2026-09-06 19:58:03
Anonymous:
DES103 r9 (Design Document r15): header note that the owner has asked for a larger game (Brief D019) and that this document's scope, length and ending are superseded as a product recommendation, pointing at the Campaign page (DES104) and the shared rule contract (Clarity Q46); section 11 mirrors World r18 (the relay runs on flowing water in the race above the weir, a source not a consumer; valves join below the weir; R stops the wheel), closing REV103-9's mirror; no rule, number or scene changed
hold the flood/design document.md ..
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# Hold the Flood — Design Document
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**DES103 r8, the Design Document at revision r14 | 2026-09-06 | Lead Game and Systems Designer | In review | revised against PMR003, REV103 r4, World and Mystery r17 and criteria 1 to 11**
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**DES103 r9, the Design Document at revision r15 | 2026-09-06 | Lead Game and Systems Designer | In review | product scope superseded by the owner's expansion (Brief D019); section 11 mirrors World r18; the campaign proposal (DES104) is on the Campaign page**
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> **The owner has since asked for a substantially larger game.** On 2026-09-06 the owner called this premise promising, rejected three to four hours of designed content as far too little, and asked for a campaign of many districts (Brief D019; the [Expansion Brief](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Expansion%20Brief)). This document's one-district scope, its length estimate and its ending are therefore superseded as a product recommendation: the pumping district becomes the campaign's opening district and its finale a district outcome. The rules, the district and the two written expeditions stand, and the shared rules now live on the [Power and Attraction](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Mechanics/Power%20And%20Attraction) contract page. The campaign proposal is [Hold the Flood/Campaign](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Campaign) (DES104). The length and ending passages below are kept as written until the editor's transfer shortens this document; read them as the opening district's, not the game's.
## Read this first: one page for the owner
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*Reaching the room.* Notice: the relay room's door, at the sluice's head on the interior route, is on the sluice's own circuit, dead like the junction's was, with a dark indicator lamp beside it. Compare: the junction valve, already known, joined the yard channel to the pool; the sluice's head sits one pool further along the same water, behind two more valves the player has walked past, and the note's three positions match those three valves against the plan. Infer: the note is the order that joins the yard's water all the way to the sluice's head, so current from a lit yard, or a discharge in the pool, reaches the door; the same rule as tier two, one pool further. Act: set the three valves as the note says, light the yard at the panel or discharge in the pool, and watch the sluice-head lamp light when the water is joined. Consequence: the door opens while the yard is lit, and the price is that the whole district's water is now one energised body, so on the panel route every crowd with a lit beacon to reach holds at the yard's, the yard is hot, and the sluice itself is the Flood's open way in behind the room; on the coil route, a discharge in the pool energises the joined water for seconds, and a crowd held by a lit causeway beacon stays where it is. The three valves, as the world page tables them: V, the junction valve (yard channel to junction pool), found shut and opened in tier two, set open; V2, the pool valve (junction pool to head pool), found shut, set open; V3, the head valve (head pool to the sluice-head channel that feeds the relay), found shut, set open. Only connectivity matters, not order, because the rule is conduction through joined water and the note's order is only the order the crew walked; the success condition is the sluice-head lamp, an indicator, lighting while the yard is lit or during a discharge in the pool, and any valve left shut leaves it dark.
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*Inside the room.* Notice: on the relay's face a drum turns with three marks per cycle, and the forecast countdown on the surveyor's board ticks exactly with it; at a dispatch the drum's mark passes a contact and the thin signal cable leaving the room pulses. The forecast has been this drum all along. Compare: beside the drum, a lever with three positions, cabled to the panel at the causeway head, so the panel has been a remote for this lever; a clamp hangs beside it, unused; a drain valve, R, sits shut on the sluice-head channel that feeds the relay; the note names both and chose neither. Understand: the relay is a device under the power clause, working only while its channel carries current; the drum decides when, the lever decides where; nothing here is new, since a drain valve cuts a channel as the field pump did in the yard, a clamp fixes a lever, and the relay obeys the same rule as a hatch. Infer: three things can be done with what the player already knows, each persistent because it is done to the district and not to the player. Act: **shut**, open the drain valve R; **fix**, set the lever and clamp it; **hold**, leave the room as found and record the choice at the dock. Each is one interaction; none consumes salvage; the cost was reaching the room. Consequence: the district changes for good, the expedition still ends at extraction as usual, and the colony's board records which. Two supplies, stated once, confirmed on the world page at r17: the relay has always run on the sluice-head channel that feeds it, its own always-wet water, which is why the drum turns on every expedition while the door beside it is dead; the door is on the pool side's dead line and is fed only when V, V2 and V3 join that water to a lit yard or a discharge. Drain R sits on the relay's feed above V3's weir, so opening it empties only the relay's channel: the head pool, the junction pool and the yard channel keep their water, the drum stops, and nothing else changes; the panel's power positions, the beacons, the hatches and the junction gate are on the district's own circuit and keep working after shutdown. The weir clause is the world designer's addition; without it, opening R with the valves joined would drain the pools and the yard channel too. One point is open on both pages: REV103-9 asks whether the relay's channel is energised water or flowing water, because energised water joined by the three valves would light the yard from the relay's side. The lead's proposal, for the world designer to rule on first: the relay is hydraulic; its drum is turned by the water flowing in its feed, which carries no charge, so drain R stops the flow; the door beside it is the only electrical thing at the head, on the pool side's dead line. With that reading the valve table, the success condition and the drain's effect stand as written; this section mirrors the world page's answer.
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*Inside the room.* Notice: on the relay's face a drum turns with three marks per cycle, and the forecast countdown on the surveyor's board ticks exactly with it; at a dispatch the drum's mark passes a contact and the thin signal cable leaving the room pulses. The forecast has been this drum all along. Compare: beside the drum, a lever with three positions, cabled to the panel at the causeway head, so the panel has been a remote for this lever; a clamp hangs beside it, unused; a drain valve, R, sits shut on the sluice-head channel that feeds the relay; the note names both and chose neither. Understand: the relay is the district's one source of signal, not a consumer of power: its drum is turned by a wheel in the race, the sluice-head channel above the weir, which is flowing water and never energised; the drum decides when, the lever decides where; nothing here is new, since a drain cuts a channel as the field pump did in the yard, a clamp fixes a lever, and the door beside the relay obeys the same rule as a hatch. This is the one stated exception to the power clause, and it is readable: the wheel turns in water that shows no arcs. Infer: three things can be done with what the player already knows, each persistent because it is done to the district and not to the player. Act: **shut**, open the drain valve R; **fix**, set the lever and clamp it; **hold**, leave the room as found and record the choice at the dock. Each is one interaction; none consumes salvage; the cost was reaching the room. Consequence: the district changes for good, the expedition still ends at extraction as usual, and the colony's board records which. Two supplies, stated once, confirmed on the world page at r17: the relay has always run on the sluice-head channel that feeds it, its own always-wet water, which is why the drum turns on every expedition while the door beside it is dead; the door is on the pool side's dead line and is fed only when V, V2 and V3 join that water to a lit yard or a discharge. Drain R sits on the relay's feed above V3's weir, so opening it empties only the relay's channel: the head pool, the junction pool and the yard channel keep their water, the drum stops, and nothing else changes; the panel's power positions, the beacons, the hatches and the junction gate are on the district's own circuit and keep working after shutdown. The weir clause is the world designer's addition; without it, opening R with the valves joined would drain the pools and the yard channel too. The relay's race is the sluice-head channel above the weir, flowing and never energised; V3 joins the head pool to the channel below the weir, never to the race, so the valves cannot light the yard from the relay's side; drain R empties the race, the wheel and the drum stop, and the district's power is untouched (World and Mystery r18, closing REV103-9).
*Each ending, next expedition.* **Shut:** no dispatches and a dark forecast board; the Flood arrives only by the sluice, on an unannounced timer, as trickles that grow over the expedition rather than announced surges, and with no lit beacon to reach they spread along the interior route and then both branches; beacons, hatches and the panel still work, so a lit beacon still draws whatever is inside; existing crowds keep their targets; the expedition still ends at fifteen minutes and the docks are still hard stops, so withdrawal is by the culvert as ever, with nothing to read but the crowd itself; the held-dock choice matters less, the forecast relay repair is spent and the workshop stays useful. **Fix, to causeway or yard:** every dispatch enters by the clamped branch, whose beacon flashes at every dispatch for good, and the other branch never receives a surge; the clamp fixes the signal cable only, so the panel's power positions still work, either branch can be lit or darkened at will, and no door is open or shut forever; the other branch's crowd can still be drawn there by a lit beacon or spread there when one goes dark, so its dock is safer, not safe, nothing beyond what the press bound promises; the choice is good only when the clamped branch is the one away from the held dock, and a colony that later switches its held dock has clamped the Flood onto its own road. **Hold:** unchanged, except that the colony knows the relay could have been stopped and was not, and the board records it. Reaching the room and choosing ends the game; nothing about the ending is paid in salvage. Free expeditions continue after any ending under that ending's rules.
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## Appendix B: bookkeeping
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**Status.** DES103 r8, which is this page at revision r14, In review, on Hold the Flood/Design Document; r13 (50046f) and earlier are page history.
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**Status.** DES103 r9, which is this page at revision r15, In review, on Hold the Flood/Design Document; r14 (ec1b6c) and earlier are page history. The owner's expansion (Brief D019) supersedes this document's product scope; see the note under the header.
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**Sources read for r15.** Expansion Brief PMU004 1a568e; Brief 1bd68a (D019 to D021); Tasks eb8c03 (DES104 Ready); World and Mystery r18 d1d56a (REV103-9 closed: the relay runs on flowing water) and r20 7699de (WLD103); Design Review REV104 r1 80a882 (REV103 closed; one mirror pending, done here); Clarity Q46 (the document did not yet say the owner had changed the scope).
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**What r15 changes, as DES103 r9.** A note under the header says the owner has asked for a larger game, that this document's scope, length and ending are superseded as a product recommendation, and where the campaign and the shared rules now live (Q46). Section 11's Understand step and supplies paragraph mirror World r18: the relay is a source of signal turned by flowing water in the race above the weir, never energised; the valves join only below the weir; drain R stops the wheel and touches no power; the lead's REV103-9 proposal note is deleted because the world page has ruled. No rule, number or scene changed. The length and ending passages are left as written, labelled by the header note as the opening district's, until the editor's transfer shortens this document.
**Sources read for r14.** Design Review REV103 r4 711ef4 (on r13 and World r17: REV103-6 resolved; REV103-7 resolved on the world page, with section 11 lacking the weir clause; REV103-8 half resolved, one PM-report sentence left; REV103-2's residual open, one unit at the discharge threshold; new REV103-9, whether the relay's channel is energised or flowing water, to the world designer first) and r3 dcd90e (the same items against r12). World and Mystery r17 26f497 (the valve table V, V2, V3 with found and set positions and the connectivity success condition; the two supplies with the weir clause; the coil-route qualification; the Shut row's workshop claim removed; r13's proposals confirmed with that one addition). External Critique r7 a16667 (X27 confirms REV103-2 by simulation and lists the downstream numbers the fix must carry). Clarity rounds 14 and 15 (Q43 and Q44 fixed by the wiki editor on the Design page and the Hub; Q45, the Hub's reading instruction against this document's, and the front matter's appendix count). Reference/Design Documents r2 85994a (three shipped documents measured; no action).
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**Asset check record.** OpenGameArt FAQ read today: licence list and per-asset licensing as stated in section 14. Kenney: the assets listing page (kenney.nl/assets) shows no licence statement; the "Top-down Shooter" pack page (kenney.nl/assets/top-down-shooter) states "Creative Commons CC0" and 580 files. Both fetched read-only on 2026-09-06; suitability not assessed.
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**Open handoffs.** The Independent Design Critic's REV103 r5 on this exact revision. The World and Mystery Designer's ruling on REV103-9 (energised or flowing water in the relay's feed) and a drift check of section 11 against their r17. PM's next review. The owner's decisions in section 17. Nothing else is open from this document's side; routing, the title, criterion 11 and the team roster are settled in Brief D015 to D018.
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**Open handoffs.** The editor's transfer of this document's rules to the topic pages (EDT102), with the lead validating each; the shortening of this document into the concise owner narrative PM asked for; REV104 on the Campaign page, not on this document. Nothing else is open from this document's side; REV103 is closed on the Design Review page.
**Criterion 11, where it is answered.** The owner page's recommendation paragraph; section 1's audience paragraph; section 6's payoff design and tradeoff; section 11's length, early-stop and ending paragraphs; section 17's recommendation and decision 4, with the observed data, its limits and the prediction separated.
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**PM report.** Task DES103 r8 against PMR003, REV103 r4 and World and Mystery r17; artifact Design Document r14 (r13 50046f, r12 50840d, r11 6fe6ca, r10 8afa59, r9 fb6b6d, r8 d37cbf, r7 44984c, r6 12779d, r5 bc134b, r4 46b320, r3 d35209, r2 c4ad51, r1 d828a4 in history). PMR003's three items are answered on this page: 1, the ledgers close to the unit under the collection rule as written, and the arrival, stun and burst sit on one clock; 2, section 11 mirrors the world page's r17 valve table, supplies and drain effect, with the coil-route qualification and the weir clause; 3, no superseded live wording remains, this paragraph included. No canonical decision changed. Reasoning is written design against the cited revisions, no player data; two outside facts are cited with their sources and caveats (Steam's refund terms, read directly; the researcher's measured price bands, not independently verified); risks and tuning bounds are in sections 15 and 16. Open on this document's side: REV103-9, the relay's channel, which the world designer rules on first and section 11 then mirrors. Next handoff: the critic's REV103 r5 on this exact revision; the world designer on REV103-9 and a drift check of section 11 against r17; PM's next review; the owner's decisions in section 17. No PM request.
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**PM report.** Task DES103 r9, a bounded revision under PMU004; artifact Design Document r15 (r14 ec1b6c and earlier in history). Changed decisions: none; the product scope is superseded by the owner's D019 and the document now says so. Evidence: the world page's r18 text, carried in substance in section 11; no player data; nothing built. Risks: this document still argues a finite one-district game in its body and its length section; shortening it into the concise owner document PM asked for is the transfer's work (EDT102 with the lead), not a closure pass. Next handoff: the editor's transfer; the critic, if it wishes to confirm the REV103-9 mirror; DES104 proceeds on the Campaign page.
