other eligibility conditions were not armed, transfer could not have begun.
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4. **Close the old expedition.** Defeated enemies remain defeated for that expedition and do not rise during the transaction. Retire its remaining live attack/warning/tether state. Creature bodies and surviving group members belong to that closing transient population state rather than becoming stable loot or room objects. Persistent encounter work remains.
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5. **Shift once.** Keep the R01 ship-rooted group anchored and place each unanchored room or rigid group into one valid changed arrangement while preserving every persistent seam and compact boundary. A survivor at R12, for example, moves with R12's actual group unless that group is already ship-rooted. Then select one population list for the new arrangement. It may be a different disclosed variant, such as E03's later death-shift Presser state. Stable rewards, part sources and spent inputs do not regenerate with it.
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4. **Close the old expedition.** Defeated enemies remain defeated for that expedition and do not rise during the transaction. Retire its remaining live attack/warning/tether state. Creature bodies and surviving group members belong to that closing transient population state rather than becoming stable loot or room objects. Temporary combat upgrades and unchosen offers end; persistent encounter work remains.
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5. **Shift once.** Keep the R01 ship-rooted group anchored and place each unanchored room or rigid group into one valid changed arrangement while preserving every persistent seam and compact boundary. A survivor at R12, for example, moves with R12's actual group unless that group is already ship-rooted. Then prepare the next expedition's population for the new arrangement under Combat Rules. It may use an eligible disclosed variant, such as E03's later-expedition Presser state. Stable rewards, part sources and spent inputs do not regenerate with it.
6. **Reclassify knowledge and commit aboard.** Keep records, annotations, stable object locations and join facts. Mark prior unbound routes historical. Add only the death and carried-return facts; no refuge result is transmitted aboard. The astronaut retains the last witnessed transfer state and the fact that the safeguard was armed, but the person's present outcome remains unconfirmed knowledge until a later local observation at the refuge. Reveal no new neighbours. The next resumable state is aboard. Save/load resumes this committed sequence or its result and never creates another death, shift, delivery, work step or clue.
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Deliberate death uses exactly this order. It can request a new arrangement, but it does not refund oxygen/material, retrieve installed property, manufacture enemies for reward or guarantee that any particular useful face appears next.
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Deliberate death uses exactly this order. It can request a new arrangement, but it does not refund oxygen/material, retrieve installed property, award combat growth for dying or guarantee that any particular useful face appears next.
## Living return and finite populations
A living return completes only when the astronaut physically reaches R01, enters the ship and closes the ship airlock. It causes no shift and preserves the current arrangement generation. Carried property remains carried until the player stores, installs or hands it over; ordinary refill, repair and repacking are separate aboard actions. Completed station work, dropped/installed objects and historical evidence remain unchanged.
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The current arrangement's population membership also remains. Defeated creatures stay defeated; no replacement, elite or reduced reward reacts to the clean result. Surviving creatures retain their room/group membership. At a named physical withdrawal boundary, their active attacks, last-seen pursuit and mechanism occupancy may settle to a visible hold state reachable within the same current walkable encounter volume; they may not cross a sealed shutter, released seam or shifted route to reach it. If no such hold is reachable, their exact suspended location remains. Re-entry restarts ordinary perception/warnings, not population creation. A later **death shift**, not a living return, may select a new population variant as step 5 states.
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Within an ongoing expedition, defeated creatures stay defeated and surviving creatures retain their room/group membership. At a named physical withdrawal boundary, their active attacks, last-seen pursuit and mechanism occupancy may settle to a visible hold state reachable within the same current walkable encounter volume; they may not cross a sealed shutter, released seam or shifted route to reach it. If no such hold is reachable, their exact suspended location remains. Local re-entry restarts ordinary perception/warnings, not population creation. No replacement, elite or reduced reward reacts to a clean result.
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Living scouting therefore differs from death-cycling: alive return preserves a partially cleared opportunity and current map, while death returns carried goods but spends inputs, retires that expedition's combat state and changes unbound geography.
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Returning aboard closes that expedition and ends its temporary combat upgrades and unchosen offers. The next expedition renews enemies and opportunities for regular combat growth, with larger transformations at major horde milestones. Completed seals, doors, joins and other permanent work remain; the new population must use viable sources and walking routes consistent with those changes. [Combat Rules](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Combat%20Rules) owns the detailed growth and renewal proposals. Loading, waiting or leaving and re-entering a room does not begin another expedition.
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Living scouting preserves the current arrangement and permanent work, so a familiar route can be planned again with fresh combat. Death also returns carried goods and ends temporary combat power, but changes unbound geography as well. Spent inputs remain spent after either return.
## Short-rescue state and the protected retreat
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### 1. Ordinary death: property and a compact apparatus
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At R03, the isolation bridge has been released and is carried; the one Fork is installed in R02's board; two fasteners and P01's alarm cut are committed; a Cycler sample spent earlier at R23 is already consumed. Death seals those facts. The bridge and other carried rig/cargo return once with the astronaut. Fork stays installed in R02, the sample stays spent, and the fasteners/alarm cut persist. R02–R03 move together with their throat and conduit intact; only their unbound external neighbours may change. The old R01→R02 route becomes historical. Revival still opens onto R01 Dock Mouth; crossing to its outer threshold reveals the new frontier room. A new placement-1 population may be selected for the new arrangement, but it cannot restore the sample, bridge source or completed work.
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At R03, the isolation bridge has been released and is carried; the one Fork is installed in R02's board; two fasteners and P01's alarm cut are committed; a Cycler sample spent earlier at R23 is already consumed. Death seals those facts. The bridge and other carried rig/cargo return once with the astronaut. Fork stays installed in R02, the sample stays spent, and the fasteners/alarm cut persist. R02–R03 move together with their throat and conduit intact; only their unbound external neighbours may change. The old R01→R02 route becomes historical. Revival still opens onto R01 Dock Mouth; crossing to its outer threshold reveals the new frontier room. The next expedition can renew placement-1 combat through viable sources in the new arrangement, just as a living return renews combat without a shift. Neither return restores the sample, bridge source or completed work.
### 2. R-3 rescue: before departure, after departure and at the airlock
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## Strongest case and accepted costs
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**Strongest case.** The rule makes permanent construction physically readable while preserving discovery: the player can trust completed joins, installed objects and survivor locations without trusting an old route. Death still changes the unexplored frontier, while living return preserves a deliberately cleared opportunity. A failed rescue has a real, costly continuation state rather than a knowledge placeholder or teleport.
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**Strongest case.** The rule makes permanent construction physically readable while preserving discovery: the player can trust completed joins, installed objects and survivor locations without trusting an old route. Death still changes the unexplored frontier, while living return preserves the known arrangement and permanent work; both permit fresh combat growth on the next expedition. A failed rescue has a real, costly continuation state rather than a knowledge placeholder or teleport.
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**Accepted costs.** Rigid groups reduce shuffle freedom with every join and can make valid arrangements increasingly difficult. Anchoring the growing R01 group reduces it further. A death-shift population refresh can incentivize or punish deliberate death unless rewards and encounter variants are authored carefully. Protected retreat adds fixed controls, full-attempt air margins, local closure tells and an explicit hostile-free/nonblocking transaction window, lowering danger at the exact moment the astronaut dies. The 40/40 roster reveals the existence/count of hidden rooms.
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**Accepted costs.** Rigid groups reduce shuffle freedom with every join and can make valid arrangements increasingly difficult. Anchoring the growing R01 group reduces it further. Fresh population and growth placement must preserve the value of completed seals and joins after either kind of return; viable routes and encounter variants still require authoring. Protected retreat adds fixed controls, full-attempt air margins, local closure tells and an explicit hostile-free/nonblocking transaction window, lowering danger at the exact moment the astronaut dies. The 40/40 roster reveals the existence/count of hidden rooms.
## Open questions
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- Protected alive/unsent rescue retreat before the shift versus concrete injury/loss stakes or the bind-first alternative.
- Whether a Capacitor's sealed charge is retained or cleared by death; the exact pre-death U is recorded either way.
- Post-Sent mortality, and an explicit injury/loss rule for survivors, including outside a bound corridor.
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- Whether the living-return population rule (no replacement on living return; a new variant only at a death shift) is adopted, and the exact next-generation population lists and reward consequences.
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- Exact next-expedition population lists and viable routes around permanent work, plus the detailed growth and major-milestone proposals owned by Combat Rules.
- The in-fiction explanation for the astronaut's revival and for the closing expedition's creature bodies.
- Whether every reachable pre-completion persistent-group state, across all forty-room states, has a valid changed arrangement; an admissible arrangement catalogue or equivalent evidence is still needed.
- Exact rigid clearances, face orientations, population variants, offscreen surviving-enemy holds, rescue return timing, air consumption, and compatibility with every story/object state.
